It’s a very big war going on now …

The US military operation in Fallujah, largely justified on the claim that Zarqawi’s militant forces had occupied the city, used white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and indiscriminate air strikes to pulverise 36,000 of Fallujah’s 50,000 homes, killing nearly a thousand civilians, terrorising 300,000 inhabitants to flee, and culminating in a disproportionate increase in birth defects, cancer and infant mortality due to the devastating environmental consequences of the war.

To this day, Fallujah has suffered from being largely cut-off from wider Iraq, its infrastructure largely unworkable with water and sewage systems still in disrepair, and its citizens subject to sectarian discrimination and persecution by Iraqi government backed Shi’a militia and police. “Thousands of bereaved and homeless Falluja families have a new reason to hate the US and its allies,” observed The Guardian in 2005. Thus, did the US occupation plant the seeds from which Zarqawi’s legacy would coalesce into the Frankenstein monster that calls itself “the Islamic State.”
(Nafeez Ahmed, How the West Created the Islamic State … With a Little Help From our Friends)

The link above (thanks to sk) is a good reference and will be quite shocking to neophytes to think that Obama speeches contain anything resembling truth, or even a scintilla of useful information.

Here’s a shorter article from Thierry Meyssan, Extension of the Gas War to the Levant, where the author performs useful shorthand to aid our understand of the dynamics of the region. Rather than refer to the fictional country of “Qatar,” he uses its brand name, “Exxon.” Similarly, Saudi Arabia is called “Aramco.”

I have been wanting to write about Fallujah for months, but have not gotten around to it. That city endured some of the worst war crimes of the new century. The sin: Contempt of the US military. When attacked in early 2004, they successfully resisted. Thereafter the U.S. pulled out all the stops, breaking out illegal weaponry, shutting down hospitals, cordoning off the city so that all the young men therein could be isolated and slaughtered. If you take time to read American sources on this battle, here’s a reader’s key: When they refer to “extremists,” they are talking about Iraqi citizens. Not Americans. Apparently the US military/intelligence complex does not have any of its own in its employe, least of all those officers who ordered use of illegal weapons and tactics. Under those quaint Geneva conventions, those are war crimes.

Anyway, this post is a ramble. I’ve got better things to do today than to lay out bait so Swede can glance at the title and jump down to the comments. Make of it what you will. One objective, which will not be achieved unless the reader follows links, is to grasp the size of the Western assault on the Middle East, spanning wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya and now back to Iraq. The conflict in Ukraine merely serves to sideline the Russians, who managed to thwart a U.S. bombing assault on Syria after last year’s false flag chemical attack. The policy is large, and barbaric: To destroy the region as it is and restructure it as a tribal region dominated by American and European bases. All of the elements of deceit are there, including the arming and backing of the region’s terrorists to give Western forces cause to attack those terrorists, classic agents provocateur, controlled opposition.

It’s complicated. But do not be deterred by that. Read, research, keep at it, and a better understanding will take hold not just of current activities in that part of the world, but of the history of the world, 1914 forward. I do not sit here with my corduroy jacket with arm patches – I struggle with all of this too. Our biggest disadvantage is lack of good information and honest reporting, followed closely with lack of understanding of long-term plans for the region by the imperialist powers.

Enjoy!