LOSING THE HEARTS AND MINDS

Current post from an Iraqi whose 2003 blogs rejoiced in the overthrow of Saddam and looked forward to freedom and democracy. His blogpage's permanent header now reads:
"Terrorism and US-British occupation of Iraq are two faces for one coin."

"... It is the right of any occupied country to resist by using all kind of means which inflict heavy damages and losses in the occupying forces...The Americans in Iraq are nothing but occupiers and killers. They kill the Iraqis and destroying their country; so what the Iraqis should do?... the Iraqis should resist and retaliate back against the occupiers inside Iraq... Death is to those who continue the war on Iraq and hell to the occupiers whose hands are stained by the Iraqi blood..."
--Hammorabi, Iraqi blogger, 4/03/2008
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2008/04/resistance-of-american-barbaric.html

IRAQ NOW A WAR BETWEEN IRAN AND AMERICA

"... what looks like a civil war in Iraq now is nothing but a war between Iran and America and it seems that the Iranians are wining. The question is this going to lead the USA to use its military machine in the region to ease the pressure and direct its attacks to inside Iran especially before the GWB era finished? There are certain clues pointing toward that direction. It seems that the plan is ready and a war between Iran and the USA may happen at any time. So; is what is going on now inside Iraq is a step towards that war?
--Hammorabi, Iraqi blogger, 3/27/2008
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2008/03/iraq-is-burning-under-america-british.html

MARCH 25 SHOWED MASSIVE FAILURE OF OCCUPATION

"Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure... March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation... "The 25th March events revealed the true failure of the U.S. occupation project in Iraq. More complications are expected in the coming days."

"Mehdi army militias controlled all Shia and mixed parts of Baghdad in no time... Iraqi army and police forces... suddenly disappeared from the streets, leaving their armoured vehicles for Mehdi militiamen to drive around in joyful convoys that toured many parts of Baghdad before taking them to their stronghold of Sadr City in the east of Baghdad."

"Brigadier-General Kathum Alwan of the Iraqi army (said) "We must admit that the formation of our forces was wrong, as we saw how our officers deserted their posts, leaving their vehicles for militias."

"The Green Zone of Baghdad where the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government and parliament buildings are located, was hit by missiles... is supposed to be the safest area in Iraq. At least one U.S. citizen was killed in the attacks, and two others were injured..."

"The Green Zone looked deserted as most U.S. and Iraqi personnel were ordered to take shelter deep underground,... It seemed that this area too was under curfew. No place in Iraq is safe any more..."

"Further complicating matters for the occupiers of Iraq, the U.S.-backed Awakening groups, largely comprised of former resistance fighters, are now going on strike to demand overdue payment from the U.S. military..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41827

BUSH: BASRA BATTLE A DEFINING MOMENT

"President Bush called the... military offensive launched last week into Basra by US-trained Iraqi army forces... "a bold decision." He added: "I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq".

"... (but) it's apparent that the big winner... are the forces of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army faced down the Iraqi armed forces not only in Basra, but in Baghdad, as well as in Kut, Amarah, Nasiriyah, and Diwaniya, capitals of four key southern provinces..."

The other big winner... is Iran... Iran succeeded in brokering the deal that ended the fighting... mediated by the commander of the so-called Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani... So President Bush's "defining moment" is this: the head of an Iranian "terrorist" force has brokered a deal between the two leading Shiite parties in Iraq..."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080414/dreyfuss

IRAQ IMPLODES - SHIA AGAINST SHIA

"... American-backed Iraqi government forces fight Shia militiamen for control of Basra and parts of Baghdad... The gun battles between soldiers and militiamen, who are all Shia Muslims, show that Iraq's majority Shia community – which replaced Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime – is splitting apart for the first time..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-implodes-as-shia-fights-shia-801214.html

BUSH: NORMALCY RETURNING TO IRAQ

"... Speaking at a US Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio, Mr Bush said "normalcy" was returning to Iraq..."

"A curfew has been imposed on Baghdad amid continuing clashes between Shia militias and Iraqi security forces."

"... several Americans (were) injured this week in rocket attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone died, amid fresh missiles attacks on the fortified area. US embassy staff in Baghdad have been told not to leave reinforced structures, following the attacks. The state department has instructed embassy personnel to wear helmets and other protective gear if they leave the building, even if they stay within the Green Zone..."

"... one of Iraq's two main oil export pipelines from Basra was blown up in a bomb attack, sending oil prices above $107 a barrel. And Basra's police chief survived a bomb attack that killed three of his bodyguards... residents in the city said they were beginning to run out of food and water."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7317614.stm

BLACKWATER DEATH COMPENSATIONS REFUSED BY IRAQIS

"At least two Iraqi families of victims killed by Blackwater security guards in September... have refused compensation offered by the company... Blackwater offered... $20,000... Blackwater had resisted U.S. government demands that the company pay at least $100,000 per death, claiming the U.S. government itself hasn't paid that much in similar situations... Several of the Iraqi families have already filed lawsuits against Blackwater in U.S. courts, alleging the security guards were guilty of "war crimes."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4489251&page=1

BUSH'S 5 YEARS OF IRAQ LIES

"Here are five big lies from the Bush administration that have shaped perceptions of the Iraq war...
Year 1's big lie was that the rising violence in Iraq was nothing out of the ordinary...
In Year 2 the falsehood was that Iraq was becoming a shining model of democracy...
In Year 3 the Bush administration blamed almost everything that was going wrong on one shadowy figure: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi...
In Year 4 Bush's big lie consisted of denying that the country had fallen into civil war...
Year 5 has been one of troop escalation... The big lie is that Iraq is now calm, that the surge has worked, and that victory is within reach..."
Year 6... Bush's five big lies about Iraq... kept the mess there going long enough to turn it over to the next president... John McCain, Bush's heir apparent in the Iraq propaganda department, has been signaling that "complete victory" in Iraq will be his talking point..."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/03/19/iraq_five/?source=newsletter

CHENEY SAYS SECURITY PROGRESS PHENOMENAL

"... Cheney on Monday made a surprise visit to Baghdad... in a tightly choreographed hopscotch, moving at least six times for high-level meetings... in the fortress-like Green Zone compound... (then) Traveling under military guard along roads that had been swept for bombs and were lined with security forces, Cheney ventured a mile or so outside the Green Zone to call on Iraqi President Jalal Talabani... and said that a massive troop buildup had achieved "phenomenal" improvements in security..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/30645.html

IRAQ NO LONGER A COUNTRY

"... Five years of occupation have destroyed Iraq as a country. Baghdad is today a collection of hostile Sunni and Shia ghettoes divided by high concrete walls. Different districts even have different national flags. Sunni areas use the old Iraqi flag with the three stars of the Baath party, and the Shia wave a newer version, adopted by the Shia-Kurdish government. The Kurds have their own flag... (and) There is now an 80,000 strong Sunni militia, paid for and allied to the US but hostile to the Iraqi government.... Iraq is a country no more... Five years after the American and British armies crossed into Iraq, the country has become a geographical expression."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-iraq-is-a-country-no-more-like-much-else-that-was-not-the-plan-796499.html

PENTAGON CANCELS RELEASE OF STUDY

"The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network... the U.S. Joint Forces Command said it would mail copies of the document to reporters — if they asked for it. The report won't be posted on the Internet..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/30172.html

PENTAGON STUDY FINDS NO LINK BETWEEN SADDAM AND AL QAEDA

"An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.... The new study, entitled "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", was essentially completed last year and has been undergoing what one U.S. intelligence official described as a "painful" declassification review. It was produced by a federally-funded think tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses, under contract to the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Joint Forces Command."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/29959.html

COST OF WAR @ $10,000 PER PERSON, AFFECTS ECONOMY

"... the price tag for (Iraq) and Afghanistan is rapidly rising to $3 trillion to $5 trillion over the long term, or $10,000 for each man, woman and child in America. For a family of four, that is $40,000 or a whole year's salary... Not to mention the nearly 4,000 killed in action and the thousands seriously wounded, with brain trauma, spinal injuries, confined to wheel chairs or forever impaired, who will need to be taken care of the rest of their lives. Is the war really unrelated to the growing bad times in the US economy?"
http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/fact-check-on-mccain-and-political.html

IRAQ VETERANS TO SPEAK OF U.S. WAR CRIMES

"U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning... descend on Washington... to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed... (there's) a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like... well-publicised incidents of U.S. brutality... are not the isolated incidents perpetrated by "a few bad apples"... (but) are part of... "an increasingly bloody occupation".
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41398

A SPEECH AGAINST A DUMB WAR

"... What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by... this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.... I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars..."
--Speech by Barack Obama, October 2, 2002 at an anti-war rally in Chicago.
http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php

AND SOMEONE WHO AGREED WITH THAT

COST OF WARS NOW OVER $3 TRILLION

"... the Bush administration predicted that the war would be self-financing and that rebuilding the nation would cost less than $2 billion... a Nobel laureate now estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing America more than $3 trillion... When other factors are added — such as interest on debt, future borrowing for war expenses, the cost of a continued military presence in Iraq and lifetime health-care and counseling for veterans — they think that the wars' costs range from $5 trillion to $7 trillion."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/kevin_hall/story/28891.html

NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS

"... despite endless insistence by our government that we do not and should not legitimize and reward terrorism through negotiations, Bush nevertheless implicitly negotiates and often capitulates with terrorists on a nearly consistent basis.

Every day in Iraq... our armed forces, defense contractors and our civilian allies in... Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition all negotiate with people who our president calls "terrorists", "extremists", "islamo-fascists" and worse. We also negotiate with countries that... enable militant groups to attack... the US and its allies abroad. We negotiate and are explicitly allied with Pakistan's dictator President Pervez Musharraf, who consistently strikes deals with Pashtun militants (some Taliban, some not)..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB16Ak03.html

LIGHTS OUT IN IRAQ

"... there is now less electricity than during the sanctions. In some cities, homes get electricity just an hour or two a day. Sometimes, there is no electricity for a week..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41217

U.S. FORCING SOME AL-QAEDA OUT OF IRAQ

"Qaeda threat expanding outside Iraq... Al-Qaeda, increasingly tamped down in Iraq, is establishing cells in other countries... Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told senators... said fewer than 100 al-Qaeda terrorists have moved from Iraq to establish cells elsewhere as the U.S. military clamps down in Iraq..."
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/middle_east/view.bg?articleid=1071605&srvc=rss

BAGHDAD DROWNING IN SEWAGE

"Baghdad is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless... a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion. One of three sewage treatment plants is out of commission, one is working at stuttering capacity while a pipe blockage in the third means sewage is forming a foul lake so large it can be seen as a big black spot on Google Earth..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080203/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestservices