Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Concerned about the treatment of Mehdi Ghezali, a Swedish citizen held at the US detention camp at Guantanamo, filmmakers Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh travel to the pseudo-paradise of Guantanamo Bay to find out what is really going on there. Despite being stonewalled every inch of the way, the pair depict an aspect of American behaviour that many will find unpalatable, even reprehensible, uncovering brutality to rival that of Abu Ghraib.

Good evening. Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about the end of our combat mission in Iraq, the ongoing security challenges we face, and the need to rebuild our nation here at home.

I know this historic moment comes at a time of great uncertainty for many Americans. We’ve now been through nearly a decade of war. We’ve endured a long and painful recession. And sometimes in the midst of these storms, the future that we’re trying to build for our nation — a future of lasting peace and long-term prosperity — may seem beyond our reach.

Today begins Operation New Dawn, the new U.S. mission In Iraq. Despite the end of "combat operations," at least 10 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. Coincidentally, U.S. officials reported Iraq is planning to spend $13 billion on U.S. arms and military equipment.

Gen. Lloyd Austin took over from Gen. Ray Odierno as commander of operations for the new mission in Iraq. Vice President Joe Biden, who is in Iraq, says the new mission must now turn to solving the country’s economic troubles and believes senior Iraqi officials are close to forming a new government six months after national elections. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates also traveled to Iraq on a surprise visit.

President Barack Obama’s nationally televised speech from the White House Oval Office Tuesday night was an exercise in cowardice and deceit. It was deceitful to the people of the United States and the entire world in its characterization of the criminal war against Iraq. And it was cowardly in its groveling before the American military.

I never thought a day could come when I would agree with anything stated by Moshe Arens (three times an Israeli minister of defense, a one-time foreign minister, a former ambassador to the U.S. and, in my opinion, Zionism’s in-Israel equivalent of Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle in America). But the day came.

As President Obama gave a self-congratulatory speech about keeping his campaign promise to remove U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of August, he accomplished this feat by merely redefining the mission of the 50,000 combat-trained U.S. forces remaining there to “advising and assisting” Iraqi forces. Of course, this really means that we are not out of the woods yet in that fractured and violence-prone country.

I hate it when I’m right, mostly because my predictions are invariably dark. We’re lost, doomed, the end is near. It’s always something. And while it may be in bad taste to say “I told you so,” I did indeed tell you so back in March of 2003, when the invasion of Iraq was nigh:

“The war on Iraq is going to be short, but the occupation will be a task without end, a heavy burden that will be more than just punishment for our vainglorious ‘victory.’ As the self-elected arbiter of every ethnic dispute that arises among the quarrelsome peoples of the Middle East, we are walking into a snake-pit, I fear, without thought of the consequences. A future of endless conflicts, perpetual war for perpetual peace, and color-coded terror unto infinity – that is what we have to look forward to.”

My Fellow Americans,

… so much for Iraq. Turning now to Afghanistan, let me be clear. My learning curve has been steep, as the New York Times noted last weekend. The curve has also been jagged as I have tried to assimilate the not-always-consistent advice the four-star generals have given me.

Here is the speech that I wish President Obama would give about the Iraq War, but which neither he nor any other president ever will.

Fellow Americans, and Iraqis who are watching this speech, I have come here this evening not to declare a victory or to mourn a defeat on the battlefield, but to apologize from the bottom of my heart for a series of illegal actions and grossly incompetent policies pursued by the government of the United States of America, in defiance of domestic US law, international treaty obligations, and both American and Iraqi public opinion.