'Not fair!' some say. Why Rachel Martin did a report on Weekend Edition Sunday! Yes, she did. Here's NPR's summary of it, "Rachel Martin talks to Baghdad businessman Haider al-Jumaili about the growing violence in Iraq, where more than a thousand people died in May." Of course, al-Jumaili left Iraq years ago and moved his family in Texas. In fairness, he was visiting Iraq during the phone call. He's got a job offer and he may move back if the violence isn't as bad as he fears it is.
Hmm. That's . . . news. On violence, that's news? That's a human interest story, it's feature reporting, it has nothing to do with today's violence or May's violence. It does have to do with the ongoing refugee crisis.
Or would have to do with that if Rachel Martin had ever made the connection, spoken even a sentence of the past refugee crisis or how it's been revived (only the BBC News has reported that and BBC World Service beat the United Nations in getting in front of that story).
Let's look at some of the violence. National Iraqi News Agency reports 2 Ministry of Water Resources employees were kidnapped in Kirkuk, a bombing inside Baghdad's Finjan Cafe claimed 2 lives and left ten people injured, a Baghdad car bombing claimed 1 life and left five people injured, a Mosul bombing apparently targeting a police patrol left five people injured, a Mosul car bombing left four Iraqi soldiers injured, an armed attack on a Mosul police station left 3 police officers dead and five more injured, an al-Mada'in car bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and left six more injured, a Najaf car bombing targeting a market claimed 1 life and left twenty injured, 2 Tikrit bombings left 2 federal police members dead and a third injured, a roadside bombing just north of Hilla left six people injured, a Hilla car bombing left four people injured, 2 Basra car bombings claimed 4 lives and left six people injured, and 2 Kut bombings claimed 1 life and left thirty injured. Press TV adds, "A shooting also broke out near the northern city of Mosul, when a gunman attacked police guarding an oil pipeline. At least four people were killed and five others wounded in the incident."
NINA reports as it happens, those numbers changed in some cases. The Baghdad cafe, for example, Alsumaria offers a photo of the remains and notes it was a suicide bomber and 11 patrons died with another twenty left injured. On the Basra car bombings, AFP quotes eye witness Ali Fadhil stating, "I saw cars on fire, dead bodies covered with blood, and wounded people lying on the ground screaming for help." Sinan Salaheddin (AP) counts 51 dead in the day's violence.
Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) notes the US Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement which included, "We mourn the loss of life and stand firmly with the Iraqi people who seek to live in peace and who reject cowardly acts of terrorism such as this." Alsumaria reports Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi said the violence underscores the continued weakness of the security forces and goes to the state of disorder and confusion in Iraq. All Iraq News notes cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr holds al Qaeda in Iraq responsible. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq released the following statement:
Baghdad, 16 June 2013 – The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Martin Kobler, strongly condemns the latest wave of car bomb attacks that targeted crowded areas in several Iraqi cities during rush hour, killing and injuring dozens more innocent people. كوردى
“Less than a week after a string of similar attacks, Iraqis are hit by another round of deadly and remorseless acts of terrorism,” Mr. Kobler said.
“Nothing can justify such despicable and heinous crimes, targeting innocent people going about their daily business,” the UN envoy added. He once again called all Iraqi political leaders to sit together with good faith and determination, to address all pending problems that the country continues to face.
Mr. Kobler extends his deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the wounded.
Of course, the weight of a statement from Kobler means much less than it might have 8 days ago. It's been announced that Kobler's been reassigned to the Congo.
When the toll was still "dozens" in Iraq today, former US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker was on Weekend Edition and was allowed to briefly speak about Iraq -- Rachel Martin was more concerned with his marriage than with Iraq. Crocker stated, "The kind of return to sectarian tension is born of mistrust among the different groups. That in turn is born of the terrible trauma that the country suffered under the Saddam years, in which all were victims - Kurds, Sunnis and Shiia alike - to a, you know, a despotic and vicious tyrant. You simply don't come out of that experience as newborn Jeffersonian democrats." Martin had no follow up question, again, she was more concerned with his marriage.
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
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Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Predator of the United States" went up this morning. It'll stay below right now but tomorrow I'll switch so that it's above this. I had planned to do that now but an e-mail came in saying that it was confusing when I do that without notice and the reader doesn't scroll down to see "Hejira" but just assumes nothing news has gone up.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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