Khamenei calls for US to Depart Iraq
US Troop Levels Rise to 147,000
US troop levels in Iraq have jumped to 147,000. You have to wonder whether this big runup of troop commitments is related to an attempt to calm the country in the run-up to midterm elections in the US.
2 more US soldiers were announced killed on Wednesday. Over 30 Iraqis were killed in bombings in Baghdad or assassinations there and in other cities on Wednesday.
Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Wednesday that Iraq's suffering derives from elements of the old Baathist regime and from the presence of US troops in the country. AP reports,
' Khamenei told al-Maliki that Iran "considers it an obligation to support the Iraqi government in practical ways," Iran's state news agency said.
But Khamenei - who holds the final word in all political matters in Iran - made clear Iran wants to see the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which he blamed in part for the turmoil plaguing Iraq.
"Part of (Iraq's) sufferings have been due to the actions of the former regime and part is due to the presence of occupiers in Iraq," Khamenei told al-Maliki, according to the Iranian state news agency and state television.
"We hope a day will come when the Iraqi people reach the stage they deserve and that, by cutting the hands of the foreigners, its wealth will come to serve the Iraqi people," Khamenei said. '
This is the Tehran Times version.
In addition to joint oil operations, Iran and Iraq have announced cooperation in agricultural projects.
Martin Sieff points out that the US has decapitated "al-Qaeda in Iraq,", having killed Zarqawi and then captured his number 2 (a capture not announced for months after it happened). Sieff then points out that the capture of scores of Zarqawi's lieutenants has made no dent in the level of violence in Iraq.
I conclude that Zarqawi and his organization (which was never 'al-Qaeda" in any technical sense of the word) were a relatively small part of the Iraqi guerrilla movement, and most of the violence is being planned out by Iraqis.
Oliver Poole has more on the discovery of 65 bodies in Baghdad and environs on Wednesday morning.. Here is about the saddest passage I've read in a while:
' The United Nations has estimated that around 100 people a day are being killed in this sectarian dirty war. Many of these, however, are never found and disappear into the Tigris or Baghdad's sewage pipes. Last month, the 4th Infantry Division, the US force responsible for the capital, started repairing exposed holes in the city's antiquated sewage system. Officers admitted that this would not cut the number of murders but might help families locate missing relatives. '
Liz Sly of the Chicago Tribune reveals that most of the bodies recovered in the past 48 hours have been Sunni Arabs in Sunni districts of West Baghdad, who presumably were killed by Shiite death squads attempting to ethnically cleanse those neighborhoods.
Sly also reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has declined to support Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq in their attempt to introduce legislation in parliament allowing the formation of an 8-province super-region in the Shiite south. The plan is opposed by Sunni Arabs and some Shiites. Sistani said it was better to concentrate at this time on providing services to the people.
Al-Hayat reports that SCIRI agreed Wednesday [Ar.] to postpone the consideration of the issue of regional confederacies.
If you want to know what leaders who actually live in the Middle East think of the Bush administration's Iraq War, they are happy to tell you. It is a "real disaster" that has "destabilized the region." The only think they can't agree on is whether it would be a greater catastrophe for the US to pull out abruptly or for it to stay.
The plight of the 34,000 Palestinians in Iraq.
War is bad for children and other living things. But is is very good for the profits of the weapons manufacturers. If we could follow the money flows from that industry to the Washington pundits that keep demanding more wars, it would be very illuminating.
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/14/2006 12:30:00 AM
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The Al-Hayat story says the re-emergence of the death-squad bodies-in-the-street style could well be in response to signs of a rapprochement between Sadrist and Sunni groups working toward a "comprehensive plan" that would include not only opposing federalism, but a timetable for US withdrawal. There are many important implications. I offer my version of this piece at http://arablinks.blogspot.com
and in the 'war is bad for children' theme, I recently read this article:
Experts Fear A Lost Generation
Daily exposure to violence has traumatised Iraq’s children. At first glance, the games occupying Sameer, Salwa, Batul, Taghreed, Yasir and Fawzi seem much like those enjoyed by any children as they play happily in a Baghdad street with friends from school and the neighbourhood. On closer inspection, however, their games are far from innocent, and offer a brutal reflection of daily life in Iraq. This group of five- to seven-year-olds is re-enacting a beheading, a scene they have most likely seen on television or on one of the many graphic videos circulating in the country. The girls are screaming and feigning terror, pretending they have been kidnapped by a group of militants. One of the boys holds a wooden stick aloft like a sword, ready to decapitate his “hostage”. Almost half of Iraq’s population is under 18, and the daily violence they have witnessed – not only on television but on the streets – has had a devastating impact on their lives and well-being. Three wars since 1980, population displacement, the loss of family members, car bombs, suicide attacks and the constant presence of troops, tanks and guns are taking their toll on the mental welfare of the younger generation. Though it is hard to obtain exact data on the number of children affected, an April 2003 report by the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF estimated that half a million Iraqi children were traumatised by conflict. Considering the extent of hostilities since then, the number must be considerably higher today. Ayat Salah, six, stopped talking after she found a headless body in front of her house in Baghdad as she set off for school. “Ayat had kissed me and her father goodbye in the morning as usual,” said her mother. “Then she left the house, and suddenly we heard her scream and saw she had fainted. She hasn’t spoken a word since.” Shrooq Mustafa was five years old when she saw militants behead her father in front of her. He worked as a translator for American troops in Baghdad. Her father’s blood splashed all over the girl’s pink dress, and the armed men left her behind with the dead body of her father, screaming and in a state of shock. Often children fall victim to the violence themselves. [I had to stop reading at this point. I was crying too hard. - dancewater]
link:
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=323840&apc_state=henpicr
I think the force level at 147,000 is a sign of how desperate things are. Not going to make matters better before November.
RE: "US troop levels in Iraq have jumped to 147,000..."
as in the past we have discussed here the peculiar way that AngloAmerican forces "count their own casualties" : eg., not including "wounded" or otherwise withdrawn as a result of dis-ability directly or in-directly induced by combat and/or deployment to a Combat Zone; indeed the typical Media Metric is "American Ground Troops KIA"...
...entirely disregarding the hideous casualty toll of their most precious ally ~ the Iraqi Military & Police themselves ~ we presume the purpose of this practice is to somehow minimize in the minds of Americans the true nature of the blood toll suffered as a result of the AngloAmerican Occupation of IRAQ.
So, too it is useful here to explore this Media Metric of "the number of American forces = ground troops" deployed in IRAQ : For this number, ~150,000 or so fails to include the number of American Air Force personnel actively engaged from nearby and distant air-bases (and otherwise un-available for any other duty, thus) Nor does it include the number of American Naval force personnel, perhaps TWO entire fleets off-shore, likewise fully engaged in this conflict.
This under-reporting of ACTUAL combat, total force personnel engaged not only distorts in the minds of Americans the real commitment of American military personnel "in IRAQ," but also disrespects their contribution, and their very real sacrifice.
As every tick and tock of Ground Force personnel is closely followed by every media, the ebb & flow of large Air and Naval force personnel is not; and remains largely unknown, and un-appreciated, thus.
Death Toll Soars in Baghdad - Defeatist Democrats' Stage Cut and Run Chorus
As the day's body count nears 100, Democrats accuse Bush of committing to an unwinnable war and straining the Army.
BAGHDAD — On a day in which nearly 100 bodies attested to Iraq's unbridled violence, Democrats stepped up their response to President Bush's policies, with former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski calling the war "unwinnable."
Zbig man!
But fear of Brzezinski and calming Baghdad for the elections is not, it seems to me, the primary reason for the troop increase. Last night, Ed Wong (whose reportage has become milquetoast these days) reported on News Hour that the US having moved about a division into Baghdad from al-Anbar for Operation Forward Together has replaced those forces. I believe they had been in Kuwait. That would account for the troop increase.
There may indeed be a political motive for Operation Foward Together, indeed two - to stablize the GreenZone gov't and the War Party of the Potomac, but I this maybe one of those rare coincidences of political and military necessity. A day or two ago, I saw clip of Congressional testimony by a former Depty to the US ambassador (Negroponte or Kahlilzad, not identified) in which the diplomat flatly stated the truth that the "UNity government(sic)" had no hope of survining unless sectarian violence was brought under control within the next 3-4 months.
Wong went on to report what, from other new net reports today, seems to be the latest GreenZone gossip - Maliki and Ahmedinejad may have cut some secret deal on Shiite militias.
Ah, The Folly of Exporting Democracy
[by Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman] continues.
I saw the darndest thing on MSNBC yesterday - an econ development ad for Kurdistan
Peaceful, pastoral, prosperous Kurdistan "the other Iraq".
For now.
It must have been a local cable ad placement. I wonder in how many other cities did it run?
You needn't look far to find politically connected insiders making huge profits in this business. UDI was sold to BAE by the Carlyle Group. Carlyle purchased UDI in 1997 for $850 million. BAE bought the company for $4.2 billion. Bush Sr. is reported to have done contract work for Carlyle. For more go to:
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2006/09/war-profiteering-connection-to.html
Reading British writer's Ellis Sharp's brilliant satire "Dead Iraqis" -- fifteen years after it was written:
A reminder that, unlike "Saturday Night Live," real satire isn't bland. At its most outrageous, it can take you by the hand, spin you around till you're completely nauseous and disoriented, kick you in the gut, and then leave you gasping on the ground in the wreckage of your beliefs and assumptions.
But, mostly, a reminder that it's 15-years-and-counting that we've been killing Iraqis. The first Gulf war, the sanctions, and now this neverending fiasco.
Here is an interesting article: Ralph Peters of the New York Post joins with James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal to condemn the anti-Islam bigots. It is high time we search out this bigotry with an unrelenting investigation to discover the truth. Are we at war with Islam or with our own fears?
http://www.saneworks.us/A-Firestorm-or-Simply-a-Firebrand-Jews-Christians-and-Islam-article-179-7.htm
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