Free Iraq

... "As American soldiers attempted to tow a Humvee hit by a fake roadside bomb, Saleh Thanon, an Iraqi national, taunted them with insults.
"Criminal, get out of my country!" Thanon yelled in Arabic, heckling the troops in a mock Iraqi village. "I don't want you in my country. You're killing people."
Harsh words for someone who professes to love America, but Thanon is just doing his job. He's training troops for Iraq, and he wants them to be ready."

Iraqis Teaching U.S. Troops Its Culture December 28, 2004

Alawi, Chalabi and their ilk are not different, except for one thing.
Their pay is a lot more.

(1) - "There was no Phase IV plan" for occupying Iraq after the combat phase, writes Maj. Isaiah Wilson III, who served as an official historian of the campaign and later as a war planner in Iraq. ... Plainly stated, the 'western coalition' failed, and continues to fail, to see Operation Iraqi Freedom in its fullness," he asserts.
"Reluctance in even defining the situation . . . is perhaps the most telling indicator of a collective cognitive dissidence on part of the U.S. Army to recognize a war of rebellion, a people's war, even when they were fighting it," he comments. Because of this failure, Wilson concludes, the U.S. military remains "perhaps in peril of losing the 'war,' even after supposedly winning it."

(2) - "As in most insurgencies," writes Cordesman, " 'sympathizers' within the Iraqi government and Iraqi forces, as well as the Iraqis working for the coalition, media and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], often provide excellent human intelligence without violently taking part in the insurgency... U.S. intelligence is optimized around characterizing, counting and targeting things rather than people," Cordesman says.
... He finds that there are "serious quality and loyalty problems" among the Iraqi informants.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said to reporters on Wednesday (Dec 22, 2004): "The enemy's got a brain. . . . As things happen on the ground, they see what we do to respond to it. They then change their tactics."

Psst !! The Iraqis are fiercely nationalistic, and patriotic.

That is where the 'brain' of the occupiers' 'Intelligence experts' and 'war historian' gurus fails them, as their 'gap' is the fact that they do not have the courage or reality-check to spell it out fully.

How generous and thoughtful of Rumsfeld to nod to this unconquerable force and to point the way out for the Iraqis:

(3) - In his Christmas eve encounters with U.S. military commanders and hundreds of their troops, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld heard - and said - little about armor or troop shortages, issues that have made him a political target in Washington among both Democrats and Republicans. His main message over a four-city tour was quite different: that the insurgency has staying power and a seemingly endless supply of weapons, and the time has come for ordinary Iraqis to realize that they - not the Americans - will ultimately decide who prevails in this conflict.

The Iraqis have already decided and they have prevailed.
They are waiting for you to leave, ASAP.
Then we can start talking about compensations and reparations for the damage that this illegal occupation have inflicted upon Iraq and the Iraqi people.
=====

(1) An Intelligence Gap Hinders U.S. in Iraq Decemebr 24, 2004
(2) Army Historian Cites Lack of Postwar Plan December 25, 2004
(3) Rumsfeld: Iraqis Must Defeat Insurgency December 25, 2004

The deep 'gap'

(1) - "During a visit here this week, officials of the U.S.-backed administration detailed some of the economic moves planned for Iraq, many of them appearing to give U.S. corporations greater reach into the occupied nation's economy. For example, the current leadership is looking at privatising the Iraqi National Oil Company, said Finance Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi. The government, which is supposed to be replaced after elections scheduled for January, will also pass a new law that will further open Iraq's huge oil reserves to foreign companies. U.S. firms are expected to gain the lion's share of access in a process estimated to be worth billions of dollars. "So I think this is very promising to the American investors and to American enterprises, certainly to oil companies," Abdel Mahdi said at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Tuesday."

(2) - "Gaining control over oil is crucial to extending U.S. power, and will be even more so in the coming years as the world's easily-accessible oil reserves are depleted, creating ever fiercer competition for what remains. All this will make controlling the Middle East that much more crucial. Or, as Cheney put it in a speech to the London Institute of Petroleum in 1999, when he was CEO of oil giant Halliburton: "The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies." ....
Now that he's vice-president, Cheney no longer talks about the Middle East as "the prize." He talks about it as the place terrorism must be confronted."

(3) - U.S. management of the Iraqi economy was plagued by irregularities, corruption, failures and mishandling of billions of dollars, according to analysts and multiple recent audits. Hundreds of U.S. officials and experts, both from the government and the private sector, still hold prominent positions in Iraqi ministries or are working in advisory roles, and remain the real force behind the country's economic policies. .. The report also points to a disbursement of 1.4 billion dollars, in the CPA's final days, to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance (my italics) under the budget line item "transfer payments." The inspector general says auditors were "unable to obtain further analysis or information regarding the intended utilisation of this budget line item."

Bear in mind that Adil is the 'Minister of Finance' in the 'transitional government' which is primarily charged with preparing for the elections in January (and is supposed to be replaced after that) and is not a legitimate government for dispensing Iraq's oil.

One can reason that his generous promises might be to fulfil the humanitarian duty of the Americans to take hold of the Iraqi oil fields as quickly as possible.

Not for the American's own good, perish the thought, but for the Iraqis' benefit.

In order for the Americans to be able to help the Iraqis after the awful destruction of their country and to allow the Americans to 'do good' in the reconstruction effort and humanitarian aid -- money is needed. Where will it come from? From the Iraqi oil, of course, as it has cost the American taxpayer $150 billion already, just to allow the Iraqis to benefit from their oil.

By the way, where is the money from the sale of Iraqi oil for the past eight months?
====

(1) U.S. to Take Bigger Bite of Iraq's Economic Pie December 23, 2004

(2) History will show U.S. lusted after oil December 26, 2004

(3) Mishandled Money Plagued U.S.-Ruled Iraq December 27, 2004

The stained handshake of Adil Abdel Mahdi
will not wash away easily ..since it is ... Oil-for-Blood

One wise man

"The idea of democracy taking hold in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction is such a hopeful moment in the history of the world." President Bush.

Bush sees hope in Iraqi election. He says Mosul carnage doesn't outweigh prospect
December 22, 2004

The Resistance have withdrawn from Fallujah after three months of fighting. January 23, 2005 (In Arabic).

The news item in English:

Resistance Proclaims Victory In Fallujah, Fighters Allocated To New Locations January 24, 2005

(1) - "Not only has Fallujah not been taken, but the coalition forces have staged several retreats and are now confined largely to the outside of the city. The Iraqi resistance is currently in control of most of the city and have forced back at least three of the largest armored assaults in recent history".
"A "Great Victory" like this and no footage? There are no satellite pictures of Fallujah available in the public domain after November 15th. The mightiest military machine ever in world history with the mightiest firepower the world has ever seen has been mightily trying to capture Fallujah. But no luck so far. Instead the Americans faced an opposition that broke the back of the assault. Instead of "breaking bone by bone" and crushing "the backbone of the insurgents", it seems to appear that the same has been done unto them as they were planning to do unto the resistance... Raw unopposed firepower has reached its limits. Never have so few battled against so many in face of overwhelming odds and brought a superpower to its knees. And the nightmare continues".

In Fallujah, the mightiest military machine in history has met its match.
December 22, 2004

(2) - "A high-ranking official in the Allawi “national guard” in Abu Ghurayb, Isma‘il Fayyad, told a correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam, “we made a big mistake when we told the [refugee] families that they would be returning [to al-Fallujah] and that they could go home. I think now that the battle has begun all over again in al-Fallujah, or that history has taken us back to the first day of the battle once again.” Fayyad added, “they [i.e., the Resistance] are like water, as soon as you grab hold of them, they slip from your hands.”

US Drops More Cluster Bombs On Fallujah Wednesday December 23, 2004

More news on Fallujah are to come.

AXUS

(1) - "We have no front lines. The front line can be the dining hall; it can be the road outside the base; it can be the police station or the governor's office or the mayor's office down at Mosul," Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday during a Pentagon briefing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "That's their territory."

Psst !! It is our Country.
And you do not, and will not, fit in a square inch of it.

"Not all Iraqis are bad guys, but some of them are," said Chapa, adding that he would prefer (my italics) to have no locals working on the base. "Having cheap labor isn't worth endangering people's lives, especially when we can do the jobs ourselves."

We would prefer that you try the United States of America, for better services.

Tightest Security Has Holes December 23, 2004

(2) - "The Iraq Liberation Act, voted in Congress in November 1998 and hence set as part of U.S. law, clearly stated (my italics) that the pursuit of democracy was a primary motive for regime change in Iraq."
"The war of liberation in the spring of 2003 was understood by the majority of Iraqis, yearning to be rid of the yoke of Saddam's tyranny, as liberation. Doubt and distrust set in when liberation became occupation."

This an excerpt from an article by Ahmad Chalabi published in the Wall Street Journal.

The Future Iraq Deserves December 23, 2004
(However, do not bother clicking it, unless you want to pay, money that is).

Ahmad has already been paid, otherwise.

If Ahmad's total allegiance to an American Law, pushed through by his neoconservative friends, did not allow for his own "doubt and distrust", before and after the death of 100,000 Iraqis and the maiming, burning, cluster-bombing and depleted uranium contamination of hundreds of thousands other Iraqis, then he has precious little bit of an Iraqi left in him.

Notwithstanding his own sizable contribution to the 'clarity' of the alleged weapons of mass destruction (تقرير باللغة العربية - an article in Arabic) in 'the pursuit of democracy' and the illegal occupation of Iraq.

Feel at home?

(1) - "The US state department has launched a $10m "Iraqi women's democracy initiative" to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. Paula Dobriansky, US undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared:"We will give Iraqi women the tools, information and experience they need to run for office and lobby for fair treatment." The fact that the money will go mainly to organisations embedded with the US administration, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) founded by Dick Cheney's wife Lynn, was, of course, not mentioned.
Women were involved in the 1920 revolution against British occupation, including in fighting. In the 50s, political parties established women's organisations. All reflected the same principle: fighting alongside men, women were also liberating themselves. That was proven in the aftermath of the 1958 revolution ending the British-imposed monarchy when women's organisations achieved within two years what over 30 years of British occupation failed to: legal equality. This process led Unicef to report in 1993: "Rarely do women in the Arab world enjoy as much power as they do in Iraq ... men and women must receive equal pay for equal work. A wife's income is recognised as independent from her husband's. In 1974, education was made free at all levels, and in 1979 it was made compulsory for girls and boys until the age of 12." By the early 90s, Iraq had one of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world. There were more professional women in positions of power than in almost any other Middle Eastern nation."
Tony Blair, acknowledged yesterday in Baghdad that violence would continue both before and after the January 30 elections, but added: "On the other hand we will have a very clear expression of democratic will." Does he not know that "democracy" is what Iraqi women use nowadays to frighten their naughty children, by shouting: "Quiet, or I'll call democracy."

Quiet, or I'll call democracy December 22, 2004

(2) - I have been waiting for a few days (this news item was posted in Arabic on December 18, 2004) for the confirmation of the attack on the prison of Abu Ghraib, as per the below news item, before posting it now:

"At approximately 12:25pm on Saturday, resistance fighters waged an unprecedented assault on the Abu Ghraib prison camp south of Baghdad. The assault was sparked by a letter from a female prisoner named Fatima that fueled some Muslim fighters into action.Fatima’s letter, a hand written document, was recently smuggled out of Abu Ghraib. Fatima is the sister of one of the celebrated Resistance fighters in the area. US occupation forces raided his house some time back but failed to find him, so they took his sister prisoner in an attempt to force him to give himself up".

Abu Ghraib Prison Attacked In Response To “Fatima’s Letter” December 22, 2004

(3) Meanwhile in Mosul, Iraqi sources had confirmed immediately after the attack on the Al-Ghizlani military camp in Mosul that a suicide bomber had carried out the operation, and that it was not a 122mm mortar shell as claimed by US military authorities. This is now indeed confirmed:

U.S. General Says Mosul Blast Appears to be Suicide Bomb December 22, 2004

I still await confirmation of "Fatima's Letter".

Why are you doing this?

Attorneys for a U.S.-based security company accused of setting up sham companies in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme in Iraq are contending in court that the company cannot be sued under a key federal anti-corruption law because the allegedly stolen money belonged to Iraqis, not Americans. The potentially precedent-setting case could undercut fraud claims involving billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts that were issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and paid for with money belonging to the Iraqi people. Arguments broke out in federal court Friday over two fundamental questions: whether the CPA, which ruled occupied Iraq, can be considered a U.S. agency, and whether fraud involving Iraqi money can be subject to suits under the False Claims Act, considered one of the federal government's most important tools against fraud.

Contractor Argues U.S. Fraud Law Does Not Cover Iraqi Funds December 19, 2004

Can the CPA, which ruled occupied Iraq, be considered a U.S. agency? ...
Now let me think hard about that ! ......
Where did you say all the billions of bilked dollars went ? .. To the Coalition of the Willing banks?

Improvised by a UK pro-Palestinian Christian group:

Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, God Rest You People of Iraq, Silent Night,
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Hans, Hans Blix reporting back

كيف ينتفع العراقيون من حكم المحكمة العليا في لندن في قضية بهاء موسى؟
لقد فتح حكم المحكمة العليا في المراجعة القانونية في قضية بهاء موسى الباب أمام عدة دعاوى بفرص نجاح عالية ، نلخصها أدناه
يمكن لأهل أي شخص توفي وهو في أيدي القوات البريطانية أن يتقدم بدعوى تعويض بموجب الميثاق.
يمكن لأي ضحية تعذيب على يد القوات البريطانية أن يتقدم بدعوة تعويض بموجب الميثاق.
يمكن لأي محتجز ، أو أهله في حالة عدم تمكنه ، أن يتقدم بدعوى ضد حجزه غير القانوني دون توجيه تهمة أو محاكمة عاجلة وفق الميثاق.
يمكن لأهل أي محتجز رفع دعوى تسمى "إحضار الجثة" لمطالبة الحكومة البريطانية بإحضار جثة المحجوز حيا أو ميتا أمام القاضي الإنكليزي وإلزام الحكومة البريطانية إما بإطلاق سراح المحتجز أو توجيه تهمة له.
إن هذه الدعوى ، أي دعوى إحضار الجثة ، هي واحدة من أنجع السبل التي حفظها القانون الإنكليزي من القرون الوسطى لتحجيم إستبداد الدولة ضد المواطن وهي من أهم السبل التي أدعو العراقيين لتبنيه

تحذير و نداء لأهل الفلوجة الصابرين
أعلن قادة الإحتلال أنهم سيقومون بما يلي في الفلوجة
أخذ بصمات أصابع كل مواطن بغض النظر عن النوع والعمر
-أخذ مسح لعين كل مواطن فلوجي
منح كل مواطن بطاقة يجب عليه أو عليها حملها طيلة الوقت ومن يقبض عليه بدونها يودع السجن فورا. وقد يطلب منه تعليقها في مكان بارز من الجسم
تكليف المواطنين من الذكور البالغين القيام بعمليات رفع أنقاض الخراب الذي أوقعه العدوان على المدينة
.....
رغم أني أجد من العسير علي أن أطلب من أهل الفلوجة شيئا بعد كل الذي قدموه للعراق والعرب إلا أني أجدني مضطرا أن أقترح على أهلي في الفوجة أمرين لمواجهة مشروع الذل والتسخير الذي يعد لهم
أن يرفض أهل الفلوجة بالإجماع القيام بأي عمل لصالح قوات الإحتلال أو الحكومة المؤقتة
أن يتفق أهل الفلوجة على تحديد يوم يقوم الجميع فيه بإحراق البطاقات التي تمنح لهم ولتقم قوات الإحتلال بإعتقال كل سكان الفلوجة أو لتبني سورا حول المدينة إذا لم تكن قد فعلت ذلك. إن الحرق الجماعي لبطاقات الهوية الشخصية التي يمنحها المحتل هو إجراء ضمن القانون الدولي لسكان الأرض المحتلة كما أنه الرد العملي الوحيد على عملية الإذلال الجماعي لأهل المدينة

(1) - Each week in Baghdad, sermons to the faithful offer a tale of two Fridays. Both sermons -- one Sunni, the other Shiite -- dwell on the issues that color Baghdad's weary life: the insurgency, elections planned for next month and the U.S. military presence. But the messages are so diametrically opposed as to speak to two realities and two futures for the country.
"The United States of America has built its glory upon the blood of innocents and portrays itself through the media as the bringer of peace and sermon," a preacher said last month at [the Sunni] Um al-Qura mosque. "This war has uncovered the true face of the United States." The preacher offered a record of the U.S. experience in Iraq: the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the death of civilians in American attacks, the arrest of Sunni clerics, the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the illegality of the U.S. invasion. During his sermon, an explosion echoed from the distance, drawing cries from the crowd. "God is greatest!" they shouted. "We have grown to hate the words of freedom and democracy because of them," he told the worshipers, on a green carpet bordered with red flowers. "Could we be so ignorant as to believe that they want our interests after all this oppression?""These elections are nothing more than a show in an attempt to fool us," he added.

The criticism of the insurgency is a preamble to the real issue at hand for Iraq's Shiites: elections on Jan. 30, which will choose a 275-member parliament that will oversee the writing of a constitution. Banners along the mosque's entrance portray the vote as a decisive moment in the community's history. "Participating in elections is a religious, national and moral duty." Or, more directly: "The enemy of Iraq is the enemy of democracy, justice and elections."

Someone cried out from among the crowd. "Keep talking," he shouted. "But words are of no use."

(2) - "The elections in January are the beginning of a process and it is important for the American people to understand that," [Bush] said. Critics have raised questions about whether enough U.S. troops are in Iraq to bring security for the elections. More than 1,300 American troops have died since the war began in March 2003. Also, soldiers have complained about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment. Bush said "I would call the results mixed" on a U.S. effort to put Iraqi security in the hands of its own people. "There have been some cases where, when the heat got on, they left the battlefield — that is unacceptable," he said. "... We are under no illusion that this Iraqi force is not ready to fight in toto."
===

Was that a Bushite slip or should that last sentence read: "We are under the illusion that this Iraqi force is ready to fight in mono".

The Americans' illegal occupation and compounding of errors have changed the base of Iraqi politics into a religious one, not the least of which, their stubborn clinging to 'elections in January' as a face saving prelude to extricate themselves from the quagmire that they are mired in.

Modern Iraq never had any religious-political dynamic to it's internal politics until now, and as the saying goes, you haven't seen anything yet as a result of the rising tempo of religious fundamentalism, on all sides. This model of 'democracy', built along religious fault lines, is conspicuously absent in the United States itself, yet it deems it fit to be forced down the throats of Iraqis, with cognizance to the neoconservatives and Israeli sympathizers in Washington.

Religious hardliners are the only real political forces in Iraq now, which is a very dangerous omen for the future. The Americans can say all they want about building a democracy, but the fact is there is no democratic civil society being created in Iraq as a result of their brutal involvement and their destruction of Iraq's infrastructure. If anything, the factions that they are sparking are destroying what civil society there was to build on.
===

(1) In Iraq: One Religion, Two Realities December 20, 2004

(2) Bush: Iraqi troops not ready for security duties December 20, 2004

To do list

When he can easily ....

(1) - The chilling reality of what Falluja has become is only now seeping out, as the American military continues to block almost all access to the city, whether to reporters, its former residents, or aid groups like the Red Crescent Society.
American desperation is expressed in a willingness to treat all Fallujans as part of the insurgency - the inevitable fate of an occupying army that tries to "root out" a popular resistance (my italics). As General Sattler explains, speaking of the plan for the "repopulation" of the city, "Once we've cleared each and every house in a sector, then the Iraqi government will make the notification of residents of that particular sector that they are encouraged to return." In other words, each section of the city must be entirely emptied of life, so that the military can be sure not even one suspect insurgent has infiltrated the new order.
Entry and exit from the city will be restricted. According to General Sattler, only five roads into the city will remain open. The rest will be blocked by "sand berms" - read, mountains of earth that will make them impassible.
- Fallujans are to wear their high-tech universal identity cards in plain sight at all times.
- No private automobiles will be allowed inside the city.. the returning residents will be forced to park their cars outside the city and will bused to their homes.
- Only those Fallujans cleared through American intelligence vettings will be allowed to work on the reconstruction of the city … and organized into "work brigades."

(2) - So this is the point to which these American Bringers-Of-Democracy have been driven to? Where can we find a parallel for the kind of social organization they are planning? In German history, the concentration camp. In U.S. history, the relocation centers of World War II. In Russian history, the gulag.

(3) - "Since November's assault on Fallujah, no local leader has stood up as a go-between," between US forces and the local population, said Lieutenant Colonel Justin Gubler, who commands the battalion and half the city. The reason is simple: "They are scared. Their fear is that they will help, then we will leave, and then the insurgents will kill them," said Gubler. "Everything we use... is brought from the outside, and we burn all our trash," said Snook. Even shower water is brought in, and drinking water comes all the way from Saudi Arabia. Electricity comes from generators.

Why don't they start digging some oil wells? for their generators, that is.
Don't fret. January elections are near.

====
(1) America's Sinister Plan for Falluja December 16, 2004
Red Cross neutrality jeopardised by US action in Iraq, British chief says December 15, 2004
(2) Fallujah Gulag December 13, 2004
(3) US battalion condemned to isolation in Ramadi December 13, 2004

"U.S. military officials conceded that, far from broken, the insurgents are actually getting better at devising new, more efficient methods of killing. "A very, very sophisticated enemy - an enemy that does not have a conscience (my italics)," says Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes, deputy commander for operations of the Third Infantry Division.
Their most lethal weapons are still suicide car bombs or IEDs - improvised explosive devices - planted in the road. But the bombs are now much bigger, and the insurgents are constantly changing triggering devices to thwart any U.S. countermeasures.
"They may use doorbells today to blow things up," says Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. "They may have remote controls from toys tomorrow. And as we adapt, they adapt."

Iraqi Insurgents Changing Tactics Effectively December 15, 2004

If the occupiers offer an exchange, perhaps the Resistance might trade their doorbells and toy remotes for the occupier's ‘conscience’-laden:
- cluster bombs,
- napalm (they changed its name to Mark 77 firebombs, out of courtesy, since napalm was internationally banned in the last decade),
- and chemical munitions
all of which the Americans have recently used in Fallujah against the Resistance fighters and the remaining civilians alike, as these weapons do not distinguish 'conscienstiously' between the two.

By the way, reports from un-embedded 'journalists' near Fallujah (the occupier still does not allow journalists, embedded or otherwise, inside the city - have you heard any news from inside Fallujah recently?) indicate that intense battles have taken place in Fallujah over the past few days. News of the aftermath will be filtering out soon, and they will be not pleasing to the occupier.

In the menantime, this is a conscientious item from a nearby town:

Fresh Mass Grave Found After US Vacates Base In Al-Hadithah December 16, 2004

... the flaming Rainbow !

"Through last week, 27 (American) women had been killed in Iraq and five in Afghanistan.
Women driving a truck in Iraq or walking a beat as a military policewoman in "support" units in Iraq have instantly taken up the role of the combat grunt, engaging in running firefights with hit-and-run insurgents.
"I think what changed is that Iraq is different," said Army airborne Capt. Kellie McCoy…"Our doctrine [on women in combat] was suited for wars with front lines," McCoy said. "In Iraq, the front line is everywhere. Once you leave the [base] camp, you're on the front line," she said….
"In Vietnam, we were restricted on where we could go, we didn't go out on convoys," said Vaught, a Vietnam vet and president of the WIMSA Foundation. "More than ever before, the military is accepting that women are there to do a job," Vaught said. "If the job takes them in harm's way, well, that's the way it is."

The women of war December 14, 2004

"War's good for business. Invest your son** today!"
(Vietnam-era protest sign slogan)

** But now it can be your daughter who gets paid for killing savagely, or torturing people in prisons, in far-off parts of the world, and who in turn gets killed at the first opportunity, too.

The schizophrenia of the “American Way of Life”: Preach peace and democracy but rooted in genocide and violence on a subliminal level.

Going to (Liberate) others

(1) - The Bush administration plans to ask for between $80 billion and $100 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, rather than the $70 billion to $75 billion.
But some analysts and government officials said the request is expected to run as high as $100 billion, bringing the total cost of operations in Iraq alone to well over $200 billion since the March 2003 invasion. The Iraq operation, he said, has "been running over a billion a week thus far. I think we're probably getting up to $2 billion a week fairly soon."

(2) - Air Force Lieutenant General Lance Smith, deputy chief of US Central Command, said on Wednesday that a bold, innovative "insurgency" is becoming more effective against US supply lines in Iraq and explosive attacks have slowed military operations there. "They cause us to re-route vehicles. They cause us to have to employ tactics... in avoiding them. And [they] cause us to have to convoy where maybe otherwise we would prefer to move in smaller numbers," Smith said. "So it is having an impact." The commander of the US Air Force announced on Tuesday that the military in Iraq had begun using C-130 military cargo aircraft to ferry some food and equipment high above dangerous roadways in order to relieve pressure on ground convoys.

The occupation of Iraq is costing the American tax payer 1 billion dollars a week and going up to 2 billion a week with the start of the airlift of supplies to US military units in Iraq.

Is that why there is a 25% increase in the ‘funding request’?

By the way, just who is encircling who in Iraq?

====
(1) - War Funding [new] Request May Hit $100 Billion December 15, 2004

(2) - Anti-US attacks in Iraq 'more effective' December 16, 2004

Exit - if and while you can

“In the wake of the Iraq intervention, Washington continues to retreat and retrench…
In most international meetings, a consensus is reached in advance so that conflicts will not be highlighted under the glare of publicity. Washington's loss of leadership is indicated by the fact that the meetings in which it participated during the week of December 5 were marked by clear public opposition to its policies…
These instances include: E.U. weapons sales to China, the South American Community of Nations, U.S.-India military cooperation, the N.A.T.O. training mission in Iraq, Middle Eastern reform versus Palestinian peace, and the confrontation between the U.S. and Russia at the O.S.C.E."

''Testing the Currents of Multipolarity'' December 15, 2004

The drag and the quicksand of Iraq.

(1) - United States Senators, led by the Republican Norm Coleman, have launched a crusade of sorts, seeking to "expose" the oil-for-food programme implemented by the United Nations from 1996 until 2003 as the "greatest scandal in the history of the UN". But this posturing is nothing more than a hypocritical charade, designed to shift attention away from the debacle of George Bush's self-made quagmire in Iraq, and legitimise the invasion of Iraq by using Iraqi corruption, and not the now-missing weapons of mass destruction, as the excuse. .. The oil-for-food programme was never a sincere humanitarian relief effort, but rather a politically motivated device designed to implement the true policy of the United States - regime change.

(2) - Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein. Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said. .. Investigators say they have received information that Rich and Ben Pollner, a New York-based oil trader who heads Taurus Oil, set up a series of companies in Liechtenstein and other countries that they used to put together deals between Saddam and his international supporters in the controversial oil-voucher scheme.… In January 2001, in the final hours his presidency, Clinton bypassed law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to wipe the books clean for Rich after being subjected to intense lobbying from former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Rich's jet-setting ex-wife, Denise, who donated more than $1 million to Democratic campaigns — including Sen. Hillary Rodham's first Senate race — along with an additional $450,000 to Clinton's library fund.

And who is in charge of the money from the Iraqi oil sales since the US gift of Iraqi 'sovereignty'?

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(1) - The Oil-For-Food 'Scandal' is a Cynical Smokescreen. December 12, 2004
Scott Ritter

(2) - City, Fed Probes Eye Pardongate Billionaire As A 'Major Player' In Saddam's Scam. December 13, 2004

The Land of Two Rivers ........ ما تبقـّى ما بيـنَ النهـرين

(1) - "While insurgents draw on deep wells of fury to expand their ranks in Iraq, the US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops…..” Forty per cent of the 138,000 troops in Iraq are part-timers who never expected to be sent to the front line.”… "This is something that the President and the country should be worried about".

(2) - "The Pentagon says more than 5,500 servicemen have deserted since the war started in Iraq. 60 Minutes Wednesday found several of these deserters who left the Army or Marine Corps rather than go to Iraq. Like a generation of deserters before them, they fled to Canada".

(3) - "Security jobs paying up to $216,000 a year in Iraq are proving too strong a lure for New Zealand soldiers". Defence chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson said on Thursday that almost a quarter of army staff with less than six years experience had left to become contractors in the Middle East. "They said they were leaving because "they wanted the challenge and excitement" of using their training. "They're leaving because they're getting $200,000 and $300,000 a year to go across and be security guards [in Iraq].

(4) - SAN SALVADOR -- Juan Nerio, a 44-year-old mason's assistant, was sick of living in a mud hut on the side of a volcano. When he heard that an American company was offering six times his $200 monthly wage, he signed up. Six weeks later he found himself holding an AK-47 assault rifle and guarding a U.S. diplomatic complex in Iraq."No one could possibly earn so much in our country," said Nerio, who returned to El Salvador two weeks ago after a hernia forced him to reluctantly give up his $1,240-a-month job in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

(5) - "Contract killers are being offered as little as $US50 ($AUS67) to hunt down coalition troops - including Australians - in Iraq. The mercenaries are being wooed from poor neighbouring countries in the Middle East with the promise of cash payments for every Western soldier killed. Iraqi insurgents were turning to hired assassins to do their dirty work. "We are seeing zealots brought in from outside Iraq and paid $US50 for contract killings. These forces are a general threat to the coalition."

Being a bit callous here, but in keeping with Rumsfeld's cold-blooded calculations, who is the more "money worth"? Pay $200,000 to get a $50, or pay $50 to get a $200,000?

See also "U.S. troops marveled at the tenacity of insurgents in a cat-and-mouse pursuit in Fallujah" posting of December 8, 2004 below.

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(1) U.S. Army Plagued by Desertion and Plunging Morale. December 10, 2004

(2) - 5,500 servicemen have deserted since the war.
Deserters: We Won't Go To Iraq December 8, 2004

(3) - Huge pay drawing NZ soldiers to Iraq. December 2, 2004

(4) - Poor Salvadorans Chase the 'Iraqi Dream'. December 9, 2004

(5) - Contract killers hired in Iraq. December 12, 2004

(1) - "We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who denounce them? In Iraq, these voices are being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained physical attacks. The US Government and its Iraqi surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One is against the Iraqi people, and the other is on witnesses.

(2) - "I think we wounded a couple and they took off that way," he said, as another marine pulled his quarry onto a ridge, its bloodied head rolling side to side in the dust.

They Shoot 'Doves', Don't They?
aka
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

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(1) You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is.
In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead. December 3, 2004

(2) Marines hunt down Fallujah's strays to head off rabies threat. December 10, 2004

The Neo-Cowboy Doctrine

(1) - “Three British soldiers and an army interpreter are suing the American military (for $2.3m) after their vehicle was rammed by a US tank transporter in Iraq.”

(2) - “The United Nations has approved payment of $2.9 billion to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for environmental projects to clean up oil lakes and other pollution from Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait”… "The total approved was $2.9 billion. Of that $2.28 billion went to Kuwait and $625 million to Saudi Arabia," plus $188,000 to Iran, said UNCC spokesman Joe Sills after the decision was taken at closed-door talks in Geneva”.

(3) – “In July (2003), United States District Court for the District of Columbia awarded the former prisoners multiple millions of dollars for injury and suffering inflicted by the Republic of Iraq and its intelligence service, at the direction of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
"President Bush continues to urge the American people to be patient while we pay billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq, yet he totally disregards the plight of these ex-POWs who were severely tortured by Saddam Hussein and his minions," Representative Meeks asserted.”....
“Some $1 billion in Iraqi funds that have been seized during this war and part of it rightfully belongs to these 17 victims of Iraqi torture.”

(4) - “The value of Halliburton's Iraq contracts has crossed the $10 billion threshold. Halliburton has now received $8.3 billion in Iraq work under its LOGCAP troop support contract and $2.5 billion under its no-bid Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO) contract, a total of $10.8 billion.
The mounting value of the contracts has been accompanied by a growing list of concerns about Halliburton's performance. Over the last year, government auditors have issued at least nine reports criticizing Halliburton's Iraq work, and there are multiple criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks involving Halliburton's contracts. Former Halliburton employees have testified before Congress about egregious instances of over billing. Despite these concerns, the Bush Administration continues to reject the recommendations of its auditors that 15% of Halliburton's LOGCAP reimbursements be withheld until the company can provide better substantiation for its charges…Instead of following the advice of these independent auditors, the Army has refused to withhold payments for the last eight months. To the contrary, the Army has given Halliburton multiple extensions to provide the adequate cost estimates and supporting data needed to finalize the terms of the contract."

How much will the Iraqi people sue the illegal occupiers for tank ‘accidents’ (read random shooting of civilians at check points) and ‘torture’ (read Abu Ghraib) and ‘environmental damage’ (read Depleted Uranium) and outright robbery (read does any one know where exactly has the Iraqi oil money been going to for nearly two years?).

An update on Iraq's money:

(5) - Altogether, the CPA spent, or made commitments to spend, nearly $20bn in Iraqi money - a sum greater than the annual gross domestic product of Iraq. Evidence suggests the money was spent in a chaotic and haphazard way and that occupation officials routinely violated CPA procedures.

(6) - A United Nations panel has found that the US-led occupation authority failed to exercise proper controls over Iraq's oil industry and could not say how much oil had gone missing since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board report also said there were "important weaknesses" in the management by occupation officials of up to $20bn in Iraqi funds, mostly from oil sales.

The CPA flew the coup in June 2004.
Who is in charge of Iraqi oil money for the past six months?

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(1) British soldiers sue Pentagon. November 13, 2004

(2) UN clears $2.9b in Gulf War claims. December 9, 2004

(3) Congressman Gregory W. Meeks Sponsors Legislation Compensating 1991 Gulf War POW’s Without Delay. December 2, 2003

(4) Halliburton's Iraq Contracts Now Worth over $10 Billion. December 9, 2004

(5) Big spender: was the US-led coalition a careless steward of $20bn of Iraqi funds? December 10, 2004

(6) US 'failed to control' Iraq oil 15 December, 2004

(1) - Pictures from an 'un-embedded' journalist that you will not see on the 'main stream media' as being 'too graphic', in order to distance your outrage.

(2) U.S. media still hiding bad news from Americans - Dec. 9, 2004

(1) - "He respected the insurgents, he said, for their willingness to fight to the death."

Just how many American soldiers are willing to do that, eh?
Is that why the US needed "Fifteen thousand Americans against 2,000 mujahideen" ? (see next posting below).

A year and a half ago, there were perhaps tens of hundreds of Iraqi Resistance fighters.
Now, there are tens of thousands of them, and growing in numbers, rapidly.
So how many US soldiers will the occupier need?

They are "coming on", to Bush’s bully-like challenge. They are the Resistance!

Get Out !! Iraq is for the Iraqis .... so is their oil.

Hmmm ... On second thought:

Come In !!

Bush is cordially invited to come visit Iraq and show the American people how proud he is of the new "democratic and free" Iraq, after spending $160 billion and counting, 1300 dead and 21,000 wounded US soldiers, and counting. (They have stopped counting wmd).

During his visit to Canada, Bush quipped in a news conference: "I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave — with all five fingers — for, — heh, heh — for their hospitality".

The Iraqis will guarantee the "come on - mission accomplished" pilot peacock a fingered and generous Arab welcome.

(2) - In the meantime: "No number of slaughtered Iraqis will bring peace.".. " Evidence is mounting that America's war in Iraq has killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and perhaps well over 100,000. Yet this carnage is systematically ignored in the United States, where the media and government portray a war in which there are no civilian deaths, because there are no Iraqi civilians, only insurgents. ... American behavior and self-perceptions reveal the ease with which a civilized country can engage in large-scale killing of civilians without public discussion."
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(1) Enemy Gains Some Respect Report From Iraq: Fifth Of Six Parts
(ALL FIVE PARTS ARE WORTH READING - Imad)

(2) Iraq's civilian dead get no hearing in the United States

If this is Liberation, what is an Occupation?

(1) - "He said the United States has failed to get out its message in Iraq, and has not even appeared to want to do so"...."How we can invade a country and eject its government without letting the people who live there know what we were doing and why, is a mystery to me."

(2) - "Iraqis are paying a horrendous price for the good intentions of well-meaning conservatives who wanted to liberate them. And now some well-meaning American liberals are seeking a troop withdrawal that would make matters even worse. Heaven protect Iraq from well-meaning Americans .... Those hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children whose lives we placed at risk by invading their country are the reasons we should remain in Iraq, until we can hand over security to a local force. Saving hundreds of thousands of lives is a worthy cause to risk American lives for, even to die for."

(3) - "Fifteen thousand Americans against 2,000 mujahideen — with their technology and their firepower? They say they were victorious, but what kind of victory was that? We have a principle: defending our country. Why are they coming here? For what?"

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
There will be no purgatory for the US.
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(1) Images of Fighting in Fallujah Compel at Different Levels. - Dec. 5, 2004

(2) Troops must stay to protect Iraqi children. - Dec. 5, 2004
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

(3) Inside Falluja: An insurgent's story - Dec. 5, 2004

Liberation much apprecited

(1) - “I feel hatred. I hurt. This is my city and it has been destroyed,”....“The people of Fallujah are people of revenge. If they don’t get their revenge now, they will next year or even after 50 years. But they will get it.”...“The Americans just don’t get it,” Ibrahim said. “They think that they can use their muscles to subdue the resistance. On the contrary, it will increase.” ....“I think the Americans have incurred a long-term feud with all the major clans of Fallujah,” said Juan Cole, an Iraq expert from the University of Michigan. “I do not believe the Americans will ever have the ‘hearts and minds’ of the people in Anbar. At most, they could crush them militarily.”

(2) - On “the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds”, the report says, “American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended”.

(3) - "the (Australian) Defence Minister could not make it (from the airport) to the centre of the Iraqi capital last Friday."

According to a CNN poll today (Sunday 5, December 2004), 70% of the American people still believe that the occupation forces should not withdraw from Iraq before "security is achieved" there.

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

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(1) Rebuilding Fallujah a big task for Iraqi leaders. - Dec. 5, 2004

(2) US admits the war for ‘hearts and minds’ in Iraq is now lost

(3) Baghdad worse than ever, says Hill - Dec. 6, 2004

Cloning

I received an email from an Iraqi friend on the above subject, part of which stated:

I will vote, as I believe in change..
We have to start somewhere..
We are still below ZERO...
This time the success might be 10%..
Next time it will be 25, then 45, then......
If I do not vote, that means that I will not be helping the process to change..
It will mean that I want to keep the status quo, as is..
It will mean that I will not be able to put my idea through...
Blood will flow....
Damage will carry on, for a long time to come....
It will not be a switch of a button, to make things right....
But at the end of the tunnel, we will have light.....
It is the people who will eventually rule...
We have to start somewhere....
This is as good as any.............
Now if you have a better solution, than democracy, please do let me know...
With Democracy, we will be able to put our say...
Before there was no democracy, however, there was no change....
Bad change has been implemented.....
We are now in the pits...
We are in a disastrous situation....
We need to accept and work with change....
Afterwards, we will CHANGE the change...
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My reply to it was:

Democracy is not a paint job that you apply to a society, especially when it is forced down your throat under a vicious and brutal occupation like the American's.

The immediate task is to force an end to the occupation, by force because that is how the Americans imposed the occupation illegally, and they will not let leave Iraq otherwise (think of oil, the neoconservatives and the impotent UN, notwithstanding Bush).

Then, Iraqis have to teach themselves and breed their own democracy springing from their own mosaic society and values. Democracy in societies grow from within, and is not implanted forcibly. It is a mental awareness and consensus, not a ritual of dropping paper in a box as the Americans want us to believe. Note what is happening in the Ukraine.

By forcing this 'election' down our throat in such an insecure situation, mostly of the American's own doings and mistakes, they are fostering civil strife and conflict and are in fact fracturing Iraq.

The proposed timing of the election is an American self-imposed necessity, and not an Iraqi sensible need, at this particular time.

We should be courageous and aware, not otherwise.

Imad
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A few minutes later, I followed it with the following:

I just saw this:

"Negotiating a consensus Iraqi agreement on the voting-date would do more to advance those interests than sticking to an arbitrary timetable that threatens to produce a dangerously flawed vote."

Guess who is saying that now, after belatedly realizing the extent of their flawed insistence but still do not recognize the sham of it?

The New York times: Saving Iraq's Election

(1) - "It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas," Major General Richard Natonski, who commanded the Fallujah assault and oversees its reconstruction, said of the plans for identity badges and work brigades ... While one senior Marine said he fantasized last month that Allawi would ride a bulldozer into Fallujah, the prime minister has come no closer than the US military base outside the city.

(2) - "Observation balloons fly high in (sic) Iraq" ...."They are on a tether and can be relatively easily moved to any area required," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Jay Antonelli said.

Maybe Allawi is in a balloon over Fallujah?
It is time to aim and cut the tether.

And

As for their "hammering out the details of their paradoxical task", perhaps they should consult their neoconservative Think Tanks (The Ameican Enterprise Institute and The Project for the New American Century ) for a solution to their dilemna. They have provided aplenty before, and landed them in this paradox.

(3) - An Allawi inspired solution to deal with the paradox is: A High-Tech Startegic Hamlet where a database is compiled of civilians' identities through DNA testing and retina scans... Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, ” ‘What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?’ All this Oprah [stuff],” he said.

Assuming at least that they have electricity and running water to run their fancy gizmos before the 'elections'.

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(1) Returning Fallujans will face clampdown - December 5, 2004

(2) Observation balloons fly high in (sic) Iraq - Dec. 3, 2004

(3) Fallujah: Pentagon Plans a High-tech Strategic Hamlet - Dec. 5, 2004

The 'Transmission' (aka Transition) Government