Thursday, July 04, 2013

Only Moqtada seems to grasp Brain Drain II is possible

Donna Gorman (Huffington Post) writes of her husband year long deployment with the State Dept in Iraq which began this morning:

 
Our youngest child, 5-year-old Ainsley, has taken it the hardest. She snuck into our bedroom last night, as per usual, threw her arms around her daddy and said, "I don't want you to die in Baghdad, daddy."
What the what? She's 5. Let me tell you, neither of us was quite sure how to respond to that small trauma. We didn't think she even understood that he was leaving, let alone sophisticated enough to process the fact that we're sending him into harm's way. We knew it was going to be hard on our sons, who are 13 and almost 10, and who know exactly what's going on in Iraq and in the region. We figured our 7-year-old daughter might have some questions for us: After all, she's still traumatized by the duck-and-cover that we lived through here at the Embassy in Jordan just two years ago. But Ainsley? We didn't even try to explain it to her.
Explain to the other kids, yes. They all know their daddy is a policeman of sorts -- a federal agent with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. They usually see him in a suit and tie, but they've also seen him dressed in his federal agent gear. They've seen his office, with its cool gadgets and photos of him and his colleagues at work. They've eavesdropped on many a dinner conversation and phone call, when riots and shootings and all manner of bad guys are discussed. And of course they've seen him run out the door in a hurry when some emergency crops up. So, they know what he does for a living, and they are proud of his work. But I didn't realize, not until that late night comment from my baby, that even she understands the risks he is about to face because of his job.


And since the US-started illegal war in 2003, Iraq is a land of risks. Monday kicked off the month of July.  In the first three days of the month, Iraq Body Count counts 122 violent deaths.

 Today, July 4th, the violence didn't stop in Iraq.  National Iraqi News Agency reports 2 Kirkuk bombings left two people injured, Dr. Inaam Kamal was shot dead in Baghdad while in her car, another Baghdad car with doctors was attacked resulting in 1 being killed and the other injured (later the injured doctor died),  a Tikrit roadside bombing injured one person, a Falluja armed attack left two Iraqi soldiers injured, another Falluja armed attack left three police officers injured, a third Falluja armed attack left 1 civilian dead and another injured, 1 person was shot dead in downtown Mosul, a Mosul bombing left two Iraqi soldiers injured, and a Tuz Khormato car bombing has left 5 of Nouri's federal police dead and another twenty-one people injured. All Iraq News adds that a Tirkit bombing claimed the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers and 1 police officer (with two more injured).  That's 14 reported deaths and thirty-four reported injured.



All Iraq News notes that the doctor injured died for a total of 3 doctors killed in Baghdad today and that the Parliament's Health and Environment Committee "discussed several amendments on Physicians Protection Law preparing for a vote to be endorsed by Parliament."  Alsumaria adds that Moqtada al-Sadr declared these attacks cannot be allowed, called for an immediate investigation into the attacks on the three doctors and declared that Iraq cannot allow the hands of terrorism to target and impair the medical community."  If you missed it, recent violence has required Iraq to utilize hospitals in other countries.  The "brain drain" in the early years of the war has not been repaired and has left Iraq without a sufficient number of medical providers.  Nouri's been prime minister for seven years now.  Why the hell he didn't implement fast track programs of training is a question the Iraqi people should be demanding answers to.  Instead, he continues to try to pad out Iraq's medical community by importing nurses from other countries.  At a time when Iraqis face massive unemployment and with all the billions Iraq sits on, there was plenty of time, plenty of people to start up a nursing program that could have turned out LVNs and RNs very quickly and had them working in the hospitals instead of importing nurses into the country.

Iraq can't afford more violence aimed at doctors.  That's what Moqtada's smart enough to grasp although it escapes Nouri.  A second brain drain is possible.  Violence is again increasing in Iraq.  Today, 3 doctors were killed in Baghdad.  This is the sort of thing that can lead to a panic.  If you're a doctor in Iraq and you've told yourself things will get better, you've said you want to honor the Iraqi people and you've stayed?  The violence has never ended and at some point -- when doctors are being targeted again -- you have to ask yourself exactly how much longer you can wait for the violence to end?  For some, it won't take much to push them out of Iraq at this point.

Monday it was learned that the September elections in the KRG would no longer include presidential elections for the Kurdistan Regional Government.  Instead, KRG President Massoud Barznai's term would be extended by two years and the presidential vote would take place in 2015.  Tuesday, details of the deal were published and the two-year-extension meant that there would be no third term for Barzani.  The KRG Constitution forbids a third term.  But that was not retroactive.  Barzani was already in his first term when that was implemented.  So technically, he could have run for another four year term.  Instead the PUK (President Jalal Talabani's party) and the KDP  (Barzani's party) agreed to give him two more years in the current term.  Last week, Alsumaria noted that a poll found 69% of the KRG residents wanted Barzani to serve a third term.  From Tuesday's snapshot:

  

The reason for the massive support (69%) in the poll had to do with that and it had to do with the fact that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's fate remains a question mark.

 Last December,  Talabani suffered a stroke.   The incident took place late on December 17th (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.   Thursday, December 20th, he was moved to Germany.  He remains in Germany currently.  At the end of May, photos popped up --   Al Mada ran a photo of Jalal Talabani seated outdoors with his medical team -- to refute rumors that Talabani was worse than was being let on.  Repeated assertions that he would return to Iraq shortly have yet to pan out.

There are two main political parties in the KRG: the PUK and the KDP.  They transfer power back-and-forth rather easily.  With the question mark around Jalal currently, it's not a surprise that his PUK would side with the KDP and would most likely argue that this is a stability issue -- important as calls for Jalal to be replaced include a small number of calls for him to be replaced with a Shi'ite (which would strip the Kurds of the ceremonial post of president which carries little weight but a great deal of international prestige).



If you're in the KRG, this isn't the time for a change.  Not while the fate of Jalal Talabani continues to be a question mark.  Despite constant talk since May that Jalal would return to Iraq shortly, he remains in Germany.  He's still not gone before a camera to make a statement.  No one knows the real status of his health.  At such a time, people are going to crave stability.  So the extension of Barzani's term by two years is not going to be a problem now (if he's ineffective in the next two years, complaints may arise after the fact -- currently only minor third parties are complaining). 

NINA reports today:


President of Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barazani, discussed with members of the politburos of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), recent decision passed by the Region's Parliament extending his tenure as the Region's President, as well as the Constitution and elections issues.
A statement issued on Thursday, July 4, by the Region's Presidency said that Barazani chaired a joint meeting of the politburos of KDP and PUK, discussing a number of issues, the Constitution, the Region's Parliamentary elections, the Region's Presidency, as well as issues related to the Region's Parliament.
It added that in the coming days, Barazani is to continue his consultation with other Kurdish forces in this regards.


Dar Addustour reports that Barzani returned to the KRG late Wednesday (he had been meeting with various leaders in Europe) and that today's meeting including 5 leaders of Talabani's PUK complaining about Talabani's absence, complaining about the PUK structure and complaining that they were having difficulty getting money from the party for their election campaigns (elections are to be held in September -- it's July now, were I running and having problems getting funding from the party, I'd be complaining too).  Among the loudest complainers?  Barham Salih who is the Deputy Secretary of the PUK.





Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Pants On The Ground"  went up yesterday.  Today Kat's "Kat's Korner: Maps is so much better when he's original" went up.

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