Iraqi people and world conscience
munaeem | 01 February, 2008 03:46
According to press reports a least one million people have been killed so far in Iraq after the US forces invaded to find the weapons of mass destruction. How many more people will be killed before it will be realized that enough is enough. It was claimed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussain could use them against western interests. When nothing was found after hectic search it was shamelessly told that the intelligence reports were deliberately falsified in order to find a pretext to attack Iraq.
Saddam was a despot, he was a cruel leader. I do not deny this. I think he has been outdone in cruelty and tyranny. Innocent people are being killed and their blood does not lie heavy on the world consciene. If only the Muslims could realize that their survival is hidden in thier unity.
Officials report massacre in Diyala
munaeem | 17 July, 2007 13:41
Iraqi officials reported that Sunni extremists massacred dozens of Shiite villagers in the north. Police Col. Ragheb Radhi al-Omairi told AFP that Sunni gunmen raided the village in the night and killed 29 people.
Al-Omairi said he had not seen the bodies and it was unclear whether they had been retrieved.
Who will confirm that this act was committed by Sunni extremists?
The Missing Girls of Iraq
munaeem | 18 May, 2007 10:47
What in the name of democracy, liberty justice and freedom is happening in Iraq? But after all they are Muslims who are trading Muslim women and kids.
Shame on us all.
SHROUDED: Amna, 18, says she was sent to work in brothels in three cities.
YURI KOZYREV FOR TIME
The man on the phone with the 14-year-old Iraqi girl called himself Sa'ad. He was calling long distance from Dubai and telling her wonderful things about the place. He was also about to buy her. Safah, the teenager, was well aware of the impending transaction. In the weeks after she was kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark house in Baghdad's middle-class Karada district, Safah heard her captors haggling with Sa'ad over her price. It was finally settled at $10,000. Staring at a floor strewn with empty whiskey bottles, the orphan listened as Sa'ad described the life awaiting her: a beautiful home, expensive clothes, parties with pop stars. Why, she'd be joining two other very happy teenage Iraqi girls living with Sa'ad in his harem. Safah knew that she was running out of time. A fake passport with her photo and assumed name had already been forged for her. But even if she escaped, she had no family who would take her in. She was even likely to end up in prison. What was she to do? Safah is part of a seldom-discussed aspect of the epidemic of kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. No one knows how many young women have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad, estimates from anecdotal evidence that more than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing in that period. A Western official in Baghdad who monitors the status of women in Iraq thinks that figure may be inflated but admits that sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under Saddam, has become a serious issue. The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to run amuck. Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for these girls. As a result, sex trafficking has been allowed to fester unchecked. "It is a problem, definitely," says the official, who has heard specific reports from Iraqi aid workers about girls being kidnapped and sold to brothels. "Unfortunately, the security situation doesn't allow us to follow up on this." The U.S. State Department's June 2005 trafficking report says the extent of the problem in Iraq is "difficult to appropriately gauge" but cites an unknown number of Iraqi women and girls being sent to Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Persian Gulf countries for sexual exploitation. Statistics are further made murky by tribal tradition. Families are usually so shamed by the disappearance of a daughter that they do not report kidnappings. And the resulting stigma of compromised chastity is such that even if the girl should resurface, she may never be taken back by her relations. A visit to the Khadamiyah Women's Prison in the northern part of Baghdad immediately produces several tales of abduction and abandonment. A stunning 18-year-old nicknamed Amna, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail, says she was taken from an orphanage by an armed gang just after the U.S. invasion and sent to brothels in Samarra, al-Qaim on the border with Syria, and Mosul in the north before she was taken back to Baghdad, drugged with pills, dressed in a suicide belt and sent to bomb a cleric's office in Khadamiyah, where she turned herself in to the police. A judge gave her a seven-year jail sentence "for her sake" to protect her from the gang, according to the prison director. Two other girls, Asmah, 14, and Shadah, 15, were taken all the way to the United Arab Emirates before they could escape their kidnappers and report them to a Dubai police station. The sisters were then sent back to Iraq but, like many other girls who have escaped their kidnappers and buyers, were sent to prison because they carried fake passports. There, they wait for the bureaucracy to sort out their innocence. What happened to the gang that took them? The sisters hear rumors that the men paid their way out of jail and are back on the streets. "I don't know what to do if the prison administration decides to release me," says Asmah, pushing back her gray head scarf to adjust her black hair. "We have no one to protect us." Women's advocates are trying to set up halfway houses for kidnap survivors. The locations are secret to keep the women safe from both trafficking gangs trying to cover their tracks and outraged relatives who may try to kill the women to restore their clans' reputation. But the new Iraqi government has set up several bureaucratic roadblocks. Even organizations that do not receive government money have to secure permission from four ministries and the Baghdad city council for every shelter they hope to operate. Wringing her hands in exasperation, activist Yanar Mohammed says, "They want to close our women's shelter and deny our ability to open more." That means that for girls like Safah, there are few havens left in Baghdad. In 2003, after Safah's father died, her grandmother took her to House of Children No. 2 orphanage in Adhamiya without the knowledge of most of her family. At the orphanage, she was befriended by an affable nurse who spent hours chatting up Safah, a fresh-faced girl whose fingers are still pudgy with baby fat. The nurse's modest hijab framed a sweet face that made Safah feel that the nurse was a good, spiritual woman, one she could trust. The nurse convinced Safah that she could be killed over the shame her disappearance had brought to her family. The nurse offered to adopt her. But official channels would have taken too long, so the nurse told Safah to hold her lower-right abdomen, scream and writhe on the carpet of the orphanage director's office, pretending to have appendicitis and requiring emergency medical assistance. Once at the hospital, the nurse whisked Safah into a waiting car. The next three weeks were the worst in Safah's life. "I was tortured and beaten and insulted a lot in that house," Safah says. She wouldn't provide many details about what happened in the whiskey-soaked den in Karada. But she says that when it became apparent to her that she was about to be sold to Sa'ad, the man on the phone from Dubai, she became desperate. She passed word of her confinement to a neighborhood boy, who reported it to the local police station. Officers raided the place and arrested the nurse. Bureaucratic red tape somehow kept Safah and the nurse in the same prison for six months before Safah was finally released back into the custody of the orphanage a month ago. At the orphanage, nestled behind a 10-ft. wall on the breezy banks of the Tigris, Safah can take computer classes, practice sewing and paint portraits of the family she wishes she had. But she doesn't feel as safe as she used to there. A social worker tells her that the nurse wasn't at the Khadamiyah Women's Prison during her last visit. Suddenly Safah rushes out of the room, crying and beating her head with her hands in the hallway. "If she is released," says Safah, her eyes darting back and forth in a panic, "I'm not staying here." But deep down she knows she has nowhere else to go.
Iraq: Stability Under Saddam
munaeem | 04 May, 2007 11:09
| Author: | Amira Al Hussaini |
via
globalvoicesonline.org“It is true right now that Baghdad is a hell on earth and if you only know Baghdad from reading news reports then unfortunately you probably don’t know how bad it is. However there are plenty of areas outside of Baghdad which are better than they have ever been, with more prosperity and freedom than they could have under Saddam. So whether you long for the stability under Saddam I guess it depends where you are (and were) living in Iraq or how much you or your family did demand freedom under Saddam,” writes Iraqi blogger Shaqawa. View Original Article
Hoon on Cheney, WMD
munaeem | 02 May, 2007 16:20
Geoffrey Hoon, the British Secretary of Defense during the invasion of Iraq, sat down for an exclusive interview with The Guardian on the issue of Iraq.
In addition to admitting errors in the postwar planning phase, Hoon also says the Brits underestimated the influence of Vice President Cheney:
"Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."
Most interesting of all, however, was Hoon's comment on pre-war WMD intel:
Mr Hoon also expressed regret over the government's claim in the run-up to war that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which, he now accepts, turned out to be false. He said he had "gradually come to the acceptance" the weapons did not exist. But he insisted the government had acted in good faith. He still does not understand why the intelligence proved to be false. "I've been present at a number of meetings where the intelligence community was fixed, and looked in the eye and asked are you absolutely sure about this? And the answer came back 'Yes, absolutely sure'."
Mr Hoon added: "I saw intelligence from the first time I came into office, in May 1999 - week in, week out - that said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ... I have real difficulty in understanding why it was, over such a long period of time, we were told this and, moreover, why we acted upon it."
Obviously, this further puts the lie (bad pun intended) to the charge, now taken as gospel among most Democrats, that the Bush administration knowingly fed the public false information to justify going to war. The Brits were as wrong about the pre-war intel on Iraq as we were (as were many other countries), and prior to taking action against Saddam we'd all been laboring under the same misperceptions for close to a decade.
View Original Article 
The Center in Iraq
munaeem | 02 May, 2007 02:47
Whatever the temporary advances or setbacks of an actual counter-insurgence strategy in Iraq, no one doubts that there can be no decent outcome there without a political reconciliation at a national level.
We have three recent indicators of that likelihood. We have the news that Maliki may be protecting the Shiite militias from the brunt of "national" forces; we have the recent withdrawal from the government of leading Shiite figures under the sway of Moqtada al Sadr; and we now have the major Sunni bloc threatening to withdraw its ministers from the cabinet as well. Just in case we are under any illusions about the Iraqi elite's interest in urgently finding a way forward, the parliament is also set to recess for two months this summer, while, at the current rate, two hundred young Americans will die to keep the Iraqi politicians' options open. In 2006, meanwhile, terror attacks increased by a staggering 91 percent in the country. Those are some "last throes." There is clearly some progress in al-Anbar; al Qaeda's brutality may be backfiring finally; and, as with any mob, there was also a recent boss-hit that is gratifying (if finally confirmed). But the basic reality still faces us: there is no national government in Baghdad and no functioning state apparatus for keeping that country together for the foreseeable future. We have until September to make a final judgment. But I see slivers of hope, and deep, structural pessimism beneath them.
View Original Article
Digging the Iraq Hole Deeper
munaeem | 30 April, 2007 21:24
The land mine analogy is catchy, but, alas, not very pertinent. The hole-digging analogy is slightly better: when you're sinking into a deepening hole and you need to stabilize the situation, stop digging.
The fact is, nobody really knows how Iraq can be defused while the United States insists on keeping its military forces there, and even sending more. The presence of 150,000+ American troops and the advent of a stable, peaceful Iraq are probably mutually exclusive. We should start by acknowledging this, and from there seek a practical route to a stable, unified Iraq by asking the U.S. to declare the start of a gradual but steady withdrawal from Iraq, restoring the country to a sovereign state.
That might trigger a more vigorous effort by Iraqis to achieve a constitutional accord, because they would have a legitimate indigenous government to aspire to join and influence. The Iraqi government today, backed by U.S. armed forces, enjoys only tenuous legitimacy. Many in the country shy away from association with it or seek to replace it. Legitimacy will spur stability, rather than the confused American sense that more troops and security operations will create a stable situation.Technorati Tags:
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The Administrations Misleading Public Statement on Iraq
munaeem | 30 April, 2007 08:32
I ran across this very interesting web site Bush on Iraq, The Bush Administrations Misleading and Inaccurate Public Statement on Iraq. The site draws all its information from a report prepared at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman in 2004 “Iraq On The Record” . The report deals with the misleading statements made by Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld and Rice.
The web site breaks down each statement by person and gives the reason for why it’s misleading. Or you could have the pleasure of reading all 36 pages yourself of Waxman’s report.
From Their Website:
Number of Misleading Statements. The Iraq on the Record database contains 237 misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq that were made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice. These statements were made in 125 separate appearances, consisting of 40 speeches, 26 press conferences and briefings, 53 interviews, 4 written statements, and 2 congressional testimonies. Most of the statements in the database were misleading because they expressed certainty where none existed or failed to acknowledge the doubts of intelligence officials. Ten of the statements were simply false.
Waxman has been very busy gathering information the last few years. The report looks very strong for impeachment and treason.
View Original Article
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Iraq may hold twice as much oil
munaeem | 21 April, 2007 11:42
Financial Times reports :
"Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved."
That's why Americans invaded Iraq to control the world's second-largest oil reserves--leading to the end of America's growing reliance on petroleum from Saudi Arabia.
Critics say U.S. eyes have been on Iraq's oil since before the war. Documents obtained in a 2002 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch found Vice President Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force included maps and charts of Iraq's oil infrastructure and projects as well as a list of "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."
A pre-war oil and energy working group of the U.S. State Department's Future of Iraq project also focused on Iraq's oil sector.
Now the Bush administration is trying to impose an oil law on Iraqis that will benefit American oil companies.
Arabs opposed to both Israeli, Iranian Mideast hegemony
munaeem | 19 April, 2007 11:01
A commentary in Jordan's Ad Dustour said it rejected having to choose between Israel and Iran, arguing that this frustrated any hope of self-determination for the Arab peoples and their governments.
The mass-circulation daily argued that Iran had its own plans and strategies to export its revolution to the Arab world, having initiated this agenda by acting as the primary assistant to the US in its war in Iraq, enabling Iran's Shiite element to take power.
"Why should ... Arabs ... have to choose between two occupiers? Between one [colonialist agenda] and the other? ... Where is our [freedom of] choice? And why is our stance against the Iranian scheme in dominating the region interpreted as being in favor of the Israeli scheme?" queried the paper.
The daily, which describes itself as independent but is partially owned by the government, insisted that Arabs were opposed to both countries' drive toward regional hegemony, stressing that each threatened future Arab independence and stability.
Between al-Baghdadi and the Clever
munaeem | 19 April, 2007 09:47
Study is available summer and winter, day and night. The invitation is open to the 'university of terrorism' in Iraq, as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi - who is called the 'Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq' - was proud of calling it, as he believes that he graduates officers with international degrees! If it is a disaster above all the disasters that have afflicted those who were liberated from Saddam Hussein that one of them bargains in the name of Islam to link it to the 'university of terrorism' and his followers slaughter as many Iraqis as possible - those who are homeless, displaced and panicked in the jungle of winning flags - the greater catastrophe is that the whole world abandons an entire people since the task was entrusted to the civilized American occupation. Read More
Intelligence Brief: U.S. Defense Secretary Pays Visit to Arab Allies
munaeem | 19 April, 2007 09:21
Drafted By:
http://www.pinr.com
On April 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Jordan to begin a series of visits to U.S. allies in the region. One of the main purposes of the trip is to build a common front against Iran's attempts to increase its regional power. His trip to Jordan, Egypt and Israel will focus on pursuing a unified strategy in relations toward Iran and on weakening Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah, in addition to continuing cooperation against threats from Islamist terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Read more
Hawks remain silent as Iraq burns
munaeem | 18 April, 2007 08:50
by Neil Clark
THE International Red Cross warned this week that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is getting even worse. At the same, time a major academic study by the Oxford Research Group concludes that the illegal United States/United Kingdom invasion has spawned new terror in the region. In the light of the latest damning evidence of the consequences of the invasion, what has been the reaction of the lap-top bombardiers who five years ago so energetically propagandised for war? I've been trawling the web to find out.
Melanie Phillips, the moralist who condemns teenage youths for smashing up bus shelters but not coalition forces for smashing up Iraq, makes no mention of either report on her website this week.
Ditto William Shawcross and Nick Cohen, self-appointed scourge of the anti-war left.
David Aaronovitch has kept his silence too as has Andrew Roberts, the talented historian who argued that we could equate sanctions-devastated Iraq (including its non-existent air force and its Dads Army) with Nazi Germany at its peak.
Harry's Place, favourite watering hole of pro-liberation left prefers to discuss road rage, school history syllabuses and union-made hoodies.
Daniel Finkelstein of The Times has discovered an interest in mediums.
Stephen Pollard informs us that he's been reading Norman Lebrecht's Maestros and Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry. The Daily Telegraph's Neo Con Coughlin, who regaled us with tales of Saddam's deadly armoury, has turned his attention to Russian bear-baiting.
Across the pond, Andrew Sullivan opines about shopping bags, while David Axis of Evil Frum tells us about his grandfather. Mark Steyn, who once accused anti-war demonstrators of having blood on their hands, focuses on the trial of his old mentor, Conrad Black.
Down Under, Tim Blair, who in 2004 ridiculed claims that the future in Iraq was frightening, shares his thoughts on Alaskan sea otters. From all these people, not a single word about either the International Red Cross or the Oxford Research Group reports. How very different it was four years ago! On the day that Saddam's statue toppled in Baghdad, the neocons couldn't wait to brag about the success of the war they had so enthusiastically supported. This was William Shawcross, writing in the Wall Street Journal: April 9 Liberation Day! What a wonderful, magnificent, emotional occasion one that will live in legend like the fall of the Bastille, V-E Day or the fall of the Berlin Wall. Watching the tearing down of Saddam Hussein's towering statue in Baghdad was a true Ozymandias moment. All those smart Europeans who ridiculed George Bush and denigrated his idea that there was actually a better future for the Iraqi people they will now have to think again.
Really, William? Since the illegal invasion, an estimated 600,000 people have lost their lives in Iraq. Twice as many people have died in Iraq in the last four years as were killed in the previous 23 years under Saddam. The people who need to think again are not those Europeans who opposed the war, but those who faithfully parroted for whatever reasons the official US/UK propaganda.
Forget mediums, shopping bags and union-made hoodies: Its apologies that we really want.
Arab News
Worldwide efforts needed to fight global terrorism
munaeem | 15 April, 2007 05:37
An editorial in Saudi Arabia's Okaz condemned the bombings in Morocco and Algeria, but added they were not the only Arab countries to be targeted by the "disease of terrorism."
It said many Arab capitals and cities had suffered their share of terror attacks that had increased in the region, pointing out that extremist groups had not been confined to specific national borders, but had spread their destruction across the world.
"This confirms that terrorism has become a global trend, with cross-border networks that activate their cells to strike against people," the semi-official daily said.
It argued that the spread of terror required international cooperation to contain, uproot, and eliminate extremist cells," adding that both terrorist ideologies and their instigators "must be plucked out."
Fighting terror in this way, it said, could only succeed with a broad strategy requiring international cooperation and coordination, in addition to recruiting the media and educational systems to raise awareness on the dangers of terrorism.
Saudi monarch warns of sectarian strife
munaeem | 15 April, 2007 05:33
via Yahoo News
AFP reports :
"Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned Saturday that stoking sectarian differences could threaten the kingdom's unity and security.
"The stirring up of sectarian conflicts ... and the superiority of one part of the society over another contradict Islam, and pose a threat to national unity and to the security of society and state," King Abdullah told the opening session of the kingdom's Shura (consultative) council.
"The challenge that faces us is to protect this national unity and to strengthen it," he told the all-male members of the appointed council.
The king's remarks appeared to be alluding to the relation between the kingdom's dominant Sunnis and the Shiite minority, with sectarian tension also rising in Saudi's neighbour Iraq and Lebanon.
King Abdullah vowed to continue the kingdom's efforts to diffuse regional tension between the Sunnis and the Shiites.
Saudi Arabia is dominated by the ultra-conservative Sunni doctrine of Wahabism -- many of its followers describe Shiite Muslims as rejectionists."
The King is trying get to the Sunni traditional clergy to accept diversity and existence of other schools of thoughts in Saudi Arabia.
The King is concerned because Ayatollah Sistani has been calling for Parliamentary democracy and the exercise of the will of the people for the Shi'ites in the oasis of al-Hasa, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, which angered Riyadh.
Now, Sistani's Shiites are the major political force in Iraq. They are leaders in the new government; they run the key Interior Ministry; and one of their own, Nouri al-Maliki, serves as prime minister.
Iraq still has Washington jittery
munaeem | 14 April, 2007 09:38
By SALIM MANSUR
Four years after Baghdad's fall to American forces there are jitters in Washington and difficulty establishing legitimate order in Baghdad.
Every Iraqi knows -- if conscience has not been stilled in their bosoms by a culture in total disarray -- freedom "that came their way had been a gift of the Americans" as writes Fouad Ajami, the peerless commentator on politics of the Arab world.
In Arab-Muslim history the notion of freedom is practically non-existent. Freedom as individual rights and responsibilities, respect for the other, equality for women and protecting minorities, remain alien in a part of the world where questioning those in authority can be a capital offence.
It takes time for people and culture to make the transition, however incomplete and inconsistent, from tyranny to some semblance of representative government based on laws and accountable to the people.
America's gift to Iraqis is not merely freedom. It is also at much cost and sacrifice, providing support to a fledgling effort of Iraqis to learn the art of government in the midst of being battered daily by the worst elements of a degraded culture that prizes tyranny over freedom.
But the pertinent question four years after Baghdad's fall is why there are such jitters in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere at the pace of Iraqi transition from violence to order, and of faulting the Bush administration at every twist for whatever turns wrong in Baghdad?
Americans need to be asked why the mainstream media and the Democrats are prepared to abandon Iraq where sacrifices of American soldiers are of the same order as those made in France, Italy, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere in the fight for freedom?
Four years after the guns in World War II fell silent in Europe and Asia, fear and violence were stalking both continents and beyond. In March 1946, as concerns mounted across Europe of communist threats, Winston Churchill told his audience at Fulton, Miss., with President Truman at his side: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." There was the Soviet engineered communist coup in Czechoslovakia in early 1948, insurgency in Greece, Soviet demands for territorial concessions from Turkey and Iran, and then came the Berlin blockade followed by the Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb.
In Asia there were communist uprisings and insurgencies in the Philippines, Indonesia, the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent with unprecedented bloodletting among people with a shared history, wars in the Middle East, the communist victory in mainland China and then the war in the Korean peninsula.
Truman staked his presidency on containing Soviet communism and laying the groundwork for eventually defeating the second bid of a totalitarian ideology seeking dominance of the free world.
It was a global struggle that could not have been won without America's might, resources, and long-term commitment. Similarly, without American leadership, Britain and her empire might have failed against the first bid of totalitarian ideology's drive for world dominance.
RAGE OF A PEOPLE
Radical Islamism and its variants, despite the monstrosity of their violence, are the rage of a people and culture in death throes. The effort required to expunge radical Islamism is a pittance of what was needed to defeat German Nazism, Japanese militarism and Soviet communism.
This is why American hand-wringing over difficulties in Iraq and the region four years after Baghdad's fall is unbecoming of a people who remain the last best guardians of freedom and democracy in our world.
Children of U.S. occupation
munaeem | 13 April, 2007 07:44
Hassan Tavakoli, Press TV, Tehran
What has Bush brought for the children of Iraq?
Four years of occupation in Iraq has not only crippled the country but also set the scene for what we can see today of innocent children scavenging in garbage dumps to find something with what they could pass the day.
The appalling condition of many Iraqi children victimized by the U.S. occupation has become too emotive an issue for even American mass media to ignore.
Recently a report by CNN showed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children in rags and no longer attending school. Iraqi hospitals are also too strapped with casualties to deal with mental toll on children. According to Iraqi health officials, bomb blasts, gunfire, and killings of family members have plagued Iraq and unfortunately it is the Iraqi children that suffer the most.
The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has plunged Iraq into a complete quagmire and causing widespread poverty. Iraqi children are most vulnerable, and in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, children can often be seen rummaging through heaps of rubbish, trying to find scraps of food just to survive.
It is difficult to give an exact figure of how much the war and violence has affected the lives of Iraqi children.
The humanitarian organization Save the Children, in a report last year about children in conflict zones, estimated that 818,000 Iraqi children, ranging from 6 to 11 in age, were not in school. That's roughly one in every five Iraqi children in that age group.
The war in Iraq has disrupted normal life, forcing millions of Iraqi families to flee their homes, and separating many children from their families.
Studies by the World Health Organization show primary-school-age children have experienced major traumatic events, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the country's subsequent occupation.
This is truly deplorable; taking into account that Iraq has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world, and should be one of the richest countries in the Middle East. Interesting; maybe that is why the country was occupied ….
The Bush administration, which invaded Iraq under the slogan of saving the Iraqi people from the tyranny of the then dictator, Saddam Hussein, now seems oblivious to the plight of Iraqi civilians, and children in particular.
It is crystal clear for the entire world that Bush, named "the Liar of the Year 2006" by Newsweek, only wants to plunder Iraq's natural resources. The Bush regime is quietly plundering Iraqi oil, and the corruption and insecurity in Iraq, fanned by the American military occupation, is facilitating this process.
The Iraqi government is under immense pressure to restore peace and security to the occupation-torn country, but this is an impossible task as long as the Bush regime defies American and world public opinion, by refusing to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
The fact of the matter is that President Bush's urge for surge is really designed to facilitate the plunder of Iraq's crude oil reserves.
Nevertheless, on the one hand, western media reports the dreadful situation going on in Iraq ad nauseam. However, on the other hand, it seldom asks who is to be held accountable for such a humanitarian disaster.
The humanitarian disaster in Iraq will undoubtedly exacerbate if, and only if, the Bush-headed U.S. occupation of Iraq continues.
Sadrists want a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.
munaeem | 11 April, 2007 06:46
via Yahoo News : Sadrists threaten to leave gov't
"Iraqi Cabinet ministers allied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened Wednesday to quit the government to protest the prime minister's lack of support for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.
The threat comes two months into a U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad in order to give al-Maliki's government room to function.
Al-Sadr's political committee issued a statement a day after al-Maliki rejected an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal.
"We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki told reporters during his four-day trip to Japan, where he signed loan agreements for redevelopment projects in Iraq.
"To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process," he said, adding that "achievements on the ground" would dictate how long American troops remain.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, on al-Sadr's orders, to protest the U.S. presence in their country. The rally marked the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's conquer by American forces.
As long as US remains, Iraq's future uncertain
munaeem | 11 April, 2007 04:20
An editorial in Qatar's Al Rayah said the future of Iraq remained unknown and under threat, given the failure of each strategic security plan formulated by the George W. Bush administration and the Iraqi government.
There is no doubt, it added, that the Iraq occupation, based on twisted pretexts for war, was a strategic blunder from the start, and had brought the country only destruction instead of security and stability.
The pro-government daily argued that despite the failure of all the US security plans to deal with Iraq's crisis, and the growing anti-war pressure on the Bush administration, it still refused to set a timetable for withdrawal, deploying additional troops instead. Such actions, it stressed, would only lead to further security deterioration.
The paper urged Washington and its allies to provide a clear road map for Iraq, guaranteeing a scheduled withdrawal and the participation of the international community, so as to allow Iraqis to achieve a real national reconciliation, stability, and security - all of which had been absent for the past four years.
It also urged the Iraqi government to represent all Iraqis, and not merely standing for certain sects and groups. Without such plural representation, warned the daily, the country would become fragmented into mini-states.
Iraqis do not trust U.S. Forces
munaeem | 19 March, 2007 18:33
via Yahoo News : Few Iraqis trust U.S. forces four years on
Claudia Parsons notes :
"Four in five Iraqis have little or no confidence in U.S.-led forces and most think their presence is making security worse, but despite that only about a third want them to leave now, a poll showed on Monday.
The poll of more than 2,000 people, commissioned by the BBC, ABC News, ARD and USA Today, indicated Iraqis have become less optimistic about the future compared to a similar survey in 2005 when respondents were generally hopeful, the BBC said.
Asked whether their lives were overall better or worse than before the invasion, 43 percent said better, 36 percent worse and the rest about the same. Expectations for how things will be in a year were much lower than in 2005, with only 35 percent expecting improvement compared to 64 percent in a 2005 survey."
The survey showed sharp geographical variations, with confidence in U.S.-led forces highest in the north, at 46 percent, and non-existent in Baghdad, where 100 percent said they had not very much or no confidence in U.S.-led forces.
Overall, 18 percent of Iraqis expressed confidence in U.S. forces and 69 percent said their presence made security worse.
Israeli officer sells weapons to terrorists in Iraq
munaeem | 08 March, 2007 14:51
Ma'ariv Daily has reported that an Israeli retired officer sells weapons to terrorist groups in Iraq.
Shmoel Avivi, an Israeli retired officer, had established a firm in Iraq 2 years ago, which secretly sold arms to terrorist groups in Iraq, Ma'ariv reported.
Amnesty International reported that Avivi was one of the biggest weapon dealers in the Middle East.
Iraqi sources earlier announced that terrorist attacks in Iraq were backed by the intelligent agencies of CIA and Mossad and the secret agents of Iraqi former regime.
Earlier, Iraqi parliament security commission chairman Hadi Ameri had accused the occupying soldiers of secretly directing the terrorist attacks and forming terror squads in Iraq.
Iraq : There is no Plan B
munaeem | 05 March, 2007 15:39
Via Washington Post : No U.S. Backup Strategy For Iraq
During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the administration do if its new strategy didn't work?
The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that there is no Plan B. "I'm a Marine," Pace told them, "and Marines don't talk about failure. They talk about victory."
Pace had a simple way of summarizing the administration's position, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) recalled. "Plan B was to make Plan A work."
This gives the impression that America has lost the war in Iraq, and looking for a 'graceful exit'.
Iraqi vice president escapes bomb blast
munaeem | 26 February, 2007 12:39
Via Yahoo News : Iraqi vice president escapes bomb blast
Iraq's vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi suffered bruises in the fall and was hospitalized for medical exams, an aide said. Police initially blamed the attack on a bomb-rigged car, but later said explosives were apparently planted inside the building.
Adbul-Mahdi is one of two vice presidents. The other, Tariq al-Hashemi, is Sunni.
The attack sent another message that suspected Sunni militants could strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across the capital.
We forget that Iraq had an army and intelligence network. After the fall of Saddam, all these people melted away in the public.
American and Iraqi officials give the wrong impression that the situation is under their control.
This attack will escalate the ongoing sectarian violence, because this vice president happens to be a Shiite.
US 'Iran attack plans' revealed
munaeem | 22 February, 2007 11:11
Via BBC : US 'Iran attack plans' revealed
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.
The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
Today Rice admitted on CNN that Iran helped US in Afghanistan. It means that US and Iran has some kind of wroking relationshiop. In my opinion these two Sattans are united in destroying the Sunni dominated countries in the name of war on terror.
Saudi diplomatic drive runs into US opposition
munaeem | 22 February, 2007 07:26
Via Khaleejtimes : Saudi diplomatic drive runs into US opposition
Saudi Arabia’s new policy of high-profile diplomacy has hit its first major hurdle with US opposition to a Palestinian unity deal brokered by the kingdom, diplomats and analysts say.
Analysts say Saudi leaders have lost confidence in Washington’s ability to ensure regional stability following the war on Iraq, where sectarian violence is raging, and are ready to live with US ire to calm Palestinian strife.
Diplomats in Riyadh and Palestinian officials say Bandar was in constant contact with the US administration before and during the Mecca talks, but could not secure US approval.
ELAINE SHANNON wrote in his article " U.S. the Big Loser in the Mecca Deal?" in The Times :
"The Bush Administration may view the deal as a setback for the prospects of Middle East peace, many observers think it is really a setback for U.S. influence in the region — especially its goal of isolating Hamas."
State department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that the U.S. would wait until the national unity government was actually formed and engaged in policy-making to judge whether the U.S. could resume sending financial assistance to the Palestinian government. For now, said Casey, "the U.S. position on Hamas hasn't changed. It's an armed terrorist organization and that places restrictions on U.S. activities and U.S. engagement."
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, now director of the Brookings Institutions' Saban Center for Middle East Policy, argues that the Mecca accord is a "considerable embarrassment" for Rice and a setback for her hopes of brokering Israeli-Palestinian talks that will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state.
