Iraq
nation state
| Iraq link Sourcewatch Wikiquote | |
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| Capital city | Baghdad |
| Location | Middle East |
| Leader | President of Iraq |
| Type | nation state |
| Iraq possesses the 5th largest oil reserves of any nation state. | |
Iraq is an oil rich nation state in the Middle East, formerly ruled by Saddam Hussein. It has been twice attacked by US led coalitions after US public opinion was influenced by deceitful war propaganda (such as, for example, Nurse Nayirah).
From about 1968 to 1991, Iraq enjoyed considerable economic progress with electricity and water available to the entire country. Since 1982 the government built 18 new hospitals some of which were renowned in the Middle East. Health care was virtually free and education was universal and free through college. Food was both inexpensive and abundant. People without land were offered low-interest loans on the condition that the land became productive within five years. Malnutrition was non-existent. A strong infrastructure of highways, dams, hydroelectric power, flood control, irrigation systems, and an efficient telephone system contributed to the growing strength of the economy.[1][2]
Fossil fuel reserves
Iraq has the 5th largest oil reserves and the 7th largest gas reserves of any nation state, about 3% of total global gas reserves.[3]
Iraq was on a list of seven countries which retired 4-star general Wesley Clark (former supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe 1997-2001) stated the US military had plans to invade:
In 2001, in the Pentagon, a general told me : ‘I just received a classified memo from the Secretary of Defense: we will take seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finally, Iran.’[4]
Invasion by USA
- Full article: Iraq War
- Full article: Iraq War
The US invaded Iraq in 2003, amid a cooked up casus belli about Saddam Hussein's effort to acquire "WMD". World opinion turned against the United States after that, distinctively more in Muslim countries.[5] As of January 2016, even the highly conservative Iraq Body Count website suggested that the war had caused 242,000 deaths.[6] Many estimates put the resulting death toll as much higher.[7]
Continued destruction
A UN report released in January 2016 stated that over 3,000,000 people had been internally displaced in Iraq since January 2014, including over a million school age children.[8]
Dismemberment
Nafeez Ahmed headlined an article in March 2017 that "a network tied to Cambridge Analytica, Islamist insurgents, ExxonMobil and Koch convinced Trump to let go of Iraqi unity."[9]
War Crimes
- Fallujah - indiscriminate attack on a densly populated city
- 2015 Hawija bombing
- Collateral Murder
- Abu Ghraib - torture and murder as policy
- Depleted Uranium use
- ...
References
- ↑ Lying for Empire: How to Commit War Crimes With a Straight Face p198
- ↑ https://thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/BushI_Iraq_LFE.html saved at Archive.org saved at Archive.is
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_proven_reserves
- ↑ Interview radio Democracy Now, 2007-03-02
- ↑ https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2004/03/16/survey-report/
- ↑ https://www.iraqbodycount.org/
- ↑ http://unwelcomeguests.net/336
- ↑ http://www.globalresearch.ca/staggering-civilian-death-toll-in-iraq-un-report/5502314
- ↑ https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-inside-the-trump-lobby-that-wants-to-break-up-iraq-3ecf122f0ead?source=user_profile---------1-----------