Monday, March 28, 2011

At least 12 dead and 46 injured in today's violence

Reuters notes a Baghdad goldsmith shop was attacked and 4 people were killed with nine more left wounded, a Mussayab car bombing claimed 1 life and left sixteen injured, a Baghdad roadside bombing targeted Deputy Governor Mohammed al-Shemari and left three people injured and 3 more Baghdad roadside bombings left nine people injured. Meanwhile AP notes a Mosul home invasion in which 7 people were killed (six women, one man). Aswat al-Iraq notes that a struggle at Kirkuk's Technological Institute has left at least nine college students wounded. That comes to 12 reported dead and forty-six reported injured so far today.

As surely as violence is to be expected in US-occupied Iraq, there are a few key traits one can expect from Nouri al-Maliki -- prime minister and US puppet. One of those traits would be paranoia. Nouri always produces global chuckles when he lets his paranoia run free. Alsumaria TV reports, "In a meeting with a group of Iraqi academics, analysts and politicians, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said he considers calling for a no-confidence vote on his government if his political partners carry on challenging him, an informed source told Alsumaria News. Maliki believes the political process in Iraq cannot succeed under the present Constitution, the source speaking on condition of anonymity said." Everyone's out to get him! Iraqiya! The National Alliance!!! It's Nouri and Nouri only fighting for Iraq! You sort of get the feeling that the US does do get a psych consult when auditioning would-be despots; however, the crazier they are, the more the US wants in that role. And crazy is Nouri who apparently is now going to declare war on the Iraqi Constitution. Oh, that's going to be pretty.

Yesterday Iraq's Parliament finally returned from their ten day holiday. Ayas Hossam Acommok (Al Mada) reports that the Parliamanet plans to review 17 laws this week. Dar Addustour reports Osama al-Nujafi, Speaker of Parliament, is still attempting to spin the 10 days off. The holiday was called in solidarity with the oppressed people of Bahrain. When that didn't play well with all Iraqis, they began back pedaling including insisting last week that they were not on holiday. Al Rafidayn reports a development with regards to Iraq's still unnamed vice presidents, Iraq's current Shi'ite vice president Abdul-Mahdi has allegedly withdrawn his name from consideration. Dar Addustour reports that Khalid al-Obeidi's name has been withdrawn for Defense Minister. This follows Ali al-Lami banning al-Obeidi. Now Aswat al-Iraq notes that Nouri "has sent the names of candidates for his cabinet’s security posts to the Parliament to be voted on during Monday's session, the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV Channel reported."


Isaiah has a comic going up this morning. Today on Law and Disorder Radio (begins broadcasting at 9:00 am EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week), Michael Ratner, Heidi Boghosian and Michael S. Smith speak with Global Research's Professor Michel Chossudovsky about the Libyan War and with David R. Jones about unemployment rates among young African-Americans.


We'll close with this from J.A. Myerson's "Ed Schultz's Transformation from Progressive Firebrand to Cruise-Missile Liberal" (Foreign Policy In Focus):

Schultz’s employment of tortured logic, misdirection and arrant nonsense is all that seems liberal about this piece; it’s enough to make a body suspect that Schultz’s breathless opposition to the Bush Administration’s foreign policy was borne not of policy principle but partisan hackery.
The deficiencies are manifold and obvious.
Schultz’s confidence in the mission is primarily inspired by the President’s claim that “this won't be a long-term operation. Matter of days, not a matter of weeks. Not even months.” Perhaps Mr. Schultz would have been kind enough to cite a single example of an American military action that was only as long as its executing President advertised at first. We’ve still got troops in Germany and Korea, and of course our nation-building adventures in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia began as internationally implemented no-fly zones the U.S. supported. Indeed, the President himself has already admitted to having punked Schultz, confessing that this will be a longer engagement than previously announced.


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