06 May 07 What Religion Hath Wrought.

Iraq: Kurdish girl stoned to death, mob films it on cameraphones

In a short mobile video clip which appears to have been taken by locals at seen of the murder, the girl is seen being ambushed on her way home by a group of up to 1000 men who were waiting for her to return; the men killed her in the most brutal way possible, by throwing large stones on her head. The following clips show that while she is alive and crying for help she is taunted and kicked in her stomach until someone finishes her off by throwing a large stone on her face.

From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing.

VIDEO LINK

WARNING! Videos contain extreme violence, watch at your own risk.

How can you believe in a god that would allow things like this? Religion is poison and will be our end.

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Tags: Iraq, violence

06 Mar 07 Iraq 101: A Mother Jones Primer

Iraq 101 as compiled by Robert Dreyfus and Dave Gilson.

Mother Jones magazine has put up a crash course in Iraq that quickly and succinctly can bring you up to speed on the history, the cost of war and speculates on the long-term in Iraq. It being Mother Jones it of course takes a far less than favorable overview of Iraq, but in my opinion there isn’t much favorable to look at in Iraq. Finding good things in Iraq right now is like a needle in a needlestack.

The story in Iraq and the people involved has become so confusing and convoluted that people are finding it difficult to keep up, which makes this a welcome piece. Coupled with the BBC’s excellent Who’s who in post-Saddam Iraq piece that they put up a while back, it will help you get your Shiites straightened out from your Sunnis who is killing and who and why. Though the why and who could still be a subject of debate.

Worth a once over if your head is spinning about the situation in Iraq and want to level your knowledge out. Good job MJ (and BBC).

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Tags: Iraq, magazines

27 Feb 07 Breaking News! Assassination Attempt on Dick Cheney Kills 12 23.

Cheney Targeted in Assassination Attempt

A suicide bomber struck at the main entrance to Bagram air base in Afghanistan today, as Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting.

Immediately after the attack, a red alert traveled throughout the base — a red alert that we heard saying that the base was under direct attack.

At least nine people were killed, officials tell ABC News. Associated Press reporters at the scene said that they had seen the bodies of at least 12 people, and that they had been carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from near the base into a market area where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.

A Taliban spokesperson has claimed responsibility, saying the intended target was in fact Cheney. The bomber never got near Cheney.

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I don’t really know how I feel about this, but you know this is going to play up well with the “call for surge” crowd. I don’t like Dick Cheney at all, but I’m glad he wasn’t killed. Martyrdom isn’t reserved merely for the insurgents and terrorists, even involuntary martyrdom. This would have (and is) been very bad for the anti-war effort.

Violence only begets more violence. Additionally this proves one more fact, the Taliban has regained strength in Afghanistan further cementing the fact that that is where we should be focused.

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Tags: Dick Cheney, Iraq

07 Feb 07 Watada Court-Martial Ends in Mistrial.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The court-martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada ended in a mistrial Wednesday.

The case’s judge, Lt. Col. John Head, declared the trial over after a day of wrangling over a stipulation of facts that Watada had signed before the trial and that would have been part of the instructions to the jury. The judge decided that Watada never intended when he signed the stipulation to mean that he had a duty to go to Iraq with his unit.

Again the issue was Watada’s views on the Iraq war — opinions that kept him from going with his unit to the conflict and that the judge didn’t want brought up at the court-martial.

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This raises an interesting question. Will this set a precedent for soldiers who object to the war and will we see far more members of the military refusing to deploy to Iraq? Probably not, according to the articles the judge declared the mistrial due to Watada not understaning a statement of fact document he signed. Future objectors would probably be held at a different level of scrutiny.

Basically, bad grammar saved Watada from a jail sentence and dismissal. He may not be in Iraq, but Watada certainly dodged a bullet in this case.

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Tags: court-martial, Iraq, watada