Saturday, April 30, 2011

Protests, calls for a vote of no-confidence

Dar Addustour reports "hundreds" turned out in Tahrir Square (Liberation Square) in Baghdad yesterday to protest and demand reforms and the end to the occupation. The demonstration, the paper notes, is a continuation of the protests which began February 15th. The protesters carried banners which they unfurled in Tahrir Square. The banners called for imporved services, the release of detainnees and more. The paper also reports that people turned out in Ramadi, including tribal elders, demanding that the US occupation end and that Iranian interference in internal affairs be blocked, detainees be released and expressing solidarity with the protesters in Mosul. Al Sabaah also reports on the Baghdad and Ramadi protests yesterday. They note the Baghdad protest also included a cry for investigations into the many Iraqis who have gone missing in the last years while also stressing Ramadi's solidarity with Nineveh Province residents. In Mosul, the Iraqi military has been dispatched by Nouri al-Maliki to attack the protesters. While protests take place calling for an end to the US occupation of Iraq, Al Sabaah reports that Kurdish leaders of Diayla Province and Kirkuk are calling for the US to remain in those regions due to disputes over who has rights to the areas.

Meanwhile Dar Addustour reports Iraqiya is floating the idea of dissolving the government stating that there can be no more delays in resolving the security ministries. If delays continue, the coalition is threatening to move for a vote of no-confidence. November 10th, the power-sharing deal was announced with great fan fair and Nouri was named prime minister designate (Jalal Talabani would fudge it by not declaring it official until weeks later in order to give Nouri more than 30 days to put together a Cabinet). Despite that taking place long, long ago, Nouri has still not found a Minister of National Security, a Minister of Defense or a Minister of the Interior. Now elections were held March 10, 2010. And this was all supposed to have been resolved quickly. But it wasn't and, over a year after the elections, the security ministries still have no heads -- at a time when violence steadily increases in Iraq. Al Mada reports on this as well and also notes that women's rights activist Yanar Mohammed took part in the announcement and she is calling for the anti-terrorims law to be dissolved because it is "a tool of the government" which is being used to intimidate citizens and, specifically, has been used to raid the meetings of the youth organizers of the Baghdad protests, and along with the raids, it's also been used to justify the detention and abuse of activists.

Nouri's Iraq can't even pull off an Arab Summit in Baghdad. It was supposed to take place in March. Had to postpone it until May. Now it's been shelved. Habib Toumi (Gulf News) reports that Iraq may nominate a candidate to head the Arab League. That doesn't necessarily mean that any summit could ever be held in Baghdad. And that 'Baghdad' summit? Al Mada notes it's looking like it will be scheduled for some time in 2012. In other political news, Al Mada reports Faleh Sari of the National Alliance is calling out plans to cut the ration card stating it would be harmful to at least one hundred thousand families.

And we'll close with this from World Can't Wait about a march in Chicago tomorrow (Sunday):

March - to stop wars & occupations for empire

March - to stop deportations and criminalization of millions driven to this country by the destruction of their homelands
March - with people around the world on May Day
For months, alleged leaker of the infamous WikiLeaks documents, Private Bradley Manning has been held in solitary confinement at Quantico military prison, allowed only one hour to walk with his legs shackled, and forced to sleep naked. A UN official was denied a private meeting with Manning to investigate his treatment.
To most human rights advocates and legal experts around the world, the treatment of Bradley Manning amounts to torture. To many of us, Manning is a hero if, as the government charges, he leaked these documents. Now the U.S. government has moved Bradley Manning to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas just last week.



The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
























Deadliest month for US soldiers in Iraq

The Dept of Defense issued the following on Thursday, "The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn. Spc. Andrew E. Lara, 25, of Albany, Ore., died April 27, of a noncombat related incident, in Babil province, Iraq. He was assigned to F Company, 145th Brigade Support Battalion, attached to the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment. For more information, please contact the Oregon National Guard public affairs office at 503-584-3885." Yesterday another US soldier died in Iraq. AFP notes he was killed in southern Iraq, according to the US military, and that this "made April the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq since 2009, according to figures compiled by AFP."

Were I an NPR on air who, just this week, babbled on incoherently and stupidly about how violence was down as I intro-ed a story claiming the war was over, I think I'd be begging someone -- anyone -- for forgiveness and be red faced for the entire month of May. But don't expect that to happen. Obviously, when you co-host All Things Considered, you think you don't need to do any research when coming up with your three line intros to reports. Which is how you make not just a fool out of yourself but an ass as well. And don't wait for her to do a correction on air. It doesn't play 'cute' and, if you've missed it, she really only does 'cute' corrections.

In today's violence in Iraq, Reuters notes a Mosul suicide bombing resulted in 8 deaths (plus the suicide bombers) and nineteen people injured, a Baghdad shooting killed Col Mustafa Hasan and left his wife injured (and the Hasan's car then crashed into two Iraqi soldiers were injured), a Taji home bombing targeted Judge Tuma Jabar Lafta and claimed his life as well as the life of his wife and their two daughters, 1 police officer was shot dead in Taji, a Taji home invasion (assailants wore "Iraqi army uniforms") targeting "a Ministry of Industry worker" resulted in the death of him and a daughter -- as the assailants fled, 1 was injured and two neighbors were injured and they note the US death we mentioned earlier, "A U.S. service member was killed on Friday while conducting operations in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement."

Meanwhile Jeff Winkinson (South Carolina's State) reports a helicopter battalion from the state's National Guard will leve for Fort Hood (send-off ceremony Sunday) and then deploy to Iraq but "are expected to return home in about one year." In about one year. One year. Those doing the math, May is tomorrow. That's the fifth month of the year. Supposedly ALL Us forces leave Iraq at the end of December. That's seven months from now. But this battalion is supposed "to return home in about one year."

The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com and War News Radio -- updated last night and today:




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.













thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends



















Friday, April 29, 2011

Iraq snapshot

Friday, April 29, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, throughout Iraq protesters are surppressed by military forces, the head of the Iraqi Army says they need the US to stay beyond 2011, and more.
 
Tuesday Chen Zhi (Xinhua) noted, "The Iraqi government is preparing to accept the presence of more than 15,000 U.S. servicemen in Iraq to protect the U.S. interests after the deadline of U.S. troops' pullout by the end of 2011, an Iraqi newspaper reported on Tuesday. [. . .] It also said that thousands of employees working for foreign security firms will stay in the country to protect the U.S. embassy staff, American civil contractors, engineers and investors."  Nouri went on to hold a press conference that day declaring that he had made no deal "to keep 10,000 or 5,000 or 1,000 or even 100 US troops in Iraq."  In addition, Nouri stated that Iraq's forces could protect the country internally (meaning the military can take on the people of Iraq); however, it was not yet ready to defend itself from external threats and would not be for at least two years -- that especially included the Iraqi air force.
 
Rudaw interviews Babaker Zebari who is the Chief of Staff of Iraqi Joint Forces. Excerpt:

Rudaw: What does the US say about its army presence in Iraq?

Zebari: If we ask them to keep their army in Iraq, I think they will respond positively because they have fears about the region.

Rudaw: How about yourself?

Zebari: Yes, I am personally worried, too.

Rudaw: This means the US army must stay then?

Zebari: We are soldiers and this is a political decision that must be made by the politicians. We can only give our impression to the politicians and they will decide.

Rudaw: What is your impression?

Zebari: We have conveyed our impression to the politicians which is that the Iraqi army will not be ready to control Iraq until 2020.

These remarks are consistent with remarks Zebari has made since 2007. Last August, BCC News reported, "Gen Zebari told a defence conference in Baghdad that the Iraqi army would not be able to ensure the country's security until 2020 and that the US should keep its troops in Iraq until then." Ayas Hossam Acommok (Al Mada) reported yesterday that Iraqi observers believe that a narrative will be found to excuse the government extending US forces' stay beyond the end of this year. David Ali (Al Mada) adds that should a withdrawal take place the unresolved Article 140 of the Constitution (calling for a referendum to be held on the status of Kirkuk by 2007) would lead "armed groups" to attempt to game the system.
 
While some try to have an adult discussion about reality, others resort to fairy tales.  Adult child Brian M. Burton (Foreign Policy) grabs the big box of Crayolas and scribbles:
 
Over the past few weeks, top U.S. officials have started to publicly press the Iraqi government to decide whether it will allow thousands of American troops to stay in the country after the expiration of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on December 31st. On recent trips to Iraq, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen appeared to signal that the U.S. government desires a continued American military presence past the end of the year. "Time is short for any negotiations to occur," Admiral Mullen warned last week.
In one sense there is less here than meets the eye. Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen are probably less concerned with whether Iraq wants the troops or not than with simply getting an answer for practical purposes. Complying with the SOFA's requirement that all American troops leave is a massive logistical undertaking, and it would be much better to know whether a residual force will be needed before the final stages of withdrawal begin in earnest this summer. Any extension of the U.S. military presence if troops were to remain past the 2011 withdrawal deadline requires a request by the Iraqi government. U.S. officials hoped that the Iraqi government would share their own assessment of the lack of readiness of the country's security forces and ask for a continued presence sufficiently far in advance of the deadline to enable an orderly transition. Instead, the Iraqi government has been bogged down in its own internal troubles and has made no official moves toward renegotiating.
But the problem is that, while cajoling Iraq into giving an answer, American leaders send a counterproductive, if unintended, signal that the United States wants a longer-term military presence. To be sure, there is some basis for such a position: a residual American force could continue to train Iraqi forces, provide intelligence and other important support capabilities, and, in northern Iraq, help maintain the peace between the forces of Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish government. Iraq is also incapable of defending its borders and airspace from external threats. Yet however well-intentioned or seemingly obvious these arguments seem in Washington, they are unlikely to sway the Iraqi government because they ignore the domestic imperatives faced by Iraq's political leaders.
 
He scribbled, "In one sense there is less here than meets the eye. Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen are probably less concerned with whether Iraq wants the troops or not than with simply getting an answer for practical purposes."  Yeah and next the White House is sending Regis and Meredith over so they can ask, "Is that your final answer?"  Guess they raise them mighty stupid at the Center of a New American Security.  Forget what Robert Gates has repeatedly testified to Congress, forget what the US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey has stated, forget what the heads of each division of the military -- Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force -- have repeatedly testified to Congress.   Forget?  More likely: Don't know.  Again, they appear to raise them mighty stupid at the CNAS.
 
If you want the Iraq War to continue, I'm not going to call you "stupid" just for that.  I'll disagree with you and disagree with you strongly.  But "stupid"?  Stupid is reserved for the idiots -- grown adults -- who need fairy tales.  Right now the US and Iraq are determining what will happen.  No one is served by the child-like and stunted fantasies of Brian Burton.  He needs to grow the hell up and someone needs to ask CNAS if they're a think tank or a fairy tale tank?  Of course, CNAS tells many fairty tales about counter-insurgency which they claim saves lives but which is and has always been seen historically as war on a native people.  Brendan McQuade (CounterPunch) provides an overview:
 

Today the War on Terror involves American military forces and intelligence operatives in at least 75 countries, not just Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan but the Philippines, Colombia, Yemen, Somalia and "elsewhere in Middle East, Africa and Central Asia." The CIA is now on the ground in Libya and questions about the twenty years General Khalifa Hifter spent in suburban Virginia and a possible CIA ties are rising. Leon Panetta, the CIA director Petraeus is set to succeed, just held five days of secret talks in Turkey regarding the rebellion in Syria. As the United States continues to involve itself in conflicts like these, counterinsurgency becomes increasingly important. In places like Pakistan, Libya and Syria, where an overt military presence is political difficult, the CIA leads. Under Petraeus' command, we can expect the CIA to become even more active in this regard.

As Philip Giraldi, a retired CIA counterterrorism expert, told me when I interviewed him in the summer of 2009: "The military's got a huge tail whenever it goes it has an enormous footprint. The CIA operates in smaller units. They're civilians. They can blend in. They can have predator [drone] bases in places that politically sensitive like inside Pakistan. For example, the other predators are operating out of Africa. They operate in Djibouti. There's a French military base where the CIA people are stationed. The French would not let an American military presence but they would accept an intelligence group under civilian auspices."

Political circumstances have not always favored counterinsurgency. In the Vietnam years, the CIA was the leading proponent of counterinsurgency and the military was quite resistant. It needed the backing of President Johnson to force its agenda on a recalcitrant generation of traditional military officers. After the Tet Offensive, the military embraced counterinsurgency but only for a time. After Vietnam, everyone -- including the CIA -- distanced themselves from counterinsurgency.

When I asked Giraldi who was the leading counterinsurgent today in the CIA, he told me: "Nobody comes to mind. When I was teaching at the CIA school back in the early eighties, the counterinsurgency people -- the Special Operations Group is what it was called at the time -- was down to about forty guys and, you know, no leaders, no renowned figures. It wasn't that kind of thing. It was an adjunct of the Special Activities Division, which I was in, and was sent in do training in various places in Asia and Africa."

 
CNAS  and former journalists like Thomas E. Ricks join the great unwashed of academia in attempting to 'rebrand' counter-insurgency today. 
 
To return to reality we'll note this from Amy Belasco's March 29th Congressional Research Service's [PDF format warning] "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11:"
 
Funding to train Iraqi forces fluctuated between $3.0 billion and $5.5 billion from FY2004 to FY2008.  In 2008, Congress became reluctant to rebuild Iraqi security forces as Iraqi government revenues rose rapidly with the swell in oil prices.
In response to congresional concerns raised in September 2008 House Budget Committee hearing on a GAO report suggesting that there would be an Iraqi budget surplus of from $67 billion to $79 billion in 2008 due to oil prices, members called for "burdensharing" by Iraq in the rebuilding of its security forces.
This push to require Iraq to share the burden of rebuilding its security forces resulted in restrictions prohibiting U.S. funding of security forces as well as other "infrastructure" projects in Iraq, including those to rebuild security forces in the FY2008 Supplemental, as well as various requirements to report the readiness and transfer of responsibility to Iraqi units, and the overall costs to train both Iraqi and Afghan security forces.  DOD has not provided estimates of these total costs for either Iraq or Afghanistan.
In FY2008, U.S. funding dropped from $3 billion in FY2008 to $1 billion in FY2009 as Congress halved the ISFF request.  In its initial FY2010 request, DOD did not ask for any funds but then modified that to request $1 billion in the FY2010 supplemental for expenses that DOD believed were necessary but the Iraqi government would not cover, an amount Congress approved.
 
 
UPI reports Kurdish MP Dilair Hassan would like to see some US troops remain in Iraq. Reports deny that a UN force would remain in Iraq but that may be the case.  Meantime,  Rohan Gunaratna (Sri Lanka Daily Mirror) notes:
 
Given the delays in the UN seeking similar mechanisms to bring alleged war crimes by US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan under discussion, is the allegation that the UN exercises double standards fair?
The UN levelling allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka in a report is not unique. It is a common challenge faced by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russian forces in Chechnya and elsewhere in the caucuses, Pakistani forces in FATA and in Swat, Israeli forces in occupied Palestine, and Indian forces in disputed Kashmir and in its northeast. All these theatres have produced civilian suffering, injuries and deaths. As such, instead of singling out Sri Lanka, Colombo should call the UN to launch an investigation into all on-going major conflict zones especially Iraq and Afghanistan where as a proportion more civilians have been killed by US and British forces. Nobel laureate Mohamed Mustafa ElBarade former Director General of the UN body, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), [December 1997 to November 2009] called international criminal investigation of former Bush regime officials for their roles in fomenting the war on Iraq. Over a million civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fighting is still continuing. Nonetheless, human rights have become a political instrument used by Western and other nations to pressurize other countries.

 
The government of Sri Lanka has many problems of its own to deal with (click here for Amnesty International reports on Sri Lanka), but it obviously intends to note the tragedies and crimes that are the US-led wars. They have more traction than usual with the publication of Mohamed ElBaradei's book and his assertion that there should be a War Crimes probe of the Bush administration. (When ElBaradei, former UN nuclear inspector, calls for the same of Barack's administration, we'll take him seriously and not assume he's just trying to generate publicity for a book that's going to be a hard sell.)

Still on the UN, the Himalayan News Service reports, "The Nepali Army is considering sending its troops to restive Iraq to become a part of the 'stationary force' under the United Nations, a highly placed source said.The UN had asked Nepal to commit around 222 personnel -- including 35 personnel for mobile units -- for deployment in Iraq around four months ago."
 
In related news, Alsumaria TV reports, "The Sadr Front affirmed on Thursday that in case the Mehdi Army has to resume armed opposition, it will include in addition to its Iraqi members other sects and components and non Iraqis as well to fight against the US military if US forces stay in Iraq beyond their scheduled departure late this year." And yesterday, Alsumaria TV reported on US Maj Gen Bernard Champoux "blamed Mahdi Army for some of the latest assassinations in Baghdad. Iraq should establish good relations with the neighbouring countries that are uninvolved in providing armed groups with weapons and missiles, the US Commander stressed."
 
 
Assassinations and other violence continues, Reuters reports a Buhriz home invasion (by assailants wearing Iraqi military garb) in which 3 brothers were killed and a fourth was injured and 1 of the assailants was shot dead, 1 Iraqi military officer was shot dead in Baghad and, dropping back to Thursday for both, a Mosul roadside bombing which claimed the lives of 1 Iraqi soldier and 1 Iraqi military doctor (and left two more Iraqi soldiers injured) and a Baquba home invasion in which an Iman, his wife and their daughter were killed. AFP identifies the Iman as Basheer Mutlak. Aswat al-Iraq adds that the daughter was 9-years-old and adds, "A police officer was killed late Thursday by gunmen in al-Shurqat district, a police source said on Friday." Reuters also notes 2 Bahgdad roadside bombing which claimed 3 lives and left twenty eight injured, a Kirkuk attack in which 1 person was injured and 1 person shot dead in Mosul.

Al Mada reports Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (Shi'ite political body), is calling out the continued inability of the government to function and stating it's harmful to Iraq. Iraq lacks a Minster of the Interior, Defense and one for National Security. Not really sure that bickering is the country's biggest problem.

Surveying the region, Tariq Ali (Guardian) observes:
 
In January, Arab streets resounded to the slogan that united the masses regardless of class or creed: "Al-Sha'b yurid isquat al-nizam!" – "The people want the downfall of the regime!" The images streaming out from Tunis to Cairo, Saana to Bahrain, are of Arab peoples on their feet once again. On 14 January, as chanting crowds converged on the ministry of interior, Tunisia's President Ben Ali and his family fled to Saudi Arabia. On 11 February the national uprising in Egypt toppled the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak as mass rebellion erupted in Libya and the Yemen.
In occupied Iraq, demonstrators protested against the corruption of the Maliki regime and, more recently, against the presence of US troops and bases. Jordan was shaken by nationwide strikes and tribal rebellion. Protests in Bahrain spiralled into calls for the overthrow of the monarchy, an event that scared the neighbouring Saudi kleptocrats and their western patrons, who can't conceive of an Arabia without sultans. Even as I write, the corrupt and brutal Ba'athist outfit in Syria, under siege by its own people, is struggling for its life.
The dual determinants of the uprisings were both economic – with mass unemployment, rising prices, scarcity of essential commodities – and political: cronyism, corruption, repression, torture. Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the crucial pillars of US strategy in the region, as confirmed recently by US vice-president Jo Biden, who stated that he was more concerned about Egypt than Libya. The worry here is Israel; the fear that an out-of-control democratic government might renege on the peace treaty. And Washington has, for the time being, succeeded in rerouting the political process into a carefully orchestrated change, led by Mubarak's defence minister and chief of staff, the latter being particularly close to the Americans.
 
In his column, Tariq wonders who will reshape the MidEast?  In Iraq, at least, it may very well be US-backed and supported thugs.  It's Friday, the day of protest and yet it's been transformed to the day of oppression.   Namo Abdulla (Reuters) shows up in the KRG at Sulaimaniya, site of "the largest and most sustained of rallies across of Iraq" only to find that "heavily armed troops" have put down the legal demonstrations: "This week, Sulaimaniya's Liberation Square, where protesters had camped out for weeks chanting 'freedom, freedom, freedom,' was a military zone watched over by hundreds of armed forces. The ruling parties have said the demise of the protests represented a success over 'trouble-makers' staging 'politically motivated' demonstrations."
 
And don't expect to hear a peep out of the US government over the latest assault on freedom of speech and the right to assembly. "Democracy" is just a word tossed around when you're caught on camera. 
 
Ramadi was hard to catch on camera today with the imposed media embargo. Don't look for the White House to call Nouri out for that either.  And don't look for the US to convincingly play dumb on this one, US reconnaissance planes flew over the demonstration repeatedlyIraqi Revolution reports that a cleric speaking to the assembled declared, "We demand the withdrawal of the US occupation forces and the release of the detianees."  And the cleric vowed they would "sit continuasly until we acheve all the demands."  And Mosul?
 
The Iraqi Revolution reports, "Clerics of the mosques within the city of Mosul Iatbon on Arabic channels, which have bcome accessible to the West and the non-coverage permanently to the sit-ins in Iraq depiste the demonstrations in Iraq. Demonstrators in all the provinces of Iraq have been subjected to repression by the government forces."  Wire, so frequently used to keep protesters away from demonstrations in Baghdad, has made its appeareance in Mousl as security forces attempting to keep protesters from the site of protest.  Mosul saw reports of gun fire.  And the media emargo will continue.
 
 
 
 
Call it the coalition of the baffled -- a diverse group of prominent public figures who challenge the U.S. government's logic of keeping on its terrorist blacklist an Iranian exile organization that publicly renounced violence a decade ago and has fed details on Iran's nuclear programme to American intelligence.
On the U.S. Department of State's list of 47 foreign terrorist organizations, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq is the only group that has been taken off similar lists by the European Union and Britain, after court decisions that found no evidence of terrorist activity in recent years. In the U.S., a court last July ordered the State Department to review the designation. Nine months later, that review is still in progress and supporters of the MEK wonder why it is taking so long.
 
Following the US invasion, the US made these MEK residents of Camp Ashraf -- Iranian refuees who had been in Iraq for decades -- surrender weapons and also put them under US protection. They also extracted a 'promise' from Nouri that he would not move against them. July 28, 2009 the world saw what Nouri's word was actually worth. Since that Nouri-ordered assault in which at least 11 residents died, he's continued to bully the residents. April 4th, Iran's Fars News Agency reported that the Iraqi military denied allegations that it entered the camp and assaulted residents. Specifically, Camp Ashraf residents state, "The forces of Iraq's Fifth Division invaded Camp Ashraf with columns of armored vehicles, occupying areas inside the camp, since midnight on Saturday." Friday April 8th saw another attack which the Iraqi government again denied. Thursday April 14th, the United Nations confirmed that 34 people were killed in the April 8th assault on Camp Ashraf. Barbara Grady (San Jose Mercury News) reported that the dead included journalist Asieh Rakhshani who has family in California. 
 
Toby Vogel (European Voice) reports, "The Iraqi government has denied a group of MEPs access to Camp Ashraft, where Iraqi security forces killed scored of Iranian opposition supporters earlier this month." Camelia Entekhabifard (Alarabia) observes, "Thousands of MEK members, most of them middle-aged, were residing in the Ashraf camp when it was taken over by the Americans in 2003. Iran wondered what their fate might be. Eight years later, still nothing has happened to them. Iran won't have them back and they're struggling to stay in Iraq. Who's going to offer a safe haven to 3,500 MEK members, all on the US terrorist list?"  And in other Iraq-Iran news, Alsumaria TV adds, "On Thursday, a Shiite cleric called the Iraqi government to file a lawsuit against MP Haidar Al Mulla for offending Imam Khomeini. Insulting Imam Khomeini is an offense against the entire Shiites, he said and warned that 'Shiite resistance' will take strict measures against Al Mulla.
'When two people are fighting they cannot both be wrong. One should be right and the other mistaken,' said Watheq Al Batat Spokesman of the Shiite Authority in Najaf, Mohammad Ali Al Alawi Al Jarajani.'"No comparison can be made between Imam Khomeini and Saddam', he added."
 
A US commander is leaving Iraq.  Matthew Hansen (Omaha World-Herald) reports Nebraska National Guard's Col Philip Stemple has been dismissed of his command according to the US Army and "Stemple's dismissal comes just six weeks before the brigade is expected to return home.  Army spokesperson Col Barry Johnson states "there was an environment in the command not conducive to the standards and expectations of leadership."
 
 
 
 

Commemorating 6,000 servicemembers killed in Iraq & Afghanistan

Today we mark a tragic milestone: 6,000 U.S. service members have been killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We mourn for these lost lives, as well as those who've taken their own lives as a result of their experiences. We extend our deepest condolences to all Gold Star families, and honor those who have chosen to speak out and channel their grief into ensuring that no other family goes through what they have gone through.
What you can do:
  • Volunteer to send condolence cards to Gold Star families who are MFSO members. To volunteer, write to samantha@mfso.org
  • Let other families know about the resource page we provide to help families cope.
 
 
 
rohan gunaratna
the daily mirror
himalayan news service
al rafidayn
alsummaria tv
bbc news
aswat al-iraq
reuters
afp
alsumaria tv
al mada

Iraqi Army not ready until 2020 says Iraqi commander

Rudaw interviews Babaker Zebari who is the Chief of Staff of Iraqi Joint Forces. Excerpt:

Rudaw: What does the US say about its army presence in Iraq?

Zebari: If we ask them to keep their army in Iraq, I think they will respond positively because they have fears about the region.

Rudaw: How about yourself?

Zebari: Yes, I am personally worried, too.

Rudaw: This means the US army must stay then?

Zebari: We are soldiers and this is a political decision that must be made by the politicians. We can only give our impression to the politicians and they will decide.

Rudaw: What is your impression?

Zebari: We have conveyed our impression to the politicians which is that the Iraqi army will not be ready to control Iraq until 2020.

These remarks are consistent with remarks Zebari has made since 2007. Last August, BCC News reported, "Gen Zebari told a defence conference in Baghdad that the Iraqi army would not be able to ensure the country's security until 2020 and that the US should keep its troops in Iraq until then." In related news, Alsumaria TV reports, "The Sadr Front affirmed on Thursday that in case the Mehdi Army has to resume armed opposition, it will include in addition to its Iraqi members other sects and components and non Iraqis as well to fight against the US military if US forces stay in Iraq beyond their scheduled departure late this year." And yesterday, Alsumaria TV reported on US Maj Gen Bernard Champoux "blamed Mahdi Army for some of the latest assassinations in Baghdad. Iraq should establish good relations with the neighbouring countries that are uninvolved in providing armed groups with weapons and missiles, the US Commander stressed."


Assassinations and other violence continues, Reuters reports a Buhriz home invasion (by assailants wearing Iraqi military garb) in which 3 brothers were killed and a fourth was injured and 1 of the assailants was shot dead, 1 Iraqi military officer was shot dead in Baghad and, dropping back to Thursday for both, a Mosul roadside bombing which claimed the lives of 1 Iraqi soldier and 1 Iraqi military doctor (and left two more Iraqi soldiers injured) and a Baquba home invasion in which an Iman, his wife and their daughter were killed. AFP identifies the Iman as Basheer Mutlak. Aswat al-Iraq adds that the daughter was 9-years-old and adds, "A police officer was killed late Thursday by gunmen in al-Shurqat district, a police source said on Friday."

Al Mada reports Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (Shi'ite political body), is calling out the continued inability of the government to function and stating it's harmful to Iraq. Iraq lacks a Minster of the Interior, Defense and one for National Security. Not really sure that bickering is the country's biggest problem.

Protests are going on in Iraq. There's some concern that banners will cause people to get arrested. I'm not finding anything on the protests in Arab or English media and I'm basing that on an e-mail and a text. We'll close with this from Philip J. Crowley's "Obama's Inconsistency Doctrine on the Arab Spring" (Daily Beast via ICH):

When President Obama authorized an intervention in Libya in March, pundits rushed to declare an Obama Doctrine.

But one decision does not a doctrine make, despite the popular idea that every modern president must have one. Although Obama seemed to embrace the concept of “responsibility to protect” in intervening in Libya and calling for Muammar Gaddafi to step down from power, he has not done the same in Syria. If Gaddafi must go because he is unwilling to reform and has employed extreme state-controlled violence against a population that no longer fears him, so should President Bashar al-Assad.

The responsibility to protect, or the notion that the international community has an obligation to intervene when governments threaten their people with mass atrocities, leaves undefined a specific trigger for intervention. Obama, supported by a U.N. Security Council resolution and a clear call for action by the Arab League, pointed to Gaddafi’s threat to attack Benghazi, the center of the rebellion against the Libyan dictator. So far, so good.

But the president went beyond simply justifying military action. Because of Gaddafi’s explicit threat, Obama said, the Libyan “lost legitimacy with his people” and “needs to step down from power.” While for Egypt the president publicly encouraged only a transition, Obama called for regime change in Libya. Transformation became personal.

The White House was quick to downplay the idea of a precedent. “We don’t make decisions about questions like intervention based on consistency or precedent,” said Denis McDonough, the deputy national-security adviser.



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The UN and Iraq

Given the delays in the UN seeking similar mechanisms to bring alleged war crimes by US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan under discussion, is the allegation that the UN exercises double standards fair?
The UN levelling allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka in a report is not unique. It is a common challenge faced by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russian forces in Chechnya and elsewhere in the caucuses, Pakistani forces in FATA and in Swat, Israeli forces in occupied Palestine, and Indian forces in disputed Kashmir and in its northeast. All these theatres have produced civilian suffering, injuries and deaths. As such, instead of singling out Sri Lanka, Colombo should call the UN to launch an investigation into all on-going major conflict zones especially Iraq and Afghanistan where as a proportion more civilians have been killed by US and British forces. Nobel laureate Mohamed Mustafa ElBarade former Director General of the UN body, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), [December 1997 to November 2009] called international criminal investigation of former Bush regime officials for their roles in fomenting the war on Iraq. Over a million civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fighting is still continuing. Nonetheless, human rights have become a political instrument used by Western and other nations to pressurize other countries.

The above is from Rohan Gunaratna's "No UN panel in Afghanistan and Iraq where over a million had died" (Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror). The government of Sri Lanka has many problems of its own to deal with (click here for Amnesty International reports on Sri Lanka), but it obviously intends to note the tragedies and crimes that are the US-led wars. They have more traction than usual with the publication of Mohamed ElBaradei's book and his assertion that there should be a War Crimes probe of the Bush administration. (When ElBaradei, former UN nuclear inspector, calls for the same of Barack's administration, we'll take him seriously and not assume he's just trying to generate publicity for a book that's going to be a hard sell.)

Still on the UN, the Himalayan News Service reports, "The Nepali Army is considering sending its troops to restive Iraq to become a part of the 'stationary force’ under the United Nations, a highly placed source said.The UN had asked Nepal to commit around 222 personnel –– including 35 personnel for mobile units –– for deployment in Iraq around four months ago." If accurate, what is the UN planning?

In Iraq, Al Rafidayn reports, citing a source inside the Ministry of the Interior, that Nouri al-Maliki has fired Maj Gen Ali Adnan Younis as Baghdad police chief. Alsumaria TV quotes a "senior source" in the Ministry of the Interior, "Orders to dismiss Younes were issued few days ago. Baghdad Police Director General and a number of officers are under investigation by the Integrity Commission. Al Maliki ordered to appoint Basra ex-Police Chief Brigadier General Adel Daham to serve as the acting Director General of Baghdad Police. Daham took office on Thursday."

If the police chief is guilty of corruption it's rather telling that it would be the Integrity Commission that would raise the issue and not Nouri al-Maliki himself. Nouri has been prime minister since spring 2006 and if he can't spot corruption in his own neighborhood the fact that the Integrity Commission could would not still instill confidence in Nouri.

The following community sites updated last night and this morning:




David Bacon's latest book is Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press) which won the CLR James Award. We'll close with this from Bacon's "WILL PUBLIC WORKERS AND IMMIGRANTS MARCH TOGETHER ON MAY DAY?" (In These Times):

One sign carried in almost every May Day march of the last few years says it all: "We are Workers, not Criminals!" Often it was held in the calloused hands of men and women who looked as though they'd just come from work in a factory, cleaning an office building, or picking grapes.

The sign stated an obvious truth. Millions of people have come to the United States to work, not to break its laws. Some have come with visas, and others without them. But they are all contributors to the society they've found here.

This year, those marchers will be joined by the public workers we saw in the state capitol in Madison, whose message was the same: we all work, we all contribute to our communities and we all have the right to a job, a union and a decent life. Past May Day protests have responded to a wave of draconian proposals to criminalize immigration status, and work itself, for undocumented people. The defenders of these proposals have used a brutal logic: if people cannot legally work, they will leave.

But undocumented people are part of the communities they live in. They cannot simply go, nor should they. They seek the same goals of equality and opportunity that working people in the United States have historically fought to achieve. In addition, for most immigrants, there are no jobs to return to in the countries from which they've come. The North American Free Trade Agreement alone deepened poverty in Mexico so greatly that, since it took effect, 6 million people came to the United States to work because they had no alternative.

Instead of recognizing this reality, the U.S. government has attempted to make holding a job a criminal act. Thousands of workers have already been fired, with many more to come. We have seen workers sent to prison for inventing a Social Security number just to get a job. Yet they stole nothing and the money they've paid into Social Security funds now subsidizes every Social Security pension or disability payment.




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.













thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends













Thursday, April 28, 2011

I Hate The War

In Tuesday's snapshot, there were several paragraphs about how the Democratic Party was losing young voters. I said we could talk about it tonight if community members were interested and enough of you wanted to hear more.

These are my observations. I'm building on what I learned in poli sci as an undergraduate and graduate student as well as direct observations around the country since Feb. 2003. (A month before the start of the Iraq War, I began speaking out against it. I did that as a favor to a friend who had booked a college tour in the US and then had a larger offer come up. That left the smaller thing open. I did all the bookings she had made and then it just continued. This site comes out of the same thing, specifically post-2004 election analysis where a group of us who supported John Kerry's bid met up to discuss what worked, what didn't work, what should have been tried that wasn't. Some of those ideas were used in 2008 but I did not take part in that and did nothing partistan in 2008.)

The "true believers" are your campus activists. Depending upon the mood of your campus, they are extreme or middle of the road. For example, on an apathetic campus, someone being president of the college Democrat, Republican, Green, etc chapter would be 'extreme.' On other campuses, you might need to be a no sweat-shop, vegan anti-war activist to qualify as the extreme. The extremes on campuses identify early on and it's a lifelong identification in most cases. Due to the nature of college versus later life (including additional obligations and lower energy levels) most are at their most active in college. They will vote -- if they believe in voting -- for the rest of their life but their other activism will taper off. (Very few successful politicians are "true believers" -- in part due to the fact that a successful politician is generally one who can compromise.)

In 2004, Democrats had many true believers on the left. Was John Kerry the peace candidate the country needed? Nope. But you could hope for Kerry. And while you hoped there were a few Democrats in Congress with name recognition who loudly called out the Iraq War. In 2008, Barack won the true believers with the falsehood that he would end the Iraq War in 16 months (later reduced to 10). (What Barack tossed out at rallies was always contradicted by what he said in interviews with the print media.) 2004 saw a huge number of young voters turn out. (NPR originally broadcast that the group barely voted. They had to correct that story.) 2008 continued the trend. The bulk of those young voters were going Democrat.

And hula hoop people who look for the next craze ("reinventing government!", "framing!", "new landscape!", etc.) saw a game changer that was going to last forever. That was never going to happen. Ava and I repeatedly rained on that parade and noted the GOP was not dead and claims otherwise were going to result in a lot of people with egg on their faces.

That, of course, turned out to be true. It wasn't a psychic predicition. It was an informed call based on past cycles.

In 2000, Al Gore lost the election while getting the most votes. He lost the election in part due to Joe Lieberman (who went on Meet The Press and declared all military votes would be counted regardless of when they arrived, when they were postmarked, if they were postmarked, etc.). In America no one's ballot is above anyone else's. It's one person, one vote and that's why Lani Guinier's work on voting was so controversial (she was a Bill Clinton nominee who was deep-sixed -- she's also on the Nation editorial board which means they repeatedly trash Bill for Lani's failings -- it was her job to explain her position on voting in a manner that the average American could understand, she failed -- but forget to mention Lani's on their board even when raising that time period and mentioning Lani by name). Suddenly, there were no more requirements for some votes including ones that arrived after the desginated deadline.

Al Gore asked for a partial recount in Florida and not a full one. He was trashed for that. The thinking was that a partial recount could be done quickly and would establish that the votes in Florida were off. This was potrayed as Gore trying to cherry pick. Had he called for a full recount, they would have attacked him for that. It was all partisan nonsense.

The Constitution is very clear what happens during a disputed election. The Constitution was set aside because the Supreme Court majority wanted to step in and decide the election in a 'one time only, does not qualify as precedent' decision.

There are many things that the Gore campaign did wrong. But instead of acknowledging that, they continued the demonization of Ralph Nader. Nader was running that year. He was called a "spoiler." There's no such thing.

In the United States, you have a vote. It is your vote and you can use it however you want. That includes electing not to use it. This is not the USSR, you will not be punished for not voting.

Bill Clinton's first problem with young voters began in his first term. Michael Fay. He was a young American who was found guilty of vandalism in Singapore (his family denied the charges and with Singapore's history it was very likely that he was innocent). For college age America, this was an issue especially one that they felt the candidate who campaigned for their votes by going on MTV (and, unlike George H.W. Bush in the same election cycle, Bill neither disrespected Tabitha Soren nor sloshed his coffee on her) and The Arsenio Hall Show. Though Clinton would make a plea for leniancy (and the Singapore government would reduce the amount of strokes Fay would receive as a result), there were many young people who saw this issue -- which was huge in the media, on par with OJ Simpson coverage -- as a human rights issue and felt that Bill had not done enough or (more often) that he had not done anything. Why on the latter? Because the campaign that was smart enough to get the word out turned into the White House that didn't know how to communicate with young voters.

That really was the beginning of a gulf that would deepen between Bill and young voters. And it would also be reflected in the impeachment issue because a large number of young voters were more concerned about the sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky than they maybe should have been. (This was not a result of the Cokie Roberts clutch-the-pearls journalists. This was a direct result of the fact that the White House still couldn't speak to young people. But Rolling Stone was trying very hard to get to young people at that time. And they were a forum for many people -- Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind which was a very popular group at the time, to offer one example -- to sound off and make claims that went far past what Cokie Roberts and other pundits said.) From 1993 up to 2000, you saw a lot of young voters lose trust in Clinton-Gore. Some became non-voters, some went for Ralph Nader, some went for George W. Bush.

The Democratic Party immediately began demonizing Ralph Nader -- apparently it's easier for a political party to go after a consumer advocate than it is to rebuke a Supreme Court that violated the Constitution, halted the recounts and handed the White House to George W. Bush. But if there was something that you could take comfort in if you were a Democrat, it was that the party was claiming they had learned. They hadn't. By 2004, they were still resorting to demonizing Nader when Ralph made it very easy for them to stop his run (I'm referring to incorporating Ralph's platform, not to the illegal tactics the party resorted to in order to keep Nader off the ballot).

They didn't learn a damn thing.

They got lucky. Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Barbara Boxer, Cynthia McKinney and others were very prominent elected Democrats who were against the Iraq War. Howard Dean was seen as the anti-war candidate in 2004 and he came close to winning the election. He was supposedly deep-sixed by the media (it was the media and some people who later worked for Barack's campaign) which gave the party the out. You could be 18, for example, and believe Kerry wasn't speaking strongly enough about the illegal war but take comfort in the fact that Dean almost got the nomination and that various Democrats were who held office were speaking out.

In 2008, a similar dynamic existed in terms of Dems in Congress but it was also true that Barack was presented (falsely) as the anti-war candidate.

Barack won the general election and became President of the United States. And he continued the wars and added new ones. And who called him out?

If you were in college, who in the Democratic Party was speaking for you?

No one.

Dennis Kucinich probably came the closest but he caved on ObamaCare (after publicly swearing he wouldn't vote for it) and when he said Barack's Libyan War violated the Constitution, he made it clear he wasn't going to bring impeachment charges. That's a dereliction of duty on Kucinich's part. If he believes the Constitution was violated, he needs to bring forward the charges.

He doesn't. Barbara Lee keeps promising that someday in the future, man, she's going to get so mad. Seriously. Whatever. Russ is out of the Congress. Barbara Boxer's signed off on the Senate Foreign Relations report advocating for US troops in Iraq beyond 2011.

In 1968, you could be furious with LBJ for that illegal war (Vietnam) but find many in the Democratic Party who represented your point of view. The failure of diversity in the Democratic Party has turned it (or, some would argue, revealed it to be) just another arm of the War Party. You're dealing with a group of young adults who came of age as an illegal war was ongoing, an illegal war that was tremendously unpopular.

It continues -- another US soldier was announced dead today -- and you're looking at the Democratic Party that all marches in step (goose step?) with Barack. No one must question the Christ-child.

That may be good for Barry's relations with the press but it was an idiotic and short-sighted move for the Democratic Party which will continue long after Barack is out of the White House. Leftists on campuses have a real hard time embracing the Democratic Party. The war is no minor thing to them. They grew up with the Democratic Party out of power and its candidates and its party organs (The Nation, The Progressive, et al) grand standing on the Iraq War. They're not able to toss aside idealism as quickly as jaded, professional party whores are.

And they have no where to go on the left except WSWS and World Can't Wait. Neither of those is a Democratic Party organ (World Can't Wait bordered on it when it spent too much time early on attacking the right for issues that are not pertinent to WCW). They saw CodePink, UPFJ and, so many others betray what they said they believed in.

I'm really surprised by those organizations. In 2006, a veteran against the war was rather outraged and angry by things I had written here. In 2006, he had faith that the Democrats would save the day and prevent other soldiers from experiencing what he did. (I did not take his attack personally. I didn't and I don't.) By 2008, he had no use for the Democratic Party. That should have been a tip off. That should have been a warning.

His shock and realization that certain issues were used to get votes and only to get votes and that, having gotten the votes, the issues would be discarded is echoed on many campuses. And there's no one that can speak to them on the left at our left organs. Democracy Now! could reach the largest audience ever because its on more channels (audio and TV) than at any other time. But its audience has actually shrunk because when Democrats were not in power, the show dealt with issues. (Or appeared to.) And today it's forever about defending the White House.

Other than Chris Hedges, there's no one on the national scene that has the cred to speak to college activists on the left who are against the war(s). It was a mistake for the party. And the Democrats are a love-fest in the eyes of Young American activists. In that political party love-fest, they all get along and they hug and they praise Barack and they embrace war. And there's no place in the party for any who might disagree.

It's why Antiwar.com -- already hugely popular online -- has become the bible on campus. And Justin and Kelley and the rest are consistent on the wars. They oppose them regardless of which party is in the White House. And they've got America's ear and they can (and do) present political positions to an interested readership -- non-left political positions.

Ron Paul's semi-tossed his hat in the GOP primary for 2012. He's a Republican who is serving in the House of Reps. And if you didn't hear, see or read the news about him this week, you just had to step onto a high school or college campus to hear the true believers (and they are leaders on their campuses, they have tremendous influence and tend to carry that influence out beyond college in later years) explain Paul was running and only a few would debate whether they could vote for him or not. The consensus is usually that GOP or not he's been consistent on the wars.

The Democratic Party organs (Socialist Worker, US, especially) will attack Paul as they did last time. Maybe they'll succeed, maybe they won't. But the openess to his candidacy indicates just how estranged the Democratic Party has become from the youth activists.



It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Last week, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4450. Tonight it is [PDF format warning] 4452. That doesn't include today's announcement.




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.