December 22, 2008

The Independent (UK)

They Lied About Iraq in 2003, and They’re Still Lying Now
Gordon Brown has been spinning his own fairy tale of Baghdad

by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

"Triumphalists are getting off on Iraq again, intoning hallelujah songs as they did after staging the fall of Saddam’s statue then again and again, sweet lullabies to send us into blissful sleep and wake to a new dawn. The composers and orchestrators – Blair, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Straw, Hoon and Rice – still believe history is on their side."

Bush visited his troops at Camp Victory in Iraq this month and said: "Iraq had a record of supporting terror, of developing and using weapons of mass destruction, was routinely firing at American military personnel, systematically violating UN resolutions … Iraqis, once afraid to leave their homes are going back to school and shopping in malls … American troops are returning home because of success." Only one shoe and one without a sharp stiletto was hurled at him by Muntadar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi who begged to differ.

Gordon Brown, also in Iraq, spun his own fairy tale of Baghdad, where everyone is living happily ever after and British soldiers come home proud heroes. The reality is that some of our soldiers are broken physically and mentally fighting this illegal and unpopular war and that too many did terrible things in the land of endless tears. General Sir Mike Jackson now blames the Americans for their "appalling" decisions. And yet he too insists the campaign was a success.

Read More »Spinning fairy tales of baghdad

 Did Al-Zeidi think only of Bush ?

Reem Al-Faisal I Arab News

 No matter how many times the scene is played on TV channels or Internet sites, one simply can’t get enough of it. Every time I see Muntadar Al-Zeidi throw the pair of shoes at US President George W. Bush, I feel I need to pinch myself so as to make sure I’m not hallucinating, but then I realize it really happened. An Arab journalist truly took his shoes off and threw them at the tyrant who was the cause of the death and misery of millions of Muslims. This man who dragged his nation into a mindless war and brought down on them the scorn and hatred for generations to come.

The most amazing thing to me is that there is still anyone left in the Arab world who has it in him to stand alone and defy tyranny in any one of its forms and I think that is what made Al-Zeidi’s actions produce such violent reactions in the Arab and Muslim world. His act spelled not only the bravery of individual action — for no one can deny his bravery — but it touched the much deeper wound which is the utter insignificance of the Arab states and the people they represent. We as a region have become invisible on the geopolitical map. If at all we are seen, it is as mere pawns in the hands of Western imperial powers and their desired dominance of other rising powers such as Russia or China.

Read More »Did al zeidi think only of bush ?