Saturday, June 20, 2020

Why did Mustafa Al-Kadhimi want to be prime minister of Iraq?

The Iraqi government has repeatedly failed to create new jobs for the Iraqi people, year after year.  Now ALJAZEERA reports that even traditional jobs are at risk.




Mustafa Al-Kadhimi became Iraq's latest prime minister.  Why?  What's he doing?  He's not providing jobs.  He's not helping the Iraqi people.  Every day this month, news out of Iraq has noted that it was the highest number of COVID 19 cases so far in Iraq -- each day it has been a record number that topped the previous day.  Here's RUDAW on Fridays numbers:

On Friday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced 69 new coronavirus fatalities over the previous 24 hours, after the country recorded its highest daily death toll of 83 the day before.

Iraqi health officials on Friday also confirmed a record spike of 1,635 new cases in the country. "The total number of infections rose to 27,352, the total number of recovered cases to 12,205, total active cases to 14,122, those in intensive care to 200, and the total deaths to 925," read a ministry statement released to the press.

The ministry also reported that 11,227 laboratory tests had been completed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total conducted to date in Iraq to 425,192.

The figures do not include today's developments in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has its own health ministry and typically announces results later in the day. As such, Kurdistan's figures are usually added to the following day's national tally.

What is Mustafa doing?  He doesn't appear to be doing a damn thing.  Last week, he did try to get some easy press by traveling with reporters to Mosul.  Photo ops?  That's going to save Iraq?


As he continues to do nothing, he also remains silent on Turkey's terrorism against Iraq.  Turkey's latest bombing campaign is called Operation Claw-Tiger.  In addition to dropping bombs on Iraq, the Turkish government has sent foot soldiers into Iraq.  This invasion is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty as well as a violation of international law.  Mustafa has not said one word publicly.  Is he scared to speak or just too stupid?  The conclusion on Arab social media is that Mustafa's a coward who is unable to stand up for the Iraqi people and defend them.


A US government religious freedom commission has called on Turkey to end its "brutal airstrikes" and ground presence in Sinjar (Shingal), the heartland of Iraq's Yezidi ethnoreligious community.

The call came in a statement released Friday by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), amid Turkish air and ground offensives across the Kurdistan Region and in northern Iraq's Shingal and Makhmour that have killed at least five civilians.

“USCIRF calls on Turkey to immediately cease its brutal airstrikes in Sinjar, Iraq and to withdraw any ground troops — who represent a dangerous escalation of violence in an already-fragile area," read comments in the statement attributed to organisation head Gayle Manchin. 

"These actions are particularly threatening to hundreds of traumatized Yazidi families attempting to return to Sinjar and to other civilians in northern Iraq — none of whom deserve to be placed in harm’s way by a NATO ally,” Manchin added.


USCIRF joins the Arab League, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia who have all condemned the actions of the Turkish government.  ARAB NEWS observes:

There was growing anger in the Arab world on Saturday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “military adventurism” in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ankara claims to be targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants with Operation Claw-Eagle, its first official air and land offensive on Iraqi soil. It attacked Sinjar, the Qandil mountains, Karajak, Zap and Hakurk with aerial and ground operations involving F-16 fighter jets, missile launchers, heavy artillery and special forces units.

Baghdad condemned the invasion, and the Turkish ambassador to Iraq was summoned to the Foreign Ministry twice in two days to explain his country’s conduct. The envoy was handed a note of protest, in which Iraq accused Turkey of “violations of Iraqi sovereignty by bombing and attacking targets within our international borders.”

The UAE also criticized the Turkish attack, and Saudi Arabia condemned Turkish and Iranian aggression on Iraqi land, offering its support for Baghdad in measures to preserve its sovereignty, security and stability.

The criticism reflects growing Arab suspicion of Turkey’s wider regional ambitions, analyst Bill Park told Arab News.

 “The Arab reaction needs to be seen in this wider context — Turkey’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, its unwillingness to confront Iran, its meddling in Syria, its military relationship with Qatar and indeed Somalia, the stance it has taken in Libya and its approach to energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean,” said Park, a visiting research fellow at King’s College, London.

“This incursion will only feed those suspicions. Turkey is quite friendless now in the Arab world.”



The Turkish government insists that they are targeting and killing the PKK.    Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."


Despite Turkey's claims, it is civilians who are being terrorized and killed.





Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is doing nothing.  Why did he want to be prime minister?  For the yearbook credit?  He's doing nothing.  Even mere words are beyond his capabilities.  Iraqis are looking at their new 'leader' and seeing an ineffective coward.


The following sites updated:










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