The Common Ills: At least 23 dead in the continuing violence

Violence continues today in Iraq. National Iraqi News Agency reports 1 person was shot dead in Almajooah al-Thaqafiyah, a Tharthar roadside bombing left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and two more injured, an Oraibi home invasion left 1 Department of Nineveh Water employee dead and his wife injured, an attack on a Yarmouk checkpoint left 1 security force dead and another injured, Baghdad Operations Command state they killed a suspect they believe to have been "the Wali of the south," they also announce they shot dead 5 suspects in Hor Rajab, a New Baghdad grenade attack left 3 pilgrims dead and seven more injured, an al-Mashtal grenade attack left 2 pilgrims dead and fifteen more injured, a Mahmudiya suicide bomber took his own life and that of 4 pilgrims with thirteen more left injured, 1 Iraqi soldier was shot dead "east of Kirkuk" and late last night, a Riyadh attack left 1 police officer and 1 woman dead with two more women and one child left injured.

Check my math, I'm seeing 23 reported deaths and 42 reported injured.

Iraq Body Count notes 82 violent deaths yesterday and 587 people have died violent deaths in Iraq so far this month through yesterday.

Unable to write about real issues, Joshua Hersh (Huffington Post) pretends something outstanding happened on Twitter:

In late November, Prashant Rao, the Baghdad bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, found himself with a terrible, familiar problem. The daily story he had to write on the news in Iraq -- a typical one by that country's standards, full of death and mayhem -- contained so many violent incidents that he simply didn't have room to mention them all.
So he took to Twitter.
There, over a series of 17 tweets, Rao laid out each of the individual attacks from that single day. In Abu Ghraib, a roadside bomb at a market killed one and wounded five; in Tikrit, police found the bodies of seven maintenance workers on a soccer field, with their throats slit; in Diyala, a man was shot dead in front of his home; and on and on.

First off, he had room to mention them, he chose not to. It was a November 29th stunt that resulted from the criticism he was under -- criticism Hersh isn't even aware of.

Second, forget 'Twitter,' Margaret Gtiffis (Antiwar.com) and I have both been doing that for years and years and years. There used to be many more but some moved on to other topics and some just shut down sites.

However, there was nothing new or novel about what Rao copied. (And there was much wrong with what he did -- but that's another topic -- one where you look the other way about deaths -- I'm not just referring to the fact that he only noted deaths security sources told him about.)

If he wanted to write about Prashant, he could have noted how Prashant ignored Iraqi women -- even during violence against women prevention week. Even when feminists protested. Even when the Minister of Women declared she didn't believe in equal rights and men should be in charge.

Over and over, Prashant ignored reality. What is the underpinning for the ongoing protests that hit the one year mark on Friday?

That would be the reports that women and girls were being raped and tortured in Iraqi detention centers and prisons. Prashant ignored it. When committee in Parliament released findings establishing this was taking place, Prashant ignored it. When it was scrawled across signs carried by Iraqi protesters, Prashant ignored it.

Rao did some good in Iraq and I could probably fill an entry with praise for him. But his sexist b.s. is why he's fading and we'll be kind and leave it at that because I thought this was already widely known.

Apparently not.

Hersh types, "It's easy to say that two years after the last American soldier left the country, the U.S. can hardly be faulted for what's become of Iraq."

You know what's not hard to say?

Hersh is uninformed idiot.

The last American soldier left the country?

That never happened and only a whore repeats that crap.

Not only have a contingent remained in Iraq, more got sent in in the fall of 2012. Tim Arango (New York Times) reported in September 2012:

Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.

All Hersh has done is prove yet again that, at The Huffington Post, there's no connection between typing and thought.

And let's be really clear that there's something really pathetic -- especially at this late date -- in needing a 'western face' to write about Iraq.

Is Prashant Rao or any western reporter really the face of Iraq?

Hersh has no facts, has no knowledge of what's going on in Iraq and can only 'relate' to the western reporter. Why did he even bother to write about Iraq today? Oh, that's right, yesterday's spectacular violence made Iraq a Water Cooler Topic so all the morons come out from under their rocks to briefly note Iraq for a day or two.

We may go into this some more because Iraqis spent weeks prior to Rao's stunt writing about violence and how the western press was serving up one glop ("52 dead in violence. Today Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki heads to ____ for talks about trade with the neighboring country. . . .") and reducing the dead to nothing.

But Hersh doesn't know about that either.

He knows nothing.

And apparently wants to brag about his own stupidity.

Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Selfie" went up yesterday. His latest goes up after this. In addition, the following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, Ms. magazine's blog, Pacifica Evening News, Antiwar.com, Black Agenda Report and NPR -- updated since yesterday's snapshot went up: