- I neither read nor listen to corporate media drivel concerning
Iraq...but today I wonder what they could possibly be saying to justify
the failed occupation of Iraq on this horrible day. I also wonder how people
in America have yet to take the appropriate action necessary in order to
force their government to impeach Bush and bring him and his regime to
justice for the countless war crimes they have committed in Iraq.
-
- Yesterday Hassan Nuaimi, high ranking member of the Association
of Muslim Scholars (AMS) was found dead in Baghdad. One of his arms was
broken and a hole was drilled into the side of his head.
-
- This coming the day after the AMS had accused the Shia
led governmnet of state sponsored terrorism by using the Badr Brigades
to murder Sunnis.
-
- In response to the murdering of Nuaimi, two Shia clerics
were gunned down in Baghdad yesterday.
-
- Harith al-Dhari, head of the AMS, blamed the Shia Badr
Brigades for the recent spate of killings of Sunni clerics in the country.
-
- Dhari, making a statement that could be interpreted as
an announcement of civil war, said Sunnis would not keep silent over the
killings.
-
- "We are heading towards a catastrophe, only God
knows when it will end, this is a warning from us," he said angrily.
-
- The Badr Brigades were in exile in Iran during much of
Saddam's rule, and returned to Iraq after the invasion and have been a
fully operational militia in Iraq ever since. I have seen their members
in full uniform and with heavy weapons in Baghdad during a Shia demonstration
last summer. The Badr Brigades was headed for years by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,
the head of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance who won the largest percentage
of votes in the January 30 "election."
-
- There has been a low-grade civil war going on for quite
some time-but now the veil has been ripped off by the statements made by
Dhari.
-
- All Sunni mosques in Iraq will be closed for three days...an
ominous symbol of things to come.
-
- Thus, any argument that the US military should remain
in Iraq to prevent a civil war can be flushed. Besides, anyone arguing
that the US military was there to protect the Iraqi people is either blind,
in denial, or knows absolutely nothing about the reality on the ground
in occupied Iraq. The US military in Iraq are unable even to protect themselves,
let alone civilians.
-
- I conducted an informal interview two days ago with a
UN official here in Amman...thus I'll leave his name out of this...for
now. He told me that 95% of the reconstruction funds for rebuilding Iraq
have been spent outside of Iraq.
-
- So the argument of staying in Iraq to help rebuild the
country-that too could have been flushed long ago. Want to find someone
accountable-look to some of the larger contributors to the Bush Administration.
We all know their names by now. Check their profit margins as of late while
you're at it.
-
- I watched the news about the aforementioned statements
by al-Dahri on Al-Jazeera with one of my close Iraqi friends here. As we
watched the large funeral procession with the body of the murdered cleric
while al-Dahri made his ferocious statements, I watched her head drop into
her hands as she said softly, "This is so horrible what has happened
to my country since the Americans came."
-
- And she couldn't be more correct. For the Bush Administration
is guilty under international law for the catastrophe Iraq has become.
Under international law it is the primary responsibility of the occupier
to safeguard the citizens of the country they occupy.
-
- For the Bush Administration, that means over 100,000
dead Iraqis and counting.
-
- Other news most likely ommitted by most corporate television
outlets in the US today?
-
- In Baquba a car bomb detonated near a police convoy which
injured 18 people, most of them policemen.
-
- In Kirkuk 7 bodies of Iraqis who worked for a security
company were found.
-
- In Baghdad a roadside bomb aimed at a US convoy injured
7 Iraqis.
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- A Transport Ministry driver was shot dead in Sadr City.
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- In Beji 2 Iraqi police were killed by a car bomb.
-
- In Mosul mortar attacks killed 2 Iraqis and injured 7
school kids.
-
- So that's nearly 500 dead Iraqis in a little over two
weeks to add to the list of crimes for the Bush Administration, which grows
longer with each passing day.
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- More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
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- Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches http://dahrjamailiraq.com
(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.
-
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international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches
on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link
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