Iraq Occupation vs German Occupation of Poland

• Depending on who you talk to, Iraq has lost between 60,000 and 1.2 million killed.

  A good comparison is Poland. The population prior to the war was roughly the same as Iraq, @ 34,849,000 compared to Iraq in 2003, which was according to the UN, 25,175,000. By the end of the occupation, which again is roughly about as long as America has been occupying Iraq, they had lost 5,600,000 people or 16.07% In contrast Iraq has lost 4.7 % of its population if one assumes 1.2 million extra deaths is correct.
  

  The Germans killed 5 times as many people as the Americans. One could compare Iraq with occupied Norway, who lost "only" .042 of their population but then the Germans considered them fellow Aryans.

  France lost 562,000 -- a "mere" 1.35% of their population, but then they, despite the fact that after the war, every second Frenchman claimed to have been a Maquis, did not resist to the extent that the Iraqis have.

  If the low number is true, then, in historical terms, the Iraqi occupation has been kind indeed, even the higher number does not approach the Germans, forget the Mongols who tended to kill, well... everyone.

  1.2 million dead Iraqis is still a stack of bodies approximately 189 miles high.

• source data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
  

Arguing With Americans

I post a lot over at Salon, where Greenwald is amazing, as I have remarked here before. Salon is a liberal online magazine, with a very large audience.

They are on side on a lot of issues, but on one issue - Salon tows the line. 911 Truth is off limits there; Patrick Smith, of "Ask the Pilot" has done a hit piece, and Farhad Manjoo their tech writer has taken a whack at it too, here and here. Sadly, I have yet to see a single article at Salon that does not ridicule and sneer.
This is not the way to the truth. There are serious questions. They must be answered.Not everybody is a fan of Farhan's journalistic or intellectual prowess, as seen in the comment below. Neither am I - this is the guy who just tried to tell us that the recent errant KH series spy satellite was shot down by, wait for it, a cruise missile! It must have been one low and slow spy satellite. And he is supposed to be tech writer. His perspicacity on the 911 question is in serious doubt as well.

This story was assigned to the wrong reporter

This story should not have been assigned to Farhad Manjoo. Sifting through the various levels of truth, lies, myth and fantasy surrounding the events of 9/11 requires a journalist who can review evidence objectively, not a dittohead like Manjoo whose knee-jerk response to any criticism of the Bush administration and Republicans is to insist that they would never act with anything other than the purest and noblest of motives. It's time for Manjoo to move to Fox News and for Salon to hire a real political reporter.

-- Yossarian

I like Salon, but they should open up the filter, just a little.

Neocon Lies, Amazing Video

I ask anyone who see this to pass it on to their friends, family, co-workers, hell print the url on your business cards. All the lies, well, not all the lies, who's got 132 hours to watch that? But it does have a LOT of them. There is footage here I have never seen before, and I have seen a lot of videos!

Lots Happening

I have been away. Many things have happened. The clouds are gathering all over the world.

Obama is being hit and hit hard. The Iran Project is still on the table. Gas is a $110 a barrel. Trouble in South America. Gaza is under siege, water, food and medicine are scarce. And Gaza is now under threat of a shoa - another nakba. A threat made explicit by the Israelis, a threat so evocative that it shocked the Israeli people themselves.

It's been five long years since another, new, holocaust began, in the "hell that is now Iraq" - as Saddam called it from the gallows. Electricity in Baghdad is on for an hour a day at most. Baghdad, one of the oldest cities in the world, in one of its hottest places, in the dark, powerless. Powerless in so many ways.

And we have lost one of the great souls. Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died at 90, or as he said, "I have completed 90 orbits around the sun". I will miss him.