BEFORE the US attacked Iraq
Facts EVERY war supporter should have known
06/03/05 - -
-Who's killed the most Kurds?
The Kurds.
More Kurds have killed Kurds than the number killed by Turkey, Iran, and Hussein combined, during their 3 decades long "fratricide" war.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan3/2-6-04-opinion-zorab-...
-Who made a surprise appearance in 1991 on Baghdad TV to hug and kiss Saddam Hussein?
Kurdish warlord and current Iraqi president Talabani. And this was long after the "gassed his own people", after Gulf War 1, after the uprisings in Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_corr...
-Who danced & cheered in celebrations after Talabani hugged & kissed Saddam Hussein in 1991?
The Kurds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_corr...
-Who asked Hussein for help in 1996 to fight against Kurdish warlord Talabani and his Kurds?
Kurd and warlord Barzani.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2005/4/indepen...
-During the Iran-Iraq war, Halabjah was attacked with blood agent gas; how many Kurd deaths were originally reported until the number was increased several years later right before Desert Storm?
"several hundred".
http://againstbombing.org/chemical.htm
http://www.mediamonitors.net/robinmiller10.html ***excellent***
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0788162098/mmn-2...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/his/Khaledtex...
The CIA's website still lists "hundreds", not thousands or tens of thousands, and as being "caught in cross-fire between Iranians and Iraqi forces". We call that "collateral damage".
http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.h...
-When doctors sent by France, the United Nations and the Red Cross examined gassed Kurdish refugees in Turkey, what symptoms did the doctors say were exhibited?
Non-lethal tear gas.
http://www.polyconomics.com/showarticle.asp?articleid=1...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/his/Khaledtex...
-What city presented Hussein with the Key to the City in 1979?
Detroit, USA.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/26/iraq/main5462...
-What nation won Humanitarian Awards for its literacy programs?
Iraq. Under Hussein's government.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/09/30/sproject.irq.regi... /
-What nation had the highest number of citizens with PhDs on the world? And had more PhDs than America?
Iraq. Under Hussein's government.
http://www.bronxmall.com/norwoodnews/past/013003/opinio...
-Which nation was using much its burgeoning oil revenue to improve the daily lives of its people?
Iraq. Under Hussein's government.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/09/30/sproject.irq.regi... /
-What did the rebels do in their 1991 uprising?
Slaughtered thousands of Iraqis.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1992/WR92/MEW1-02.htm
-What did the Hussein government do about the rebel uprising?
Slaughtered thousands of Iraqis.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1992/WR92/MEW1-02.htm
-Where did the figure of "300,000" originate as the number of Iraqis "killed by Hussein"?
The figure (originally 200,000-250,000 over 30 years) was an estimate of an estimate of a "general international consensus" the HRW used as an estimate for the number of Iraqis unaccounted for, ‘many of whom are believed to have been killed’— and not for the number buried in mass graves.
Hania Mufti, one of the researchers that produced that estimate, said: 'Our estimates were based on estimates. The eventual figure was based in part on circumstantial information gathered over the years.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,12...
HRW itself refuses to use its figure of 290,000 as an estimate for the number of bodies in mass graves.
To date, aproximately 5000 remains have been found, dating from the 1991 rebel uprisings.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,12...
-Who "mass-graved" thousands of Iraqis by bulldozing over them?
US forces in 1991.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=45
-What nation defended this atrocity by saying a gap in international law allowed for burying Iraqis alive?
The USA.
http://jeff.paterson.net/aw/aw4_buried_alive.htm
-Saddam Hussein and his "woodchipper people-shredder"?
Long-time Iraq war supporter Ann Clwyd came up with this sequel to the "incubator babies" lie. Clwyd said; "We heard it from a victim; we heard it and we believed it."
One unidentified, unverified source; one person. That's her entire "proof".
Clwyd insists that corroboration of the shredder story came when she was shown a dossier by a reporter from Fox TV. On June 18, Clwyd wrote a second article for the Times, citing a "record book" from Abu Ghraib, which described one of the methods of execution as "mincing".
-Can she say who compiled this book?
"No, I can't."
-Where is it now?
"I don't know."
-What was the name of the Fox reporter who showed it to her?
"I have no idea."
-Did Clwyd read the entire thing?
"No, it was in Arabic! I only saw it briefly."
Curiously, there is no mention of the book or of "mincing" as a method of execution on the Fox News website, nor does its foreign editor recall it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1155399...
-What actual claims of human rights violations were made against Hussein's government in 2002?
-death penalty
-long (2 years) detentions without trials
-"some apparently tortured first"
-arbitrary arrests
-forced expulsion of Kurds from Kirkuk
http://hrw.org/wr2k2/mena4.html
-Who said attacking Iraq cannot be justified as a "humanitarian intervention"?
Human Rights Watch
http://hrw.org/wr2k4/3.htm
Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140092002?op...
-What kind of torture did Hussein's son Odai [allegedly] perpetrate on Iraq's soccer team that war supporters often point to as justification for attacking Iraq?
Torture such as electric cables being attached to their bodies. (Oops, sorry, that's just frat-house party games.)
A missed penalty or other poor play entailed a ritual head shaving at the Stadium of the People, or being spat on by Uday's bodyguards.
Some players endured long periods in a military prison, beaten on their backs with electric cables until blood flowed.
Other punishments included "matches" kicking concrete balls around the prison yard in 130-degree heat, and 12-hour sessions of push-ups, sprints and other fitness drills, wearing heavy military fatigues and boots.
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:puQH7yiyeg8J:www.i...
Maad Ibrahim Hameed, the assistant coach of the national team, said Odai had offered money as a bonus for winning and threatened prison for losing. "But it was only talk," he said. "They weren't tortured. Some were sentenced to jail if they didn't behave responsibly. But they all came back to play."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/0...
-How do the Iraq soccer team members feel now about bush's invasion?
Iraqi Olympic Soccer Teams Gives Bush the Boot
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0820-11.htm
"Bleeding-heart liberals" would have a hard time making a case for invading a nation and "shock & awe" bombing the crap out of them, let alone "tough" republicans.
Maybe that's why the vast majority of Americans DID say there's no "humanitarian" justification for attacking Iraq;
--Only 27 percent of respondents said they think that countries have the right, without UN approval, to overthrow another government that is committing "substantial violations of its citizens' human rights," although another 41 percent said that intervention could be justified if the violations were "large-scale, extreme and equivalent to genocide."
--In the case of Iraq, however, only 32 percent of respondents believed both that human rights abuses equivalent to genocide justified intervention and that such extreme violations were occurring under Hussein's rule. Asked, "Do you think that there are other governments existing today that have human rights records as bad as that of Iraq under Saddam Hussein?" an overwhelming 88 percent said there are.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1114-06.htm
The "WMD" and "Iraq in bed with al Qaeda" lies and his "Iraq did 911" insinuations, and about to hit the fan on his lies proven by the Downing Street official minutes, the "Murdering Butcher of Baghdad" bullshit is bound to appear all over the "librul" media.
And like the "WMD, "ties to al Qaeda" and "ties to 911", it is bullshit.
This item was researched and prepared by LynnTheDem
First posted at Democratic Underground