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A Year On In Iraq: Bush Threatens 'Decisive Force', Najaf in US Sights, Fallujah Death Toll 600+ international |
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feature
 Saturday April 10, 2004 00:26 by imc blogging team ;-) - .
 Blog for News Reports on Iraq UPDATES: 14TH/15TH APRIL
‘Fear Translating into Anger’
Bush endorses Israeli West Bank Settlements
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Three Related Irish Protests Announced
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49Hostages Taken - A Number of Cities out of Coalition Control.
'Marine engineers patrolling near Ramadi on Wednesday reported coming across a mass grave containing up to 350 bodies of Iraqis who appeared to have been killed in the fighting. It wasn't clear whether the bodies belonged to combatants, civilians or both.'
http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/04/far04011.html Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off? Why Three Out of Four Experts Predict a Terrorist Attack by November
'Withdraw your troops and go home or we will burn them alive and feed them to the fighters'
( Seems dodgy to me )
In the past week, 46 US troops have been killed. Since Sunday alone, when Sadr's followers rose up, 35 Americans, two other coalition soldiers, and at least 230 Iraqis have died in the nationwide violence, the AP reported. Fifteen of the American casualties were in Fallujah and Ramadi, part of the so-called Sunni Triangle.
Sadr's fighters appeared to put American allies on the run across southern Iraq, challenging some of the smaller international contingents in the US-led coalition that have been patrolling regions that had enjoyed relative peace.
Sadr's fighters have effectively kept Polish troops from securing Karbala, locked Spanish troops out of Najaf, and driven Ukrainian troops out of Kut.
Bulgaria demanded backup from the coalition authority for its 450 soldiers stationed in Karbala, who have come under repeated attack. In December, the Bulgarians were forced to withdraw from one base in the city center after it was destroyed by a truck bomb. Mahdi Army fighters controlled the streets of the holy city of Najaf for a third day. Spanish troops remained outside the town.
Seven South Koreans, three Japanese and a Briton were reported Thursday to have been seized in Iraq and militants threatened to burn the Japanese alive unless their country withdrew its troops.
Forces of a renegade adviser to President Hamid Karzai overran the capital of a northern province on Thursday, creating a fresh security headache for Afghanistan's Western-backed government.
General Abdul Rashid Dostum's largely ethnic Uzbek militia invaded Faryab from neighboring provinces on Wednesday, prompting the central government to send national troops there on Thursday in an attempt to maintain control.
"Dostum loyalists have entered Maimana city," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalai told a news briefing. "This is an unconstitutional act of interference by General Dostum."
Calendar of
US Military Dead
during Iraqi War
http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm
us dead and total allies killed
they always seem to just to mention us ,as do we sometimes and what about non-iraqi contract workes?
From Baghdad
Events in Iraq did not worry American officials a year ago. They feared that their soldiers would be irritated by the many flowers Iraqis would be showering on them.
Commentary by Walid al-Zubeidi in Oman's Al-Watan
Tom Englehardt offers some perspective on these developments—and a parallel--in his Tom'sDispatch, beginning by citing Paul Bremer:
" 'There is no question we have control over the country. I know if you just report on those few places [where the fighting is taking place], it does look chaotic,' Bremer said on CNN's American Morning. 'But if you travel around the country, what you find is a bustling economy, people opening businesses right and left, unemployment has dropped… The story of the house that doesn't burn down is not much of a story in the news. The story of the house that does burn down is news.' "
Tom continues:
"So is Iraq -- yes, we're talking about Iraq, not Vietnam -- a glass half full or half empty? Or could it be half-shattered… or is it a glass at all?
Soon enough we'll undoubtedly hear plaintive murmurings from official Washington that `they' -- the Sunni insurgents in that famed `triangle' (reminiscent of `triangles' first named decades ago); and the followers of the young Islamist extremist Muqtada al Sadr -- have been militarily "defeated" and should recognize as much and act accordingly. As if that were the point. As if the story were really a military one in the first place.
For anyone of a certain age, memories -- particularly of the shocking beginning moment of the surprise 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam -- are bound to come flooding back; not, I hasten to add, because that massive nationwide series of assaults which stunned the American public into disbelief and this chaotic spread of rebellion into the Shiite areas of Iraq are in any literal way similar, but because the response is familiar, because the `gap' between events unfolding on television and the Iraq promised by this administration is already large enough to create genuine unease in the `homeland,' to give the alternately sunny and belligerent pronouncements of this administration's spokesmen in Baghdad and Washington the look of propaganda, not to say surreality…."
Most US media has not had access to the battlefield. There was only one embedded reporter, Tony Perry from The Los Angeles Times present in Falluja?. Some network reporters have acknowledged that "it is not safe" to leave their offices. Reports on Iraq are now coming out of Pentagon press offices.
Rahul Mahajan, author of several books on Iraq, says: "We're being told a convenient and self-serving [story about] a few barbaric 'isolated extremists' from the 'Saddamist stronghold' of Falluja who killed four contractors."
"The truth is rather different," Mahajan told me. "Falluja, although heavily Sunni Arab, was hardly in Saddam's pocket. Its imams got into trouble for refusing to obey his orders to praise him personally during prayers." According to the author, Falluja became a hotbed of resistance on April 28, 2003, when U.S. troops opened fire on a group of 100 to 200 peaceful protesters. Fifteen protesters were killed.
"They claimed they were returning gunfire, but Human Rights Watch investigated and found that the bullet holes in the area were inconsistent with that story -- and, furthermore, every Iraqi witness maintained that the crowd was unarmed. Two days later, another three protesters were killed," reported Mahajan.
Before deciding that the most important thing in the world is to get black masks and riots on tv:
"Unless we are absolutely nonviolent, we can be Al-Quaeded in the fascist narrative of the "Other" and thus become a backdrop that legitimizes the Bushies' ridiculousness. Anything which Bush's PR team can use, they will; they're desperate. They need images of "out of control masked teenagers breaking things" very badly right now to recover their credibility."
BAGHDAD - Thousands of Iraqi sympathizers, both Sunni and Shiite Muslim, forced their way through US military roadblocks in a bid to bring aid from the capital to the besieged Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah. Troops in armored vehicles attempted to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the western town where US marines have met ferocious resistance in a two-day-old offensive against the insurgents. US troops watch Iraqis marching towards the flashpoint town of Fallujah. Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslim sympathizers forced their way through US military roadblocks in a bid to bring aid from the capital to the besieged Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah. (AFP/Karim Sahib) But the US contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops. Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived, and armed insurgents could be seen dancing around on two blazing military vehicles. Two US Humvees attempted to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater). US troops armed with machine guns and backed up by armour again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones. The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad clerics both Sunni and Shiite amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since Tuesday evening. The rare display of sectarian unity came after Shiite radicals launched an uprising in cities across central and southern Iraq, shattering a year of relative tolerance of the US-led occupation from the country's majority community. "No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity," the marchers chanted. "We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country."
Pictures of the two American Humvees being forced to run away by the people of Iraq from outside Falluja was shown but not explained on RTE. I was wondering why the yanks were just turning and running . Thanks RTE for your continual attempts to keep the Irish people in ignorance. Who exactly is it that relays messages from the US embassy to RTE? I assume it's not done through "official" channels anymore.
This day last year Joe Duffy repeatedly interrupted his (holy)show to cut to SKY News and the pictures of "thousands" of Iraqis pulling down Saddams statue in Baghdad. As we now know this scene was concocted and camera angles were arranged to show "a large crowd" and not in fact the few dozen pro- American gangsters who had gathered. Neither Joe nor RTE ever corrrected this misrepresentation. Neither did they explain why they were so primed and ready to go like so many other broadcasters around the world that day who also step to the US drum.
If you want to be shown on RTE these days it's a good idea to wear a large crucifix around your neck ! The RTE camera loves those crucifixes .
Opus Dei - they havn't gone away y'know
Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia says he can no longer reconcile his responsibilities in the U.S. Army with his principles.
That is why, on March 15, he declared himself a conscientious objector. He is not the first soldier to oppose the war in Iraq, but he is the first Iraqi War veteran to make his decision public.
[....]
What does Mejia say to those who accuse him of being a coward? "Without realizing it, they're right," he told me. "I was a coward for not openly opposing a war that I consider criminal, immoral and illegal."
As for those who call him a traitor, he asked, "A traitor to what -- companies who benefit financially from the war?" Mejia said if he was a traitor to anything, it was to his own principles.
Nearly 40 years ago I voted for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution -- the resolution that led to the war in Vietnam, the deaths of 58,000 Americans, massive protests and a deeply divided country. After all that carnage, we learned that we had based our votes on administration claims that simply were not true. But it was too late. The vote had been taken; the battles had been fought; the lives had been lost.
It's clear that the war in Iraq should never have been fought. The administration's claims on which we went to war simply are not true. In seeking to stop Saddam Hussein, we have created a vortex of violence. In rushing to act without the strong support of the community of nations, America is isolated, and our few allies are targets.
By US Senator Robert Byrd
The park that Chalabis Mob did their drag down sadam photoopportunity (near Hotel Full of Journos. Is still there with a funny ugly statue replacing it.
This crowd is wedensday last week - Sadrs Guys - This is what a crowd looks like - this is not a photoopportunity
In contrast to the largely staged jubilation that took place a year ago when Saddam's statue tumbled to the ground, Fardous Square was recently witness to a very real and frightening event for Western forces. Earlier this week, the square echoed to furious chanting as more than a thousand supporters of Sadr demonstrated against the American occupation.
The situation in Falluja is escalating and people are bracing themselves for a massive attack in the next 24-48 hours. Urgent action is needed to flag up and denounce the war crimes being perpetrated there
Iraq Solidarity Action – Resist the Massacre in Falluga
Urgent information and appeal from Ewa Jasiewicz, a solidarity activist who worked with Voices in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Iraq, lived there for 8 months (Basra and Baghdad) and in Palestine, mainly Jenin camp for 6 months, speaks Arabic, and who got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She is in regular contact with her friends in Basra and Baghdad.
I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from Occupation watch and Bridges to Baghdad, Journalist Leigh Gordon, England, (NUJ, Tribune, Mail on Sunday) and a Palestinian friend with family in Falluja and friends in the Iraqi Islamic Party. Both he and Leigh have been ferrying out the injured from Falluja to Baghdad for the past three days. Ambulances have been barred from entry into the blood-drenched city.
Here is their news, which they told me over the telephone tonight (Friday)
Paola:
There has been a massacre in Falluga. Falluga is under siege. 470 people have been killed, and 1700 injured. There has been no ceasefire. They (Americans) told people to leave, said they have 8 hours to leave and people began to leave but they’re trapped in the Desert. The Americans have been bombing with B52s (Confirmed also by Leigh in an email three days ago). Bridges to Baghdad are pulling out. We have flights booked out of Amman. Tomorow a team will go to Sadr City to deliver medicines. 50 people have been killed there. ?? (Forgotten name) the 'elastic' shiekh in Sadr City (I’ve met him, young, brilliant guy, describes himself as 'elastic' because he is so flexible when it comes to his interpretations of Islam and moral conduct definitions etc, he's pretty liberal) he has told me I should leave. He says that even he can't control his people. Foreigners are going to be targeted. 6 new foreigners have been taken hostage. Four of them are Italian security firm employees - they were kidnapped from their car, which was found to be full of weapons, and there were black uniforms. Baghdad was quiet today except for Abu Ghraib (West Baghdad, where a vast prison is located and is bursting at the seams with 12,000 prisoners) an American convoy was attacked there and 9 soldiers were injured and 27 were kidnapped. That’s right 27. None of the newswires are reporting it though. And I heard this from (*name best not to supply without permission). Its really really bad. They (Americans) have been firing on Ambulances, snipers are following the ambulances, they cannot get in.
Falluga, there are people in the Desert, they've left Falluga but they're not being allowed into Baghdad, they're trapped in the Dessert, they're like refugees, its terrible but the people, Iraqi people are giving all they can; they’re bringing supplies, everybody is giving all their help and support to Falluga.
I want to stay but I have to go, if I want to come back and be useful, you know I think its best to leave, Bridges to Baghdad has decided this. It’s getting really dangerous for Italians. We feel like we’re being targeted now. (Italy has a 2500+ force including Carabinieri occupying Nassiriyah which has been subject to a number of resistance attacks including the devastating attack on the Police station which claimed the lives of 4 soldiers, one civilian, one documentary film maker, 12 Carabinieri police and 8 Iraqis).
(…) and Leigh have been great. They’ve been driving into Falluga and bringing out people, going back and forth. They know what’s going on, really they have been great. They want more people to help them but we couldn’t from here. It’s getting much much worse.
ends
My friend who’s been in Falluga today and for the past few days:
We’ve been seeing it with our own eyes. People were told to leave Falluga and now there are thousands trapped in the Desert. There is a 13 km long convoy of people trying to reach Baghdad. The Americans are firing bombs, everything, everything they have on them. They are firing on Families! They are all children, old men and women in the dessert. Other Iraqi people are trying to help them. In Falluga they (Americans) have been bombing hospitals. Children are being evacuated to Baghdad. There is a child now, a baby, he had 25 members of his family killed, he’s in the hospital and someone needs to be with him, why isn’t anyone there to stay with him, he just lost 25 from his family!??? The Americans are dropping cluster bombs and new mortars, which jump 3-4 metres. They are bombing from the air. There are people lying dead in the streets. They said there’d be a ceasefire and then they flew in, I saw them, and they began to bomb. They are fighting back and they are fighting well in Falluga. But we are expecting the big attack in 24-48 hours. It will be the main attack. They will be taking the town street by street and searching and attacking. They did this already in a village near-by, I forget the name, but they will be doing this in Falluja. Please get help, get people to protest, get them to go to the Embassies, get them out, get them to do something. There is a massacre. And we need foreigners, the foreigners can do something. We are having a protest, Jo (Jo Wilding www.wildfirejo.org.uk) and the others from her group are coming to the American checkpoint tomorrow. We haven’t slept in 3 or 4 days. We need attention. I have photos, film, we’ve given it to Al jazeera, Al Arabiya but get it out too. Do everything you can. We are going back in tomorrow.
Leigh Gordon: It’s kicking off. Come by all means but me and (..) probably won’t be around. I mean they’re going to crazy. (…) is saying for foreigners to come but its not safe. Sheikh …. from Falluga said he couldn’t guarantee my safety. I mean its going to go crazy, I think foreigners will start getting killed soon – I mean people are going to start getting desperate, when they’ve seen their mother father, house, cat, dog, everything bombed they’re going to start to attack. They (Americans) have said this operations only going to last 5 days’ it’s drawing to an end. They need to free up troops on other fronts breaking out all over the country. They’re going to go in for the kill. There’s no way of guaranteeing anybody’s safety. I think you can be useful but its not like you can just not tell your mum and think you’ll be back in a week. We’re probably going to get killed tomorrow. Come, but we might not be here.
Palestine
2 years ago right now, the Jenin camp Massacre was tearing into its 7th day, the 1km square tight-knit Palestinian refugee camp was suffering an Israeli military invasion which would see 79 killed (in the last count after bodies had been recovered form the rubble), including a head paramedic doctor and people who slowly bled to death from superficial injuries because all medical services were barred from entering for the duration of the attack (14 days). Over 800 homes destroyed, most in the Hawasheen neighbourhood which suffered a 4-day-long continuous bulldozer offensive, crushing residents including young children to death. Hundreds were injured in the attack which involved also involved apache helicopter gunships, hundreds of Merkava tanks, Armoured Personnel Carriers and hundreds of troops. 23 were killed (official Israeli figure but the actual toll is estimated at much higher. An entire road route from Jenin into ’48 (Israel) was sealed off as a closed military zone and witnesses barred whilst the dead and injured from the Israeli side were being transported out).
All Palestinian emergency services, The UN, The Red Cross, foreign aid workers, and human rights observers were banned from entering Jenin camp. The massacre gouged on as the worlds media attention was fixated on Aarafat besieged in his compound. Jenin suffered in silence. Falluga, a city with a population 18 times the size of Jenin Camp (Jenin camp’s population was approx. 14,000, Falluga’s is 232,000), is now undergoing a parallel trauma, but with a larger, more powerful, better armed enemy, which has carpet bombed, recently and historically when the war-heat has forced land-troops to retreat. This is another Jenin. This is another massacre. We have to do what we can in solidarity with the dying and the bereaved and those still struggling, defending, fighting back. Resistance is dignity, is the honour of fighting back. Iraq is on fire. The Iraqi intifada is raging. We cannot be silent. Stop the massacre in Falluga. Remember the massacre in Jenin. Never Again.
What to Do
This is an appeal to the anti-war movement, to the peace movement, eco-action movement, animal rights movement, anti-fascists, everybody active, everybody who can respond, can call a demo, can organise a protest, an office occupation, an embassy storming, a road blockade, mass civil disobedience, industrial shut-down, work-place occupation, solidarity work stoppage, blockade the US Embassy, Fairford Military Base action campaign – what’s taking off at Fairford? Are B52s being deployed? Shannon Peace Camp protestors – are there new movements at Shannon? We need to address this, we need to resist this. We become the solidarity resistance in Iraq by taking action in our neighbourhoods and in our cities. Print up a leaflet. Paint up a banner. Take to the streets. Only a small group can make a change. Show people in Iraq that we are standing by them. 700 more British troops have been flown in to quell the uprising in the South. No Pasaran. Take to the embassies, the bases, the US interests, the streets.
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukaddres.html - addresses of US Embassies in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff
http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/caab/ - Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases – this site has a list of the locations of all the main US air bases used in the UK
http://www.caat.org.uk/links/companies.php - full list of arms companies. BAE Systems, and Lockheed Martin have been principal supplies of weapons of mass destruction for the war on Iraq
http://www.caat.org.uk/support/confronting-companies.php - tips on confronting arms companies by Campaign Against the Arms Trade
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage - Keep up to date with Al Jazeera
Sample Leaflet Text
As you read this, a massacre is taking place in Falluja, Iraq. Falluja is a town which has been resisting the occupation of Iraq since June. US troops have been forced to the border of the town since then. It has fought hardest and most uncompromisingly and has regularly pummelled by F16 fighter jets and apache helicopter gunships since then, with civilians being slaughtered on a regular basis.
Well over 470 people have now been slaughtered by US troops in Falluja, this week. 1700 have been injured. The deathtoll is expected to rise due to the siege nature of the military cordon around the town. ambulances are being fired upon and followed by sniper sights if they attempt to enter the town. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing bodies lying dead in the streets. Hospitals have been attacked. Medical supplies and bed shortages are at crisis levels. Residents are calling it a massacre. People from all over are attempting, some succeeding, to get into Falluja to help evacuate the injured by car. People are donating food, medical supplies and water to those fleeing. All of Iraq is watching and sympathising with Falluja say people on the ground there.
There is at the time of writing (10/04/04) a 13km column of Falluja residents fleeing the bomb-smashed town, trapped in the desert and surrounded by US troops which eye-witnesses report have been firing on them. Most of the desert marooned refugees are elderly men, women and children.
For US soldiers stationed near the town, they have been in an impossible situation and their blood too is being shed for the market-profit-power chasing interests of the US and UK government and corporate interests. Recently, the long-time brewing discontent, frustration, humiliation, and mounting rage against the occupation has exploded. The occupation is being fought for its very existence, its racism, its violence. Its recycling and re-empowerment of a neo-Baathist ruling elite, its re-training and re-hiring of over 10,000 Baathist torturers and intelligence agents, its re-writing of Iraq’s laws through Coalition Provisional Authority Orders (principally Order 30 on Salaries and Employment Conditions for Civil Service Employees which sets the minimum wage for Iraqi Public Sector workers at 69,000 ID ($40 per month – less than half the recommended wage of a sweatshop worker in a free trade zone in neighbouring Iran), plus Order 39 on Foreign Investment which allows for 100% foreign ownership – privatisation – and slashes the highest rate of income tax from 45% to 15%) has resulted in insurrection.
The climate in Iraq has moved on from protest to resistance, and now to insurgency. Demonstrations have been taking place every day all over the country since the occupation began, with protestors ranging from students to pensioners, unemployed, women, former soldiers and children. This new uprising has been labelled a revolt in support of the anti-Occupation cleric Muqtada al Sadr, but the reality is that it is widespread, uncontrollable, inchoate and varied. It is not Islamic, it is not just nationalist, it is not Baathist. It is a generalised struggle against the Occupation – the biggest incitement to violence in the country.
Please stand in solidarity with the people in Iraq during this upheaval and time of bloodshed. Please join the protest against the bloody massacre in Falluja, which will spread if the occupation armies continue unchecked and un-challenged.
Stop the ongoing war on Iraq.
Troops out of Iraq.
We who serve in Iraq are not doing so for personal reasons. We have no choice in our mission.
Our sworn mission is to serve the American people and defend the U.S. Constitution.
In a strategic or tactical sense, we follow orders. Even a flag-level commander follows orders.
Falluja has been a source of anticoalition violence since we arrived. Much of the antipathy against the U.S. is tribalism. We have liberated this country from the most brutal dictator of the 21st century -- at a large cost of American treasure and lives.
The recent murder and mutilation of four American contractors, innocent civilians, has marked a turning point in our approach to Fallujah.
We have tolerated many provocations and sustained greivous injuries and even death, but this latest one has gone beyond the pale of decent or even human conduct. The world saw it and was shocked.
This being the case, it is incumbent upon us to find a new, final solution to the Fallujah resistance else we will have zero credibility here and everywhere else on the planet.
What we have undertaken in the last few days is not genocide and not a massacre.
We have spared noncombatants, even at great risk to ourselves. We suspended operations to allow food and medicine to enter Fallujah and women and children to leave Fallujah. We have allowed residents to tend to their wounded and bury their dead.
We have not allowed military-aged males, considered to be over the age of 16 , to leave. The actual gunmen in the Blackwater incident are pretty well known. They are over the age of 16.
We do believe that a large percentage of the men of Fallujah were involved in the murders and mutilations. It is necessary for these persons to be brought to justice or for justice to be brought to them. Some have been killed. Anyone must admit that there are always some who need killing in any population.
We have concluded that it will serve the greater good of Iraq and the world if we make an example of Fallujah. We have allowed the women and children to leave. Now we must perform a mopup operation on the resistors who remain behind.
We will stay the course. This is unpleasant work, but we are here to do it. There is no chance that we will fail We have a monopoly on air power and armor. We have the most sophisticated CCCI in the world in place in Iraq.
Yes, there will be some collateral damage to Fallujah. There always is. In this particular case, we must make an example, even if that means the destruction of the greater part of this city, Lidice-style.
What happened on March 29th must never be allowed to happen again.
There is plenty of precedent for the work we have embarked on, going all the way back to Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.
Please try to understand. Please be aware of the sacrifices YOUR armed forces are making for YOU.
Mark Kimmitt
mailto: kimmitt.m@skynet.be
.
Tell General Mark T. Kimmitt, the deputy director of operations of coalition forces in Iraq your opinion of the operations in Falluja.
Thank you for that letter, Marine. No one in the anti-war movement could have made a better case for why American fascism must be opposed and conquered. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and wish you a speedy journey home.
Now, looking back at that I sort of think it could be a bit of clever black propaganda from the anti-US side. Jesus, I hope so anyway.
Ah well, its a strange time of the morning and night-shifts over so I'm away ta bed.
.
the disbanding of Hussein's 400,000-member army, who largely surrendered, as unwise. "US forces never really controlled the country; they never had enough intelligence assets and the troops on the ground that were needed to impose order,'' he says. "A month after the invasion, the insurgency started to test the Americans, found the hegemon didn't have complete control, and then the insurgency took off."
The fighting has drawn the US into the position that all occupiers want to avoid: combat against a foe scattered among the civilian population. Counterinsurgency in that environment inevitably creates civilian casualties, and even more hostility.
Current polls suggest that public opinion on the conflict could be approaching a tipping point. While Americans have always been divided over the war, a majority has consistently held that the US made the right decision in deposing Saddam Hussein. But some polls now find a majority disapproving of Mr. Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, and, according to a recent Pew survey, a sizable margin believes the administration does not have a plan to bring the conflict to a successful conclusion. The number of Americans calling for the troops to come home is rising, with just a bare majority now favoring keeping US troops in the region.
Today, the day the Iraqi Puppets hail "National Day", will mark the day of the "Falloojeh Massacre"… Bremer has called for a truce and ceasefire in Falloojeh very recently and claimed that the bombing will stop, but the bombing continues as I write this. Over 300 are dead in Falloojeh and they have taken to burying the dead in the town football field because they aren't allowed near the cemetery. The bodies are decomposing in the heat and the people are struggling to bury them as quickly as they arrive. The football field that once supported running, youthful feet and cheering fans has turned into a mass grave holding men, women and children.
The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the women and children out of the town for the last 48 hours but all the roads out of the city are closed by the Americans and refugees are being shot at and bombed on a regular basis… we're watching the television and crying. The hospital is overflowing with victims… those who have lost arms and legs… those who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough medicine or bandages… what are the Americans doing?! This is collective punishment … is this the solution to the chaos we're living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds' part of the campaign?
A convoy carrying food, medication, blood and doctors left for Falloojeh yesterday, hoping to get in and help the people in there. Some people from our neighborhood were gathering bags of flour and rice to take into the town. E. and I rummaged the house from top to bottom and came up with a big sack of flour, a couple of smaller bags of rice, a few kilos of assorted dry lentil, chickpeas, etc. We were really hoping the trucks could get through to help out in the city. Unfortunately, I just spoke with an Iraqi doctor who told me that the whole convoy was denied entry... it seems that now they are trying to get the women and children out or at least the very sick and wounded.
The south isn't much better… the casualties are rising and there's looting and chaos. There's an almost palpable anger in Baghdad. The faces are grim and sad all at once and there's a feeling of helplessness that can't be described in words. It's like being held under water and struggling for the unattainable surface- seeing all this destruction and devastation.
The Shia revolt promised before the war by those in favour of the American invasion has started, but with a twist: it is against American rule.
In these circumstances, anarchists can only redouble our call for the occupying powers to withdraw. It is up to the Iraqis to determine how they want to live, not an imperialist power which is shaping the country to further its interests.
Mission Accomplished?
The Shia revolt promised before the war by those in favour of the American invasion has started, but with a twist: it is against American rule. It is just over a year since the US-led invasion of Iraq began. In that year we have seen the lies used to justify the war exposed. We have also seen that the "liberation" of Iraq only involved liberating its resources for transnational corporations. Its people are under occupation by US imperialism and within this same year we have seen an insurgency against the occupation start and intensify.
The current revolt in Iraq is to be expected. It is the latest in a long series of protests which have resulted in Iraqis being shot at by their "liberators." This time they are fighting back and on a large scale. Fighting has broken out in towns and cities which contain over 70% of Iraq's population. This must have put a damper any plans the US may have had to the mark the fall of Baghdad.
But credit where credit is due. The US has managed the near impossible. It has turned a population who used to be subject to a vicious dictator against them. Saying that, backing that dictator at the height of his tyranny obviously would not have helped nor would invading the country and killing over 10,000 civilians in the process. While it was predictable that the Sunni population would oppose the Americans (at least to any bar the US state), the fact that the US has added the Shia to their enemies is quite impressive. This group, which makes up the majority of Iraqis, suffered immensely under Saddam. That the Americans have turned their neutrality into a mass uprising says a lot about the regime they have imposed.
The occupying power has vowed to defeat the revolt. Helicopter gunships and tanks have been used against it, echoing Saddam's crushing of the Shia revolt back in 1991. Then they allowed Saddam to do it, this time they are doing it themselves. And while Saddam's act was portrayed as an evil act and (hypocritically) used to justify the war, the US repression is being presented in the best possible light. Yet again, the imperialists prove that dead Iraqis only count when its not the US who killed them. Both literally and figuratively, of course, as the occupying power dos not bother to keep track how many civilians they kill in Iraq.
The origins of the revolt
Why have parts of the Shia population joined with the Sunni insurgency? While this revolt is a product of general hatred of the occupation and US rule, the gun battles which have erupted all across Iraq came specifically as a result of protests by supporters of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. Somewhat ironically, this violent revolt was triggered by the closure of Sadr's al-Hawza newspaper a week ago on the grounds that it was inciting anti-US violence. Then US troops arrested one of his top deputies in Najaf.
Rather than stifling the movement, the two acts of state repression inflamed the problem. Initially, there was a wave of peaceful demonstrations, including the occupying of police stations and government buildings across Iraq including UK occupied Basra. In Baghdad, the Iraqi army responded to the protests by opening fire and allegedly killing three people. Since then the revolt has spread, with rebels taking at least two towns by Thursday (Najaf and Kut). While occupying troops are suffering losses, it is Iraqis who, as usual, are making up the bulk of the dead and wounded.
As well as the Shia revolt, 1,200 US troops as well as Iraqi security forces were sent to "pacify" Falluja, a Sunni town of 200,000 people. This is where four US citizens were killed a few weeks ago (the US is less vocal that this was in response to deaths of Iraqi civilians in their raids). By the 8th of April, the US had killed over 300 Iraqis as a result of waging heavy street battles, using warplanes and tanks. This included around 40 worshippers killed when the US blew up part of a Mosque. Not the best way to win hearts and minds.
Talking Bollocks
Faced with the insurrection, the various politicians got into the act. The current president of the American puppet Governing Council, said that "any act that leads to violence and losses among civilians and coalition (personnel) is an act that we sternly condemn." We wonder if he includes the invasion that brought his new masters into power?
Not to be outdone, America's dictator in Iraq, Bremer, stated he had "a difficult security situation. We have a group under Moqtada al-Sadr that has basically placed itself outside the legal authorities, the coalition and Iraqi officials." How legal are authorities imposed by violence? Without irony, he said that al-Sadr was "attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolerate this." He did not explain how an illegal occupation following an illegal invasion can create "legitimate authority." So Bremer's "legitimate authority" only exists, like Saddam's, by means of state violence. But we can understand why he attacks Sadr for wanting to run the country: that is America's job. And his comment against groups who "think power in Iraq should come out of the barrel of a gun" was truly priceless.
Bush joined in with the political mumbo-jumbo and was his usual delusional self, insisting that "the message to the Iraqi citizens is they don't have to fear that America will turn and run, and that's an important message for them to hear." Obviously he fails to see that so many people are rebelling because they fear America will stay in Iraq and turn it into a de facto colony. If the US announced it was withdrawing then the levels of violence may decrease.
As it is, the number of American soldiers killed since the start of the war is now over 600. But rest assured, as in Vietnam the children of the rich, like Bush, are safe at home while their parents make money off the war. Rest assured, though. From the safety of Whitehall and Capitol Hill Blair and Bush are bravely agreeing to fight to the last man. As long, of course, it is not them.
And while the politicians and bureaucrats talk bollocks, the people of Iraq are being subject to the levels of repression last seen under Saddam. It is funny how quickly the Bush Junta, Blair and the pro-war crowd has went from being so concerned about Iraqi human rights and freedom to baying for Iraqi blood and urging the crushing of the same kind of popular revolt they wanted against Saddam.
The Media: whores of power
These developments do make it hard for the US to portray themselves as the liberators rather than the occupiers of Iraq, although the right-wing media is trying its best. It also makes life hard for the Bush Junta, which wanted to appear to be making some progress in extracting itself from the Iraqi quagmire before the elections in November. Now senior US congressmen have warned President George W Bush's administration that Iraq faces civil war. Or, more correctly, a war against US occupation.
More and more US politicians wonder if US should consider postponing the handing over of "sovereignty" to the Iraqis on 30 June. The fact the media takes this nonsense seriously and reports it with a straight face shows how subservient to power it is. What the Bush Junta calls returning sovereignty to the Iraqis is, in reality, simply the US occupying forces taking power from one set of US appointed Iraqi politicians and giving it to another set. The interim government appointed by the US will be prohibited from reversing any of the laws passed by the US. The US-UK military occupation will go on, with the US maintaining full effective control, particularly of security, oil, economic policy, major contracts.
Which, perhaps, explains why Bush does not appear to have the "exit strategy" the media is so concerned about: the US is not planning to leave. Why invest so much money to further imperialist adventures and then give the country to its people? Why else is the US so against genuinely free elections in Iraq? Why else is it ensuring that its forces will be "invited" to have military bases there? Why else is it talking about a Iraqi "civil war" in the light of such obvious and generalised opposition to its rule? Simply to justify its continuation.
A uniter, not a divider
Little wonder the Iraqis are rebelling. Anyone with any dignity would. This mass insurgency exposes the lie that the US are liberators. Which explains why the media has repeated the Bush Junta line that this is the start of a civil war rather than what it obviously is: a national liberation struggle. But on the positive side, at least Bush, as promised, has proven himself a uniter rather than a divider: the Iraqis are uniting against him and his imperialist plans.
Which exposes that other great myth of the US, funnelled faithfully by the media, namely that Iraq is on the brink of civil war. This revolt has seen Sunni and Shia unite in fighting the occupying forces. Thousands of Iraqis - from both the Sunni and Shia communities - marched 60 km from Baghdad to Falluja to bring food and medical supplies to the besieged citizens there. The repression by the US can only unite the populations and their resistance even more.
On the Brink of Anarchy?
With the uprising, the media is flogging that old chestnut of Iraq being on the edge of anarchy. As if. What we have is a series of competing governments and states, not their absence. The scale of current uprising suggests opposition to the occupation is popular. One thing is sure, this revolt shows that the Americans will have a major problem on their hands.
In these circumstances, anarchists can only redouble our call for the occupying powers to withdraw. It is up to the Iraqis to determine how they want to live, not an imperialist power which is shaping the country to further its interests.
Isn't time to stop calling armed Iraqis "insurgents", "armed resistance", even (God forbid) "terrorists", and begin to identify them correctly as patriots defending their homeland against an unprovoked attack from a hostile power? Even if we assume that people from outside Iraq have come in to assist in the defense, there is no reason to conclude that this differs from the assistance France gave the American "insurgents" during the American Revolution.
Thank for your wishes.
As Mr. Senor said, we have a hostile situation in Fallujah. We (the coalition forces) must deal with it.
As Mr. Senor also said, Americans were killed there. We cannot just look the other way.
Up to 200,000 Iraqi believers, many of them Shias, crowded into the precinct of Baghdad's largest Sunni mosque yesterday to denounce the American occupation and pledge solidarity with the people of Falluja as well as the uprising led by the Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.
It was the largest show of joint support by Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities.
"Long live Moqtada, long live Falluja, long live Basra, long live Kerbala," they shouted, naming the various cities where Shias have attacked coalition forces. Many punched the air with their fists.
Look, stop this shit here from someone pretending to be a marine. We don't need people to make up stuff and ingage in black propaganda to make the case that America is behaving in a Nazi fashion. Stuff like that letter can only take away from the actual happenings and behaviour of the US war whore and give right wing elements a stick to beat the anti-war people with as it detracts from the reality of their dirty actions and massive lies.
Let the White House and their friends dabble in that sort of stuff - it justs makes them look worse anyway. Nothing good can come of it and it only takes away from all that is legitimate.
No takeover of territory allowed here. Pick a thread and stick to it or publish something that is news.
It seems that as long as you say "war on terror", you are safe from all criticism. For not a single American journalist has investigated the links between the Israeli army's "rules of engagement"--so blithely handed over to US forces on Sharon's orders--and the behaviour of the US military in Iraq. The destruction of houses of "suspects", the wholesale detention of thousands of Iraqis without trial, the cordoning off of "hostile" villages with razor wire, the bombardment of civilian areas by Apache helicopter gunships and tanks on the hunt for "terrorists" are all part of the Israeli military lexicon.
In besieging cities--when they were taking casualties or the number of civilians killed was becoming too shameful to sustain--the Israeli army would call a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations". They did this 11 times after they surrounded Beirut in 1982. And yesterday, the American army declared a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations" around Fallujah.
When the lies utilised by Bush, Blair, Aznar and Berloscuni were publicly discredited as no weapons of mass destruction emerged, the propaganda units in all these countries and their favoured journalists changed their line and argued: 'Well, perhaps there are no weapons, but we have got rid of a tyrant and have brought democracy to Iraq.' Really? Democracy?
Leaving aside the several thousand Iraqi civilians who died and those who are still being killed, all talk of a meaningful democracy has faded. The old imperial ideologue Samuel Huntington now talks of the 'democratic paradox'. What is this beast? When democracy does not deliver what the West wants it to deliver, it becomes a 'paradox'. And for capitalist democracy today any challenge to the neo-liberal economic order is a paradox. The Iraqis who don't like their health and education system being privatised are 'living in the past'. The Iraqi traders who despise the corporations that entered the country after the Occupation are 'backward elements'. When foreign businessmen are targeted Iraqis of all social classes (excepting the collaborators) rejoice. The foreign companies are perceived as a plague of locusts arriving to devour an occupied country.
Emergency demo against US/UK repression and killing in Iraq.
The town of Fallujah, a flash-point for resistance to the occupation of Iraq, is currently being besieged by three battalions of American troops. The death toll in the town so far is being reported as 500 dead and 1200-1700 wounded. There are unconfirmed reports of B-52 bomber strikes and U.S. Apache helicopters attacking civilians as they try to flee the city. Eyewitness reports from Iraq contradict American generals who claim that they are currently observing a ceasefire. IMC-UK is expecting to receive photos and audio interviews from Iraq in the next few hours. Ewa Jasiewicz, who worked with Voices in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Basra and Baghdad, got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She writes: I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from Occupation Watch and Bridges to Baghdad, journalist Leigh Gordon, England, (NUJ, Tribune, Mail on Sunday) and a Palestinian friend with family in Falluja and friends in the Iraqi Islamic Party. Both he and Leigh have been ferrying out the injured from Falluja to Baghdad for the past three days. Ambulances have been barred from entry into the blood-drenched city. Here is their news, which they told me over the telephone on Friday the 9th of April. Eyewitness Reports: Paola | Friend | Leigh Gordon Other Reports:Downing St, Sun 11 April
12 noon
What You Can Do | Baghdad Burning | Palestine and Iraq | Mission Accomplished? | Jo Wilding on Hostages | From Liberation to Jihad | Background Info on Fallujah
10th April, 2004.
By the time you get this report Helen, Jo wilding, Lee(from London), Wejdy and a few others will have either succussfully taken medical aid into Falluja or would have failed attempting to do so.
" The Japanese lady Naokho helped us with the street children. "
I received a telephone call, from Helen, late last night, telling me of her plans. They are in touch with an Iraqi, they know and trust, who has transport and having just fled Falluja can get them into the besieged city using backroads. Eye witnesss reports from people fleeing the city describe burnt out vehicles littering the roads, columns of people walking with all the belongings they can carry, she has heard account after account of death, injury, bodies, and human rights abuses carried out by the US forces. They will be in touch with Baghdad via a series of satellite/mobile phones. They also have an array of cameras. The mainstream media is, as usual, only getting out part of the story. Helen is adamant that , the team she is with will do all they can to reveal the full horror that is taking place in Falluja. This applies even if they do not get into the city itself.
The following is a copy of her e.mail message that she sent to me last night , after the phone line went down.
The taking, by kidnappers, of the 3 Japanese hostages is a tragedy. The Japanese lady Naokho helped us with the street children. She is a thoroughly wonderful person. While in Japan she collected some money to help Iraq's most needy. But being the person she is, she often gave away her own clothes or food. She is the sort of person that the world desperately needs more of. Not less , especially in such awful circumstances.
Naoko would have been an easy target to pick up. Helen is far more street wise, aggresive and mouthy when necessary and always has her outreach worker, Wejdy, with her - often others as well. When I rteceive news I will pass it on.
All for now.
Kevin Williams.
Hi Kev Baghdad 9 april 2004
Sorry about the telephone calls - cant understand it- it worked so well the other day. Situation here very tense and worrying. Use what you want from this and do report if you like cos I cant do one - too tired and should not relly be out - its dark now.
Last 24 hours - left Al-Sherifi internet cafe last night - they now close earlier at 8pm, not 10pm - the friendly security guard told Wejdy to keep me safe and said if we are ever in trouble - even if they are closed, to jump over the wall and bang on the door - there is always someone there - even if they are closed. Returned to appartment and went to see Donna, who is ill, cos the house that she and Jo were moving into fell through and now she will have to stay in Sams and she hates him more than I do - so they are all pissed off. We discussed Naokha and the situation. Donna has been looking on Aussie tv stuff on the net and says that western ngo volunteers are to be targetted over the weekend - it is Arbaeen and Easter together by chance. She said there will also be a hotel bombing campaign this weekend. We have all decided to pack small bags, to be next to us, with money,passports etc and we have exchanged next of kin details and passport details with people - just in case.
This am we all talked and found out for certain about N. - we are all v shocked and upset - it is so so bad. Went out quick to check apartment round corner, but the man living there will not leave for another 10 days due to the situation in Baghdad. Then had to go with Zaid ( our taxi driver to damascus bus station, he works with Jo) and Julia (journ friend of Jo's) and Raina , a journo; we went to the Japanese embassey. Not allowed in but I wrote note and eventually a man came out, I spoke to him about N. and suggested we interview street kids, ref: her in plea to kidnappers - he will talk to superior and get back to us. He said is there any point talking to these criminals, so I said we are talking about human life and anything no matter how small is worth a try.
So then we went near hotel Palestine. Cannot get through Fardozi or Saadun street, as the Yankees have shut it all off; so we parked up by Al-Safeer hotel and found Mohamed , from Basra, - managed to get through Yankees being pompous with Mohamed & his bag of trash (!) ( because he collects tin cans for money, which feed him , so they are not trash) and then we interviewed him. Wejdy asked him about N. and he did a good job - saying what N. did and how she was anti-war campaigner , anti occupation/US and they have the wrong person and they should let her go and she did not steal off their country.
So then we went LBC (Lebanese Tv) - they took a copy of Julia's tape & I did interview saying the same stuff about N. - anti-war etc and good person and please release her. Kept headscarf on obviously. Then g
It is simply appaling what is taking place in 2004 in Fallagua and the thruth is not coming out .I listened to one journalist speaking on radio a om,aaa om the thruth wasnt coming out.Any homo sapien that is "thinking man" knows that what is going on is in plain murder ,flesh and blood against chobam armour and the 500 iraqs dead mean no more than digits on a computer screen to the inhum occupation forces who are now exposed to the world.What is astonishing is the lack of complaint from the Christain god squads at easter with promotions of films like passion and all that stuff.Are we now witnessing a repeat of the same hypocracy that allowed 6 million to be exterminated In Europe to be repeated in Iraq.If we in this modern age cant be bothered saying what is going on and support a better way we will allow the dark forces that have alredy been released to put our verry existence and the spirit of life we hold so dear in some jepordy.
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Tell Gen. Kimmitt what you think about his seige of Falluja.
Try the above address (his address at NATO) -- you won't ge bounced.
"eeekkk" writes some scaremongering about the BB. The thrust of "eekkk's" comments was that a BB could be "Al Quaida'ed" by the media.
Well, they will anyway "eeekkk". The media had been bought and is selling their skanky ass for whatever the going price is.
Black Bloc is an effective tactic. To denigrate its use on the grounds of media/publicicty is to ignore the fact that no good publicity is possible.
You could be like the wussies in the WSM and eschew insurrection and aggression and it wouldn't make any difference, the media would still smear you.
Black Bloc affinity groups are the only strength and solidarty available to the protestors being battered by the filth. Don't diss them without making a solid argument. Trite shite like "you'll be Al Qua'daed" is dangerous at a time when people need to be adivsed of the value of organisation.
where is the scaremongering you accuse me of because I can't find it - and do you disagree with the only point i made in introducing starhawk piece that: 'some things are more important than getting black masks on tv'? Very sensitive for an insurrectionist aren't you! Since when do you get monstered as a 'scaremonger' for simply pointing to an informed opinion from someone you have met and have respect for? How very 'anarchist' of you. How very anarchist of you too to have a go at the WSM along with the majority of the media in the country? Would you respect them more if they appeared on Grafton Street wearing balaclavas handing out Mayday Literature?
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Brandon Hughey is a teenager living among strangers, thousands of miles from his friends, family and home in San Angelo, Texas. The 18-year-old is one of two American servicemen who recently deserted their units and fled to Canada to claim asylum as refugees. "We plan to argue that the war in Iraq is illegal under international law and that I have a right not to choose to participate," he says.
Hughey, who has been taken in by a Quaker couple in the Ontario city of St Catharines, spends his days preparing his legal case. For breaks, he takes solitary walks downtown. He seems mature, composed, and hopeful that he will be able to build a new life for himself in Canada.
Hughey signed up for the army when he was 17, during his final year in high school. "I joined because it was the only way I was going to get a college education," he says. He went through basic training, and in his spare time began learning about the campaign in Iraq on the internet. He says he became increasingly uncomfortable about the mission, then so disturbed that he considered killing himself. He brought his questions to a commanding officer, who told him to stop thinking so much.
It aint as if he was conscripted. He signed up! He knew what he had signed up for!
I served my country and fought in Desert Storm. It is not for us to ask why... if you join a military unit, your only allegiance is to your comrades in arms. They depend on you as you depend on them.
If you have a problem with the war, take it up with the politicians not with the grunts. This guy has commited a far worse crime by deserting his brothers. He should at least get two years in a military prison.
I'll be voting for Kerry in the Fall but I still believe an example should be made of this coward.
How sickening to listen to Duffy (paid 200,000 + for 2 hours a day) and his daily agenda of thee right wing catholick chuch ov Opus Dei.When a priest, bishop, nun or Dana is on he spends 20+ minutes licking their arse.If someone cums on his show and goes against his narrow minded bigotted right wing views they are cut off.He spent half his show recently licking Dana's hole (another Opus Dei demon?) As for the 'liberation' of Iraq & the statue of Saddam, that was organised as another media 'event' as 90% of those shown were actors.The first crystal clear shots of the war were those images....and then they murder innocent Muslim journalists for telling the truth in the hotels. As happened 2 days ago in Baghdad.Fuck Bush & Fuck Duffy.