Ralph Nader, Dahr Jamail and Matthew Hoh: Iraq War—Twenty Years Later + Peace in Ukraine – Say NO to Endless U.S. Wars

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
March 19, 2023

with Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Mar 18, 2023

In a lively and insightful roundtable discussion, Ralph hosts former Marine company commander, Matthew Hoh, who when not deployed also worked in the Pentagon and the State Department, and independent and unembedded Iraq war correspondent, Dahr Jamail. They mark the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and discuss the consequences of that misbegotten and illegal war. Plus, we hear a clip from Ralph’s and Patti Smith’s antiwar concert tour conducted in 2005.

Even in Death There is No Flag Large Enough to Cover the Shame of Killing Innocent People, by Kenn Orphan + Colin Powell’s Own Staff Had Warned Him Against His War Lies, by David Swanson

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
October 18, 2021

Colin Powell just died from Covid-19. So we should expect a tsunami of mourning from politicians, the mainstream media and even some liberals who seem to enjoy sanitizing the murderous lives of the ruling class. Those of us on the left who refuse to play the games of polite society when it comes to war crimes will be chastised. And he will take his place among the “great generals” of the American Empire. All warmongering societies do this, so it should come as no surprise. But no amount of eulogies can erase the truth.

Trump’s Tomahawks, Double Standards – Using Chemical and Radioactive Weapons for Profit? by Felicity Arbuthnot

Image by Michael Fleshman via Flickr

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
May 16, 2017

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.” — Frantz Fanon, 1961 (1925-1961)

Syria, Sarin, and Casus Belli by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
September 30, 2013

Image by Xizi (Cecilia) Hua @ Neon Tommy via Flickr

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that on August 21 the Assad government slaughtered 1,429 people, including 426 children, in a sarin chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. (Doctors Without Borders put the total at about 300.) Secretary Kerry insisted that now the United States had no choice but to launch U.S. bombing attacks against President Bashar al-Assad, devolving into another of America’s “humanitarian wars.”

US, UK Diabolic Lie: Syria Used Chemical Arms by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 27, 2013

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

You have to admit it. The Americans and British do make a formidable double-act – of deception and criminality. Where one party has the firepower, the other has the liar-power.

The diabolic duo is at it again. This time the criminal magic show is to sell the lie to the world that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons of mass destruction. Weeks of political choreography have set up the issue of chemical weapons as a convenient “red line”.

US Launches New Computer Virus “Weapon of Mass Destruction” by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Ireland
May 29, 2012

The US-led economic war on Iran has been dangerously ratcheted up with the launching of a powerful new computer virus targeting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear research facilities and other vital commercial sectors, including the oil and banking industries.

Previously, the Iranian economy and scientific research centres have been hacked with the computer malware or virus known as Stuxnet. That sabotage of Iranian facilities is widely believed to have been the work of American and Israeli military agencies.

Goal is Regime Change – The Pretext of WMD in Syria by Finian Cunningham

Image by Eman Jueid for Aslan Media via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
May 22, 2012

NATO’s alleged “concerns” over Syria and its anticipated military intervention in that country seem to multiply and interchange like an alchemist’s brew. From human rights and democratic reforms, to the latest alleged concern of a takeover in Syria by Al Qaeda militants and the theft of chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq: ‘evidence for criminal case against Blair’ says expert + Iraq War Inquiry

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

www.therealnews.com

A leading QC tells Channel 4 there is enough evidence for the International Criminal Court to mount a case against Tony Blair.

“War” on Iraq in perspective: The developing US imperialism and demonocracy by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.

by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Nov. 16, 2010
previously published http://portland.indymedia.org, Oct. 23, 2006
Written on April 17, 2003

Summary

The military invasion and occupation of Iraq is examined within the context of US imperialism. The dual nature of US politico-economic system is identified as an imperialism-democracy complex, with international imperialism and domestic capitalist democracy being its essential and interacting components. Some general laws of this imperialism-democracy complex are also proposed and it is shown how imperialism leads to the transformation of democracy into demonocracy, at its higher stages of development, like that of the US. The specific facts of the great conspiracy of the invasion, occupation, plunder, and robbery of the fabulous oil and other resources of Iraq, are placed and examined within that context.

Airbrushing Bush, and Why by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
November 14, 2010

Why?  “Well,” as the first political figure discussed in the Commentary, Ronald Reagan, would say, it comes down to three letters.  But I’m afraid that you will have to read down to the end to see what they are.

While President, Ronald Reagan did the following:

• Firmly established racism as the center of the modern Republican electoral strategy, confirming that the Nixon “Southern Strategy” of 1968 would be permanently ensconced there;
• Firmly established anti-choice as the Republican position of choice in the matter of belief as to when life begins;

NATO Chief: Weapons of Mass Destruction threat is real and growing

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
27 March 2010

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-D6107D8E-02CBC541/natolive/opinions_62395.htm

The Chilcot ‘Inquiry’: a theatre of the absurd By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
29 December 2009

Crossposted at Strategic Culture Foundation, 16 December 2009

Why does the extermination of an entire culture cause not a ripple in our public discourse? The answer is obvious: we don’t have any kind of discourse with those who wield power. The Chilcott ‘Inquiry’ demonstrates this down to a tee. It’s brazen in its disregard for the reality of the crimes the British state has committed in Iraq and continues to commit in Afghanistan. And brazen in the way it scoots a lot of very guilty-looking ‘witnesses’ through the process as painlessly as possible. How has this come to pass?

“Visions” by Cindy Sheehan

By Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Oct. 10, 2009

Today, a President of the largest violently military empire in the world, won the Nobel Peace Prize while his nation is mired in wars in three countries where his actions have oftentimes made things worse.

Let’s also make this clear that the Nobel prizes are supposed to be awarded for work done the previous year (2008), so that means Obama was awarded the prize for campaigning for the presidency of the USA, where his “vision” (platform) was consistently pro-more war. The nominations are also due by February 1st. Ten days after the inauguration and about a week after a drone in Pakistan killed over 3 dozen innocent people.

Revolutionary new physics could lead to ultimate weapons of mass destruction, by Roland Michel Tremblay

Note: revised version Oct 1, 2009

By Roland Michel Tremblay
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Marginal
17 September, 2009

As a sci-fi author and science consultant for films and television documentaries, I have made it my mission to seek out every alternate theory out there – no matter how crazy they may seem – to explore any possibility of new physics that might be uncovered and put to use. That is, until I came across something so perfect and convincing that I had to stop in my tracks.

Brian Willson: Resisting Weapons of Empire + Making a Stand Against War

talkingsticktv
August 14, 2009

Talk by Vietnam Veteran, Lawyer and Activist S. Brian Willson given August 9, 2009 at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (http://www.gzcenter.org) and recorded by Todd Boyle.