Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Women, kids, old, sick most at risk in Iraq, says Reuters. To which we say: Ho-hum. Old news. We've killed hundreds of thousands of these weaklings already, been killing them for years, with sanctions, bombs, snipers, chaos, deprivation, whatever. Who cares? You know what's really important? If Jim Baker can "seal his legacy in the realm of statesmen" by spraying enough perfume on the shitheap that Junior Bush has made of Iraq so that the high and mighty of the American Establishment can slither out of the mire without smelling too bad.
That's what it's all about, baby, that's the kind of thing that counts. How a lifelong, bloodstained bagman can become a "second Disraeli." How Hillary and Obama can nuance their positions to squeeze maximum political mileage out of the American-made mass slaughter in Iraq. How many he-man poses John McCain can strike on his knees as he grovels to the slavering extremists he thinks will make him president.
That's where the focus of our political discourse will be from here on
out. (With frequent side dishes of stern condemnation of the worthless
Iraqis for "failing" us, of course.) This time next year – when U.S.
forces have either high-tailed it "over the horizon" into Kuwait or
else are hunkered down in the (supposedly) permanent bases from which
the Bush-Cheney faction have always intended to plunder the spoils of
the hydra-headed war they've engendered – the chattering classes that
control the public debate will still be chewing the clot-smeared rags
of the Beltway power game.
Long after the casualties of the Establishment-backed "war of choice"
have passed the one million mark, we'll still see cozy pictures of
George W. Bush pardoning turkeys. We'll still hear H. Clinton and John
Edwards and other "opposition" leaders who authorized the war of
aggression waxing eloquent on "stability and peace" and "a more
responsible approach to American power" and "let no one doubt our
bipartisan resolve" to slap Iran or goose Korea or poke Waziristan or
do "whatever it takes" to "preserve and defend our way of life and
advance the cause of freedom in the world." The women and children and
old and sick of Iraq – a once-modern land reduced to a state of
savagery by the reckless greed and inbred stupidity of the American
elite – will scarcely feature as background noise to the bright chatter
of the chatterers as they natter away in comfort and safety.
While the weakest sicken, dwindle and die in burned-out towns and
refugee camps, learned symposia will be convening in pricey hotels and
greenswarded universities to ponder "the lessons of Iraq" and determine
how to "do it better next time." Indeed, the New York Times – that
indispensable dispenser of conventional wisdom, the great cow whose
dripping cud is gobbled by the whole media herd – has already begun the
process. Its Sunday editorial adjures future leaders to imbibe bitter
wisdom from the "misconceived notions" that bedeviled the Iraqi
adventure, and be sure to have plenty more "stabilization" jazzmo on
hand the next time U.S. foreign policy requires "re-establishing order
in a defeated, decapitated society." Because God knows, we're always
going to be defeating and decapitating societies somewhere, right?
The Times editorial makes crystal clear what the American Establishment
has really learned from "the lessons of Iraq": absolutely nothing.
From the Reuters story:
Single women, children and the old and sick in Iraq are most at risk of
being left hungry and homeless among people uprooted by the sectarian
violence, an international aid group warned on Tuesday. In a report,
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that children
were especially vulnerable to malnutrition and spread of disease.
In the volatile province of Salahaddin, whose capital is former
President Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, most displaced female
heads of households, single pregnant women, the elderly and the sick
"struggle for survival without proper access to shelter, food, water
and medical assistance", it said. "Traditional coping mechanisms are
not only being stretched to the limit but are starting to break down,"
said Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's chief of mission for Iraq.
Even in the "comparatively stable" Qadissiya province, some 200 kms
south of Baghdad, some 11 percent of the displaced are widows left
alone to fend for themselves and their children, according to the
report by the Geneva-based agency.
According to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), some 50,000 Iraqis are
fleeing their homes each month because of the violence adding to the
more than 1.5 million already homeless within Iraq.
Writings 
ngs already, been killing them for years, with sanctions, bombs, snipers, chaos, deprivation, whatever. Who cares? You know what's really important? If Jim Baker can "
Subscribe to this comment's feed