News & Views 11/06/07

Photo: A U.S. army soldier with Bravo Company 1st battalion 64th Armor Regiment inspects a house during a patrol in the neighborhood of Jamia in Baghdad November 6, 2007. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters) [Winning ‘hearts and minds’ no doubt. –dancewater]

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Report: 14 percent of Iraqis now displaced

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction offered a generally optimistic picture of security developments in Iraq in his quarterly report to Congress on Tuesday, but noted that while violence was down, one of every seven Iraqis — 14 percent of Iraq's population — is now displaced by the war. The report said that electricity production in Iraq reached its highest level since early 2003, in part because insurgent attacks on power-lines and repair crews have declined. Corruption, however, remains a major problem, the report said. The deaths of 72 civilian contractors working on U.S.-funded projects in Iraq were reported to the U.S. Department of Labor during the third quarter of the year, a 22 percent increase over the average of previous quarters, the report said.

Surge reported in number of internally displaced Iraqis

The number of Iraqis kicked out of their homes has surged 16 percent in October despite claims by the government that it has declined. The Red Crescent, Iraq’s Red Cross equivalent, said at least 100,000 more Iraqis were forced to leave their homes in October. “The number of internally displaced people in the country has surged to 2.3 million from 2.2 million,” said Amal al-Karbouli, Red Crescent’s deputy head. “The promises may by the government of Nouri al-Maliki to help the displaced people return to their homes have not been honored,” Karbouli added. Massive numbers of Iraqis are on the move inside the country in search for safety. The numbers are expected to hike as neighboring countries have shut their borders on the face of fleeing Iraqis. It is estimated that at least 1.5 million Iraqis have fled the country to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. U.S. occupation troops with the assistance of Iraqi forces have launched yet another military campaign north of Baghdad to quell resistance in four major cities. The fleeing Iraqis blame ongoing U.S. military activities in which heavy weapons including tanks, warplanes and helicopter gun ships are deployed as well as sectarian killings and coercion for most of their suffering.

Iraq: Millions Trapped in Their Own Country

Iraq's neighbors are becoming unable to take on more of the country's refugees. At least five million Iraqis have fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation, but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed estimates. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more than 4.4 million displaced Iraqis, an estimate that many workers among refugees find conservative. The UNHCR announced last week that at present 2,000 Iraqis are fleeing their homes every day. Most of them have received direct threats from death squads or militias. The provinces that have suffered the greatest displacement are the largely Sunni Baghdad, Diyala, al-Anbar and Salahadeen in central Iraq. Members of many families who have not fled told IPS they have stayed on because they had no choice. "We could not leave our city despite the security situation because we don't have the money to travel and live outside Iraq," Ali Muhsin, an official with the directorate general of education and a father of five told IPS in Baquba, 40 km northeast of Baghdad.

Time

My trip to the U.S was like a whirl wind! It was short and to the point and I came home with a better understanding of what areas need to be covered for the regular American to better understand the situation in Iraq. I was greatly surprised that most people didn't have an inkling of what Iraq is - was. I would have thought that as the U.S was at war in Iraq, the regular American would have some idea of what Iraq had, and thus would be better equipped to assess the loss that resulted from this war - but I found that not very many people - amongst those that I met, at least, had any clear Idea of the Iraqi society, and what the war has cost the country, in terms of how it affected our education system, our healthcare, services and infra structure. And although they were aware of the statistics of the casualties lost as a result of the collapse in the security system, the figures were so high as to become surreal - they acknowledged them in their minds but couldn't actually feel them in their hearts. Each and every person I met was compassionate and supportive - so much so that I am at a loss - if people felt like that, why isn't there an outcy so loud that policy makers have no choice but to stop and listen?? Stop to reconsider and ask themselves the questions that need to be asked at this late stage: "What can we do to ammend the mess we created?

"We cannot go back in time to save the hundreds of thousands who died senslessly - but how to save the rest? "What can we do not only to stop but to mend the decomposition that has occured in this stable society as a result of a war we chose to wage? "How can we secure the borders after we decommissioned the former Iraqi Army? After all what's the use of going after al-Qaeda pockets inside the country - when the borders are open to them? Not only to them, but to any who wish to walk in and implement whatever agenda they have?" And numerous, numerous questions that need to be asked - and answered. Isn't it time? Or must we lose more sons, more brothers, husbands and fathers and win nothing but heartbreak and a destroyed country?

War News Radio

This week on War News Radio, we take a look at marriages between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. Also, Iraq’s mailmen face bigger challenges than rain, sleet or hail. We hear how the Iraqi postal system keeps the mail running on time, despite the violence. And, in Iraq 101, we learn about the Iraqi province of Diyala. We also learn about Afghanistan’s city of Kandahar. Finally, in our A Day in the Life series, a student from Iraq’s far-northern Duhok province gives us his take on the threat of Turkish invasion.

VIDEO: Man Attacked by Militia & Iraqi Military

Since the end of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the establishment of the Transitional Government, and later the elected Iraqi government, there have been efforts to reconstruct Iraq’s security forces. The Iraqi Army was initially dissolved by Paul Bremer, as one of the first acts of the CPA. This has been repeatedly recalled as one of the biggest mistakes of the US administration in the post-war period. General Petraeus was one of the first US commanders to talk seriously about reconstituting the armed forces, after which the now famous phrase “as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down” began to take hold. Unfortunately the reality has been much less simple. There have been reports and follow-up reports, detailing the rise and fall of various divisions of the security forces, with the readiness of various units changing almost constantly. Today almost everyone in Iraq agrees that the Iraqi police and armed forces are rife with corruption and internal conflict. General At the same time, the actions of various groups referred to as the “Mahdi Army” seem to be equally destabilizing, while Muqtada Sadr claims that the actions of his militia are still frozen. Last week we spoke with members of the Facilities Protection Service, who detailed their work as security guards and defending various elements of the Health Ministry. This week Hussein Jassim, a man with connections to the Sadr Movement, details a very different experience with men from the Iraqi National Guard and other unknown men who attempted to kill him.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

U.S. to release 9 Iranians it seized in Iraq

The U.S. military soon will release nine Iranians it's holding in Iraq, including two held since January on suspicion that they'd funneled weapons and financial support to Iraqi Shiite Muslim militias. A military spokesman described the decision to release the nine as routine and cautioned against reading greater meaning into it. He didn't explain why it took 10 months to decide that the two weren't terrorists. "These individuals have been assessed to be of no continuing value, nor do they pose a further threat to Iraqi security," said American Navy Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.

CNN: Price of Iraq war 10 times pre-war predictions

When President Bush's emergency supplemental funding request is granted by Congress in the coming weeks, the cost of the Iraq War will reach ten times its original projected cost of $50-60 billion, CNN reports.

Quote of the day: Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred. - Bertrand Russell, Unpopular essays