Freedom’s just another word for Bloody Civil War
Posted by Moira Whelan
I wish it weren't the case, but if I were in Iraq right now, I’d probably be saying “Incoming!” or hoping I wouldn’t get cholera and that my family would survive the night. Sadly I don’t think “Freedom” would be the first thing that springs to mind.
No traces in this video of Freedom and Hope “on the march, ” but the hollow hubris sure does resonate around the world.
What Bush means by freedom is not personal freedom for the Iraqi people, but freedom for contracters like Blackwater and Haliburton to steal from the American government.
Posted by: Peace | November 09, 2007 at 05:41 PM
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
BAGHDAD, Nov. 8 — Nearly 500 Iraqi detainees were released at a ceremony at a sprawling United States detention center in western Baghdad early Thursday, where they were urged by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to “start a new life, a different life from months ago.”
The number of Iraqi detainees held by the American-led military forces has jumped to 25,800, from 16,000 in February, said Lt. Cmdr. K.C. Marshall, a detention operations officer.
At Camp Victory on Thursday, several former detainees said that while they relished their release, they resented having been held at all. “I was detained in March 2007 for no reason,” said Tariq Jabbar, 25, a taxi driver from Zafaraniya, a neighborhood in southeast Baghdad. Mr. Jabbar said he had been accused of attacking coalition forces with guns and improvised bombs, but insisted on his innocence, saying no weapons or the like had been found in his home. He said he had been treated well but had not been allowed to contact his wife or four children.
About 6,300 detainees have been released so far this year, and the coalition forces say they have been releasing an average of 50 a day. [At this rate the existing prisoners would be released in 516 days. But wait--] . . . there is also pressure to free up space in the overcrowded prisons.
Commander Marshall said each of the released detainees had been screened by a review board and had to pledge to an Iraqi judge to uphold peace and behave well.