The Common Ills: Iraq snapshot

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Iraq snapshot

Thursday, August 10, 2017.

*movie preview voice* 
from the producers of Iraq War comes a new blood-soaked debacle, this time with
*record scratch*
real nuclear weapons 

34 replies417 retweets1,274 likes

Eli Lake: "Leaving aside means and only looking at outcome, regime change for North Korea would be a great outcome from a humanitarian perspective."

It's as though the last fourteen years never happened or happened without Eli Lake.

Iraq had regime change.

There's been no benefit -- that's across the board but certainly when it comes to "a humanitarian perspective."

Iraq still lacks a stable government -- forget one that governs fairly.

It remains one of the most corrupt nations in the world.

Population wise, it's a young country now with a median age of 19.9 years.

It's a country of orphans in many respects due to the never-ending violence.

A country of widows and orphans.

UN Refugee Agency‏Verified account @Refugees 22 hours ago

Without an income + often with children to support, Mosul’s war widows are among most vulnerable displaced in #Iraq: http://trib.al/cQDiQ4k

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Areas of Iraq will produce birth defects for decades due to the weapons used there. (Used there by foreign forces -- the US-led coalition.)

Humanitarian includes medical and the US has bombed hospitals throughout the war as has the Iraqi government. In addition, doctors have been repeatedly targeted and threatened leading to many of them fleeing the country.

The education system is as frayed as everything else from the war. In the next 20 years, Iraq needs to build at least 20,000 schools as a result of many things including (a) the destruction of schools from bombings and (b) 'aid' that resulted in faulty construction.

I'm failing to see any benefits "from a humanitarian perspective."

And the Iraq War was supposed to be 'quick.'

Instead, it's 14 years later and still going.

‏ @Nidalgazaui

#BREAKING: #ISIS attacks #Iraqi army positions in the area of Diyuub in northern #Samara, kills several soldiers & burs 4 bulldozers.

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‏Verified account @TheArabSource

In pictures: #ISIS sharpshooters sneak up on Iraqi Army checkpoints near Tal Afar https://aml.ink/JRPvf  #Mosul #Nineveh

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This is Iraq right now:

‏ @ajghamidi

US-backed Iraqi troops and militias assaulting and executing starved civilians found under the rubble in Old #Mosul pic.twitter.com/2w3qk9ccIk

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Confused as to how this qualifies as a 'success' "from a humanitarian perspective."

‏Verified account @leloveluck

Overturned Blackwater conviction evokes darkest days of Iraq War: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/overturned-blackwater-conviction-evokes-darkest-days-of-iraq-war/2017/08/09/ebd02e26-fd0e-4bf8-b480-fe5c5094d2ba_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.bf8aa701db39 … | @raghavanWaPo looks back to that day.

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Darkest days?

What a load of nonsense.

THE WASHINGTON POST can call it the "darkest days" because it's a contractor and further removed from the US military.

Falluja in April or November of 2004.

The gang-rape and murder of Abeer by US soldiers.

The use of illegal weapons by the US-led coalition.

But Blackwater is the "darkest days"?

Far be it from THE WASHINGTON POST to ever call out the US government.

And speaking of which, shame on any US journalist writing about Blackwater today and still not telling reporters who was being protected.

Remember that?

Supposedly, a US official was being escorted by Blackwater that day.

All these years later, we can't even be told (a) if that was true and (b) if true, who it was?

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