Category: Iraq

Looks Like the Iraqis May Kill Bush’s “Iraq Forever” Deal

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It turns out that almost every political party in Iraq hates it, including the largest party in parliament, the ISCI, the Iranian stooges party, oppose it too, “Officials from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, an important Maliki ally, said several parts of the proposal violated Iraq’s sovereignty.”

This is not surprising:

The Americans want to continue to have “a free hand” to arrest Iraqis and carry out military operations, and they want authority for more than 50 long-term military bases, Mr. Adeeb said. He said that he doubted that a security pact along the lines sought by the Americans would pass in the Iraqi Parliament.

Mr. Abadi, another senior member of Dawa, said Americans were insisting on keeping control of Iraqi airspace and retaining legal immunity for American troops, contractors and private security guards.

The US is claiming that this is “Iranian disinformation”, and ambassador Crocker is saying that, “the agreement will not establish permanent bases in Iraq, and we anticipate that it will expressly forswear them”, but Bush already said that no agreement is permanent, in a thousand years of so something might change.

It’s also noted that Iraqi leaders are dubious about negotiating with a lame duck president, so come January 1, 2009, when the UN authorizations expire, both mercenaries contractors and US troops will be subject to Iraqi courts.

PTSD by the Numbers

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I came across this on Eric Alterman’s Altercation, in one of the letter from Ken G of Cherry Hill, NJ that he published, detailing the basics of combat related psychological stress:

Studies during World War II determined that the average rifleman in combat maintained peak efficiency up to about 90 days of cumulative combat. Thereafter, efficiency decreased and ultimately, if not otherwise wounded, they became “psychiatric casualties” after 200 to 240 cumulative days in combat. Once they became “psychiatric casualties,” soldiers could be treated and made useful again in rear echelon duties but they were rarely able to become effective combat rifle men again. It was further determined that “Rest and Recuperation” (R & R) could “stop the clock” on the cumulative days of combat, but it could not “turn back the clock.” In other words, whether a rifleman served in combat for 240 consecutive days or for 240 single days with R & R in between, they were still likely to become psychiatric casualties. Interestingly, studies during the Vietnam War initially did not seem to support the figures calculated in World War II. However, further study determined that actually the figures from World War II were correct, but, since in Vietnam a soldier was invariably a target to insurgent snipers and mortar barrages and bombs whether on a search and destroy mission or at base camp or on R & R in Saigon, the “combat clock” continued to tick even during times that were seemingly non-combat. In others words, it is not the least bit shocking that most of the men who served as riflemen for a one-year tour in Vietnam suffered from some level of PTSD upon completion of their tour.

Note that the surge required 15 months tours, so people in the military and the administration knew that they were breaking the bulk of the soldiers who are so deployed.

Whoever Did This Will Have American and Iraqi Blood on Their Hands

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There are allegations that US troops are handing out coins with Christian bible verses to the residents of Fallujah, which the military has now confirmed:


U.S. Marines are handing out this coin,
imprinted with a Gospel verse, to Fallujah residents.

At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. “Where will you spend eternity?” it asked.

He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16.”

and

The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in the Iraqi city of Fallujah was passing out coins with Gospel verses on them to Sunni Muslims, a U.S. military spokesman in Fallujah told McClatchy Thursday.

A single Marine, a lone gunman, whatever.

I call bullsh$#. If someone did this, than dozens of people knew that it was being done.

Sadr to Oppose US-Iraq Basing Agreement

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The fact that he opposes the agreementand calling for regular protests should come as no surprise. Sadr is the only real Iraqi nationalist amongst the Shia leaders, with Dawa and the ISCI being pretty much in the pocket of Iran.

It is also a position which is likely very popular in Iraq, as all independent assessments show that Iraqis as a whole want the US out, and this agreement is clearly a part of Bush’s “Iraq forever” policy, and would keep troops and bases in Iraq for decades.

Sistani Will Object to US-Iraq “Security Accord”

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In which “Security Accord” means permanent bases:

Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a ‘security accord’ between the US and Iraq.

The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with “the US occupiers” as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said.

While this report is from a source that could best be described as partial, Iranian funded TV network, it jibes with reports that he has been quietly approving action against US and coalition forces.

As I’ve said before, I think that Sistani has been reticent, because he is concerned that occupying forces to do what the British did, put the Sunnis in charge, if the Shia are too strident, but that he believes that permanent bases cross a line.

According to this report, he said this to the Prime Minister in conversations, so if this leaked out, it came from Sistani’s camp, not Maliki.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Issues Fatwah Allowing Armed Resistance Against US Troops

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This is rather significant, and I agree with M. Duss his explicit approval of anti-US violance is being driven by the criticism he has invreasingly recieved about his silence regarding the brutality of American tactics.

Juan Cole goes rather deeper into what is going on, and notes that Sistani’s relative silence may very well be driven by the consequences of the Shiite uprising in 1920, which had the British putting Sunnis firmly in power as a proxies.

As noted here his Fatwas have seen very limited release, basically face to face with no real record of them otherwise.

If it gets more vocal, not only will US forces have to leave, but it will look like the evacuation of Saigon.

The Americans Leave Sadr City, and the Violence Ends

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As this Washington Post article notes, U.S. Absence Seems To Make Difference:

Sadr City is a largely impoverished section of Baghdad that is home to about 2 million people, many of whom support the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a onetime backer of Maliki who has become his chief rival. Sadrist officials negotiated the entry of Iraqi troops, apparently winning agreement that U.S. forces would stay out.

This is not by accident. While the American public is shielded from this, it is clear that American deployment stirs up nationalistic violence, and it is also clear that, notwithstanding US protestations of precision, the carpet bombing of whole neighborhoods that provide any level of threat make the violence a couple of magnitudes worse beyond that.

We need to leave now.

Sadr City as Iraqi Troops Enter Slum

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So far, it appears that Iraqi troops have now been able to enter the city and set up check points, though they did find a weapons cache.

I’m not optimistic. Both sides are waiting for the right moment to restart this, though my money is on Maliki doing it, because if he does not disrupt the Iraqi provincial elections, which have now been oh so conveniently pushed past the November US elections, it’s pretty clear that his party Dawa, and that of the his Hakeem allies, will get shellacked.

U.S. Sits on Iran Weapons Report

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The excuse is that it’s been that they’ve, turned it over to the Iraqi Government* “to pressure Tehran to curb the flow of Iranian weaponry and explosives into Iraq.

Of course, these weapons are primarily going towards the militias of Dawa and ISCI, who are, nominally at least, the government in Iraq.

The reality is that they are doing what worked so well for Joe McCarthy. Claim to have a list, and use it as a club, even when no such list exists, or when such a list is so poorly made as to be laughable.

I imagine we’ll see selected leaks when Maliki attempts to use it for partisan political advantage during the provincial elections.

*An oxymoron if there ever was one.

Signs of Progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, They Are Entering the Modern Financial System

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Specifically insurance fraud, but it’s only the contractors, who have conspired with insurance companies to stick it to the tax payers.

It’s basically kickbacks. The contractors negotiate their own insurance deals, which are over priced, and they get commissions from the insurers:

KBR Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR’s contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer.

“Out of this amount, just $73 million actually goes to injured contractors, and AIG and KBR pocket over $100 million as profit,” Waxman said.

Lovely.

And in the Depart of Finally Getting a F$#@ing Clue

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After something like 20 years of fraud and deception, someone in the US military has noticed that Achmad Chalabi is a con man who has played the Neocons establishment like a freaking violin.

Sources in Baghdad tell NBC News that as of this week American military and civilian officials have cut off all contact with controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, the former favorite of Washington’s once powerful neoconservatives.

What is it that Tom and Ray Magliozzi say? “Unencumbered by the thought process.”

Dude, read up on Bush and His Evil Minions™. You got nothing on them.*

*Truth be told, neither are intellectual slouches, having degrees in from MIT.