By Ron Jacobs - January 03, 2009

...[D]espite the hoopla in the US press and its Iraqi clones, the nature of the control being "given back" to the Iraqis seems quite similar to the control over Gaza that was given them by the Israelis when they withdrew their forces in 2005. In other words, any control the Iraqi government and its security forces might now have can be removed at any time by US forces.

Here are ten myths about the Iraq War, refuted by Middle East expert Juan Cole.

By Ramzy Baroud - December 27, 2008

What...confused the script is that al-Zaidi was not al-Qaeda, or an al-Qaeda sympathizer, not a foreign fighter, not a member of the dissolved Ba'ath Party, nor was he affiliated with it in any way...Al-Zaidi is simply an Iraqi man who has, as a journalist, highlighted the suffering of his people as politely, 'objectively' and 'professionally' as he could, and when he could no longer tolerate the lies told in the Green Zone's ever malicious drama, he scrapped the script altogether, chucking his shoes at the main actor...

By PATRICK COCKBURN - December 11, 2008

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed after eight months of rancorous negotiations, is categorical and unconditional. America’s bid to act as the world’s only super-power and to establish quasi-colonial control of Iraq...has ended in failure...Even Iran, which had furiously denounced the first drafts of the SOFA saying that they would establish a permanent US presence in Iraq, now says blithely that it will officially back the new security pact...This is a sure sign that Iran...sees the pact as marking the final end of the US occupation and as a launching pad for military assaults on neighbours such as Iran.

By PATRICK COCKBURN - December 16, 2008

The sight of the Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi hurling his shoes at President Bush at a press conference in Baghdad will gladden the heart of any journalist forced to attend these tedious, useless, and almost invariably obsequious, events...One of the many infuriating, though also ludicrous, events in Iraq since the invasion of 2003 has been American and British leaders, arriving in secret at the enormous US base at Baghdad airport and travelling, accompanied by numerous armed guards, by helicopter to the heavily-fortified Green Zone.

The man who threw his shoes at Bush has been reportedly beaten and tortured badly. Please mobilize on his behalf. He has taught us how to protest bad leaders!

By Adam Ashton and Mohammed al Dulaimy - December 14, 2008

George W. Bush made his last visit to Iraq as president on Sunday. But instead of highlighting progress from the "surge," it became a reminder that many Iraqis see him not as a liberator who freed them from Saddam Hussein but as an occupier who pushed their country into chaos...As Bush finished [his] remarks...an Iraqi television journalist leapt from his seat, pulled off his shoes and threw them at the president. Striking someone with a shoe is a grave insult in Islam.

By JOHANNA BERRIGAN - Counterpunch

Among the many horrors of the tragedy of this war, destroyed, displaced, scattered families are a sad reality. There are an estimated 2.7 million people displaced within Iraq, and more than 2 million more living in neighboring countries, primarily Jordan and Syria. Most, if not all, refugees left Iraq because of the violence; some have received direct threats, others have had family members, friends, and neighbors kidnapped or killed.

What Obama said before the election is a moot point now...On the subject of Iraq, he did announce that US forces would remain there against Iraqi wishes - although maybe without ‘permanent’ military bases - to train Iraqi personnel (death squads). He also stated that he will ‘retain the right to intervene militarily, with our international partners, to suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq.’ All this equates to rehashed liberal interventionist arguments justifying a continued war on Iraq. But what we’re really looking at...is the US Imperial plan for Iraq. There has been cross-party support for the Occupation since the beginning.

By PATRICK COCKBURN - November 3, 2008

Over the past five years, America and its Iraqi allies have pointed triumphantly at a series of spurious milestones meant to mark turning points on the road to stability and security. But the ongoing stalemate over a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which the Iraqi government refuses to sign despite intense American pressure, marks a true turning point in the conflict: it is a clear sign that American political influence in Iraq is weaker than ever.

By BINOY KAMPMARK - Counterpunch

The Sunday attack on the village of Sukkariyeh near Abu Kamal [Syria]...is causing more problems than its worth...Curiously for a country so addicted to such moral categories as 'rogue' states and outlaw regimes, the United States has maintained the Damascus Community School...since 1950...and a culture centre at the embassy...That won’t be an issue now: the centers have been closed by the Syrian authorities in retaliation for the American incursion as Washington contemplates its next move.

By Gareth Porter - October 24, 2008

WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (IPS) - The final draft of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the U.S. military presence represents an even more crushing defeat for the policy of the George W. Bush administration than previously thought, the final text reveals.

By Patrick Cockburn - October 26, 2008

If fewer US troops and Iraqis are being killed, it is only because the Shia community and Iran now dominate; whatever the reason for Bush's decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, it was not to place the Shia Islamic parties in power and increase the influence of Iran - yet that is what has happened...[T]he battle for Baghdad in 2006-07 was won by the Shia, who now control three-quarters of the capital...Sunni who try to get their houses back face assassination.

By Mahir Ali - Znet

UNTIL as recently as a year ago, the conflict in Iraq was being portrayed by the primary aggressor as a well-intentioned intervention gone wrong, while Afghanistan was supposed to be the good war. This year the narrative has changed. As Afghanistan's pear shape has become progressively more pronounced, Iraq has suddenly become the success story.

By WILLIAM BLUM - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

No American should be allowed to forget that Iraqi society has been destroyed. The people of that unhappy land have lost everything -- their homes, their schools, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their health care, their legal system, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their security, their past, their present, their future, their lives. But they do have their surge.