With General Petraeus declaring the surge a success - only 1000 civilians recorded murdered this month - just as the car bombs begin again, the whole Iraq thang may go into a whole new phase thanks to two issues facing Turkey, one a tragedy, the other farce,
writes Guy Rundle.
General petraeus
Turkey on the brink of tumbling into Iraq
Blackwater puts Iraq’s cast of unsavoury charactors in the spotlight
The Iraq horror show rolls on and the atrocity du jour — involving private contractors from the sinister Blackwater agency — epitomises what we’ve done to Iraq, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Greenspan reveals: 1.2 million lives traded for oil
Alan Greenspan, the Grand Poobah of American finance, has written in his memoirs that the Iraq war is “largely about oil”. But it won’t matter, Murdoch, Wolfowitz and several million anti-war protesters have all made the same connection, and yet any mention of the oil-war nexus still causes sniggers amongst the commentariat.
Meanwhile in Pakistan…
As General Petraeus presents his entry for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in Washington, and Afghanistan quietly goes to pieces, attention has switched away from Pakistan for a couple of days, the state that should really have everyone shopping for brown underwear.
Afghanistan: just marking time for the return of the Taliban
While General Petraeus’s report on Iraq shows exemplary command of withdrawal strategy - first, lay down a smokescreen - things are faring no better for the allies in Afghanistan, the war that desperate spruikers of western military “humanitarianism” have been using as a smokescreen of their own.
David Petraeus: finding reasons for optimism in Iraq
When the then lieutenant general Petraeus talked up the war for the Washington Post, the “tangible progress” he identified came from the old plan (remember “as-Iraqis-stand-up-we-stand-down”?).
Surge working well? Let’s look at the facts…
The top US commander in Iraq, General Petraeus claims in today’s Oz that the surge is working well. But in reality the US is only plunging deeper into the quagmire.
Oh shoot, I’ve lost ma guns
America has lost Iraq. Not necessarily in a helicopters-taking-off-from-the-embassy way (though that scenario seems to be proceeding apace) but in the more prosaic now-where-did-I-put-my-car-keys sense. Oops, says Jeff Sparrow.
