Major US Anti-War Protests
Karbala turned over to Iranian-backed Badr
Tens of thousands of Americans rallied against the war in major cities on Saturday.
The US military is turning over security duties in Karbala to the Iraqi security forces (dominated in that city by the Badr Corps, the paramilitary trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps). This turn-over has now been carried out in 8 of Iraq's 18 provinces. There never was much of a US military presence in the 3 Kurdish provinces of the Kurdistan Regional Authority, so actually it is just 5 that have effectively been turned over-- the Shiite provinces of Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Najaf, and Maysan-- and now Karbala.
A departing US general has accused the Shiite-dominated ministry of the interior of dragging its feet on hiring Sunni Arab policemen. Sectarian concerns, he implied, are interfering with the establishment of security in Iraq.
Undiagnosed brain injuries among soldiers and civilians are a major legacy of the Iraq War.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 10/28/2007 01:30:00 AM
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Re undiagnosed TBI from IED's
The Army Surgeon General's 2007 task force on TBI completed it's report in May, but continues to withold that report from Congress and press. According to Army spokesmen, the now secret report is being 'staffed' at the highest civilian levels in the department.
Committee staffers and reporters who try to get expert information on how many US TBI injuries are coming back from the war will run up against a stone wall. Yet Army medicine is quite proud to report that 70% of our casualties are returned to duty within 3 days, sometimes still wearing their schrapnel.
Once again, Congress doesn't know what it is voting on. It makes a big difference to force readiness and war costs if there are 10-20,000 combat soldiers rendered unfit for redeployment, or 100,000, as Rep Bob Filner, the House VA chair has been talking about.
About half the KIA's are officers and non-coms; whatever the TBI rate is, half are core professional soldiers, leaders that take half a decade to recruit and train replacements for. Routine Med Board denial of TBI symptoms, like 'personality disorder' or 'reduced executive function', means some end up wielding guns for security contractors.
My suspicion is that releasing the truth on the TBI casualty numbers (these are life-changing injuries) would risk a tipping point and force a reset of the Iraq occupation.
Actually ending the war is something many in the Democratic leadership have drug heals on. The strategy is to make political fodder for 2008, not take responsibility for tough decisions.
TBI from sports or auto accidents is the most common cause of disability in civilian life, ahead of all other causes below age 45, kills more than cancer and HIV combined. Yet the Army actually admitted to more non-combat TBI in 2000 than combat TBI in 2006.
Go figure.
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