The Common Ills: Iraq -- who hurts it more, Nouri or the press?

Can the press please stop lying?

This is the epitome of lying and the Los Angeles Times and Shashank Bengali should hang their heads in shame. This is not reporting, it is whoring:

A meeting Saturday of the main alliance of Shiite lawmakers failed to reach consensus on a prime ministerial candidate as the bloc remained divided over Maliki’s push for a third term. U.S. officials have urged Iraqi leaders to speedily form an inclusive government, and on Friday the revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani demanded that lawmakers choose a prime ministerial candidate before parliament opens Tuesday, a call that appeared likely to go unheeded.
Ali Fayadh, a lawmaker from of Maliki’s State of Law coalition, which won the most parliamentary seats and therefore had the first crack at nominating a prime minister, said the bloc was considering alternate candidates to Maliki but that it was “not in a hurry” to make a decision.

No, Nouri doesn't get first crack.

I'm tired of this and don't give me the excuse of "I was summarizing what Ali Fayadh said!"

No, you were whoring.

And this lousy whoring has led Iraq to this point.

Take responsibility for your actions and at least stop whoring for a few weeks.

Are we forgetting the 'judicial' decision Nouri pulled out of his ass in 2010?

The one he put in his pocket and failed to inform anyone of ahead of the election. It was his worst case scenario card. If he didn't win the most seats, he had that decision.

And he used it because he lost in 2010.

The judicial decision said it wasn't about the biggest grouping before the election, it was about the biggest grouping after the election.

So stop whoring.

Press whoring for the last four years have allowed Iraq to arrive at the crises. If you can't be honest, just don't say a damn word.

Violence continues in Iraq. Some of the reported news? National Iraqi News Agency reports 7 rebels were killed in a battle to the "north of Falluja," a Jurf al-Sakhar battle left 4 Iraqi security forces dead and eight more injured, a Samarra mortar attack left 2 people dead, Baghdad Operations Command announced they killed 11 suspects, and Salahuddin Province Governor Ahmed Abdullah al-Jubouri announced 60 suspects were killed in the province,

Last November, US President Barack Obama met with Thug Nouri al-Maliki in DC and then Barack demanded that a wary Congress -- concerned about Nouri's long list of well documented human rights abuses -- provide Nouri with weapons. To the misfortune of the Iraqi people, Barack got his way and Nouri is armed. Arwa Damon, Chelsea J. Carter and Laura Smith-Spark (CNN) report how that's going:

Iraq's air force carried out a series of airstrikes on Mosul, according to a senior Iraqi military official.

The airstrikes targeted four locations inside Iraq's second-largest city, including ISIS headquarters, said Mazen al-Safaar, a traffic director in Mosul.

But a doctor says the airstrikes also hit Mosul's administration building and the Old City's shopping district.

At least seven civilians were killed and two were wounded in the airstrikes, according to Dr. Salaheldin al-Naimi, the director of the health administration.

Now if this were a city which was predominately Shi'ite, Nouri would take care. But it's just a Sunni town, after all, and Nouri's made clear that Sunnis are 'terrorists.' Sunni politicians? He's called them 'terrorists.' Sunnis who peacefully protest? He's called them 'terrorists' as well.

So he doesn't feel constrained by humanity or compassion when it comes to Sunni areas. He doesn't even feel constrained by the law. He knows he can -- and did -- commit War Crimes while Barack looked the other way.

He knows the US Congress is a cowardly bunch that will pass, for example, the Leahy Amendment, they just won't enforce it. To do so would mean to cut off all funds to Iraq right now.

Can't have that, not when Barack's putting US troops in and having drones fly over Baghdad and so much more.

Heaven forbid that the laws -- either US laws passed by the Congress or international laws -- be followed.

At the Washington Post, Loveday Morris notes a whining baby:

“These planes are over 20 years old,” said a senior military officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the negotiations. He voiced concerns that using the outdated technology could mean large numbers of civilian casualties. “Even when you get them, you still need training for pilots. They aren’t just taxis that one can just jump into and drive,” he added, pointing out that many of the Iraqis who were trained to fly them are now too old.

Tip to Loveday, if you're going to quote someone be clear on who you're quoting.

I don't mean a name but I think readers have a right to know whether the cry baby liar is an American or an Iraqi "senior military officer."

Whichever, it's a damn liar. Nouri's never given a damn about civilian casualties and maybe if the Washington Post had gotten their ass and reported on Nouri's bombings of the residential neighborhoods of Falluja -- bombings he's been carrying out since January, the whole world would realize what a cheap whore the unnamed "senior military officer" was.

Iraqi Spring MC and BRussells Tribunal note the victims of Nouri in Falluja on Friday, "The intended random bombing continued by Maliki's army on civilian homes in the separated areas of Fallujah causing --at the initial outcome- killing of three civilians including 17 years old girl –and wounding of 5 civilians."

Will Michelle Obama do a 'bring our girls home' for the 17-year-old Iraqi girl?

No, she won't.

Hashtag "doesn'tgiveadamn!"

These murders -- which are legally defined as War Crimes -- have been going on for six months now with not one word from the White House.

WG Dunlop (AFP) has a good overview of events of this week. Arab Times notes this on the political situation:

In a stunning political intervention on Friday that could mean the demise of Maliki’s eight-year tenure, powerful Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged political blocs to agree on the next premier, parliament speaker and president before a newly elected legislature meets in Baghdad on Tuesday. Saudi King Abdullah pledged in talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry to use his influence to encourage Sunni Muslims to join a new, more inclusive Iraqi government to better combat Islamist insurgents, a senior US official said on Saturday. Abdullah’s assurance marked a significant shift from Riyadh’s unwillingness to support a new government unless Maliki, a Shi’ite, steps aside, and reflected growing disquiet about the regional repercussions of ISIL’s rise. “The next 72 hours are very important to come up with an agreement ... to push the political process forward,” said a lawmaker and former government official from the National Alliance, which groups all Shi’ite Muslim parties. The lawmaker, who asked for anonymity due to political sensitivities, said he anticipated internal meetings by various parties and a broader session of the National Alliance including Maliki’s State of Law list to be held through the weekend. Some Sunni Muslim parties were to convene later on Saturday. Iraqi Sunnis accuse Maliki of freezing them out of any power and repressing their community, goading armed tribes to support the insurgency led by the fundamentalist group ISIL. The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has also said Maliki should bow out. Sistani’s entry into the fray will make it hard for Maliki to stay on as caretaker leader as he has since a parliamentary election in April.

Matt Brown (Australia's ABC) covers the latest here.

As violence continues out of Iraq, today's big news is what developed in yesterday's news cycle. From yesterday's snapshot:

Today's big news? The Peshmerga, elite Kurdish forces, entered Kirkuk this month to provide protection. Aslumaria reports KRG President Massoud Barzani declares that action is a form of Article 140 and the issue of who has the right to Kirkuk -- the KRG or the central government out of Baghdad -- has been decided with this action. Of Article 140, Chelsea J. Carter, Arwa Damon and Raja Razek (CNN) maintain, "However, the vote never took place because of instability in most of the disputed areas."
That's spin, that's not reality.
First, it wasn't just a vote. It was a census and a referendum.
Second, in October of 2010, Nouri was backing holding a census in Kirkuk at the start of December 2010. He only dropped that idea after The Erbil Agreement gave him a second term as prime minister. Shortly after that happened, he announced the census was being put 'on hold.' And, no, he did not give violence as a reason.

This remains the big news in Iraq with Al Jazeera noting today:

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Erbil, said Barzani's statement was expected to put more strain on the Baghdad government.
"The Kurds see themselves in a position of strength, and say the Iraqi government's pullout forced Peshmerga forces to fill the security vacuum," she said.
Kurdish forces stepped in when federal government forces withdrew in the face of a Sunni rebel offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) earlier this month.

Barzani's remarks continue to be the big news. And they were made on Thursday. Karwan Salihi (Kirkuk Now) notes, "Barzani visited Kirkuk while Kirkuk’s governor NajmAldin Kareem was in Turkey. The new minister of the Peshmarga Mustafa Said KadirBarzani did not go with the president to Kirkuk."

Avi Asher-Schapiro (National Geographic) explains:

The seeds of the conflict can be found in the unique predicament of the region's estimated 30 million to 35 million Kurds, the world's largest ethno-linguistic group without a state of their own. Kurds are a traditionally nomadic people from the crossroads of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Persia, united by a common mother tongue—a group of Iranian languages known as Kurdish—and a shared history of life on the margins of the greater regional empires in western Asia.

Though most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, they have no affinity with the ISIS-led Sunni insurgency, and there are Christian, Jewish, and Shiite Kurdish minorities. As a multi-religious community, they are united by a historical connection to Kurdistan. "The Kurds are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the entire region—and they consider Kurdistan to be their homeland," says Christian Sinclair, president of the Kurdish Studies Association and assistant director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona.

We'll note World Can't Wait is on the ball:

Day of / Day After Protests When the US Starts Bombing Iraq

IN THE EVENT of U.S. bombing of Iraq, choose the best protest location in your city/town, and call on people to go there at 5:00 pm the day of the attack, or, in the case of an evening attack, the next day at 5:00 pm.
Post your event on Facebook.
Post your event at worldcantwait.net.

The following community sites updated: