[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 33

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Op zondag 10 september 2006 14:02 schreef Monidique het volgende:

What is certain is the wretched state of health care in Iraq. In March 2006 the campaign group Medact reported that 18,000 physicians have left since 2003; an estimated 250 of those that remained have been kidnapped and, in 2005 alone, 65 killed. Medact also said that "easily treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and respiratory illness caused 70 per cent of all child deaths", and that "of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed and none has been opened". In May, a survey by the Iraq government and Unicef reported that a quarter of all Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition.

_{[ bron ]}

Het artikel heeft een wat ander onderwerp, maar deze alinea past hier goed.

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Op maandag 11 september 2006 20:53 schreef Godslasteraar het volgende:

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ook nog berichten dat al het niet islamitisch georienteerd onderwijs personeel wordt vermoord/verjaagd?
Heb daar eens een kort artikel over gelezen, een jaar geleden schat ik, en sindsdien nooit meer iets over gehoord.

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After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

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Op maandag 18 september 2006 20:50 schreef klez het volgende:
Iraq chiefs vow to fight al-Qaeda
Soennieten. De hopeloosheid van de strijd van de moslimterroristen moet toch langzamerhand tot de grootste fanatiekelingen doordringen.

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Op zaterdag 23 september 2006 09:42 schreef Godslasteraar het volgende:
en nu is er weer fijn een vrachtauto+benzinetank opgeblazen temidden van het publiek. Ben benieuwd of Irak het voorland is van het gehele Midden Oosten. Die richting lijken we wel op te gaan.

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Bomb ignites tanker in Iraq, killing 35

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb blew up a kerosene tanker and killed at least 35 people Saturday in a Shiite slum in Baghdad, while authorities announced the capture of a leader of the group believed to be behind the 2004 attack on a U.S. military mess hall.

An American contractor working for the State Department was killed Friday in a rocket attack in the southern city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said.

The attack on Baghdad's Sadr City came a day after a death squad gunned down four people in an assault on Sunni Arab homes and mosques in a neighborhood where a Shiite militia last week openly threatened members of the minority.

Meanwhile, authorities said they captured a leader of the Sunni militant group Ansar al-Sunnah, which has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks, including the December 2004 explosion at a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 people.

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Facing Facts on Iraq

While Iraq is a central issue in this year’s election campaigns, there is very little clear talk about what to do, beyond vague recommendations for staying the course or long-term timetables for withdrawal. That is because politicians running for election want to deliver good news, and there is nothing about Iraq — including withdrawal scenarios — that is anything but ominous.

In the real Iraq, armed Shiite and Kurdish parties have divided up the eastern two-thirds of the country, leaving Sunni insurgents and American marines to fight over the rest. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his “national unity cabinet” stretch out their arms to like-thinking allies like Iran and Hezbollah, but barely lift a finger to rein in the sectarian militias and death squads spreading terror across Baghdad and the Shiite south.

The civilian death toll is now running at roughly 100 a day, with many of the victims gruesomely tortured with power tools or acid. Over the summer, more Iraqi civilians died violent deaths each month than the number of Americans lost to terrorism on Sept. 11. Meanwhile, the electricity remains off, oil production depressed, unemployment pervasive and basic services hard to find.

Iraq is today a broken, war-torn country. Outside the relatively stable Kurdish northeast, virtually every family — Sunni or Shiite, rich or poor, powerful or powerless — must cope with fear and physical insecurity on an almost daily basis. The courts, when they function at all, are subject to political interference; street-corner justice is filling the vacuum. Religious courts are asserting their power over family life. Women’s rights are in retreat.

Growing violence, not growing democracy, is the dominant feature of Iraqi life. Every Iraqi knows this. Americans need to know it too.

Beyond the futility of simply staying the course lies the impossibility of keeping the bulk of American ground forces stationed in Iraq indefinitely. They have already been there for 42 months, longer than it took the United States to defeat Hitler. The strain is undermining the long-term strength of the Army and Marines, threatening to divert the National Guard from homeland security and emboldening Iran and North Korea. Yet with the military situation deteriorating, the Pentagon has had to give up any idea of significant withdrawals this year, or for that matter anytime in the foreseeable future.

If there is still a constructive way out of this disaster, it has to begin with some truth-telling. Politicians are not going to press for serious solutions when their constituents have not been prepared to understand what the real options are. Republicans will not talk about genuine alternatives as long as their supporters have been primed to believe victory is possible. Few Democrats will advocate anything that might wind up transferring responsibility for this awful mess to them.

Acknowledging the hard facts of today’s Iraq must be more than a political talking point for the president’s opponents. It is the only possible beginning to a serious national discussion about what kind of American policy has the best chance of retrieving whatever can still be retrieved in Iraq and minimizing the damage to wider American interests.

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Iraqi premier calls for Muslim unity

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Sunday for Shiites and Sunnis to use the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to put aside their differences, while authorities reported that at least 20 people were killed in scattered violence across the country.

Al-Maliki's plea for peace came a day after a retaliatory bombing killed dozens of Shiites in the capital.

"We are all invited to make use of these days to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and avoid anything that could hurt the social fabric of the Iraqi people," he said in a statement. "Iraq is living in a very sensitive and historic period."

Al-Maliki also pleaded for support for his nascent government, which received a boost Sunday when parliamentary groups agreed to open debate on a contentious Shiite-proposed draft legislation that would allow the creation of federal regions in Iraq.

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Op zaterdag 23 september 2006 16:04 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Tsja, zulke dingen gebeuren daar praktisch elke dag. Zo gaat dat wel eens in een door buitenlandse interventie in burgeroorlog verzeild geraakte failed state.

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VS/IRAK:
"Amerikaanse leger in Irak op rand van uitputting en revolte" - topmilitairen
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, 27 september (IPS) - Topmilitairen van het Amerikaanse leger vrezen dat de soldaten in Irak stilaan hun fysieke grenzen hebben overschreden en dreigen te revolteren als president Bush niet meer geld en meer troepen voor de oorlog vrijmaakt. Een dergelijke beslissing zou serieuze politieke gevolgen kunnen hebben voor de Republikeinen.

Het eerste signaal van revolte bij de legertop werd vorige maand al duidelijk, toen topofficier generaal Peter Schoomaker weigerde om zich akkoord te verklaren met het voorgestelde legerbudget door het Witte Huis. De Los Angeles Times sprak over een "ongezien protest".

Volgens de Times van maandag heeft Schoomaker er bij president Bush op aangedrongen het budget voor de oorlog in Irak tegen 2008 met de helft te verhogen - tot bijna 140 miljard dollar - om de situatie in Irak het hoofd te bieden en te kunnen ingrijpen in noodsituaties.

De actie van de Amerikaanse topofficier volgt nauwelijks enkele dagen na het nieuws dat het leger erover nadenkt om meer troepen van de National Guard en reservisten op te roepen. Als deze beslissing nog voor de Congresverkiezingen van 7 november wordt genomen, zou dit serieuze politieke gevolgen kunnen hebben voor de Republikeinen. De National Guard bestaat namelijk uit "burgersoldaten" - geen beroepssoldaten. Hen oproepen, betekent zo goed als zeker een massale golf van protesten tegen een oorlog die al lang niet meer populair is.

De beslissing zou ook een persoonlijke nederlaag betekenen voor president Bush, die juist had gehoopt om het troepenaantal van 140.000 in Irak tegen het einde van dit jaar met 30.000 eenheden te kunnen verminderen.

Door het opflakkeren van het sektarische geweld in Irak, vooral in Bagdad, lijkt die hoop echter steeds meer ijdel. Generaal John Abizaid, bevelhebber van de Amerikaanse troepen in het Midden-Oosten, bevestigde zelf al eerder aan journalisten dat hij ook volgend jaar minstens 140.000 soldaten in Irak nodig heeft.

Daarnaast worden de Verenigde Staten geconfronteerd met de wederopstanding van de Taliban in Afghanistan. Dat heeft Bush verplicht zijn plan te schrappen om ook daar het aantal soldaten te verminderen, van 19.000 begin dit jaar tot 16.000 eind dit jaar. Momenteel zijn er zelfs meer Amerikaanse soldaten in Afghanistan dan vorig jaar. En als de NAVO er niet in slaagt haar lidstaten (zoals België) te overtuigen meer troepen te sturen, zal het Amerikaanse leger een nog grotere bijdrage moeten leveren

Deze verplichtingen hebben een serieuze tol geëist van de Amerikaanse landtroepen, niet alleen op het vlak van manschappen, maar ook betreffende uitrusting en geld. Daarnaast zijn hoge legerofficieren ook bezorgd over de fysieke uitputting bij hun manschappen, vooral bij het middenkader, en de kwaliteit van de nieuwe rekruten.

De jongste maanden is het Amerikaanse leger beduidend soepeler omgesprongen met toelatingsvoorwaarden voor nieuwe rekruten. Zo zijn de leeftijdsgrens en opleidingscondities versoepeld en worden er meer soldaten met "criminele feiten op hun strafblad" toegelaten. Dit roept bij onafhankelijke waarnemers en bij de topmilitairen veel vragen op. IPS (YDL/ADR)(EINDE/2006)

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Op zondag 24 september 2006 22:16 schreef Godslasteraar het volgende:

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Burgeroorlog? Ik vraag me af of Irak onderhand niet al dieper gezonken is dan Liberia een aantal jaren geleden. De oorlogen in voormalig Joegoslavië waren kinderspel vergeleken met wat er in Irak gebeurt. En dat terwijl er een regering/parlement is, én een buitenlandse troepenmacht.
Of eigenlijk, wat ik zie is een herhaling van Algerije begin jaren negentig.

Begrippen als burgeroorlog en failed state voldoen niet wat betreft Irak.

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Poll: Iraqis back attacks on U.S. troops

WASHINGTON - About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, a poll finds.

The Iraqis also have negative views of Osama bin Laden, according to the early September poll of 1,150.

The poll, done for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found: Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.

About 61 percent approved of the attacks — up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis.

An overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden and more than half, 57 percent, disapproving of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Three-fourths say they think the U.S. plans to keep military bases in Iraq permanently.

A majority of Iraqis, 72 percent, say they think Iraq will be one state five years from now. Shiite Iraqis were most likely to feel that way, though a majority of Sunnis and Kurds also believed that would be the case.

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40 tortured bodies found in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of 40 men who were shot and had their hands and feet bound have been found in the capital over the past 24 hours, police said Thursday.

All the victims showed signs of torture, police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud said. They were dumped in several neighborhoods in both eastern and western Baghdad, he said.

The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, on Wednesday said murders and executions are currently the main cause of civilian deaths in Baghdad.

Much of the violence has been attributed to death squads, many of which are thought to be offshoots of mainly Shiite militias.

Also Thursday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in suicide car bombing in part of Baghdad where American and Iraqi troops had just conducted a security sweep.

The car slammed into a checkpoint in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, a neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad that had just been cleared by troops taking part in Operation Together Forward.

The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, says violence in the capital has spiked with the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which officially began on Monday, and that suicide attacks were at their highest level ever.

"This has been a tough week," he said.

In other violence, a child was killed in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora when a mortar shell landed on a house, police said.

Seven policemen and three Iraqi Interior Ministry special forces were injured in three different bomb attacks in the capital.

Meanwhile Wednesday, American troops killed eight people — four of them women — after taking heavy fire during a raid on a suspected terrorist's house northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. But relatives of the dead disputed the U.S. account, saying their family had nothing to do with any terrorist group.

In all, 23 people died violently around Iraq, including at least 10 killed in a shootout Wednesday night near a Sunni mosque in Hurriyah, a northern neighborhood of Baghdad, police said. The U.S. command also announced the deaths of a Marine and a U.S. soldier, both killed in action Monday in Anbar province.

Outside the pockmarked house, which relatives said belonged to Mohammed Jassim, bullet casings littered the ground and blood stained the sand. Family members cried and consoled one another as the bodies of the women were taken away.

"This is an ugly criminal act by the U.S. soldiers against Iraqi citizens," Manal Jassim, who lost her parents and other relatives in the attack, told Associated Press Television News.

Iraq's major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the raid as a "terrorist massacre."

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Op zondag 24 september 2006 18:20 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Enerzijds roepen om eenheid en anderzijds het land formeel opdelen in de facto sektarische staten.

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Op donderdag 28 september 2006 11:11 schreef SalmanPack het volgende:
Je leest het verkeerd want Al-Maliki riep op tot eenheid binnen de Islam, dus tussen de sjiieten en soennieten. Hij had het niet over eenheid als land

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Op donderdag 28 september 2006 00:02 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

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http://www.ipsnews.be/news.php?idnews=7738

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The reason senior Army leaders want to go to a bigger Army is that they are worried about their ability to fight future threats. One official told ABC News, other than the troops now in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are only two to three combat brigades — that's 7,000 to 10,000 troops — who are fully trained and equipped to respond quickly to a crisis.

"If we keep forces in Iraq too long, we risk running into a situation where the force begins to break," said former U.S. Army officer Andrew Krepenevich.

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(CNN) -- Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed consider Iraq to be in a civil war, a CNN poll said Thursday, and more people view the three major architects of the U.S.-led operation there unfavorably than favorably.

Iraq, particularly its capital, Baghdad, has endured months of Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings, and debate has simmered over whether the country has or has not entered into a full-blown or low-grade civil war.

Asked whether Iraq is "currently engaged in a civil war," 65 percent of the poll's respondents said "yes," and 29 percent answered "no." By comparison, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll in April found 56 percent of the respondents believed Iraq was in a civil war, while 33 percent disagreed. (Read full poll results - PDF)

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Iraqi Journalists Add Laws to List of Dangers

BAGHDAD — Ahmed al-Karbouli, a reporter for Baghdadiya TV in the violent city of Ramadi, did his best to ignore the death threats, right up until six armed men drilled him with bullets after midday prayers.

He was the fourth journalist killed in Iraq in September alone, out of a total of more than 130 since the 2003 invasion, the vast majority of them Iraqis. But these days, men with guns are not Iraqi reporters’ only threat. Men with gavels are, too.

Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein’s penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.

Currently, three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq are being tried here for articles last year that accused a provincial governor, local judges and police officials of corruption. The journalists are accused of violating Paragraph 226 of the penal code, which makes anyone who “publicly insults” the government or public officials subject to up to seven years in prison.

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Op donderdag 28 september 2006 09:39 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Wat was het ook alweer, juichende bloemengooiende menigte?
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POLL: AL QAEDA LOST HEARTS AND MINDS IN IRAQ

Overall 94 percent have an unfavorable view of al Qaeda, with 82 percent expressing a very unfavorable view. Of all organizations and individuals assessed in this poll, it received the most negative ratings. The Shias and Kurds show similarly intense levels of opposition, with 95 percent and 93 percent respectively saying they have very unfavorable views. The Sunnis are also quite negative, but with less intensity. Seventy-seven percent express an unfavorable view, but only 38 percent are very unfavorable. Twenty-three percent express a favorable view (5% very).

Views of Osama bin Laden are only slightly less negative. Overall 93 percent have an unfavorable view, with 77 percent very unfavorable. Very unfavorable views are expressed by 87 percent of Kurds and 94 percent of Shias. Here again, the Sunnis are negative, but less unequivocally—71 percent have an unfavorable view (23% very), and 29 percent a favorable view (3% very).

Iraqi confidence in Iraqi forces (as opposed to militias) is increasing while its confidence in US forces is decreasing. Given US policies there can be little doubt but that US forces have lost significant Shia support and gained some Sunni support. I suspect increasing number of Shia no longer believe that American forces are capable of protecting them and with increased confidence in their government's capabilities no longer fear the consequences of an American withdrawal.

It should be noted that Ayatolla Sistani retains his overwhelming popularity amongst the Shia. 95% approve of him. PM Maliki is running a strong second with 86% but al Sadr is trailing far behind with 51%. Nor are Iraqis interested in following Iran's lead.

Asked whether Iran is having a mostly positive or negative influence on the situation in Iraq, just 45 percent of Shias say it is having a positive influence (negative 28%, neutral 27%), while Iran’s influence is viewed a mostly negative by the Kurds (79%) and the Sunnis (94%).

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does a bit better among Shias, with 64 percent having a very (28%) or somewhat (36%) favorable view. But Kurds have a largely unfavorable view (very 43%, somewhat 34%) and the Sunnis an exceedingly unfavorable view (very 80%, somewhat 17%).

Syria is fairing even worse:

Most Shias (68%) think Syria is having a negative influence on Iraq’s situation, as do most Kurds (63%). Sunnis are only mildly positive, with 41 percent having a favorable view (17% negative, 43% neutral).

The most worrisome is the popularity of Hezbollah though luckily it is confined to the Shia.

Hezbollah elicits highly polarized views. An overwhelming 91 percent of Shias have a very (50%) or somewhat favorable (41%) view of Hezbollah, while an equally large 93 percent of Kurds have a very (64%) or somewhat (29%) unfavorable view. Sunnis are also fairly negative, with 59 percent having a very (10%) or somewhat (49%) unfavorable view.

To sum up - Iraq is coming along better than the news project (also see, Iraq Getting More Respect in Global Eyes. ). Indeed, more and more Iraqis believe that they will be soon ready to stand on their own two feet. This optimistic assessment may to a large degree reflect their disappointment in the efficacy of the American forces but, all in all it is a positive development.

Do remember this when you read headlines accurately reporting that "most Iraqis Want US Troops Out Within a Year and Say US Presence Provoking More Conflict Than it is Preventing."

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Mistakes made in Iraq, says Straw

Mr Straw said he had expressed similar views while Foreign Secretary

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has described the current situation in Iraq as "dire".

Mr Straw, who held the job at the time the UK decided to take part in the 2003 war, said there were things he regretted about the campaign.

Speaking on BBC One's Question Time, he said "mistakes" were made by the US following the invasion.

State department efforts to ensure a "proper civilian administration" were not followed through, he said.

"The current situation is dire," he said.

"I think many mistakes were made after the military action - there is no question about it - by the United States administration. Why? Because they failed to follow the lead of Secretary (of State, Colin) Powell.

"The State Department had put in a huge amount of effort to ensure there was a proper civilian administration put in straight away afterwards."

'Tony's folly'

Mr Straw, now Leader of the House of Commons, said some people would see the Iraq war as "Tony's folly" but that was not a view he believed would stand "in time" about Prime Minister Tony Blair's role.

Margaret Beckett replaced Mr Straw as Foreign Secretary in the May 2006 reshuffle.

Mr Straw said that while he felt the current situation in Iraq was "not satisfactory" he had expressed such a view before leaving the post.

"I certainly said there were mistakes made," he told Question Time.

Mr Straw added that there were people in the US administration in 2003 who wanted to invade Iraq "in any event" but he did not believe President George W Bush was one of them.

"The thing that people forget in this situation is the successful efforts Tony Blair made, which I played a part, to shift the American administration from that position to one where we took it to the United Nations," he said.

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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.