The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Hejira

The UK's Deputy Foreign Minister Tweeted the following:

Honoured 2 mt Ayatollah #Hussein_ALSadr yday & discuss #Iraqi national unity & how the int community can supp #Iraq

Don't worry, John Kerry went to Ukraine.

Can't and won't do a damn thing to help Iraq.

But he'll go to Ukraine.

Because he's just that worthless.

Iraq has no victory in its future until it faces the political issues and works towards inclusion.

But John Kerry's too busy with everything else to make a difference.

Hey, he visited Israel too.

He's a very busy failure.

Tony Iltis (GREEN LEFT WEEKLY) notes:

The country they left behind was ruled by corrupt politicians permanently at loggerheads with each other over competing financial interests, with sectarian militias as private armies.
Corruption, human rights abuses, lack of basic utilities and almost daily terrorist attacks continued in “post-occupation” Iraq. The lightning invasion of north-west Iraq by ISIS in early 2014 was connected to the occupation in a number of ways.
First, ISIS originated on the Sunni side in the sectarian civil war. Second, the brutality of the Shia militias was such that many people in Sunni communities were willing to accept the rule of the notoriously brutal terror group on the basis that it could not be any worse than the government-aligned militias.

Third, the corrupt state created by the occupation meant that the army was spectacularly ineffective.

All of which would indicate a diplomatic initiative was needed in Iraq.

Instead, John Kerry can't focus on his job.

New content at Third is up.

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] 4517 (including 20 in Operation Inherent Resolve which includes at least 3 Iraq War fatalities).