The Axis of Evil Hypocrisy

'Oh my God I have no friends. I'm like America the man'

American Dad

America, and other Western countries, within the last decade alone, have militarily intervened or bombed the shit out of or let drones attack the following countries; Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and more by proxy. The famous justification for devastating Iraq was that 'God told me (George Bush) to do it'. The next stop on the sold out war tour of Muslim countries is Iran. I really don't know what I will do if this happens. How many more wars can we tolerate? How many more millions can suffer for the agendas of a few?

In a society where everything must be portrayed as a fantastical fairytale or it is simply irrelevant, the Americans are the good guys no matter how violent they are and Iran are the villains or 'not rational actors'. Newt Gingrich even said if it takes a pre-emptive strike to prevent another holocaust then so be it. Who exactly is threatening another holocaust????

Ahmedinibob has never threatened a holocaust and contrary to popular media mantra has also not denied the holocaust. If the mass media bothered to translate and communicate effectively it would have transpired that what he said was that the West rams 'free speech' down everyone's throat, using it as a tool to demean other countries yet is is illegal to deny the holocaust in certain countries and at the very least, any discussion that the holocaust didn't happen and/or is exaggerated is somehow off limits. The West committing hypocrisy? Never! Iran has merely committed the crime of intervening in the affairs of its neighbours, and the US, although they like capitalism, they do not like competition.


When someone says the word 'terrorist' what comes into your mind? Is it a Middle Eastern man with a beard? Because the biggest terrorists I see are white men in suits, talking of war as if they are talking about taking a walk in the park.  Prior to invading Iraq, the US were desperately trying to get as many countries on side as possible, lest we forget there were many who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia; Britain, Australia, Spain to name a few. One of the few European countries that refused to corroborate was famously France. Why? Not because France is 'Switzerland' but because Jacques Chirac had been a soldier, he had actually experienced what it was really like to step over dead and injured bodies in a war zone. One would think that it is probably easier to sign papers to send others to their death than going on the front line yourself.

Is it purely coincidental that the US have pulled out of Iraq and trying to get out of Afghanistan? Are they gearing up for a war on one axis of evil?

Just like the Hollywood movies we are bombarded with, these threats and ridiculous reasoning for war are myths based on the fantasy in someone's head. Just like the picture that is globally depicted as Jesus, which was created by an Italian painter centuries after Jesus' death, looking suspiciously like an Italian. Pure fantasy. I understand that Thatcher and Reagan implemented capitalism in order for the West to thrive but now capitalism controls the politicians. I knew AIPAC was rich and powerful but I didn't know they had enough money to buy the souls of the ones that lead us.

Iraq’s Youngest Photographer

(via Reuters)

Qamar Hashim is an 8-year-old Iraqi photographer. He tours famous streets to picture Baghdadis with his single camera and is the youngest Iraqi photographer to win several local awards, according to the Iraqi Society Photographic (ISP).

Below, Qamar responds to a series of questions.

• When did you take your first photograph and what did it show?

I do not remember exactly the first picture but I had been mimicking my father since I was 4 or 5 years-old and started to take pictures of the Tigris river, the gulls, birds, old houses and heritage places.

• Why do you think photography is important?

Photography is very important. It documents life and pauses time. We can show the city, life and the people.

• What do you want to show people about Iraq?

I want to say through my pictures that Iraq is precious and Iraqis are very kind. Iraq is peaceful and has a great history.

• How do you feel about the U.S. troops leaving Iraq?

I am afraid of the U.S. soldiers, they destroyed the house my family rented in 2003, when I was a fetus. Thank God my family survived and I am happy now for their departure. I am free and not afraid of their tanks.

• What do you want to be when you finish school?

I like to act and I would like to be a child-activist.

• Which is your favorite photo you have taken and why?

My favorite picture is of a man sleeping who sells books at al-Mutanabi street. Also a picture of a bee on a rose, I ran a lot to follow the bee until I got this picture.

• Are there any photographers you look up to?

There a lot of good photographers and I learned from them (Adel Qassim, Fouad Shakir, Kareem al-Ba’aj, and Hameed Majeed).

• Are there any photos you wish to take but haven’t been able to yet?

The dangerous pictures like fire, blasts, other incidents but I have been sent off the site. They say I am a child. Also I wish to get a picture of the triangle of migrant birds.

• What does the future of Iraq look like?

I see a flourishing future for Iraq especially when my family owns a house. I love Iraq, my home, and it is more precious than anything else.

See also http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/

2011: We Care More About Kim Kardashian than the Arab Revolutions!

2011 is drawing to a close and what sums it up? According to Time Magazine it is the protester. Yet the REAL indication of anything in life apparently is Google. And the most Googled people are... Kim Kardashian and Rebecca Black. One a socialite turned sex tape star turned reality TV star, and the other a 13-year-old girl who put her music video on youtube and ended up receiving death threats due to the questionable quality of the song. I have nothing against these two people, they've done well in spite of their not so great beginnings of stardom. But the fact that in the UK the Arab Spring (or the economic crisis) did not feature is shocking but not surprising. 


The Middle East, 'what does that have to do with us?' A generation will claim. Well apparently a lot actually. We decided to fight alongside our ally, America after 9/11, by going to war in Afghanistan when Bin Laden had clearly already fled the country. We continued fighting there, but in order to justify this we then changed our tune and then were there because we were fighting the Taliban. Colonialisation apparently ended an age ago but there we were, in 2001 imposing regime change. What has the Afghan war achieved? They are the 2nd most corrupt country on earth, just after Somalia, a country which doesn't even have a government in most parts of the country. They remain one of the poorest countries on the face of this earth, despite billions having been invested/disappeared there. Thousands of Afghan civilians dead and livelihoods destroyed, did any of them hijack planes and fly them into anything?


Moron watch --->> To add insult to injury they have idiots like Ross Kemp (in Ross Kemp in Afghanistan) saying to them  that they should be grateful that we went in and rescued them from the villainous Taliban (when we didn't care before 9/11) and imposed democracy.


Then we have Iraq, one of the most disastrous wars of our era, obliterating the most ancient city in the world and creating sectarian strife which reverberated all over the Arab world. Putting aside the folly that was WMDs, Britain had everything to lose and nothing to gain from again, imposing regime change in a country that has nothing to do with us. Our foreign policies have many faults but it is my utmost belief that 7/7 would never have occurred had we not gone into yet another catastrophic war in Muslim lands. When Wikileaks exposed the devastating abuses of war that have happened, on top of what was already public knowledge e.g. Haditha, Abu Ghraib, the rape of a 14 year-old girl and then assassination of her, her 5-year-old sister and parents by US soldiers to name but a few, the things that made the news were the embarrassing diplomatic conversations, not the war crimes. Did any government even suffer for the war crimes committed under their watch? Did any of their children die? No. The only people apparently suffering judicially from exposing the people that are meant to be serving US are Bradley Manning and Julian Assange.


Moron watch --->> To add insult to injury, there was one American politician allowed to guest on Question Time claiming that the Arab revolutionaries would not have been inspired to revolt had Iraq not had the blessing of democracy imposed on them.


Next on George W. Bush's hitlist/axis of evil - Iran; the country ahead of its time in rejecting Western imperialism and corruption of their country. Do people not realise this is why America hates Iran? When I went to open a business account recently, what were the countries we were banned from trading with? North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria. Cuba - a harmless Caribbean country who had a revolution over 50 years ago, ejecting Batista and his American supported corruption. Syria, another non-Western puppet, funny that there are so many countries on the same level or worse as these countries yet conveniently, it is the countries that reject Western political influence that have sanctions imposed on them. A billboard I saw in New York ->>

We were quick to bomb Libya even though 2 minutes ago we were shaking hands with Gaddafi, all because Gaddafi was 'suddenly' going after civilians, so we bombed the civilians ourselves, going above and beyond the UN mandate of a no-fly zone and taking sides thus ensuring the political gains of the 'National Transitional Council'. Is that another regime change I sniff? Still it was the best PR war, we even had the privilege/puke-fest of a hall of Libyans apparently fawning over Cameron and Sarkozy. The media coverage of that war has a nice rosy tint despite there being protests at the new government already.

In my sister's access to business class in college, the class was assigned an essay on the Arab Spring and the role of women, most of her classmates lamented this subject, it dared to stretch their horizons beyond their X-Boxes and X-Factors*. Due to this essay alone, many dropped out and/or failed the course, they did not even WANT to research what was going on in the world, one even remarked that he could not care less if all these Arabs all blew themselves up. 

Even though the average British person may not give a tiny piece of bird shit about Arabs/the Middle East/North Africa/Muslims, you only have to look at our foreign minister's twitter @WilliamJHague to see that our politicians are absolutely obsessed with all things Middle East! But of course it's not just a one-way street, when a corruption investigation was launched into Saudi weapons dealing they blackmailed us not to go any further, lest they pull out of their anti-terrorism initiatives. Remember the reason we went into Afghanistan? Yet all but one of the 9/11 hijackers were actually Saudi.

I say in 2012 our foreign policy should reflect the will of the British people, just as Cameron defied all logic to pander to the anti-EU brigade of Britain, which is the majority of the country to be fair, perhaps we should keep our beak and money out of the Middle East. At least that's one thing I can agree with the right-wingers on.   

*see http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/2011/12/brain-dead-people.html