The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Hejira

Army Times reports on the various deployments for the US military in 2015. They note that at least 3,100 US service members will be deployed in Iraq. The publication notes, "President Obama in November authorized an additional 1,500 troops to deploy to Iraq to help advise, assist and train Iraqi Security Forces."

Noting the millions the US tax payer has already spent training the Iraqi military prior to the end of 2011, Alexander Smith (NBC News -- link is video and text) reports on the 50,000 acknowledged Iraqi ghost soldiers who are on the payroll but give half their salary (or more) to high ranking military officers in order to avoid serving as a soldier.

Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) offers,"At least 292 people were killed today"

I appreciate the work but the world doesn't the nonsense that follows, "Almost all of them were militants."

Can you back that up, Margaret?

No.

So you need to stop saying it.

You can get away with "Almost all of them were alleged to be militants."

But since you're not checking the corpses, you really don't know, do you?

Abeer.

Antiwar.com wasn't interested in Abeer.

But when her death was first reported, it was 'terrorists' that killed her.

Actually, as would emerge in military and civilian US courts, she was gang-raped and killed by US soldiers.

The White House repeatedly claims that Barack's Drone War only kills 'terrorists.' But we all know it's killing civilians as well.

In 2015, let's hope Margaret Griffis stops giving cover to war by claiming that "almost all of" over 200 dead in a day were "militants."

It can be verified and it honestly doesn't add up to anyone who really follows the numbers.

In the early months of the Iraq War only one outlet would question the figures -- Rolling Stone.

That was really disappointing because governments lie about their 'kills.' That's not new to the Iraq War.

And there's nothing new about the Iraq War eleven years in.

It's really sad that Antiwar.com continues to be a toady in that regard.

And I've bit my tongue week after week on this issue.

2014 is about to be buried. Antiwar.com should bury the easy acceptance they give to government claims. They should also grasp that when a government announces they've killed people, the government will always insist that the dead 'had it coming' to justify their actions and to prevent questions.

Antiwar.com should not now or ever be in the position of justifying government killings or of preventing questions from being raised.

US Senator John McCain visited Iraq on Friday and Saturday.

The Kurdish Regional Government issued the following:

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, (KRG.org) - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, received on Saturday US Senator, John McCain and his accompanying delegation, which included a number of military advisors, the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Baghdad and the US Consul General to Kurdistan.

Kurdistan Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister, Qubad Talabani and a number of KRG ministers also attended the meeting.

Senator McCain praised the victories achieved by the Peshmerga forces on the battlefields against the Islamic State terrorist organisation, known as ISIS.

He said, “We came to observe the situation closely. We had a successful meeting with the military commanders, who have earned the confidence of everyone. I would also like to praise the Kurdistan Region, which despite its limited resources has been able to accommodate and help all those members of various religious and ethnic groups, particularly Christians and Yezidis, who fled ISIS terrorist attacks.”

Prime Minister Barzani expressed his gratitude to the United States of America, which stood with the people of Kurdistan from the beginning, when its forces launched air strikes, shifting the balance of power in favour of the Peshmerga forces. This situation has guaranteed the continuation of the Kurdistan Region as a safe haven, where a large number of people, who fled ISIS repression, could take refuge.

He pointed out that the Kurdistan Region exerts great effort to assist over 1.5 million displaced people, who took refuge in Kurdistan. However, more assistance is needed both at humanitarian and military levels, hoping that the United States of America would play a significant role in this regard.

The recent agreement reached between Erbil and Baghdad on oil export and budgetary issues, Kurdistan Region’s relations with its neighbours and the latest developments in Syria in general, and the situation in Kobane in particular and the role of the Peshmerga forces there, where among topics also discussed in the meeting.

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] 4494.

The following community sites updated on Saturday and today: