The Common Ills: Close to 700 killed from violence so far this month in Nouri's Iraq

Friday, February 21, 2014

Close to 700 killed from violence so far this month in Nouri's Iraq

Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count notes 666 violent deaths in Iraq so far this month.

No, Nouri's assault on Anbar has not brought peace to the country or ended the violence.

National Iraqi News Agency reports one Iraqi soldier was injured by a sniper in Yathrib, a Saadiya battle left 1 rebel dead, Dijlah Operations Command announced they had killed 48 suspects, Babil security states they killed 7 suspects in Aliskandariyah and Jorfisskhar, and an al-Zab bombing left one child injured.

Nouri's assault on Anbar Province did not stop violence. His actions and the White House's decision to further arm Nouri have only resulted in more deaths. In fact, while Baghdad was always one of the most deadly areas of 2013 -- more so than Falluja or elsewhere in Anbar -- it may soon be overtaken this year by other provinces. This is in keeping with what we pointed out in December when the assault on Anbar was being discussed in the press but had not yet started.

All that happened when the assault began on Anbar is the violence spread elsewhere. Consider Falluja the middle of a tube of tooth paste. Nouri putting the thumb in the middle of the tube did not make the toothpaste disappear, it only made it increase in opposite ends.

Nouri has done nothing to help anyone -- even though he hoped the assault on Anbar would help his image ahead of the expected April 30th parliamentary elections.

While Nouri did nothing, the International Committee of the Red Cross has done a great deal:

What ICRC did in Iraq in January 2014

More than 4,000 households involving some 26,000 people, displaced as a result of the recent violence in Al-Anbar province, received food and basic household necessities;

Water tanks were distributed to improve access to drinking water for nearly 700 people in Al Rahhaliya who fled their homes escaping violence in Al-Anbar province;

Some 35,000 patients benefited from medical treatment provided in 13 ICRC-supported primary health-care centres;

Al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad received on-site support from an ICRC surgeon in order to improve its emergency services capacity;

More than 2,200 patients received care at ten ICRC-supported and one ICRC-operated physical rehabilitation centres.

To be fair, the blood lusting White House isn't the only one supplying weapons. Al-Manar reports that Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari met yesterday with Russian officials and the Russian government has "agreed to speed up the delivery of Russian arms to the oil-rich Arab country."

In the US, there would be some objection if Zebari's US counterpart Secretary of State John Kerry was sticking his nose into what would clearly be Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's area; however, Iraq has no Minister of Defense. Nor do they have a Minister of Interior or a Minister of National Security.

They are supposed to have those positions and have them filled.

But Nouri instituted a power-grab and refused to nominate anyone for those posts so he could retain control of them. (In the Iraq system, cabinet heads answer ultimately to the Parliament. They serve at the discretion of the Parliament. If Nouri nominates someone to head a cabinet and Parliament approves the nomination, only Parliament can remove the person later on.)

The Constitution doesn't allow for this but Nouri and Barack Obama wiped their asses with the Iraqi Constitution when they went around it with The Erbil Agreement in November 2010 to give Nouri a second term after he lost the March 2010 elections.

In 2010, he refused to nominate people to head the three security ministries. Each year the violence got worse. And at no point did the White House ever think to demand that, in exchange for the billions of US tax payer dollars still flowing into Iraq or even for weapons, Nouri nominate people to head those posts.

It's even more amazing that thug Nouri is attempting to get a third term.

Get?

He's never 'won' one -- not if winning is the Iraqi people wanting him.

Bully Boy Bush imposed him on the Iraqis in 2006. Four years later, when the Iraqi people voted him out, Barack imposed him on the Iraqis for a second term.

But Nouri thinks he deserves a third term despite the fact that violence is at an all time high and that this increase happened during four years when he refused to nominate people to head the security ministries because he wanted to (illegally) control them.

On the topic of elections, Mohammad Sabah (Al Mada) reports that UNHCR and Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission have only distributed 3.4 million of the new electronic voting cards that will be used in this election. This is a problem since there are over 21 million registered voters in Iraq.

Meanwhile Isabel Coles and Jane Bair (Reuters) report that, despite claimes from Hussain al-Shahristani (Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy) earlier this week, the Kurds have not reached any agreement with Baghdad regarding exporting oil. KRG spokesperson Safeen Dizayee is quoted stating, "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still under way."

Nouri's failures are many. He's attempting to coherce the Kurds on the oil by using the 2014 budget as a club.

That's right, it is February of 2014 and Iraq's still not passed a budget.

It only gets worse.

Kitabat reports Nouri made noises this week about the budget and specifically about a possible 35 billion deficit.

How does Iraq have a deficit?

They bring in tens of billions each month in oil revenues and Nouri spends none of that on the people -- 8 years he's been prime minister and potable water (drinkable water) is still an aspiration in Iraq not a fact and he's also failed to deliver on electricity as well. In fact, USAID announced this week they'll be working on electricity. That's more US tax dollars going to Iraq.

For years, the US government wasted US tax dollars on the Sahwa until Senator Barbara Boxer wisely pointed out, in April 2008, that the Iraqi government not only should be footing the bill for their own security costs but also that they had the money to spend.

And they have it to spend on electricity so why are US tax payers getting stuck with this bill?

35 billion dollar deficit?

Well Nouri's only son has no job and driving those fancy sports cars in England requires money for gas and registration and, yes, purchase of those vehicles. And the manor in the London countryside that Nouri's son-in-law just purchased this month? That also costs money.

Nouri can't steal all the money he and his worthless family need -- steal it from the Iraqi people -- without creating a deficit.

For those who lament (this means you, the two State of Law MPs that repeatedly e-mail the public account for this site) that Nouri never gets credit from me, I'll talk about his job creation program at the top of tonight's Iraq snapshot. I'm sure you'll love it just as much as you love the other evaluations I offer of Nouri al-Maliki: Failed Leader of Iraq.

The following community sites -- plus Michael Smith, Dissident Voice, Tavis Smiley, NPR Music, Jake Tapper, Susan's On the Edge, The Pacifica Evening News, Antiwar.com, NYT's At War, Chocolate City, the US House Veterans Affairs Committee and the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- updated last night and today: