"The proposed elections will be the first democratically held elections since Saddam Hussein took power in a cuop over thirty years ago."

Yes, the US tried its very best to stop those democratically held elections, and attempted to get an appointed government of its own hand-picked viceroys instead.

The US fears democratic elections, because they know who will be picked: a majority Shia Islamic government, reflecting the Shia majority in the country, who will be unwilling to roll over to the US oilmen. Similarly, they're happy to support dicatorships around the world, and help them suppress democracy: Saudi, Kuwait and Uzbekistan are just a few current examples. These are "good" dictatorships, who are happy to do business with the US on favourable terms. The US rewards them with political and military support. Once they step out of line, though, like Saddam and Noriega did, they'll start droning about how important democracy is.

The Baathists were brought to power in a coup 30 years ago by the US, and supported by the US and Britain for decades. Both were happy to arm him, and veto condemnations of him in the UN. Where was their heart-warming support for democracy then? And they let Saddam stay in power after the first Gulf war, even helping him in wiping out the Shia uprising, again because they feared a Shia government in Iraq, democratic or not.

But it doesn't matter anymore what the US wants. The Shia clerics cannily bided their time, letting the US find out how tough fighting just the Sunni minority would be, before picking the right moment to tell the US that if democratic elections were not held the Shia would start fighting them too in far greater numbers, and the US forces would be fucked.

So now, reluctantly, the US has been forced to give in and hold elections. And they're begging the UN, which they held in such low regard a few months ago, for help in running them. Pathetic.

The irony is that the UN-run elections in Iraq will probably be far more transparent and democratic than the "election" that brought Bush to power.

Y'all have a nice day too.

Spinfex you worthless piece of oozing dog turd, we know that many of the bombings, including those on the UN and the Communist Party, are being done by your side in order to justify your illegal occupation. Pilger is absolutely right, as long as the Iraqi resistance keeps killing the occupying troops of all nations-- and I think over 25 of the invaders have died in the last week -- the more you sons of bitches will think twice before you invade somewhere else.

It's all a bit hard to think about isn't it? My position shifts with every new linguistic framing of the question:
Should I 'support' the Iraqi Resistance?
Well, they're killing lots of people, so as a pacifist, I guess not.
They're killing Iraqi authoritarian politicians for collaborating with the US and British imposed Ruling Council, so there is an argumant and historical basis for sympathy there.
They're killing Communists, hmm, my syndicalist sympathies get rattled there.
They're a self-organised Resistance movement fighting back again occupation, so on the 'French Resistence' model they have my support (The French Resistence and Viet Cong and countless others had to kill too remember?)
But then in everyday life there is the oppression of discursive control by the media patsies, where any kind of depper analysis like this is blown away in the Newspeak of goodies and baddies...

what kind of half-wit braggart goes by the name 'spinifex' (spin effects)?

The real opposition in iraq is the trade unions that are organising strikes, or is it the workers organising trade unions and strikes? The most important trade union for me is the one for the unemployed, with huge unemployment in iraq they need representing.
The guerrila attacks are sefull in getting rid of george bush and inevitable when there is this kind of civil unrest. Dont forget this country had the angry brigade at the time when there was huge civil unrest. The IRA have been active throughout the most unstable times in the north of ireland and it is only fair that foriegn occupation by a hostile armed forces should be prevented.

"Dave"-- you aren't even fit to wipe John Pilger's bottom. I mean, your not even good at your job here? You're a failed disinformation merchant. Your motives are so obvious.

Pilger was right about the killing fields in Cambodia, when the West was still in business with them. He was attacking Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses when you bastards were selling him weapons.

Aren't you disgusted with the failed immoral webjockey you are?

Yes what was I thinking, Pilger the voice of truth, the voice of unbiased comment. The man's a joke. His report on the killing fields was little more than a rehash of the Washington Post article from the year before. Half the bloody journos in the world had written about Saddams abuses for years so you can hardly claim JP was in there holding the torch.

Pilger has got so much wrong he's almost become a parody of himself. By all means defend and glorify "agenda" driven journos (start will Ian Hislop at Private Eye who achieves far more thanhe gets credit for) but not Pilger, he should be allowed to drift away mumbling to himself about his latest mad theory.

I think it would be way better if everyone could refrain from abusive comments. The aim of this project is to create an alternative news media. Many regular people will not come back to these pages if all they find is personal attacks and abusive language. We on the far left have spent far too long infighting and talking to ourselves. I think it's time to come out of the ghetto and talk to the rest of the world.

Deacon Dave? Joey Deacon Dave more like!

"....Two suicide bombers with explosives wired to their bodies struck the offices of the country's two main Kurdish parties (Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) in nearly simultaneous attacks Sunday, killing at least 56 people...."

 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20040201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_189


",,,I have walked the city's streets, along a road blown to pieces by a US missile. The casualties were children, of course, because children are everywhere........."

- John Pilger

 http://pilger.carlton.com/print/132858


"....I am a reporter, who values bearing witness. That is to say, I place paramount importance in the evidence of what I see, and hear, and sense to be the truth, or as close to the truth as possible......"

- John Pilger

 http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040128&fname=pilger&sid=1


Pilger's unctuous hypocrisy does not alter the fact that the "resistance" is merely an extension of the Ba'ath Party's continuing genocide against the peoples of Iraq and Kurdistan.

Today's massacre marks the Festival of Sacrifice – and, of course, the announcement that Saddam Hussein is to stand trial in Iraq for crimes against humanity.

The children of Iraq are of course, everywhere.

"Targeting of Civilians by Insurgents Must Stop (Human Rights Watch) "

".... Insurgents in Iraq are committing war crimes by targeting Iraqi civilians perceived to be cooperating with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Human Rights Watch said today....."

 http://hrw.org/press/2003/11/iraq112203.htm


"....Two Iraqi men died on Thursday evening when a blast almost entirely gutted the Iraqi Communist party's headquarters, the party said in a statement on Friday....."

 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/18155683-E4CE-4D5C-A886-7E3AE7A3AA0E.htm


The campaign against Iraqi civilians by suicide bombers of course is targeted and specific.

These casualties are not the “regrettable” innocents caught in the cross-fire, as Pilger pretends.

They ARE the target.

The "resistance" is evidently a continuation of the Ba’athist genocide that unfolded in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan through the decades the “resistance” was the “government”

Pilger is now, by his own choosing, a part of that because he prefers the Ba’athists to the west.

He says so, to an obscure newspaper in Australia - because he can.

He won't admit that much to the more lucrative, middle-class market his publishing enterprises service in Europe and the USA.

For their benefit, he will play the pietist.

Spinfex is a right wing troll that usally hangs about Melbourne Indymedia, his real name is Chris Parsons...

You people are defending this Pilger scumbag. Don't you have any sense. Has your anti-US bias blinded you to the fact that these terrorists are merely the same Ba'athist assholes that held power for so long. Don't you even read the fucking newspaper. It's not US troops that are dying in these attacks. It's the Iraqi people that are being murdered - shiites, sunnis and kurds - two KURDISH embassies were bombed. This wasn't resistance. This was plain murder.  http://www.puk.org has most of the information on those bombings but these are elected officials from the mostly independent Kurdish region of Iraq that were murdered. They weren't occupiers.

The fact that you people designate anyone that doesn't agree with your psychotic view of the world as a rightwing troll only proves the stupidity of your argument. The fucking "writer" has a Saddam Hussein portrait next to him. How many human rights abuses of Saddam Hussein is he going to criticize when he's got a fucking Hussein icon in the picture with him?

You people are just scum.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Temper temper, Chris. Just because everyone can see your real motives for posting here doesn't mean you need to get all in a snit.

Besides, there are over 100 more Indymedia sites around the world for you to have a go on. It'll take hours, maybe even days before they work out who and what you are. Best get moving then, there's a good lad.