Dahr Jamail

Fearful residents are now pouring out of Ramadi after the U.S. military has been assaulting the city for months with tactics such as cutting water, electricity, and medical aid; imposing curfews; and attacking by means of snipers and random air strikes. This time, Iraqis there are right to fear the worst – an all out … Continue reading “Ramadi: Fallujah Redux”

With Arkan Hamed BAGHDAD – In the wake of the Haditha massacre, reports of another atrocity have surfaced in which U.S. troops killed two women in Samarra, and then attempted to hide evidence of their responsibility. Among the innumerable such cases people speak of, this one too has now come to light. According to an … Continue reading “Another US Cover-Up Surfaces in Iraq”

with Jeff Pflueger In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. – Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II Propaganda is when the Western corporate media tries to influence public opinion in favor of the Iraq War by consistently tampering with truth and distorting … Continue reading “Propaganda and Haditha”

The media feeding frenzy around what has been referred to as “Iraq’s My Lai” has become frenetic. Focus on U.S. Marines slaughtering at least 20 civilians in Haditha last November is reminiscent of the media spasm around the “scandal” of Abu Ghraib during April and May 2004. Yet just like Abu Ghraib, while the media … Continue reading “Countless My Lais in Iraq”

“Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society.” – Joan Ganz Cooney If, as I would like to believe, the above quote suggests all children and not merely those born in Western democracies, I am no longer certain that we live in a civilized society. That women and children suffer the most during times … Continue reading “Iraq’s Dispensable Children”

Us Last Friday I was at the University of Texas, Austin, giving a presentation on Iraq. After dumping an hour’s worth of horrible “real news” about Iraq, I was asked the question I have by now learned to expect: “Is there anything good happening there at all?” I understand why people ask this. There must … Continue reading “All of Us Participate
in a New Iraq”

Death in Iraq. It is relentless and incessant. Know what it is like when scores of your fellow citizens are being killed every single day while the world proceeds unheedingly on? As a journalist, I’ve had but a taste of that poison during my eight months in Iraq. Try it out: be an Iraqi for … Continue reading “Downplaying the Dead”

This weekend I received an e-mail from a friend in Iraq. It read, “Salam Dahr, I was in Ramadi today to ask about the situation. I was stunned for the news of a father and his three sons executed in cold blood by U.S. soldiers, then they blasted the house. The poor mother couldn’t stand … Continue reading “War Crimes and Consequences”

With Arkan Hamed BAGHDAD – The new clashes between Shia militiamen dressed in Iraqi military and police uniforms and resistance fighters and residents from the Sunni Adhamiya district of Baghdad have convinced many that what Baghdad is witnessing is no less than a civil war. For long now, some leaders from both Shia and Sunni … Continue reading “Baghdad Slipping Into Civil War”

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration … Continue reading “The Ongoing War on Truth in Iraq”