With the release of the "FBI tapes", one can see the con. Trying to whitewash the illegal war... The double cross is still on...

From Robert Fisk

Almost 19 years to the day after Saddam Hussein's legions invaded Kuwait – and less than 18 years since the US coalition liberated it – the Croesus-rich emirate is still demanding reparations from Baghdad as if the dictator of Iraq was still alive. Only this week, the Kuwaitis were accusing the Iraqis of encroaching on their unmarked border while insisting at the United Nations that Iraq must continue to pay 5 per cent of its oil revenues to Kuwait as invasion reparations.

...

So is this just typical Kuwaiti meanness, an oil-dripping emirate with a per capita income of $41,000 further crushing a nation with a per capita income of less that $4,000? Middle East oil analysts have their doubts. "The Kuwaitis have always had a reputation for stinginess," one said yesterday in despair. "But I think there is more to this than you think. Kuwait was a founder of the Gulf development fund and in the '60s, '70s and '80s, treated Palestinians and Lebanese without restrictions – and the Palestinians then betrayed the Kuwaitis by falling in with Saddam after the 1990 invasion."

But there is more – and it involves the ethnic balance in the two nations' populations. "Maybe 40 per cent of people in Kuwait are now Shia rather than Sunni Muslims and these people are now investing heavily in southern Iraq," the oil man said yesterday. "The Kuwaiti Shias are becoming 'Basra-ites' and vice versa. More and more Shia from the south of Iraq are becoming businessmen and trading with Kuwait. This causes a blurring of the border between the two countries, a feeling that the two economies are becoming linked. No wonder the Kuwaitis want to stand by the letter of the law."

---------------------------

Kuwait is a little kindom of "thieving princes" ("Saddam claimed that Kuwait had been stealing oil from Iraq's southern fields by boring northwards along their mutual frontier; in other words, Kuwait was thieving the resources of the nation whose armies saved it from Iran's revolution. Exclusive as these claims appeared to be – although no one could contradict the rise in Kuwaiti oil production – this formed part of the background to the frontier dispute which Kuwait is still haggling over."), higly undemocratic despite claiming to be a "constitutional" emirate. It has not accepted ICJ (International Court of Justice) Jurisdiction. It is my humble cynical view that the bill (check) for the international community war machine to repel Saddam in the first Gulf War should be sent to Amir SABAH al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah in triplicate, with 10 per cent interest compounded per annum (nearly 20 years), otherwise he would not be here to enjoy the trappings of glorious power. That money should be thus paid directly to the new Iraqi regime as reconstruction payola for being such good sport since the second Gulf War.

see toon at top.

According to Colonel Reese, chief of the Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, the surge’s real objectives still haven’t been met and never will be. In a recent memorandum, Reese asserts that “the ineffectiveness and corruption” of Iraq’s government ministries is “the stuff of legend.” The government is “failing to take rational steps to improve its electrical infrastructure and to improve their oil exploration, production and exports.” There is “no progress towards resolving the Kirkuk situation,” transition the Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi Security Forces “is not happening” and “the Kurdish situation continues to fester.” Violent political intimidation is “rampant.” Iraq’s security forces are a disaster. The officer corps is corrupt. Enlisted men are neglected and mistreated. Cronyism and nepotism are rampant. Laziness, lack of initiative, and absence of basic military discipline are endemic. Iraq’s military leadership is incapable of leading; it can’t plan ahead, it can’t stand up to the Shiite political parties, it can’t stick to its agreements.

The U.S. military in Iraq has accomplished “all that can be expected,” Reese says.

------------------

see toon at top and potted Iraq...

This Friday the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war reaches its dramatic apotheosis with the much-anticipated appearance of Tony Blair as 'star' witness. After the devastating testimonies of the last few days, Blair is under more pressure than ever to salvage what remains of his reputation.

The Chilcot team is unlikely to penetrate the slick veneer of a man whose self-regard grows stronger when his virtues are called into question.

Blair will undoubtedly insist that invading Iraq was "the right thing to do" regardless of the manipulations that made it possible and regardless of the consequences. In these circumstances it is worth recalling the impact of the Anglo-American invasion on the country it intended to liberate.

No one knows how many Iraqis have died as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom and its calamitous aftermath, but estimates range from 100,000 to more than 1 million. Last week the Iraqi Health Ministry reported that 2-3 million Iraqis are mentally and physically disabled ­ a legacy that includes victims of all Iraq's wars going back to 1977.

According to the Iraqi government, 1-2 million Iraqis are widows and 5 million are orphans. Since 2003, according to the United Nations, more than four million Iraqis have become refugees or 'Internally Displaced Persons' (IDPs) ­ all this in a population of 30 million.

Today whole areas of Iraq are saturated with radiation and dioxins, which some Iraqi doctors attribute ­ at least in part - to depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by the Anglo-American coalition. In Fallujah, the target of two major US assaults in 2004, doctors reported last November an "unprecedented and at present unexplainable" rise in deformed births, including babies with two heads.

----------------------

see toon at top.

Blair told the House of Commons: "France said it would veto a second resolution whatever the circumstances." In reality, Chirac said: "My position is that, whatever the circumstances, France will vote no [to a US-British resolution authorising the use of force], because we presently consider that war is not the proper means to reach our objective, that is disarming Iraq." In other words, Chirac thought that the UN should let Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors get on with their job. Had they found any weapons, the French argued, the UN would have met to decide on the appropriate course of action. War would then have been an option.

Tony Blair declared that the French "no" was "unreasonable" and therefore should be ignored. Blair, Straw and Geoff Hoon made great use of this distorted account of the French position in cabinet meetings and before the House in order to convince recalcitrant Labour MPs. For some, it proved to be the argument that made them switch their vote in support of the war. In truth, France's position fully abided by the letter of Resolution 1441.

The American media and the British tabloid press picked on this incident to launch one of the worst bouts of Francophobia in living memory. The French were dubbed "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", while the Sun named Chirac "Le Worm". Rupert Murdoch's newspaper later renewed its attack, branding President Chirac "Saddam Hussein's whore" in a special Paris edition. The front page read: "One is a corrupt bully who is risking the lives of our troops. He is sneering at Britain, destroying democracy and endangering world peace. The other is Saddam Hussein." France's foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, complained about the strong language used in the British parliament to describe France's stance. The British government kept quiet throughout.

Lord Goldsmith's testimony emphasised not only how quick the British government was to join in the French-bashing before the war, but how keen it appears to revive it now.

---------------------

see toon at top...