Enver Masud, "A Clash Between Justice
and Greed, Not Islam and the West," The Wisdom Fund, September 2,
2002
Robert Fisk, "Saddam Statue Scene
Staged," Independent, April 11, 2003
Patrick Cockburn, "Revealed:
Secret Plan to Keep Iraq Under U.S. Control," Independent, June 5,
2008
John Pilger, "Iraq: The Crime of the
Century," New Statesman, December 10, 2009
[Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is presiding over what is shaping up to
be a radical expansion of a private, US-funded paramilitary force that will
operate in Iraq for the foreseeable future - the very type of force Clinton
once claimed she opposed.--Jeremy Scahill, "Iraq Withdrawal? Obama and Clinton
Expanding US Paramilitary Force in Iraq," Nation, July 22, 2010]
[Under the administration's definition of the concept, combat operations
will continue after August 2010, but will be defined as the secondary role
of US forces in Iraq. The primary role will be to "advise and assist" Iraqi
forces.--Gareth Porter, "Obama drops
pledge on Iraq," atimes.com, August 4, 2010]
[After this month's withdrawal, there will still be 50,000 US troops in 94
military bases, "advising" and training the Iraqi army, "providing security"
and carrying out "counter-terrorism" missions. In US military speak, that
covers pretty well everything they might want to do.--Seumas Milne, "The US isn't leaving Iraq, it's rebranding the
occupation," Guardian, August 4, 2010]
Spencer Ackerman, "U.S.
Supersizes Afghan Mega-Base as Withdrawal Date Looms," wired.com,
August 9, 2010
[Under the current status of forces agreement between the US and Iraq, the
US retains all air rights over Iraq. . . .
The US does not yet need Iraq's oil, but controlling it gives the US potent
influence over its importers, such as China, India, Japan and Europe.
Control of Mideast oil remains a pillar of US geopolitical world
power.--Eric Margolis, "Will the US
Really Pull Out of Iraq?," lewrockwell.com, August 10, 2010]
[It was perhaps a different sort of scripted, mythical end to the Iraq War
than the last one, the May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech of
President Bush, but it was no more real, as over 50,000 US troops remain on
the ground in Iraq tonight.--Jason Ditz, "US Announces Second Fake End to Iraq War,"
antiwar.com, August 18, 2010]
VIDEO: "Obama Admin Claims End to Combat Operations in Iraq, But Iraqis See
Same War Under a Different Name," democracynow.org, August 20, 2010
VIDEO: "Iraq War Vet Camilo Mejia: US Withdrawal Plan Marks 'Privatization of
Military Occupation'," democracynow.org, August 20, 2010
Jeremy R. Hammond, "Deconstructing the
Official Narrative on the U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq,"
foreignpolicyjournal.com, August 20, 2010
Robert Fisk, "US troops say goodbye to Iraq:
Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has certainly left its
mark," Independent, August 20, 2010
VIDEO: "'Iraq Is a Shattered Country' - Nir
Rosen on Obama Declaring an End to US Combat Mission in Iraq,"
democracynow.org, September 1, 2010
VIDEO: "Withdrawal or Enduring
Presence? US Military Continues to Invest Hundreds of Millions in Iraq
Bases," democracynow.org, September 1, 2010
VIDEO: "Invisible War: How Thirteen Years
of US-Imposed Economic Sanctions Devastated Iraq Before the 2003
Invasion," democracynow.org, September 1, 2010
Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar Issa, "Gates: Iraq outcome 'will always be clouded by how it
began'," McClatchy Newspapers, September 1, 2010
[Iraq has gone 222 days since March 7 elections gave the secular Iraqiya
slate a two-seat win in parliamentary elections, a world record in being
unable to form a government after a vote.--"U.S. won't support a
Maliki-Sadr alliance," UPI, October 15, 2010]
[His is the ultimate political best-seller we'll never be able to read -
telling for instance how the US, the United Kingdom and the Saudis shelled
out over $60 billion for Iraq to go to war with Iran during the 1980s; what
was really discussed between Saddam, himself and former US defense secretary
Donald Rumsfeld in Baghdad when they met in 1983; how every Western
politician paid homage at the court of Saddam - the man who would get rid of
those demented ayatollahs; how Saddam beat the late ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini's human waves of martyrs by spraying them with Western-supplied
chemical weapons; and how those fabled "weapons of mass destruction" were
nowhere to be seen since 1995 at least - thus rendering George W Bush's and
Tony Blair's casus belli null and void.--Pepe Escobar, "Aziz's
story will remain untold," atimes.com, October 28, 2010]
Shashank Bengali, "Saddam-era U.N. sanctions lifted on Iraq after 20
years," McClatchy Newspapers, December 15, 2010