The Common Ills: Iraq: Over 1,056 violent deaths so far this month

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Iraq: Over 1,056 violent deaths so far this month

Violence is all over Iraq today. National Iraqi News Agency reports an armed attack on a Baiji checkpoint left 2 Sahwa dead (a third injured), a Tuz Khormato suicide bomber and a car bombing leaving "39 people killed and wounded," a Baquba bombing has left ten people injured, a Muqdadiya bombing claimed 3 lives and left seven people injured, 1 person was shot dead in Mosul, 1 farmer was shot dead in Muqdadiya, and a Mosul bombing claimed the lives of 6 people ("including four policemen") and left three people injured. Iraq Body Count notes October's number of violent deaths, through yesterday, stands at 1,056.

US President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister and thug Nouri al-Maliki tomorrow at the White House. The editorial board of the Guardian notes:

Much of the current tension is a direct result of what an influential group of US senators called the authoritarian and sectarian style of the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. He has all but torn up a political powersharing agreement the Americans negotiated with the Sunnis, and driven many of their number into the arms of al-Qaida. This in turn has led to the remobilisation of Shia militias.

Fox News (link is text and video) notes the interview KT McFarland did with University of Michigan's Professor Emeritus Raymond Tanter who declares of Nouri, "He's going after his vice president, who is a Sunni, and causing the Sunni-Shiite split within Iraq to exacerbate. So this is a big problem. If President Obama doesn’t crack down on Nouri al-Maliki, it will be Obama who lost Iraq."

Bloomberg News has a great editorial. I say "great" because they do a better job with facts than 98% of US outlets. They didn't do a slap-dash editorial. Good for them. So many think they can weigh in even though they have no clue what's gone on Iraq in years -- they're lucky if they were paying attention in 2008. From the editorial, "Given this violence, and the enormous investment the U.S. has made in Iraq’s future, President Barack Obama has to be forceful with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when they meet at the White House tomorrow: More weapons, as Maliki has asked for, will not help end the slaughter. The imperative is for Maliki, a Shiite, to share power with Iraq’s Sunni minority."

I'm on the phone with a friend asking him if anyone's going to call out the State Dept's lie? I didn't see it yesterday. They're leaking to the press and they're lying. We'll address that in the snapshot. I'd loved to be able to link to a functional press and just give them credit for noting it but I'm on the phone with a friend, the third journalist I've spoken to, and he agrees this is 100% lie from the State Dept but he's really focusing on Syria.

It's amazing how the State Dept gets to lie and never gets called out. It's amazing that the lie made into print without being challenged but goes to the complicity and stupidity of the press.

The following community sites -- plus the Guardian, Pacifica Evening News, Latino USA and Adam Kokesh -- updated last night and today: