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?

They Go or Obama Goes
Robert Scheer,
Truthdig, August 25, 2010

Barack Obama and the Democrats he led to a stunning victory two years ago are going down hard in the face of an economic crisis that he did nothing to create but which he has failed to solve. That is somewhat unfair because the basic blame belongs to his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who let the bulls of Wall Street run wild in the streets where ordinary folks lived. And there was universal Republican support in Congress for the radical deregulation of the financial industry that produced this debacle.

The core issue for the economy is the continued cost of a housing bubble made possible only after what Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers back then trumpeted as necessary “legal certainty” was provided to derivative packages made up of suspect Alt-A and subprime mortgages. It was the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which Senate Republican Phil Gramm drafted and which Clinton signed into law, that made legal the trafficking in packages of dubious home mortgages. In any decent society the creation of such untenable mortgages and the securitization of risk irrationally associated with it would have been judged a criminal scam. But no such judgment was possible because thanks to Wall Street’s sway under Clinton and Bush the bankers got to rewrite the laws to sanction their treachery.

It is Obama’s continued deference to the sensibilities of the financiers and his relative indifference to the suffering of ordinary people that threaten his legacy, not to mention the nation’s economic well-being. There have been more than 300,000 foreclosure filings every single month that Obama has been president, and as The New York Times editorialized, “Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the Obama administration’s efforts to address the foreclosure problem will make an appreciable dent.”

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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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Crossposted from Talkleft

In the Sunday Times: a feature article on the Obama administration’s "shadow war against Al Qaeda and its allies."

In roughly a dozen countries — from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife — the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.

...The White House has intensified the Central Intelligence Agency’s drone missile campaign in Pakistan, approved raids against Qaeda operatives in Somalia and launched clandestine operations from Kenya.

The Times calls it a stealth war on terror, and says while it began under Bush, it has expanded under Obama. It also points out the risks:

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Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for all you have accomplished in your time in office. I sincerely appreciate all of the many ways you are different than George Bush. Your wife and children are beautiful and vivacious and a pleasure to watch and in Michelle's case, listen to. And by the way, that tie really brings out the color of your eyes, and the salt and pepper hair thing is looking pretty darn good on you!

Thank you for protecting us from Canadian health care and those that would close the pentagon. I am heartened to see that you are keeping your elbow tucked in when you elevate for the three-pointer. Bo looks like he is growing up nicely and you must be feeding him well, you can see it in the sheen on his coat.

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs ranted that "the professional left" needed to be drug tested for their complaints and attacks on the Obama administration after all the good things Obama has done.

I agree.

We "professional leftists" do indeed need drug testing because apparently the colorful liquid inducing hallucinogenic of "hope and change" has worn off and the ugly mediocrity of modern Democratic leadership stares us in the face with the not-so-friendly smugness of a hookah-smoking caterpillar.

Maybe some good old-fashioned Window Pane or Micro Dot, or better yet, some natural organic 'Shrooms could do the trick. After all, we are all mushrooms now as the old joke goes, kept in the dark and fed a pile of bullshit.

And really, what is there to complain about? BP and the Gulf Oil disaster? Come on, there are no plumes, the oil has evaporated, and if you clap loud enough you won't notice where the poisonous garbage is being dumped. It's all good, bro. Trust us.

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In a perhaps unintentional and obtuse twist of sardonic wit and possibly complete unawareness of the irony of his own words, Commander of United States Forces - Iraq (USF-I) General Ray Odierno said on Sunday in an interview with ABC's Christiane Amanpour that the 50,000 US troops that will remain in Iraq along with "a significant civilian presence" after the US 'withdraws', will help Iraq thwart "interference from outside countries".

Really. You can't make this stuff up. If fiction it wouldn't qualify as humor.

United States forces under President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in an unprovoked attack in 2003 and have occupied the country since. By some counts more than a million Iraqis have died as a direct result of the US invasion and occupation.

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