The First Gulf War, The Dirty One Between Iraq and Iran, Turns Out to Have Been a Synthesis of Both World Wars

Because gas and trench warfare were used like in the conflict started in 1914, writes Gaïdz Minassian in his Le Monde book review of Pierre Razoux's La Guerre Iran-Irak, première guerre du Golfe 1980-1988, along with major tank battles and the bombing of cities like in the conflict started in 1939, the "first" Gulf War turns out to have been a synthesis of both world wars. (The conflict between Iraq and Iran from 1980 to 1988 is the first Gulf War, the second Gulf War is the one from 1991, and the third is the one from 2003 to 2011.)

C'était la première guerre du Golfe (1980-1988). La plus méconnue des trois - la deuxième a eu lieu en 1991, la troisième entre 2003-2011. Elle a opposé l'Iran religieux à l'Irak laïc. Huit ans de guerre sale quasiment sans images ni ouvrage de référence, encore moins de longs-métrages.

Le dernier livre de Pierre Razoux, directeur de recherche à l'Institut de recherche stratégique de l'Ecole militaire (Irsem), La Guerre Iran-Irak, première guerre du Golfe 1980-1988, vient combler ce vide en nous plongeant dans les horreurs de cette boucherie.

Trente-trois ans après le début des hostilités, Pierre Razoux nous ouvre les portes de ce conflit si déterminant pour le Moyen-Orient, un tournant géopolitique dont les effets perdurent. A l'époque, Ouest et Est voulaient déjà contenir l'Iran révolutionnaire. Pour cela, Américains, Européens et Soviétiques comptent sur le bouclier irakien laïc de Saddam Hussein. Résultat : 60,3 milliards d'euros d'assistance militaire à Bagdad, dont 17 milliards de la France.

DES SOURCES INÉDITES

Quant aux Etats-Unis, ils sont officiellementpro-irakiens et leur versent 187,2 millions d'euros. Mais, en réalité, ils livrent des équipements militaires au régime iranien honni, d'une valeur de 486,7 millions d'euros. Cette assistance a laissé un nom dans l'histoire : "l'Irangate".

La particularité de ce livre repose sur l'exploitation de sources irakiennes inédites, récupérées par les forces américaines après la campagne de 2003. En tant qu'ancien chercheur au Collège de l'OTAN à Rome, l'auteur a eu accès aux bandes audio de Saddam Hussein, ces enregistrements des discussions d'état-major entre le chef de l'Etat irakien et ses généraux lors de la guerre contre l'Iran.

Ce livre se singularise également par la durée de la recherche qu'il a nécessité - dix ans de travaux à travers les capitales concernées par ce conflit - mais aussi par l'usage pour la première fois de sources iraniennes.

Le résultat est inversement proportionnel à l'horreur du déroulement de la guerre. Le chapitre sur le calvaire des enfants-soldats iraniens est poignant. Celui sur le martyre des Kurdes gazés à Halabja est bouleversant. Recours au gaz et combats de tranchées comme en 1914, utilisation des blindés et bombardements des villes comme en 1939, ce conflit Iran-Irak est une synthèse des deux guerres mondiales réunies.

Real Voices on the ACA: "My premiums already tripled on anticipation"; "our bare bone plan is gonna be terminated on Jan 1 2014 because of MugabeCare"

Regarding Health Insurance Marketplace premiums, a bunch of friends have been emailing back and forth recently how well they have been doing with regards to Barack Obama's "unaffordable care act" and how much better off they will be next year:

DH:

Yikes! I don't think Obamacare is going to be a good deal for me. Huge increase over my current plan.

How do you all make out? …

TM:

Mine doubled. My boss covers me, and my plan went from about 150 to 300.

JN:

My premiums already tripled on anticipation.  If you include my employer's part of the seal, its cost now is equal to more than a quarter of my gross pay.

Cheaper! Better! More equal and proletarian!

VP:

I learned 5 months ago that, due to OCare, [my] insurance would cease after Dec. 31. [My husband] doesn’t know the exact figure, but his and [our daughter’s] will go up. We contacted insurance brokers and the BC/BS plan that [my husband and daughter] are on to see if I could get on. All said the same thing “We have to wait until Oct 1.”

How those scumbags in Congress sleep at night is beyond me. Guess evil is not pricked by conscience.

When I was young I studied the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The great violence of the latter was hard for me to understand. I understand it now.

Friends contact the U.S. House of Representatives and let them know how this wonderful program THEY BEGGED to not be applied to THEM is affecting you. Urge them, as this speaker does in the video below , to defund this monstrosity.
http://gohmert.house.gov/

DH:

Right on, Sister. This is not the Change we were Hoping for.

I haven't found anyone that I know, Dem or Republican, that believes Mugabecare (if I may borrow RV's apt description) is the right answer to fixing our healthcare system. So, it astounds me that anyone in Washington can support his law. However, as I understand the situation, it will get funded. As long as the Dems can get this thing going, it won't be eliminated or stopped. Revised, yes. But, we will have socialized medicine in this country. And that's a bad thing.

Yesterday [Wednesday], Obama finally admitted that his Unaffordable Healthcare Act does raise taxes. Another lie admitted to. What is a government that totally lacks credibility?

RV:

[My wife] and I are on a bare bone BC/BS plan for about $400/mo. But it's gonna be terminated on Jan 1 2014 because of MugabeCare, and to this day I don't know what we're gonna replace it with. It's gonna be cancelled because it doesn't cover abortion and mammograms for me, and testosterone injections for [my wife].

It's a good thing MugabeCare doesn't mandate car insurances to cover oil changes and tire rotations... Yet.

DH:

I'll add to the calculus. My premium will go up 347% AND my deductible will increase by $1000.

In addition, does anyone realize the deduction for medical expenses must now be at least 10% of gross income instead of 7.5% currently?

We are being taxed to death...does that mean the death panels are already running the show? :-)

JN:

They're creating artificial scarcity.  They want the whole medical system to collapse financially so that it can be nationalized.

It's a government acting directly against its people's interest.

For Vladimir V. Putin: Just FYI, my grandparents did not flee the United States for Russia

Michael Granoff responds — briefly — to Vladimir V. Putin's New York Times Op-Ed, “A Plea for Caution From Russia”:

For Vladimir V. Putin, just two thoughts:

Can I publish an opinion critical of you in Moscow’s most prominent daily? 

Just F.Y.I., my grandparents did not flee the United States for Russia. 

MICHAEL GRANOFF
Tenafly, N.J., Sept. 12, 2013 

It is stunning that President Vladimir V. Putin has the audacity to write about freedom, democracy and equality. Mr. Putin is responsible for some of the most repressive antigay laws in the world. He has orchestrated mass arrests and crackdowns on ordinary protesters. 

While he may be attempting to come across as sensible on these issues, his record in Russia speaks volumes, and in this case taking what he says with a grain of salt would be generous. 

BRANDON LEVEY
Washington, Sept. 12, 2013

French Consulate Chauffeur Caught with 150 Kilos in Gold Bars

After the France24 story of the former French ambassador to Baghdad who got caught with 350,000 Euros in cash, we get Laurent Zecchini's story of the French consulate chauffeur in Jerusalem who was found to be crossing across the border to Jordan with 152 kilos of gold bars, 500 kilos of tobacco, hundreds of new cel phones, and $2 million in checks.

152 KILOS D'OR (...) ET PLUS DE 2 MILLIONS DE DOLLARS

En effet : 152 kilos d'or en lingots [4,9 millions d'euros, selon le Comptoir national de l'or], 500 kilos de tabac, des centaines de téléphones portables neufs, et des chèques pour un montant de plus de 2 millions de dollars. La suite est tout aussi extraordinaire : interpellé par la police, l'homme va être placé sous les verrous ? Pas du tout. Arrêté le mardi à la mi-journée, il est mis dans un avion pour Paris le mercredi, sur proposition des autorités israéliennes.

Quelle hâte ! Décryptage d'un diplomate israélien : "J'imagine qu'on lui a dit 'tu coopères avec la police en nous donnant tes complices et des détails sur ce trafic, et on t'expulse'." Il ajoute : "A l'évidence, il y a un réseau ; mais lui c'est une sardine, pas un requin." On n'en sait pas plus, dans l'immédiat. A Paris, le Quai d'Orsay a saisi le Parquet, au nom de l'article 40 du code de procédure pénale, qui stipule que "tout fonctionnaire qui (...) acquiert la connaissance d'un crime ou d'un délit, est tenu d'en donner avis sans délai au procureur de la République", et le directeur général de l'administration a "signifié son licenciement" à l'intéressé.

Insofar as the car in the photo is representative of French diplomatic vehicles, one reader complains that French diplomats are doing their work German Volkswagens.

Du bon sens 13/09/2013 - 20h20

On roule en VW dans les ambassades françaises... Comme représentants de notre commerce extérieur... déficitaire, y a pas mieux ! Le parti de l'étranger est toujours "aux manettes".

Smart Diplomacy: Brazilian President complains to Obama about "a grave violation of human rights" and "especially of disrespect to national sovereignty"

A few days after Brazil's president canceled her trip to the United States, Dilma Rousseff criticized the United States before the United Nations, report the BBC and Le Monde, while calling for "the United Nations to play a leading role in regulating electronic technology" — which sounds like censorship, if you ask me…

"We face, Mr President, a situation of a grave violation of human rights and civil liberties; of invasion and capture of confidential information concerning corporate activities, and especially of disrespect to national sovereignty".

 … She asked the United Nations to play a leading role in regulating electronic technology and said Brazil would present proposals for a "civilian multilateral framework" for the governance and use of the internet and to protect web-based data.

 

That Was Before America's Capitalist Society Betrayed Him — and Us…

In Julien Bouissou's article on a quarter of India's minority languages being in danger of disappearing, Le Monde's cartoonist manages to turn the story into an anti-American, anti-capitalist screed.

 • Before, you used to speak our language, my son…

Michael Yon: When Concealed Carry Counts — The big difference is that one gunman can kill 20 unarmed people, but if they are armed and trained, he might get only 2 or 3

Michael Yon:

When Concealed Carry Counts: Massacre

Many people have said or strongly hinted that firearms related massacres only (or usually) happen in gun free zones. The statement that they openly make is that the attacks would not occur if the people were armed. This is completely false. We just had another Green on Blue in Afghanistan this week. Blue on Blue and Green on Blue often happen against heavily armed people.

The big difference is that one gunman will have a very hard time killing twenty armed people. He can kill twenty unarmed people, but if they are armed and trained, he might get two or three, or even ten if he is truly "good", but he will quickly be put down, chased off, or holed up in a defensive position. At minimum, he will be slowed, giving people a chance to escape.

But over in Norway, a single madman killed 77 unarmed people who did not fight back. If just one of those people had a pistol, the death toll might have been 10. We never will know.

Now in Nairobi, reports have it that 10-15 heavily armed terrorists have killed at least 68 so far. The terrorists have been pushed into defense. The final battle appears to be unfolding. My guess is that the Kenyans are taking back the mall piece by piece. It is a big mall so that takes time due to the complication of the hostages.

Images from the early stages of the attack show people with handguns. Clearly some people were fighting back early into the attack. But imagine a terrorist attack like this in a US state where guns are all but outlawed. 10-15 terrorists could kill hundreds.

See also: Another Mass Killing, Another Nutcase with Plenty of Warning Signs
and my extensive and dispassionate in-depth post on gun control:
What Is to Blame for the Connecticut Shooting?
Does the Blame Lie with the Right to Bear Arms Or Can It Be Found Elsewhere?

Robin Williams: Divorce is "ripping your heart out through your wallet"

As Robin Williams tells it, this is what feminist-imposed government intrusion into private life has wrought: as if separation weren't painful enough, lawyers intrude and ensure that

Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it "all the money", but they changed it to 'alimony'. It's ripping your heart out through your wallet.

Don't forget to check out Stephen Baskerville's Taken Into Custody (The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family)

The Venezuelan State's Occupy "Movement": The Victory of Socialism!

A Venezuelan state agency on Friday ordered the temporary takeover of a factory that produces toilet paper 

writes Reuters (gracias para Hervé),

in what it called an effort to ensure consistent supplies after embarrassing shortages earlier this year.

Critics of President Nicolas Maduro say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government's rigid price and currency controls are failing. They have also used the situation to poke fun at his administration on social media networks.

 A national agency called Sundecop, which enforces price controls, said in a statement it would occupy one of the factories belonging to paper producer Manpa for 15 days, adding that National Guard troops would "safeguard" the facility.

Frenchman Hervé writes

Having grown in a staunch Socialist country, I was always told Socialism is the Glorious Path to a Bright and Enlightened Future, where great intellectuals will be describing the greatness of Socialism while sipping delicious cocktails, sitting on chairs at tables overlooking the happy proletariat running naked in the fields, laughing and chanting with butterfields and pink rabbits.

Well, they gotta start some place: no running naked after pink rabbits and butterflies if you don't wipe your ass, comrade.

From the archives: Note to the Apologizer-in-Chief (Barack Obama):
No, a Republic Is Not Equal to a Dictatorship

Reminder: Six months ago, Maria Thunholm took pictures of
a mural in Paris saying "Rest in PEACE Hugo Chávez"…