Informed Comment

A jury has found an independent “Baptist” church (which doesn’t actually appear to have anything to do with the Baptist Church) in Topeka, KS, guilty of inflicting emotional distress on the bereaved family of a Marine killed in Iraq. The “church” (i.e. cult) members had protested at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder against the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays. There is no reason to think Snyder was gay, but the “Church members said the soldier’s death was God’s punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality” . . . according to Reuters.

This is the time to remind everyone that after September 11, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who inflicted the inaccurately labeled and proto-fascist ‘moral majority’ on the rest of us, said that God had ‘allowed’ 9/11 because the US tolerated gays and feminists. And Pat Robertson, the host of the 700 Club on which the remarks were made, agreed entirely and even issued a subsequent statement to the same effect.

Here is the text:

‘FALWELL: What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact–if, in fact–God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

ROBERTSON: Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

FALWELL: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this.

ROBERTSON: Well, yes.

FALWELL: And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way–all of them who have tried to secularize America–I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”

ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

In a subsequent news release, Robertson stated:

We have allowed rampant pornography on the Internet, and rampant secularism and the occult, etc. to be broadcast on television. We have permitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 million unborn babies to be slaughtered by our society.

We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God’s eye and said, “We are going to legislate You out of the schools and take Your commandments from the courthouses in various states. We are not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We are not going to allow the Bible or prayer in our schools.”

We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, “Why does this happen?” It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us. Once that protection is gone, we are vulnerable because we are a free society.

Don’t ask why did it happen. It happened because people are evil. It also happened because God is lifting His protection from this nation and we must pray and ask Him for revival so that once again we will be His people, the planting of His righteousness, so that He will come to our defense and protect us as a nation.” ‘

Falwell later issued a faux apology of the ‘I’m sorry you’re fat’ variety; Robertson’s organization tried to weasel out of responsibility by claiming he hadn’t understood Falwell, which is impossible given the texts above).

So, I say that Falwell’s and Robertson’s organizations owe the rest of us Americans $10 million each for emotional distress.

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In my absence, my readers are making what seem to me especially substantial, informed and incisive comments, and several of those posted today seemed to me worthy of being put on the “front page”. (Not everyone reads comments). So here they are:

“1. On the Dam

At 11:21 PM, Alex said…

On the dam. There was a report made in 1951 by British engineers proposing various sites for dams on the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is fairly widely available in academic libraries, though not on the internet. When the dams were built under Saddam in the 1980s, other sites were chosen. Although I do not remember what was said about the Mosul dam, the site of the Haditha dam was definitely advised against. So I suppose that is another dam in danger.

However, there is a factor that may not have been taken into account by the US engineers in preparing their assessment of danger, and that is the rate of alluviation. The waters of both the Tigris and the Euphrates carry large amounts of alluvium, washed off the Turkish mountains, and which settles on the bottom when the water is stopped by a dam. At Samarra, the dam was finished in 1954. When I first went to Samarra in 1977, there was an open lake behind the dam. Now there is only dry land and a river channel. The Mosul dam has been in use for half that time. I suspect there is much less water behind the dam than supposed, and thus less danger, but we have not seen the detailed report.

I am only speculating here. There are other factors; the alluvium might be trapped by the Turkish dams upstream, and they will have have the problem in the future. Though it might be a reason the Iraqi engineers are less worried than the US. It depends on how you make the calculations.

Nevertheless, this is a problem typical of an occupation that declares itself not an occupation. The Iraqi government is effectively prevented from acting, and then the occupiers say “not us”, fault of the Iraqi government.

2. Basra (Anon.)

Re Basra, oil, and impending intra-shiite war

Without control of the oil exports and ports of entry, Maliki is just Mayor of the Green Zone, with Odierno his sherif.

The Kurdish militias sit astride the N. piplines, waiting the propitious time to take Kirkuk and hoping to straighten their zone of control SW to the Tigris river, absorbing the Northern production area and Kurdish areas from Ninevah to Diyala.

The Sunni tribes and Marines control the upper Euphrates river and road to Amman, all the way back to Baghdad city limits. No Dawa need apply out West. Iraq’s southern oil capitol and only port is contested by opposition Shiite parties and miitias. The ‘fired’ governor of Basra is still holding the governate, months after Maliki threatened to move in with the ‘Iraqi’ army. The Basra chief of police is unable to command his troops reliably. Tens of millions in oil revenue is flowing to whoever chas teh guns to put deals for $90 bbl crude delivery together.

Baghdad is essentially under lock-down, the war zoned into neighborhoods and barrios, for the time being. Electricity, food and fuel are being rationed, traded and used for collective reward or punishment by this or that faction.

The great Petraeus’ counter-offensive has paused for a breath, with the collateral risks of bombardment being substituted for the military casualties associated with surface patrols. Seems sort of opposite of the COIN doctrine of taking risks to protect civilians.

It sure is good to hear that the US finally has a winning strategy to get Pres. Clinton out of Iraq by 2013. Maybe.

“Peace, peace, but there is no peace.”

3. Ineptitude of the al-Maliki government

You say:” Now if only the al-Maliki government could assert itself in, and provide services for, Iraq itself.” No chance! In fact things are going to get even worse (now the sword of the September US report is gone.)

In today’s Sotaliraq.com there are reports on two statements of interest:

1) A letter from the new . . . head of the anti-corruption office [appointed by Malik in clear violation of the constitution], addressed to the leaders of the US Congress. I very much hope will be published in English, at least for its entertainment value [now in Arabic at:]

http://www.sotaliraq.com/iraqnews.php?id=276

The guy is complaining about being treated like dirt by the US Embassy who do not even give him a security badge to allow him into his office (good for them) and defending the scum he is supposed to be watching over. Maliki’s letter prohibiting the investigation of the top thieves in Iraq, including his own cousin as the ex-minister, which is undisputed except by Ms Rice and is in the public domain is ignored. He says allegations against Maliki are for the parliament only! He then holds the contradiction that there is corruption, but the officials are not corrupt. But he justifies it saying it is all America’s fault. Then he attacks about the ex-head muttering some hilarious stuff about Pinochet and other South American dictators. Now, Maliki first said that the ex-head “may be tampered with some papers” then upped it by accusing him of assassinations no less.

2) The new Agriculture Minister. He is described as a technocrat, but in fact an ex-minister in Ja’fari’s ruinous sectarian government. He proudly declares [in Arabic at:]

http://www.sotaliraq.com/iraqnews.php?id=258

that he aims for full self-sufficiency in all crops! A very stupid idea copied from Iran which is hurting their land; farmers; and economy.

We also have the news that the two new ministers were approved unanimously, yet opposed by the big Sadrists and Sunni blocs! Has anyone heard of a parliamentary vote where the voting result is in dispute? Apart from in Iraq that is.

Maliki seems to have come to the conclusion that he and the sectarian parties in general, have no long -term future in Iraq. So they better concentrate on the looting, for as long as they are allowed to maintain the current term.

4. Lack of State Department competence to grant immunity to Blackwater

At 6:41 PM, exomikey said…

“Sen. Pat Leahy is slamming the Bush administration for bestowing immunity on private US security guards in Iraq.”

When did the State Department get the power to grant immunity to anyone? I’m not sure that they can grant immunity. I’ll take Artios’ position on this until someone who knows chimes in:

Atrios [says]

“Muddle
So I just learned on CNN that the State Department offered immunity to the Blackwater guards. That they don’t have the power to do it. That they did it anyway. That senior State people didn’t sign off on this thing they didn’t have the power to do. This thing they didn’t have the power to do will inhibit any efforts to prosecute them.

I hope someone at the State Department offers to give me Martha’s Vineyard! They may not have the power to do it, but once they do any efforts to take it away from me will be inhibited!

-Atrios 09:02“

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5. Rules of Engagement:

At 6:43 PM, Anonymous said…

The unanswered question, from the apparently one-sided Blackwater shootout last month that killed and wounded dozens, from the Haditha killing of more than a dozen women and children in their homes, is what are the rules we operate under?

The mutable rules of engagement (ROE) are classified, but the bottom line can be inferred from the comments used to justify a bad shoot. Blackwater says that it’s guards felt threatened while driving the wrong way in a traffic circle, and responded to a perceived threat by clearing civilians and cars from the huge square, using automatic weapons fire and explosive rounds.

The Haditha defendants also stated the Marines felt threatened in the aftermath of a fatal IED attack, and so they attacked to eliminate the threat. No fighters or weapons were captured, no expended AK shells were found in the houses where civilians died, but the military court accepted the marines testimony. “I felt threatened’ was sufficient defense for the shooting of unarmed prisoners, use of grenades and rifles on civilians trapped in their bedrooms.

This war is in a conquered country where most Sunni Arabs, and half the Shiites say they feel that attacks on the occupier (us) are justified. The perception of fear on the part of our 165,000 soldiers and 30,000 mercenaries makes nearly all killing on the part of our men justifiable.

ROE concerns can usually be resolved with a word about a feeling. Mr. Koch is correct in that.

I would ask our red-state war supporters to consider how the 1860 War of Northern Aggression story would have ended, if the occupation troops had spoken another language, and been armed with rapid-fire weapons?

It’s going to be a very long war for some of our returning men and their families. They are our soldiers, in our service. Most have done the best they could for comrades, country, and contract. War changes men. This war will follow some home, and many of us will taste from that same tree of knowledge.

Things will get better for our guys, as Iraqis take over mine-clearing, search, siezure, and interrogation. Our combat role will increasingly shift to air attack and artillery fire against enemy buildings. Our casualties will fall to politically acceptable levels. Rules for indirect fire called in by US advisors will be classified, a matter for Iraqis to witness and justify.

Gen. Sherman pointed out, as his men left Atlanta for Charleston, that war is not nice, however noble the justifications. “

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The US is giving Turkey intelligence on the Kurdish Workers Party, according to Reuters. It seems to me that there is a contradiction between US calls for Turkish restraint and this attempt to supply Ankara with “actionable” intelligence. Is it that the US wants Turkey to hit some parts of the PKK in some parts of Iraq? Or is it just an attempt to make the Turks happy while not doing anything that the Kurdistan Regional Authority in Iraq could object to?

Meanwhile, the Turkish military says it killed 15 PKK fighters near the Iraqi border.

Basra’s police chief, Maj. Gen Jalil Khalaf, has admitted that Basra and the nearby port of Umm Qasr are basically under militia rule and that his policemen either cannot fight them or have been actively infiltrated by them. Gasoline and kerosene smuggling are worth billions in that area.

Nevertheless, PM Nuri al-Maliki is insisting that his forces are in a position to take over the security command in Basra. Al-Maliki seems to define such readiness as willingness to take on the “terrorists” by which he means the tiny number of Sunni covert operatives in the deep south. He doesn’t count the Shiite militias in that category.

The Iraqi government is dismissing warnings of the US Army Corps of Engineers that a major dam north of Mosul is structurally unsound and could collapse, with apocalyptic consequences for Iraq. This pie in the sky attitude about all the problems facing Iraq seems infectious. Maybe the Iraqi government caught it from Karl Rove, the Republican spinmeister who has convinced over a quarter of Americans that Bush is doing ‘a good job’ in Iraq! I have a sinking feeling that Mosul and Baghdad face their own Katrina (actually much, much worse) down the line, if the Iraqi officials are this unconcerned.

Oil production in Iraq is down from this quarter a year ago, but the capacity of the country’s production facilities has risen. The northern fields and pipelines are better guarded now.

An interview with Dahr Jamail on what the US military occupation looks like on the ground to ordinary Iraqis.

Ali Eterazi on Islamic reform and ‘post-Islamism’.

Michael Schwartz at Tomdispatch.com on the place of oil among US motivations for its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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The Iraqi cabinet has reported out draft legislation that will remove immunity from prosecution for private security guards such as those of Blackwater. The immunity was put into law by US viceroy Paul Bremer in 2003-2004 when the US was running Iraq as a colony. Such ‘extra-territoriality’ is common in a colonial situation, since it would be unseemly for ‘natives’ to sit in judgment of citizens of the metropole. Typically the first thing modern nationalist regimes like Egypt did when they moved toward independence of colonial powers such as Britain was to abolish extraterritoriality, i.e. laws shielding foreign residents from prosecution inn local courts. Extraterritoriality for US troops in Iran in the 1960s was one of Khomeini’s complaints against the Shah. The Iraqi cabinet move is a step toward renewed independence and self-assertion for the Iraqi government vis-a-vis the United States. Now if only the al-Malik government could assert itself in, and provide services for, Iraq itself.

Sen. Pat Leahy is slamming the Bush administration for bestowing immunity on private US security guards in Iraq. Since Iraq’s new law will not affect past infractions, the US courts are the only arena where murders might have been punished. Not likely.

Mark Kukis of Time in Baghdad asks if the recent horrific violence in Baquba (see below) is a signpost for the future. The US troop escalation can’t last forever, and by this time next year there will be at most 130,000 US troops in Iraq. As the extra units are drawn down, will the violence start up again? Likely, yes.

Iran is denying that it has any role in killing US troops in Iraq. Since the Iranian regime has not been shy in claiming credit for, e.g., Hizbullah attacks on Israel, it is significant that it is going out of its way to deny the US allegations.

The Turkish military is still squeezing PKK guerrillas and trying to close off their escape routes in eastern Anatolia near the Iraq border.

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Iraq’s Katrina? The Army Corps of Engineers is worried that a dam north of Mosul will collapse. CBS warns, ‘ A catastrophic failure, engineers believe, could unleash a 60-foot-high wall of water that would be inundate Mosul – and flood Baghdad to a depth of 15 feet. The casualty count would be in the hundreds of thousands. ‘ If this happened on the Bush administration’s watch, it would certainly be blamed on the United States, and even the lack of dam upkeep can be traced in some part to the UN/ US sanctions on Iraq of the 1990s, which debilitated its infrastructure. An article in the Scientific American in 1999 warned that a Katrina could happen to New Orleans. Now we have the ACE warning of this dam/ flood catastrophe. I have a sinking feeling that George W. Bush is incapable of taking such threats to civilian lives seriously. Imagine if the great United States, having occupied a major Muslim Arab country in the world’s driest region, managed to drown two of the most revered cities in Islamic history.

Reuters reports that:

‘ NEAR BAGHDAD – Three U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD – Four policemen were killed and eight others wounded when a car bomb exploded near their patrol in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. ‘

There are concerns among truck drivers and the business community about the possible closing of the Turkish-Kurdish border, according to VOA.

The kidnapped tribal sheikhs of Diyala were rescued by the US military, which is apparently fingering a Special Groups rogue guerrilla who split from the Mahdi Army, Arkan Hasnawi. Some proportion of the JAM commanders rejected Muqtada al-Sadr’s cease-fire with the US. A Sadrist spokesman denied Hasnawi had ever been in the Jaysh al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army or JAM).

Diyala was also hit on Monday by a massive bombing of police recruits that killed 28 and wounded 20, and by the discovery of twenty decapitated bodies near the provincial capital of Baquba.

Although over-all deaths are down in Iraq this fall according to the Iraqi ministry of health (which however has not been reliable in its past estimates and which has been caught not releasing bad numbers when the real ones were leaked to journalists), there is still a lot of debilitating violence (including waves of largely unreported assassinations, as in Basra) in the country that interferes with trade, employment and getting the country back on its feet.

Reuters reports civil war violence for Tuesday. Major incidents beyond the US troops killed and the bombing of police in Samarra:

‘ BAGHDAD – U.S. forces killed four suspected militants and detained 17 in operations on Monday and Tuesday . . .

BAGHDAD – A militant killed one street cleaner and wounded six others when he threw a hand grenade at their vehicle in eastern Baghdad’s Zayouna neighborhood, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb in a minibus killed one person and wounded four others in the central Baghdad Alawi bus terminal, police said.

BAGHDAD – Two policemen were wounded when a mortar round landed in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb inside a minibus wounded two people on a highway in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Four bodies were found in different districts of Baghdad on Monday, police said.

BAQUBA – Police confirmed Iraqi academic Jamal Mustafa was taken from his house on Sunday in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the abduction.

MOSUL – Police said they found four bodies in the northern city of Mosul. . .

KIRKUK – Three nightguards were wounded, some seriously, in a drive-by shooting about 35 km (22 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said. . .

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Indian NDTV is reporting Tuesday morning that Turkish Cobra helicopter gunships have fired into Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) positions inside northern Iraq. The action comes after following on an engagement in the border region on the Turkish side that began on Monday and went late into the night. AP does not mention the strikes inside Iraq, but NDTV apparently has a reporter in the area. If the Indian account is true, it is a step up in the building Turkish-Kurdish confrontation.

Turkey is also squeezing Iraqi Kurdistan economically, putting embargoes on firms connected to Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani.

In an interview this weekend, Barzani had threatened that any Turkish incursion would “mean war.”

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LA Times says that 11 members of The Salam (Peace) tribal council of Baquba, were kidnapped at gunpoint as they were driving back from the Green Zone toward Baquba, where they are based. They had been conducting talks with the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Although the kidnapping occurred in a largely Shiite district of the capital, it cannot be assumed that the Shiites are the problem.

There were also big bombings in the northern oil city of Kirkuk (8 dead, 25 wounded) and in the southern Shiite shrine city of Karbala. About Kirkuk, LAT says:

‘ A suicide car bomber killed seven people and wounded 25 in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday, targeting a crowded bus terminal heavily used by travelers to the provinces that form the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, police and witnesses said. Ten shops and 15 cars were set ablaze by the afternoon explosion. “It was a suicide car; the driver detonated himself in front of a civilian crowd next to the bus terminal,” said witness Rebowar Mohammad, 32. “I was close to the explosion. There was thick, dark smoke covering the place.”

As for Karbala, the bombing, which left 6 dead, came in the wake of the announcement that US troops are withdrawing from the province, which is a big pilgrimage center. The withdrawal will allow the Shiite factions that have been fighting there to more openly contest control of it, and the bombing is probably an opening salvo. The martyred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Husain, is interred in a shrine in Karbala.

The NYT says that Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq are thumbing their noses at Turkey. About the US dilemma in northern Iraq, where it is caught between its Kurdish and Turkish allies, Sabrina Tavernisse wickedly quotes a local Kurd: “The United States “is like a man with two wives,” said one Iraqi Kurd in Sulaimaniya. “They quarrel, but he doesn’t want to lose either of them.”

For just how rugged the territory is in which the PKK is hiding out, see Gordon Taylor at Progressive Historians.

The British officer corps says of the remaining UK presence in Basra, “Get us out of here!” and admits that in recent months the foreign troops may have been doing more harm than good.

McClatchy reports of Basra on Sunday:

‘ Basra

Yesterday night, Gunmen attacked a convoy of the Islamic Party killing one member in the party and injured 3 others. The attackers kidnapped 2 others from the convoy which was coming from Zubeer twon southwest Basra city towards Basra.

Gunmen killed one prominent member of the Supreme Election Committee in Basra (Ausama Al Abadi) downtown Basra yesterday night.

Around 12.00: the FBS of South Oil Co. in Basra open fire against the demonstrators who gathered in front of building of the company to demand of providing them with jobs in this company. 6 of demonstrators were injured in the incident. ‘

The Telegraph article talks of death squad rule in the city.

Tom Engelhardt reflects on Saturday’s anti-war demonstrations in the US.

Francois Furstenberg on Bush as a Jacobin. It is a point I’ve made, too, in connection with my book on Napoleon’s Egypt.

In its 10/28/07 roundup of Iraq news items, the USG Open Source Center gives several items from the hard line Sunni Fundamentalist newspaper al-Basa’ir, which is close to the Association of Muslim Scholars. AMS leaders have denounced the Iraqi Salafis who have begun styling themselves ‘al-Qaeda’ and who often engage in indiscriminate violence, but AMS is uncompromisingly Sunni fundamentalist itself, and has some sort of connection to the 1920 Revolution Brigades, which the US views as an insurgent group.

‘Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page a 600-word report on Statements 485 and 486 the Association of Muslim Scholars issued accusing the Shiite militias of displacing Sunni families in Baghdad and other governorates.

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page a 300-word report on Statement 488 the Association of Muslim Scholars issued accusing the occupation forces of committing a massacre against the innocent Iraqi people in the Al-Sadr City. The statement also accuses the Iraqi Government of supporting the crimes committed by the occupation forces.

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page and on page 2 a 1,200-word report on Statement 487 the Association of Muslim Scholars issued accusing the Shiite Militias of blowing up the Al-Barakah Mosque in the Al-Washash District in Baghdad.

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page a 130-word report on the news statement the Association of Muslim Scholars issued condemning the kidnapping of priests in Mosul on 13 October.

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page and on page 2 a 600-word report on the meeting of Abd-al-Salam al-Kubaysi, Association of Muslim Scholars undersecretary, with the association’s employees and members in the Umm al-Qura Mosque in Baghdad on 21 October. Al-Kubaysi affirmed that the association will not give up on its anti-occupation policies. . .

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on the front page a 600-word editorial saying that the Iraqi political forces, which are protected and backed by the occupation forces, have failed to implement their project to partition Iraq under the pretext of federalism. The writer says that the only way for the occupation forces to resolve the challenges they are facing in northern, central and southern Iraq is to withdraw and annul the political process. . .

Al-Basa’ir on 24 October publishes on page 5 a 300-word report on the Statements 481, 482, 483 and 484 issued by the Association of Muslim Scholars. The statements condemn the oil contracts signed by the Kurdish Government, Turkish threats to invade Kurdistan, the killing of 15 civilians in the Al-Tharthar District and the arrest of Association Member Yunus al-Akidi, in the Abu-Ghurayb District.’

(I am traveling abroad this week and postings may be irregular. Can’t put anything up Tuesday morning, e.g., but maybe later that day. Check back frequently.)

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