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Jan 2 2010 Biden in Baghdad: Mujahideen Army [WHO?] attacks Green Zone

Curiosity killed the cat, perhaps, but digging a little deeper into the news may provide us with the means of ensuring that our children live in more peaceful times. Inspecting the results of our occupation of Iraq may yield insights into more effective ways of realistically participating in the world we live in.

U.S. Vice President Biden flew into Iraq and was greeted with 4 rocket attacks targeting the Green Zone. The only reported casualties were 2 innocent civilians killed and  5 wounded when one of the rockets exploded in a nearby apartment complex.

The Mujahideen Army , Jaish al-Mujahideen, claimed responsibility. Who are these killers? What is their self-justification? They are part of the underground Baathist and Islamist militant 'Iraqi Resistance' groups that formed in late 2004 in response to the occupation. They are nationalists and are dedicated to fighting the U.S. presence in the country. [START]

Many of its weapons were originally stolen from abandoned Iraqi army depots. They specialize in small-scale mortar, rocket, IED, and sniper attacks, as opposed to spectacular suicide car bombings. During 2006, its most noteworthy operations were the downing of U.S. Apache helicopters with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.

They have more recently sought to distance themselves from certain other insurgent groups. Their December 2008 press release insisted that they "have neither joined in the Awakening movements, nor in the methodology of fanaticism, of which [Al-Qaida is] the central pillar."

Their 17th of March 2005 Open Letter to the American Public urged the American people to take matters into their own hands and overthrow the "criminals" that currently ran their government. The letter reviewed the lies of the Bush administration and  showed a familiarity with American history and respect for the American people, placing blame entirely on the Bush administration, which it believes rigged the 2004 election.

The Mujahideen Army is dedicated to jihaad, but not opposed to political participation. Overtures to the government to enter the political process have not, however, been acceptable to Iraq's rulers.

Jaish al-Mujahideen issued a statement in May 2006 a condemning needless ethnic and sectarian warfare between Iraqis and blamed the American occupation for the strife between  Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, Kurds, Muslims, and Christians. It concluded, "We must work courageously and with a sense of national and religious responsibility for the sake of future generations, so that we may spare them of the evils of ethnic and racial extremism and segregation." [Global Terror Alert]

We make no apologies for Jaish al-Mujahideen. They are a fact of life, born of the occupation. They have chosen, for whatever reasons, a violent path that helps nothing, harms the innocent, and prolongs the agony of the Iraqi people.

So what do we get out of this research? Another sets of details that verify that American interference into the lives of other nations, over the past 50 years, has caused more harm than good, has created more enemies than friends, and has made our lives less secure.

We don't need isolationism any more than we need occupationism. We need intelligent, rational, and above all compassionate support for the peoples of the world. We owe it to our children to create more peaceful tomorrows by ending our funding of violent solutions and instead putting our vast resources and creative energies into non-violent strategies and tactics.

Dec 29 2009 Have you heard about the 'Gaza Freedom March'? Probably not.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices that our American news media fail to help us understand our position in the world, and fail to help us understand why so many people in the world despise us.

Harvard's Stephen M. Walt wrote this piece for Foreign Policy

 

 

Did you know that the Gaza Freedom March -- a group of over 1300 peace

activists from 43 countries -- is protesting the continued siege of Gaza, on the anniversary of the brutal Israeli assault that killed over a thousand people last year? (There is also a separate effort to bring a convoy of relief aid to the Gazans, under the auspices of the group Viva Palestina).

 

Did you know that the Freedom March is now stuck in Cairo, because the Egyptian government has denied them permission to travel to Gaza? The Mubarak regime has its own issues with Hamas, and it is also dependent on U.S. economic and military aid. Israel and the United States don't want the adverse publicity that the Freedom March might generate and are perfectly content to let the Gazans suffer, so needless to say Washington isn't putting any pressure on Egypt to let the  convoy through.

 

Did you know that this event is being extensively covered in the Arab world,[2] and may be causing problems for Mubarak & Co., as the Egyptians are once again being exposed as complicit in the collective punishment that Israel is inflicting on the population of Gaza?  

Did you know that one of the participants in the convoy is an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor (Hedy Epstein), and that she recently began a hunger strike to protest the refusal to let the convoy go to Gaza?

 

You probably didn't know about any of this, but it's not really your fault. You probably get your news from mainstream outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, and neither of these illustrious newspapers has bothered to cover this story. What do they consider important? Well, in the case of the Times, their idea of a big Mideast story right now is the heart-warming saga of a little shwarma shop in Amman. 

If you do want to learn a bit more about this worthy effort to help the

Gazans, you can go to the group's website, here.[3] Or you can follow it on

Mondoweiss, here.[4] Or even read about it in Ha'aretz, here.[5] And then you

might have a better idea why the Mubarak government isn't very popular,

why Israel faces growing censure for its conduct, why the United States

continues to be despised in much of the Arab and Islamic world, and why

the blogosphere is so important.

 

 

Links

1. http://www.vivapalestina.org/

2. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/20091229135120588522.html

3. http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416

4. http://tinyurl.com/yh3ua67

5. http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1138477.html

 

 

Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International

Relations at Harvard University and co-author with John J. Mearsheimer of

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

 

 

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/12/29/have_you_heard_about_the_gaza_freedom_march_probably_not

©2009 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC.

Dec 26 2009 News of Iraq - Why tell only part of the truth?

It's question time again. Today the media showed great alarm about the bombing of innocent Shi'ite pilgrims who died from bombs set by ...? Unknown assailants. Some Western media, including the UK's Guardian,  went so far as to label the bombing 'sectarian', although no evidence of the perpetrators has come forth. 

What most of the media failed to let us know about were today's other 10 bomb blasts, 5 of which were in Baghdad. Why would news outlets hide the truth about the other bombs?

I must admit that I am stumped. What comes to mind are rather simplistic answers, none of which really make sense to me, but maybe one will resonate with you...

1) We are so embarrassed by our failure to shape a reasonably safe environment after expending a trillion dollars [and so many, many lives of innocent Iraqis, not to mention the thousands of Americans who died needlessly in this farce of a war] that we cannot speak of the truth of the horrors we unleashed,

or

2) Owners of the media judge that their reading audience is so ashamed of the actions of the U.S. government that they will not buy newspapers that keep telling the sad truth.

Got any other ideas? Add them as comments or send them on to mail@121Contact.org

Peace to you and yours in these waning days of 2009.

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Also on Saturday, three policemen and two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Baghdad' southeastern district of Zaafaraniyah, the police said.

#2: An Iraqi police official says a roadside bomb has killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad in the latest round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered Shiite observance. The official says Saturday's bomb was planted near a tent that offered drinks and food to pilgrims. He says 16 people were injured. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures.

#3: A member of the Baghdad local council escaped an assassination attempt when an improvised explosive device that targeted pilgrims in the east of the capital city who were heading for the holy Shiite city of Karbala, the council chief said on Friday. “Sabbar al-Saadi escaped the IED blast in the area of al-Maamil. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and his health condition is stable,” Kamel al-Zaydi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Meanwhile, a source in Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s office in Baghdad said Sheikh Amjad al-Saadi, the office’s relations director, and a driver were wounded in the explosion, adding the local officials were inspecting the Husseini processions that were heading to Karbala, where Shiite Muslims are celebrating the Ashuraa.

#4: Three people were killed and seven others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) attack targeted a Shiite procession in Baghdad on Friday evening, a security source said.
“The IED left three pilgrims killed and seven others injured in the eastern Baghdad district of al-Rashad, when they were going on foot in a procession heading for Karbala,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#5: Two persons were killed and eight others wounded in an improvised explosive device attack that targeted a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala to celebrate the Ashuraa. “Two civilians were killed and eight others wounded in the attack that took place near the Baghdad al-Jadida (New Baghdad) area, in the southeastern part of the city,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Mahmoud Hussein al-Obiedi, a Sunni chieftain, was killed in a bomb explosion outside his house in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: Elsewhere, a policeman and four civilians were wounded when an explosive charge hidden in a garbage container detonated near a police checkpoint in the town of Tuz Khurmato, some 90 km east of Tikrit, the capital city of Salahudin province in north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi forces defused a car bomb that was meant to target security forces in eastern Mosul on Friday, a local security source within the Ninewa Operations Command (NOC) said. “The police managed to dismantle a car bomb that was parked in the area of Bazwaya, on the main street that leads to Bartala district, eastern Mosul city, without incident,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosive vehicle was meant to target the security forces heading for Bartala that has recently witnessed disputes between Christians and ethnic Shabaks,” the source added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: In separate incident, Mallooky al-Jumaily, a police Lieutenant General, was killed in the morning by a bomb explosion in front of his house in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a anonymous source from the city police told Xinhua.

A civilian man was killed on Saturday morning when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near his house in central al-Falluja district, a local police source said. “An IED planted on the roadside in al-Jumhouriya neighborhood, central Falluja, went off right after a civilian man stepped out of his house, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Dec 5 2009 Iraq Christmas, Iraq Muharram, Iraq has no holiday from death,

The winter 'celebrations' of Muharram and Christmas have arrived in Iraq. The former celebrates a month in which fighting is forbidden (haram), and the latter celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. 14 explosions and a spate of assassinations mark the holidays.

Ah, Baghdad, the City of Peace.

Ah, well, sometimes things don't go the way they should. The violence is once again on the rise and the innocent Iraqis continue to pay the price of the destabilization that the U.S. brought to their nation.

[photo from timesonline]

Now the killing is as complicated as ever.

Factions loyal to the Maliki government point to the violence as a reason maintain a U.S. presence, which coincidentally props up their regime. 

Forces opposed to the Maliki government use the violence as proof that the current regime is unfit to protect the people.

Iran loves an unstable Iraqe because it is no longer a containment to Iranian influence in the region.

Al Qaida, remnants of Baathist cells, disaffected disbanded militiamen, gangs of unemployed, gangs of hopeless...pick and choose. 

And the criminals? They are ecstatic. Kidnappings, especially of children, are on the rise with prices of $100,000 common for the return of a beloved child. There's no politics here, only the ease with which criminals can avoid arrest because of the general chaos. Ditto smuggling, child prostitution, theft, and other lucrative activities that at least have the ability of providing sustenance to the masses of unemployed who see no other viable alternatives. Starvation is a real threat in these days of hopelessness. Don't underestimate the effect of rising crime organizations on the reconstruction efforts. Iraq is not the first nation to watch as criminals fill the security void left by departing occupiers.

And how will it sort itself out? We wont know until the invader leaves and the Iraqis settle their own business. The U.S. government has pressured Maliki to build a unity body to rule the nation, but his willingness to let go of power that way seems nonexistent. 

Leave? [URUKNET]The recently passed 636 billion military spending bill (395 members voted for it, 34 against it) only covers operations through September 30, 2010, and doesn't include the monies US President Obama will need for his Afghanistan 'surge.'  Much of it is for high-tech apparatus that is absolutely useless in the war against small terrorist actions. 

 

The fledgling peace movements within Iraq receive no support from the Obama's administration, and the paltry support that NGO's are able to funnel to the pacifists, reconcilliation movements, etc. is not enough to make a difference.

The solution will probably be bloody but it will be their own solution and they will learn to live with it.

Reported security incidents Dec 25, 2009

Baghdad:
#1: Five people were killed and 22 others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City on Thursday, a local security source said. “The IED went off near a funerary gathering in Sector 42, Sadr City district, eastern Baghdad, leaving five people killed and 22 others wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Three people were killed and eight others wounded on Thursday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in al-Zaafaraniya, southeastern Baghdad, a local security source said. “An IED went off near a Shiite funerary gathering in the area of Sa’eeda, al-Zaafaraniya neighborhood, southeastern Baghdad, killing three and wounding eight others,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: One civilian was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Baghdad on Friday, a police source said. “The bomb, planted by gunmen in al-Shamaiya region in eastern Baghdad, went off, killing a civilian and injuring four,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen slew on Thursday a prominent figure in Jalawlaa, said a local security source in Diala province. “The victim is Shokor Tayyeb. His daughter, Amal, is a candidate of the Kurdistan Alliance List participating in the upcoming parliamentary election,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the armed men stabbed Tayyeb with knives before slitting his throat.


Karbala:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off near a Shiite procession of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Karbala for the Ashuraa but nothing was said about possible casualties, according to eyewitnesses on Thursday. “A blast targeted a Husseini procession in the area of Bab Baghdad on Maytham al-Timar street in Karbala city. The blast, based on initial information, was the result of an IED,” the Aswat al-Iraq news agency correspondent reported.

Twenty-two Shiite pilgrims were killed or wounded when three gas cylinders exploded in the holy Shiite city of Karbala on Thursday, a security source said. “Three gas cylinders that were used to prepare dinner meals for the pilgrims reviving the Muharram 10th anniversary, or Ashuraa, exploded near a Husseini procession, leaving a number of them killed or wounded,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded four civilians in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad on Thursday night, police said


Shirqat:
#1: Gunmen opened fire on a local pro-government militia checkpoint on Thursday night, killing one and wounding two others in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Unidentified gunmen opened fire southwest of Kirkuk city, killing a civil servant of the electricity department in al-Rashad district, a senior security source in Kirkuk said on Thursday. “Gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by fire on the civilian who was also in his car,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the chief of the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Sinjar:
#1: Three Peshmerga forces were killed on Friday and ten were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Sinjar, according to a security source. “A car rigged with explosives went off on Friday (Dec. 25) targeting A Peshmerga forces vehicle patrol between al-Rabieaya and Sinjar districts, western Talafar, killing three and injuring ten,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives and killed one soldier from the minority Kurds' Peshmerga military and wounded 14 others near Iraq's border with Syria in northern Nineveh province, said Khaled Abdala, a local leader from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). A different source from the KDP said the explosion was not a suicide attack, but a remotely detonated car bomb, and put the toll at one killed and 10 wounded.


Mosul:
#1: A high-ranking member of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was on Friday fatally shot in a suburb of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, witnesses said. Ahmed Kamel al-Badrani, a former officer in Hussein's feared military intelligence apparatus, was gunned down in front of his home in the western Mosul district of Amil, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa.

#2: Update Two people died late Thursday of wounds sustained in the suicide explosion that targeted chairman of the Talafar council, raising the fatalities to four, a medical source said on Friday. “The two bodyguards were seriously wounded in the explosion that took place last Monday (Dec. 21),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: US forces killed an insane man in west of Mosul city, a security source said on Friday. “The forces killed an insane man late Thursday (Dec. 24) in Tal Abta district, west of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The 17-year-old young man appeared in front of the US patrol holding a plastic gun,” he said, noting that the forces thought he is a gunman and killed him.

#4: Update The final toll of the double explosions in the city of Hilla on Thursday rose to 25 dead and 105 wounded, a police source said on Friday. “A police force managed to defuse a number of bombs in the same area on Thursday (Dec. 24),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosions killed 25, including 14 policemen, and wounded 105, including 35 cops,” he added. A police source had said yesterday (Dec.24) that 12 persons were killed, including member of the Babel council Neaamat al-Bakri, and 50 others were wounded, including Commander of anti-explosive department Colonel Taleb al-Shemri and two of his aides, when a car bomb and an improvised explosive device went off in central Hilla.

#5: Three employees were killed on Friday by unknown gunmen in western Mosul, a police source said. “Unknown gunmen opened fire on a number of the census employees in al-Hay al-Senaai region, western Mosul, killing three of them,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#6: Police found the body of a woman who had been suffocated to death in western Mosul, police said.

#7: An attacker threw an explosive at an Iraqi police patrol, killing one civilian and wounding another in central Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two gunmen were arrested while attempting to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in central al-Falluja city on Thursday, a local security source said. “The Falluja police forces, acting upon intelligence tip-offs, arrested two gunmen while emplacing an IED near a checkpoint in al-Andalus neighborhood, central Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A sticky bomb exploded on Friday inside a car in eastern Falluja, without leaving casualties, a police source said. “The bomb, stuck to a civilian vehicle, went off on Friday morning (Dec. 25) on a road in al-Karma district, eastern Falluja, without causing casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Anbar emergency police chief survived an attempt on his life on Friday morning in southern Falluja, according to a police source. “Unknown gunmen on Friday morning (De. 25) opened fire on the motorcade of Colonel Ghazi al-Dulaimi using light weapons in al-Aameriya district in southern Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Policemen clashed with the attackers and managed to injure and arrest one of them,” he added. “The colonel was not hurt, while the gunmen fled to unknown place,” he said.

Dec 21 2009 Dear President Obama, please don't forget Iraq

[This is excerpted from Peace Action's letter we endorsed. It is technical, and pinpoints Obama's previous promises to help.
You can write your own...if you are willing to take the few minutes to help.  We know you care, now let's see you take the simple action of writing to Obama. We know he listens to mail!]

Dear President Obama,
We urge you to continue non-military support of Iraqis. Lasting success in Iraq depends upon strengthening Iraqi civil society, addressing the refugee crisis, and providing meaningful development. We must ensure that ending the U.S. military operations does not lead to ending the U.S.
humanitarian and development assistance. 

Please fulfill your promises to support the millions of displaced Iraqis.

Any successful plan for helping displaced Iraqis must examine these three
elements:

* Local Integration and humanitarian aid: The U.S. government, in coordination with the Iraqi government and host governments, should push for more efficient systems for visas, residency and access to education and healthcare.
* Resettlement: Resettlement is an essential tool for protecting the most vulnerable Iraqis and for sharing the burden of hosting them. We urge you to commit to accepting 50% of the Iraqi refugees identified by the UNHCR for resettlement.
* Voluntary Repatriation: The U.S. government should work with Iraq, Syria, Jordan and other host countries to help displaced Iraqis return home.

In a report published this July, the State Department's Inspector General recommended ending the Provincial Reconstruction Teams by 2011.  Eliminating the Provincial Reconstruction Teams requires a transitional plan to handover the reconstruction work to Iraqis and to fund Iraqi NGOs, especially Community Based Organizations.


II. The Budget

We ask you to fulfill your promise by increasing the funds allocated in the FY11 budget for the State Department's Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau (PRM) and for USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

In addition, we ask that you support the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) fund to meet unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs. Money appropriated to the ERMA fund remains available until expended, creating an important backup emergency reserve.

We would also recommend that the federal agencies involved in the resettlement process, including the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migrations (PRM), and other
relevant offices in the Department of Homeland Security are well-coordinated and adequately funded to ensure a smooth and efficient resettlement process.

Finally, the U.S. government should urge the Iraqi government to spend more of its resources on displaced Iraqis inside Iraq and in the region. The U.S. government should also encourage regional governments and organizations to participate in funding projects aimed at helping displaced Iraqis.

In loving kindness,

Bruce Wallace and Noor

121Contact.org

Dec 18 2009 LaOnf = Nonviolence in Iraq, of Iraqis, for Iraqis, by Iraqis

[from Will Waddell in Politics] " 'Iraq' is a misnomer in the state sense. The term al-'Iraq actually means the shore of the great river. It has been used by Arab geographers since the eighth century, but only came to mean a particular country situated in the alluvial plain formed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers since the 1920s...Iraq has always been a country of disharmonious parts welded together only through the liberal application of force. "

Given this background it is heartening to see that Iraqis are now facing the reality of their history with a non-violent movement that encompasses the entire nation.

Thanks to Ali H. Sahib we have a first-hand account of a movement that is growing in Iraq. Over the past year the growth of internal peace activism has been marked by less resistance and more acceptance. The ­Iraqi civil-society organization LaOnf (which means “no violence” in Arabic) is a network of Iraqi activists building a nonviolence movement to resist occupation, terrorism and corruption in Iraq. 

 Although 266 applications from Iraqis for attendance were received, the budget could only support participation by 125 representatives from 17 out of Iraq's 18 provinces, and 20 from other nations. 32% were women. 

Members from around the nation shared their experiences  and became aware of each other as part of a larger non-violence movement. 

Meeting with those from outside Iraq allowed for valuable sharing of experiences both on the ground and organizationally. 

[The final report of Iraqi Non-violence Forum Iraq, ErIraq, Erbil, Shaqlawa 6-11 Nov, 2009, by Ali H. Sahib, is available in PDF format by request to: mail@121Contact.org]  

Presentations focused on Iraq-specific aspects of non-violence and included discussions of the cultural basis of violence and non-violence in Iraq's history as well as the present.

Practical aspects of introducing non-violent means were the focus of much of the discussions. Education at home and in school was noted as a critical factor. A group of
students from Salahaden University attended the forum to get experiences in voluntary works in civil society organizations, peace and nonviolence.

Workshops were held to train people in non-violent methods.

It was noted that the Maliki government has been less than open to this movement and still puts bureaucratic obstacles in its path, making it difficult to get official permissions for activities, etc.

Among the goals for the coming year:

• capacity building
• a series of advocacy campaigns throughout Iraq
• writing the charter and electing the board of directors
• further understanding of the challenges facing the non-violence movement in Iraq
• update the website and generally improve communications
• organizing more workshops

We'll try to keep you informed about LaOnf in the coming year. There may be ways in which you can help them, and we'll let you know about such opportunities.

In loving kindness,

Bruce and Noor

121Contact throught the walls of political violence

Dec 3 2009 Obama fails to learn from Iraq. Let's kill some Afghans next (and maybe some Pakistanis, too).

Let's try not to be distracted by Obama's call for a limit to our Afghanistan involvement. His actions have a recent history of falling far short of his promises, and his logic is much weaker than his charismatic presence in the media.

Winning the hearts and minds of Afhganistan's population will not be accomplished by killing and maiming its citizens.

Iraq provides evidence that the US is incapable of enforcing internal peace in external nations. We might have learned this in Vietnam, but we didn't. In Iraq we have a recent, current, and bleeding example of the futility of trying to impose from the outside what only the people on the inside are capable of.

The initial cause of Iraqis losing their security was our invasion. The initiator of Iraq's plunge into violence was our occupation. Any Iraqi gains in security are the result of Iraqi actions, not US troop violence. The 'surge', without the coinciding attacks on Al Qaida by the tribal leaders in Anbar would merely have been more of the same: more US troop targets for the resistance to aim at; more US killing of civilians for Al Qaida to recruit on; and more denial of the basic truth that the Iraqis must solve their own problems. The Iraqis have a long way to go, but since we've toned down our violence so has their violence been reduced, and now they are beginning to face their own realities. More so each day that we pull more troops out.

Don't be distracted. The 2010 American 'violence-as-solution' in Iraq and Afghanistan is budgeted at about 12 billion US dollars (Afghanistan will cost more than Iraq this year). This doesn't count the billions given to mercenaries who fight without accountability nor the further billions spent by the CIA in its covert, i.e., illegal, actions along the Afghan/Pakistan border. [Older readers and history buffs will be reminded of covert actions in Laos and Cambodia, I'm sure.]

Let's not be distracted by the fact that we may actually be able to secure two Afghani population centers and the single road that joins them. The majority of the population will be unprotected, resentful of our perceived occupation, and more and more willing to join the resistance that is growing every day.

Obama's notion that Al Qaida needs a safe haven in Afghan/Pakistan territory in order to plot our destruction is another weakness in his logic. He ignores the fact that the major planning was done in Europe and the USA, with the scheme only presented for approval to Al Qaida in Afghanistan after it was defined. The pilot training took place in the US!!!!

Each day we fight Obama's wars we enable Al Qaida and its like to become stronger. We provide them with recruits by our actions. We make ourselves weaker by focusing on a specific geographical area when the real danger is disseminated.

Don't think for a minute that when we kill innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan that the resentment stays within those borders. Some of it grows right here, in the good old USA. We should take the billions upon billions we spend to kill and maim and use that money to grow friends instead of enemies.

Nov 14 2009 Bring back the draft and end the wars!

What follows is an open letter by Wright Salisbury whom we came to know as a members of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. His thoughtful position on the draft is one that we share, and one we hope you will take time to consider.

Wright lost his son-in-law, Edward Hennessy, Jr. in the 9/11 attack. He is also the founder of The Alliance for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to building bridges of understanding between people of different faiths.

Bring back the draft and end the wars! by Wright Salisbury

 A brief history of the draft
The United States first employed conscription during the Civil War. Interestingly, since passions in
support of the war were high, only 2% were draftees. Another 6% were paid substitutes. (If a man were drafted, he could pay someone else to take his place.)

After Congress declared war in the World War I, the Conscription Act of 1917 was passed. There
was a lot of resistance to it and almost 300,000 men evaded the draft, mainly through moving and not
leaving a forwarding address.

The Selective Training and Service Act (STSA) of 1940 was passed into law by congress in anticipation of the coming or World War II. 350,000 men evaded the draft in World War II. After that act expired, it was replaced by the Selective Service Act in 1948, requiring all men between 18 and 26 to register for the draft.

After the debacle of the Vietnam War and the passions it aroused in draft-age men, conscription
ended in June, 1973. Since that time, the armed services have relied on enlistees and members of
the National Guard.

Why we should reinstate the draft
Since the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. has been engaged in many military actions but not until
the Iraq War were National Guard people required to fight on foreign soil. There has been a lot of
discussion about whether the National Guard can be required to fight overseas, and it will be some
time before the legality of sending National Guard troops overseas is resolved. However, the use of
National Guard personnel to fight overseas clearly compromises their main mission, which is to deal
with domestic disasters.

The answer obviously is to reinstate the draft, perhaps under the original terms of the Selective
Training and Service Act of 1940, requiring all men between 18 and 26 to register for the draft. A bill
reinstating the draft under these terms was introduced by Congressman Charles Rangel in 2003 and
was soundly defeated, garnering only two votes. This idea clearly is not popular with congressmen
anxious to keep their seats in Congress. How much more convenient it is for all of us to send other
people to fight our wars.

Reinstatement of the draft, or even a movement to do so, would trigger a necessary national discussion. If a war is worth fighting, it should be the responsibility of all to share in the hardships and
possible deaths involved in the fighting.

I think it is time to begin that discussion in earnest.

Nov 3 2009 USS New York: Commemorating US Crimes in Iraq

Just as we burrow deeper into the maelstrom of Afghanistan we are gifted with one of the ugliest warships ever built by any nation.

It is hard to think of a less fitting way to send "a message of America becoming stronger as a result" of 9/11 [Naval Cmdr. Quentin King]. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England announced the naming as to "honor the victims of Sept. 11."                                          

Tragically neither the U.S. Navy nor President Obama evidently understand the enormity of the insult this warship delivers to those innocent civilians lost on September 11, 2001.

America weakened significantly after 9/11. The response to invade and occupy Iraq was a criminal act based on deliberate deceit. The punitive crushing of the Iraqi populace was nothing to be proud of. Our moral standing in the world was greatly diminished. Our civil liberties at home suffered setbacks that may never be recovered.

President Obama will come to New York to commission the USS New York on Saturday. We wish he would stay in Washington and decommission our failed effort in Iraq, and put an end to the inevitable failure of our mission in Afghanistan. We can no more force cultures to adopt the mythical Democratic model than we can forge peaceful tomorrows from weapons of destruction.

We also wish President Obama would stop the lies. We already have more mercenaries in Afghanistan that we have troops, but that fact is never added to official tallies of troop numbers.

Let us honor the innocent civilians who died on 9/11 by stopping the slaughter of innocent civilians by our own hands. This would be a true tribute to the fallen.

Aug 27 2009 Iraq: from bad to worse? What is the US legacy?

Natalia Antelava BBC News, Baghdad, wrote: More than 100 people died in bombings across Iraq over the past three days. The attacks, which hit Baghdad and areas outside Mosul in the north on Friday and on Monday, are the biggest and the most serious since the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities at the end of June. Iraqis complain that widespread corruption prevents security services from protecting ordinary people Along with other, smaller incidents - which often fail to make international headlines - a total of 157 people were killed in Iraq in the first 10 days of August - more than half of all those killed in July. And from what we are hearing from friends in Baghdad the situation has gotten worse in many neighborhoods. We poured billions upon billions of dollars in Iraq in killing, maiming, and destroying the infrastructure. Now it is time to pour a little into the restoration of what we have destroyed. Let you representatives in government know how you feel about the US responsibility toward the innocent civilians of Iraq. We warred on them in a cloud of lies, but the truth is clearer now. We disgraced ourselves in the eyes of the world and only restorative actions, not words, will help us regain our dignity. Reported Security incidents today [Iraq Today]: Baghdad: #1: Separately, two explosive charges planted in two civilian cars detonated late on Wednesday on a thoroughfare in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Adhamiyah, wounding a total of 12 people and damaging several nearby shops, the source added. #2: Another official says three car bombs exploded in northern Baghdad, wounding four police officers and two civilians. #3: Another car bomb also struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, wounding seven people. Four people were wounded on Thursday in a roadside bomb blast in eastern Baghdad, a police source said. “A roadside bomb, planted on the public road, near Sahet Beirut in Palestine street, eastern Baghdad, exploded while a police vehicle patrol was passing, injuring two civilians and two policemen and damaging one of the patrol’s vehicles,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. #4: A jeweler on Wednesday was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with a group of gunmen who broke into his shop in Baghdad, according to a police source. “Three gunmen driving a black civilian car attempted to burgle a jeweler’s shop on Falastine St., eastern Baghdad,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.The owner of the shop engaged in a shootout with the gunmen, which left him, along with one of his workers, wounded, the source noted. #5: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it blew up in west Baghdad's upscale district of Mansour on Wednesday, police said. #6: One U.S. vehicle was devastated when it was hit by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad, a source from the Iraq police said on Thursday. “The incident took place on Thursday in al-Ghazaliya neighborhood,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The source was unable to report any casualties as U.S. forces cordoned off the area. Taji: #1: A car bomb which parked near a parking lot at the entrance of Baghdad's northern suburb of Taji detonated on Thursday morning, killing a civilian and wounding five others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Kirkuk: #1: Gunmen in a speeding car attacked a police foot patrol in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding another, late on Wednesday, police said. #2: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it exploded in central Kirkuk on Wednesday, police said Mosul: #1: A sticky improvised explosive device (IED) on Wednesday went off in front of the house of an employee working for Baiji refinery, a security source in Ninewa said. “The explosion caused damage to the house, located in al-Qayara district (60 km south of Mosul), but no casualties have been reported,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.