baghdad

As much as Bush wants to stay in denial about the current condition in Iraq, their government is starting to see things in a different and more horrible light:

A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time said Iraq is in a state of civil war.

The deputy interior minister, Hussein Ali Kamal, was speaking a day after suicide bombers killed at least 70 people at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.

A further 160 were injured when three suicide bombers struck the Bharatha mosque.

Abdullah Haziz Akim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political grouping told a gathering of his supporters the aim of the attacks was to stop efforts to form a government of national unity.

Of course Bush will continue to deny Iraq being in civil war mealy because they aren't using cannons and muskets. Through some Confederates and Yankees in the mix and he might start thinking about Iraq differently. Of course now we will hear that the Muslim world's definition of "civil war" is not the same as ours.

Three years ago tomorrow night was when our news channels filled with images of bombs exploding in Baghdad. 9:34pm est. time will mark the anniversary of the actual start of the invasion.

So where have we gone since then? Well we did make it to Baghdad with little effort. We did find Saddam Hussein. That’s about it for the good points..

Now here we sit 3 years later and where are we. We have lost 2,318 soldiers, over 30,000 Iraqi citizens; spent over half a trillion dollars (increasing by $200 million a day) and we sit here, isolated from the rest of the world. What does our President have to say about the war now?

"More fighting and sacrifice will be required," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "For some, the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong. Yet there is no peace, there's no honor and there's no security in retreat. So America will not abandon Iraq to the terrorists who want to attack us again."

Basically the Bush plan for Iraq is the same it has been since the invasion. Think of it as football. We see upsets time and time again. A team takes to the field with an over optimistic attitude because their opponents rated a large underdog. Of course that over optimistic team comes home with their heads held down low because they were just upset. I am not saying our outcome in Iraq will be the same because we can change the rules. We can redefine what we call a win. True in war, the only winner is war.

There are still a few on the right (mainly in the administration) who would
want to make you think that Iraq has calmed down and is going well again. Well
this sure doesn't have that same song and dance:

Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's
bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the
past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives,
according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times
higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news
media.

Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday --
blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated
by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled
with their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue
after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the
Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Article continues

here.

I don't know how Bush defines civil war but with that many dead within a
single country it certainly appears to fall closer into the standard definition.

It seems like every time we hear someone say the insurgency is fizzling out
then they prove to us they are still alive and well. Last week we heard this
claim:

Washington -- Insurgents in Iraq are showing little capacity to keep up
numerous and persistent attacks, a senior U.S. general in Baghdad says.

At a briefing December 29, Air Force Brigadier General C.D. Alston said
there are three reasons for the diminishing capability of the insurgents to
keep up attacks. The ability of insurgents to wage sustained combat is a key
indicator closely watched by U.S. military forces to determine the enemy's
effectiveness.

Article continues
here.

Today this is the big headline from Iraq:

13 Car Bombs Wound 20 People Across Iraq

Read article

here.

Much like when Cheney made his infamous "last throes" comment about the
insurgency back in the spring, we are once again reminded that they are still
going strong. I highly doubt they just gave up because of the elections last
month. My guess is they slowed down while waiting for the outcome and now that
it is looking pretty solid that the Shia's are going to be in charge, the
insurgency will start up again.

It was just a couple months ago that we learned the Bush White House was
illegally paying someone to write and publish "puff pieces" promoting the
administrations' education agenda. Today we learn that the military has taken
the same course of action in Iraq.

WASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S.
military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by
American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in
Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops,
are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of
a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents
obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news
accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories
trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout
U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of
events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi
governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S.
has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines
such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began
this year.

View full article

here (free registration required)

So what is Bush's definition of "democracy in the Middle East"? Would it
involve listening to the leaders of the country we now occupy?

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi leaders, meeting at a reconciliation
conference in Cairo, urged an end to violence in the country and demanded a
timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq.

In a final statement, read by Arab League chief Amre Moussa, host of the
three-day summit, they called for ``the withdrawal of foreign troops
according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national
program to rebuild the armed forces.'' No date was specified.

``The Iraqi people look forward to the day when the foreign forces leave
Iraq, when it's armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can
enjoy peace and stability and get rid of terrorism,'' the leaders said in
the statement. The session was broadcast live from the Egyptian capital by
al-Jazeera.

The summit was held to prepare for a larger conference scheduled to take
place in Baghdad in February. The Arab League is playing an increasing role
in attempting to bring Iraq's Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni groups closer
together.

View full article

here.

Well George, members of Congress want a timetable, the American people want a
timetable, and now, the Iraqi people want a timetable. When are you going to
uphold democracy and listen to the desires of everyone you answer too? This was
decided upon by the government we worked to set up in Iraq.

So why isn't stories like
this getting
much press in the United States? Simple answer is that we still don't have our
press back.

UNITED STATES CAUGHT IN IRAQ
CAR-BOMBING

Friday, October 14, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

by staff reports It's happened again - allied troops being caught with
bombs. This time it is the Americans captured in the act of setting off a
car bomb in Baghdad. Last time, as FMNN reported only weeks ago, two British
soldiers, apparently working for British intelligence, were caught near
Baghdad similarly equipped.

According to the Mirror-World, "A number of Iraqis apprehended two
Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped
car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday. …
Residents of western Baghdad's al-Ghazaliyah district [said] the people had
apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential
neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon. Local people found they
looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That
was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the … police."
Just as in the British incident, the Iraq police arrived at approximately
the same time as allied military forces - and the two men were removed from
Iraq custody and wisked away before any questioning could take place.

The incidents are said to be fueling both puzzlement and animosity among
Iraqis. Yet the motivation behind such activities remains formally unknown
since in both cases the soldiers involved have been removed with an
efficiency that has quashed any attempts at an interrogation.