[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 33

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George Soros: A Self-Defeating War

The war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies. Five years after 9/11, a misleading figure of speech applied literally has unleashed a real war fought on several fronts -- Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia -- a war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and enraged millions around the world.

Yet al Qaeda has not been subdued and, as our intelligence agencies have been telling President Bush, the terrorist threat has actually increased.

Unfortunately, the "war on terror" metaphor was uncritically accepted by the American public as the obvious response to 9/11. It is now widely admitted that the invasion of Iraq was a blunder. Yet the war on terror remains the frame into which American policy has to fit. Most Democratic politicians subscribe to it for fear of being tagged as weak on defense. The "alternative treatment" of terrorist support has just been codified by Congress.

What makes the war on terror self-defeating?

• First, war by its very nature creates innocent victims. A war waged against terrorists is even more likely to claim innocent victims because terrorists tend to keep their whereabouts hidden. The deaths, injuries and humiliation of civilians generate rage and resentment among their families and communities that in turn serves to build support for terrorists.

• Second, terrorism is an abstraction. It lumps together all political movements that use terrorist tactics. Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Sunni insurrection and the Mahdi army in Iraq are very different forces, but President Bush's global war on terror prevents us from differentiating between them and dealing with them accordingly.

• Third, the war on terror emphasizes military action while most territorial conflicts require political solutions. And, as the British have shown by foiling a plan to blow up to ten airplanes, terrorists are best dealt with by good intelligence. The war on terror increases the terrorist threat and makes the task of the intelligence agencies more difficult. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are still at large; we need to focus on finding them, and preventing attacks like the one foiled in England.

• Fourth, the war on terror drives a wedge between "us" and "them." We are innocent victims. They are perpetrators. But we fail to notice that we also become perpetrators in the process; the rest of the world, however, does notice. That is how such a wide gap has arisen between America and much of the world.

Taken together, these four factors ensure that the war on terror cannot be won. An endless war waged against an unseen enemy is doing great damage to our power and prestige abroad and to our open society at home. It has led to a dangerous extension of executive powers; it has tarnished our adherence to universal human rights; it has inhibited the critical process that is at the heart of an open society; and it has cost a lot of money. Most importantly, it has diverted attention from other urgent tasks that require American leadership, such as finishing the job we so correctly began in Afghanistan, addressing the looming global energy crisis, and dealing with nuclear proliferation.

With American influence at low ebb, the world is in danger of sliding into a vicious circle of escalating violence. We can escape it only if we Americans repudiate the war on terror as a false metaphor. If we persevere on the wrong course, the situation will continue to deteriorate. It is not our will that is being tested, but our understanding of reality. It is painful to admit that our current predicaments are brought about by our own misconceptions. However, not admitting it is bound to prove even more painful in the long run. The strength of an open society lies in its ability to recognize and correct its mistakes. That is the test that confronts us.

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Op donderdag 28 september 2006 09:41 schreef Autodidact het volgende:

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[afbeelding]

Eén grote anarchie.

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Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 263 Dead

_{Updated at 11:30 a.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006}

In the last day, the body count in Iraq exploded as at least 263 were killed or found dead; 30 of those were insurgents killed in Ramadi. Tensions are particularly high due to two mass kidnappings that occurred in Baghdad. At least 16 of a total of 40 kidnap victims are still missing. Roadside bombs, mortars and simple shootings took many lives, while stray fire or mortars took the lives of several children. 45 other people were reportedly injured in those or similar attacks. Experts have noted that in previous years violence has increased during Ramadan; this year is no exception. The US government today also released the names of two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed on Saturday. Over the weekend a Marine died in a vehicle accident unrelated to fighting. Another US soldier died on Monday, bringing the total of US dead to 4. One British soldier was also killed.
(...)

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Op dinsdag 3 oktober 2006 21:46 schreef LXIV het volgende:

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In totaal 18 coalitietroepen gedood sinds zaterdag...

Ik denk dat we ondertussen wel mogen stellen dat de Irak-oorlog een complete mislukking is, en de facto verloren. Zijn er nog mensen die hier niet in meegaan?

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Violence in Iraq leaves at least 52 dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a Baghdad fish market Tuesday and two Shiite families were found slain north of the capital as violence across
Iraq claimed at least 52 lives.

On Wednesday, a series of bombs went off in rapid succession in a shopping district in a main Christian neighborhood of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 71, police said.

Other attacks around Iraq killed four other people, and the U.S. military announced the death of a soldier in the north.

A car bomb and two roadside bombs blew up within 10 minutes just before noon in a shopping district of the predominantly Christian Camp Sara neighborhood, 1st Lt. Ali Abbas said.

The wounded including shoppers and 15 policemen. The blasts destroyed cars and collapsed part of a nearby building, he said.

In an earlier attack in the area, two policemen were killed and two others injured when their car was hit by a roadside bomb, Abbas said.

Meanwhile in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a police patrol, killing two officers and injuring five people, Diyala province police said.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of nine soldiers and two Marines in what has been a deadly period for American forces in Iraq. The announcement brought to at least 15 the number of service members killed in fighting since Saturday.

Four of the soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday in separate small-arms fire attacks, the military said. Another four were killed the same day in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol northwest of Baghdad. The ninth died Sunday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the capital.

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Iraq Sadr City residents insulted by 'Buddy Jesus'

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Shiite residents of Baghdad's Sadr City have expressed anger on over a picture of a grinning Jesus they mistook for a Shiite holy figure that appeared in the area after a joint US-Iraqi operation.

Residents found a picture of "Buddy Jesus" from the 1999 film "Dogma" posted in the streets, accompanied by a badly photocopied pamphlet bearing a crude approximation of a US military crest and outlining a US "plan" to subjugate the neighborhood.

"That picture abuses our Imam Mahdi and his holy character, and mocks our sacred figures," said resident Abu Riyam Sunday, apparently mistaking the satirical movie still of Jesus for one of Shiite Islam's historical imams, whose images adopt a Jesus-like iconography.

The grinning, winking model of Buddy Jesus giving a thumbs-up sign appeared in the comedy film as a fictional attempt by the Catholic Church to present a kinder and more accessible image of Christianity.

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Op woensdag 4 oktober 2006 12:28 schreef Autodidact het volgende:

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Killed, death, bombed, slain.

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Aanslag op konvooi Iraakse minister

BAGDAD (ANP) - In het zuiden van de Iraakse hoofdstad Bagdad zijn woensdag drie bommen ontploft in de buurt van een konvooi van het ministerie van Industrie. Door de bommenreeks kwamen veertien mensen om en raakten 75 anderen gewond.

De explosieven gingen af in het district Karrada van de christelijke wijk Camp Sara. Twee bommen gingen af vlak voor het konvooi. Drie beveiligers verloren het leven. Direct hierna explodeerde een zware autobom vlakbij een markt waar auto-onderdelen worden verhandeld.

Minister Fawzi al-Hariri van Industrie reed niet mee in het konvooi. De auto's hadden in de wijk getankt en waren op weg naar het ministerie toen de aanslagen werden gepleegd, zei de bewindsman. Ministers en hoge functionarissen zijn geregeld het doelwit van opstandelingen.

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Op woensdag 4 oktober 2006 16:30 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Een lichtere noot:
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[afbeelding]

De Catholicism WOW campagne was het toch?

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Rice makes surprise visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, making an election-season visit to Iraq, said Thursday she will tell its leaders they have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.

"They don't have time for endless debate of these issues," Rice said during a news conference aboard her plane. "They have really got to move forward. That is one of the messages that I'll take, but it will also be a message of support and what can we do to help."

Rice said Iraqis must resolve for themselves complex problems such as the division of oil wealth, possible changes to the national constitution and the desire for greater autonomy in various regions of the country.

"Our role is to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction," she said.

A military transport plane that flew Rice and her party into Baghdad Thursday had had its landing delayed by 35 minutes by "indirect fire" — either from mortar rounds or rockets — in the airport area, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

Rice was meeting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials as the sectarian spiral of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis threatened to undermine his government. The tit-for-tat killings have become the deadliest violence in Iraq, with thousands slain in recent months, and Shiite and Sunni parties in his coalition accuse each other of backing militias.

"Obviously the security side and the political side are linked," she told reporters.

Rice described the task as "the ability to get everybody to understand precisely how their interests are going to be represented and how their interests are going to be served in this political process."

Such an understanding would draw Iraqis out of the insurgency working against the al-Maliki government and away from the sectarian militias blamed for much of the recent violence, she said.

In addition to meeting al-Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Rice also was to meet with Sunni leaders.

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Car bombs, as well as other explosions and shootings, killed 34 people across the country Wednesday. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Saturday, a disproportionately high number. Most of the casualties have been in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by American and Iraqi forces that has been going on since August.

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Baghdad bombings hit new high

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb attacks in Baghdad have hit an all-time high, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, as one of the capital's frontline police units was pulled off the streets on suspicion of involvement with sectarian death squads.

Thousands of police face criminal vetting and lie detectors as part of a "retraining" process designed to weed out militia killers who have used the cover of their uniforms to kidnap, torture and commit mass murder, U.S. officials have said.

The overnight orders to move the 8th National Police Brigade into barracks and arrest one of its commanders came a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki unveiled a sketchy deal with Sunni leaders and fellow Shi'ites to try to stem violence. But there was still no sign of further talks to provide substance.

U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the number of car bombs in Baghdad, both detonated and defused, hit their highest level of the year last week and that bombs reported in general were "also at an all-time high."

U.S. and Iraqi forces have mounted a major military operation in the past two months against militants in Baghdad.

For the second time in two days, four U.S. soldiers were killed in a single incident around Baghdad, this time in what appears to have been a substantial skirmish involving mortars or rockets and gunfire to the northwest. It took the death toll in four days of the month to 15 around Baghdad and 22 in total.

Caldwell described it as a "hard week" for U.S. forces, who typically suffer two to three deaths a day on average in Iraq.

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Rice urges Iraqis to halt violence

She complimented Maliki on his "excellent leadership" and said the "US will be a committed friend for Iraq".

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The US general in charge of the multinational coalition in Iraq, General George Casey, said that the next six months will be a decisive period that will determine Iraq's future.

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Here's an Iraq war math problem: What do you get by adding "timetable for pulling our troops out" to "staying as long as it takes?" To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how anyone would make such a calculation. But if you guessed the answer is six months, you'd be in agreement with a number of high-ranking officials.

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"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time."
(New York Times, 11/30/03)

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4,000 Iraq police killed in past 2 years

BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 4,000 Iraqi police have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded in the past two years, the U.S. commander in charge of police training said Friday, but he said the force's performance was improving and officials are working to weed out militiamen.

Beefing up Iraq's security forces is a cornerstone of efforts to stop the violence that has torn the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Police have been a prime target for attacks by Sunni insurgents.

Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led police of helping fuel sectarian violence that has killed thousands this year. They say the police have been infiltrated by Shiite militias and turn a blind eye to death squads who kidnap and kill Sunnis.

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Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led police of helping fuel sectarian violence that has killed thousands this year. They say the police have been infiltrated by Shiite militias and turn a blind eye to death squads who kidnap and kill Sunnis.

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Rumsfeld convinced Garner to stay temporarily, and the retired general and Bremer clashed, as Bremer quickly unveiled a plan to ban as many as 50,000 members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party from government employment.

“Hell,” Garner told him, “you won’t be able to run anything if you go this deep.”

The next day, Bremer revealed a second draft order, disbanding the Iraqi ministries of Defense and Interior, the entire Iraqi military, and all of Saddam’s bodyguard and special paramilitary organizations. Garner was stunned. The de-Baathification order was dumb, but this was a disaster.

“We have always made plans to bring the army back,” he insisted. This new plan was just coming out of the blue, subverting months of work.

“Well, the plans have changed,” Bremer replied.

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Iraqi police unit linked to militias

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in the wake of a mass kidnapping in Baghdad this week, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The kidnapping took place on Sunday, when gunmen stormed into a frozen meats factory in the Amil district and snatched 24 workers, shooting two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found later but the fate of the others remains unknown.

Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.

The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said the Iraqi police brigade in the area had been ordered to stand down and was undergoing re-training.

"There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them," he told a Baghdad press conference.

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Iraqi police unit linked to militias

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in the wake of a mass kidnapping in Baghdad this week, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
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In another violent day in Iraq, at least 145 have died and 41 have been wounded. Among the deaths is that of an American soldier who was killed by enemy fire in the northern town of Baiji and the captain of the Iraqi handball team. Also in the news, the Department of Defense released the number of U.S. troops wounded during September. At 776 injured, it was the fourth highest monthly figure since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

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'Amerika overweegt opdeling Irak'

Een onafhankelijke commissie van het Amerikaanse Congres, ingesteld met steun van president George W. Bush, zal voorstellen Irak op te delen in drie autonome regio's.

Dat schrijft de Britse krant Sunday Times op basis van 'welingelichte bronnen'. De commissie onder leiding van voormalig minister van Buitenlandse Zaken James Baker onderzoekt oplossingen voor de nog altijd verslechterende veiligheidssituatie in Irak.

Daarbij treedt het idee om het land op te splitsen in een Koerdische, sjiitische en soennitische regio steeds meer op de voorgrond. 'De Koerden hebben in de praktijk al hun eigen gebied,' zegt een bron bij de commissie, 'de federalisering van Irak zal hoe dan ook voortgaan.'

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The Iraqi parliament has voted to lift the immunity of one of its members so that he can be prosecuted on corruption charges.[...] Officials say there are some 1,200 cases pending, including 300 involving former high officials believed to be responsible for embezzling more than $7bn.

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Mishaan Jubouri is a powerful Sunni tribal leader

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Iraqi Vice President, a Sunni, Loses 3rd Sibling to Violence

BAGHDAD, Oct. 9 — Men wearing military police uniforms broke into the house of the brother of Iraq’s Sunni vice president on Monday, chased him onto a neighbor’s roof and shot him in the head, killing him, Iraqi authorities and witnesses said.


Amir al-Hashemi was the third sibling of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi to be killed since spring. His death underscored just how deeply Baghdad has sunk into lawlessness, particularly in its religiously mixed neighborhoods, and was similar to the politically motivated assassinations that have plagued Iraq since the American invasion.

A bomb in a parked car exploded at nightfall on Monday in a crowded market area in Shaab, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, killing at least 13 and wounding 46, a police official said. It was the first large bombing in the capital in almost a month, and brought the number of Iraqis killed in violence on Monday to 18.

In addition, Iraqi authorities said they found 57 bodies in eastern and western Baghdad.

The military announced Monday the deaths of four American service members. One was killed by small arms fire in eastern Baghdad, and three marines died from wounds on Sunday in Anbar Province in western Iraq. The deaths brought the toll to more than 30 this month.

Killings of politicians have become grimly familiar, but the one on Monday stood out. The killers wore what looked like official uniforms, enabling them to surprise and overwhelm Mr. Hashemi’s guards. They then seized at least seven neighbors who witnessed the attack, including the neighbors’ children and an elderly bakery worker. As of Monday night, their whereabouts were still unknown.

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Dozens of bodies found in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi police found 50 bodies dumped across Baghdad on Tuesday, apparent victims of sectarian death squads, and a bombing at a bakery in the capital killed 10 people in the biggest single attack of the day.

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Study: 655,000 Iraqis die because of war

NEW YORK - A controversial new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates.

The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics."

In the new study, researchers attempt to calculate how many more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. Their conclusion, based on interviews of households and not a body count, is that about 600,000 died from violence, mostly gunfire. They also found a small increase in deaths from other causes like heart disease and cancer.

"Deaths are occurring in Iraq now at a rate more than three times that from before the invasion of March 2003," Dr. Gilbert Burnham, lead author of the study, said in a statement.