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Friday, March 31, 2023
The Trump Indictment.
During this time, we have a historic event of the indictment of Donald Trump by the grand jury of Manhattan, NYC. For years, we have said that no person is above the law, and accountability is necessary to maintain the essence of American democracy. As the worst President in the modern age of American history, Donald Trump has shown corruption, lies, and outright bigotry as proven by tons of elections. He tried to steal the 2020 election too and bashed legal subpoenas. Donald Trump is not President, and he will be arraigned on Tuesday during early April of 2023. We believe in liberty under the law; therefore, we have to realize that Trump can't do what he wants. This indictment is not a political witch-hunt. It is about witness testimony, tons of documents including email/text messages, and a person who is Trump making a mockery of the law by his actions. He instigated a treasonous insurrection against the U.S. government. Many far-right people have threatened Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
Liars like Rick Scott, Glen Youngkin, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and other GOP extremists claim that the indictment is about a political attack on a person. The reality is that the indictment is a legal action permitted by legal search warrants and a legal grand jury fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities. These are the same people who care more for guns than a social safety net and the general welfare of the people. These are the same individuals who defend a racist, sexist, xenophobic, and habitual liar Donald Trump than supporting justice for all people. Also, far right people have sugarcoated the events of 1/6. With Mike Pence defending Trump shows his cowardice and his betrayal of the real ideals of integrity, etc. in my opinion. Trump is the person who didn't condemn a mob threatening Pence's life, and Pence lied and said that Bragg's indictment was politically motivated. DeSantis made the anti-Semitic statement that Bragg is a Soros-backed puppet. DeSantis refuses to agree with an extradition of Trump. Trump will be fingerprinted, have due process, and read of his rights. We shall see what the future holds.
The Trump team appeals order allowing the grand jury testimony from Meadows, and other former aides. This is typical of Trump having a guilt complex. Meadows is even worse than Mike Pence, because Meadows are one of Trump's closet advisers and Meadows promoted the election lie (that the 2020 election was stolen). Mark Meadows knows about the messages, secret information, and other critical details about the events of the end of the Trump administration (the worst Presidency in history other than James Buchannan, Herbert Hoover, and Andrew Johnson). Meadows is more likely to appeal any attempt to testify possibly all the way to Supreme Court. Also, the NYPD has recently stepped-up security now especially now when Donald Trump is indicted. The evidence is enormous about Trump and his allies using corrupt tactics in trying to overthrow American democracy. Trump failed in his evil efforts. Now, it is the Justice Department's job and responsibility to handle business and make sure that accountability is the order of the day.
The trial against FOX News from Dominion Voting Systems shows emails showing that FOX News fact checks. The emails show that FOX News looked into misinformation that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged the presidential election against Donald Trump (which is a lie). These lies were promoted by many pundits from FOX News. FOX News may see its anchors and CEO testifying. This is an open and shut defamation case. There is no ambiguity about what is going on. Many people in FOX News defamed Dominion Voting Systems constantly. That is why even media journalists have said that FOX News is in trouble. I remember years ago when FOX News said that they were "Fair and Balanced." Even back then, I knew that to be a lie. Now, with FOX News being Trump TV, it just shows how FOX News is just plain wrong on many levels. Dominion wants $1.6 billion in damages from FOX News. David Clark, FOX News' senior vice president for weekend news and programming admitted in a deposition on October 21, 2022, that that its "brain room" said that the charges against Dominion were false and should have never been aired. So, propagandists from FOX are antithetical to the sincere journalists who make it their business to show the true to the people.
Wisdom comes about daily. This following information is what I found out about my distant cousins in late March of 2023. To start, my ancestor who was Nanny Woodson had a child with Mike Bozeman named Winny Woodson. Nanny Woodson passed away in ca. 1805. Her children lived in a place in Southampton County, Virginia. Her children lived in 95 acres of cleared land. Winny Woodson married a black American freeman named Burwell Williams. Burwell Williams and Winny Woodson owned a lot of farmland in Virginia. One of their children were John Burwell Williams. John Burwell Williams married a woman named Mary. The couple had many children (who were James Williams, Elizabeth Williams, John Williams, Romine Williams, Anna Williams, Susan Williams, George Williams, Nicholas Williams, and Lucy Williams), and one of them was Mary L. Williams (and I saw a picture of her or my late 1st cousin). Mary L. Williams had many children with Eddie Drew Kello. One of their children was Rosa W. Peterson (1887-1966). Rosa W. Peterson was a tall woman, and she married James Edward Peterson (1885-1945). One of their children was Eunice Roberta Peterson (1928-1992). She was born in Courtland, Southampton County, Virginia. She married William Thomas Westbrook Jr. (1929-2002) at Courtland, Virginia on January 3, 1952. Their children and my 4th cousins are: Valerie Leona Westbrook (b. 1958. She worked in the Portsmouth, Virginia Public School system), Byron Eugence Westbrook (b. 1959. He is married to Lona M. Westbrook [b.1957] and their daughter is Tamara Yveeta Westbook [b. 1984]), William Thomas Westbrook III (1961-1997), and Angie Rose Westbrook Gilchrist (b. 1966. She is married to Pervis Gilchrist).
By Timothy
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
The news in Nashville and other topics.
Some breaking news is that 3 children and 3 adults were killed at a Nashville school. The school is called the Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school. The murderer was a 28-year-old Nashville woman. She was armed with at least 2 assault style rifles and a handgun. The police believe that she was once a student at the school. She was killed during gunfire with the police. This shooting on Monday is the 129th mass shooting in America so far in 2023. No industrialized nation on Earth has this amount of mass shootings except America. This mass shooting shows that we have an epidemic of gun violence in America. This is a societal problem, and we desire change now. Guns are not gods that should be worshiped as false idols. Evil people with guns have murdered people constantly. We don't want victims of gun violence at all. That is why sensible gun regulations are important to be made into federal law beyond token policies. Babies being murdered, and you still have cowards refusing to promote gun control policies to save lives. The murderers aren't the only ones to be blamed for these realities. People who condone the status quo are responsible for this reality too.
There is new family tree information that I have found on the date of March 27, 2023. First, Zilphy Claud was my 5th great grandmother. One of her children was my 4th great grandmother Sarah Claud. Sarah Claud was once a slave at the Rose Hill plantation in Southampton County, Virginia. She married a freeman named Tom Hill, and this family had many children. One of their children was Susanna Sarah M. Hill (who was born in 1867). She married Nelson Harris on December 22, 1868, during the days of Reconstruction. One of their children was Andrew Harris (1892-1984). Andrew Harris married Emma Mason Harris (1893-1980). Later, the couple had many children including a child named Bessie Elizabeth Harris (1914-1968). She married Samuel Westly Johnson Sr. There children are my 3rd cousins Marien Ardell Johnson (1941-2013) and Samuel W. Johnson Jr. (1946-2011). Samuel W. Johnson Jr. married Marilyn Grace Jones (1948-2007) on June 17, 1967, at Norfolk, Virginia.
Their son is my 4th cousin Kevin Johnson. Marien Ardell Johnson married Willie Benable on December 22, 1960, at Portsmouth, Virginia. This family moved into the Midwestern city of Detroit, Michigan. Detroit has a lot of history and culture, especially as it pertains to African American people. Their children are Garry Benable (b. 1960), Kirsty Evelyn Venable (b. 1962), and Annazette Sarah Venable (b. 1963). My 4th cousin Annazette Sarah Venable married James Kelly. Their children are my fifth cousins who are Sarah Kelly (b. 1995), Myah Kelly (b. 1998), and Arianna Kelly (b. 2001). Arianna Kelly has been in the United States Air Force as a grown woman. Also, Kirsty Evelyn Venable is a well-known attorney and lawyer from Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from Michigan State University (Bachelor of Science) and earned another degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School (Juris Doctor). Therefore, we know that lifelong wisdom exists constantly in our lives.
Massive protests in Israel over the opposition to the authoritarian judicial policies of Netanyahu is amazing and inspirational. When I was a teenager back in the 1990's, I heard of Netanyahu being a hardliner in Israel back then. Now, the Israeli government is dominated by far-right extremists. The good news is that progressive Israelis, Palestinians, and other human beings are letting their voices to be heard in fighting for real democratic social change. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he is temporarily suspending action by the Israeli Parliament (or the Knesset). He wanted to make a coup d'état against the country's judicial system to make it an ultra-right arm of the state. Street protests on Sunday and a walk out on Monday was historic. Many airports, shipping, transport, manufacturing, utilities, schools, day care, and universities were affected. Netanyahu admitted that Israel is on the brink of "civil war." The working class has been protesting strongly as well. To make this revolution real, then Jewish and Arabic people will have to unite to not only end an authoritarian, far right regime in Israel. There is no freedom in capitalist exploitation as history teaches us. We have to end the occupation of the Palestinian people (so, they can have their rightfully true independence), we have to end imperialism in the Middle East, and we have to promote peace in the region for Jewish people, Arabic people, and all people in the region indeed.
By Timothy
Monday, March 27, 2023
Analysis.
Genius is a word that accurately describes his longevity. For almost one century of living a dynamic life, W.E.B. DuBois fought for racial and economic justice, collaborated with fellow icons (like Ida B. Wells, Trotter, and Paul Robeson), and advanced the advocacy of the unity of people of black African descent sincerely. His revolutionary fervor for real social change dramatically increased as he has gotten older as a black human being. His contributions and intellectual insights into sociological research (from studying the black lives of the city of Philadelphia to recording to history of the Reconstruction era accurately) has been extraordinary. DuBois presented to the world non-stereotypical portraits of black American life in many spaces from a Chicago Fair to the NAACP's Crisis magazine. No human is perfect, and we know fully of DuBois' errors (i.e. his promotion of the Talented Tenth concept). Yet, W.E.B. DuBois is 100 percent right on tons of issues like being anti-imperialist, for being in favor of voting rights, for exposing the contradictions and weaknesses of capitalism, and desiring black liberation in the Motherland of Africa including worldwide. He not only studied history, philosophy, economics, and sociology in Berlin, in Massachusetts, in Atlanta, in Nashville, and in Washington, D.C. W.E.B. DuBois was an active participant in expressing heroic opposition to racism, discrimination, lynching, economic oppression, and colonialism. DuBois loved Africa so much that he lived in Accra, Ghana where he transitioned at the age of 95 years old (with then intention to write an encyclopedia about Africa and black culture in general). DuBois was praised by tons of people from Dr. King, Cornell West, and other human beings. Now, W.E.B. DuBois's legacy and wisdom will continue to embolden our minds in fighting for the Dream to be made real for our generation including future, subsequent generations as well.
It has been sixty years since the historic 1963 March on Washington existed. It was a major event of the American Civil Rights Movement, of the black freedom struggle, and of the overall human rights movement in general. Over two hundred thousand human beings came into Washington, D.C. from buses, planes, trains, cars, and by other means. Speeches were made from John Lewis to Daisy Bates (a civil rights activist from Little Rock, Arkansas), hope was widespread in the atmosphere, and there was a contagious, stirring energy filled with inspiration. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech to not only have hope for racial justice, but Dr. King condemned American racism as contributing to a society filled with nefarious, wicked injustices (like police brutality and poverty). He compared the corrupt system to false promissory note marked insufficient funds. The dream of the march existed back during the 1940's. Back then, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin wanted the desegregation of the wartime industries being caused by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt or there will be a march on Washington. FDR conceded, because FDR didn't want more controversies to be made manifest during the midst of World War II. Yet, A. Philip Randolph always wanted an actual March on Washington to happen in confronting racial injustice and economic oppression. He had his wish by August of 1963. John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and other human beings organized the march. It has its problems like the march restricted many women voices unfairly, Malcolm X classified the rally as a liberal establishment puppet show, and many speeches were whitewashed or sugarcoated to please the Kennedy administration's politically correct sensibilities. The strengths of the March on Washington were that it was very peaceful, it energized the crowds of people, and it was a major catalyst for the passage of civil rights and voting rights legislation in the United States of America. It took a team of men, women, and children of every color to establish the 1963 March on Washington to be a great success. Likewise, we have a long way to go to make the Dream real.
There are many situations that developed with the Waco tragedy. Waco happened in early 1993 when I was in elementary school. By February 28, 1993, about 100 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raid the compound near Waco, Texas. Four agents and an unknown number of cult members are killed in a gun battle. Cult leader David Koresh is among those wounded. Four children are released. The federal agents wanted to execute arrest and search warrants against David Koresh and the Branch Davidian compound. On that day, the FBI becomes the head agency involved in resolving the standoff.
By March 1, 1993, 10 children are released, and Koresh spoke on radio. By March 2, two women and six children were released. Koresh promised to surrender if a lengthy taped statement was broadcast. His "sermon" is broadcast on radio and TV, but Koresh didn't give up. On March 3, federal agents said that Koresh will surrender when he received "further instruction from God." Two more children leave the compound on March 4th and 5th, 1993. By March 12, two adults left the compound. The FBI started to use loudspeakers to blare tapes of negotiations to the cultists on March 18. Two cultists leave the compound on March 19, 1993. Seven cultists leave on March 21, and authorities blast the compound with chants of Tibetan monks on March 22. One cult member left the compound on March 23. March 24, 1993, was the turning point. On that date, David Koresh broke off negotiations with authorities. By April 14, 1993, David Koresh sent out word that he will surrender after writing a manuscript which he reveals the contents of the Seven Seals, referred to in the Book of Revelations (found in the New Testament of the Bible). On April 16, the FBI agent said that the agency has its own time schedule and won't wait forever for Koresh to give up. April 19, 1993, was when the Davidian compound burned to the ground after FBI agents in an armored vehicle smash the buildings and pump in tear gas. By April 23, 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton defending the government handling of the Branch Davidian case but promised a full investigation. The first body in the rubble identified was Koresh's brother in law law, David Michael Jones. The Texas Department of Public Safety said that the hunt for bodies had ended with 72 human beings being recovered. By May 2, the Justice of the Peace David Pareya announced that dental records and X-rays confirm that Koresh's body was found, with a gunshot wound to the forehead (which could be a sign of suicide). To this very day, the federal government said that they did nothing wrong. On July 21, 2000, after a 10-month investigation, Danforth issued a preliminary report said that the federal agents didn't start the fire, direct gunfire at the complex, or improperly employ U.S. armed forces. He or Danforth blamed the tragedy on the Branch Davidians and David Koresh. There is no question that David Koresh was a false Messiah and was an evil male whose actions have no justification. David Koresh was no hero as he was a pedophile and sexual abuser too. Ultimately, Koresh is responsible for his death and the deaths of innocent civilians in the Waco compound. Yet, to assume that the federal government did everything right with no alternatives in my opinion is fantasy. Even Danforth conceded that an FBI agent fired three pyrotechnic tea gas rounds at a concrete pit 75 feet from the living quarters of the compound. Danforth said that the rounds didn't start the fire, but it was negligence.
By Timothy
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Friday, March 24, 2023
Time Going Onward.
We live in a new generation. We are near the year of 2030, and we find that wealth concentration in the world has not been dissipated. When you have market concentration, there is less competition for customers, higher prices for consumers, and corporate profits at a 70 year high, then you have more political power for corporations and the rich. There are record stock buybacks and higher shareholder value too. The super wealthy paying their fair share of taxation will result in America having the resources to afford to pay for family leave, childcare, student loan forgiveness, universal health care, etc. As for student loans, back in the day, people only paid from 100-300 dollars of tuition per year. Today, people usually pay from 5,000-10,000 dollar of tuition per year (and that is just for smaller to medium sized universities. It's much higher for Harvard, Yale, etc.). So, society has to be better than what it is now.
The Special Counsel wants to hear from Mike Pence, but Pence wants to play a dance where he is hesitant to testify and claims that Trump is unfairly targeted. The reality is that Trump is not being unfairly targeted by his habitual lying and overtly anti-democratic actions. Mike Pence may be required to testify before the grand jury. Mike Pence is the person who was threatened with lynching during January 6th by Trump voters at the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. Donald Trump making overtly offensive remarks about the Manhattan DA (by calling him an animal) is just him using language showing his arrogance and racism. Trump lying by saying that this legal investigation about him is worse than the Gestapo is blatantly anti-Semitism and trivializes the evil of the Holocaust. This situation is allowing our democracy to be maintained and making sure that legal accountability is forthright, thorough, without partisan politics, and making sure that the will of the people is enriched.
When people say that humans have electricity in their bodies, these people are right. In fact, every cell in a living human body has a tiny electric charge. There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body, and each cell on average has 70 millivolts or 0.07 volts. The Neurons and glial cells can carry electrical signals too. Inside every cell in the human body, there is tiny energy producing like power plants called mitochondria. Mitochondria helps to convert the food we eat and the air we breathe into ATP, or a special type of fuel that powers our cells and us humans too. Cells can capture and release energy too via cellular respiration (requiring oxygen) and fermentation (which doesn't require oxygen). There is power in the cells, power in DNA (which is a molecule that modern scientists have documented is a storage of some of the greatest information in the Universe ties to us human beings), and power in you. That is why the human body functions in ways that we take for granted, because every organ system of the body has a purpose and a role for our health and lives.
Yesterday was the Birthday of Sister Chaka Khan, and she is 70 years old. Chaka Khan was the previous generation’s version of Beyonce in terms of talent, charisma, and many people had crushes on her. Chaka Khan's vocal ability is incredible being one of the greatest vocalists in all of music history. Chaka Khan is an icon of music who not only had great music but spoke out on how people were disrespectful by playing music in the same hotel where Whitney Houston passed away. She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her family was filled with artistic type of people. She was raised in the Hyde Park area. Her sister, Yvonne and her brother, Mark, made music constantly. Her grandmother introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan was a fan of R&B music as a preteen. She had her own girl group called the Crystalettes, which included her sister Taka. By the late 1960’s, Chaka Khan attended many civil rights rallies with her father’s second wife (who was Connie). Chaka Khan joined the Black Panthers when she was a teenager. Khan left the organization in 1969.
She joined the group Rufus, and the rest is history. Rufus had the classic song of Tell Me Something Good by 1974. They had other songs like You Got the Love, etc. She had more albums with Rufus like Masterjam and Ask Rufus. Chaka Khan was gifted with some of the most gifted and talented voices in history. Chaka Khan had her debut solo album called Chaka in 1978 with songs like I’m Every Woman and Stuff Like That. Many of us know of the song I Feel for You in 1984 with hip hop music too. Stevie Wonder had a harmonica solo for the song too. Grandmaster Melle Mel was in the song too. Through the Fire and This is My Night were popular too. On Quincy Jones’s Back on the Block album, she had the song I’ll Be Good to You (which was a cover of the The Brothers Johnson’s song of the same name). The song had Ray Charles and Quincy Jones on it in 1990. Chaka Khan made more songs in the 1990’s and the 21st century. Her new single was Woman Like Me by July of 2022. Chaka Khan is now a vegan. Chaka Khan has been a role model for the newer generation of musicians who are establishing their mark in history and culture. She earned 10 Grammy Awards, including 2 as a member of Rufus. Chaka Khan is a gorgeous black woman who made great achievements by her own merit and talent. Now, she is a woman who made history and is the Queen of Funk truly as an inspiration. I wish Sister Chaka Khan more Blessings.
By Timothy
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Political Developments in Late March of 2023.
Trump was wrong in his prediction that he would be indicted on Tuesday. Yet, his House GOP allies want to stop him from being indicted in New York City, Georgia, and in D.C. They want Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's testimony and want to stop his investigation involved the alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump's actions have a guilt complex, because making false predictions, refusing to take accountability, and desiring no indictments outline his fear of the truth coming out. Trump's lawyer in Georgia wants a new filing. We know that Trump spoke on tape in trying to cause the Georgia election to go his way which is immoral. People are waiting what the grand juries will do in Georgia and in New York state. Drew Findling is Trump's lawyer in Georgia desiring to throw out any possible indictment against Trump because of one grand juror's comments in the media. Yet, free speech doesn't apply to an attempt to steal an election in Georgia.
Trump's legal team fights the probes in New York and Georgia at the same time. Michael Cohen has been a huge witness in the New York case. Donald Trump is being accused to trying to steal the election in Georgia and paying hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. The Manhattan District Attorney must decide to indict Trump or not. Recently, the Trump ally Costello (he claims that Michael Cohen paid money to Stormy Daniels on his own. Michael Cohen denies this) spoke about his experience after his grand jury appearance. Donald Trump is desperate to claim that he didn't anything wrong. The reality is that Trump glorified violence for years, he refused to follow legal subpoenas, and he is a habitual liar. When he was asked questions by investigators, he pled the Fifth Amendment tons of times. This is not a sign of an innocent person. This is a sign of a person who has something to hide. Manhattan District Attorney Alivn Bragg has a huge responsibility. He is part of history.
Recently, Chinese President Xi meet with President Putin in Moscow. China and Russia have an economic and political alliance, because they want a multipolar world with America, China, and Russia having equal influences globally. The American government wants America to have a preeminent role in foreign policy affairs, especially among American allies. They disagree on the future of geopolitics is real. China is increasing its influence in Africa, the Caribbean, Russia, and other nations. America is working with Japan, Australia, and even Vietnam for a military and political alliance against Chinese economic growth in the world. The paradox is that America and China have massive political disagreements, but both nations have economic links spanning decades. They are economically interconnected in an overt fashion. China has a large naval system, army, and airforce. President Xi wants a balancing act to fund Russia but have some trade dealings with the West in a competitive fashion.
Many corporate monopolies seek wealth and power at the expense of workers and human beings at in general. Many of these monopolies block workers from desiring better work conditions and even living wages. No one can survive successful with 7 dollars an hour, but that is the federal minimum wage. Most Americans desire a higher living wage federally and nationwide. Some of these monopolies harm the economy by depriving growing businesses of talented people and even trying to harm other economic entities. Raising interest rates doesn't work now from the FED. It puts the burden on fighting inflation mostly on working class people. That is why many people want a windfall profit tax, price controls, and antitrust enforcement. The massive economic inequality in the world now has no justification. This centralization of the wealth causes political corruption, economic instability, and a situation where poverty persists massive in many quarters of the world.
Protests continue across France over the National Assembly accepting Marcon's pension cuts without a vote. Protesters, both young and older people, have protested in front of the French police. Macron's cuts are adopted as law without a parliamentary vote, which is blatantly anti-democratic. Millions of people have gone out to the streets to oppose the pension plan. There are more strikes among airline, rail, and refinery workers. Now, fuel shortages are in southeastern France. A nationwide protest strike is being planned on March 23, 2023. This time saw a worldwide increase of the labor rights movement from America to France including other places of the world. The Macron administration has launched a brutal police crackdown on the protests all over France. Riot police armed with plastic shields, pistols, and assault rifles fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and brutally beat protesters, including women, with batons. There are clashes in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lyon, Paris, and in other places. Many people are fighting back against the austerity measures in America (there is the recent Los Angeles teachers' strike going on), France, the UK, Belgium, Greece, and worldwide.
By Timothy
Monday, March 20, 2023
Information on the first Day of Spring (in 2023).
There is a connection between the beginning of time and the present. As advances in quantum physics and science in general advance, we see how the Universe is much more complex and larger than previously assumed. Once upon a time, we thought that atoms were the smallest unit of matter. Now, we know about quarks being smaller than atoms. When the Big Bang happened, it didn't exist from nothing. It existed from a superior Mind and Power Energy that conceived of it in my view. We know that all matter has an origin, and the human mind can create thoughts and actions via many actions. Therefore, it isn't extreme to assume that the Supreme Intelligent Mind and Power (which is Almighty God) caused the universe to exist in the first place. For anything to exist, you have to have motion, quarks, atoms, and various conditions for things to form. Even the Bible says, as a person thinks, so that person is. Thoughts and emotions cause actions and behavior among human beings. That is why Yeshua said the Kingdom of God is within you. That means if you want change, you have to plan and think about things to create change (along with respecting God and doing the right thing).
More and more scientists are coming out to believe that an atom is like a miniature Universe, and the Universe is like a large scale of an atom. The Universe is based on an image of electromagnetic waves, atoms, and many natural energies that are in constant motion. That is why many physicists believe in the hologram theory in describing the Universe. Even solid matter technically isn't exactly solid, because atoms are mostly empty space in reality. When Yeshua is said that the Kingdom of God is within you, he means also that the same substances in the universe are within you. He is absolutely right. You are made from the same stardust, elements, atoms, and other chemicals that the Universe was created from. Part of the dynamic parts of the Universe and human beings relate to fractals. Fractals (found in the Fibonacci numerical concept) are in Nature, mathematics, and in human beings too. The structure of an atom is similar to the structure of the Solar System and the galaxy in a pattern. So, the universe is fractal, even DNA is fractal. There is no such thing as no motion in the Universe as the first law of thermodynamics says that energy is not destroyed or created, it just transformed into something different. The Universe is made up of vibrating energy. Matter is energy in a certain vibration. All atoms have energy, therefore human beings obviously have energy. More 21st century scientists are now saying that there are much more than four dimensions.
One of the greatest parts of human beings is DNA. DNA is an important molecule that is filled with information necessary to build human life. DNA works with RNA in dealing with proteins (Amino acids form proteins), and DNA is found in the nucleus of a cell (for the most part. A small amount of DNA is found in the mitochondria where it's called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA). DNA is a storage medium like a USB drive. One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. That is why modern-day scientists are trying to use DNA technology now to store more information. We know that Microsoft recently created has a partial DNA storage system or like a DNA digital hard drive. This first fully automated DNA data storage helps to save tons of information. We know that among 14 generations can hold onto epigenetic memories in DNA according to scientists. DNA sends wireless signals. DNA can emit two types of waves including electromatic waves (EMS) and topoisomerase like ones. EMS carry messages of a DNA and help it to communicate with other DNAs and also pure water. Topoisomerase like waves open packings of DNA and copy its genetic material. In the journal of International Journal of Radiation Biology, Martin Blank and Reba Goodman believe that DNA is a fractal antenna in electromagnetic fields. There is a human energy field. Humans can only see a small spectrum of light in the electromagnetic wavelength.
The telomeres in DNA contribute to aging as the more we age, the more the telomeres degrade. Aging effects the organs and other aspects of the human body which is why healthy eating, exercise, reduction in stress, and other actions contributes to strengthening human DNA and making aging much slower. Harvard scientists have used gene therapy to reverse the aging process of elderly mice involving DNA now (Jae-Hyun Yang is the co-author of the study). PBS has shown information on gene editing with CRISPR. In other words, DNA has tons of information as the Universe is filled with information too. The human brain is so complex that it has magnetite crystals. These are in the brain being clumps of a mineral composed of iron oxide that is naturally magnetic (called magnetic minerals). Some scientists say that they exist because of air pollution or other reasons. There is rhythm in the Universe, especially in Nature. For example, there is the Schumann resonance being a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. They exist around the Earth's surface and ionosphere. People study the Schumann resonance to study weather patterns and other aspects of how the Earth functions. Also, we have scientific evidence proves that people living a less stressful life filled with love improve DNA wavelength function and live longer lives (in rejecting permanent fear causing DNA to exist in a higher frequency). The Earth sends off electromagnetic waves constantly. That is energy. Dr. James Gates Jr. has researched the adinkra codes (that the Akan people from Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana have researched by the early 1800's) in trying to explain reality and supersymmetric particles. Every thought from the brain comes out as light waves. That is why you study STEM at a higher level, you see how complex the Universe's dimensions are. In everything that happens in the Universe, there is a cause and effect. In other words, you are jumping and falling on Earth is caused by gravity preventing you from flying into the air. From a stone to the sun, all matter has energy filled with electrons, protons, and neutrons with electromagnetic fields. There are natural laws that deal with how the Universe functions like the law of gravity, the conservation of mass, Newton laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. Therefore, real change has to done with taking positive action in the real world. You have to build, act, confront evil, promote goodness, and do the right thing to make a difference. That is just straight up fact. In having a desire, there are requirements in how to get what you want (requirements exist in Nature and in other facets of society). You can't do anything and wish for manna. You have to work for it, be honest, be sincere, and live life. You are required to learn things, grow, and develop your mind to fight for real change in society. If you need help, there is no shame in getting help.
We aren't meant to have mental chains. In my view, human beings are living, fractal, mathematically based bio-chemical beings (a high percentage of our body is water, and water is a tetrahedron structure as a water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom) with a lot of energy filled with a body, mind, and spirit created by God. As for water, the entire surface of a DNA double helix is coated with layers of water molecules. This water attaches to the genetic material via hydrogen bonds, made by sharing hydrogen atoms between molecules. Through hydrogen bonds, water an influence how DNA takes shape and interacts with other molecules. We need water to survive as human beings literally. Is consciousness real? Yes, you think, you breathe, you live, and you act, therefore you have consciousness. We are meant to be free.
To understand W.E.B. DuBois's life, you have to look at his life chronologically. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, at Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Alfred and Mary Silvinia (nee Burghardt) Du Bois. Alfred left Mary in 1870, two years after their son William was born. Mary Du Bois moved with her son back to her parents' house in Great Barrington, and they lived there until he was five. She worked to support her family (receiving some assistance from her brother and neighbors), until she suffered a stroke in the early 1880s. DuBois's mother passed away in 1885 at Massachusetts. DuBois worked hard in his life and neighbors donated him money, so her would attend Fisk University from 1885 to 1888. Fisk University is a famous historically black college and university found at Nashville, Tennessee. He earned a bachelor's degree from Fisk. He attended Harvard University (in Massachusetts) from 1888 to 1890 where he ws strongly influenced by his professor William James, who was a prominent scholar in American philosophy. By the 1890's, Philadelphia's black neighborhood were negatively stereotyped as field with crime, poverty, and mortality. Du Bois wrote a book that refuted the negative stereotypes with empirical evidence and shaped his approach to segregation and its negative impact on black lives and reputations. The results led Du Bois to believe in his mind that racial integration was the key to democratic equality in American cities. In 1891, Du Bois received a scholarship to attend the sociology graduate school at Harvard. In 1892, Du Bois received a fellowship from the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen to attend the University of Berlin for graduate work. By the summer of 1894, Du Bois had many job offers, including one from the great Tuskegee Institute. He decided to accept a teaching job at Wilberforce University in Ohio. He was influenced heavily by Alexander Crummel at Wilberforce University. Crummell believed that ideas and morals are necessary tools to effect social change. After returning from Europe, Du Bois completed his graduate studies; in 1895 he was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
While at Wilberforce, Du Bois married Nina Gomer, one of his students, on May 12, 1896. After two years at Wilberforce, Du Bois accepted a one-year research job from the University of Pennsylvania as an "assistant in sociology" in the summer of 1896. While taking part in the American Negro Academy (ANA) in 1897, Du Bois presented a paper in which he rejected Frederick Douglass's plea for black Americans to integrate into white society. He wrote: "we are Negroes, members of a vast historic race that from the very dawn of creation has slept, but half awakening in the dark forests of its African fatherland." By July of 1897, Du Bois moved from Philadelphia to live in Atlanta, Georgia. He took a professorship in history and economics at the historically black Atlanta University. In the August 1897 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Du Bois published "Strivings of the Negro People," his first work aimed at the general public, in which he enlarged upon his thesis that African Americans should embrace their African heritage while contributing to American society. Sam Hose was lynched near Atlanta in 1899. After that, everything changed for DuBois. Hose was tortured, burned, and hung by a mob of 2,000 racist white people. DuBois was inspired to fight for greater activism in his life. When walking through Atlanta to discuss the lynching with newspaper editor Joel Chandler Harris, Du Bois encountered Hose's burned knuckles in a storefront display. The episode stunned Du Bois, and he resolved that "one could not be a calm, cool, and detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered, and starved". Du Bois realized that "the cure wasn't simply telling people the truth, it was inducing them to act on the truth."
W.E.B. DuBois always wanted to fight against stereotypes against African Americans. That is why he was the primary organizer of The Exhibit of American Negroes at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris between April and November 1900, for which he put together a series of 363 photographs aiming to commemorate the lives of African Americans at the turn of the century and challenge the racist caricatures and stereotypes of the day. W.E.B. DuBois was a long proponent of Pan-Africanism, so he attended the First Pan-African Conference, held in London from July 23 to 25, 1900. By the 1900's, he was one of the most famous black leaders in America along with Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, etc. In 1901, Du Bois wrote a review critical of Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery. The irony is that DuBois and Washington were cordial in their disagreements. Both men were right on many issues and wrong on other issues. For example, Booker T. Washington was right to promote industry, agriculture, and the building of institutions in the black community. He was inaccurate in some of his immigration and pro-capitalist views. DuBois was right to fight for social and political including economic justice. He was right to oppose imperialism. He was wrong to promote his Talented Tenth precept (as power in the black community shouldn't be concentrated into 10 percent of the community. Power should be equitable distributed). In an effort to portray the genius and humanity of the black race, Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk (1903), a collection of 14 essays. The Soul of Black Folks wrote that black Americans have both the African and American consciousness, and we are trying to reconcile the two. In 1905, Du Bois and several other African-American civil rights activists – including Fredrick L. McGhee, Jesse Max Barber and William Monroe Trotter – met in Canada, near Niagara Falls. There they wrote a declaration of principles opposing the Atlanta Compromise, and incorporated as the Niagara Movement in 1906. The Niagara Movment started the birth or the creation of the NAACP.
Du Bois and the other "Niagarites" wanted to publicize their ideals to other African Americans, but most black periodicals were owned by publishers sympathetic to Washington. Du Bois bought a printing press and started publishing Moon Illustrated Weekly in December 1905. The Niagarites held a second conference in August 1906, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's birth, at the West Virginia site of Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. President Teddy Roosevelt dishonorably discharged 167 black soldiers because they were accused of crimes as a result of the Brownsville Affair. Many of the discharged soldiers had served for 20 years and were near retirement. Even Booker T. Washington wanted the black soldiers to not be in prison. This inspired Washington to fight for voting rights for black Americans just before his passing. In September, riots broke out in Atlanta, precipitated by unfounded allegations of black men assaulting white women. This was a catalyst for racial tensions based on a job shortage and employers playing black workers against white workers. Ten thousand whites rampaged through Atlanta, beating every black person they could find, resulting in over 25 deaths. This was on Saturday, September 22, 1906.
In the aftermath of the 1906 violence, Du Bois urged black human beings to withdraw their support from the Republican Party, because Republicans Roosevelt and William Howard Taft did not sufficiently support black people. Most African Americans had been loyal to the Republican Party since the time of Abraham Lincoln. Du Bois soon founded and edited another vehicle for his polemics, The Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line, which debuted in 1907. Freeman H. M. Murray and Lafayette M. Hershaw served as The Horizon's co-editors. In May 1909, Du Bois attended the National Negro Conference in New York. The meeting led to the creation of the National Negro Committee, chaired by Oswald Villard, and dedicated to campaigning for civil rights, equal voting rights, and equal educational opportunities. Du Bois was the first African American invited by the American Historical Association (AHA) to present a paper at their annual conference. He read his paper, Reconstruction and Its Benefits, to an astounded audience at the AHA's December 1909 conference. NAACP leaders offered Du Bois the position of Director of Publicity and Research. He accepted the job in the summer of 1910, and moved to New York after resigning from Atlanta University. DuBois edited The Crisis in 1910. This was the NAACP's monthly magazine. Its first issue appeared in November of 1910 and DuBois wanted to expose the dangers of race prejudice. In 1911 Du Bois attended the First Universal Races Congress in London and he published his first novel, The Quest of the Silver Fleece. DuBois, Trotter, and other activists were leaders in fighting to ban and boycott the racist film of The Birth of a Nation in 1915 (which is possibly the most racist film in all of human history. It was a silent film that showed black people as brutish, unintelligent, and lustful of trying to rape white women). During the years 1915 and 1916, some leaders of the NAACP – disturbed by financial losses at The Crisis, and worried about the inflammatory rhetoric of some of its essays – attempted to oust Du Bois from his editorial position. Du Bois and his supporters prevailed, and he continued in his role as editor.
By 1916, there was the Waco Horror article. It was about the lynching of a mentally impaired 17-year-old African American teenager named Jesse Washington. This article exposed the conduct of local racist whites in Waco, Texas using undercover reporting. W.E.B. DuBois wanted black Americans to fight in WWI, so democracy can be made in America. His colleague, NAACP member Joel Spingarn formed a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States military. Obviously, after WWI, democracy was not given to black Americans completely at all. By July of 1917, there was the East St. Louis, Illinois riots. Du Bois traveled to St. Louis to report on the riots. Between 40 and 250 African Americans were massacred by whites, primarily due to resentment caused by St. Louis industry hiring black people to replace striking white workers. People protested this racist pogrom against black people. To publicly demonstrate the black community's outrage over the riots, Du Bois organized the Silent Parade, a march of around 9,000 African Americans down New York City's Fifth Avenue, the first parade of its kind in New York, and the second instance of blacks publicly demonstrating for civil rights. There was the Houston riot of 1917. It started when Houston police officers arrested and beat 2 black soldiers. In response, over 100 black soldiers took to the streets in Houston and acted in self-defense. 16 white people died. A military court martial was held, and 19 of the soldiers were hung, and 67 others were imprisoned. In spite of the Houston riot, Du Bois and others successfully pressed the Army to accept the officers trained at Spingarn's camp, resulting in over 600 black officers joining the Army in October 1917. When the war ended, Du Bois traveled to Europe in 1919 to attend the first Pan-African Congress (on Wednesday, February 19, 1919, at Paris, France) and to interview African American soldiers for a planned book on their experiences in World War I. Red Summer took place in 1919. This was about massive attacks on black Americans nationwide by white racists. This came after the start of the First Migration when African Americans wanted job and economic opportunities in the North. In a 1919 column titled "The True Brownies", he announced the creation of The Brownies' Book, the first magazine published for African-American children and youth, which he founded with Augustus Granville Dill and Jessie Redmon Fauset.
DuBois documented the atrocities against black people in The Crisis. Infuriated with the distortions, Du Bois published a letter in the New York World, claiming that the only crime the black sharecroppers had committed was daring to challenge their white landlords by hiring an attorney to investigate contractual irregularities. He wrote the first of his three autobiographies in 1920 called Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. Du Bois traveled to Europe in August 1921 to attend the second Pan-African Congress. The assembled black leaders from around the world issued the London Resolutions and established a Pan-African Association headquarters in Paris. Under Du Bois's guidance, the resolutions insisted on racial equality, and that Africa be ruled by Africans (not, as in the 1919 congress, with the consent of Africans). The Crisis was the preeminent periodical of the civil rights movement back then, but its circulation declines to 60,000 in 1923 from 100,000 during the height of WWI. In 1923, President Coolidge designated Du Bois an "Envoy Extraordinary" to Liberia and – after the third congress concluded – Du Bois rode a German freighter from the Canary Islands to Africa, visiting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal. W.E.B. DuBois visited the Soviet Union by 1926. Back then, DuBois believed in socialism but disagreed with Stalin's totalitarianism. At Chicago, there was President Coolidge who designated Du Bois an "Envoy Extraordinary" to Liberia and – after the third congress concluded – Du Bois rode a German freighter from the Canary Islands to Africa, visiting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal. By 1931, there was a rivalry emerged in 1931 between the NAACP and the Communist Party, when the Communists responded quickly and effectively to support the Scottsboro Boys, nine African American youth arrested in 1931 in Alabama for rape.
Du Bois did not have a good working relationship with Walter Francis White, president of the NAACP since 1931. That conflict, combined with the financial stresses of the Great Depression, precipitated a power struggle over The Crisis. Du Bois, concerned that his position as editor would be eliminated, resigned his job at The Crisis and accepted an academic position at Atlanta University in early 1933. W.E.B. DuBois published his magnum opus called Black Reconstruction in America in 1935. It was the study of Reconstruction. He once presented a paper on it to the American Historical Association in 1910. He proposed a proposed encyclopedia on black history by 1938. His 2nd autobiography was published in 1940 called Dusk of Dawn. In 1943, at the age of 76, Du Bois was abruptly fired from his position at Atlanta University by college president Rufus Clement. Turning down job offers from Fisk and Howard, Du Bois re-joined the NAACP as director of the Department of Special Research. Surprising many NAACP leaders, Du Bois jumped into the job with vigor and determination. This was in 1943. W.E.B. DuBois opposed the Axis Powers during WWII. On Wednesday, April 25, 1945, Du Bois was a member of the three-person delegation from the NAACP that attended the 1945 conference in San Francisco at which the United Nations was established. By 1945, at Manchester, UK, Du Bois attended the fifth and final, Pan-African Congress. When the Cold War commenced in the mid-1940s, the NAACP distanced itself from Communists, lest its funding or reputation suffer. The NAACP redoubled their efforts in 1947 after Life magazine published a piece by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. claiming that the NAACP was heavily influenced by Communists. The NAACP leadership wanted DuBois to not have friendship with Communist revolutionaries like Paul Robeson, Howard Fast, and Shirley Graham (his future second wife). DuBois refused this as these were his friends. DuBois wrote that, ""I am not a communist ... On the other hand, I ... believe ... that Karl Marx ... put his finger squarely upon our difficulties ..."
The FBI by this time illegally monitored W.E.B. DuBois. He resigned from the NAACP for the second time in late 1948. In 1949, Du Bois spoke at the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace in New York: "I tell you, people of America, the dark world is on the move! It wants and will have Freedom, Autonomy and Equality. It will not be diverted in these fundamental rights by dialectical splitting of political hairs ... Whites may, if they will, arm themselves for suicide. But the vast majority of the world's peoples will march on over them to freedom!" Nina Gomer died in 1950. In 1950, at the age of 82, Du Bois ran for U.S. Senator from New York on the American Labor Party ticket and received about 200,000 votes, or 4% of the statewide total. He married Shirley Graham in 1952. The U.S. government prevented Du Bois from attending the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia. This was on Monday, April 18, 1955. The Bandung Conference was about people of color (from Africa to Asia) desiring independence from the Soviet Communists and from America in dealing with their nationalist movements. Nkrumah invited Du Bois to Ghana to participate in their independence celebration in 1957, but he was unable to attend because the U.S. government had confiscated his passport in 1951. In 1958, Du Bois regained his passport, and with his second wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, he traveled around the world, visiting Russia and China. In both countries he was celebrated. Du Bois later wrote approvingly of the conditions in both countries.
By 1960 – the "Year of Africa" – Du Bois had recovered his passport and was able to cross the Atlantic and celebrate the creation of the Republic of Ghana. In October 1961, at the age of 93, Du Bois and his wife traveled to Ghana to take up residence. Du Bois joined the Communist Party in October 1961, at the age of 93. Around that time, he wrote: "I believe in Communism. I mean by Communism, a planned way of life in the production of wealth and work designed for building a state whose object is the highest welfare of its people and not merely the profit of a part." In early 1963, the United States refused to renew his passport, so he made the symbolic gesture of becoming a citizen of Ghana. Du Bois's health declined during the two years he was in Ghana, and he died on August 27, 1963, in the capital of Accra at the age of 95 (on August 27, 1963). This came one day before the March on Washington on Wednesday August 28, 1963. During the march, NAACP speaker Roy Wilkins asked the thousands of marchers to honor W.E.B. DuBois with a moment of silence. DuBois planned on making a large Encyclopedia about our people in Africa. Du Bois was given a state funeral on August 29–30, 1963, at Nkrumah's request, and buried beside the western wall of Christiansborg Castle (now Osu Castle), then the seat of government in Accra. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had many of the proposals that DuBois promoted throughout his life. In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech where he praised W.E.B. DuBois for promoting progressive views, and DuBois wrote about Dr. King too when he was alive. W.E.B. DuBois was one of the greatest intellectual giants among the black community, and his influence inspire us to this very day as we reach the quarter century mark of the 21st century indeed.
By Timothy
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Friday, March 17, 2023
Spring 2023 Part 5
Conclusion (for Spring 2023)
To understand the present and the future, we have to look at the past. Back in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unjustly assassinated. That changed the Civil Rights Movement forever. The black freedom struggle split into two major factions. One faction sincerely wanted justice for black people and the human race. They exist to this very day in early 2023. The other faction includes those who are compromised, embraced an exploitative form of laissez-capitalism that cares more for profit than economic justice, and those who were brought off by the corporate establishment (we know of their names). One of the many things that Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had in common was their critiques of capitalism and their total opposition to American imperialism (like in the unjust war in Vietnam). If Malcolm X and Dr. King lived, they would have the power to unite the civil rights, anti-war, Black Power, labor rights, and other movements to attempt to have a revolutionary change in America plus the world. Therefore, we (who are black people) may have different ideologies, but we share the same goal of total black Pan-African liberation. After 1968, black people legitimately got the right to vote and access to jobs. Yet, the struggle for economic justice was not victorious yet. You can't end oppression without dealing with police brutality, poverty, economic inequality, health issues, educational issues, environmental issues, and other important political/social issues going on in the world.
The National Black Political Assembly on March 10, 1972, tried to make change, but as time went on, some folks were co-opted by the establishment to advance the status quo. Maynard Jackson (mayor of Atlanta) in 1977 unjustly ended the Atlanta sanitation strike and fired workers to support business leaders and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The common myth promoted by the far right is that progressive policies have ruined many urban centers in America. The truth is that far-right, reactionary policies (advanced by both many Republicans and many Democrats) of gentrification, economic exploitation (enacted by big business for profit), lax regulations, environmental neglect, educational problems, poverty, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, and overt discrimination in many urban centers have nothing to do with real progressive principles. That is why the world's largest corporations control the majority of the mass corporate media. The same forces who co-opted some in the Civil Rights Movement exist today to try to push a compromised agenda to the establishment (this elite includes both white and black people, but the vast majority of the 1 percent are not black people). The struggle faced much ideological confusion and overt opportunists who wanted to stir the movement into a more sugarcoated fashion (in opposition to the ultimate liberation of African people).
Dwayne Wong is a Pan-Africanist who created great literature about Pan-African issues. We know that there is colonialism and imperialism in the world. Yet, there is also a neo-colonialist culture that has manipulated people into loving the system of the oppressor instead of loving truth and honor. This struggle is international. Western support caused the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, and in 1985, the U.S. government bombed the MOVE commune movement in cold blood. 1985 is not that long ago, and the bombing took place in Philadelphia. Freedom fighters are diverse. Many freedom fighters are socialists, nationalists, religious people, non-religious people, etc. That is why FBA and ADOS followers do a disservice by using personal attacks against black people who disagree with their nefarious xenophobic views. Dwayne Wong made many interesting, accurate points about Marcus Garvey. I don't agree with Garvey having a dialogue with many members of the Klan and on other issues, but Garvey was right on many issues. As Wong has documented, Marcus Garvey is right that he wanted to challenge his critics to produce institutions to develop the black community, Garvey is right to oppose racist Eurocentric beauty standards, and he was right to call Black Beautiful. Garvey came to America in 1916 and visited many cities and 38 states. He met Ida B. Wells and historian Edward Bruce. Garvey made the UNIA that had institutions employing, housing, and feeding African people in America, Haiti, Africa, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and all over the world. Malcolm X, Walter Rodney, Kwame Ture, Dr. King (who came to his gravesite in Jamaica before), Maurice Bishop, and other revolutionaries were directly influenced by Marcus Garvey. Although, there are no justifications for Garvey's errors though (like cursing out Jewish people [I reject anti-Semitism], using ad hominem attacks against his critics, calling himself and his followers the first "fascists," having negative stereotypes of Africa, etc. For the record, DuBois was wrong to use ad hominem attacks against Marcus Garvey too). Despite Garvey wanting capitalism to have regulations, he was an advocate of capitalism. Obviously, I have my critiques about capitalism.
So, we have the recognize the complex legacy of Marcus Garvey (meaning he got many things right, and he got many things wrong). People like Kwame Ture, Malcolm X, Dr. King, Queen Mother Moore, and other human beings made contributions to the anti-colonial struggle and the organization of the growth of black liberation politics. We know of Garvey's imperfections, but he was right to advocate black self-determination in solving problems (as we have the strength to accomplish greatness). If you want to end imperialism and colonialism in the world, you have to organize and mobilize institutions and programs to address these evils. Part of that mobilization is uniting the poor and the working class to fight for economic justice, endorse legitimate unions, and reject capitalist exploitation. Marcus Garvey was certainly courageous to stand up for the dignity of black people, and he made contributions to the overall history of black people. Some people want to exploit Marcus Garvey's imperfections as an excuse for them to criticize nationalism in general. The truth is that Nationalism like Socialism can be used for positive change. For example, Patrice Lumumba was an African nationalist, who was one of the greatest, heroic black revolutionaries in history. Dr. King was a Democratic Socialist being a great revolutionary too. The situation is the objective of independence for humanity beyond just a title. Anyone can be called a title, but what is most important is to create a plan and a purpose in getting a redistribution of wealth and power to make the world truly filled with justice for all. It's just that evil people manipulate nationalism for nefarious purposes (in desiring some bourgeois, capitalist system) at times. We need to promote our black culture (in desiring the growth of black populations in America plus the world) and realize that class struggle along with black Pan-African activism makes sense to stand up for our freedom. You have to create a political, economic, and social program in order for us to cause black liberation. Also, black unity and Black Love are sacrosanct concepts to love and honor.
By Timothy
Spring 2023 Part 4
20 Years After the Iraq War
The Iraq War is now 20 years old since its inception. The emotion, fervor, and controversies surrounding the war akin to the Vietnam War. Numerous human beings exploited 9/11 to advance the conflict. I remember when it started just like yesterday. I was almost 20 years old back then and was taking classes in college. America was dominated by a mostly Republican House and Senate with the Republican President George W. Bush. The United States of America was much more conservative back in 2003 than today in 2023. The Iraq War was based on a lie that Saddam Hussein had massive quantities of weapons of mass destruction that could be used all over the Middle East. The Bush administration promoted this lie in 2002 and in 2003 plus beyond. The coalition of America and its allies against Iraq was extensive. The war ended the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The war was quickly an American victory in the beginning, and then the Iraqi resistance came about to make it a very long, bloody conflict. Scandals like Abu Ghraib (where Iraqi prisoners in 2004 were tortured and abused in a very perverted, graphic fashion. That even exposed the evil of torture for the world to witness) and what took place in Fallujah took place. American troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. Yet, American troops came back in 2014 after being head of a new coalition to stop the insurgency of the reactionary ISIS group. Iraq faces conflicts to this very day. George W. Bush administration's war on terror, after the attacks on September 11th, 2001, still has consequences today as we approach the quarter-century mark of the 20th century. From shock and awe to modern Iraqi society, the Iraq War caused the whole world to change.
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Iraq's History
The history of Iraq goes back a long way. Between 65,000 B.C. and 35,000 B.C., northern Iraq was home to a Neanderthal culture, archaeological remains of which have been found at Shanidar Cave. The same region is also the location of a number of pre-Neolithic cemeteries, dating from approximately 11,000 B.C. From ca. 10,000 B.C., Iraq was part of the large Fertile Crescent region. This region stretched from Asia Minor to the Levant. The Fertile Crescent has the Neolithic culture known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. In Iraq, this period has been excavated at sites like M'lefaat and Nemrik 9. The following Neolithic period, PPNB, is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade relations. There was more human advancement found in Jarmo (in ca. 7100 B.C.). There were cities belong to the Halaf culture and Tell al-Ubaid culture. Research called the era of the "Cradle of Civilization" of modern Iraq's early known civilization after the Old Stone Age being the Sumerian civilization. It arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period). By the late 4th millennium B.C., there was the world's first writing modern system. Recorded history was born. The Sumerians were also the first to harness the wheel and create city states, and whose writings record the first evidence of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, written law, medicine, and organized religion. The language of the Sumerians is a language isolate. The major city states of the early Sumerian period were; Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak, Uruk, Kish, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Girsu, Umma, Hamazi, Adab, Mari, Isin, Kutha, Der and Akshak.
The cities to the north like Ashur, Arbela (modern Erbil) and Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) were also extant in what was to be called Assyria from the 25th century BC; however, at this early stage, they were Sumerian ruled administrative centers. The Bronze Age empires grew in ancient Iraq too. In the 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash created what was perhaps the first empire in history, though this was short-lived. Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It was during this period that the Epic of Gilgamesh originates, which includes the tale of The Great Flood. From the 29th century BC, Akkadian Semitic names began to appear on king lists and administrative documents of various city-states. It remains unknown as to the origin of Akkad, where it was precisely situated and how it rose to prominence. Its people spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic language. Between the 29th and 24th centuries BC, a number of kingdoms and city states within Iraq began to have Akkadian speaking dynasties; including Assyria, Ekallatum, Isin and Larsa.
However, the Sumerians remained generally dominant until the rise of the Akkadian Empire (2335–2124 BC), based in the city of Akkad in central Iraq. Sargon of Akkad, originally a Rabshakeh to a Sumerian king, founded the empire, he conquered all of the city states of southern and central Iraq, and subjugated the kings of Assyria, thus uniting the Sumerians and Akkadians in one state. Sargon expanded his empire to rule over Gutium, Elam in modern day Iran, and other places. He conquered the Amorites and Eblaites of the Levant. The empire of Akkad ended by the 22nd century B.C. likely. There were no kingdoms until the Third Dynasty of Ur. After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in the late 22nd century BC, the Gutians occupied the south for a few decades, while Assyria reasserted its independence in the north. Most of southern Mesopotamia was again united under one ruler during the Ur III period, most notably during the rule of the prolific king Shulgi. His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, begun by his father Ur-Nammu.
In 1792 BC, an Amorite ruler named Hammurabi came to power in this state, and immediately set about building Babylon from a minor town into a major city, declaring himself its king. Hammurabi (who was a Semitic person) conquered the whole of southern and central Iraq, as well as Elam to the east and Mari to the west, then engaged in a protracted war with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan for domination of the region, creating the short-lived Babylonian Empire. He eventually prevailed over the successor of Ishme-Dagan and subjected Assyria and its Anatolian colonies. By the middle of the eighteenth century BC, the Sumerians had lost their cultural identity and ceased to exist as a distinct people. Genetic and cultural analysis indicates that the Marsh people of southern Iraq are probably their most direct modern descendants. Southern Iraq became Babylonia. The northern part of Iraq became Assyria. Many people ruled Iraq like the Akkadians and the Kassites. The Middle Asyrian Empire ruled from 1365 B.C. to 1020 B.C. Beginning with the campaigns of Ashur-uballit I, Assyria destroyed the rival Hurrian-Mitanni Empire, annexed huge swathes of the Hittite Empire for itself, annexed northern Babylonia from the Kassites, forced the Egyptian Empire from the region, and defeated the Elamites, Phrygians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Cilicians, Gutians, Dilmunites and Arameans. At its height, the Middle Assyrian Empire stretched from The Caucasus to Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and from the Mediterranean coasts of Phoenicia to the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In 1235 BC, Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria took the throne of Babylon. By the end of the Bronze Age, Babylonia was ruled by Assyria and Elam in choas. The Chaldeans moved into Babylonian too. The Chaldeans were West Semitic migrants from the southeastern corner of the region.
The Neo Assyrian Empire rules Iraq from 935 to 605 B.C. The Neo-Assyrian Empire is considered by researchers to be the first world empire in history. It had the strongest military in the world during its peak. It ruled all of Mesopotamia, Levant, Egypt, parts of Anatolia, parts of Arabia, parts of Iran, and Armenia. Its rulers were Adad-Nirari II, Ashurnasirpal, Shalmaneser III, Semiramis, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. It spread as far as parts of Nubia too. The Arabic people and the Chaldeans are first mentioned in written history (circa 850 BC) in the annals of Shalmaneser III. They ruled Israel for a time too. Judaism grew during this period. Civil wars and other issues ended the Assyrian Empire. The Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians, and Cimmerians, were able to attack Assyria, finally bringing its empire down by 605 BC. The Neo-Babylonian Empire ruled Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar II was its greatest king. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon existed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the Battle of Opis and Mesopotamia. The Achaemenid Empire ruled for a time until Alexander the Great ruled the region in the Hellenistic Empire. The Parthians and the Romans conquered Iraq too. Christianity spread in Iraq early on, especially the Church of the East with Syriac literature. By 224, the Sassanids of Persia under Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire and conquered the region in 224 AD. During the 240s and 250's AD, the Sassanids gradually conquered the independent states, culminating with Assur in 256 AD. The region was thus a province of the Sassanid Empire for over four centuries and became the frontier and battleground between the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire, with both empires weakening each other, paving the way for the Arabic-Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia in the mid-7th century.
Muslim people of Arabic descent defeated Persian forces in Iraq by 634 A.D. There was a force of some 5,000 Muslims under Abū `Ubayd ath-Thaqafī, which was routed by the Persians. This was followed by Khalid ibn al-Walid's successful campaign which saw all of Iraq come under Arabic rule within a year, with the exception of the Persian Empire's capital, Ctesiphon. Around 636, a larger Arab Muslim force under Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās defeated the main Persian army at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah and moved on to capture the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. By the end of 638, the Muslims had conquered all of the Western Sassanid provinces (including modern Iraq), and the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdegerd III, had fled to central and then northern Persia, where he was killed in 651. Muslim dynasties ruled Iraq. In 1257, Hulagu Khan amassed an unusually large army, a significant portion of the Mongol Empire's forces, for the purpose of conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital, Hulagu Khan demanded its surrender, but the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused. This angered Hulagu, and, consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, he besieged Baghdad, sacked the city and massacred many of the inhabitants. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million. The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's House of Wisdom, which contained countless precious and historical documents. The city has never regained its previous pre-eminence as a major center of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for millennia. Other historians point to soil salination as the culprit in the decline in agriculture. The Black Death disease killed many in Iraq. The Ottoman Empire ruled Iraq after Tamerlane (a person of Mongol descent) conquered Baghdad. They ruled for centuries until WWI.
During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and initially suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army during the Siege of Kut (1915–1916). However, subsequent to this the British began to gain the upper hand and were further aided by the support of local Arabic people and Assyrians. In 1916, the British and French made a plan for the post-war division of Western Asia under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. British forces regrouped and captured Baghdad in 1917 and defeated the Ottomans. An armistice was signed in 1918. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown, but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918, the British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, of which 112,000 were combat troops.
During the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Iraq was made up of three provinces, called vilayets in the Ottoman language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, and Basra Vilayet. These three provinces were joined into one Kingdom by the British after the region became a League of Nations mandate, administered under British control, with the name "State of Iraq." A fourth province (Zor Sanjak), which Iraqi nationalists considered part of Upper Mesopotamia was ultimately added to Syria. In line with their "Sharifian Solution" policy, the British established the Hashemite king on 23 August 1921, Faisal I of Iraq, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, as their client ruler. The official English name of the country simultaneously changed from Mesopotamia to the endonymic Iraq. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arabic elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices. Faced with spiraling costs and influenced by the public protestations of the war hero T. E. Lawrence in The Times, Britain replaced Arnold Wilson in October 1920 with a new Civil Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox. Cox managed to quell a rebellion, yet was also responsible for implementing the fateful policy of close co-operation with Iraq's Sunni minority. The institution of slavery was abolished in the 1920s. Britain allowed the Kingdom of Iraq to have independence in 1932. King Faisal allowed British forces to have its military bases in Iraq. Many rulers existed in Iraq. By April 1, 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and overthrew the government of 'Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, the United Kingdom (which still maintained air bases in Iraq) invaded Iraq for fear that the Rashid Ali government might cut oil supplies to Western nations because of his links to the Axis powers. The war started on 2 May, and the British, together with loyal Assyrian Levies, defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on May 31. Qasim led a coup against Iraq by 1958. He wanted anti-imperial and anti-monarchical policies to exist. Numerous people were killed in the coup, including King Faysal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Nuri al-Sa'id. Qasim ruled Iraq until the February 1963 coup. The Ba'ath Party view Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr ruled Iraq.
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The movement gradually came under the control of Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July 1979. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution took place. Following months of cross-border raids between the two countries, Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran–Iraq War (or First Persian Gulf War). Taking advantage of the post-revolution chaos in Iran, Iraq captured some territories in southwest of Iran, but Iran recaptured all of the lost territories within two years, and for the next six years Iran was on the offensive. The war, which ended in stalemate in 1988, had cost the lives of between half a million and 1.5 million people.
In 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed an Iraqi nuclear materials testing reactor at Osirak and was widely criticized at the United Nations. During the eight-year war with Iran, Saddam Hussein extensively used chemical weapons against Iranians. In the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War, the Ba'athist Iraqi regime led the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds, and led to the killing of 50,000–100,000 civilians.
The Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War of the 1990's had a long history. It occurred when I was in elementary school. Iraq didn't have the ability to pay Kuwait more than 14 billion dollars (in U.S. dollars) that it had borrowed to finance the Iran-Iraq War. Kuwait had a surge in petroleum production levels which kept revenues down. Iraq interpreted Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production as an act of aggression. Throughout much of the 1980's, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory OPEC quota, which kept the oil prices down. Therefore, in August 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. This led to a military intervention by the United S forces in the First Gulf War. President George H. W. Bush felt that Iraq could possibly invade Saudi Arabia after Kuwait destabilized markets worldwide. The coalition forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military targets. Then, the coalition Western forces launched a 100-hour-long ground assault against Iraqi forces in Southern Iraq and those occupying Kuwait. Iraq's armed forces were devastated during the war. Shortly after it ended in 1991, Kurdish Iraqis led several uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime, but these were successfully repressed using Iraqi security forces and chemical weapons. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians, were killed. During the uprisings, the US, UK, France, and Turkey, claiming authority under UNSCR 688, established the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Kurdish population from attacks by the Saddam regime's fixed-wing aircraft (but not helicopters).
Iraq was ordered to destroy its chemical and biological weapons and the UN attempted to compel Saddam's government to disarm and agree to a ceasefire by imposing additional sanctions on the country in addition to the initial sanctions imposed following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Iraqi Government's failure to disarm and agree to a ceasefire resulted in sanctions which remained in place until 2003. President Bill Clinton did airstrikes in Iraq in 1998 via Operation Desert Fox in opposing Saddam's weapons program. The effects of the sanctions on the civilian population of Iraq have been disputed. Whereas it was widely believed that the sanctions caused a major rise in child mortality, recent research has shown that commonly cited data were fabricated by the Iraqi government and that "there was no major rise in child mortality in Iraq after 1990 and during the period of the sanctions." An oil-for-food program was established in 1996 to ease the effects of sanctions. For the record, the Iraqi sanctions did harm civilian lives, and they were viciously executed.
Prelude to War
Following the September 11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration began planning the overthrow of Saddam's government and in October 2002, the US Congress passed the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. In November 2002, the UN Security Council passed UNSCR 1441 and in March 2003 the United States and its allies invaded Iraq.
The Iraq War Starts
The Iraq War started on March 19, 2003, when I was a sophomore in college. President George W. Bush gave a warning to Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction or face invasion. On March 19, 2003, the United States started the invasion with a coordinated satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missile strike on Baghdad. American, British, Australian, Polish, and Danish military operations begin; ground troops move into Iraq. It wasn't just one nation involved in the Iraq War. Many Western nations were involved in the conflict against the government of Iraq. The war was fierce. In the beginning, Western forces easily defeated Iraqi military forces. By April 10, 2003, there was the fall of Baghdad. Coalition forces moved into Baghdad caused the start of the end of the reign of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. There was naivete in the air because some of the neo-conservatives like President George W. Bush falsely believed that the war was over. On May 1, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq over, which was a false statement. On May 15, 2003, U.S. forces launched Operation Planet X, capturing roughly 260 people, and on May 23, L. Paul Bremer issued Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2, dissolving the Iraqi Army and other entities of the former Ba'athist state. Some scholars said that Bremer made a mistake to dissolve the Iraqi War early because that army could be used to organize a more stable Iraqi state. Some scholars believe that getting rid of the Ba'ath party officials contributed to the chaos in Iraq. By June 15, 2003, the U.S. military started Operation Desert Scorpion (a series of raids across Iraq intended to find Iraqi resistance and heavy weapons). Violence continued. On June 24, six soldiers from the British Royal Military Police are killed by a mob in Majar al-Kabir in Southern Iraq. By July 2, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush challenged forces attacking U.S. troops to "bring 'em on!" which was very controversial back then. On July 13, the Iraqi Governing Council is established under the authority of the Coalition Provisional Authority. By July 22, Uday and Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein's sons, are killed in Mosul during a raid by Task Force 20.
August 7 was the date when there was a bus bombing of the Jordanian embassy, the first VBIED bombing of the occupation. August 19 was when the Canal Hotel bombing took place: A truck bomb at the United Nations headquarters killed the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others. On August 29, influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim was killed in a car bombing as he leaves his mosque after Friday prayers. At least 84 others are killed. This increased sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shia Iraqis. The first post-Saddam government existed by September 3, 2003. Later by September 23, 2003, a Gallup poll shows the majority of Iraqis expect a better life in 5 years. Around two-thirds of Baghdad residents state the Iraqi dictator's removal was worth the hardships they've been forced to endure. On October 2, 2003, David Kay's Iraq Survey Group report finds little evidence of WMD in Iraq, although the regime did intend to develop more weapons with additional capabilities. Such plans and programs appear to have been dormant, the existence of these though was concealed from UNSCOM during the inspections that began in 2002. Weapons inspectors in Iraq did find a clandestine "network of biological laboratories" and a deadly strain of botulinum. The US-sponsored search for WMD has so far cost $300 million and is projected to cost around $600 million more. UN Security Council issues Resolution 1511 which envisions a multinational force and preserves Washington's quasi-absolute control of Iraq on October 16, 2003. The bombings in Baghdad on October 27, 2003, are called the Ramandan Offensive. By the end of 2003, the war escalates. On November 2, 2003, in the heaviest single loss for the coalition troops up to that time, two US Chinook helicopters are fired on by two surface-to-air missiles and one crashes near Fallujah and on its way to Baghdad airport; 16 soldiers are killed and 20 wounded.
By November 12, a suicide truck bomb blows up the Italian headquarters in Nasiriyah, killing 19 Italians (17 of them soldiers) and 14 Iraqis. The Governing Council unveils an accelerated timetable for transferring the country to Iraqi control on November 15, 2003. On November 22, 2003, there was the 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: An Airbus A-300 freighter belonging to German courier firm DHL is forced to make an emergency landing with a wing fire and all three hydraulics lost. Using different engine power to land the aircraft, after being struck by a portable shoulder-fired SA-14 missile. On November 27, U.S. President George W. Bush makes a stealthy Thanksgiving Day visit to Baghdad (the White House announced that he would be at home with his family) in an attempt to boost morale among the troops and ordinary Iraqis. Bush is accompanied by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and he is flown into Baghdad International Airport aboard Air Force One. On November 30, the U.S. military reported that they killed 46 militants and wounded 18 in clashes in the central area of Iraq. By December 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured in Operation Red Dawn; it was announced the next day. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division launches Operation Ivy Blizzard, lasting from dawn until mid-morning. The operation resulted in the arrest of 12 insurgents. This was on December 17, 2003. By December 27, 2003, there were the Karbala bombings.
Choas and the Surge
In 2004, the Iraq War continued to be a long, bloody conflict. By January 26, 2004, Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support group existed: Japanese troops begin participation in most risky military expedition since World War II. By January 28, 2004, David Kay testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee expressing doubt about the presence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. On February 1, 2003, two suicide bombers strike Kurdish political offices in the northern city of Erbil, killing 117 people and injuring 133 people. By February 21, the U.S. permitted the Red Cross to visit Saddam Hussein for the first time since his capture in December 2003. By March 2, 2004, multiple bombings occurred in Baghdad and Karbala at the climax of the Shi'a festival of Aashurah kill nearly 200, the deadliest attacks up to that time. The Provisional Iraqi Constitution was signed by March 8. There was the controversial March 31, 2004, Fallujah ambush. This was when four Blackwater contractors were ambushed and were killed in Fallujah. This started the first Battle of Fallujah. On April 4, 2004, there was the beginning of the violent clashes between the coalition and followers of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which will end at the end of August of 2004. By April 8, there was the start of foreign civilians in Iraq, with the abduction of several Japanese human beings. On April 18, 2004, Spain, led by newly elected José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Socialist Party) vows to withdraw its troops. By April 18, 2004, there was the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse tragedy. I remember that time like yesterday. There was the verbal, physical, and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The Iraqi prisoners were beaten, filled with battery acid, stripped of their clothes, sexually abused, and taunted by evil U.S. soldiers (not all U.S. soldiers are like this to be clear).
It was a war crime, and many soldiers went to prison for their actions. By April 26, 2004, the Iraq Interim Governing Council announce a new flag for post-Saddam Iraq. This creates much controversy, in part because of the similarity of color and design with the flag of Israel, and difference with other Arabic nation flags. The flag is not adopted. On May 17, 2004, Ezzedine Salim, head of the Iraqi Governing Council, was killed in a suicide attack. There were the Mukaradeeb killings on May 19, 2004, where US bombs a wedding party, killing 42 people. By June 1, 2004, the assuming of the functions of the Iraqi Interim Government led by Prime minister Iyad Allawi; Ghazi al-Yawer is designed head of the Iraqi state. On June 8, 2004, there was the UN Security Council Resolution 1546 on the transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Interim Government. The Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel took place on June 21, 2004. Later, there was the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority formally transferred the sovereignty of Iraqi territory to the Iraqi interim government, two days ahead of schedule. L. Paul Bremer departed the country two hours later (on June 28, 2004 at 10:26 am). June 30 was when Saddam Hussein and eleven high ex-governmental figures are put under the Iraqi Interim Government's authority.
The trial of Saddam Hussein took place on July 1, 2004. Saddam was at his first hearing. On July 20, 2004, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines, confirms that hostage Angelo de la Cruz has been freed by his captors after their demands for a one-month-early withdrawal of all 51 Filipino troops from Iraq were met. The Battle of Najaf took place in 2004 too. From August 5-27, 2004, forces loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr resisted government authority in Najaf; the fighting ended with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's help. There was the Haifa Street helicopter incident that killed 13 Iraqis and is televised around the world on September 14, 2004. On September 30, a car strikes an American officer handing out candy to children. Up to 35 children were killed. The Battle of Samarra took place in 2004. Al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance to the al-Qaeda network on October 17, 2004. The Al Qa’qaa high explosives controversy comes to light in late October 2004. The Second Battle of Fallujah starts on November 7, 2004. The insurgents regroup and start the Battle of Mosul on November 8, 2004. On December 21, 2004, the 2004 Forward Operating Base Marez bombing killed 22 people, including 18 Americans.
On January 26, 2005, 31 soldiers die in a helicopter crash, which was the deadliest day of the entire postwar period of the U.S. military. By January 30, 2005, there was the Iraqi legislative election. The Shia United Iraqi Alliance obtained a majority, followed by the Kurdish Alliance. Sunnis largely boycotted the elections. On February 28, there was the 2005 Al Hillah bombing: In the deadliest single blast up to that time, a car bomb kills 127 in Hillah; the identity of the bomber as a Jordanian caused a diplomatic row between Iraq and Jordan. On March 4, 2005, there was the rescue of Giuliana Sgrena: Liberation of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, during which secret Italian agent Nicola Calipari is killed by US fire. Berlusconi's government announces a partial retreat of Italian troops from the coalition. March 16 was when there was the first meeting of the transitional National Assembly. On March 31, 2005, the Iraqi Intelligence Commission concludes in its final report that prewar intelligence regarding WMD's was false. The Battle of Abu Ghraib took place on April 2, 2005. By April 5, there was the election of Kurdish Jalal Talabani as President of Iraq. Ibrahim al-Jaafari is nominated as Prime minister of Iraq on April 7, and on April 28, 2005, the Parliament voted its trust towards the new government. The Battle of Al Qaim caused the U.S. to try to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq on May 8. By May 15, 2005, there was the formation of the parliamentary commission charged of the draft of the new Constitution. There was the 2005 Musayyib bombing on July 19 killing nearly 100 Shia people. The Battle of Haditha spread from August 1-4, 2005. Unable to find a consensus between the main political leaders, the Parliament postpones for a week the transmission of the draft constitution to its members on August 15, 2005. The constitution’s draft is presented to the Iraqi Parliament on August 22, 2005. By August 28, 2005, the constitution is presented to Parliament. There was the August 31, 2005 Baghdad bridge stampede: Rumors of a suicide bomber lead to a stampede on the Al-Aaimmah bridge; about 1,000 people died. Battle of Tal Afar was on September 1, 2005 when US troops launch an offensive in Tal Afar, a city that would become a "model" for the Americans.
There was the September 14, 2005 Baghdad bombings being the deadliest day of the insurgency in Baghdad, bombs kill 160 and injure more than 500. There was the September 19 Basra prison incident when British troops storm a police station in Basra to free two soldiers being held there. The Bombings in Balad on September 29, 2005 killed at 95 people. On October 15, 2005, the Iraqi constitutional referendum caused voters to approve Iraqi’s new constitutions. Saddam Hussein’s trial starts on October 19, 2005. The Palestine Hotel and the Sheraton Ishtar hotel in Baghdad are hit by truck bombs; the attacks are captured on film. This was on October 24, 2005. Operation Steel Curtain was created on November 5, 2005 to try to stop foreign fighters. 173 prisoners were found in an Iraqi government bunker in Baghdad, having been starved, beaten and tortured by November 15, 2005. There were the bombings in Khanaquin killing at least 74 people on November 18, and the Haditha killings (which were controversial. American soldiers killed 24 people, including 15 noncombatants, in Haditha, after an insurgent attack). The November 25 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis starts on November 25. IT ends in 2006. U.S. President George W. Bush says that the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was the result of faulty intelligence and accepts responsibility for that decision. He maintains that his decision was still justified. He said these words on December 14, 2005. The December 15, 2005 Iraqi legislative election starts.
On February 22, 2006, there was the al-Askari Mosque bombing (2006): Shi’ite Al Askari Mosque is bombed by Sunni militants, sparking a sectarian civil war. Shi’ite, Sunni, and other militant groups also start advancing within Baghdad. Everything changed after the al-Askhari mosque was bombed. There were the Mahmudiyah killings on March 12, 2006. There was the Hamdania incident. This was when Marines allegedly abduct an Iraqi civilian from a house, kill him, and place components and spent AK-47 cartridges near his body to make it appear he was planting an IED. On May 20, 2006, the Iraqi government, which succeeds to the Iraqi Transitional Government, begins its functions. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed on June 7, 2006. Operation Together Forward starts on June 14, 2006. The Battle of Ramadi took place in 2006. Shia militias kill 40 Sunnis in the Hay al Jihad massacre on July 9, 2006. By July 24, 2006, 4 Saddam Hussein, 69, the deposed former Iraqi President, is force-fed in a Baghdad hospital through a tube after 16 days of hunger strike. Operation River Falcon took place on July 25. The Battle of Armarah took place between the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization on October organization. Chlorine bombings took place in Iraq in October 28, 2006 which are overt war crimes. By November 7, 2006, the United States midterm elections removed the Republican Party from control of both chambers of the United States Congress. The failings in the Iraq War were cited as one of the main causes of the Republicans' defeat, even though the Bush administration had attempted to distance itself from its earlier "stay the course" rhetoric. Ammar al-Saffar, Deputy Health Minister, becomes the highest-ranking Iraqi to be kidnapped on November 19. There was the November 23, 2006 Sadr City bombings killing more than 200 Shias in Sadr City. The Iraq Study Group released their final report on December 6. The 2006 December 21 U.S. raids took place on Iranian diplomats.
The Diyala Campaign started on December 25, 2006. By December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed. The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 was announced by Washington on January 10, 2007. There was the U.S. US raid on the Iranian Liaison Office in Arbil on January 1. Later the Karbala provincial headquarters raid results in the kidnapping and killing of five American soldiers. The US blames Iran on January 20, 2007. Followers of the Shia cult Soldiers of Heaven initiate the Battle of Najaf (2007), which left nearly 300 dead (on January 28). In 2007, the Iraq war continues with the surge and raids. Suicide bombings ravage the nation. America saw Operation Phantom strike and other events. Many people of the Yazidi community were bombed in August of 2007 with about 796 being killed and more than 1,500 people being injured. The Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad killed 17 Iraqi civilians. By 2008, Operation Phanton Phoenix starts. We saw the Turkish incursion into Northern Iraq. Turkey attacks northern Iraq to target Kurdish PKK rebel forces who view parts of Turkey and Iraq as part of a Kurdish region. The Battle of Basra took place in 2008. Christians were attacked in Mosul in 2008. There is the November 2008 U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which stipulates that U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, is approved and ratified by the Iraqi Parliament. There were the 2009 Iraqi governorate elections on January 31, 2009. The last of UK combat troops are gone The Islamic State of Iraq leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi are killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation near Tikrit, Iraq. August 18, 2010, was when American combat operations in Iraq end as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. By September 30, 2011, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment conducted a Transition of Authority with 3rd BDE, 3rd ID and assumed responsibility for the five northern Provinces of United States Division-South under MG Vincent Brooks and the 1st Infantry Division. American forces withdraw completely from Iraqi starting on December 31, 2011.
Modern Iraq
Following the withdrawal of US troops in 2011, the insurgency continued, and Iraq suffered from political instability. In February 2011, the Arab Spring protests spread to Iraq; but the initial protests did not topple the government. The Iraqi National Movement, reportedly representing the majority of Iraqi Sunnis, boycotted Parliament for several weeks in late 2011 and early 2012, claiming that the Shiite-dominated government was striving to sideline Sunnis. In 2012 and 2013, levels of violence increased and armed groups inside Iraq were increasingly galvanized by the Syrian Civil War. Both Sunnis and Shias crossed the border to fight in Syria. In December 2012, Sunni Arabic people protested against the government, who they claimed marginalized them.
During 2013, Sunni militant groups stepped up attacks targeting the Iraq's population in an attempt to undermine confidence in the Nouri al-Maliki-led government. In 2014, Sunni insurgents belonging to the Islamic State terrorist group seized control of large swathes of land including several major Iraqi cities, like Tikrit, Fallujah and Mosul creating hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons amid reports of atrocities by ISIL fighters.
On 4 June 2014, the insurgents began their efforts to capture Mosul. The Iraqi army officially had 30,000 soldiers and another 30,000 federal police stationed in the city, facing a 1,500-member attacking force. The Iraqi forces' actual numbers were much lower due to "ghost soldiers", severely reducing combat ability.] After six days of combat and massive desertions, Iraqi soldiers received orders to retreat. The city of Mosul, including Mosul International Airport and the helicopters located there, all fell under ISIL's control. An estimated 500,000 civilians fled from the city.
By late June, the Iraqi government had lost control of its borders with both Jordan and Syria al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on June 10 following the attack on Mosul, which had been seized overnight. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers.
A former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, Ali Ghaidan, accused former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul. Iraq had to fight for its survival literally. ISIS was involved in the genocide of Yazidis and other groups of people. American troops came back to Iraqi to defeat ISIL forces. Some wanted Iraq to split into three autonomous regions of the Shia, Sunnis, and Kurds. That didn’t happen. ISIL’s war crimes and human rights abuses caused global condemnation. Many coalition airstrikes caused ISIL to lose ground in 2017. The US-led coalition airtstirke in Mosul killed more than 200 civilians on March 17, 2017. ISIL also killed more than 400 civilians and injured hundreds more in the 106 Karrada bombing. Since 2015, ISIL lost territory in Iraq, including Tikrit in March and April 2015, Baiji in October 2015, Sinjar in November 2015, Ramadi in December 2015, Fallujah in June 2016, and Mosul in July 2017. By December 2017, ISIL had no remaining territory in Iraq, following the 2017 Western Iraq campaign.
In September 2017, a referendum was held regarding Kurdish independence in Iraq. 92% of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of independence. The referendum was regarded as illegal by the federal government in Baghdad. On December 9, 2017, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over ISIL and announced full liberation of borders with Syria from Islamic State militants. In March 2018, Turkey launched military operations to eliminate active Kurdish separatist fighters in the far north of the country. Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political coalition won Iraq's parliamentary election in May 2018.
Protests happened in Iraqi in 2018 and in 2019. Many people want employment, jobs, and an end to corruption in Iraq. Iraq was attacked by Hezbollah on many times. On 31 December (in 2019), after attending the funeral for one of the killed militiamen, dozens of Iraqi Shia militiamen and their supporters marched into the Green Zone of Baghdad and surrounded the U.S. embassy compound (see article: Attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad). Demonstrators smashed a door of the checkpoint, set fire to the reception area, left anti-American posters, and sprayed anti-American graffiti. U.S. President Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the attack.
Three days later, amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, the U.S. launched a drone strike on a convoy traveling near Baghdad International Airport, killing Qasem Soleimani, Iranian major-general and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Quds Force commander, the second most powerful person of Iran. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or PMU); four senior Iranian officers; and four Iraqi officers. 73 members of the Sadrist movement resigned on June 2022. on October 27, 2022, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, close ally of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, took the office to succeed Mustafa al-Kadhimi as new Prime Minister of Iraq. This comes after a year of political crisis in trying to find tranquility among Sunni, Shia, Kurdish people, Christians, etc. in Iraq). Time will tell what the future will hold.
Reflections
Twenty years have existed since the Iraq War. A lot of memories come to my mind about the war. Back then, I was a little over 19 years old and in college as a sophomore. With George W. Bush's words, I knew that he would invade Iraq, even after his last warning in trying to seek a resolution. The truth is that the West's plan for regime change in Iraq existed long before 2003. Back in the early 1990's, many neo-conservatives like Dick Cheney wanted to invade Iraq, but President George H. W. Bush opposed it citing the possibility of sectarian violence and chaos. Ironically, that would happen to Iraq for years after 2003. The neo-conservatives believe in the view of American exceptionalism in believing that America must be like a policeman of the whole world to spread "democracy." Yet, other nations shouldn't be made in America's image involuntarily. Nations have to go through the same growing pains that America has gone through in being better. We all want freedom to be in the world (all people in all nations and territories on Earth deserve freedom, justice, and equality without exception), but we can't force every nation to follow our ways completely by the barrow of a gun. The Iraq War was immoral because it was a preemptive attack on a sovereign nation that posed no immediate threat to America, it was a war based on the lie that Iraq had massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction, and it had no legal or moral justification at all. War is no fairy tale.
In the Iraq War, many civilians in Iraq were murdered, cluster bombs existed, phosphorus was commonly used in Iraqi cities and towns, and other forms of destruction persisted in Iraq (even after the Bush surge). Also, Iraqi people were tortured in Abu Ghraib and other incidents. American soldiers lost their lives, were tortured, and have their lives devastated by the conflict too. Therefore, the Iraq War should not have existed in my opinion as more peaceful solutions were available to handle foreign policy matters in Iraq. Likewise, we have to learn lessons. We have to realize that foreign policy is no game, and we have to use every method available to solve problems peacefully. The anti-war movement during the Iraq War was courageous to speak their minds, organize, and have a sense of purpose to try to end the Iraq War. The anti-war movement united people from across the political spectrum to be for civil liberties, to promote environmental rights, to oppose torture, to be against warrantless wiretapping, and being against imperialism. Today in 2023, we must be continuously firm in embracing our core convictions that freedom and justice are meant for everyone.
By Timothy