Iraq: "Nothing but misery"

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Monday February 18, 2008 · 3:54 PM PST

2008/02/18 · 15:54

Patrick Cockburn on story of driver's travails, $3000 cab rides, and lakes of sewage as metaphors for Iraq's destruction during five years of brutal, relentless occupation

The Independent (U.K.) correspondent Patrick Cockburn has a lot to say about the truth of Iraq that we did not hear in the President's State of the Union message, and that we do not read in the Pentagon press releases published in the New York Times under the Michael Gordon byline.

This, which has made the rounds of the papers and wires the last couple of days, is an example of news about the "improving" situation typically we are fed:

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Monday January 07, 2008 · 1:47 PM PST

2008/01/07 · 13:47

Maine Republican US Senator in tough re-election bid escorts Iraq reconstruction inspector on PR tour last week, including Bangor appearance; but her inaction on US corruption during 2003 to 2005 (with deadly consequences) while at the same time hammering at the old UN Oil-for-Food program reveals deep hypocrisy

I did see the notice in the newspaper for a talk featuring Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen that took place Thursday morning at Husson College in Bangor. Darn, wish I'd gone as I'd loved to have stirred up that show.

The fine Maine progressive/Democratic websites Collins Watch and Turn Maine Blue have noted the Collins/Bowen tour and this event. Gerald at Turn Maine Blue correctly terms Collin's PR effort with Bowen--successfully placing fluff in the Portland Press Herald--as "hypocrisy":

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Tuesday July 17, 2007 · 12:54 PM PDT

2007/07/17 · 12:54

And they never will be. They consistently have been and remain extremely reactionary on issues of military intervention and foreign policy. Still, it is a hopeful sign that both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the Republican U.S. senators from Maine, have been forced to run away at full gallop from their true pro-war positions in the face of strongly anti-war public opinion.

Recently we have observed Snowe breaking with Bush and joining with Senator Hagel as the only Republican co-sponsors of the Levin-Reed Iraq troop re-deployment amendment to H.R. 1585, the 2008 Defense Authorization. But while a measure that runs counter to Bush initially seems welcome, this is hardly even a baby step in the right direction. It is designed more for the purpose of continuing U.S. intervention in Iraq while attempting to address the grind-down of the U.S. military that the occupation has caused. At the same time, it allows the politicians to appear to be doing something to stop the war.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Where on the spectrum do YOU see the politics of Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins

19 votes Vote Now!

Where on the spectrum do YOU see the politics of Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins

Reactionay

6 votes

Moderate

4 votes

Mixed: reactionary on foreign policy, moderate domestically

6 votes

Progressive

0 votes

Other

3 votes

Saudi oil decline: implications for US in Iraq

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Sunday April 08, 2007 · 3:02 PM PDT

2007/04/08 · 15:02

Key sections of super-giant Ghawar field may be "watering out";
Why does Senator Levin say "we're not going to cut off funding for the troops" in Iraq??

Stuart Staniford at The Oil Drum says this discussion is "not introductory." No, surely it isn't. There is no way that I understand all of the oil field concepts involved. However, the upshot of this post, previous cited posts, and a great deal of debate and discussion attached to all of these posts is that the largest Saudi oil field, Ghawar, will play out in one to two decades.

This is no small matter. This single field produces about 5% of all the oil produced in the entire world.

The way oil is produced at Ghawar involves the injection of water in order to force out the oil. At some point, mostly water will be produced and not much oil. It will have "watered out". Indications are that this is happening now.

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Monday March 05, 2007 · 9:48 AM PST

2007/03/05 · 09:48

2006 average production level decrease precipitous 8%;
Does the US see its Iraq project as a sort of replacement OPEC?

Monthly Saudi production levels for 2006, assembled by Stuart Staniford at The Oil Drum

Here is another major story about oil that has received no ink in the mainstream press: According to data from official sources, oil production in Saudi Arabia has been declining since the beginning of 2006.

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Tuesday February 20, 2007 · 2:16 PM PST

2007/02/20 · 14:16

Blogger translates leaked copy of secret Iraq oil law draft

This should be a major story. Iraq-born blogger Raed Jarrar has obtained a leaked copy of Iraq's new oil law. You also can get a look at this document here. Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman interviewed Raed Jarrar along with the important Iraq oil policy researcher, Antonia Juhasz.

Poll

209 votes Show Results

Why has the US occupied Iraq?

209 votes Vote Now!

Why has the US occupied Iraq?

To liberate the Iraqi people.

2 votes

To eliminate a serious threat to American soil from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

1 vote

To protect Israel.

7 votes

To control and insure Washington's preferred distribution of profits from Iraq's resources.

199 votes

Yellow narrative: uranium, Wilson, and wingnuts

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Saturday February 10, 2007 · 10:39 PM PST

2007/02/10 · 22:39

Ann Coulter off the rails and scientifically illiterate

Coulter a few days ago posted a piece on Ambassador Joseph Wilson and cable news media, "Yellowcake and Yellow Journalism". It is terribly confused and amounts to blithe assertions, exactly what she accuses others of using. She doesn't even know the difference between "yellowcake" and "enriched uranium."

RSS

Iraq: "Nothing but misery"

Susan Collins and the Oil-for-Food double standard

Snowe and Collins NOT "moderate" on war

Saudi oil decline: implications for US in Iraq

Saudi oil declining

Blogger scoops NY Times on Iraq Oil Law

Yellow narrative: uranium, Wilson, and wingnuts