Guerrillas Kill 5 GIs
Bombings, Attacks, Kill 44 Iraqis
UN: Nearly 1 Million Displaced since US Invasion
5 US GIs were killed or announced killed on Sunday in Iraq and guerrillas killed some 44 persons in political violence.
83 US military personnel have been killed by guerrillas in Iraq since October 1.
AP's intrepid Hamza Hendawi reports on how the violence has ruined the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast (Id al-Fitr) for most Iraqi Muslims.
*Guerrillas near Baquba northeast of Baghdad ambushed a bus full of police recruits, killing 15 and wounding 25.
*Several bombers targeted Shurjah Market in Baghdad, killing 9 persons and injuring dozens. It was crowded with shoppers picking up gifts and food for the holy day.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports [Ar.] in southeast Baghdad, clashes broke out between a Shiite clan and a Sunni Arab clan that left 9 persons dead.
AP adds:
' Sunday's killings raised to at least 950 the number of Iraqis who have died in war-related violence this month, an average of more than 40 a day. The toll is on course to make October the deadliest month for Iraqis since April 2005, when the AP began tracking the deaths. Until this month, the daily average had been about 27. The AP count includes civilians, government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported. '
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that [Ar.] Salih al-Maliki, and adviser to the Ministry of Defense, has laid the blame for the failure of the current Battle of Baghdad on fifth columnists inside the Iraqi security forces.
He seems to be arguing that guerrillas and militiamen are getting tipped off when the sweep will come to their neighborhood. Also, he said, the security forces are still very badly equipped.
CBS news is reporting that corrupt arms deals cost Iraq $800 million. Nearly a billion dollars worth of embezzlement is a lot of fraud. Hat tip to The Democratic Underground.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimates that 3 million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes during the past 36 years.
About 1 million have been displaced since the US invasion a little over 3 years ago.
*1.5 million have been internally displaced to other parts of Iraq. About half of these have been forced from their homes since the US invasion in 2003.
*1.6 million have been displaced abroad, mainly to Jordan and Syria. Of these:
*About 800,000 are in Syria
*About 700,000 are in Jordan (over 10% of the population!)
*100,000 are elsewhere in the region.
Some of those forced abroad have been there for years.
But the proportion of recent arrivals is rising quickly. Another 40,000 Iraqis arrive in Syria every month! That is half a million a year.
Syria only has 19 million people, so 800,000 is nearly 5 percent! Jordan, with 700,000, is over 10 percent Iraqi now. Iraqis are to Jordan as the Latino wave of immigration has been to the US. One problem: The US is an advanced economy and is growing. Jordan and Syria are both economically messes and there is no way they can absorb such a big influx economically without help. But the budget of the UNHCR for Iraqi refugees has actually been falling rapidly in the past 2 years.
AP reports on the Iraqis in Syria.
John Amato at "Crooks and Liars" points out that Bush actually peddled to George Stephanopolous the line that "we've never been 'stay the course'"!
posted by Juan Cole @ 10/23/2006 06:29:00 AM
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6 Comments:
That's 10 GI's: 5 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday.
At least everyone acknowledges now that the security plan needs changing.
The key tosuccess is removing political interference, and not fearing bold changes. But mostly to face facts.
The intelligence the security forces have is of negative value. It is full of holes and errors.
Catching few suspects in a fully functional western state can take years. There must be hundreds of thousands of suspects in Iraq, and no functioning state.
Maliki rightly refuses to "take on" the militias. The American Likudists want to turn Sadr City and others into new Fallujahs.
The solution is to avoid brick walls, they hurt. Here is one quick solution:
Rather than trying to catch the baddies, or even disarm them, make sure that once they attack, or try to, there is no way they are going to escape.
Own the main streets by having armor at every intersection at least, and Iraqi police, on foot, clearing the pavements from sellers, garbage, and street furniture so that no explosives can be planted. The police also check the entrances of side streets, and gradually switch from formations to casual walking to give the citizens a sense of normality.
Next, suspend all politics and with it all body-guards, foreign security personnel, and give the informal 150,000 armed guards n months notice and severance pay. Basically no vehicle whatsoever, even the police, with armed people in it is allowed. Period.
With politics on hold, the Green Zone can be virtually shut down with the embassies, parliament etc going home, thereby freeing the troops there to guard the streets outside.
The check points and endless barriers can go, giving citizens and the economy breathing space.
This does not require disarming or "taking on" anybody, which also terminates any rewards the armed groups may be hoping to get. The citizens can keep their weapons for self-defence too.
Never said "Stay the course." The man has lied so much he no longer knows what is true and false, a typical dilemma for pathological liars. That Stephanopolous gave him a pass shows he is as much a part of the problem as Bush.
If one clamors for law and order by impeaching, convicting and removing all top officials of the Bush administration from office and then trying those most responsible for the many war crimes committed in Iraq under The War Crimes Act and insisting the maximum peanalty of death be imposed on those found guilty, is one considered by the SS as threatening the lives of the major magistrates, i.e., like any other death threat?
For those interested in a detailed discussion of the possibilities of a coup to replace Maliki with a strongman (bring back Saddam??) to stabilize Iraq, see the Robert Dreyfuss article "The end of Maliki" posted on ZNet: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=11232
Spin Proof: What are you smoking?
Your entire strategy supposes that the insurgency in Iraq is like a street fight in an American city: isolated bad guys, a police force "back there" to impose controls and suspensions, a basic "order" in the face of isolated, identifiable disorder.
In Iraq, think tsunami or earthquake. Just about everything is going wrong and there is no focus of order to appeal to for the beginnings of control. It's "get out of the way" time.
Spinproof is Iraqi.
Ulricili, I presume, ain't
Talk about ignorance and arrogance.
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