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Monday, April 01, 2019

Anglo-American lies killed 500,000 Iraqi children


From Sun Daily:

Iraq: How we were lied into war



Blair acknowledged the 2003 invasion of Iraq played a part in the rise of the Islamic State militant group, and apologised for some mistakes in planning the war, in an interview broadcast on Oct 25, 2015. – Reuterspix

SIXTEEN years ago, the US and Britain committed a crime of historic proportion, the invasion and destruction of Iraq. It was as egregious an aggression as Nazi Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland.

Large numbers of Iraqi civilians died from 2003 to 2007. Iraq’s water and sewage systems were bombed, causing widespread cholera. The UN estimated 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result. Madeleine Albright, US secretary of state, said it was “a price worth paying”.




But not so much for the 4,424 US soldiers killed in Iraq, or the 31,952 wounded, many with devastating brain and neurological injuries. Nor for US taxpayers who forked out over US$1 trillion for this botched war and are still paying the bill hidden in the national debt.

In 2003, Iraq was the most advanced Arab nation in social welfare, health, education, military power, and industrial development. But it was run by a megalomaniac, Saddam Hussein, who had been helped into power and sustained in his long war against Iran, by the US, Britain and their Arab satraps.

When Saddam grew too big for his britches, Washington lured him into invading Kuwait, another American-British oil satrapy. A hue and cry went out from Washington and London that Iraq had secret nuclear weapons that threatened the world. War, thundered US-British propaganda, was urgent and necessary.

As I knew from covering Iraq for many years, it had no nuclear weapons and no medium or long-range delivery systems. What it did have was a laboratory at Salman Pak staffed with British technicians producing lethal toxins for use against Iran. I discovered this secret operation and reported it. Meanwhile, the Iraqis were threatening to hang me as an Israeli spy.

I watched with disgust and dismay as the US and Britain launched massive broadsides of lies against Iraq and those few, like myself, who insisted Baghdad had no nuclear weapons.

Almost the entire US and British media were compelled to act as mouthpieces for the George Bush/Tony Blair war against Iraq, trumpeting egregious lies designed to whip up war fever. US media, supposedly the tribune of democracy, became lie factories, putting even the old Soviet media to shame.

The New York Times led the charge, along with the three main TV networks. I was in Iraq with its star correspondent, Judith Miller, who became a key agent of the pro-war campaign. So too the Murdoch press in Britain and Fox News. When the BBC tried to question the torrent of lies about Iraq, it was crushed by Tony Blair. A leading British nuclear expert who questioned the nuclear lies was murdered. Iraq was polluted by US depleted uranium shells.

Journalists like me were intimidated or marginalised. I was dropped by a leading US newspaper, a major Canadian TV chain, and by CNN for whom I had been a regular commentator. I was told the Bush White House had given orders, “get rid of Margolis”. My sin: insisting Iraq had no nuclear weapons and was not threatening the US. Things became so absurd that the story went out that Saddam had “drones of death” that were poised to attack America.

Of the US media, only the McClatchy chain and Christian Science Monitorreported the war honestly. Nearly all the rest of America’s TV talking heads brayed for war. Most are still there today, demanding war against Iran.

Who was behind the war? A combination of big oil, which wanted Iraq’s vast reserves, and the Israel lobby, which wanted to see Iraq destroyed by US power. The Pentagon was taken over by pro-war neoconservatives: Wolfowitz, Feith, Rumsfeld.


George Bush, an ignorant fool, was putty in the hands of vice-president Dick Cheney, a pro-war megalomaniac. The CIA played along. Even the respected former general, Colin Powell, made a fool of himself before the UN by claiming Iraq had hidden weapons. It had chemical weapons, all right, but we had the receipts to show they came from the US and Britain.

No one in the US or Britain ever faced trial for war-mongering and killing vast numbers of people. The lying media escaped well-deserved censure. As for the lying politicians who brought on this disaster, they blamed poor intelligence and bad luck. Those few who opposed the war of aggression remain sidelined or silenced.

Eric S. Margolis is a syndicated columnist

8 comments:

  1. So does someone deserve the death penalty for killing 500,000 children?

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  2. Why do the Left always give Assad and Putin a free ride ?

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  3. BOTH BUSH AND BLAIR SHOULD BE CHARGED FOR MANSLAUGHTER

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  4. Until today, no one seems to tell it as it is for the wars happening around the world especially among the Middle Eastern and Moslem countries for the past decades since 9/11 and continuing until someone decided what a New World Order should be.

    Samual P. Huttington in "The Clash of Civilisations" came close to understanding the root causes of future wars.

    When Moslems wage terror in the name of "Jihad" for their own personal beliefs and Christians retaliate with war calling it "Crusades" it sure indicates it is about religious warfares and whatever other reasons given like fighting terrorism, weapons of mass distruction, chemical, nuclear, oppression, despots, autocratic, human rights, religious beliefs etc are just justifications used both by friend and foe alike to strike back at each other to look more civilised and gather allies to their causes.

    Whether it is 500,000 Iraqi children, 100,000 Yazidis, 200,000 Afghans, 700,000 Syrians, 30,000 Libyaans, 20,000 Yemenis etc, they are all collateral damages in these Clash of Religions to those seeking revenge and retribution for incidents like 9/11, 7/11, suicide bombings etc.

    The ones to blame are all those Islamist and Right Wing Christian clerics, preachers, schools etc who does not do the fighting but go around spreading Hatred against those not of their beliefs and resulting in wars, bombings, killings, genocide etc by all their believers and Govts. who are indoctrinated to do their own personal causes.

    Since when those Abrahamic religions have ever been about bringing Peace and Love to Mankind instead of wars, hatred, killings, bombings, genocide, slavery, dividing nations and people?

    Until a New World Order is in place instead of Religious warfare, the End of the World may actually happen not ordained by God/Gods, but by those idiotic religious and right wing extremists seeking power using religions as their causes.

    And the greatest fools are those who think and believe those idiots are Holy and fighting for a good cause for their religions.

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    1. modern wars have not so much religious instigations. It's oil (or minerals), water and land. USA wants oil (minerals) and Israel wants water and land (ironically for its Nazi-lebensraum)

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    2. i thot usa get not more than 10% of their oil from middle east?

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  5. Ony th darkest n hottest hellfire shud keep th bodies n souls ov the Bushess n th Blairs for eternity

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  6. The Bushes and the Blairs families their deputies, associates, advisers, commanders, soldiers and fighters will pay with their lives and souls in the hottest and darkest hellfire in eternity

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