70 Killed, including 3 GIs;
Return of Republic of Fear
Reuters reports 77 killed in Iraq's civil war on Thursday. That total includes 38 bodies found in the streets of Baghdad. Also included are 3 GIs k.i.a.
Al-Hayat reports that in Najaf on Weds.-Thurs. night, 4 members of the Sadr Movement loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr were arrested, including one of his aides. Muqtada al-Sadr's office said that the arrests were based on a misunderstanding and called for calm. The elected head of the Najaf provincial governing council complained that the arrests had been made without any prior contact with the council.
Patrick Cockburn argues that the Republic of Fear is back in Iraq, with widespread torture by death squads of their victims. Some of his interviewees in Baghdad are saying that the situation is worse than under Saddam.
Guerrillas are kidnapping drivers, then booby-trapping their cars and letting them go, then following them until they pass a checkpoint, at which point they hit the detonator button and . . . kablooie. I don't think this can work for very long; the victims will find out about their predecessors and ditch the car.
The Italians have handed over military duties to the Iraqi army in Dhi Qar province, with its capital at Nasiriyah. The Italians will continue to contribute economic development assistance, but their military mission is over.
Australian troops will perform back-up and emergency duties in the area, but will not patrol the capital of Nasiriyah, which has largely gone over to Muqtada al-Sadr.
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/22/2006 12:58:00 AM
|
Facebook
6 Comments:
"Guerrillas are kidnapping drivers, then booby-trapping their cars and letting them go, then following them until they pass a checkpoint, at which point they hit the detonator button and . . . kablooie. I don't think this can work for very long; the victims will find out about their predecessors and ditch the car."
True or not, I don't know.... but I do know that Iraqis have been saying this was true for US authorities for several years - except instead of kidnapped, the Iraqis were arrested.
But, this story above also claims that people are chained to the steering wheel and feet are taped to the gas petal (that actually had been proven to have happened in some suicide bombings, but not who did it). This fact would argue that the "kidnapped" people could not ditch their cars.
But, if you read all of Jill Carroll's story, it is clear that she felt the kidnapper's eyes were everywhere and that she had better do whatever they had told her to do - or else, she would be dead. Since she saw her kidnappers kill her Iraqi partner at the very beginning, she knew they were serious about killing people.
Further, if this is true and the kidnap victim tried to ditch the car, I'm pretty sure the kidnappers would kill him or her outright, either by blowing them up right away or shooting them.
Pretty darn sick what people will do to their own kind.
at 4:09 am StephenSedona said:
"There is no large act we can do that will solve this."
That is true now, and has been true for some time. No longer can a heroic, grandstanding play, made with great fanfare, affect the course of this downward spiral.
What's left is simply the small acts, many and often repeated, to establish a pattern, though not to accomplish major feats. This is how we can show what values truly shape our beliefs and actions. The simple, mundane drudgery of showing respect for the indigenous people, mourning their losses, and seeing that their children have food for that day.
But that's always been all we could do to bring stability and security to devastated communities. I mean, how does having a brutal foreign occupation army build a water treatment plant and then complain that the locals are too stupid or too lazy to operate and maintain it properly, how can that possibly improve anything but the resume of development officials who care not about the unwashed masses ? Up to now, this Iraq adventure has been all about us, and the natives were cluttering up the scenery.
If we replace our colonels and riflemen and USAID bureaucrats with just plain folk who commisserate with the downtrodden, we have increased the prospects of peace. If we empower these non-soldiers and non-development experts with money to convey to the locals to spend as THEY see fit, instead of spending according to the white man's grandiose schemes, that's the start of respect.
Nothing else works. Why not trust Jesus on this ?
it was patrick cockburn who dryly quipped on halloween 2003:
"saddam hussein should not have been a hard act to follow."
it's one of many rotating sigs i use to close my email messages.
you can never set the bar too low when assessing the bush administration.
"Guerrillas are kidnapping drivers, then booby-trapping their cars and letting them go, then following them until they pass a checkpoint, at which point they hit the detonator button and . . . kablooie. I don't think this can work for very long; the victims will find out about their predecessors and ditch the car."
Hmmmmmmm. . . But wouldn't the victims (driver and passengers) be, er, dead? And wouldn't the car have been "kablooied"? It might be too late for the victims to figure out what happened and take protective action for the future.
Everyday I read that more of our men & women K.I.A. over in Iraq.
How long can this go on?
'avid student' thanks for the response.
A question I've been thinking about lately.
Are we looking carefully and deeply enough at the actual process that is occurring? Can we see the pattern intertwined with the pattern of the day news. Not what we want to see. Not where we think Iraq should go. Not -- 'here is what should be done'. Not --'here is what great saints and great minds would do'. Where is this thing going, and if we can see where it's going, what can we do to make the process less horrible for Iraqis.
Not oil interests. Or grand political interests. And not taking sides with any of the ethnic and religious based identities. The Shiites are going to come out ahead. Iran is going to come out ahead. It's given - given, what the fools who made the policy have done.
If the ountry is headed to partition then the way to help is more visible. Pointless to fight Sunni insurgents unless they seek out our people for a fight. Sunni territory goes to Sunnis, no point even being there. OK -- road blocks. The same with the South -- we formulate strong rewards for peace among the Shia militias but we're or the Brits are out of there too. Our troops go to the 'mixed neighborhoods' large and small and we smother the fighting and violence. We increase the number of troops if necessary. We post a fluid time table for all the Iraqis to see. Replace our troops with anybody -- the more neutral the better. Massacre , genocide we'll come back.
We cut the bull, all our folks -- say-- this is a bad thing to do but if you are going to do it-- do it in such a way your great grandchildren will not be fighting each other. We hand out tons of money. Offer to help in any way we can.
This pattern is not clear to me -- has not emerged so I can see it with my limited knowledge of the area.
Post a Comment
<< Home