Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Well Christmas with Trevor has departed to page 5 of this thread and is fast becoming for me just a pleasant memory. 

There was not much of Trevor left for the crows to pick over and there were only a few things to sort out after the clan had departed.

There was the little matter of some rather expensive repairs to the big ride on mower to be seen to. One should not let these city nephews onto such machines. At least the new gazebo survived the prang, but not so whatever it is that steers the beast, so the only way to get it back to the shed was for grandpa to kick the front wheel for twenty odd metres to aim in the right direction. He's been hobbling ever since.

It is debateable as to whether one should mention the matter of the kids' big new trampoline. It had taken a syndicate to get the thing up, directions helpfully supplied by the niece of Trevor fame, from the less than full guide that came with the thing. But it was all up by the end of the day, grandfather and son having sweated frustration from every pore, while the small fry pranced impatiently on the sidelines. There was the usual one bolt missing. A search had been mounted amidst sundry boxes to no avail, so the supplier got the blame till it turned up in grandpa's pocket late that night.

We'll blame the niece from Bleak City. Someone said she stopped reading once the thing was up, just at the point where it said anchor it securely to the ground. No one was prepared for the willy willy a day or so later. Look look! A scream from the small fry brought the lot of us to our feet and to the window. The thing was about ten feet in the air, spinning like a top. To our collective horror it headed gracefully across the yard only to land far less gracefully right on top of  the inflated pool.  

There's not been any water in the pool since and there's a pathetic heap of tangled steel nearby waiting for someone to come up with some ideas.

Ah yes, Trevor was not the only turkey around for that Christmas. Till next year......

Angela Ryan No I have not seen a lot of Australian films of late. I did though see Little Fish. I enjoyed it. I especially like the ending and the kids singing. Sam Peckinpah lives!

A new generation coming through. Australian film will come back. From the depths do ideas flourish.

Read a women today in the Age. Reckons Rudd should be Prime Minister because he quotes that oft quoted "German". If that is the benchmark we are all F@@@@@@. Bit partial to Shakespeare myself.

Yep, by the end of the year it might be time for ole Jay to move along.

The NYT article was an eye-opener.  I'm prepared to take it on face value for the minute.   I'm still suspicious of it though.  The biggest ring of truth it had however was it's portrayal of a US military being painstaikingly careful of providing no opportunity to be portrayed in a bad light.

Jay, apologies, I did misquote you.  I misinterpreted "hand wringing" as a euphemism for expressing horror of the situation, then got things out of context.  I didn't intend to misinterpret.

One of these days we have to find a way to get all of us into the same room (after a thorough weapons search).

I don't believe that hanging Saddam was wrong...(altho' I'm always peeved in films when the baddie gets a quick exit.  I want him to suffer).

But, I don't believe that allowing the Iraqi government to demonstrate that democracy had changed nothing, that those in power were as vengeful and sectarian as Saddam, was in my interests.

I am reminded of the comments early in the war by such as Donald Rumsfeld along the lines of.."This war will last for 30 -100 years"..."Don't expect peace in your lifetime"., and I know that this was no mistake at all.  They don't make mistakes.

Anyone else got Halliburton shares?  Wheee - way to go.

Saddam’s execution convinced me that 2007 would be a year of deepening barbarism – in Iraq as in Australia and the war-mongering Anglo-sphere.

The article cited by Will Howard is plausible. It reveals the moral bankruptcy of a US unable to advocate persuasively because it supports the death penalty and the execution of Saddam in particular. The execution itself ought to warn us (again) about the emerging “government” of Iraq, and its willingness to use humiliation and terror as instruments of statecraft. Isn’t this government, particularly its Interior Ministry, responsible for death squads that have been operating inside the Iraqi Police?

It beggars belief that Australia is going to send even more troops in support of the calamitous war in Iraq. It’s a failed policy.

The war against democracy subscribed to by John Howard can’t be allowed to continue.

I’m going to get involved in organizing some kind of commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the Great War Crime of 20 March 2003.

What would be the best motif?

Roslyn Ross: "There is no independent judicial system in Iraq. There is the system set up by the puppet government which dances to the tune of the occupying power.... the US."

So, on the one hand, the Iraqi government is supposedly under the control of those Shi'ites who owe their allegiance to Moqtadr al Sadr. Yet on the other hand, the Iraqi government dances to the tune of the "occupying power" How weird is that?

What really irritates so many self-declared supporters of the so-called "resistance", of course, is that Iraq is no longer under the control of Saddam Hussein. What is especially laughable is their belated conversion to advocacy of an independent Iraqi judiciary.

What? Like those appearing in "resistance" videos of hostage beheadings? Like those in Saddam's "people's tribunals"?

Any lingering doubt that the so-called "resistance" is anything other than fascist Ba'athist militia were dispelled by the lop-sided "outrage" by Party loyalists at the former dictator's demise.

And the cheers and dancing in the streets everywhere else.

Rawstory features articles from the Independent about the new oil laws being considered in Iraq.

Four articles based on a draft of an Iraqi law – crafted with help from the US government – which was leaked to the paper, detail "How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches."

"Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days," Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb report in the cover story.

According to the paper, the law "would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."

"Supporters say the provision allowing oil companies to take up to 75 per cent of the profits will last until they have recouped initial drilling costs," the article continues. "After that, they would collect about 20 per cent of all profits, according to industry sources in Iraq. But that is twice the industry average for such deals."

One of the reasons for the unprovoked war?

Richard Tonkin  I also don't think we're being selfish in examining every mistake in this cock-up.

And neither should you feel "selfish". It is absoloutely your democratic right to question everything. And I agree that when mistakes are made by governement they should be examined. There is no argument from me Richard.

I do not believe hanging Saddam was a mistake. I believe that the video of it was a mistake. I believe the hanging and the war with Iraq are different issues. I believe linking the two together is wrong and confusing. And I believe he was given a fair trial as understood by Iraqis.

That's it from me. Saddam deserved exactly what he got.

Richard Tonkin Every Western civilation is five times as scared as it was before of bombs detonating in its city streets, and it's laughable ?

No, Richard I never said it was. What I have said repeatidly is that Bush and Howard were not to blame for this situation. It is equal to blaming Churchill, Rosevelt or even Curtin for the war. None of those leaders could have made their "people" any less scared.

Like most Germans (as we all now know) neither are most Muslims cold blooded killers. And no person of any standing (ANYWHERE) is saying that they are! Saddam WAS! Do you not see this?

This war and it does not mean just IRAQ is one of ideals and ideas. And yes we are all in it together, 99% of us. Now you may disagree with my opinion. Fair enough. However do not believe I think it a "joke" nor "laughable". I take it very seriously.

We had a disagreement once about a soldier. I stand by what I said at the time. It to me has since been worked out and (explained). And a misinterpretation is the best way to leave it. Outside of politics I am sure we would get along very well.

Richard, there is no reason to misinterpret and (misquote) me! I say exactly what I believe and let others judge for themselves.

BTW If you feel I am doing (misinterprete, quote) this to you I am more then happy for you to bring it to my attention.

Roslyn Ross "Richard:   Saddam's death, and the manner of his death, are only 'laughable' to those who appear unable to appreciate the importance of principles in our civilized world".

Don't say "those", say Jay. I was the one that used the word. And what I said was the "hand wringing was laughable".

Roslyn Ross Those who can defend a patently unfair trial, capital punishment and an execution which was totally without dignity, apart from the person who was to die, could probably defend pretty much anything and are clearly prepared to support an 'end justifies the means' and a 'might is right' world.

Spoilt, isolated and out of touch. That is what we have become as a society. Dictating now what the "worlds principles" are. Bah humbug.

Once they called it "white man's burden". Seems the term has dropped off the radar. Or at least out of understanding.

Today no doubt in a village in Sudan, Chad, Liberia, Congo etc....  There will be a massacre, likely carried out by boy and girl soldiers on other boys and girls amongst the adults. Indignation? You will not even hear about it.

Mao once ran a thing which would be known in Australia as the "cultural revolution". Millions starved to death. At the end it is said starving mothers gave their babies blood from their own bodies in forlorn hope. A few now rich, fat white spoilt brats paraded themselves around this nation holding his doctrine. Now complaining about Saddam's demise.

Jay White: "We are now stuck with idiotic notions and conspiracy theories."

I was surprised that you said this, but I don't think that I have read a better summary of our present government. And yes, we do seem to be stuck with them.

Will:   You may believe that Tira's view is only that of a citizen....albeit belligerent, but in today's Sydney Morning Herald we have:

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said today.

Citing what it said were several Israeli military sources, the paper said two Israeli air force squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters".

Two other sites, a heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, would be targeted with conventional bombs, the paper said.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously last month to slap sanctions on Iran to try to stop uranium enrichment that Western powers fear could lead to making bombs. Tehran insists its plans are peaceful and says it will continue enrichment.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor in Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran's nuclear facilities are too much for Israel to take on alone.

The newspaper said the Israeli plan envisaged conventional laser-guided bombs opening "tunnels" into the targets. Nuclear warheads would then be fired into the plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce radioactive fallout.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 3200-kilometre round-trip to the Iranian targets, the Sunday Times said, and three possible routes to Iran have been mapped out including one over Turkey.

All of which suggests, as I said, Israel's 'meddling' continues. Personally, my view is that if Israel 'drags' the US into a war against Iran it will be signing its own death warrant.

Given the rejection of the disaster which is the Iraq war another similar misadventure, all for the sake of Israel, is going to turn even more Americans against Bush and against Israel. Without the 'bottle feed' of US funds Israel cannot survive. Without support from the American public, who in the main are ignorant about the reality of the Israel-Palestine situation, there will be less of a 'billion dollar bottle feed' or even no billion dollar bottle feed .... hence no Israel.

I for one hope that Israel's true friends, not her frenemys, give her some wise counsel at this juncture along the lines of: Stop promoting war and start behaving yourself and do something about the Palestinian problem.

Israel is playing with fire and while the US will survive anything, well, it may not remain the power it has been but it will survive, Israel may well not survive at all.

Excerpt: If India is a key barometer of the non-Western world, and it often is, Saddam's hanging will come to haunt George W. Bush.

Far from being "an important milestone in Iraq becoming a democracy," as he so brazenly put it, the hanging is widely seen as an occupying power's jungle justice against a tyrant whose worst crimes were committed when he was an American ally but who was condemned only after he went against his benefactors.

He was responsible for killing 1 million Iranians in the 1980-'88 war and murdering and gassing tens of thousands of his own Shiite and Kurdish populations – war crimes whose details, and with them the West's complicity, went to the grave with him.

The lesson, said an editorial in the Deccan Chronicle, the regional English daily, is that "the U.S. will not tolerate leaders who do not follow its diktat."

The hanging has been the topic of conversation in both the public and private spheres. You can't escape it in any gathering.

"The Bush administration has destroyed an ancient civilization and its ruler. If Saddam deserved the death penalty for ordering the killing of 148 Shiites, what ought to be the penalty for Mr. Bush for the deaths of 600,000 Iraqis?" asked Ram Das.

And Israeli meddling continues it seems with another match at the ready to throw into the fires of the Middle East:

Excerpt: In a stark statement published on Saturday Brigadier General Oded Tira observed, "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure."

Richard:   Saddam's death, and the manner of his death, are only 'laughable' to those who appear unable to appreciate the importance of principles in our civilized world.

Those who can defend a patently unfair trial, capital punishment and an execution which was totally without dignity, apart from the person who was to die, could probably defend pretty much anything and are clearly prepared to support an 'end justifies the means' and a 'might is right' world.

We can only hope that such 'values' are in the minority although indications are that more people at this point in time are prepared to betray such principles for the sake of expediency, revenge or greed.

And because principles of rule of law, justice and civilized values were betrayed, Saddam's deification has begun, adding yet another travesty of justice to the travesties perpetrated by the US and its allies:

Excerpt:

Beirut, Lebanon - In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

    On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

    "No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed," President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday and distributed by the official Egyptian news agency. "They turned him into a martyr."

And

 Mr. Safadi, the Jordanian editor, said: "In the public's perception Saddam was terrible, but those people were worse. That final act has really jeopardized the future of Iraq immensely. And we all know this is a blow to the moderate camp in the Arab world."

But then this illegal, immoral and unnecessary war against Iraq was only ever about oil and never about justice.

The US has been hard at work putting together a law which the Iraqis will be forced to put through which will hand over Iraq's world to the West. And 'we' wonder why they hate us.

Excerpt:

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Shame, shame, shame on the US and its allies for betraying the principles upon which the democratic world stands and for endangering the future of everyone on this planet.

The world now knows that the US is a greedy tyrant, just like Saddam,  prepared to kill anyone who stands in their way, just like Saddam, prepared to trample over law and justice, just like Saddam, and those who support the US are hypocrites without conscience or integrity.

The only laughter which might be heard on that account is hysterical laughter. But mostly I suspect the only sound will be weeping.

Richard the amount of hand wringing and carry on about Saddam says a lot about where we are as a society. Spoilt, isolated and out of touch with the majority of the world.

With all the terrible things going on in "most" parts of the world, Saddam is such a minor issue that it is laughable.

He deserved to be hung. Justice was done. End of story.

Richard "Ernest, I don't know if my knowledge of the I.R.laws is strong enough for the task.  I'll do some reading and thinking.  Have you thought about doing one yourself?  I for one would be very interested to read it".

I for one would love to know the alternatives that Labor wishes to offer.

According to Rudd changes wont effect those (high earners) that wish to negotiate but their changes will help (working Australians). What in Gods name does that all mean? What rates one as rich these days? And a asured minimum wage is already in place.

Rudd effectively is not really saying anything is going to change. The truth is he can't because it is not up to him. The market will dictate what happens in the future. Rudd can ponce around giving orders all he likes however if business does not like the enviroment it simply shuts up shop and moves. Leaving Australians without a job and the government without a tax base. Rudd would understand this.

Like I said before a cheap mans version of John Howard is all Rudd is.

Rudd is the greatest compliment paid to Howard in his ten years leading Australia. Labor sold their sole during the Hawke, Keating years. The only thing remaining is the "myth".

We are now stuck with idiotic notions and conspiracy theories. The US runs Australia....blah, blah, blah. All pretty sad in reality.

Alan Curran "Just think about it for a moment: if the Iraqis had been in charge of his confinement he would have escaped within a fortnight."

Wouldn't the ability to hold a prisoner for trial be intrinsic to the operation of an independent legal system?

If the US wanted to ensure the Iraqis had this ability then surely they could whack together an Iraqi-controlled secure detention facility in seconds.  As their contractor of choice for this kind of job (my "mates") did such a terrific job on Guantanemo no doubt the wouuld be able to provide a controlled containment environment for Saddam that the Iraqis could operate themselves?  The fact that this talent wasn't utilised  suggests that there were other reasons.

If, as you say "the Iraqis are in control of nothing" then the Coalition must be in control of everything.   I'm assuming you then agree with the hypothesis that Saddam's trial, not to mention the local legal system, are not under Iraqi control?

Ernest, I don't know if my knowledge of the I.R.laws is strong enough for the task.  I'll do some reading and thinking.  Have you thought about doing one yourself?  I for one would be very interested to read it.

Will Howard: But did anyone ever complain about the waiting lists?

Doctor: the patient is deceased.

Relative: But he only came here with an ingrown toenail. Oh, I see.....

Yeah, a real paradise on earth, Saddam world.

Angela, My top five Australian picks? That is a very tough question.

I do favour what I call nation defining films, and these were plentiful in Australia through the 70's and early 80's. The truth is my picks would favour the more "male" type subjects for want of a better word. For example, Picnic at Hanging Rock was a fine film though I would never enjoy it as much as Odd Angry Shot. So a lot of it comes down to personal taste in films, rather then excellence and the like.

I would really have to think about my favourites. Usually the best test is to go back and watch them after at least ten years. If they are still enjoyed and have not dated, one is in the midst of a great film.

Richard: That's because the US may not control much in Iraq but it does control the Iraqi government.

There is no independent judicial system in Iraq. There is the system set up by the puppet government which dances to the tune of the occupying power.... the US. There are thousands of Americans in the Green Zone..... 'helping' so they say and given the rate of non-reconstruction we can only imagine they are 'helping' in all sorts of ways to ensure that the US view is conveyed clearly to Iraqi officials.

That's the tricky thing about occupation ..... those occupied are not free and those who occupy have all the power. However feeble that power may be in terms of controlling the country, they still control the government, as much as such governments can be controlled. Or at least they work hard to control the government or what amounts to 'government' in the bloody chaos which is Iraq.

Logic dictates that the US controls the Iraqi government because it is the occupying power. It controlled Saddam's trial and Saddam's handover and you can bet it controlled his execution. There may not have been military officials present but the CIA would have been there. As I have said before, given that the US is losing its war at home and in Iraq and around the world you can bet that whatever mileage they figured they could make out of their 'star card' they would have done so ...... the 'fingers' of the occupying power would have been holding tight to the final 'rope.'

I also agree that Breaker Morant was an excellent film but my favourite is Gallipoli although Love Serenade with Miranda Otto is also up there as one of the most brilliant Oz films ever made .... maybe it is the black humour I like.

The one thing I don't understand in all this if this trial and execution were totally under Iraqi control, why was Saddam being held by the US until the very eve of his death?

Surely an independent justice system would be able to maintain and operate its own confinement facilities?

I wasn't aware of the incarceration arrangements before, and the transfer evoked for me images of Pontius Pilate washing his hands.  I believe it was intended to.

Richard Tonkin: "Jay, in the opening credits you'll see that iwas based on the stage play by Kenneth Ross, with additional material from Kit Denton's book.  Basically the courtroom scenes were the play.  Terrence Donovan starred as The Breaker."

Fair enough. Certainly I would be proud to have my name associated with that piece of work. I am sure your uncle is.

We obviously agree that it was a fine film. In fact it is my top five favourite Australian films ever. So there you go, we can agree on at least "one" thing.

By far and away the biggest suppliers of weapons to Iraq was the USSR. The US was not even in the top five.

If Saddam had of been put on trial in Europe, the suppliers of weapons would not have been a factor. It is a falsehood either deliberate or through ignorance to claim otherwise.

There are reams of information in the public sphere dealing with Iraq and weapons throughout the '70s and '80s. That any person can claim that the US in some way wished to "silence" Saddam defies logic and crediability.

Saddam was tried and executed for the murder of 148 people. An apt punishment.

Richard Tonkin, don't think for a minute there would not be more then a couple on here calling for Boer resistence.  A couple of generations later the great grand kiddies would be out in the streets calling for sanctions against the same people.

That is how it is Richard. History and the perception of the events for ever changing. To make arguments that Bush will be known as a war criminal for ever onwards is an impossible leap of faith. Nobody can predict the future and how events of today will be viewed in it.

The Breaker was a good book and made into a one of my favourite Australian movies. The '70s and early '80s was certainly a golden period of Australian film.

Will:  In the case of Saddam's execution the demonstrable 'evidence' are the questions it raises:

Why did the Americans allow (or encourage) his execution on a day gauranteed to inflame Muslim rage?

Why was he executed for one of his 'minor' crimes instead of the 'major' crimes for which he had yet to go to trial?

Why was there heckling at an event which could easily have been controlled and secured if the Americans wished it to be?

Why was there video footage later made public which could easily have been prevented if the Americans had wished it to be? Why was there a second film with sound released?

Why was the name Mugtada chanted when there must be many applicable curses, much more relevant to Saddam's behaviour, which could have been chanted?

Why was Saddam buried in Tikrit therefore making it so much easier for his grave to be turned into a shrine? Anyone with half a brain could work out that it would have been better to have buried him in Yemen as his daughter requested or in Jordan where most of his family are. At least, that is if one wanted to stabilise Iraq.

All of these things could have easily been prevented by the Americans if they had wished. As we both know, given security in the green zone where he was killed, it would have been a doddle to vet everyone who went in to the execution and to ensure no phones were there for one thing.

This article presents a possible scenario which provides some 'answers' to these questions:

Excerpt: The trial and execution of Saddam raise important questions: why was he tried and executed for only one incident: ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail, (“small” as compared to other horrific atrocities committed during his reign of terror); why was he executed at such a (religiously) sensitive time; why the films were released; and finally why did the authorities allowed his body to be buried in Tikrit, his home town?

The problem with trying Saddam Hussein for really big atrocities, such as use of Chemical weapons on civilians was that many enablers of Saddam’s regime including Western companies and both Western and Middle Eastern governments would have been implicated.

But while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were providing the money, it was the West that was supplying the weaponry and the technical assistance that enabled Saddam Hussein to carry-out some of his most horrific crimes against humanity. “The Blue prints for the construction of the first chemical warfare plant were provided by Pfaulder Corporation of Rochester, New York.” [ ] The German, French, Italian and British companies were all heavily involved in arming Saddam Hussein.

This year’s Eid Al Adhais began on 30th December, the very day that Saddam Hussein was executed.

The timing indicates that the Iraqi government was under pressure to remove Saddam from the scene before the Christian New Year. But why? Does this have something to do with the Bush’s new Iraq strategy? On its own, executing Saddam on that day did not make any sense except angering the Sunni Muslims of Iraq even more than they are already.

Filming of the execution and releasing it to the public was also a propaganda victory for Saddam Hussein. He went to his death with dignity and courage. The Sunnis, especially the Baath members will remember him for his defiance to the very end. So, why release the film in the first place? And why release the second film? This film with sound track was shot by a mobile phone. It was clear that everyone in the gallows were aware that this person was filming them. We know that everyone was there by invitation and everyone was thoroughly searched. So it was not an accident, nor the work of a freelance journalist to film and release it to the public. Both the central government and the Americans would have had to OK the release. So why was it released?

If you watch the second film you hear one of the executioners (guards) shouts the name of Muqtada Al Sadr. This film connects the execution directly to Al Sadr. It is no secret that Muqtada Al Sadr is an Arab nationalist and the one that could pose the greatest threat to the Americans.

By sending Saddam’s body to Tikrit the government and the Americans are ensuring that the Sunnis will have a nationalist shrine right at the heart of the Sunni triangle. The Baathists and the Sunni nationalist will have a shrine dedicated to what they believe was a national Hero, killed at the hand of Shi’ites and the Americans.


The farcical trial and hasty execution only achieved one thing: silencing the man that could expose the hypocrisy and complicity of both the so called moderate Arab governments and the major Western powers. 

If US attacks Al-Sadr, it is hoped, it will show Sunnis that US is attacking a hated Shi’ia that was taunting Saddam at the gallows. So far US has had an uneasy truce with Al-sadr, something that US is no longer interested in. It is evident that United States will in the near future attack Al-Sadr forces in Baghdad and will try to crush and disband his militia the Mahdi Army.

Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar lives in Norway. He is a management consultant and a contributing writer for many online journals. He's a former associate professor of Nordland University, Norway.

And as I have said before, given the track record on lying by the US why would anyone believe what they say now particularly when it flies in the face of reason?