Iraqi's Outraged Over Latest US Murder's

Family carry the coffin of a woman killed last Sunday during a US raid in the southern town of Kut on 26 April 2009. While the woman was killed four days ago, she was not allowed to buried by her family until today; which is a crime within itself according to Sharia law or Islamic law.

This woman along with a policeman were shot dead during a (late night) US raid on a house in Kut, according to an Iraqi security official and a local medic. The Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US forces arrested five people illegally without validation in the raid, including a police captain and a tribal leader, all from the same family.

Iraqi's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki heatedly denounced the raid, which left at least two people dead, as a "crime" that violated the security pact with Washington and demanded that American commanders hand over those responsible for immediate trial.

This is just the latest reported incident of the ongoing oppression, genocidal occupation by the US towards the people of Iraq.

To furthermore, notwithstanding; the US speaks of peace in the Middle East when they where the originators of all the unrestful aggressions and there was not any problems in the Middle East until they imposed the initial attack over hundred years ago; to continue to do so with deceptive tricks, lies and a trail of martyrs that has become endless from US bloodied hands.

For their to be actually peace in any facet of the Middle East, would be due to all aggression by the US to be removed from every rock or grain of sand throughout this part of the world. - HRM Deborah

US Instigated Iraqi Twin Suicide Bombing's Estimated at 58 Murdered

A sheikh prays over the body of a small child killed in a twin US instigated suicide bombing a day before in Baghdad, during its funeral in the southern holy Shia Muslim city of Najaf, some 160 kms south of the capital; on 25 April 2009.

Two US military female suicide bombers struck a major Shia shrine in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 58 people (More than 150 Iraqi's have died in the past week by hands of the US) amid a brutal spike of US attacks nine weeks before US troops are allegedly to withdraw from Iraqi cities.

This come’s also during a time, when the majority of the Iraqi people wish all foreign military, especially the US to remove immediately all troops from their country and eliminate the extreme genocide occupation upon the Iraqi people.

Clinton: Hillary as Bloodstained as Bill

Clinton to Iraqis: US not going to abandon you

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses representatives of Iraqi civil society and members of the press at a meeting at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, 25 April 2009.

"Let me assure you and repeat what President (Barack) Obama said, we are committed to Iraq, we want to see a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq," she told a nervous but receptive crowd at a town hall meeting at the U.S. Embassy in the capital.

"We are very committed, but the nature of our commitment may look somewhat different because we are going to be withdrawing our combat troops over the next couple of years," Clinton said.

In the White House Shadows of Middle Eastern History

As to the US criminal tactics in Iraq, is the morose repeat of the genocidal tactics that is far to common with the US foreign policy in regards the Middle East for the last hundred and nine years; an attack upon Middle Eastern or Muslim countries perpetrated by lies, which the first influx of the US into the Middle East long ago began with a lie, with the alleged safeguarding of an American that was not an American, but a hoax for oil greed with the first attack upon a honorable descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The Clinton White House

Chelsea, Hillary and Bill Clinton strolling across the White House lawn in the mid-1990's.

When former US President Bill Clinton was in office, he committed numerous murder’s, attempted murder’s to assassinations of heads of state, which included Jewish Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and HRM Zaytuna of Israel, in 1995 and it has became that current Clinton in office as US secretary; is following in her husband‘s blood pooled footsteps.

The rest of the days of the Clinton White House shook with criminal accusations, such as the Whitewater Scandal (which included Hillary)with throws of impeachment that did seriously for a time bounce about the air; along with the overwhelming womanizing scandals that went not with one in the forefront, but two, with Bill's reminder of him not having relations with that woman falsifications and how did she get a dirty front to her dress-Monica Lewinsky.

To further womanizing allegations that stemmed back to when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, with questions towards other unsavory behavior.

Clinton's (little to close) Impropriety: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (L) and Iraqi Prime Minister Hoshyar Zebari, address the media at a press conference in Baghdad, on 25 April 2009.

Let's not forget, the Hillary stand by her womanizing man routine of the time; which has been found to be a woman filled with alcoholism and as a reminder of her on the previous presidential campaign trail of her Saturday drinking bout's which came into the forefront allegedly to try an gain the alcoholic votes, with the accusations of her being a regular American and yet she walks wilth a mud staind hem which is not unfamilar to he husband Bill's problem of an unzipped throws of life.

Hillary Drunk at the 2007 New Hampshire Debate?


Clinton from Campaign Trail to the Obama White House


Clinton takes the oath-of-office as US Secretary of State, administered by Associate Judge Kathryn Oberly as Bill Clinton holds a Christian Bible.

On 21 January 2009 Hillary Clinton became US Secretary of State; amidst questions on some of Bill’s ongoing activities and fundraising endeavors. While Clinton gave the idea’s of reluctance to leave the Senate, it should not be forgotten; if she had become president she would have done so anyway.

With her loosing during the Presidential campaign, then throwing her position towards then Presidential nominee Barack Obama; left many skeptical to her backdoor reasoning or tactics, then with Obama’s wanting her to be US Secretary of State, left more to the imbalance especially with her immoral history thoughout her and her husband Bill's career. To even put the US President Barack Obama’s White House, in extreme scrutiny for choosing such a tainted woman to represent that country.

Japan’s Sanctions and US War of Occupation

For the Honorable People of Nippon

Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989)

In Japanese mythology, the origins of the imperial family are believed to be a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasau.

In 1946, as a term for peace with the US, Emperor Hirohito had to declare that he was not a god or relinquish according to Shinto teachings of being a living spirit (Kami).

According to Shinto belief’s, the emperor is considered a living god, was seen as the symbolic and literal father of the family of the Japanese people.

US Occupation in Government

From 1945 until 1952 under US President Harry S. Truman, Japan was occupied by the US formally; which they where further forced to change the Japanese government system, with a democratic constitution to gain some resemblance of Independence; also creating limited power to any emperor.

6 August 1945, Hiroshima

Hiroshima was hit by the US with the dropping of an atomic bomb where most of the city was destroyed and while the estimated death toll varies it is estimated at 140,000 civilian deaths.

Then on 9 August, a second US atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which with this bombing the death toll was estimated at 80,000 civilian deaths.

The health effects of these two atomic blast’s are still causing numerous health conditions within the generations and with these two atomic blast’s where the first recorded use of any type atomic bomb.

War and US Sanctions

What brought Japan into war to begin with was a severity of sanctions imposed on them by the US government under then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Which in 1940, US banned the sale of fuel (oil), iron and steel from entering Japan; extending to a total ban by 1941.

These imposed sanctions on Japan especially towards oil supply caused Japan an overwhelming concern over the very survival of their country. Within this sever situation, General Tojo Hideki made a decision to go to war; on 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked, sinking the American fleet there.

From here Japan spread out to what became known as the entering of World War 2.

US Continued Imposed Occupation and Cultural Changes

As to the first US or Western changes to the Japanese culture occurred during the formal occupation between 1945 until 1952, with the influx of overbearing, morally uncouth US GI’s and this occupation system is still informally occurring even today; with continued oppressive injection by the US government.

It should be further expressed, while the English word of occupation for this country is Japan; the actual name of this country is called, Nippon in the language of the country.

_________
The Atomic Bomb Factor

The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945 rose some 18 kilometers (11 miles) above the bomb's hypocenter.

When the US was in collaboration and financing Nazi German, they also where receiving certain technology; especially by scientist’s in creation of Atomic factors. With one Nazi German scientist in particular, who was borrowed from Germany into the US, the creation of the atomic bomb came about.

The first test explosion and just prior to the attack on Japan occurred at a location 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo; on 16 July 1945 and the test was named "Trinity."

The Japanese Protest Iraq’s Sixth Anniversary with Respect to Palestine

Japanese activists hold the State of Palestine flag in respect of the genuine inhabitants of Palestine, with further appreciation of the people of Palestine during a peace protest march in Tokyo, Japan (Nippon) on 20 March 2009; to mark the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.

Iraq on 20 March marks the sixth anniversary of the US-led imposed war that toppled US executed Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein; but triggered an Iraqi resistance to occupation, with the US murderous Islamophobic rage with such atrocious atrocities as US genocide, occupation and oppression, to virtual type of slavery towards the Iraqi people and further violence of the same nature in Afghanistan.

The Justified Shoe Throwing Heard Around the World

Iraq shoe thrower jailed for three years

Muntazer al-Zeidi, a 30-year-old Al-Baghdadiya television reporter who threw his shoes at former US president George W. Bush, making him a hero across the Arab world, was on Thursday sentenced unjustly to three years in jail; after the US government forced the Iraqi judicial system to find al-Zeidi guilty of assault.

Al-Zeidi, threw the shoes in anguish of not just Bush; but the devastation, illegal occupation and genocide that has been continuously being done to his country, by the US.

Which it has been almost six years, since the US illegally invaded Iraq; while the invasion had nothing to do with what occurred as the result of 9/11, but to the contrary; what Bush did was tell a very huge lie to not just the American populace to rally around him; but towards the global community and what actually was the true reason was nothing more then Islamophobia.

With the forgoing same conclusion, occurring also in Afghanistan and not what keeps being the broadcasted bombardment across the whole US media propaganda dung heap.

Since US President Barack Obama has taken office, regardless of what is being awkwardly published in the media propaganda; he too continues this madness not just towards these two countries; but the whole of the Islamic and Jewish world, at the cost of not just devastating the US economy into implosion, but further attempts to devastate towards the global economy as well; with even his continued obstinacy of trying to express to the global community of the stability of the US, as it plunges deeper into a sphere of a fourth world economically.

Afghanistan: A Child’s Terror of US Occupation

A child looks up in what appears to be the front of a Masjid (Mosque) at a member of the U.S. Army 1-6 Field Artillery division on patrol 24 February 2009 in Tupak, Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: The War without Merit

A US Army soldier with the 2nd Squad 1st Platoon 527 Military Company walks past villagers who have turned their backs in defiance on 17 February 2009 in the village of Baba Kala, eastern Afghanistan. As the security situation continues to challenge the unwanted coalition forces in this war torn improvised occupation.
Staff Sgt. Eric Charqois of Simi Valley, California with U.S. Army 1-6 Field Artillery division takes illegally the finger prints of an Afghan teenager while patrolling an area where there has been allegedly reported Taliban presence 18 February 2009 in Gandalabog, Afghanistan.

US President Barack Obama has committed an additional 17,000 troops towards the occupational war in Afghanistan, adding to the 36,000 currently there; on the United States self-imposed aggressive war against the Islamic world.
A man was forcibly removed from his van and is questioned by the U.S. Army in a remote valley while the US military was allegedly searching for the Taliban, 18 February 2009 in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

As to the Taliban being accused of terrorist activities, it is more along the line of the US attempting to destroy the world of Islam; by attacking those known as well-educated Islamic scholars.

The United States Empire on the Global March

The US Empire is equivalent to the conquests and foreign policies of ancient Roman and Babylon Empires; of old.

US: Codepink Demonstrates In Support Of Journalist Who Threw Shoes At Bush

A member of Code Pink dressed as US President George W. Bush gestures as people throw shoes at him during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008; in Washington, DC.

A member of Code Pink dressed as US President George W. Bush lays on the ground during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008; in Washington, DC.

The activist group Code Pink staged the protest to show their support for the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President Bush during a press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister.

Members of Code Pink, (L-R) Joan Stallard, Medea Benjamin, Jim Goodnow, Gael Murphy and Polly Miller, put their feet on the head of a fellow member dressed as US President George W. Bush during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008 in Washington, DC.

As to the journalist original shoes, US Security agents in Iraq destroyed the shoes thrown at US President George W. Bush by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, on 18 December 2008; it was reported, as momentous protests around the globe continue in favor of the Iraqi journalist and for his freedom.

Protesters gather outside the US embassy in central London holding shoes on the end of pieces of wood which has became symbolic towards Bushgate, on 19 December 2008; to ask for the release of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist arrested for throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush.

Nevertheless, the after actions of what the shoe throwing Iraqi journalist did, resounded to what the people around the global actually feels towards US president George W. Bush and his policies towards the world; even within his own country of the US.

The question at hand instead of shoe, is will US George W Bush understand the weight of what harm he has subjected the world too; to create such a situation of increasing animosity towards him?

Further Reading:

Bush Operation Iraq Occupation

Bush Did the Shoe Fit

Bush Did the Shoe Fit

Palestinian journalists demonstrate to express solidarity with Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush, on 18 December 2008; in front of the Church of the Nativity in the town of Bethlehem.

Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq; on 14 December; while yelling in Arabic: 'This is a farewell kiss, you dog; this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.'

Websites keep popping-up in response to the show throwing incident, that they agreed with the Iraq journalist hurling his shoes at Bush for the reason he gave.

Nevertheless, the consensus across the globe is Bush deserved this type of Iraqi intercession.

“A Saudi sheik offered $10-million to purchase Mr. al-Zaidi shoes, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel said. The shoes are being kept as evidence, however.” From http://shoesatbush.net/

As to Bush appearing to laugh the incident off, it is further understood in private; that he is in actuality got quite angry over the shoe’s being thrown and the public response to the incident, it was reported. What is a hope, is did Bush learn something positive from the experience.

As to al-Zaidi being jailed and beaten unmercifully by the American’s for the shoe incident, just shouldn’t have occurred; after all, isn’t the US always speaking of freedom, especially freedom of speech?

Update:

Shoe-hurler sparks chaos in Iraq's parliament
Speaker quits amid debate over whether 'beaten' journalist should be freed

Blackwater guards killed 16 as U.S. touted progress

The following is just some of the possible reason’s why their became a shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist named Muntadar al-Zaidi and other’s across the globe; even American's that would have wished to have been in al-Zaidi’s place, on 14 December 2008 in Baghdad. Iraq has become with the US invasion another place of extreme substandard health conditions and the macabre towards man, by the US.

16 December 2008

by Leila Fadel

BAGHDAD — On Sept. 9, the day before Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Congress that things were getting better, Batoul Mohammed Ali Hussein came to Baghdad for the day.

A clerk in the Iraqi customs office in Diyala province, she was in the capital to drop off and pick up paperwork at the central office near busy al Khilani Square, not far from the fortified Green Zone, where top U.S. and Iraqi officials live and work. U.S. officials often pass through the square in heavily guarded convoys on their way to other parts of Baghdad.

As Hussein walked out of the customs building, an embassy convoy of sport-utility vehicles drove through the intersection. Blackwater security guards, charged with protecting the diplomats, yelled at construction workers at an unfinished building to move back. Instead, the workers threw rocks. The guards, witnesses said, responded with gunfire, spraying the intersection with bullets.

Hussein, who was on the opposite side of the street from the construction site, fell to the ground, shot in the leg. As she struggled to her feet and took a step, eyewitnesses said, a Blackwater security guard trained his weapon on her and shot her multiple times. She died on the spot, and the customs documents she'd held in her arms fluttered down the street.

Before the shooting stopped, four other people were killed in what would be the beginning of eight days of violence that Iraqi officials say bolster their argument that Blackwater should be banned from working in Iraq.

During the ensuing week, as Crocker and Petraeus told Congress that the surge of more U.S. troops to Iraq was beginning to work and President Bush gave a televised address in which he said "ordinary life was beginning to return" to Baghdad, Blackwater security guards shot at least 43 people on crowded Baghdad streets. At least 16 of those people died.

Two Blackwater guards died in one of the incidents, which was triggered when a roadside bomb struck a Blackwater vehicle.

Still, it was an astounding amount of violence attributed to Blackwater. In the same eight-day period, according to statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers, other acts of violence across the embattled capital claimed the lives of 32 people and left 87 injured, not including unidentified bodies found dumped on Baghdad's streets.

The best known of that week's incidents took place the following Sunday, Sept. 16, when Blackwater guards killed 11 and wounded 12 at the busy al Nisour traffic circle in central Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said the guards were unprovoked when they opened fire on a white car carrying three people, including a baby. All died. The security guards then fired at other nearby vehicles, including a minibus loaded with passengers, killing a mother of eight. An Iraqi soldier also died.

In Blackwater's only statement regarding the Sept. 16 incident, Anne Tyrell, the company's spokeswoman, denied that the dead were civilians. "The 'civilians' reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies," she said in an e-mail, "and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire."

A joint commission of five U.S. State Department officials, three U.S. military officials and eight Iraqis has been formed to investigate the incident, though almost two weeks later, the commission has yet to meet. A U.S. Embassy statement on Thursday, the first official written comment from the embassy since the al Nisour shooting, said that the group was "preparing" to meet.

Blackwater and the U.S. Embassy didn't respond to requests for information about the other incidents.

But interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of each incident describe similar circumstances in which Blackwater guards took aggressive action against civilians who seemed to pose no threat.

"They killed her in cold blood," Hussein Jumaa Hassan, 30, a parking lot attendant, said of Hussein.

Hassan pointed to the bullet-pocked concrete column behind him. He'd hidden behind it.

"I was boiling with anger, and I wished that I had a weapon in my hands in those minutes," he said. "They wanted to kill us all."

Anyone who moved was shot until the convoy left the square, witnesses said. Also among the dead was Kadhim Gayes, a city hall guard.

It took two days for Hussein's family to retrieve her body from the morgue. Before they could, her sister signed a sheet acknowledging the contents of her purse, which had been collected by security guards at the Baghdad city hall — a Samsung cell phone, a change purse with six keys and 37,000 Iraqi dinars ($30), gold bracelets, a notebook, pens, and photos of her and her children.

Three days later, Blackwater guards were back in al Khilani Square, Iraqi government officials said. This time, there was no shooting, witnesses said. Instead, the Blackwater guards hurled frozen bottles of water into store windows and windshields, breaking the glass.

Ibrahim Rubaie, the deputy security director at a nearby Baghdad city government office building, said it's common for Blackwater guards to shoot as they drive through the square. He said Blackwater guards also shot and wounded people in the square on June 21, though there are no official reports of such an incident.

On Sept. 13 — the same day Bush gave his "ordinary life" speech — Blackwater guards were escorting State Department officials down Palestine Street near the Shiite enclave of Sadr City when a roadside bomb detonated, ripping through one of the Blackwater vehicles.

The blast killed two Blackwater guards. As other guards went to retrieve the dead, they fired wildly in several directions, witnesses said.

Mohammed Mazin was at home when he heard the bang, which shattered one of his windows.

Then he heard gunfire, and he and his son, Laith, went to the roof to see what was going on.

What they saw were security contractors shooting in different directions as a helicopter hovered overhead. Bullets flew through his home's windows, he said.

No civilians were killed that day, but five were wounded, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.

The following Sunday, Blackwater guards opened fire as the State Department convoy they were escorting crossed in front of stopped traffic at the al Nisour traffic circle.

While U.S. officials have offered no explanation of what occurred that day, witnesses and Iraqi investigators agree that the guards' first target was a white car that either hadn't quite stopped or was trying to nudge its way to the front of traffic.

In the car were a man whose name is uncertain; Mahasin Muhsin, a mother and doctor; and Muhsin's young son. The guards first shot the man, who was driving. As Muhsin screamed, a Blackwater guard shot her. The car exploded, and Muhsin and the child burned, witnesses said.

Afrah Sattar, 27, was on a bus approaching the square when she saw the guards fire on the white car. She and her mother, Ghania Hussein, were headed to the Certificate of Identification Office in Baghdad to pick up proof of Sattar's Iraqi citizenship for an upcoming trip to a religious shrine in Iran.

When she saw the gunmen turn toward the bus, Sattar looked at her mother in fear. "They're going to shoot at us, Mama," she said. Her mother hugged her close. Moments later, a bullet pierced her mother's skull and another struck her shoulder, Sattar recalled.

As her mother's body went limp, blood dripped onto Sattar's head, still cradled in her mother's arms.

"Mother, mother," she called out. No answer. She hugged her mother's body and kissed her lips and began to pray, "We belong to God and we return to God." The bus emptied, and Sattar sat alone at the back, with her mother's bleeding body.

"I'm lost now, I'm lost," she said days later in her simple two-bedroom home. Ten people lived there; now there are nine.

"They are killers," she said of the Blackwater guards. "I swear to God, not one bullet was shot at them. Why did they shoot us? My mother didn't carry a weapon."

Downstairs, her father, Sattar Ghafil Slom al Kaabi, 67, sat beneath a smiling picture of his wife and recalled their 40-year love story and how they raised eight children together. On the way to the holy city of Najaf to bury her, he'd stopped his car, with her coffin strapped to the top. He got out and stood beside the coffin. He wanted to be with her a little longer.

"I loved her more than anything," he said, his voice wavering. "Now that she is dead, I love her more."

Bush Operation Iraq Occupation

Bush: Work in Iraq has been hard; needed for peace

U.S. President George W. Bush walks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani during an arrival ceremony at Salam Palace in Baghdad, on 14 December 2008.

14 December 2008
By JENNIFER LOVEN

BAGHDAD – On a farewell trip to Iraq, President George W. Bush said Sunday the war has been hard, but was necessary to protect the U.S. and give Iraqis hope for a peaceful future.

Bush visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. At the end of nearly two hours of meetings at an ornate, marble-floored palace along the shores of the Tigris River, Bush defended the war, now in its sixth year.

"The work hasn't been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace," the president said. "I'm just so grateful I had the chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends."

But in many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a victory. Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is remarkably unpopular in the United States and across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago.

After an arrival ceremony, Bush began a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2011.

Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington. In a sign of modest security gains in this war zone, Bush received a formal arrival ceremony — a flourish absent in his three earlier trips.

Referring to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, seated beside him, and the country's two vice presidents, Bush said: "I've known these men for a long time and I've come to admire them for their courage and their determination to succeed."

Bush's meetings at the palace were held as the sun set outside and darkness fell over Baghdad. Talabani called Bush "our great friend," who "helped to liberate" Iraq. "Thanks to him and his courageous leadership, we are here," Talabani said in heavily accented English.

Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki planned a ceremonial signing of the security agreement — a "remarkable document," according to Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. He said the pact was unique in the Arab world because it was publicly debated, discussed and adopted by an elected parliament.

Hadley said the trip proved that the U.S.-Iraq relationship was changing "with Iraqis rightfully exercising greater sovereignty" and the U.S. "in an increasingly subordinate role."

The Bush administration and even White House critics credit last year's military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003. Still, it's unclear what will happen when the U.S. troops leave. While violence has slowed in Iraq, attacks continue, especially in the north. At least 55 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk.

For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight — even after weapons of mass destruction, the initial justification for invading Iraq, were not found — as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq.

It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20. Obama won an election largely viewed as a referendum on Bush, who has endured low approval ratings because of the war and more recently, the U.S. recession.

Obama has promised he will bring all U.S. combat troops back home from Iraq a little over a year into his term, as long as commanders agree a withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has said that on his first day as president, he will summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the White House and give them a new mission: responsibly ending the war.

Obama has said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Commanders there want at least 20,000 more forces, but cannot get them unless some leave Iraq.

After a 10 1/2 hour fight, Bush was met at the airport by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander Gen. Raymond Odierno. The president then climbed aboard a helicopter for a five-minute flight to the presidential palace.

The trip was conducted under heavy security and a strict cloak of secrecy. People traveling with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans, and the White House released false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday.

Bush's visit came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates' unannounced stop in Iraq on Saturday, at a sprawling military base in the central part of the country. Gates will be the lone Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet in the Obama administration.

The new U.S.-Iraqi security pact goes into effect next month. It replaces a U.N. mandate that gives the U.S.-led coalition broad powers to conduct military operations and detain people without charge if they were believed to pose a security threat. The bilateral agreement changes some of those terms and calls for all American troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011, in two stages.

The first stage begins next year, when U.S. troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June.

Odierno said Saturday that even after that summer deadline, some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities. They will serve in local security stations as training and mentoring teams, and so will not violate the mandate for American combat forces to leave urban areas, he said.

Iraq's Defense Ministry said Sunday that U.S. commanders would have to get Baghdad's permission for keep the troops there.

Video

Raw Video: Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

Update:

An Iraqi journalist is taken to the ground after throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a joint press conference and signing ceremony with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at Maliki's private office during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, on 14 December 2008.

Angry Iraqi throws shoes at President Bush in Baghdad

In this image from an APTN video, of one of the flying shoes thrown at US President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, 0n 14 December 2008.

Another image from the APTN video, of the Iraqi journalist (center) preparing to throw his size 10 shoe at US President George W Bush; which is actually a very unusual occurrence in Iraq, let alone the Middle East.

Which some people’s opinion globally, this was due to the horrendous conditions of occupation and genocide that has been occurring since the US invasion of Iraq; in 2003.

It is an enormous consensus in Iraq, that the Iraqi people wish the US military out of Iraq forthwith and full freedom for the people of Iraq; without the conditions that has been plaguing them since the US invasion.

Further Reading:

US President Bush Meets with Iraq President Talabani in Iraq

Bush Makes Stop in Afghanistan to Rally Troops

US President George W. Bush arrived in Afghanistan before dawn, five and a half hours after leaving Iraq, the details of the trip shrouded in even greater secrecy than the first leg; to Iraq.

Iraqi Shia Muslim Widows and Orphan Children Receive Eid Zakat (Charity)

Shia Muslim children and women gather at a school in the impoverished Sadr City district of eastern Baghdad, on 6 December 2008.

Some 192 women whose husbands were killed and children who lost both parents in the violence that has racked this city since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, gathered to receive a parcel of clothes and some money donated by Islamic charities for the up and coming Muslim Eid al-Adha.

Obama Inheriting Bush’s Nursery

Shia Prayers for Occupation Freedom

A Shia Muslim lifts his hands up during Friday noon prayers in the southern holy city of Karbala, 120 kms south of Baghdad; on 7 November 2008.

Several prominent Shia Sheikhs in Iraq gave fiery Friday sermons warning against the signing of a new security agreement which would keep US forces in the country for up to another three years.

A Shia Door Knob of Hope

A Shia Muslim pilgrim touches the door Knob as they enter the Imam Musa al-Kadhim Masjid (Mosque) to take part in Jumma (Friday) noon prayers in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, on 31 October 2008; amidst the outlook of hope, for a better Iraq future without US occupation, genocide and sorrow.

This brings to mind, that for years because I couldn’t get my hands on Dua (prayer) beads because of my situation, I use to use my fingers as Muhammad (PBUH) had said. Then many years later, I found some, but they kept breaking and I would repair; until it seemed impossible to do anymore.

Then it seemed I found a simple one that I still have, among others later; then have been given as loving gifts.

But the most important thing I learned about these prayer beads, it wasn’t just the prayer‘s themselves; but it always gave me hope, when I could see the actual prayer beads in my hands, for something better ahead of me and a reminder that Allah (God) really loves me.

What people need to remember, the majority of my life I have been imprisoned with sever isolation too many times, especially when I was growing-up and at time’s, accept for Allah (God); I tended to be feel as far as people where concerned, utterly alone. Which in later life, I learned this was not so, with too much happiness on my part.

One could equate it that at times it was more like solitary confinement in a prison; at least what I have seen in old movies.-HRM Deborah

Attack at Iraqi Kebab Kiosk

A blood stain is seen on the ground as an Iraqi policeman and a youth stand near a damaged Kebab kiosk where an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off last night in Baghdad's Palestine street, on 30 October 2008.

The blast killed five people and wounded another 13.

It is estimated at 29 wounded, 15 dead, which includes one dead child; who was 5 year-old; in several attacks in Iraq yesterday. The US military is said, to be responsible for all these attacks on Iraqi citizens, at a time when Iraq wants to change the pact with US; which deals with everything from US withdrawal from the country to the Iraqi people being allowed to govern their own country.

An Iraqi policeman stands next to the damaged Kebab kiosk where an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off.
A cat lies dead as Iraqi policemen secure the site where an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off last night in Baghdad's Palestine street.

Iraq wants Change in Pact with US

Iraqi refugees hold up their national flag at a demonstration outside the US and Iraqi embassies in Damascus, on 29 October 2008, against the deadly US raid on the village in Syria. Around a hundred displaced Iraqis chanted anti-US slogans as they demonstrated today outside the US and Iraqi embassies, the two embassies being in close proximity to each other, in Damascus protesting a deadly US attack that killed eight civilians in Syria, on 26 October 2008.

29 October 2008

Iraq wants a security agreement with the U.S. to include a clear ban on U.S. troops using Iraqi territory to attack Iraq's neighbors, the government spokesman said Wednesday, three days after a dramatic U.S. raid on Syria.

Also Wednesday, the country's most influential Shia Sheikh expressed concerned that Iraqi sovereignty be protected in the pact. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani wields vast influence among the Shia majority and avast number of Sunni.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the ban was among four proposed amendments to the draft agreement approved by the Cabinet this week and forwarded to the U.S.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said U.S. negotiators in Iraq are closely reviewing the new amendments from the Iraqis to see if they are acceptable to the Bush administration.

Al-Dabbagh said the Iraqis want the right to declare the agreement null and void if the U.S. unilaterally attacks one of Iraq's neighbors.

U.S. troops launched a daring daylight attack Sunday into Syrian territory that caused the deaths of eight civilians, which Syria has demanded an apology.

For nearly two weeks, Iraqi politicians have been considering the draft security agreement, which the majority of the Iraqi people demand that US military leave Iraq by 2009.

The pact is also allegedly to give the Iraqis a greater role in supervising U.S. military operations and allow Iraqi courts to try U.S. soldiers and contractors accused of major crimes off duty and off base; which the Iraqi people should have the right to control crime within there country especially under the conditions of occupation and oppression by foreign invaders.

The agreement must be approved by the end of the year when the current U.N. mandate expires or the U.S. military would have to suspend all operations in Iraq.

Al-Dabbagh said other amendments sought by the Iraqis include a clear definition of "duty" when cases arise involving crimes committed off base. The Iraqis also want to inspect all U.S. military shipments entering or leaving Iraq.

"The Americans must realize that these changes are necessary to enable the government to persuade the people to accept the agreement," al-Dabbagh said.

The Iraqis insist those measures are essential to convince the public that the government is truly sovereign, a theme repeated by al-Sistani.

A statement issued by his office said the Shia Sheikh wants to ensure that "Iraq's sovereignty not be breached" by the accord and that he was monitoring the situation "until the final content of the security agreement becomes clear."

The U.S. military, meanwhile, handed over security responsibilities for the southern province of Wasit to Iraqi authorities; it is being said in the U.S. media.

On Wednesday, attacks in numerous manners are still plaguing the Iraq civilians, by attacks said to still be from the U.S. military. Which it is estimated at 29 wounded, 15 dead, which includes one dead child; 5 year-old.

Endangered Persian Leopard Cub Presented for First Time to Media

A four-week-old Persian leopard cub looks into the camera at the Budapest Zoo, 0n 21 October 2008. The cub and its twin were presented to the media for the first time last Tuesday.

The Persian leopard is said to be the largest of all the subspecies of leopards in the world. It can grow to up to 1.5 to 2.7 feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh as much as 155 lbs.

These particular leopard’s are on the endangered list for several reasons and protected by International law, which they are also one of the animal’s being subjected to extreme suffering at this time from warfare; in there mountain habitat, particularly in Afghanistan with the US occupation and genocide of the human inhabitants of the country.

A Beautiful sleek full grown Persian Leopard, just imagine there grace and nimbleness of foot.

While many people may think a war is just an armed conflict between two groups of people or countries, what most people tend to not take into account is the enormous ramifications that effects every fiber of existence which wars actually cause; this little Persian Leopard cub is just one of them.

Nevertheless, what people also may not take into account, is every living thing on the earth has a purpose or Allah (God) wouldn’t have put them there; as in this particular case of these leopard's, to maintain the balance of the earth.

Bushonomics: Teaching the Iraqi's How to Spend Money

24 October 2008

This one of those note worthy articles that is a bit interesting to the mind, apparently the Iraqi government has a little spending money and who would like to help them learn to spend, spend, spend; none other then the spend capital of the world, the United States.

After all the US has spent so much, there country is in full economic collapse, many of there people are subjected to abject poverty or just plain starving and to make matters worse the homeless population is becoming absolutely staggering between Hurricanes’ and home foreclosures, to let us not forget; the ever increasing high unemployment which continues to grow at leap and bounds.

So back to the beginning, who better to teach any one to spend; the United States.

Everybody need’s another country in full economic panic, let alone Iraq with foreign occupation and continuing genocide?