A third of Iraqi Children Malnourished
Baghdad Neighborhoods Emptied by Snipers
Skepticism on Gates-Rice Mission
The aid organization Oxfam estimates that a third of Iraqis, about 8 million persons, are in urgent need of aid, lacking potable water and in many instances even food to eat. The BBC summarizes:
' Nearly 30% of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15% of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat.
The report also said 92% of Iraq's children suffered from learning problems. . .
t suggests that 70% of Iraq's 26.5m population are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% percent prior to the invasion. Only 20% have access to effective sanitation.
'
These statistics strike as similar to the ones for Palestinians in Gaza, which was under Israeli military occupation for decades, and which is still in a kind of Israeli penitentiary. The Iraqi statistics are worse, and were achieved more quickly. But foreign military occupation clearly isn't good for a people, and one of its by-products can be large numbers of malnourished children.
McClatchy reports that the visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia of Secretary of State Condi Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates faces severe hurdles to its success. They are said to want to drum up support among these Sunni US allies for the Shiite government of PM Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq; to want to mobilize the region against Iran, and to kickstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. They face an atmosophere poisoned by a recent public US leak of US dissatisfaction with Saudi Arabia's role in supporting Sunni Arab dissidents in Iraq (a leak that became less anonymous when the criticism of Riyad was endorsed Sunday by ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad.) The Saudis and others in the region are reluctant to sign on to a Bush iniative, McClatchy says, a) because Bush has had few successes and a lot of disasters and b) because Bush is a lame duck and who wants to stick out his neck for him?
Gen. David Petraeus vigorously contested on Sunday the allegations of some Shiite politicians around PM Nuri al-Maliki that al-Maliki wants him gone because he is arming Sunni Arab forces to fight "al-Qaeda" in Iraq. These Sunni Arab forces have sometimes been implicated in killing Shiites. The Arabic press has reported al-Maliki's opposition to the policy, out of fear that when the US departs, his government will have to face well-armed Sunnis with blood in their eyes.
A warm congratulations to Iraq on the victory of its soccer (football) team in the Asia Cup finals!
Liz Sly of the Trib reports on the tense Iraqi-Turkish border, made perilous by the safe harbor offered the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas by the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan. At the last checkpoint under Iraqi control, she is told, "There could be bombing, and there are terrorists everywhere."
This delicate problem, which could blow up the northern reaches of the Middle East, requires delicate diplomacy, right? Nope. Bush thinks all problems can be resolved with violence. Dark Prince Bob Novak says that Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman has briefed Congress on a covert US operation to help Turkey suppress the PKK. The quid pro quo would be that Turkey would not invade northern Iraq.
The problem? The Kurds are the only firm ally the US had in Iraq, and US special ops troops getting directly involved against the PKK might well alienate the Kurds in general. You can hear W.'s fingernails squeak as they dig into the face of the high cliff down which he is gradually sliding.
The cost of the American presence in Iraq during August when the Iraqi parliament is on vacation? Bob Schieffer says that key members of Congress have been told $200,000 a minute.
Reuters reports that "Gunmen killed eight people and wounded two others on Saturday in a drive-by shooting in a Turkman village near the town of Tuz Khurmato, about 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad . . " Also, among many other incidents:
' BAGHDAD - One U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. . .
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded four people, including a soldier, in Baghdad's Zayouna area, police said. . .
BAGHDAD - Three people were wounded by a mortar round which fell near the former residence of the French ambassador near al-Mesbah intersection in central Baghdad, police said. . .
KIRKUK - A mortar bomb wounded five people in a residential area of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. . .
McClatchy reports, in addition, that in Diyala province on Sunday:
' Early morning , terrorists bombed The Prophet Daniel shrine near Wajihiya town (north of Baquba) and it is fully destroyed.
- Early morning, terrorists attacked Bihbisa village , which is close to Daniel shrine , firing some houses , killing 3 men , kidnapping five and destroying 11 houses which forced some family to displace the area.
- Around 10 am, a roadside bomb exploded in front of a shop whose owner was supplying people for food ration which had months of delay killing one man and injuring 25 other[s] at Belad Rouz ( 40 km east of Baquba).Most of the injured are women and children.
- Around 10 am, three policemen were killed and three others injured when a roadside bomb targeted their patrol near Deli Abass ( east Baquba) . '
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that many Baghdadis have fled their neighborhoods because of persistent sniping, rendering some districts of the capital like ghost towns. (There are an estimated 2 million internally displaced Iraqis, and a similar number abroad, primarily in Jordan and Syria). One of these semi-deserted areas is al-Shurta in West Baghdad. As the people moved out, the Mahdi Army militia moved in, turning empty apartments into "offices" of their militia and recruiting local young men into it. They are being prepared to fight Sunni Arab militiamen from the nearby Ridwaniya neighborhood, said to be dominated by "al-Qaeda." Haytham Khalid, 36, a resident of the Shurta neighborhood, told al-Hayat that the "al-Qaeda" marksmen subjected his [Shiite] district to intense and continual sniping, as a means of emptying it out so that Sunni Arabs could take it over. In the first task, of emptying it out, they had begun to succeed. Markets are deserted. The local Mahdi Army militia has for some months forbidden vehicular traffic in the neighborhood, as a way of keeping out car bombs.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports in Arabic that PM Nuri al-Maliki's office clarified that it had simply confirmed the decision of the Basra governing council with regard to the dismissal of the governor, Muhammad Misbah al-Wa'ili. The federal prime minist, an aide said, does not have the authority independently to dismiss an elected governor. (This communication ignores that al-Wa'ili had appealed to al-Maliki to intervene against the dismissal, and al-Maliki refused to do so, essentially upholding the campaign of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council to unseat the governor). Meanwhile, al-Wa'ili and his Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila) are defiant and say that the governor will remain in office until a constitutional court to which he has appealed rules against him.
In Washington, DC, if you don't specify the precise budget for something you are doing, you can deny you are doing it, apparently. Walter Pincus reports that US base-building in Iraq seems to be an enormous endeavor, but it is hard to find out exactly how much is being spent on it."
At our group blog, Manan Ahmed explains which portions of the new 'Improving America's Security' Act of 2007 are sticking in the craws of our Pakistani allies.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/30/2007 12:30:00 AM
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8 Comments:
Only days before kicking Rumsfeld out, Bush gave his strongest verbal backing for him _in public.
Asking the Saudi to support Maliki is bizarre, given the intel the Saudi's have on him. Preparing for a post-Maliki Iraq does make sense however.
Criticising the Saudis in public is another charade to placate the powerful American Zionists and to get the cover needed to work behind the scenes. Accusing Saudi of supporting Sunni militants in Iraq is hardly compatible with the giant arms deal. Pertraues's support for the same people, which he correctly see as the only solution, does not make that support a crime, does it?
Thanks for posting the OXFAM report. At a time when the US is trying to mask the bad news coming from Iraq by the fact they have won the football Asian cup. It is so sad and scandalous what the US has done to Iraq : it has been bombed a century backward.
At the same time the Iraqi are lacking everything, the US is helping Iraq to become a police state : they have built a legal green zone.
Extract :
In a city plagued by suicide bombers and renegade militias, the Americans and the Iraqi government have turned to an unusual measure to help implant the rule of law: they have erected a legal Green Zone, a heavily fortified compound to shelter judges and their families and secure the trials of some of the most dangerous suspects.
(aka : resistant to the occupation).
and the model should be expanded to a whole network :
he notion of helping the Iraqis establish protected legal enclaves is an important element of the American campaign plan prepared by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq. The hope is that a network of legal complexes will be established in other parts of Iraq, starting with the capital of Anbar Province, Ramadi, where work is expected to begin in the next several months.
And who will manage that center ? the Iraqi ? don't believe so :
The United States provides criminal investigators, lawyers and a paralegal staff to train the Iraqis to run the complex, which also includes accommodations for witnesses, investigators, the Baghdad Police College and an expanding number of detainees. The 55-member American team includes Justice Department and military personnel as well as contractors, and there are only four Iraqi investigators.
Frankly, I dont' understand why you are linking us to that CBS news of Bob Schiefer. I find it smells of racism and contemption for the Iraqi. First concerning the finished rebuilding projects for which the Iraqi government doesnt' want to take responsibility :
1) The US destroyed the Iraqi state and his invasion destroyed all security. Plus why should the central government take care and not the local government ?
2) Iraq was mainly equipped by German installation or installation or installation from other countries. The US discarded the former Iraqi specialists and installed war profiteers US enterprises instead. They came with their big feet and replaced installations known by Iraqi by other installations. Often these installations were of very poor quality (I remember and exemple of a school where the US changed all the doors, because they had no keys. But the new doors were of a very bad quality and were ruined after several months. Plus we know that only about 40% of the rebuilding projects of Bechtel/haliberton etc. were finished. So no wonder if the Iraqi don't want to take responsibility for failed projects. Very often older equipment of good quality but olding were changed by new American ones of poorer quality.
3) Why juxtapose the cost of the war for the US and the fact that the Iraqi parliament goes on vacation ? after all, the Iraqi parliament isn't responsible for the US decision to invade its country. Are the US senators and deputies meeting without holidays in the US ? are they seating in Washington every week of the year ?
4) If the US wasn't meddling and pressuring the Iraqi to pass the law they want, they may have reached to a convenient compromise. Furhter : why should they accept to achieve their laws in the delay given by the US ?
LOL!
A war congratulations to Iraq on the victory of its soccer (football) team in the Asia Cup finals!
You surely mean "warm", but it's an interesting Freudian slip.
[@BBC] 'The survey recognises that armed conflict is the greatest problem facing Iraqis, but finds a population "increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition".'
We have to recall who is 'running' this conflict, the one that has now been on-going for about 17 years, beginning in July-August 1990. We have the uber-'Christian,' Younger George, who has catapulted himself to the top of the heap by publically acknowedging his 'faith,' something inhibited if not prohibited both by the New Testament AND the U.S. Constitution, using the semi-literate Americans' sense of duty and obligation to another cruxified fellow as a kind of appliqué* that is not unlike the wearing of a heart on a sleeve or a badge on the upper left torso or anything else that can be easily affixed and removed as the needs dictate. Of course, there are all of the crosses suspended from the choking chain nooses, prominently on display. Practicing faith as a mind- and body-control function has been a compelling practice for aeons, the sense of community overriding good sense and reason. All religions have found this convenient when attempting to get and maintain a grasp on their targeted groups.
The intent of 'Christianity' (a faith that was given initial support and codification by a warrior Roman, ergo, 'Constantinism') is one of emulation. While the 'Christians' are wont to emulate the peaceful and agreeable Jesus fellow, they prefer - as has been in evidence - to follow the Pharisees and Romans in the persecution of those who are least likely or able to resist and retaliate, preferring to use them as more current emulative examples of the fellow Jesus on whom they can rain havoc and destruction, a sort of bipolar-schizophrenic attitude, manic in their need for persecution (e.g., the Inquisition and its logical extension, Naziism, all by the same faith-biased people) AND depressive in their come-down need for compassion. The tagline from Vietnam was the need to destroy a village (and its inhabitants) in order to save it. Jesus (and his followers) would not be 'saved' had he not been lynched, having (reportedly) died on the cross. The later followers would not have been 'saved' had they not followed the Romans' sworded cross. Something here is - indeed- at cross purposes.
When we see the effects of imperialist actions around the World, we can also see the results of the ways in which missionaries have been used to political advantage. Whether the Conquistadors or the Rhodes-ians or the various other forms of Crusaders, the imposition of some form of 'Westernised' religion has been essential to the maintenance of empire over the indigenous. 'Killing for Christ' is something that has been part of the catechism for millennia, attesting to the mania of depressing those who are to be subjugated. The formula is well-worn and well-used, even in our modern era. Afghanistan was targeted due to the two Waco women who were taken into custody by the Taleban. Today, we have some misguided South Koreans who have followed in the steps of Mary's godly lamb. Of course, the true test of faith is sure to be shown: Enlightenment as a muzzle flash.
That the Palestinians and the Iraqis might share the same sorts of plights is not surprising, given those who wield the most political influence over the policies imposed upon the subjected peoples. They have been caused to endure the suffering that has been chronicled as the 'Christians'' lot from the earliest years. The arenas were the inspiration for the 'never again' slogan! Once more, one has to kill one of the faithful in order to 'save' him or her. The greater the amount of suffering in the latter-day imposed ghettos, the more satisfied the enfaithed are, able to purge their souls of the need to inflict pain on the vulnerable. We can see in the Eastern Mediterranean the effects of retribution for centuries of a European legacy of disdain for 'Semitic' peoples. We watch as other Middle Easterners are brought to a similar level of lowly lifestyle by those who share a need to overwhelm some infidels or nonbelievers, again hoping to find in 'Middle Earth' or 'East' a 'middle way' of aggression and passivity, a Hegelian means of moderating the 'Western' psyche. Internally, there is the need for expressing innate angers through suppressing the tolerant. Externally, there are all of the words of bringing 'good' to the peoples of the World. These can change as easily as one can remove and replace any label or badge or appliqué'd identifier. One of the more interesting facts about the mid-20th Century's infamous German railways is the change from 'Reichsbahn' to 'Bundesbahn' was a matter of a uniform(!) change.
In practice, aggression must be followed by some sort of satisfaction, being made to feel at ease, released from stress. The old adage, 'This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you' is really a secret message and understanding that the pain must be expressed and tranferred to some other person. The whippings or beatings have more to do with what the inflictors hate about themselves, something they wish to purge through projection onto others. This is a sign of collective illness, something that can easily infect the masses as has been seen in lynch mobs and drives to warring. The response to the 11th September 2001 performance art events (and they were well-staged) was a predictable need by the Americans to hunker down behind their sheet plastic and duct tape protected houses and be ready, eager to respond with assertive aggression, or, as 'Rummy' told everyone, 'shock and awe.' Ironically, the real 'shock and awe' had already occurred.
Palestine is not something that happened in 1948; it began almost a half-century earlier, only gaining momentum by the events of a few years earlier, employing the need for a retributive response in order to achieve its political aims. Iraq 'happened' not long afterward. Iran followed suit. Terrorist acts, bombings, and coups all had their beginnings in the cradles of civilisation and modern religion.
Certainly, the Palestinians had little or nothing to do with WW2 but were convenient scapegoats to be used in creating the World's Über-ghetto in their homeland. Likewise, most of the Iraqis only gave begrudging support to Saddam Hussein but have been used as the focus of Americans' aggressive response. Once Naziism or Hussein was toppled, the respective mission was over. Yet, the need for those who reacted most vehemently found themselves with an excess of pent-up aggressions that needed to be vented on someone. somewhere. Whereas the Europeans had had their ghettos for centuries and Hussein had angered many different nations, those who overcame their chosen adversaries could do not much less than employ the very same tactics and meannesses that they found despicable in those they denounced. As the NeoCons predicted, the switch could be easily flipped by creating another 'Pearl Harbour,' creating a needed collective horror and vengeful response in order to begin again the cyclone of cynical cycles of violence and destruction.
The unfortunate outcome has been one of a collective infecting of the soul with a need to seek revenge, either for a specific, verifiable act or for a generally accepted historical fact. There comes with this afflicted psyche a need to perpetuate the cycles of violence, if only because of the sporting characteristics embodied therein. Military- or sports-minded persons do not turn on and turn off their emotional and psychological switches with a simple flick of the finger or wrist. There is a need to keep the aggression fed lest depression - a kind of death - sets in, something seeking sustenance and moderation through aggressive behaviours. Like a car, the accelerator has to be pushed in order to maintain speed. Electricity needs generating power in order to maintain a level of current. Martiality needs its impetuses and outlets as well.
Chris Hedges recently wrote an article that addresses this, found at Information Clearing House.** One point, 'Those who come back from war, like Millard and tens of thousands of other veterans, suffer not only delayed reactions to stress, but a crisis of faith. The God they knew, or thought they knew, failed them.' Another, 'They have seen and tasted how war plunges us to barbarity, perversion, pain and an unchecked orgy of death. And it is their testimonies alone that have the redemptive power to save us from ourselves.' Somehow, man-made definitions of Divine authority do not square with human nature and expressions thereof. The 'mission' takes on a life of its own, whether having to kill to save or to create ghettos to relieve and relive them or to do unto others as has been done unto them by those who must be overcome and defeated. Without the availability of the means of perpetuation, crises can occur, internally or externally manifested.
Martyrs are what make the World go 'round and 'round, in an energised, frenetic, dizzying manner, something that is hard to slow or even stop, especially when the leaders can only get close to enough by vicarious experience. As with any sport, the fans get a 'contact high' but without any real heightening contact. The greater the violence on the field of play or battle, the more belief the beleaguered and bleeker bleacher bleeters have in their bleeding leaders' hearts and souls. The only wounds they will ever get are their bruised behinds or egos, from either sitting too long or unsated longings.
* A decoration or ornament, as in needlework, made by cutting pieces of one material and applying them to the surface of another.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/7/A0380700.html
** http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18082.htm
Dear Professor Cole
I thought you might derive some benefit from this map showing areas of Kurdish Ambition
http://www.kncna.org/images/kurdistan-map-large.jpg
Despite the national borders shown being from the period prior to the break up of the USSR the size of the problem is evident.
The most disturbing aspect is the drawing of the boundary right up to Yerevan in Armenia. There is no love lost between Kurds and Armenians.
Meddling in Kurdistan must be a recipe for setting the southern Caucuses alight.
But then, maybe that is the gameplan.
Although I wouldn't want to dismiss the tragic importance of the Oxfam report on malnutrition today, I do think the victory of Iraq in the Asian Cup has a political importance which has been underestimated in your text, Professor Cole, and the comment of Christiane.
The victory was a great symbol of unity among Iraqis, and for the idea of Iraq as a unified state. Although it may not be true of Kurds in the KRG, and Abd al-Aziz Hakim, who is now on his way to the grave, every other Iraqi I have ever known, or heard of, desires in his heart that Iraq remain united, though at present overwhelmed by the news of sectarianism. Even for SIIC/SCIRI, Reidar Visser wrote an article recently pointing out that separatism has disappeared from their agenda.
The festivities in Baghdad, and in London, where a main artery(Edgware Road) was blocked for some time and celebrations continued late into the night, should be pondered. Comments elicited from Baghdadis were of the order of "Great for Iraq, it should send a message to Nuri al-Maliki". Not to the US, I note (Iraqis think of their own 'government' as responsible). However the captain, more cosmopolitan, according to the IHT, told the US simply to get out.
This leads to a thought. If Washington were to decide that Iraq should be partitioned, a solution much talked about in the US, even among presidential candidates, how would it be carried out? Iraq has been declared a 'sovereign' country, and therefore the partition law would have to be voted by the Iraqi parliament. I am one hundred per cent certain that the non-Kurd members of the parliament will never vote for partition. The resistance to the oil law has been strong (though there is always the thought that laws passed under US occupation will be annulled after US withdrawal). The resistance to a partition law will be much stronger.
Visser was right in his assessment in his "Basra: the failed Gulf State" that Iraqis go in all directions, but in the end they choose Iraq.
this is just a test of the tiny url
http://tinyurl.com/29b8rd
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