Tag: Antiwar movement

Warfloggers are busy shooting the messenger. Poor Kevin Sites. All his war reporting in Kosovo and Afghanistan and Iraq, and the fact that he’s embedded in the most dangerous place in Iraq isn’t enough to save him from Republicans on Auto Smear. As with the Abu Ghraib torture photos, the problem for the pro-war With Us Or Against Us crowd isn’t the act that horrifies the world, it’s the fact that the pictures came out.

I guess InstaWarPundit won’t be recommending Kevin Sites anymore.

Unedited video: Fallujah Mosque Shooting

It seems such a short while, one month ago today exactly, when I posted that 1100 US troops had died in Iraq, and at the time it seemed such a short while before that 1000 troops had died. Now we have reached 1200. Such a tragic waste of lives to justify a mistaken war.

For the men, women and children of Iraq who have died, no one seems to have judged it important enough to count them. That is an even greater tragedy.

Casualties in Iraq

Over at Liberty & Power, Aeon Skoble writes:

Lileks makes two very insightful, yet amazingly economical, observations today. The first, regarding the reports that Condi Rice is likely to become the Secretary of State: “I want her to go to Saudi Arabia, and I want her first words upon getting off the plane to be ‘I’ll drive.'” Yes. At some point, these medievals need to brought into the 21st century, or at least the 20th.

Right, because the job description of secretary of state includes “needlessly antagonizing other countries, especially allies.” Perhaps when she gets done with that, she could:

-go to the Vatican and suck face with Madonna
-do a strip-tease in Islamabad
-take her pet pooch to Seoul and dare the locals to eat it

Lileks’ suggestion is ludicrous in the first place because Ms. Rice doesn’t drive herself anywhere — to hop off the plane in Riyadh and demand to drive would be a flagrant act of singling-out. But far worse, it would have nothing to do with Saudi Arabia’s policies toward the U.S. It would be pure imperial muscle-flexing to send an official representative to demand another country tailor its domestic policies to our liking.

If Ms. Rice wants to go protest the “backwards” laws of another country as a private citizen — which means accepting the possible repercussions of such civil disobedience the way you or I would — fine. But you liberventionists shouldn’t hold your breath waiting on that.

Now that Fallujah is smashed into heaps of smoking corpse-strewn rubble, the US Military is gearing up for what they call the “next battle” – the battle for “hearts and minds.” The Civilians that famously didn’t exist yesterday are now expected to come to a food and medical distribution center run by their liberators:

But Monday the mosque became a food and medical distribution center – the first tentative step by US and Iraqi forces to move this broken ghost town from war to peace.

Some 88 families sent men on foot to collect food and water, handed out by Iraqi National Guard units after US civil affairs teams broadcast news of the distribution.

The danger of the rebels remains: One man was carried dead to the mosque, after being shot while on his way by what his friends described as a foreign insurgent sniper. Elsewhere in Fallujah, a US marine was also killed by a sniper.

“People were so happy [when they came], because they need water and food for so many days,” says Dr. Adnan Naji, a medical doctor and captain in the Iraqi armed forces, who set up a clinic inside the mosque Monday that treated nearly 20 cases.

“This is a very important day for us, and for Iraqi and American soldiers, because we let the people go out,” says Dr. Naji.

They let the people go out.

Besides the first food and water distributions, which were protected by US forces as Iraqi units gave the handouts, the Imam of the Hadra mosque organized a mix of Iraqi soldiers and civilian men to remove the scores of dead from the streets.

Oh, that’s nice.

While this happy scene is playing out in downtown Fallujah, Dahr Jamail reports:

The horrendous humanitarian disaster of Fallujah drags on as the US military continues to refuse the entry of an Iraqi Red Crescent (IRC) convoy of relief supplies. The Red Crescent has appealed to the UN to intervene, but no such luck, nor does the military relent.

IP’s, who are under U.S. control, have looted Fallujah General Hospital.

The military stopped the Red Crescent at the gates of the city and are not allowing them in. They allowed some bodies to be buried, but others are being eaten by dogs and cats in the streets, as reported by refugees just out of the city, as well as residents still trapped there.

The military said it saw no need for the IRC to deliver aid to people inside Fallujah because it did not think any civilians were still inside the city.

Contradicting this claim, along with virtually every aid work, refugee, and resident of Fallujah was US Marine Col. Mike Shupp who said, “There is no need to bring [Red Crescent] supplies in because we have supplies of our own for the people.”

IRC spokeswoman Firdu al-Ubadi added, “We know of at least 157 families inside Fallujah who need our help.”

The hospital in Fallujah stands empty not only because the bridge over the Euphrates was blocked by the US Military until today, but also because every car in Fallujah has been destroyed by the invading Marines for fear of car bombs. Now the trapped civilians of Fallujah are forced to go to their liberators for food, water and medicine which makes one wonder just how much humiliation the military is planning to dish out to win those hearts and minds.

And I thought Zarqawi was the beheading mastermind!

But no. Apparently, that title goes to Moayad Ahmed Yasseen (also known as Abu Ahmed).

Ahmed reportedly heads the group “Muhammad’s Army.” Ahmed seems to be incredibly well-connected. Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi said that Muhammad’s Army was known to have co-operated with Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida and Saddam loyalists and was responsible for killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq.

If Ahmed is working with Zarqawi and al-Qaeda and Saddam loyalists, he seems to be more of the terror mastermind than Zarqawi.

It will be interesting to see if his capture has any effect.

As the US government seems to be having some trouble permanently pacifying the population of Fallujah, perhaps they could enlist their old pal Saddam Hussein for help. He’s an expert at pacifying a population using US and British supplies and training. Using a nominal number of US and British supplied weapons of mass destruction, Hussein could easily do a quicker, more efficient job than Allawi. Mr. Allawi only knows about killing people up close and personal-like. Remember that time when he produced a pistol and murdered a few blindfolded “militants” for the amusement of some surly policemen? That’s where his talents lie. Hussein, on the other hand, ruled the Iraqi population for years, and the way he did it was brilliant. He just phonied up a war against Iran, using nationalism and morality – you know, “we is good, they is bad” … come to think of it, just the way most politicians manage to phoney up wars. As soon as that war ended, Hussein immediately dummied up yet another war, this time against Kuwait. I mean this fella Hussein just has a natural talent for pacifying populations by creating enemies that are worse than he is. At best this fool Allawi is a talented executioner. If he were really smart, he would find a reason to have a war with Syria, perhaps to make the world safe for democracy. That one’s been used before, but people have a short memory.
Only the dumbest politicians attack their own populations when there are much better ones abroad. Since Allawi lacks the natural talent, Hussein is the go-to guy.

They’ve tried the rest, now try the best.