Iraq – Page 2 – Antiwar.com Blog

Israel Helped Kill Soleimani

It’s just one throwaway line in CIA asset Ken Dilanian’s new NBC piece on the whiz-bang, super-neato, space-age, Hollywood movie-like, special, high-technology that made the assassination possible.

“Intelligence from Israel helped confirm the details.”

And dammit, I just love the “Oceania has always been at war with the Badr Brigade” line of Iraq War II-denial embedded in all these stories. Dilanian and his assistant demonstrate how it’s done almost perfectly here:

“At the Baghdad airport, Soleimani was greeted by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of an Iraqi anti-American militia and a suspect in the bombing of the American and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983. Al-Muhandis got into the sedan with Soleimani and he, too, was killed in the strike.”

~~Soleimani reviews his US troops in Iraq War III~~ Update: Former soldiers I know doubt the men on the left are actually U.S. troops. Same difference though.

Sounds like a pretty bad dude. Too bad W. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gates, Petraeus and the rest fought a 5 year civil war for him and his friends in the Da’wa Party and Supreme Islamic Council beginning in 2003, and then Obama and Trump fought another on their behalf from 2014–2019.

Oh well, anyway, what’s that you say? 1983 Kuwait embassy something? Oh yeah. We’re all still really mad about that too! Maybe we should ask President Reagan to double his support for Saddam Hussein to get some revenge!

Ratcheting Down

Wednesday morning Trump announced new sanctions on Iran rather than sending in the B-52s in response to Iran’s missile attack response to America’s killing of their top general Qassem Soleimani. So that’s wrong but sure could be worse.

Then he declared that the UN Security Council powers must help him negotiate a brand new better nuclear deal to replace the last one; a total non-starter, and he must know that. So that just amounts to filler and bluster.

Trump then emphasized America’s energy independence from the Middle East. A great line about how now we’re leaving would have gone great right there. #Hope #Change

Surprisingly, he also emphasized Iran’s help in the fight against the Islamic State as a continuing opportunity for cooperation, which is another signal toward de-escalation.

This entire crisis has been precipitated by the Trump government, with a possible assist from ISIS. Americans of all political persuasions should make their voices heard now: We oppose conflict and support the U.S. taking all opportunities to talk to Iran and diffuse this crisis.

And remember the Horton rule: attack the left from the left and the right from the right. In other words, when calling or otherwise addressing Republicans, be conservative in your opposition and the other way around too.

Cross-posted at The Libertarian Institute.

Iran Plane Crash

As Tom Woods pointed out in this great speech 10 years ago, when there’s an earthquake, hurricane, plane crash or other major disaster in Iran, we all feel terrible and grieve for the loss of life and donate to charity over it and the rest.

But then we’re supposed to just turn right around and cheer threats of war against these very same people.

Last night, while Iran was firing missiles at U.S. targets in Iraq and many people around the world were fearing the breakout of a new war between our countries, a civilian airliner fell out of the sky on take-off from the Tehran airport, killing more than 170 people. (All indications are that it was mechanical failure to blame.)

Humanity grieves for them. Let us please keep in mind the individual rights to life and dignity that all individuals hold and maintain the spirit of commonality we all feel from the crash as a barrier to a new war.

Cross-posted at The Libertarian Institute.

Did Iran Kill 600 Americans in Iraq War II? No.

Due to the current ubiquity of claims that Iran killed 600 Americans in Iraq War II, I figured it might be worth bringing up the fact that that is a complete and damnable lie.

In the case of Petraeus’s surge against Sadrist forces in Sadr City and Najaf in 2007 and 2008, Sadr was the least Iranian-loyal of all the major Shi’ite factions. The U.S.’s favorites from Dawa and SCIRI were also Iran’s favorites. Sadr wanted the U.S. and Iran both out. (At a couple of points the U.S. chased Sadr into Iran, but that was a self-fulfilling blunder, not proof they were right about him.)

When Petraeus attacked them they responded, not the other way around. (Danny Sjursen was in East Baghdad at that time and confirmed this to me in an interview just a few weeks ago.)

And when they did respond with copper-core EFP bombs, they were made in Iraq by Iraqis. Despite all of Michael Gordon’s claims in the New York Times back then, and all the claims since, no one has ever demonstrated that these bombs came from Iran at all, much less directly from the Qods force.

Here are a couple of blogs full of links from back then:

America Switches Sides in Iraq War

Is Iran Supplying IEDs to the Sunni Insurgency?

Washington Post Liars Caught!

EFPs Are Made in Iraq By Iraqis

And here are a few more articles:

Andrew Cockburn in the L.A. Times

Wired

Surprising honesty in the lying New York Times for once

The Wall Street Journal

Phil Giraldi, another

And of course, many, many great pieces by the heroic Gareth Porter.

Okay. So there you have it.

Update: Former Marine Corps Captain Matthew Hoh writes: “Yes the EFPs were all made in Iraq, in workshops by Iraqis. I was at JIEDDO (joint IED defeat organization) in 2008. … I can confirm the intelligence on all that.”

This morning on Antiwar Radio: Patrick Cockburn

8:30 Pacific 90.7 FM in L.A. kpfk.org

Scott Horton Week on the Tom Woods Show

Libertarian author and podcaster Tom Woods hosted Antiwar.com editorial director Scott Horton on his show all week this week as a fundraiser to support the writing of Scott’s upcoming book on the terror wars.

Listen to the interviews here:

Day One: Current War on Terrorism Overview

Day Two: Somalia

Day Three: Iraq War II

Day Four: Iraq War III and Syria

Day Five: Yemen