UN = Corruption? No way!
Iraq’s culture of corruption stems from the actions of the
international community and the controversial UN oil-for-food scheme,
the deputy prime minister Barham Saleh said on Thursday.Speaking
at a new anti-corruption forum in Baghdad, Saleh said that the
programme, run between 1996 and 2003 while Iraq was under UN sanctions,
and what he charged was the body’s wasteful use of money were to blame
for the rampant corruption that bedevils Iraq.“A large responsibility for the outbreak of corruption in Iraq lies on the international community,” said Saleh.
“The
scandals of food-for-oil and the wasting of public riches by the UN…
is evidence of the serious damage that has deepened the problem in the
country.”For seven years before the US-led invasion of Iraq in
2003, the oil-for-food programme allowed Baghdad — which was under a
punishing trade embargo since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 — to sell
oil in return for cash to buy food and medicine.
Meanwhile two weeks ago the ninth of 18 Iraqi provinces was transferred to complete Iraqi control. The tenth appears to be the Ninewa province, which should be turned over by March and then Anbar by May. According to plan the last province will be turned over by August of 2008, which will be Baghdad.
DJ at The Long War Journal also reports that more Kurdish troops are being integrated into the Iraqi army, and the MSM is ignoring it:
The integration of Kurdish Regional Force into the Iraqi Army continues largely under the radar of press reporting. While two IA battalions (3-1-3 and 3-2-3) returned to Ninewa from their Baghdad deployment, negotiations for the transfer of two Peshmerga Divisions to
the IA started. The Peshmerga and Badr Brigades have been authorized to
join Iraqi security forces while Jaish Al-Mahdi has been specifically
banned from joining. Also in the north, the former Strategic
Infrastructure Battalions are planned to finish retraining and
re-equipping by the end of 2008.
Why would they want to report the integration of the various sects inside Iraq? Not like that is news….
The period between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom was NOT a peaceful time, and opponents of the war (often just Bush haters who use the war as a catalyst for venting anti-Bush or anti-Republican sentiments) would love for us all to forget this period of Ignored War
http://www.amazon.com/Ignored-War-Sam-Pender/dp/1589396642/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199560015&sr=1-2
During this time, President Clinton waged a constant period of “low intensity” warfare upon the Iraqi people:
He pushed for UN sanctions that killed millions
He launched (what he described as) major bombing campaigns almost every six months
He threatened to invade 4 times
And he controlled the airspace over Iraq for years.
The President Bushes were involved with this too, but people too often forget the impact of this low intensity warfare, and especially how the Oil for food program made the invasion of Iraq inevitable.
Scott during the time that Clinton was killing “millions” what was the position of the right wing of American politics ?
Of course the big difference between the people who “hate” Clinton and those who “hate” Bush are the numbers involved on each side. Clinton left office with approval ratings in the high 60s (even during the time of impeachment) while Bush has disapproval ratings in the high 60s.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/Topics.aspx#P
John,
Clinton had the media on his side spreading disinformation. Bush has the media against him spreading disinformation and outright lies.
Even when disproven time and again, far too many still trust the lying dinosaur media.
And Conservatives wanted Saddam gone. It was one of the things we desired even though Clinton would take credit because we are Americans first and “blame America” never.
But in both cases, you fail to see the difference it seems.
“Scott during the time that Clinton was killing “millions” what was the position of the right wing of American politics ?
Of course the big difference between the people who “hate” Clinton and those who “hate” Bush are the numbers involved on each side. Clinton left office with approval ratings in the high 60s (even during the time of impeachment) while Bush has disapproval ratings in the high 60s.”
Your approval ratings and link answer your own question: people approved of Clinton’s killing millions. Many even called for stronger action (Democrats and Republicans were united on the issue until May 2002 at the DLC conference).
I believe Democrats would have supported the invasion of Iraq if Al Gore would have ordered it-and make no mistake about it, given the same intelligence reporting (or even less), Al would not have given Saddam the same 6months of diplomatic efforts (9/02-3/03) as President Bush. If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton ordered the invasion I think Democrats would have supported it-whether it was in 1991, 1998, 2000, or 2003.