Sunday, January 12, 2014

Hejira

CBS News and Reuters reported this evening that Iraq's chief thug and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said he was holding off (again) on sending troops into Falluja as part of his continued assault on Anbar Province.  We all aware of what's happened, right?  Mass desertion in Nouri's army over the last eleven days.  Nouri's been reluctant to go into Falluja.  He'll bomb it -- he keeps bombing it -- but he doesn't have the forces to send in.

This is so like 2008 when Nouri jumped the gun on the planning and attacked Basra.  But back then, he had the US military to help him on the ground in the fighting.  Right now, he's just getting advice and that's not enough for Nouri to charge in.

The mess Nouri's created continues.  All Iraq News reports United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad tomorrow.  National Iraqi News Agency reports Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi spoke with KRG President Massoud Barzani today about the "Anbar crisis and the repercussions of armed operations as well as the issue of refugees of the province."  Al Mada adds that Barzani has been in contacts with all the heads of the tribes in Anbar.    NINA also reports:

Member of Al- Anbar province Council, Hamid Al-Hashem called for the release of MP Ahmed al-Alwani and the withdrawal of the military troops from Anbar.
He said in a statement to / NINA / that while we deplore the continuation of the government to keep the MP for the province of Anbar, Ahmed al-Alwani in prison, we call for his release as a parliamentarian, he has diplomatic immunity that prevents the government from arresting him.
Hashem added that Al- Anbar provincial council also demanded the withdrawal of the military troops from the cities of Anbar and to stop the military operation launched by the army two weeks ago and to compensate the citizens for the damages due to these military operations.
He also called on the government to implement the demands of the protesters, stressing that those demands are legitimate and constitutional and they expressed them in ways that are legitimate and civilized.



Because creating turmoil is an addiction for Nouri, the attack on Anbar isn't enough, he's also going to war on the KRG (the semi-autonomous three northern provinces). Safaa Abdel-Hami and Moahmmed Shafiq (Alsumaria) report that Nouri is threatening to reduce the KRG  budget allotment if the KRG continues exporting oil to Turkey.  All Iraq News has Nouri screeching this is a Constitutional violation.

No, it's not.

There's not even a law against what they're doing.

Who's fault is that?

Nouri al-Maliki's.

One of the reason Bully Boy Bush installed Nouri as prime minister in 2006 was because Nouri insisted he could get an oil law passed.  Following the losses for the GOP in the 2006 US mid-term elections, the Bush White House needed to come up with a way to stop threats from Congress that they'd cut funding.  So the "benchmarks" were created.  Nouri signed off on them.  He didn't ever get around to them because he never accomplishes anything.  But in 2007, he was supposed to complete the benchmarks which included the passage of an oil and gas law.  Didn't happen.  Didn't happen in all the years since.

It's Nouri's fault.

Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 375 deaths from violence so far this month.  In specific violence today, National Iraqi News Agency reports a Tuz Khrumato suicide bomber killed 3 people and wounded twenty-seven more,  an armed attack in Zaidan left 8 people dead and seventeen more injured, Iraqi forces killed 3 "members of the terrorist organization Daash," an al-Shamiya attack left 1 woman dead (she was born in 1963 and killed by being stabbed with "a sharp tool and beaten by stones"), a Baiji attack left 1 police officer dead and 1 police member dead, a Baquba roadside bombing left three SWAT members and one civilian injured, a northern Baghdad car bombing claimed 4 lives and left fourteen more people injured, a Mosul sticky bombing left a reporter and his driver wounded (the news outlet is Mossswilyah satellite channel), a Mosul roadside bombing left a lieutenant colonel and eight of his bodyguards injured, a car bombing in central Baghdad left 3 people dead and twelve more injured, a Jurf al0Sakhar roadside bombing left one police officer injured, and, late last night, National Information Agency officer Maher Abdel-Karim was injured in a Basra shooting.   All Iraq News adds that mosque preacher Sheikh Mohamed Radhwan al-Hadidi was assassinated in his home in Nineveh Province.  Jomana Karadsheh and Marie-Louise Gumuchian (CNN) add, "Mohammed Ramadan al-Hadidi, who hosted a show on herbal medicine on Nineveh al-Ghad TV, was shot by unidentified gunmen as he left his house in the western part of the city."







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] 4489.



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Isaiah's latest goes up after this.  The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.