News & Views 07/12/07

.REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Is the U.S. Responsible for the Death of Nearly a Million Iraqis?

In a scientific study published last fall in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, researchers from Johns Hopkins estimated that 650,000 Iraqis had died because of the US invasion and occupation of their country. The survey that produced that estimate was completed in July, 2006. Unfortunately, despite the calls of the Lancet authors for other studies, there has been no systematic effort to update these results. Just Foreign Policy has attempted to update the Lancet estimate in the best way we know. We have extrapolated from the Lancet estimate, using the trend provided by the tally of Iraqi deaths reported in Western media compiled by Iraq Body Count. Our current estimate is that 974,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion. The Iraqi death toll resulting from the U.S. invasion is a key fact. We cannot make intelligent and moral choices about U.S. foreign policy while ignoring such a key fact. It has implications for our choices in Iraq, for our choices in dealing with Iran, for our choices about the size of the U.S. military. (Why do our leaders want to expand the U.S. military, except to have the capacity to invade other countries?)

The exact toll will never be known. But this is no reason not to attempt to know what the best estimate is. We also don't know many other key facts with certainty. We don't know how many people live in the U.S. The census department creates an estimate, and this estimate is the basis of policy. The Johns Hopkins researchers used the methods accepted all over the world to estimate deaths in the wake of war and natural disasters. The United Nations, for example, uses them to plan famine relief. Even the Bush administration relies on them when it accuses Sudan of genocide in Darfur. At present, this represents the best information we have. As Congress considers legislative efforts to end the war, best estimates of the Iraqi death toll must be part of the debate.

CONVOY ATTACKS AND STREET LIFE

Convoy attacks are up in Iraq. A video of a convoy attack shot from inside an armored vehicle provides a sense of what these attacks are like for Iraqis trying to go about their lives on city streets.

Murder of Iraq Freedom Congress leader is a blow to labor and peace activists

At 3 a.m. on the 4th of July, U.S. military forces and Iraqi national guards opened fire with a barrage of bullets and grenades on the Baghdad home of Abdel-Hussein Saddam. The severely wounded Abdel-Hussein was taken away and his 18-year-old daughter was left alone, injured and bleeding on the floor. Abdel-Hussein’s beaten body turned up at the Yarmouk Hospital morgue on July 6. The murder of Abdel-Hussein was the most devastating of four attacks by the U.S. military on the Iraq Freedom Congress in the past 10 months. The IFC is an organization comprised primarily of trade unionists, community leaders, and women’s and children’s rights workers who are determined to look after their own. IFC’s goals are to salvage the lives of as many Iraqis as possible, and to end the occupation and sectarian fighting. Its slogan: "No Shiite… No Sunni… Ours is Human Identity.”

Basra tears itself apart

Basra, the second-largest and the richest city in Iraq, is at the brink of a major economic and political meltdown. Unless Baghdad succeeds in reaching a compromise over the country's governmental apparatus (especially over the issue of federalism), the southern city may become the greatest threat to the future of post-Ba'athist Iraq. Such a threat lies mainly in a struggle for power between Shi'ite militias and tribal forces who compete for control over oil resources, territorial domination and public capital (hospitals and schools), which are all leading to an erosion of security in a city that is the source of Iraq's economic life. Although much of this turmoil is a reflection of the unstable nature of the transitional process, the current situation in Basra may represent a future scenario for Iraq that is made up of political factionalism and is devoid of a functional government. At the center of Basra's meltdown lies the ongoing conflict between different Shi'ite factions, mainly vying for control over Basra's energy industry and oil smuggling. Domination over local governance through confrontation, and at times violence, has become the routine method of conducting politics in a city that appears to be breaking apart into territories governed by different militias. Such political conflict, however, also includes competing visions of post-Ba'athist Iraq, as each Shi'ite militia advocates a particular ideological agenda (regionalist, nationalist and sectarian), while seeking popular support from various segments of the Shi'ite community in Basra and other southern cities.

US Troops Raid Shi’ite District

U.S. troops raided a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday in a hunt for militiamen linked to Iran, sparking exchanges of fire and a mortar attack. Officials said 19 people were killed, and residents said some of the casualties were caused by U.S. helicopter fire. The violence began with a pre-dawn raid by U.S. forces that the military said captured two militants involved in kidnappings and planting roadside bombs against U.S. and Iraqi troops. Militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the troops, hitting a nearby building, the military said. U.S. troops later surrounded the neighborhood, announcing via loudspeakers to residents that they were seeking militants and that they should stay inside, said an Iraqi police official who was at the scene. As the Americans withdrew around 11 a.m., they came under fire, prompting troops to move back into the district, assaulting several buildings, the official said. [This incident caused the dead of the two Reuters journalists. – dancewater]

Iraq lakeside resort a sad reminder of happier days

It still looks like an oasis in the desert, but Baghdad's smart set does not drive out to play beside the pristine lake at Habbaniyah any more. The luxury holiday chalets of Iraq's former top tourist resort are now home to an unhappy community of Sunni Arab refugees, driven from the capital by the death threats of Shi'ite militias. For Zayed Hameed, who spent his honeymoon here 20 years ago, the memory is a bitter reminder of the life that he has lost. "I went to Europe more than once, but Habbaniyah was just as good, except cheaper and only a short drive away," said the 45-year-old civil servant, who has remained in Baghdad. It still looks like a privileged playground. The funfair's Ferris wheel pokes above palm trees near an imposing hotel, and the disco and personal holiday home of Iraq's former leader Saddam Hussein hug the crystal clear lake. The 200 villas still have most of their original furniture including televisions, but with no generator, the refugees said they are lucky to get a few hours of power a day from the dilapidated national grid. The lakeside beach also looks the same, although sunbathers have been replaced by children using it for the family laundry, or to collect drinking water, and today's fishermen are foraging in earnest.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Oil & Utility Union Leaders on the Struggle against Privatization

On June 18, "Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report," hosted by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash on New York's non-commercial WBAI Radio, ran an interview with two labor leaders from Iraq's energy sector: Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the Electrical Utility Workers Union, and Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Federation of Oil Unions. They spoke about the reconstruction of Iraq's oil industry and why the labor movement is opposed to the proposed hydrocarbon law favored by the Bush administration, the Democratic Congress and oil companies, which would put foreign oil interests in effective control of two thirds of Iraq's undeveloped reserves. They also discussed why they support an immediate end to the occupation, and the prospects for a stable, democratic, non-sectarian future for Iraq.

Mimi Rosenberg: I just would like to say to begin with that we are very honored by your presence. We have a tremendous sense of solidarity and concern for people who are in struggle against acts of tremendous aggression and oppression that emanate from this country. It would be helpful, since we have very little consciousness about the nature of labor organizing [in Iraq], to speak somewhat about the origin and membership in your respective unions.

Faleh Abood Umara: To begin with, we want to thank you for this quite warm welcome in this beautiful city. The history of the Iraqi labor unions is a long one; it goes back to the early twentieth century. And I am honored to be one of the [re-]founders of the oil union after the occupation. This union was established in the 1930's, and it was the workers union that led very successful strikes against the oil companies back then. One of the most well-known strikes back then is a strike that took place in the city of Gawurpaghi in Kirkuk. In 1946, they led another major strike, and in 1952, they led another strike in the city of Basra. This shows the history of the oil workers' union is a militant history, from its inception in the 1930's. Through all that period the Iraqi oil union was struggling for the rights of workers and also for preserving Iraq's natural resources. And it was struggling in very difficult circumstances up until Saddam Hussein was at the helm. After that, the trade union leaders and members were subjected to the most abject sorts of oppression and destruction. And together with the rest of the trade unions in Iraq, the oil trade union was dismantled in 1987.

When the occupation forces went into Iraq, just two weeks after the occupation, the workers and labor activists initiated the process of founding the union again. And they had democratic elections for the first time, and we gained a lot of successes in preserving the oil resources and preserving the workers' rights. One of the major gains to the workers was the rectification of wages, and also they managed to allocate lots of land for the workers in the oil sector.

Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein: I will add to what my colleague Faleh has said. After the occupation began on April 9, 2003, workers got the initiative to start to form their unions in various sectors of the Iraqi economy, private sectors and the public sector-mechanic workers and the ports... For example, in the Basra Federation of Labor Unions, now they have about 93 union committees. The number of union leaders is 768; from them 64 members are females. These committees is spread over the transportation union, service union, the agricultural unions, workers' unions, and the train system unions, and various other sectors. The electrical workers union was formed in September 2003. And the first conference was held on May 13, 2004. The union has faced so many challenges under the occupation, and the first major obstacle and challenge was the new system that Paul Bremer put together, the wage system. It was so oppressive and unjust that the monthly wage for workers in the 11th degree under this system, it was $50 per month. This by no means allowed the workers buying power to cover their expenses. And they fought for opposing these changes in these laws, and the only unions that managed to make some gains in these demands were the electrical workers union and the oil unions.

Iraqi politicians ponder US move

"The political system is completely paralysed," says Ala Abdul Razzak from the Tawafuq Front, the main Sunni group boycotting both the cabinet and the parliament. "Either the government is unable to do anything, or they want it to be like this. The end result is - we are not moving." The parliament has not been sitting for most of this week. Its members plan to take the whole of August off. Two influential Sunni and Shia groups refuse to sit in the chamber. They are also boycotting cabinet meetings. The impression at the moment is of a political system that is barely functioning. This is all deeply frustrating for US commanders here, and policy makers back in Washington. One of the main aims of the surge in US troops was to give Iraqi politicians the space to pass a series of important laws - on sharing oil resources, constitutional reform and giving jobs to former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

…..Leaders in Iraq are starting to position themselves for what many see as an inevitable power struggle once American influence here starts to wane. Military commanders are already talking about "post-surge Iraq". General Petraeus, the head of US forces here, says the priority is making sure hard fought gains can be "sustained, maintained and even built upon by Iraqi forces and political leaders". The timing and speed of any US pull-out will be critical. Hoshiyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, has already warned that a rapid withdrawal could lead to the "partition of Iraq and a regional war". He said the country might even "collapse altogether". That fear is echoed across the political spectrum. Both Sunni and Shia politicians say it would be disastrous for the US to leave now.

Former Iraqi MP and Son Convicted

Mishaan al-Jubouri was found guilty of embezzling millions of dollars from funds allocated for the protection of Iraq's oil industry. His son, Yezin, was also convicted and received a similar sentence. Both men were sentenced in their absence after apparently fleeing from Iraq to Syria. "The Central Criminal Court of Iraq has sentenced in absentia former MP Mishan al-Jubouri and his son Yezin for corruption," the court said in a statement. It added that the case was referred to the court by a government anti-corruption committee. Last week, the Iraqi parliament withdrew Jubouri's parliamentary immunity, and announced that his seat would be filled by another lawmaker.

Iraq police colluded in Kerbala attack

A U.S. Army investigation has concluded that Iraqi police assisted insurgents in an assault in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala in January that killed five U.S. soldiers, USA Today reported on Thursday. USA Today said the information was contained in an investigative file made available to the newspaper and authenticated by the Army. During the attack, guerrillas posing as Americans entered a government compound in Kerbala, killed a U.S. soldier and drove away with four others whom they shot and killed later. "(The American) defense hinged on a level of trust that ... early warning and defense would be provided by the Kerbala Iraq police. This trust was violated," said the army report, dated Feb. 27. The paper said the attack had attracted special scrutiny by Pentagon officials because of the unprecedented breach of security and the tactics used by the insurgents. [Sami Rasouli, of Muslim Peacekeeper Team, said that he got a phone call while it was happening saying that the Americans were the ones doing the abductions – and the Iraqis there thought it was a joke or practice run until one of the Americans were killed. (That would explain why the Iraqi guards let them in – they thought they were Americans.) I also read a comment on Daily Kos saying that one of the US soldiers there told him mother that the abductors were Israelis. – dancewater]

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Money and the military

It is not just Vladimir Putin talking tough that recalls the cold war. Since 2005 annual military spending worldwide has topped $1 trillion ($1.204 trillion last year), climbing to the level reached at the worst of the East-West standoff and the heyday of arms control. The collapse of the Soviet Union triggered a deadly chain reaction, disseminating weapons of mass destruction and encouraging the affirmation of national or ethnic identity, often backed by violence. Over the same period the threat from non-state and international terror organisations has increased. Studies by research institutes - the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and the Bonn International Centre for Conversion - underline this alarming trend. Last year the world as a whole allocated more than 2.5% of gross domestic product to military spending, equivalent to $184 per person (it was $135 in 2001). Spending has increased by 37% in 10 years, with military and paramilitary forces expanding from 26.8 million to 31 million. The US, whose military budget accounts for almost half the global total, must shoulder much of the blame for this trend, mainly because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Russia, China and India military spending is rising too. And the first two countries' official defence budget represents only half the true figure.

U.S. Troop Buildup In Iraq Falling Short

In the Ubaidi neighborhood in the eastern part of this city, American soldiers hired a local Iraqi to clean the Porta-Potties at their combat outpost. Before the man could start, members of the local Shiite militia threatened to kill him. Today, the Porta-Potties are roped off, and the U.S. soldiers, who could not promise to protect their sewage man, are forced to burn their waste. As part of the Bush administration's troop "surge" strategy, the U.S. unit here had moved into an abandoned potato chip factory hoping to push out the militia, protect existing jobs and provide stability for economic growth. Instead, militia members stymied development projects, cut off the water supply and executed two young Iraqi women seen talking to U.S. soldiers, sending a powerful message about who really controls Ubaidi's streets. In the next few days, the Bush administration is scheduled to release a preliminary assessment of its overall Iraq strategy. Officials may point to signs of progress scattered across the country: a reduction in death-squad killings in Baghdad, agreements with tribal leaders in Al Anbar province, offensives north and south of the capital.


New U.S. intelligence assessment casts doubts on Bush's Iraq policy

The Shiite Muslim-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has made only "halting efforts" to end the power struggle fueling the war between Iraq's religious and ethnic communities, a new U.S. intelligence report said Wednesday. Even if the bloodletting can be contained, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders will be "hard pressed" to reach lasting political reconciliation, the report stated. The report, reflecting the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, cast new uncertainty about the chances of success for President Bush's plan to contain the war through the deployment of an additional 28,000 U.S. troops, mostly in and around Baghdad. The conclusions also appeared to be bleaker than a White House assessment produced by the top U.S. officials in Baghdad, which found that Iraqi politicians have made satisfactory progress on some of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress in May. The new intelligence findings were contained in a 23-page Global Security Assessment presented to the House Armed Services Committee by Thomas Fingar, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the intelligence community's top analytical body. "The struggle among and within Iraqi communities over national identity and the distribution of power has eclipsed attacks by Iraqis against (U.S.-led) Coalition Forces as the greatest impediment to Iraq's future as a peaceful, democratic and unified state," said the report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. [And the first person to hold that office – Negroponte – was the one who got the Salvador Option underway. – dancewater]

Pentagon: U.S. troops shot 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints

U.S. soldiers have killed or wounded 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints or near patrols and convoys during the past year, according to military statistics compiled in Iraq and obtained by McClatchy Newspapers. The statistics are the first official accounting of civilian shootings since the war began, and while they seem small compared with the thousands who've died in Iraq's violence, they show the difficulty that the U.S. has in fulfilling its vow to protect civilians. The numbers cover what the military calls escalation-of-force incidents, in which American troops fire at civilians who've come too close or have approached checkpoints too quickly. In the months since U.S. commanders have dispatched more troops to the field — ostensibly to secure Iraqi communities — the number of Iraqis killed and injured in such incidents has spiked, the statistics show. Pentagon officials have declined repeatedly to reveal the numbers of civilian deaths and injuries caused by American troops. The escalation-of-force statistics, however, were part of a recent briefing given to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq. A person familiar with the briefing provided the statistics to McClatchy. They cover 3,200 incidents since July 2006 in which U.S. troops fired warning shots at Iraqi civilians. Such incidents led to injury or death 36 times a month on average — more than once a day. Still, the pattern of increased civilian injuries and deaths during periods of heightened American military activities was obvious in the 12 months of escalation-of-force statistics made available to McClatchy. Last August, for example, 26 Iraqi civilians were killed or injured in such incidents. The number rose to 41 the following month, as the U.S. began moving troops into some of Baghdad's most troubled neighborhoods as part of Operation Forward Together, last year's Baghdad security plan.

Iranian forces, Kurdish guerrillas clash

Iranian artillery shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages Thursday as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border, officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan said. It was the third day of shelling in two areas along the border in northern Iraq, said Jabbar Yawer, spokesman for the Kurdistan protection forces, or Peshmerga. Residents of the areas said the bombardment had not caused casualties but had killed farm animals and started a fire on a mountain. Iranian shelling in the Peshdar region, 60 miles northwest of Sulaimaniyah, hit areas as far as 18 miles from the border, said the regional governor, Hussein Ahmed. He said many of the area's 1,000 families had fled for protection. The other region hit by shelling lay farther north, near the Hajji Umran border crossing, 65 miles north of the city of Irbil, Yawer said. He said the shelling began with an incursion by Kurdish guerrillas into Iran on Tuesday that sparked clashes with Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

COMMENTARY

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, was Badiaa, Kamel's wife. She lived in a small house, borrowed house. Her husband is detained by the American dwarfs and her son has been killed by the same dwarfs. She would spend many hours sitting in her kitchen, talking to herself. She sold most of the remaining furniture she had. Only three kitchen chairs were left and she confided in them. Sometimes pretending her husband or son were sitting opposite her and listening to her woes... One night, not long ago, at 1 am, the "Iraqi" army and the dwarfs stormed her home. They searched, ransacked and destroyed the little she had left.

"Why, why? Is it not enough you took my husband and killed my son. Why destroy the little I have?" "It is for your own security. You have a sniper on your roof."

Of course, Badiaa has no electricity. She uses an oil lamp. One of the guards kicks the lamp. No Genie or sniper came out. But a fierce fire spread wildly, catching the doors, the walls,the curtains and the chairs... Half of Badiaa's house is now burned down.

Neocons, theocons, Demcons, excons, and future cons

Who do you think said this on June 20? a)Rudy Giuliani; b)Hillary Clinton; c)George Bush; d)Mitt Romney; or e)Barack Obama?

"The American military has done its job. Look what they accomplished. They got rid of Saddam Hussein. They gave the Iraqis a chance for free and fair elections. They gave the Iraqi government the chance to begin to demonstrate that it understood its responsibilities to make the hard political decisions necessary to give the people of Iraq a better future. So the American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions which are important for their own people."

Right, it was the woman who wants to be president because ... because she wants to be president ... because she thinks it would be nice to be president ... no other reason, no burning cause, no heartfelt desire for basic change in American society or to make a better world ... she just thinks it would be nice, even great, to be president. And keep the American Empire in business, its routine generating of horror and misery being no problem; she wouldn't want to be known as the president that hastened the decline of the empire. And she spoke the above words at the "Take Back America" conference; she was speaking to liberals, committed liberal Democrats. She didn't have to cater to them with any flag-waving pro-war rhetoric; they wanted to hear anti-war rhetoric (and she of course gave them a bit of that as well out of the other side of her mouth), so we can assume that this is how she really feels, if indeed the woman feels anything.

OPINION: Let’s Kill Them All

How many Americans would support our foreign policy if they knew that it was a plan to unleash genocide against civilians (without concern for the consequences to American soldiers)? How many of us would support Bush and Cheney if they knew that the plan was not to "win" the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, but to prolong and intensify them in order to use those countries as bases for exporting sectarian warfare to all of their oil-bearing neighbors. Instead of simply fighting the small force of a few thousand radical Islamists who actually attacked us on 9/11, the neocon war plan to remake the entire Middle East was enacted. The "mission" was turned into a monstrous plan aimed at all Islamists, even the non-radical ones. Religion was to be used as a weapon, by turning Islam upon itself. Islamic radicals were armed and trained to function as terrorist combat brigades and death squads in neighboring opponent nations. They carried out brutal attacks and political assassinations within civilian areas, as a method for igniting wars within all of Islam.

IRAQI REFUGEES

Concern for newly arriving IDPs in south

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in southern Iraq are concerned about the fate of newly arriving internally displaced persons (IDPs), after the authorities in the southern provinces said they could not cope with any more of them. The NGOs include South Peace Organisation, Keeping Children Alive and the Women’s Rights Association. “Officials in the southern governorates have told us they cannot take in more IDPs as their security cannot be guaranteed,” said Mayada Obeid, a spokesperson for South Peace Organisation, based in Basra. “Police in Najaf and Basra have told us they have reported cases of new IDPs being targeted by militias, and at least seven people have been killed trying to settle in displacement camps,” said Obeid. A senior official in Basra Governing Council, Hassan Abdul-Kareem, told IRIN: “We can no longer ignore the lack of essential supplies in our governorate. Previously displaced families are demanding our assistance and we cannot satisfy even their needs. There are no places for their children in schools, we cannot give them medical care and the price of goods is high. We understand that the situation is critical for families fleeing their homes but we cannot be the only ones to help all those displaced people. The only way to prevent the situation from deteriorating further is to ban IDP camps from accepting any more displaced people,” he said. Ali Barak, a media spokesman for Basra Governing Council, told IRIN the situation was getting out of control. Barak suggested that other parts of the country like Kurdistan should open their doors to the displaced. “Every Shia family… is heading only for Najaf, Kerbala and Basra [all in the south].”

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

RESISTANCE

Iraq Moratorium Day – September 21 and every third Friday thereafter ~ "I hereby make a commitment that on Friday, September 21, 2007, and the third Friday of every subsequent month I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq."

Quote of the day: Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. ~ Demosthenes