Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq the occupation of Iraq has been called Operation Iraqi Freedom by the Pentagon and the US administration.

In February this year the Obama administration decided to give the war in Iraq a new name: "Operation New Dawn".

Ironically, since it appears to have slipped down the memory hole for so many, "Operation New Dawn" was the name given to the second 2004 attack on and massacre of Iraqis, with the use of white phosphorus on Iraqi civilians by US Troops, in Fallujah.

Phyllis Bennis is a Senior Analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, and is the author of Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis, of Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power, and of Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer.

Bennis has in the past argued for US reparations to be paid to Iraq for the years of US occupation and the destruction and damage inflicted on Iraq and the country's peoples by the 2003 invasion and the occupation.

In an interview recorded Tuesday with Real News Network CEO Paul Jay, Bennis analyses Obama's Oval Office Address on Iraq, August 31, 2010, about how Obama has adopted the Bush narrative about Iraq, and touches a bit on Iraq's future and on the future of US foreign policies in the region, as well as somewhat about how those policies affect Iran and Afghanistan.

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Hat tip to David Swanson at WarIsACrime.org.

"New markets for our goods stretch from Asia to the Americas"

"...we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform. As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation's long-term competitiveness is put at risk."

-- Barack Obama, Oval Office Address on Iraq, August 31, 2010

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By David Swanson

FACT CHECK: Is Iraq combat really over for US?
By CALVIN WOODWARD and ROBERT BURNS (AP)
WASHINGTON — Despite President Barack Obama's declaration Tuesday of an end to the combat mission in Iraq, combat almost certainly lies ahead. And in asserting the U.S. has met its responsibilities in Iraq, the president opened the door wide to a debate about the meaning of success in the muddle that most — but not all — American troops are leaving behind. A look at some of the statements Obama made in his Oval Office speech and how they compare with the facts:

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OBAMA: "Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended."

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In August 2008 Paul Jay of The Real News Network interviewed journalist Naomi Klein about Barack Obama's campaign and promises. Two years down the road we can look back and compare what he said with what he's done.

Obama's foreign policy positions have become indistinguishable from those of John McCain or of George Bush. His campaign for the presidency was virtually built around absorbing, co-opting and quieting the anti-war/anti-fascist/anti-imperialist movements.

How far do you go before winning becomes losing, and becomes just a shiny new paintjob hawked by a very good salesman?

By David Swanson

Pretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending "the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama's description of war as "not only necessary but morally justified."

Over the past 20 years, the United States has imposed on Iraq two intense wars and many years of bombing and deprivation, the death of millions, and the displacement of more millions now left desperate and abandoned in Iraq and around the region. Violence in Iraq is common and increasing, sex trafficking is on the rise, the basic infrastructure of electricity, water, sewage, and healthcare is in ruins, life expectancy has dropped, cancer rates in Fallujah have surpassed those in Hiroshima, anti-U.S. terrorist groups are using the occupation of Iraq as a recruiting tool, there is no functioning government, and most Iraqis say they were better off with Saddam Hussein in power. And this is all prior to the hell to come when the agreed upon complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of next year turns out to be a fraud.

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Apropos of nothing -- except the whole Islamophobia talking point inspired by that community center downtown (or as people who aren't from New York/are directionally impaired/are reality-impaired call it, the "Ground Zero Mosque") has inspired over the last week or two -- here's a nice way to demonstrate just how much of the world's minority are angry, terrified Americans in regards to the world's Muslims.

Via Tumblr user Technipol, click to enlarge the following infographic:

click image to enlarge

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Ever fewer people, particularly those in institutions of power, but also in the general populace in developed countries, most especially in the United States, appear to be aware of, much less devoted to enlightened or humanistic values. Interest in the betterment of humanity, in the hope of minimally ameliorating our worst human impulses, or perhaps peeking at transcendence if only occasionally and imperfectly, or even hypothesizing about potentially preferred realities, is no longer a core concern, having given way to raw economic and military subjugation.

Ever since men became capable of free speculation, their actions, in innumerable important respects, have depended upon their theories as to the world and human life, as to what is good and what is evil. This is as true in the present day as at any former time. To understand an age or a nation, we must understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must ourselves be in some degree philosophers.

~Bertrand Russell

Major Ralph Peters expressed succinctly and nakedly the dominant philosophy in America today (and across the past two centuries), in his book, Endless War:

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Paul Jay of the Real News Network talks in November 2008 at The Krahl Academy about US foreign policies, blowback, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the concurrent crises of capitalism, of media, of economies, of terrorism, of fascism, of corporatism, of corruption in US political parties, about the sh*t hitting the fan, and about one part of the solution for it all.

Jay's talk is about 40 minutes. Watch the video. It's worth your time, and beats TV all to hell. I guarantee it.

"If I'm not doing the thing I feel is most significant, then I feel empty inside."

--Paul Jay

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Daniel Tencer writing at RawStory Friday reported that "The US economic recovery in recent quarters is little more than a "cover-up" and the world is headed for a "Greatest Depression," complete with social unrest and class warfare, says a renowned economic forecaster. Gerald Celente, head of the Trends Research Institute, told Yahoo! News' Tech Ticker that there's no risk of a "double-dip recession" because the first "dip" never ended."

"We're saying there's no double dip, it never ended," Celente said. "We're looking at the Greatest Depression. There's no way out of this without [rebuilding] productive capacity. You can't print [money to get] out of it."

"Celente said the current unemployment rate, if it were measured as it was measured during the Great Depression, would be around 17.5 percent. And he expects that number to rise to around 22 percent in the coming years."

"One of the good businesses to get in to may be guillotines," Celente quipped. "Because there's a real off-with-their-heads fever going on. People are really fed up."

"We went from a country that used to be merchants, craftspeople, manufacturers, to clerks and cashiers," Celente said. "We have to bring manufacturing back to America."

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"Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today challenged the notion that removing 'combat brigades' but leaving 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq constitutes an end to combat operations, let alone an end to the war", a press release issued by Kucinich datelined Washington, Aug 19, 2010 and published on the Congressman's house website stated. The release continued with:

"Who is in charge of our operations in Iraq, now? George Orwell? A war based on lies continues to be a war based on lies. Today, we have a war that is not a war, with combat troops who are not combat troops. In 2003, President Bush said 'Mission Accomplished'. In 2010, the White House says combat operations are over in Iraq, but will leave 50,000 troops, many of whom will inevitably be involved in combat-related activities."

"Just seven days ago, General Babaker Shawkat Zebari, the commander of Iraq’s military, said that Iraq’s security forces will not be trained and ready to take over security for another 10 years. One story is being told to the military on the ground in Iraq and another story is being told to their families back home."

"You can’t be in and out at the same time."

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