wikipedia wrote:The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq, as well as part of the Iraqi attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the fall of the town to Iranian army.
Selective reading as usual John.....
wikipedia wrote:The Halabja chemical attack (Kurdish: Kîmyabarana Helebce کیمیابارانی ھەڵەبجە), also known as the Halabja Massacre or Bloody Friday,[1] was a massacre against the Kurdish people that took place on March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War in the Kurdish city of Halabja in Southern Kurdistan. The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq, as well as part of the Iraqi attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the fall of the town to Iranian army.
The attack killed between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injured 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians.[1][2] Thousands more died of complications, diseases, and birth defects in the years after the attack.[3] The incident, which has been officially defined by Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal as a genocidal massacre against the Kurdish people in Iraq,[4] was and still remains the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history.[5]
The Halabja attack has been recognized as a distinct event of the Anfal Genocide conducted against the Kurdish people by the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1, 2010, a decision welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Mitt Romney in 2012 argued for a reset of relations with Russia which is no different to the position of the Trump administration.
A number of European countries, including Italy, Greece and Hungary are supportive of ending economic sanctions on Russia, so I don't have a issue with that as well.
Bottom line, radical Islam is the main strategic threat to the West, not Russia.
Peace always has been and always will be an intermittent flash of light in a dark history of warfare, violence, and destruction
Well that certainly agrees with the trump view, except Flynn did it outside the law. What's the betting, now the appeal court (so called) has upheld the lower court (so called) judgement (so called) on the trump travel ban, there will be an attack somewhere in the US which will implicate Muslim immigrants as the perpetrators? So trump can say "I told you so" and unleash his attack dogs on yet someone else he doesn't like, and impose another travel ban.
To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with. Cass Sunstein
A real tour de force by Nafeez Ahmed on the economic and environmental background that saw Trump's rise to power that acknowledges the role Peak Oil played in this:
Nafeez Ahmed wrote: One side wants to respond to the systemic crisis by accelerating market share of the old paradigm — extending the life of the fossil fuel system and deregulating predatory capital. While most are climate deniers, some even appear to recognize the dangers of environmental crisis and resource scarcity but wish to shore up the US Deep State against the crisis as a nationalist response: Fortress America.
The other side hold a deep faith that technological progress will save the day and permit business-as-usual and endless extraction-premised growth to continue — they believe that digitally-driven technological innovations will allow Wall Street to have its cake and eat it: we can grow the economy, and enrich a tiny number of financiers in the West exponentially, and the dividends will trickle down to the Rest with a bit of technocratic tinkering, selective regulation and generous philanthropy.
Neither side truly understands that they both remain locked into the old, dying industrial neoliberal paradigm. That both the conventional Republican and Democrat strategies have failed. And that if they continue to ignore and overlook the reality of the global systemic crisis and its escalating symptoms, they will both become increasingly disrupted and irrelevant to large sectors of the American population.
In that scenario, politics will become increasingly polarized, not less so. Republicans will seek to shore up their white nationalist support base while Democrats will continue to lose credibility as a genuine critical voice due to their establishment myopia.
In an alternative scenario, agents at different levels in both parties, third parties, and across civil society begin to see our Trumpian moment for what it really is.
They realize that both the conservative and liberal polarities are being disrupted by the global systemic crisis. That the Deep State is being disrupted by the global systemic crisis. And that Trump is merely an effort by a branch of the Deep State to stave off the disruption. And that the failures of the other branch of the Deep State are precisely what enabled and emboldened this eventuality.
Rather than waste breath arguing whether Russia intervened in the Presidential election surely wouldn't it be more productive to realise tha the old order is dying and that it needs replacing? How do we get from here to there?
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
Flynn had a general discussion about economic sanctions - how is that against the law? Its true that Flynn lied to the vice-president, which is a seriously poor judgement, and could lead him to being fired.
Poor judgement and breaking the law are two very different things.
If I loudly fart next to my future mother in law, that is poor judgement, it isn't breaking the law
Peace always has been and always will be an intermittent flash of light in a dark history of warfare, violence, and destruction
Flyn lied to everybody and has been proved to have broken the law and lied about it. Trump is not yet above the law, however much he wants to be. He had to fire Flyn. It is clear trump.p has known about this for months and chosen to keep quiet. Trump is now vulnerable to to accusations. He has been putting his own interests above that of the USA and I for one predicted this many months ago. He will lose popularity very quickly, and I cannot see him lasting four years. He has too many enemies in positions of power, and he can't fire them all. He desperately needs a terrorist attack or war. We are again living in interesting times.
Wrong ralph. No evidence that Flynn broke the law.
Regarding Trump, it maybe self evident in your circles that Trump policies are wrong and he will lose popularity but there is absolutely no evidence that his base have gone against him. I suspect you will be waiting a while before your predictions come true.
Indeed, the majority if Europeans support a ban on further Muslim migration into Europe. This suggests that Trump style populists could do very well in European elections in the coming years.
Peace always has been and always will be an intermittent flash of light in a dark history of warfare, violence, and destruction
Lord Beria3 wrote:Regarding Trump, it maybe self evident in your circles that Trump policies are wrong and he will lose popularity but there is absolutely no evidence that his base have gone against him.
His core supporters will probably be quite pleased with what he has done so far. His difficulty lies in the non-core.
The problem with his policies is that they are not generally good solutions for the identified problems.
Replacing a fence with a wall at great cost will not in itself prevent people going past the boundary. Those who overstay their visas will still do so.
The "muslim ban" is not targeted against terrorists and will undermine the USA's reputation around the world.
Interestingly his ban would have banned two of my daughter's friends from her 12 girl birthday party.
johnhemming2 wrote:It is simply that I think it is best to be as accurate as possible when commenting about factual issues.
So do I....., read back...
You said that Saddam used chemical weapons against Iran....
He didn't, he used them against the Kurds (during a broader war against Iran)......
One reason why Politicians are so unpopular is that they can never say 'Sorry, I made a mistake.......'
If they did, maybe they'd get more respect.....
Blair's legacy may be different if he's done that on WMDs...
johnhemming2 wrote:It is simply that I think it is best to be as accurate as possible when commenting about factual issues.
So do I....., read back...
You said that Saddam used chemical weapons against Iran....
He didn't, he used them against the Kurds (during a broader war against Iran)......
One reason why Politicians are so unpopular is that they can never say 'Sorry, I made a mistake.......'
If they did, maybe they'd get more respect.....
Blair's legacy may be different if he's done that on WMDs...
How do you square your assertions with the wikipedia report on the halabja event.]
James Kunstler wrote: Don’t be fooled by the idiotic exertions of the Red team and the Blue team. They’re just playing a game of “Capture the Flag” on the deck of the Titanic. The ship is the techno-industrial economy. It’s going down because it has taken on too much water (debt), and the bilge pump (the oil industry) is losing its mojo.
Neither faction understands what is happening, though they each have an elaborate delusional narrative to spin in the absence of any credible plan for adapting the life of our nation to the precipitating realities. The Blues and Reds are mirrors of each other’s illusions, and rage follows when illusions die, so watch out. Both factions are ready to blow up the country before they come to terms with what is coming down.
What’s coming down is the fruit of the gross mismanagement of our society since it became clear in the 1970s that we couldn’t keep living the way we do indefinitely — that is, in a 24/7 blue-light-special demolition derby. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with accounting fraud, but in the end it is an affront to reality, and reality has a way of dealing with punks like us. Reality has a magic trick of its own: it can make the mirage of false prosperity evaporate.
johnhemming2 wrote: The problem with his policies is that they are not generally good solutions for the identified problems.
Yep. As highlighted by the Oroville dam crisis - not perceived as a problem area yet there was an evacuation of over 100,000.
Trump's policies are sops to Corporate America and nothing else. The big fly in the ointment here is going to be if Janet Yellen starts raising interest rates significantly. Corporate America has been on a borrowing binge and the US itself is $20 trillion in debt. Interest rate rises will kill off Trump's plans before they get going as they will rapidly become unaffordable
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
