Two Bombings Kill 36 in N. Iraq
Iraq Threatens S. Korea on Oil Exports
Guerrillas in the oil refinery town of Bayji killed at least 26 persons and wounded 80 others with a suicide truck bombing. In Diyala province to the southeast, a suicide bomber killed 10 persons and wounded 5 others in the provincial capital of Baqubah. A day earlier in Diyala Province, gunment kidnapped 14 Shiites from a bus. (Scroll down).
In Hilla on Monday, some 2,000 persons held a rally to protest the appointment of Major General Fadhil Raddad as provincial police chief. His predecessor, Maj. Gen. Qais al-Ma'muri, was blown up on Dec. 9. Al-Ma'umuri had gotten along well with the Sadr Movement and the Mahdi Army. But critics charge that Raddad is a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and obviously fear that he will be less even-handed in dealing with the Mahdi Army. This conflict over the police chief is another manifestation of the competition between ISCI and the Sadrists-- a competition which could eventually generate violence.
The Iraqi government is threatening To stop crude oil sales to South Korea, where they account for 5 percent of petroleum imports. The Baghdad government is angry that a Korean firm is in talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government, exploring a bid to do exploration and development in Iraqi Kurdistan without securing permission first from the Federal government.
Conn Hallinan takes issue with the triumphal narrative of the 'success of the surge' in the US press, suggesting that the US isn't that powerful there and still has to deal with warlords with shifting allegiances, and that the Sunni-Shiite civil war is in a lull rather than being over with. The article appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus.
Other political violence on Tuesday, according to Reuters:
' MOSUL - The governor of Nineveh Province, Duraid Kashmula, escaped unharmed from a roadside bomb attack near his convoy in the provincial capital Mosul . . . north of Baghdad, Kashmula told Reuters. His driver and one of his guards were wounded in the attack.
BAQUBA - Militants blew up a police station, killing two policemen in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed a total of 13 militants and detained 27 others on Monday and Tuesday during operations targeting al-Qaeda in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.
DHULUIYA - Police recovered a body with gunshot wounds from the Tigris river on Monday in Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
DHULUIYA - Gunmen kidnapped a man driving a car in eastern Dhuluiya, on Monday, police said. '
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 12/26/2007 12:25:00 AM
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2 Comments:
The Kurds are right about the oil contracts. According to the Constitution:
Article (112): All that is not written in the exclusive powers of the federal authorities is in the authority of the regions (and the provinces that didn't make it into a region.) In other powers shared between the federal government and the regions, the priority will be given to the region's law in case of dispute.
The second sentence says in a Khalilzad manner that the regions automatically win any dispute!!
Obviously this is a sick joke, but the Kurds don't see like that. They want the Khalilzad text to be obeyed despite the other Khalilzad article which says that the text of the Holly Constitution must be amended.
In reality, the only solution is for Kurdstan to be independent in full and have a new, non-joke, constituation for the Iraq proper. Kurdish politicians would have no place in Baghdad either, which is essential for the proper running of Iraq proper.
97% of the Kurdish people voted for full independence in a proper refferendum in 2005. Their wishes must be fulfilled anyway.
As a member of The Sons of the American Revolution, with a strong and proud military family, I feel Our government has been playing games with our veterans ever since the Oneida Indian Nation fought in the Revolutionary War. They were among our first American Solders and took up arms against the British to help our nation earn its independence after our Revolution. Our new government used land seized from the British to compensate our veterans and the Oneida veterans were stripped of much of their original territory, by having 10 million acres of land taken from them. Look how they have been treated by our government ever since.
The Oneida Nation is one of the area’s largest employers and every time they try, economically, to improve this area, they need to fight the State and the Federal Government. You realize they have two citizenships, one for being a veteran of the Revolutionary war, and one through their mother’s bloodline. I am concerned with the injustice that was done to the Oneidas by an ungrateful country.
Presently our current service members have who have had repeated and extended deployments to war zones, have shown a rise in post-traumatic stress and other war-related wounds among troops. While it is good to support your troops that are serving our interest it is better to demand accountability from those responsible for the lack of their care in these injuries. It is utterly disgusting that VA hospitals are turning away those most in need. Those in charge of VA hospitals need to take responsibility for their lack of actions. I believe the whole VA system needs an overhaul and very soon. More and more wounded troops coming home and they need both physical and mental health care.
Our troops deserve the best of all aspects of care! Wake up, America! We fail to take care of our own as we should and I think it's time that we start.
This will surprise nobody who has ever encountered the VA medical system. The entire operation is a horror show mostly run by lazy, self-important, arrogant and self-satisfied bureaucrats. This kind of treatment has been going on for years and years and years. VA hospitals are in hopeless situations. This type of treatment is the rule and not the exception for those who are closely associated with regular active duty military. It’s sad, but true.
If certain services cannot be provided for a veteran or military patient then they are suppose to be referred to a civilian facility with no cost to the service member or veteran. Many of our own go without and this shouldn't be a surprise for the VA system when it comes to treating any new service related condition. In this situation, the Iraq veteran is in the same boat as the Vietnam veteran in the 1970's. At least now, they have a name for it, PTSD, and Agent Orange has been proven, but the VA doesn’t take it seriously!
It's terrible that our country is ignoring the cries of our vets. It's no surprise what is happening with the Syracuse Veterans Hospital if similar acts are occurring around the country. I've have made many attempts in the last four years to talk with Mr. Cody, the head of the VA hospital in Syracuse NY, about these conditions He is self-important, arrogant, with a “don't call me I'll call you” attitude and there has been no dialog. I believe that Mr. Jim Cody should tender his resignation for the good of our veterans.
Dennis Thorp is a native of Frankfort and served as an U.S. Army medic during the Vietnam War. He is co-founder of Agent Orange Victims International.
Doctho@roadrunner
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