What will become of Iraq after the US pulls troops out today? (131)

The University of Queensland with a GPA of 6.7 out of 7 in the Classics and Ancient History. Yes, I'm a part-time Antiquities dealer and if you're interested, I've a lovely selection of Byzantine artefacts at the moment including pottery, jewellery, coins & assorted bronze pieces. PM me for a list.

Who has certified your intelligence? A taxi driver?

Huh? Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that there was no oon going conflict in either of those places with the UN could it ray? As I stated, Iraq was already at war with the coalition and did not adhere to it’’s ceasefire conditions. Unlike Iraq, North Korea and Iran are not under any responsibility to adhere to any ceasefire conditions siply beacause they are not at war with nybody and thus, are not subject to invasion, regime change or any other action of that sort at this time.


Strange, UNSC Resolution 687 states there is and laid out the terms in same. Here is para 33;
“33. Declares that, upon official notification by Iraq to the Secretary-General and to the Security Council of its acceptance of the provisions above, a formal cease-fire is effective between Iraq and Kuwait and the Member States cooperating with Kuwait in accordance with resolution 678 (1990);”


Wow. And all Saddam had to do was adhere to his obligations as laid out in the ceasefire terms and those sanctions would have been lifted. IN effect, he killed “more than a million people” and “more Iraqis than (the non existent) Shock & Awe did.”

You’ve just been proved wrong by the US leaving Iraq and, the fact that the Iraqis own their own oil and the rights to contract it out to whomever they wish.

Iran and North Korea have substantial fighting capability themselves, and more importantly they are on good terms with nearby super-powers capable of protecting them from the US. Otherwise they would have suffered the same fate as Iraq.

You must be talking about China as they sure aren’t with Russia;
“MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia could lose up to $13 billion due to an extensive arms embargo imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, a Russian arms trade expert said on Tuesday.”


As for China, a whooping $171 million in arms sales per year. Wow Ray.

Iraq's weakness was that, as an American puppet regime, it was always an enemy of Russia and China. So they were not interested in protecting Iraq. In fact they were happy to see the US invading its own puppet regime.

Ad there is no reason for the US to even or ever consider to invade Iran.


‘Probably?’ What happened to ‘maybe’ or ‘could be’ or ‘some say’ or ‘this is a number that I picked out of thin air?’

Huh? Oh, you mean the sanctions that allowed for the above and Saddam didn’t spend the money on same. The sanctions that he could have – at the drop of a hat removed simply by adhering to the ceasefire terms in UNSC Res 687.
Sorry Ray, Saddam was at fault in that one, not the US or the UN.


IBC, the only reliable body count source states the figure at 18,000. A number far below what the US wa capable of if they actually had employed ‘shock and awe’ rather than a phys ops strategy.

What experts Ray? Certainly not the crap Lancelet study you cite below so what experts and, using what figures?



“A 2010 article by IBC say that the "hugely exaggerated death toll figures" from the 2006 Lancet report have "been comprehensively discredited" by recently published research
“Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels, was quoted saying that Burnham's team have published "inflated" numbers that "discredit" the process of estimating death counts. "Why are they doing this?" she asks. "It's because of the elections." However, another interviewer a week later paints a more measured picture of her criticisms: "She has some methodological concerns about the paper, including the use of local people — who might have opposed the occupation — as interviewers. She also points out that the result does not fit with any she has recorded in 15 years of studying conflict zones. Even in Darfur, where armed groups have wiped out whole villages, she says that researchers have not recorded the 500 predominately violent deaths per day that the Johns Hopkins team estimates are occurring in Iraq. But overall Guha-Sapir says the paper contains the best data yet on the mortality rate in Iraq.” It concludes that the Lancet overestimated deaths and that the war-related death toll was most likely to be around 125,000 for the period covered by the Lancet study, .”
“Among other criticisms, Daponte questions the reliability of pre-war estimates used in the Lancet study to derive its "excess deaths" estimate, and the ethical approval for the survey. She concludes that the most reliable information available to date is provided by the Iraq Family Health Survey, the Iraq Living Conditions Survey and Iraq Body Count”
“A 2008 article in the National Journal revealed for the first time that the Lancet survey was funded in part by George Soros' Open Society Institute. This led to some concerns regarding the objectivity of the survey, including erroneous claims in the media that Soros may have been directly involved in the survey. Outspoken survey critic Michael Spagat, economics professor at Royal Holloway, University of London stated "The authors should have disclosed the donation and for many people that would have been a disqualifying factor in terms of publishing the research."”
“On February 3, 2009, the Executive Council of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) announced that an 8-month investigation found the author of the 2006 Lancet survey, Dr. Gilbert Burnham, had violated the Association's Code of Professional Ethics & Practices for repeatedly refusing to disclose essential facts about his research. "Dr. Burnham provided only partial information and explicitly refused to provide complete information about the basic elements of his research," said Mary Losch, chair of the association’s Standards Committee. Neither Dr. Burnham nor the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are members of AAPOR nor are they required to follow the AAPOR code.”



Let’s not forget that you are so full of it that you need to use you tube for fear of being quoted.

In order to be a dealer you have to abide by law so unless he is engaging in illegal activities then they would be registered.

Next.