FOR IRAQIS, GUNS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD

"Guns have come to be seen in Iraq as a need second only to food... "... it is important for every Iraqi to have a weapon to protect himself and his family," Abu Hasan, a weapons merchant in Baghdad told IPS. "There is no security at all in Iraq now and we have no real government to protect us. The occupation forces protect themselves only." "In this situation every Iraqi must buy a gun. Even if he doesn't have enough money, he must borrow money and buy one to protect his family. To protect your family is more important than to be able to eat."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0529-02.htm

1,000 BRITISH - DESERTERS OR AWOL?

At least 1,000 troops have deserted Britain's armed forces since the US-led war was launched in Iraq three years ago, the BBC reported Sunday... a defence ministry spokeswoman said: "It's not true. "I think they are talking about the number in the army who remain absent without leave (AWOL)... (but evidently not because) The ministry recorded... 2,825 (AWOL cases) in 2003, 3,050 in 2004, 2,725 in 2005, and 426 through April of 2006..."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16583

IRAN MILITIAS IN CONTROL OF SOUTHERN IRAQ

"Iranian-backed militia groups take control of much of southern Iraq... (which) is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14677922.htm

BASRA FALLING APART

"Basra in the south of Iraq is beginning to splinter under increasing violence and sectarian divisions... More than 100 civilians have been killed in Basra so far this month... Residents are pointing the finger at the governor and the British military, which occupies the city. ... "The sewage system is destroyed. The water system is not adequate. Even clean water is not there. Electricity is not up to expectations. ... you're getting 30 minutes or one hour a day"... the prime minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, paid a visit to Basra this week. Denmark has 535 troops stationed in Basra. As part of his visit, the Danish leader announced he will be bringing some of his troops home later this summer. "
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33383

HADITHA RETALIATORY MASSACRE

May 26

"... the U.S. military, after lying about the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year, then lying about the number of Iraqis killed, then covering up the massacre until a Time magazine article made it impossible to keep lying, attempted... (a) line of defense: As Time reported in March, “Lieut. Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing, spokeswoman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq, told Time the involvement of [military investigators] does not mean that a crime occurred. And she says the fault for the civilian deaths lies squarely with the insurgents, who ‘placed noncombatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves.’” All lies, of course. There were no insurgents hiding among civilians. There was no crossfire. The Marines weren’t defending themselves. They were out on a rampage, murdering at point-blank leisure, lodging bullets in the heads of women and children, My Lai-style."
--Pierre Tristam, Candide's Notebooks, May 26, 2006
hehttp://www.pierretristam.com/re

"... a Marine unit killed as many as 24 unarmed Iraqis, some of them "execution-style," in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha after a roadside bomb killed an American in November... One government official said the pictures showed that infantry Marines from Camp Pendleton "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-marines27may27,1,5270805.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

April 21

"... the Los Angeles Times reported... (that) after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 15 Iraqi civilians – including seven women and three children – were allegedly shot and killed by a unit of US Marines operating in Haditha, Iraq... ... video evidence shows that women and children were shot in their homes while still wearing nightclothes... "inside the houses…the walls and ceilings are pockmarked with shrapnel and bullet holes as well as the telltale spray of blood"... this past Friday, a battalion commander and two company commanders from the same unit were relieved of their duties."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=76825

"... 23 people were killed. Eight were from Younes' family. The only survivor, Younes' 13-year-old daughter, said her family wasn't shooting at Marines or harboring extremists that morning. They were sleeping when the bomb exploded. And when the Marines entered their house, she said, they shot at everyone inside.... the Marines relieved of duty three leaders of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment... They are Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and two of his company commanders, Capt. James S. Kimber and Capt. Lucas M. McConnell. McConnell was commanding Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, the unit that struck the roadside bomb..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/14298263.htm

IRAQI POLICE DYSFUNCTIONAL

"... the police are a battered and dysfunctional force that has helped bring Iraq to the brink of civil war. Police units stand accused of operating death squads for powerful political groups or simple profit... the ability of America to withdraw its troops — rests in large measure on whether the police can be reformed and rogue groups reined in."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/world/middleeast/21security.html?hp&ex=1148184000&en=84f4002b27e45d00&ei=5094&partner=homepage

IRAQ DISINTEGRATING UNDER ETHNIC CLEANSING

"... Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale... Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article548945.ece

U.S. DECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ

"... The image of the Bush administration in Iraq as a bumbling giant, overwhelmed by the destructive forces within Iraqi society, is a pernicious misrepresentation. A close look at the facts on the ground demonstrates that the American occupation itself has been the primary destructive force in Iraq as well as the direct or ultimate source of the bulk of the violence; that the American military, in its zealous pursuit of the resistance, still generates much destruction; and that American reconstruction efforts have -- through greed, corruption, and incompetence -- only deepened the infrastructural crisis. The American presence in Iraq continues to be a force for deconstruction."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0518-26.htm
From:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=84463

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER CALLS IRAQ OCCUPATION A GRAVE ERROR

"... Italy's new prime minister, Romano Prodi, called the U.S.-led invasion and occupation a "grave error" and said he would propose a withdrawal of Italian troops. "We consider the war in Iraq and the occupation of the country a grave error," Prodi told the upper house of parliament, wire services reported. "It has not resolved, but complicated the situation of security."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051800451.html

IRAQ ALREADY LOST TO U.S.

"... Iraq is already all but lost to us. The United States is not going to be able to control the course of events in Iraq. Whether there will be accommodation or civil war is no longer up to us... The power vacuum is already in place. We cannot fill it, and Iraq is pounding down the road toward a failed state -- a state in which jihadis now train for service in Afghanistan, and Americans, more and more, stay in their fortified and isolated bases."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/16/iraq_may_already_be_lost_to_us/

JIHADIS ARE PRISONERS FREED BY ARAB COUNTRIES

"... the current situation in Iraq is an almost ideal opportunity for Arab regimes to export their Islamic firebrands to kill members of the US-led coalitions and be killed in turn is augmented - if not validated - by the large numbers of Islamic militants who have been released by Arab governments since the invasion of Iraq.
November 2003: The government of Yemen freed more than 1,500 inmates - including 92 suspected al-Qaeda members...
January 2005: The Algerian government pardoned 5,065 prisoners...
November 2005: Morocco released 164 Islamist prisoners...
November 2005: Morocco released 5,000 prisoners...
November-December 2005: Saudi Arabia released 400 reformed Islamist prisoners...
February 2006: Algeria pardoned or reduced sentences for "3,000 convicted or suspected terrorists"...
February 2006: Tunisia released 1,600 prisoners, including Islamist radicals..
March 2006: Algeria released 2,000 additional prisoners...
March 2006: Yemen released more than 600 Islamist fighters..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE16Ak02.html

SUNNIS ACCUSE U.S. OF ATROCITY IN RAID

"... U.S. military earlier on Monday said its forces had killed more than 41 insurgents in and around the villages of Latifiya and Yusifiya... (but) Iraq's main Sunni religious grouping accused U.S. forces... of killing 25 civilians... rejecting the U.S. account.. The Sunni association accused U.S. forces of attacking civilian houses and killing people as they tried to flee..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15767399.htm

IRAQI ARMY UNITS CLASH

"... The U.S. military said fighting broke out between two Iraqi army units... "The confrontation between the two Iraqi units resulted in the death of one soldier," the U.S. statement said..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DAH320807.htm

"... Police said the fighting between the army units broke out as one patrol tried to remove its wounded soldiers from the hospital, and a second unit tried to stop them."
(One unit was Kurdish, was in a firefight with insurgents, took wounded to a hospital which turned out to be Shiite, tried to remove wounded to a different hospital, was prevented by a Shiite unit, which led to clash between the two units.)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/05/762ec0b7-f260-423c-8ccf-b559af7e96c2.html

U.S. HAS FAILED IN 200 ATTEMPTS TO IMPOSE DEMOCRACY

"... one country trying to impose its system of government or its economic institutions on another. Such an enterprise amounts to a dictionary definition of imperialism. When what's at issue is "democracy", you have the fallacy of using the end to justify the means... The Federation of American Scientists has compiled a list of more than 201 overseas military operations from the end of World War II until September 11, 2001, in which we were involved and normally struck the first blow. ... The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not included. In no instance did democratic governments come about as a direct result of any of these military activities... All the United States has achieved (in Iraq) is to guarantee that Iraqis will hate it for years to come."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE04Aa01.html

BRITISH HELICOPTER DOWNED BY ROCKET

"A British military helicopter... was apparently shot down... in Basra... Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to three armored vehicles that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias.. .
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html?hp&ex=1146974400&en=40b25e42f4ab40d7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

"... Police in Basra told reporters the aircraft crashed into a city centre house after being hit by a rocket... hundreds of Iraqis gathered, many waving their arms and throwing stones... British soldiers in the area were facing an increasing threat. Ex-Commander of UK forces in Bosnia, Colonel Bob Stewart, said there was an "escalating situation" in Basra..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4979950.stm

RUMSFELD HAS DENIED PERMANENT IRAQ BASES

"... the notion of a permanent presence is regularly rebuffed by the US government. In February (2006), Mr Rumsfeld insisted it was "certainly not true".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4834032.stm

"... On February 17, 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, testifying before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate, said, ”We have no intention, at the present time, of putting permanent bases in Iraq.”
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2323/

"... At an April 2003 press conference, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said any suggestion that the US is planning a permanent military presence in Iraq is "inaccurate and unfortunate."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0930/p17s02-cogn.html

"... On the 21st of April (2003) Rumsfeld said in a press briefing “I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting … we don't plan to function as an occupier, we don't plan to prescribe to any new government how we ought to be arranged in their country… We have no desire to be there for long periods, we simply don't. And that's just a cold, hard fact."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MEY20060411&articleId=2257

IRAQ ELECTRICAL POWER PROBLEMS

"... In March 2004, one year into the occupation, residents of Baghdad could expect around 16 hours of electricity a day. Two years later, however, this dropped to a mere six hours daily... For three consecutive days (this month), residents of the capital, Baghdad, have received less than one hour of electricity per day... Local engineers say at least two years and massive expenditures will be required to achieve the minimum power levels necessary to support Iraq's 26-million strong population. "Billions of dollars will be required to supply sufficient power. As for the current shortage, this was the result of bad management – not solely the result of insurgency attacks."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c138a6ab7e745aa6c2571d3d07fe06c7.htm

INDEX CLASSIFIES IRAQ AS A FAILED STATE

"Despite receiving some eight billion dollars a month in economic aid and military support over the past year, Iraq ... Iraq ranks number four... among the world's 10 weakest states... The index defined a "failed state" as one in "which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens, and lacks a monopoly on the use of force".
--"Failed States Index" for 2006, by the Washington-based Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33087

ONE PROJECT ON TARGET - U.S. EMBASSY

"... how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?... the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes... There will be impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions... the embassy’s size “is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2162249.html

AUTONOMOUS REGIONS (BALKANIZATION) PROPOSED FOR IRAQ

"... America must get beyond the present false choice between "staying the course" and "bringing the troops home now" and choose a third way... maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group — Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab — room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests..."
--Joseph R. Biden Jr., (D) Delaware, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html?ex=1146628800&en=d3af987c03612b8c&ei=5087%0A

"Partitioning Iraq (is) not a viable option... its cities and 18 governorates all have significant minorities, and any effort to divide the country would require massive relocations... (and)... may lead to so much instability and conflict that Iraqi oil cannot be effectively exploited for years or decades to come... White House... Spokesman Scott McClellan... (said) "a partitioned government with regional security forces and a weak central government is something that no Iraqi leader has proposed, and that the Iraqi people have not supported... The United States remains firmly committed to... (UN) Security Council resolution 1546, which called for a federal, democratic, pluralist and unified Iraq..."
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20060501-030743-2938r

130 HEALTH CLINICS UNFINISHED, $190 MILLION CONTRACT USED UP AND TERMINATED

"... The inspector general's report also disclosed serious problems in building a network of primary health care centers.... Parsons Global... (was to) build 150 clinics for $190 million. But today, only six are complete, with 121 partially done. The United States has terminated the contract with Parsons... these facilities were far from complete, and the completed portions were poorly constructed... (with) inadequate quality control by the contractor... State Department and Pentagon officials... consolidated the near-term goal to 20 completed clinics."
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060501-121452-2291r.htm

"... the congressional team has been carrying out investigations... highlights the case of a US company which was given a contract to build 150 health centres in Iraq. Only six have been built, all in Baghdad, in spite of 75% of its allocated $186m having been spent. The report says the contractor will only complete a further 14."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0501-04.htm

U.S. PROGRAM TO PROTECT OIL & ELECTRIC LINES A FAILURE

"The troop training program that the United States began in 2003 to protect Iraq's oil and electrical lines is a failure... the Bush administration and Iraq government poured $147 million into trying to create an Iraqi Oil Protection Force of 14,400 and an Iraqi Electric Power Security Service of 6,000 guards. But today, the electric security service no longer exists, and the oil force has shown only sporadic success.."
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060501-121452-2291r.htm

WAR LIKELY TO BE COSTLIEST IN U.S. HISTORY

"... The cost of the war in Iraq is skyrocketing, largely because tanks, trucks, helicopters and other military gear are wearing out in Iraq's harsh climate and have to be replaced faster than ever before... The Army is requesting $13.5 billion this year to repair, replace or upgrade equipment lost or damaged in the war. And officials estimate that the Army will need $12 billion to $13 billion a year for these purposes until at least two years after most troops have left Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost of replacing equipment is one of the factors likely to make Iraq one of the costliest military engagements in U.S. history... the Congressional Budget Office estimates that total war spending could top $811 billion by 2016.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/14455575.htm