Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Iraq snapshot

Tuesday, July 10, 2018.  It's anniversary time -- one year, in fact.


July 9th of last year, the Iraqi government, led by prime minister Hayder al-Abadi, declared Mosul liberated.  How's that gone?


 Jul 8
Original drone footage by in shows remaining devastation of 1 year after the it was retaken from . More than 380k people still displaced, 54,000 home still destroyed, & 8 mil tons of debris still scattered across the city.
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All that 'success.' Hard to believe the Iraqi people didn't storm the polls on May 12th to vote for Hayder and give him a second term? 

It's only hard to believe if you bought the crap the corporate media was selling in the long lead up to the Iraqi elections.


 Jul 9
Mosul still in ruins one year after 'liberation' from ISIL
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  1.  4h4 hours ago
    It's been a year since the battle for , . With more than 90% of infrastructure and properties obliterated on the west side, people's lives, livelihoods, and lifelines have also been destroyed.
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 18h18 hours ago
Today marks one year since was retaken from the Islamic State group. However one year later the city is still massively destroyed. 380,000 people are still displaced and face extreme living conditions
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That's what 'liberation' looks like.  What a proud moment for the whole world.


XINHUA reports that the "smell of rotting bodies comes from under the rubbles" and:
 
In a coffee shop, where many workers used to gather after a hard day of cleaning up ruins of devastated buildings, blames were heard for the Baghdad government's neglecting the city.
A young man smoking a traditional water pipe, or Shisha as Iraqis name it, said he heard media reports on funds allocated by the Baghdad government to rebuild Mosul, but "actually we haven't seen any progress by this money. I wonder was it true or stolen by corrupt officials?"
"Dozens of thousands of people cannot come back to their homes, because they don't have money to rebuild their houses, not to mention the lack of basic public services in their neighborhoods," the young man said while he was inhaling deeply from the mouthpiece of the Shisha and exhaling a jet of white smoke.
"Can you imagine the misery of the people here, they even using water wells while the world is watching us?" the young man said, blaming the situation on corruption and failure of Iraqi politicians.

Islamic Relief notes, "Tons of explosive remnants are still littered all over the city and hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced because it is too dangerous for them to return home. Schools, hospitals and other public facilities have been damaged and destroyed."
Liberation, or 'liberation,' resulted in what is called the worst battle since WWII.  What did that battle look like?  A massacre.  A massacre where civilians couldn't be distinguished from combatants.

That's called a War Crime, by the way.  

Wilson Fache (THE NATIONAL) reports on the battle and notes:

One of the soldiers, his face scarred by shrapnel, recounted the final days of fighting. “Around 15 per cent of the civilians managed to flee, the others are in there,” he said, pointing to the murky waters of the Tigris. “We had to kill everyone. We couldn't tell friends from enemies.”
The violence never ends in Iraq. Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM)  notes, of Monday's violence, "At least 34 people were killed, and 11 were wounded in recent violence."






New content at THIRD:




The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and NPR 'Music' (it's not a music story, the Tab Hunter piece), PACIFICA EVENING NEWS and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:

Black Agenda Report
Military Spending = Cash for Corporations
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The Official Jody Watley Website
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