The Common Ills

Saturday, March 09, 2019

What's Ammar al-Hakim up to?

AFP reports:

Iraqi cleric and the leader of the National Wisdom Movement says his fellow countrymen and women reject both a permanent foreign military base on Iraq’s territory and the deployment of foreign combat forces to the Arab country.
“Iraq is a sovereign state, not a subordinate or subjugated one. In this sense, we say no to foreign military bases, to foreign combat forces, to foreign missions, to unilateral provocations, or to attacks on neighboring countries from the Iraqi territory and airspace,” Ammar al-Hakim said during a Saturday ceremony marking the 16th death anniversary of senior Iraqi cleric and political leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, who was assassinated in 2003 in the city of Najaf.
He added, “There is an attitude that wants Iraq to be entrenched and a prisoner of interests and narrow ideas.”

What's going on here?

Yes, as AFP notes, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's figure-head president Barham Salih and Iraq's Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi have condemned the notion of foreign forces in Iraq. But that wasn't today or yesterday. That was a month ago.

No leader in Iraq is really discussing this right now. Why is Ammar al-Hakim?

It's a popular position in Iraq. Nearly sixteen years of war and occupation has made it a very popular position. The Iraqi people have wanted foreign forces out for some time. The leaders want US forces on the ground -- usually because they fear an uprising since they aren't truly elected or representative of the people.

So is Ammar catering to public opinion? It could be that simple.

He might be making these remarks as part of the continued break with the United States government that's been going on, rather publicly, for over three years now (most publicly when he told Brett McGurk that Iraq did not need US troops) -- and with little comment from the press or so-called 'analysts.'

He was seen as friendly to the US government and there was a faction of the US government that long flirted with the thought of him as prime minister and insisted that he could unify Iraq. After the US installed Hayder al-Abadi as prime minister, Ammar's public remarks regarding US forces, the US occupation and the US government became increasingly more harsh.

So is this Ammar venting? Is this disappointment and/or sour grapes?

Possibly.

It's also true that former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki is positioning himself for a comeback. He's leading a campaign against the current prime minister, he's rallying support within Iraq as well as outside of Iraq in an attempt to reclaim the office of prime minister.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi is proving to be very ineffective. He's showing no ability to govern. He can't even fill his Cabinet. Had the Iraqi Constitution been followed, he wouldn't be prime minister right now. The way it is supposed to work -- but never has -- is that you are named prime minister-designate and you have 30 days to then form a Cabinet. That's all you have to do to move from prime minister-designate to prime minister.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi was named prime minister-designate and then, despite failing to form a Cabinet (a partial Cabinet is not what the Constitution meant), he was named prime minister at the end of October.

We're five months later and he still doesn't have a full Cabinet.

Have you noticed the silence in the media on that?

Wonder why?

They can't sell war and be honest. That's always been the problem with Iraq. They had to lie to start the war, they had to lie to continue it.

Right now various US officials and analysts are insisting that the US must remain in Iraq because? ISIS. If defeating ISIS is so damn important, why are the security positions in the Iraqi government still not filled? Mahdi has no Minister of Interior (over the security forces) and he has no Minister of Defense (over the military).

If defeating ISIS is so damn important that US forces have to remain on the ground in Iraq and in the air dropping bombs, why is that their prime minister, five months in, still can't get a Minister of Defense or a Minister of Interior?

Adil Abdul-Mahdi is ineffectual. Nouri thinks he can sweep back in. Maybe he can. Maybe anyone could? Possibly Ammar's statements are positioning himself to step in?

That would explain this.

Hayder al-Khoei‏Verified account @Hayder_alKhoei 17 hours ago

Iraqi complains about a shameful political stunt disguised as religious tourism. Free bus service is offered to people to visit the Kadhimiya shrine in Baghdad. Mid-way through the journey, Hikma party flags are displayed & they’re taken to attend a speech by Ammar al-Hakim.

6 replies22 retweets27 likes

And earlier this week, Ammar noted that Mahdi still didn't have a full Cabinet (while insisting it would no doubt happen "in weeks") and that summer was approaching and would be the first real test for Mahdi as Iraq waits to see if he can provide "electricity and water."

Water? For years, we've been told that the dam in Mosul could collapse at any time and kill millions. When ISIS occupied Mosul, the fear was especially paraded by the press.

Did all that attention on only one dam obscure a larger problem?

Iraqi Spring Media Center

5 hrs

The warnings of the collapse of the dam "Abu Al-Flyn" in Hor Al-Huweiza - north of Basra - are still ongoing and sources confirm that it will destroy "25" thousand acres of land planted with wheat.

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Marianne Williamson discusses our food issues

Marianne Williamson is seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Below she discusses the issues regarding our food supply:

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY FOR FOOD SAFETY

Over the past century, the advent of modern farming techniques, the corporatization of agriculture, the use of petrochemical-based fertilizers, and the subsidizing and encouragement of the growth of genetically modified foods have collectively created a poisonous brew that is now affecting our health and well-being in critical ways.

The function of protecting America’s food supply was given in 1930 to an agency called The Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most of us have grown up believing the FDA to be a watchdog on the look-out for threats to our health and well-being.

It’s not.

In fact, the deregulatory trend that began in the 1980s as a financial boon to corporations has resulted in what is now a drastically underfunded and under-resourced FDA. More significantly, it has been turned into a toothless tiger with drastically diminished authority to actually put a stop to the kinds of abuses our government should be protecting us from.

A way-too-cozy relationship between the US government and its corporate benefactors has become the order of the day. In what is commonly called a “revolving door” practice, former corporate leaders now routinely move into positions of governmental authority.

Sources of corruption in our food include the following:

Excessive pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Air and water pollution
Crowding of animals – chickens, cows, pigs – and feeding them antibiotics and growth hormones
Food processing
Weak monitoring of and enforcement relating to food borne pathogens
Outdated food pyramid guidelines.

THE CORRUPTION OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY

Many of our health problems, including obesity, can be traced to the corruption of our food supply. We experience a lack of vitality in our food and, thus, our bodies, from processed foods with poor quality calories, weak in nutrients, containing residue of poisons from chemical farming.

We heavily subsidize unhealthy mass-produced foods like corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, when we need to be supporting the production of healthy, whole foods, making them more affordable and available. We must also update our nation's outdated nutrition guidelines and our food pyramid, which have not caught up to the science of what constitutes healthy food.

While its manufacturers claim that GMOs increase yield and, thus, help feed the starving of the world, scientists question whether that assertion is true. In fact, GMOs contaminate our gene pool, can be poisonous to birds and other living things, and have led to the production of increasingly dangerous herbicides such as Roundup.

Roundup is linked with sterility, hormone disruption, birth defects and cancer. It has been shown to cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic deaths and endocrine disruption, and organ damage in animals even in very low doses.

Due to these and other concerns, over 39 (as of 2016) countries have banned the production of genetically modified foods. Yet the United States, one of only 26 countries that grow GMO crops, has over 180 million acres of GMO crops under cultivation. More than 70% of all U.S. cropland is already planted with GMO crops, and 70% - 80% of all foods sold in the US now contain GMOs – especially processed and non-organic foods.

We should at least know when we are eating food made from GMOs. While the Big 6 pesticide makers – particularly Monsanto and Dupont – spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat GMO labeling propositions in both California and Washington State, as president I would seek to limit their power. I would work to label all GMOs, and to strengthen consumer protection by the FDA and USDA.

FOOD SAFETY DURING A WILLIAMSON PRESIDENCY

A Williamson administration will support local, small family farmers and ranchers far more than we currently do. They have been especially hard hit by the current administration's trade policies, as well as by the impacts of climate change. My presidency will support regenerative, sustainable agricultural practices that not only have highly profitable yields, but can also help turn the tide on climate change.

Once again, until we have limited the influence of moneyed interests on the functioning of our government, we will always be fighting for the interests of the American people against encroachment by huge multinational corporate interests such as Big Ag, Chemical companies and so forth.

We are no longer a functioning democracy when money gets to talk more than we do.

Republicans in Washington are also currently trying to rid the United States of food stamp programs. For many of our children, our disabled, our elderly, and even members of our military, food stamps make a daily difference in their lives. The idea of stealing from the poor in order to make it easier for the rich is not, in my mind, the way to cut America’s deficit. A moral deficit is as serious as a financial one.

Furthermore, the mistreatment of animals is damaging to the American soul. As custodians of this planet, we are intended to care for the animals that share the land with us. The meat and dairy industry needs to better take into account the treatment of animals. We need to find a way to better respect animals, and stop what in some cases is inhumane treatment—all the while, supporting our farmers and ranchers, financially and otherwise, to help make it so. Each of us must examine, carefully and soulfully, how our dietary choices not only affect our bodies and our planet, but how they literally affect the animals, themselves.