7 US Troops Killed;
Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day;
Thousands Protest in Basra, Demand Governor's Resignation
I keep hearing from US politicians and the US mass media that the "situation is improving" in Iraq. The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single day. Virginia Tech will be gone from the headlines and the air waves by next week this time in the US, though the families of the victims will grieve for a lifetime. But next Tuesday I will come out here and report to you that 64 Iraqis have been killed in political violence. And those will mainly be the ones killed by bombs and mortars. They are only 13% of the total; most Iraqis killed violently, perhaps 500 a day throughout the country if you count criminal and tribal violence, are just shot down. Shot down, like the college students and professors at Blacksburg. We Americans can so easily, with a shudder, imagine the college student trying to barricade himself behind a door against the armed madman without. But can we put ourselves in the place of Iraqi students?
I wrote on February 26,
' A suicide bomber with a bomb belt got into the lobby of the School of Administration and Economy of Mustansiriya University in Baghdad and managed to set it off despite being spotted at the last minute by university security guards. The blast killed 41 and wounded a similar number according to late reports, with body parts everywhere and big pools of blood in the foyer as students were shredded by the high explosives. '
That isn't "slow progress" or just "progress," the way the weasels in Washington keep proclaiming. It is the most massive manmade human tragedy of the young century.
According to the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) actually trying to help the estimated 8 million Iraqis in dire need of aid . . . things are not going that well in Iraq.
Thousands of persons demonstrated Monday against the governor of Basra Province, complaining of poor social services and collapsing security, and demanding his resignation. Among the demonstrators were followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Sadrists are not that numerous in Basra, so this demonstration was probably joined by other disgruntled groups, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that the number of demonstrators totalled 20,000. Some Western wire services, however, suggested that there were as few as 3,000.
Guerrillas killed 5 US GIs on Monday in Baghdad and al-Anbar Province. The killings of 2 others on Sunday were announced Monday.
Sunni Arab guerrillas kidnapped 11 Shiite Turkmen from a town south of Kirkuk on Monday night. Such Shiite captives are often killed.
McClatchy reports that police found 11 bodies in Baghdad on Monday, down from Sunday's total of 30. Several persons were killed by mortar attacks, roadside bombs, and sniping in the capital on Monday.
Police found 6 bodies in the streets of the northern, mostly Sunni Arab city of Mosul (pop. 1.5 million) on Monday. Also, "police said that 13 Iraqi army soldiers from the second battalion were killed and 4 others were injured when insurgents attacked their check point in Al A’daya village south west Mosul city today." Guerrillas also shot down a lecturer and a dean at Mosul University.
In Tikrit, north of Baghdad, guerrillas killed 3 policemen and wounded 6 civilians with a suicide car bomb attack.
South of Baghdad at Mahmudiya, mortar shells killed 3 and wounded 17.
Iran condemned Sunday's murder of 5 Iranian oil tanker drivers near Baquba.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports in Arabic that an official in the Baghdad municipal council told it that there are hundreds of thousands of orphans in Baghdad schools.* She said that no steps have been taken to provide special services to this sector of schoolchildren, for lack of resources, and that only 2,000 are receiving government aid. (The Lancet study published last fall found 605,000 excess violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion. These were fairly evenly spread around the country, and Baghdad is a fourth of Iraq, population-wise. So 150,000 excess deaths should have occurred in Baghdad. If we assume for the sake of argument that 100,000 of those killed were child-rearing adults, and if we assume 5 children per family and assume that in most cases only one parent was killed violently, that would be 500,000 orphans in Baghdad. Not all would yet be in school. The official alleged 900,000 orphans,but that strikes me as too high. I'm not a demographer, though, and would be interested in knowing what the Public Health people think about this statistic.)
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-proclaimed "Islamic State of Iraq" says that Iraq under American military occupation is a "university for terror."
To illustrate the point, the architect of the three massive bombings in Algiers, Algeria, last Wednesday says that he wants to turn Algeria into another Iraq. Muslim fundamentalists and the secular military government in Algeria fought a devastating civil war in the 1990s and into the zeroes of this century, which left an estimated 150,000 persons dead. The radical Salafis (Sunni revivalists), now calling themselves al-Qaeda in North Africa, are threatening to reprise that dirty war, which they lost. Some Algerian jihadis are getting training in Iraq, where they have gone as volunteers to fight US troops.
The Taliban in Afghanistan are also beginning to adopt the tactics of Iraqi guerrillas which include attacks on civilians in hopes of mobilizing them into the war on one side or another, on the theory that civil conflict is always good for growing an insurgency.
Fred Kaplan at Slate lays into Senator John McCain for admitting that if he is elected president, he'd quite possibly get out of Iraq, just as the Democrats he is now attacking propose.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking in Australia, said he left it to Australia and the US whether to withdraw from Iraq or not. He said that he did want to stress that if the US and Australia withdrew, they should do so in such a way as to retain their authority and preserve their gains in the region.
The problem with this advice is that it is impossible to follow it. Any US withdrawal from Iraq will inevitably affect its prestige. But then, the quagmire is a daily reminder to everyone in the region of the limits of US power.
Olmert made a big deal about 'living in the region' and therefore 'knowing something of its dynamics.' I think his war on Lebanon last summer demonstrates the falsity of the latter claim, and my advice to Canberra would be pretty much to keep his track record in mind. Even in Israel, he is at 14% in the polls.
Anyway, I think the implication of his statement, despite his beating around the bush, is that he doesn't relish a US and Australian withdrawal from Iraq because he thinks it will adversely affect Israeli security. Olmert doesn't understand regional dynamics and doesn't seem to see that the longer the US and its two remaining major allies in Iraq try to stay there, the worse the situation gets, which actually is the thing that is threatening to Israel.
The Belgian Minister of Defense has demanded that Israel pay for the clean-up of the 1 million cluster bombs Olmert ordered fired into south Lebanon, mostly in the last 3 days of the war last August. There was no military purpose to this act of vicious sabotage, and it was clearly a war crime. The goal was to injure Lebanese civilians returning to South Lebanon, and, since they largely support Hizbullah, to weaken that group in the south. Kudos to Andre Flahaut for daring stand up on this issue. Israeli politician Shimon Peres has admitted that deploying the cluster bombs was a "mistake."
So if the Australians know what is good for them, they won't pay too much attention to Olmert, perhaps the most inept prime minister Israel has ever had.
Labels: Iraq War
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/17/2007 12:30:00 AM
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Actually, Olmert has managed to fall to 3% approval.
VA Tech
While it is true that the Iraqis are indeed suffering from the the effects of their culture of violence (talk about easy access to weapons and the pent up frustrations instigating their use!), we have to wonder about an American culture that is affected adversely due to its willingness to use violence to solve its national and international problems. It may also be true that the perpetrator of the events in Blacksburg was an Asian male who may or may not have been in the U.S. on a visa. Yet, it will likely be proven that the weapons he used were not much different than what the Iraqis are using, illicitly or illegally obtained 'heaters, 'gats,' or 'rods.' We will see in the near future whether or not another foreigner will determine how legitimate American rights will be curbed or curtailed, not unlike in the aftermath of the 11th September 2001 events, reportedly carried out by some 'Al Qaeda' operatives from elsewhere.
I would suggest that the larger issue might turn out to be about immigration rather than about anything else when all of the dust settles and the blood in Virginia dries, given that the U.S. has been quite liberal and felxible when letting people enter the country on various pretexts, some even becoming dubious candidates for and winners of state gubernatorial elections. We can only imagine the degree to which citizens will cast jaundiced eyes on various foreigners in the coming weeks, months, and years simply because of one largely random event, reinforcing the bunker mentality that already has begun to take hold.
In another article available today at the Guardian (UK), entitled "U.N. Seeks Help With Iraqi Refugees,"* the new Korean UN leader fellow wants other countries to assist in the resettlement of refugees from the Iraq violence, citing Syria and Jordan as the primary recipients with others noted as well. The U.S. will be taking in about 7,000. There are about 50,000 fleeing each month to save their skins from their 'VA Tech'-like futures, putting increased burdens on those countries who have really nothing to do with the calamity having befallen the country, tasked with taking in those who had little or nothing to do with Saddam Hussein or the resulting uncivil war that is on-going.
While the U.S. hunkers down in its bunker funk, there is the extreme likelihood that some of those 50K will be (or become) extremists, exporting their woes elsewhere, globalising their services against humanity. As we've seen in the last years, the '7/7'-style bombers were supposedly otherwise well-adjusted kids who just came under the thrall of political activism -- in a violent way. And, now, our immigration service will accept increasing numbers of the disenfranchised into the U.S. to some unknown fate and future, for them and for our citizens. This will, in turn, resonate in others, clamouring more and more loudly for release and relief from their virtual 'hells.'
And, Younger George tells us that by not defeating 'them' over 'there,' we will be inviting 'them' over 'here.' I would suggest that he has already sent out the invitations and some will be accepting them as I write. The crises will only get bigger and worser, requiring some measures to be taken in order to at least appear humane and humanitarian when it comes to humans. (Have we seen the environmental impact statements on Iraq and Afghanistan?)
Of course, the whole intent on the invasion of Iraq had something to do with solving a human ill, extending the olive branch of American friendship to a repressed people who had been suffering under a dictatorship for many years, having lived under dire circumstances due to their leadership, suffering all the while. We can see how accepting a (reportedly) Chinese national into our country had the same purpose, allowing him to learn about the truth and beauty of the American "Way of Life," perhaps through education. Despite the best of intentions, anomalous behaviours do occur, even among those deemed most acceptable to the system of cross-culture exchanges. Not unlike many other college students, his extracuricullar activites took precedence.
One statement made by Younger George yesterday included the words, "We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today." We wonder if these sentiments are extended to the scores and hundreds and thousands of Iraqis, if they are given the same heart-felt, soulful, godly consideraton. It might be that 'God' is not impressed with the situations as they have been caused to be and decided to visit some tragedy on the Americans in some mysterious way. We await with bated breath while the fellow from Lynchburg, Revvin' Jerry, makes this determination. I find it hard to reconcile how a 'loving God' would allow such things to occur if there was not some message not coming from a bottle (or the aftereffects therefrom). But, then, thinking 'Urban Cowboy,' the make-up love always follows the real abusiveness.
My interpretation might read as being cynical but Kismet or Karma are not always a benevolence, seeking to make their points rather dramatically. As the ice and snow of Winter melts into Spring, similar transformations on a geopolitical scale precipitate in their own time, perhaps kinder and gentler (in the Elder George sense) or violently through floods and storms, not unlike what have been visited on the Eastern Seaboard in recent days. Even the evidence from VA Tech had to be driven (reportedly) to Maryland because the local aircraft were grounded.
Connections between seemingly disparate events might seem extreme but not a lot more than one spurned lover taking his aggressions and frustrations out on otherwise innocent peoples. While the Buscists had it in for Saddam Hussein, there are unintended casualties and consequences arising from inconceived (even insane) plans for resolving conflicts. We can only wonder if the general sense of angst over World conditions has found expression in a much simpler (sort of) way, the lesson learned (by at least the series of dead gunmen**) that violent reaction is the best way to make everything work out for the better. Yesterday's gunman and Hussein are both gone, leaving untold numbers of victims in their wake, largely due to how American ideals can be misinterpreted and misrepresented at all levels, by anyone, for various reasons. The evidence is circumstantial at best but the seeking of revenge seems to be the consistent theme.
Alamaine
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6564177,00.html
** A history of violence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2058860,00.html
“I ask God to bestow upon the people an independent, devoted government to be like a candle in the middle of the darkness, away from occupation,” M. Sadr
Lord hear our prayer.
IraqSlogger compares the Virginia Tech massacre to the ongoing slaughter at Iraqi universities.
It has to be in perspective. VA Tech was a tragedy, but no more tragic than what is happening in the Mid-East. Of course most Americans won't see it that way.
Human life is of value regardless where those humans live.
My condolences to the families and friends of the 33 students killed at VA Tech. We can't know their sorrow.
you might start reporting daily deaths as a multiple of VA Techs.
Juan - you are probably the very best commentator on the web about the very awful mess the US has got itself (and us Brits) into in Iraq.
And you never, ever, suggest that it's all down to the Israelis. That would be 'anti-Semitism' of the worst kind. (Let us not forget that ALL Arabs and ALL Jews are Semitic). But, maybe, you should do so, from time to time.
I read your post religiously, every day at about 3pm local (Philippines) time, but, just in the past week, they have been getting more and more horrible.
Your comment today about the equivalent of 2 Virginia Tech shootings happening every single day in Iraq will mean absolutely nothing if Americans can't empathise between the two, or if their TV company owners certainly don't want to make the comparison.
Please keep on being reasonable, please keep chipping away at the foundations of all this terrible crap.
Your note about: "Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports in Arabic that an official in the Baghdad municipal council told it that there are hundreds of thousands of orphans in Baghdad schools" (the link doesn`t work too well) should be a very moving story (remember all those Spencer Tracy movies about Boys Town, Dickens's 'Oliver Twist' and the English Dr Barnado's Homes? All heart-wringing tales about just a very few orphans)
But your report? Maybe half a million Iraqi orphans?
Let's ignore it. They're just a bunch of wogs or rag-heads anyway.
And so are their new-born children.
I won't be around by then, but I really do wonder if some of the current bunch of politician/criminals are retrospectively blamed for the crime of Iraqi Holocaust denial in about 50 years time.
The Americans will relieve their anxious feelings of vulnerability, and transform their miserable grief into righteous anger ~ as they embrace the convenient solace of a pervasive media-driven FRAME = illusion that “Thank God, the mass murderer was not one of us.”
This is Juan:
The word yatim or orphan in Arabic may well refer to any child without the full complement of two parents.
Sad but true.
as i recall america has 12 times the population as iraq. so 33 iraqi deaths would be like 12*33 = 396 american deaths
It's not two Virginia Techs a day. It's 24 a day. Because the U.S. population - 300 million - is twelve times that of Iraq's 25 million.
That's a conservative estimate. It's probably closer to 25 a day, given that "we're" apparently getting on for a million dead Iraqis now. So they can be "subtracted" from that population of 25 million.
And ditto the countless refugees who've managed to get out.
And while you're at it you can subtract the 4 million or so Kurdish Iraqis from the main figure. Subtract them because things are largely "quiescent" in that part of the country.
Run those "refinements" on the numbers and you're talking about 30 Virginia Techs a day. 210 a week. 900 a month. And so on.
Day in and day out. Week in and week out. Month in and month out. Year after year.
The previous commentator's word is the mot juste: it's an Iraqi holocaust.
Yesterday it was Imus. The day before that it was Anna Nicole. Tomorrow it will be God only knows what, but it won't be about the suffering of the Iraqi people. Troop loss will remain about numbers.The grief and heartache for families, both Iraqi and American will not be big news. Local papers may carry more significant coverage about the deaths of American servicemen and women,but not the Mainstream Media. Here in Indiana, we have lost three young men in one week. The toll will continue to rise as the "Surge" continues. It is obvious to all but the comatose and Charles Krauthammer,(among other right-wing pinheads) that the "Surge" is NOT working. Their definition of success is specious, at best, and bizarre in the extreme. Carnage rages on all over Iraq. While I am deeply saddened by the tragic events in Virginia, I am as saddened and angered by the debacle in Iraq. We have a violent, war-mongering government. It filters down from the top. Violent movies, TV,music, video games,and guns for sale like lollipops in some states, what do we expect? Indianapolis is in the throes of a daily murder epidemic. So are many other cities. We have had an entire family wiped out by murderers. In Pennsylvania, Amish children were slain in their school. Yet, the NRA reigns supreme in Congress and State Legislatures. They will hum and haw on the MSM; there will be more study groups and investigations;and the pundits will prattle, but not a damned thing will change. On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough asked:"What has changed since Columbine?" My reply: Diddly-squat. As long as legislators can be bought with campaign contributions and lobbyist lolly, nothing of substance will happen. Violence will increase and the quality of our lives will decrease. The fear-mongers will win. The war-mongers will gloat.
Juan the algerian leader of the group is actually calling for peace and doesnt want a return to war. he doesnt want to be like iraq, or so the article says.
I think that the sad difference between Iraq and Virginia Tech is that we accept it over there, but not over here. It is actually ashame that we see this anywhere in the world.
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