Nouri Al-Maliki Is a War Criminal.

Nouri Al-Maliki Is a War Criminal.

The Common Ills

An Iraqi army soldier  uruknet.info Rebels.  We've gone over this before.  We'll address it briefly one more time.  In Iraq, there are warring factions.  One group is the leadership the US imposed -- largely cowards (like Nouri) who were too cowardly to stay in Iraq so they fled for other countries, lived there for decades and waited until the US invaded in 2003 to return. No one was going to want these people for rulers. You'd have more luck bringing back Iraq's royal family. Iraqis who lived in Iraq were not going to want cowards and deserters to rule over them. Nor would anyone in any country. Nouri's government never had legitimacy. It never will. Ayad Allawi left the country as well. He might have been able to lead Iraq forward. That's because a large number of Iraqis wanted to believe that he could and because his Iraqiya was based on this belief. Barack Obama's decision to betray the Iraqi voters and to go around the Iraqi Constitution was an awful one -- and we denounced it in real time and have ever since. But this was done with The Erbil Agreement and search your favorite US media outlet and you'll find very few have ever bothered to note the contract. That contract was followed only long enough to give Nouri a second term.  Nouri then refused to honor the contract. His second term was illegitimate. Ayad Allawi should have been prime minister. It is doubtful the events taking place today would be happening under Allawi. Other events -- which might be less or might be worse -- could be taking place. But the events in Iraq right now all stem from Nouri. Nouri's  a paranoid man which was noted in his CIA profile and why he was backed by Bully Boy Bush.  It was thought his own crazy could be used to control him. His crazy has destroyed Iraq. He's governed with a chip on his shoulder, unable to steer Iraq into a glorious future because he's nursing wounds from the past. Nouri has called peaceful protesters "terrorists."  He has called journalists "terrorists." I'm not interested in Nouri's judgments.  I don't give a damn what he says -- something I have in common with many around the world. The US-installed government is not legitimate.  Occupation governments never are. Had Allawi come in or anyone but Nouri in 2010, something could have changed. But Nouri has bred the violence. And the Iraqis who are fighting him are rebels or resistance or fighters or what have you. They are not 'terrorists.' They kill people! Yes, when an occupied government is being challenged, people get killed.  Is history an unknown these days? They are fighting for their country. You don't have to side with them, you don't have to agree with them.  But they're not 'terrorists.' Nouri's a terrorist. He's the prime minister and he's killed and wounded children in Falluja by bombing residential neighborhoods -- something that is legally defined as a War Crime. He's a War Criminal. Would we call people in Nazi Germany fighting Hitler "terrorists"? I don't think so. He's run secret prisons where he's tortured and abused people. In an attempt to railroad Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, he had one of Tareq's bodyguards tortured to the point of kidney failure. Who's the terrorist? Looks like that term applies to Nouri. You can root, cheer, pray for whomever you want.  But it's dishonest to all an uprising "terrorists." We've noted this for a long time now.  It shuts down debate -- which is why the term is used to begin with.  If Iraq's problem right now is terrorism, then bomb the terrorists! But the 'terrorists' are Iraqis as well. This is Iraqi against Iraqi and this basic point should have been sorted out by the media a long time ago. This week saw a number of people attempt to sort it out in the media and I applaud them for that (top of the list would be Kenneth Pollack -- applause for him). But the US government is going to do a 'response.'  American citizens need to come up to speed on what's taking place.  If it's just 'terrorists,' the people will largely say, "Kill them!" And that'll probably feel good and righteous.  Up until the point that reality kicks in -- and it always does, maybe months from now, maybe years.  At that point, people will ask why the rush to condemn one group and promote another. And if the US government takes sides -- and sadly it's most likely going to -- in this internal conflict in Iraq, it will not be forgotten. The smartest thing to do is not to bomb or to provide guns or troops.  The smartest thing is for Nouri to be escorted out of office. The press can consider itself responsible for what's going on. Nouri didn't win the election. He said he wanted a majority government.  That's how he defined success.  He didn't get it. Iraqiya (its remains) and other groups pursued other strategies -- they felt smaller blocs controlled the formation last go round so they broke into smaller groupings for this year's elections. Reality is Nouri got the same amount of votes as he did in 2010. That's not success. But the media -- the US media and the western media -- didn't tell you that. They told you over and over that Nouri was getting a third term. And the more they spat out that s**t, the more violence increased in Iraq. A new prime minister -- especially not one from Nouri's State of Law -- would allow a moment for a reset. Dawa is the political party Nouri belongs to.  You could argue it could come from Dawa (which has had public problems with Nouri).  But to go with State of Law, the person would be seen as another Nouri or, worse, Nouri's puppet. Nouri needs to walk away for the good of the country. And if the US government is going to bomb Iraq, instead of attacking the people, the US should just bomb Nouri.  He's a War Criminal.  He's calling for Barack to do something -- something violent -- so let the man of violence die from violence.  I don't think the world will weep over Nouri's death. It's over, I'm done writing songs about love There's a war going on So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove And I'm writing a song about war And it goes Na na na na na na na I hate the war Na na na na na na na I hate the war Na na na na na na na I hate the war Oh oh oh oh -- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!) The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4489. Source