Wednesday, September 01, 2010

"Iraq Is a Shattered Country"; Withdrawal or Enduring Presence?; Invisible War

Democracy Now

"Iraq Is a Shattered Country"–Nir Rosen on Obama Declaring an End to US Combat Mission in Iraq

President Obama declared an end to the combat mission in Iraq Tuesday night in the second Oval Office address of his presidency. Although tens of thousands of US troops, special operations forces and private contractors remain in Iraq, Obama announced that Operation Iraqi Freedom is now officially over. We go to Baghdad to speak with independent journalist Nir Rosen.

To Watch/Listen/Read

Withdrawal or Enduring Presence? US Military Continues to Invest Hundreds of Millions in Iraq Bases

In his Oval Office address Tuesday night, President Obama said the US had closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. But many US bases remain in Iraq, as well as the massive US embassy in Baghdad, the size of eighty football fields. We play a report on US bases in Iraq by independent journalist Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films.

To Watch/Listen/Read

Invisible War: How Thirteen Years of US-Imposed Economic Sanctions Devastated Iraq Before the 2003 Invasion

While the US invasion and occupation of Iraq over the past seven years has inflicted multiple disasters on the country, many argue that the US assault on Iraq really began twenty years ago with the US-imposed economic sanctions. Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, writes, "U.S. policymakers effectively turned a program of international governance into a legitimized act of mass slaughter."

To Watch/Listen/Read

No comments: