Senate Republicans Defeat Iraq Withdrawal Timetable;
5 US Troops Killed
5 US GIs were announced killed on Thursday. Militiamen or guerrillas killed 4 with a bomb as they were returning from Sadr City (Shiite East Baghdad). Another had been killed on Wednesday by Sunni Arab guerrillas in al-Anbar Province.
Police found 20 bodies in the streets of Baghdad. Rahim Darraji, the Sadrist mayor of a district of Sadr City, was attacked and wounded. He had been an advocate of Shiite cooperation with the present security plan. Another bombing, in Karrada, killed at least 8 persons; it was apparently targeting Sabir al-Issawi, head of the Baghdad city council, and was probably the work of Sunni Arab guerrillas.
Guerrillas detonated a bomb at a checkpoint in Iskandariya just south of Baghdad, killing 4 and wounding 24. McClatchy reports on killings in Diyala Province, including the killing of 5 policemen in the city of Kanaan.
An Iraqi poll of Baghdad residents done in February shows that only 34 percent approve of the job Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is doing. Only 32 percent say that their neighborhoods are secure. Only 3 percent said security had improved in the previous three months, and only 10 percent had any hope it would in the coming months. 26 percent believe that sectarian militias make them safer, down a bit from September. A US military spokesman admitted that these poll numbers are "bad."
Senate Republicans defeated a bid by Democrats to legislate a withdrawal deadline for US troops in Iraq, of August, 2008. One Republican voted with the Democrats, while two Democrats and Joe Lieberman voted with the Republicans. If the American public really wants US troops out of Iraq, as they keep telling the pollsters, then obviously they will have to turn out some more Republicans from high office, in the Senate and the White House, in 2008.
A Pentagon report finally admits that some aspects of a civil war are present in Iraq. This US News and World Report article goes on to say that inflation is running 50 percent, that Baghdad residents are only getting 6 hours of electricity a day, that unemployment may be as high as 60 percent, that only 16 percent say that their income meets their basic needs, and that 9,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country each month. I wouldn't place too much importance on the decline in the number of "attacks." The Lancet study found that only 13 percent of violent deaths in Iraq are from bombings. Most of those killed are just shot, and I don't think shootings of individuals are counted under the rubric of "attacks."
Anthony Cordesman has concluded that the US is unlikely to achieve its stated goals in Iraq and that as time goes on, Iraqi domestic political actors and considerations will be more important for the outcome than US policy.
Hannah Allam of McClatchy on what a trip to Baghdad tells you about the situation of the country.
Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that some residents of Nasiriya staged a demonstration Thursday, demanding that those who fill government jobs, including police, be scrutinized as to whether they hold higher degrees, and if so, the latter should be privileged, they said.
Labels: Iraq War
posted by Juan Cole @ 3/16/2007 01:29:00 AM
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7 Comments:
The generations who made America great gave you the tool to stop the war-mongers now in power. No more money for the occupation.
As I understand it, nothing else can hack it because the Chimp in Chief can veto it.
Congress owes it to the Americans, us Iraqis, and the whole world. They should stop fooling around with the other games, and go for the real thing.
It is unfortunate that the Republican Members of Congress are unwilling to uplift their actions beyond those of tired, obstinate party hacks. They have proved over and over again that they have no genuine concern for the citzens of this country. They would mindlessly send thousands of our serviceman and women to their death or disability in a civil war that cannot be altered by American presence. All the Republicans choose to do is cling to party loyalty. They do so in the face of death, destruction, corruption, and incompetence. They have allowed the Bush Administration to threaten our lives, our economic stability, our health, our freedom. They mindlessly worship "The Buck Is The Bottom Line" credo; but throw all caution to the wind when it comes to military spending. Monies spent on the Iraq War are monies thrown down a rat hole. Yet, they cannot wait to spend billions more. It is a sorry commentary on the Republican Party that this will continue until 2008. Bush has repeatedly defied the law and bypassed Congressional oversight. He has done this because he knows that his robots in Congress will not hold him accountable. It is my sincere hope that the majority of Americans will hold the Republican Party accountable in 2008, and give them a thorough drubbing. The Party evidently must collapse entirely before it can be cleansed of its extreme corruption and built anew, leaving far-right ideology to the fanatic fringe few. The Democrats, some of them still weak and spineless, will do well to learn from the next very long and very miserable 2 years.Bush is not going to miraculously stop being incompetent and obstinate. He has determined he will do as he pleases, consequences be damned. Never having had to be held wholly and solely accountable for his actions, he sees himself as invincible. If Americans want a representative Democracy, they must tell the politicians that those politicians cannot continue to ignore the will of the people.
The NYTimes on 12-3-07 had an article saying that Mahdi militiamen had been "sent to the wings under a deal betwqeen its leader, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and the government to ease the way for the security sweeps." and that in the past two years the Mahdi Army had protected security for the pilgrims going to and from Karbala. Also that, "The latest attacks followed a week in which hundreds of Shiite pilgrims were killed trying to reach the rituals in Karbala...The exodus faces the same risks." The pilgrims were an obvious target plus an obvious chance to proove that the pilgrims could be protected by US troops and/or govt. troops. It seems clear that neither were interested in security for Iraqi civilians--only in military sweeps. It was reported somewhere that the US reacted by sending troops later. This would seem to proove the need for militias--who else to protect the people? And to proove that the US has no interest in providing security to Iraqis, but only in taking and holding territory. In short it doesn't look like a peaceful Iraq is even a remote aim of the US at this point. Or at least that the US failed in what miight have been a last chance to show that they were interested in the security of Iraqi civilians. Sad beyond belief.
Listening to NPR this morning, I listened to the same sad talking points about why we can't set a timetable;
From memory, they are:
We will give terrorists a training base in Iraq;
Terrorists will use oil money to finance their operations;
al Qaeda will win a huge victory;
Iranian influence in the area will increase;
we will undermine moderate democratic governments like Saudi Arabia and Egypt;
Turkey and Kurdistan will fall to fighting and we will lose Turkey as an ally;
Israel will be intimidated by Hamas;
The Shi'a and Sunni have fought for thousands of years; without an honest broker (the US)such conflicts will continue for the foreseeable future.
Without commenting on the statements, I am amazed when I consider that at one time, NPR was considered the radio station of choice for the educated and the intellectual. Now it appears to appeal to the ineffectual.
NPR used to report the number of US casualties every day, the first thing in their 8AM news. Not anymore. Now, I have read about it on JuanCole.com (which I read at 8:15) - funny, that.
"Senate Republicans defeated a bid by Democrats to legislate a withdrawal" - Do we need any more evidence that many Congressmen and Senators are more interested in the opinion of the war profiteers than the majority of the U.S. populace?
It isn't just the republicans. There is NO leadership on the dem side for getting us out.
They are about covering their electoral butts and that's it.
Ron Paul, a republican, is one of the only people consistently saying get out of iraq.
A Stryker soldier we talked to at the Port of Tacoma resistance said he had to go back to Iraq b/c he contracted a virus there that spread through his house forcing his 40 month old son to have a medical procedure that cost $800,000. He cannot get insurance outside the military.
Congress is abdicating its responsibility to these troops.
Shame on them.
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