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Iraq Body Count is a website that has maintained the most thorough list of civilian casualties from the Iraq War. According to Jonathan Steele, writing in The Guardian, IBC "is widely considered as the most reliable database of Iraqi civilian deaths.” It has been featured in the Chilcot report, and other official government websites. But, there is much to the war that most people don’t know about:

* The US began softening-up strikes in 2002, well before the official entry into the war.
* A chilling story of how the US attacked a hospital in 2004 for reporting Morgue Deaths
* The Al-Jazeera bombings and the US bombing of a Reuter’s desk in Baghdad
* Within the first few weeks, they had recorded over 7,500 civilian deaths with more devastation coming
Violence as Communication - Fallujah
Perhaps no city has been hit as hard as Fallujah, Iraq. After the shock and awe campaign that led to the capture of Baghdad, the city of Fallujah had already established its own local government and security forces. There was no need for US forces to be there because they had not met with resistance at all. But, on April 23, 2003, the 82nd Airborne Division occupied the city.
As a result, on April 28 2003, children and parents were marching in protests towards a school. US troops indiscriminately shot them. With that memory still present in amongst the people of Fallujah, on March 31, 2004, four Blackwater mercenaries were killed on a bridge with their bodies mutilated in brutal way. Unfortunately, most of the western media chose to portray them as innocent victims, instead victims of revenge.
The US authorities took this as a challenge to their dominance. Then in late 2004, they began a campaign to conquer Fallujah which was filled with unbelievable atrocities.
According to the Boston Globe:
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.
As well as being conscripted for forced labor:
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoon
Later on, white phosphorous would be used in Fallujah.
In part 1 of our series, we discuss the Iraq war, the implications of the casualties and also we try to form a memorial for the people who lost their lives. We also talk about the digital memory project for the Iraq war.
Iraq Body Count is available on Twitter.

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Perhaps no country has been subjected to the whims of US imperialism as much as Nicaragua. In the 1800s, it was seen a new breeding ground for the Monroe Doctrine, and sent mercenaries over there to fight wars. In the early 1900s, during the quest for colonies, the US marines invaded again, and through the efforts of Agosto Sandino, they were pushed out, not before establishing a foothold in the form of Anastasio Somoza and his sons who ruled the country with an iron fist. Somoza and his allies grew wealthy while most of the peasants starved and impoverished. Somoza, even took blood from the Nicaraguans and sold it to the US.
However, the Sandinistas began their resistance in 1961 to the Somoza dictatorship. It was a David vs Goliath fight. Somoza had bombers from the US, while Sandinistas merely had their guns. Through their determination, the successfully defeated the Somoza dictatorship not before Somoza absconded with over $3 billion of aid.
However, even victory was bittersweet as the US decided to train one of the most horrific militias known to man: the Contras.
No action was deemed off-limits for the Contras. They beheaded children, they gouged out eyes of peasants. As one activist puts it, “The contras don’t win the hearts and minds of the people. They take the arms and limbs”
However, the Sandinista Revolution improved the lives of the Nicaraguan people in unprecedented ways. Within just 5 short months, the literacy rate rose up from the 50s to the 80s. But, they were fighting a brutal civil war with the Contras for the next decade, while under US sanctions.
Being under the axe of imperial sanctions, and tired from the constant civil war, and under the pressure from the US, the Nicaraguan people voted out the Sandinistas for a US-backed leader: Violeta Chamorro.
Once again, the gains from the revolution were rolled back. Literacy went down, many essential services were privatized. But, the Sandinistas did not give up. They continued to organize for the next 16 years and finally, their efforts paid off. Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas came back to power in 2006.
However, they Sandinistas have been under attack by the US through organizations like the NED that fund the violent opposition including the coup attempt in 2018 where 100s of innocent civilians in Nicaragua were killed. The US put Nicaragua under economic sanctions.
The Sandinistas and Ortega skillfully navigated through this minefield using caution. For example, they did not immediately recognize the one-china policy because of all the factories Taiwan had put in. Only when the opportunity came forward did they do that.
Finally, we walk about Ben and Dan’s experience in the latest Nicaraguan elections and compare it with the US elections. We also discuss the US propaganda campaign against Nicaragua. In the end, Dan says “ God Bless the Sandinistas”



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Other Episodes with Dan Kovalik


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Today, we have the lovely Carl Zha join us again to tell us about the history of Bruce Lee, whose family story is the story of Hong Kong itself!
Show Notes:
3:17 - The Coolie Trade - “Coolie” is a transliteration from a Chinese (and Indian) word. Coolie, in Chinese, means “bitter labor.” In the mid-to-late 1800s the slave trade was abolished in many So…

On Part 2 of Blindingly Unjust, we look at the way the law, public relations, the media interact with each other in order to manufacture consent. We start by examining the kid-gloves in which Sam-Bankman Fried is treated with and then we move on to examine the larger power structures that allows impunity for some and imprisonment for others.


Show Notes
0:50 - Sam Bankman-Fried Scandal
1:30 - Elizabeth Holmes
2:00 - Sam Bankman-Fried admits to running a Ponzi Scheme
10:36 - Coordinated Pump and Dump
12:42 - FTX’s backdoor: The exchange is supposed to be a safe that cannot cracked, but FTX figured out how to “crack” the safe.
14:19 - FTX being embedded with politicians and appearing with Zelensky
15:13 - Old lady being in jail over Christmas
16:38 - Prosecutorial power
17:30 - Arrested over “a 1000-yard stare”: Racial discrimination where a black person was sitting outside.
19:15 - Prosecutor’s office and Police are extremely comingled which is why we cannot get a single conviction
20:50 - The limits of Law - it is an expression of societal power.
23:12 - Bush Vs Gore and Legal fiction
25:42 - The same power circle within the USA
27:38 - China’s meritocracy
30:22 - The way China works vs the Way the USA works
32:50 - Who owns BMW
36:15 - Media driven blood-lust
38:15 - Korean War Posters

43:17 - Who the us fights a war with..

Christopher Dilworth can be found on Twitter


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Justice is often depicted as a blind woman who holds an evenly balanced scale as it is meant to reflect that justice is supposed to be dispensed impartially and to all members of society. Of course, within American hegemony is a popular myth that judiciaries are impartial arbiters of constitution and constitutionality. Today, attorney Christopher Dilworth joins us in a two-part episode to debunk this myth while explaining the history of the US judiciary.

Show Notes
2:10: What do Lawyers do? Nuance-Cuck
3:20 - Law is not a vehicle to change the world.
4:04 - Supreme Court, a bullwark against change
5:30 - Streamlining straight to the Supreme Court
6:54 - Hammer v. Dagenhart
10:56 - IG Farben and Zyklon B with Neal Kayal
13:34 - Atkins v Children’s Hospital: Minimum wage conflicts with Due Process
15:22 - Scalia’s anti-intellectualness
17:17 - “Originalism”
18:15 - Qualified Immunity
20:18 - Civil Asset Forfeiture
22:30 - Police have no constitutional duty to protect and serve
24:14 - Christopher Dilworth’s personal experience with the police
28:20 - Esha’s Experience with the Russian Police
29:24 - Janet’s Story with the Police
37:02 - Legalized Sadism
44:53 - Government’s involvement in bringing drugs - Gary Webb
48:04 - Three Strikes
Christopher Dilworth can be found on Twitter


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The world has a lot of borders, but very few people understand what it means for the ordinary citizen and how it affects their lives. The problem this century is that these borders are not decided by people, in order to best serve them. Instead, there is a multi-tiered system that gives some humans some rights and many corporations a free-for all. Today, journalist Todd Miller, and author of Empire of Borders and Build Bridges and Not Walls, joins us to discuss the meaning of the borders and why we may need a world without borders.


Show Notes
0:43 - The Crisis at the Kenya-Tanzania borders: Tanzanian police are attempting to evict a big swath of the Massai people at the behest of a trophy hunting company.
2:15 - Ending the cliche that the immigration system is broken but working as intended.
4:15 - Orwellian technology at the border
5:50 - Border Patrol Memo from 1994 - “The border was created for mortal danger”
The preknowledge that people would die is built into the system.
7:40 - The border budget exceeded $25 billion in 2020.
10:41 - “ There were a 105,000 contracts given to private companies just by CPB and ice which was $55 billion. The $55 billion given to companies over the 12 year old span was more than the amount given between 1975-2023”
12:25 - The logistics and services by private companies. “In 2022, there were drones, unmanned aerial drones. The CPB has a contractor for predator B drones”
15:30 - Request for proposals for a small drone system equipped with a facial recognition system
16:50 - Does the US government conduct surveillance on people who have never set foot inside the US because of the border technology?
19:00 - The border patrol shot into Mexico and killed someone
23:10 - “The nothing that happens in the other 97 case (where the US border patrol shot into Mexico and killed someone), makes me think that there is impunity”
24:22 - The similarities between the US military installation and border control.
24:52 - There are no borders for corporations: The Guatemala - United Fruit Situation
25:54 - There is already an open border system for certain people, by the accident of where you are born. If you have a US passport, that opens doors for many places that if you are born in other places that is not.
30:08 - El Salvador’s iron fist and an example of the open border system for corporations with the heavy hand of brutality that ensures the corporations always get what they want!
31:20 - The Gadsen Purchase which was a gun-totting push
34:26 - Treaty of Versailles and Sikes-Picot agreement and how they randomly drew borders around the world. “I can’t even see my grandmother”
36:01 - The “border zone” where the constitutional rights are exempt
39:34 - DHS in Portland disappearing people from Bortac
42:22 - A culture of Cruelty with Border Patrol
44:39 - Facade of the enemy
46:30 - An agent with his finger on the holster
46:50 - The “hazing” of the border patrol agents where they get beaten and pepper-sprayed
A CBP trainee dies of a stroke
50:12 - A world without borders
51:13 - 77 Borders around the world since 1989
53:04 - A different world
56:15 - “Open Borders” vs “No Borders”
57:50 - The border between Kenya and Tanzania was not drawn by a single African
1:00:10 - Concerns about the Border
1:03:51 - Impact of Borders on the Environment - The DHS action plan


Check out Todd Miller’s blog “The Border Chronicles”





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