Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Monday, January 07, 2008

11 Killed at Army Day Celebration;
2 US Troops Killed
Christians Targetted in Mosul


George McGovern is calling for Bush and Cheney to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, including ordering hundreds of warrantless wiretaps on US citizens. Good for him. Even if a plan is impractical, if it is just it should be broached.

Guerrillas detonated four deadly bombs in Baghdad on Sunday. One guerrilla struck soldiers at an Army Day celebration, killing 11 and wounding 17. AP's photographer saw the event:

' Afterward, he said, the street was littered with bodies, weapons and shoes. Dazed soldiers and policemen carried their bloodied colleagues to nearby pickup trucks that whisked them to a hospital. "There was a severed head on the street and some of the soldiers that I was photographing earlier were dead. Those who survived panicked, pulling back from the scene and shooting in the air," said the 40-year-old Mizban. '


Another bomb killed a US soldier on Sunday in Baghdad (and another had died in Diyala that way on Saturday). AP adds, "In other violence, a parked car bomb exploded and four mortars landed near a bus terminal in eastern Baghdad, killing a civilian, police said. In northeastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant, killing a policeman and two civilians, police said."

In the northern city of Mosul, guerrillas targeted Christian churches with a series of bombings. Some church-goers were injured and there was damage to buildings. The number of Christians in Iraq has probably been halved, from 800,000, by the war.

A clan elder and 13 of his relatives were kidnapped in Diyala Province by Sunni Arab guerrillas on Sunday.

Ben Lando of UPI reports on the perilous situations in Basra and Kirkuk, Iraq's two essential petroleum-producing regions, over which ethnic and religious militias are battling.

FT's Steve Negus points to the problem that the Iraqi state is essentially a failed state and that sectarian reconciliation has, to say the least, made no progress, despite a decline in violence spurred in part by the US troop escalation.

More from the CSM on the foreign jihadis in Iraq, based on a West Point study. They are predominantly either Saudi or from North Africa.

Chalmers Johnson weighs in on 'Charlie Wilson's War.' The focus on this low-level congressman elides the activities of the CIA director, of the Reagan National Security Council, of the Saudis, and other high-level actors, thus falsifying history by omission.

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5 Comments:

At 9:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Iranian ships 'harass' U.S. Navy, officials say"
Uh oh, is this a possible Tonkin, or just a distraction?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/07/iran.us.navy/index.html

 
At 10:21 AM, Anonymous jbello said...

This points to an excellent review. The problem goes beyond this film. Everything we hear and read in the mainstream media, even the liberal message is corrupted by the fog of selective memory and imperial arrogance.

I recently returned from a couple of weeks in Iran with a Fellowship of Reconciliation Peace Delegation. Everywhere we went people were polite and friendly. They don't see very many American Tourists lately, so they were very curious. Even the most conservative types engaged us in conversation and talked about how they would like to have a better relationship with America. From the 10 people in our group, I have hundreds of amazing photos of friendly people and amazing antiquities.

Yet I can hardly find anyone who is interested in seeing them. People hear that I went to Iran, and they want to talk about Israel. If I tell fellow activists about the lively feminist movement there, the nascent anti-war movement and other successful avenues of dissent, they are incredulous.

I have been posting my notes from the trip on my blog at Papillonweb.net since I returned in the form a travelogue so that the effect will not be as highly politicized as some other pieces I have written. But I called the 'Speak Out' editor at the local newspaper to get her email so I could submit a piece on my experiences, and she told me not to bother. She said that my 'observations' were not acceptable because I am not a reporter and they have no way to verify what I say. When I pointed out that the column is on the Op Ed page, and there were 10 other people with me, she said that the paper could be sued if someone took offense at my observations. She passed judgment without reading the piece.

I found that the Iranian people have a healthy cynicism about the press. Even those who are conservative and generally support the agenda of the government understand that they have an 'agenda' which is reflected in the press. In this country, the illusion of a free press absolves people of the responsibility to do their own investigation and think things through for themselves. It's a shame.

 
At 10:41 AM, Blogger garyb50 said...

Finally, the 'Surge' seems to be bearing fruit !!!

 
At 11:38 AM, Blogger The Buffalo In The Midst said...

Under-reported story of the new world order millenium: "FT's Steve Negus points to the problem that the Iraqi state is essentially a failed state..."

I wonder how THAT happened?

But I KNOW what the outcome should be for the petroleum addicted states which directly planned for, and caused Iraq to disintegrate:

“It has become fashionable to scoff at these rules and to dismiss those who support them as pedants and prigs, but they are all that stand between us and the greatest crimes in history.

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ruled that “to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime” {3}. the tribunal’s charter placed “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression” {4} at the top of the list of war crimes”
. –George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK)

 
At 1:39 PM, Blogger Paul Hammond said...

Juan said,
The number of Christians in Iraq has probably been halved, from 800,000

I read an interesting article in the NY Times Online with some haunting audio clips of Chaldean Christians at worship. Links and other photos can be found here.
http://downtownrichmond.blogspot.com/2007/12/faces-of-war.html




jbello said...
I have hundreds of amazing photos of friendly people ... Yet I can hardly find anyone who is interested in seeing them.

Look no farther. I would love to see them.

 

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