Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Nouri declares an end to terrorism (no, he didn't announce his resignation)

The violence never ends or fades in Iraq.  Today Al Rafidayn reports a Babel Province house bombing claimed the life of 1 woman and left four of her children injured.  Alsumaria reports the corpse of one man was discovered (strangled and tortured) outside Kikuk, a Tikrit motor cycle bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and left four more injured, a Baquba roadside bombing injured two people, and an Iraqi miliarty aerial bombardment of a Salahuddin Province home early this morning has claimed the life of 1 female and left four of her family members injured -- all five were sleeping in the family garden.

Why were they sleeping outside?  Severe heat and lack of dependable electricity.  Alsumaria reports that the high in Baghdad for the next five day is expected to be 46 degrees Celsius which is 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Xinhua reports that thug and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki declared yesterday, "The battle with  terrorism has ended and the remaining are cells here and there looking for an opportunity or a gap." This despite the Islamic State of Iraq recorded threats released July 22nd. Since then an Iraqi military helicopter has been downed, a Taji prison has been attacked, a Baghdad counter-terrorism centre (which held a number of terrorists) have been attacked and July was the deadliest month in Iraq in two years.  In addition, Sunday saw an attempted breakout of the Abu Ghraib prison.  Of that attempt, Aseel Kami (China Daily) explains, "A spokesman for the justice ministry, Haider al-Saadi, said in a statement that 11 'dangerous prisoners' at Abu Ghraib dug down three meters and had tunneled along 20 meters using a frying pan and part of a ceiling fan before they were discovered. They had fashioned breathing apparatus from soft-drink cans stuck end to end."

Nouri's claim comes as mass arrests continue in Iraq.  Ahlul Bayt News Agency reports that 13 have been arrested in Basra today.   And it comes, Al Rafidayn reports, as someone circulates rumors that Moqtada al-Sadr is attempting to re-arm the Madhi Army (Moqtada denies the rumors).  And if the terrorism is over, why is Dar Addustour reporting that Nouri has just transfered a large number of security forces from the southern provinces to Baghdad in order to beef up protection of the Green Zone?

Al Mada reports that the proposed law for provincial elections -- which was supposed to be hammered out by now -- is again stalled in Parliament.  Provincial elections are supposed to be held in March 2013.  Most recently, failure to pass an election law in a timely manner delayed parliamentary elections -- they were supposed to take place in 2009 but were pushed back until March 2010 (and were followed by an eight month political stalemate).  As a result of this failure, Al Mada reports, the current Electoral Commission has been extended 35 days.



We'll close with this from law professor, international law expert Francis A. Boyle's "First Ashore at Nagasaki:"

According to his Honorable Discharge papers (A108534, Series A, NAVMC70-PD) and war stories, my father invaded Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. According to my father, after the battle for Okinawa, all but two Marines from his original Company were either killed or seriously wounded. The Marine Corps then ordered my father and his buddy to begin training for the invasion of mainland Japan with a new unit where they were scheduled to be among the first Marines ashore because of their combat experience.
My father told me that at the time he believed it was a miracle that he was still alive. He knew that he would never survive the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland, but had proceeded to train for this invasion anyway because he had enlisted for the "Duration" of the war. Semper Fidelis My father was a very aggressive, relentless, fearless, and ferocious warrior.
Instead of being among the first U.S. troops ashore to invade Mainland Japan, my Father was among the first U.S. troops ashore to occupy Mainland Japan. According to his Marine Corps records, my Father “arrived [by ship] and disembarked at Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan” on September 24, 1945 -- just after that City and its civilian inhabitants had been obliterated by an atomic bomb on August 9, 1945.  It must have been a truly horrific sight for a young man from the Irish Southside of Chicago to have witnessed and dealt with.  
By the end of the war I suspect my Father had become inured to inflicting death and destruction upon the Japanese Army and all of its accouterments.  But this scene was existentially different:  a devastated City where approximately 80,000 civilians had just been exterminated.  At the time my Father must have contemplated what damage one atom bomb could inflict upon his native City of Chicago and its beloved inhabitants.


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