II .Common Sense. II (at Tumblr)

ISIL (ISIS) mass executions of Shia mostly revenge for mass executions of Sunni prisoners while battle raged?

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:06:23 -0700

ISIL (ISIS) mass executions of Shia mostly revenge for mass executions of Sunni prisoners while...

Photo

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:34:41 -0700

Your gun rights do not supersede my human rights

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:17:37 -0700

Your gun rights do not supersede my human rights

Supreme Court nibbles at EPA’s greenhouse gas powers

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 09:42:00 -0700

Supreme Court nibbles at EPA’s greenhouse gas powers: The Supreme Court partially upheld and...

Iran rejects U.S. action in Iraq, ISIL tightens Syria border grip

Sun, 22 Jun 2014 15:04:24 -0700

Iran rejects U.S. action in Iraq, ISIL tightens Syria border grip: ANBAR Iraq (Reuters) -...

america-wakiewakie: “We gave Iraq the chance to have an...

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:07:46 -0700

america-wakiewakie:

“We gave Iraq the chance to have an inclusive democracy.”

— Barack Obama

If by democracy Obama means an estimated 1 million Iraqis killed, 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows, and 5 million orphans, as Global Research reported in ‘09:

We are now able to estimate the number of Iraqis who have died in the war instigated by the Bush administration. Looking at the empirical evidence of Bush’s war legacy will put his claims of victory in perspective. Of course, even by his standards — “stability” — the jury is out. Most independent analysts would say it’s too soon to judge the political outcome. Nearly six years after the invasion, the country remains riven by sectarian politics and major unresolved issues, like the status of Kirkuk.

We have a better grasp of the human costs of the war. For example, the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis — more than half of them refugees — or about one in every six citizens. Only 5 percent have chosen to return to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence from the high levels of 2005-07. The availability of healthcare, clean water, functioning schools, jobs and so forth remains elusive. According to Unicef, many provinces report that less than 40 percent of households have access to clean water. More than 40 percent of children in Basra, and more than 70 percent in Baghdad, cannot attend school.

The mortality caused by the war is also high. Several household surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2007. While there are differences among them, the range suggests a congruence of estimates. But none have been conducted for eighteen months, and the two most reliable surveys were completed in mid-2006. The higher of those found 650,000 “excess deaths” (mortality attributable to war); the other yielded 400,000. The war remained ferocious for twelve to fifteen months after those surveys were finished and then began to subside. Iraq Body Count, a London NGO that uses English-language press reports from Iraq to count civilian deaths, provides a means to update the 2006 estimates. While it is known to be an undercount, because press reports are incomplete and Baghdad-centric, IBC nonetheless provides useful trends, which are striking. Its estimates are nearing 100,000, more than double its June 2006 figure of 45,000. (It does not count nonviolent excess deaths — from health emergencies, for example — or insurgent deaths.) If this is an acceptable marker, a plausible estimate of total deaths can be calculated by doubling the totals of the 2006 household surveys, which used a much more reliable and sophisticated method for estimates that draws on long experience in epidemiology. So we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million “excess deaths” as we approach the six-year anniversary of this war.

This gruesome figure makes sense when reading of claims by Iraqi officials that there are 1-2 million war widows and 5 million orphans. This constitutes direct empirical evidence of total excess mortality and indirect, though confirming, evidence of the displaced and the bereaved and of general insecurity. The overall figures are stunning: 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows, 5 million orphans, about 1 million dead — in one way or another, affecting nearly one in two Iraqis.

By any sensible measure, it would be difficult to describe this as a victory of any kind. It speaks volumes about the repair work we must do for Iraqis, and it should caution us against the savage wars we are prone to. Now that Bush is gone, perhaps the United States can honestly face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we must accept from it.

Then maybe he is conflating the word with something more like genocide.

After Obama took office he wound down US involvement and left, maybe not delightedly, maybe because they wouldn’t give a status of forces agreement, but we left.

The deaths from the Iraq War are not his fault, but of the Bush/Cheney jihad touched off in 2003, which was about their oil buddies, and the military industrial complex which tends to fund Republican candidates more heavily than Democrat ones, especially after two different Bush administrations (and Reagan’s Afghan insurgent program) allowed them to make so much money in new warmongering.

Granted Clinton’s actions in portions of Serbia, may have added to bomb and one fighter plane replacement, but weren’t anything like the motherlode that the GOP has dropped on them in the past 3 decades.

Issa Blamed IBM Software For Loss Of 22 Million Bush Emails But In IRS Case He Claims It's Watergate 2.0

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 19:52:24 -0700

Issa Blamed IBM Software For Loss Of 22 Million Bush Emails But In IRS Case He Claims It's Watergate...

The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining 'school shootings' so they don’t count

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:46:54 -0700

The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining 'school shootings' so they don’t count:...

93-year-old activist: NC voting restrictions worse now than during the Jim Crow era

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:01:08 -0700

93-year-old activist: NC voting restrictions worse now than during the Jim Crow era:...

Feds: NYC strippers drugged, stole from rich men

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:47:02 -0700

Feds: NYC strippers drugged, stole from rich men: NEW YORK (AP) - It’s a tawdry tale of New...

pan-afrikan-education: “The media’s the most powerful entity on...

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:26:55 -0700

pan-afrikan-education:

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

Malcolm X

Malcolm X died in 1965.

Through the Internet we the people have gained a lot more ability to have our own say since 1965.

To ignore or not use that power is just plain stupid.

To pretend we’re such helpless maidens is insulting.

Mayor Apologizes for Dog Poop-Tossing Incident

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 10:12:01 -0700

Mayor Apologizes for Dog Poop-Tossing Incident: A Southern California mayor who was caught on camera...

Guccifer, hacker who exposed Bush family secrets, sentenced to jail

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 00:02:02 -0700

Guccifer, hacker who exposed Bush family secrets, sentenced to jail:

The internet hacker...

"This is too much. We have Tea Party political activists shooting cops from behind, in the head, then..."

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:40:57 -0700

“This is too much. We have Tea Party political activists shooting cops from behind, in the...

California court rules teacher tenure creates unequal conditions, amounts to civil rights violation.

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:36:38 -0700

California court rules teacher tenure creates unequal conditions, amounts to civil rights...

Arizona Prisons Ignored Medical Needs And Let Sick Inmates Die, Major Lawsuit Claims

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:17:26 -0700

Arizona Prisons Ignored Medical Needs And Let Sick Inmates Die, Major Lawsuit Claims:...

"We hear all this stuff that goes on in Chicago and all these people who die, who lose their..."

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:39:35 -0700

“We hear all this stuff that goes on in Chicago and all these people who die, who lose their...

kqedscience: Rats Regret Bad Decisions “To err—and therefore,...

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:55:15 -0700

kqedscience:

Rats Regret Bad Decisions

“To err—and therefore, to regret—is human. Now, a new study suggests that rodents are also capable of pining over what might have been. Researchers say the insight could help improve animal models of bad decisions, such as drug or alcohol use that leads to addiction.”

Read more from Science.

Dad Of Isla Vista Shooting Victim: My Son Died Because Congress Ignored Sandy Hook

Tue, 27 May 2014 11:19:53 -0700

Dad Of Isla Vista Shooting Victim: My Son Died Because Congress Ignored Sandy Hook: The father of...

Arctic sea ice littered with tiny bits of marine trash, plastics

Mon, 26 May 2014 17:04:50 -0700

Arctic sea ice littered with tiny bits of marine trash, plastics: Glassy sea ice and iceberg. Can...