Sunday, September 25, 2011

And the war drags on . . .

Karbala was slammed with four bombings today. Aziz Alwan and Dan Zak (Washington Post) count 15 people dead and one hundred and thirteen wounded. And they quote today's biggest idiot: Gamin al-Karbalie. Who did the bombing? No one knows at present. But al-Karbalie insists it was al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. And why? Because, he says, the group wants to demonstrate that Iraqi forces cannot handle security without the US. Well, first off, over 40,000 US troops are still on Iraqi soil and the bombings happened. Second of all, how is it in al Qaeda's interest to keep US troops in the Middle East? Granted al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a splinter group and one formed after the US invasion of Iraq; however, the goal of al Qaeda is US forces out of the Middle East. Why their motives would suddenly be to keep the US in Iraq, I don't know. But Ganim al-Karbalie apparently does. I have no idea who was responsible or why. But if you're going to point a finger and supply a motive, your little reenactment should make sense. AP quotes provincial council member Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi stating, "The aim of these explosions is to ignite the sectarian sedition after the killing of 22 Karbala residents in the Anbar desert two weeks ago. They also aim to destabilize the security situation in Karbala." Is he right? Who knows? But his hypothesis does add up. Tim Arango (New York Times) notes provincial council member Tariq al-Khaikani hypothesis, "Mr. Khaikani attributed the persistent violence in Iraq to the lack of ministers of interior and defense, two positions that have essentially been overseen by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki since the formation of a new government late last year. At the time, Mr. Maliki promised to name new heads of those ministries soon, but he has not yet done so."


The Telegraph of London (link has video and text) quotes Mohammed Na'eim stating, "I was inside my house when I heard a big explosion. When I got outside I saw many people wounded and some bodies on the ground." Jamal Hashim (Xinhua) explains, "The attackers apparently followed old tactic which depends on creating an initial explosion to attract security forces and people, then they set off another blast to get heavier casualties, the source added." Raheem Salman (Los Angeles Times) observes, "Sunday’s carnage, the latest in a series of deadly attacks across Iraq, harken back to the deadly days of civil warfare five years ago between Shiite and Sunni Muslims."





They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, the number of US military people killed in the Iraq War since the start of the illegal war was 4479. Tonight? PDF format warning, DoD lists the the number of Americans killed serving in Iraq at 4480. That's four this month and because we're not going to be as useless as the New York Times, we'll continue to provide a screen snap every time the count changes.

11dod

By the way, there was an announcement made today. Normally, that wouldn't be included in the count until after it was announced. Who knows these days. But I'm told that the only reason this say nothing announcement was made today was because US Senator ___ ____'s office has been asking the Pentagon what's going on with the count? (If you're late to the story, when one soldier died last Sunday, that was the first announcement by DoD of a death; however, the death toll the Pentagon releases had already increased by 2 the Thursday prior to the Sunday death. Meaning last Sunday's death was the third one for the month.) Apparently, ____'s office is asking if there's some order from the White House that's caused DoD to stop announcing deaths? Here's the say nothing announcement DoD released today:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Sgt. Andy C. Morales, 32, of Longwood, Fla., died Sept. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 143rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), Orlando, Fla.

For more information, media may contact the 143rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) public affairs office at 1-800-221-9401 ext. 1132 or e-mail Maj. John Adams at john.adams16@us.army.mil .

How did he die? Doesn't say, does it?

In other violence, Reuters notes a Baghdad attack in which a money exchange shop owner was killled at his business and the assailants then robbed the store, a Baghad sticky bombing wounded one person, 1 employee of the Ministry of Human Rights was shot dead in Baghdad, a Khalidiya home bombing claimed the life of 1 government worker and "his wife and wounded two of his daughters," a second bomb went off when police responded claiming the life of 1 police officer and leaving four more injured, an attack on a Mosul military checkpoint resulted in the deaths of 2 Iraqi soldiers, a Mosul sticky bombing claimed 1 life, 2 Yazidis were kidnapped in Sinjar, and, dropping back to Saturday night for the last two, a Baghdad roadside bombing left two people injured and a Jalawla home invasion resulted in the death of 1 woman.

AP reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that, to fight Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq (PKK for Turkey, PJAK for Iran), the governments of Turkey and Iran have decided to work tother. Turkey and Iran, forming partnerships. That Iraq War sure was a success for the US government, wasn't it? And just think, the US will supply Turkey with predator drones and Turkey will share the intelligence gathered from the drones with the Iranian government. What a proud moment for Barack and his White House.

New content for Third:



Isaiah's latest goes up after this. Kat's "Kat's Korner: Tori's nocturnal prowl" went up this morning.


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