Today in Iraq

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, July 31, 2006 Photo: See below “Child Prisoners Left Without Support”. SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. The kidnapping was carried out by gunmen in military fatigues who drove to the main shopping area of Karradah in 15 vehicles and split into two groups. One went into a mobile phone shop and the other into the office next door of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud. They kidnapped 15 staff and customers from the shop and 11 from the chamber, he said. All were believed to be Iraqis. No other details were available. Gunmen in commando uniforms blocked a car carrying a millionaire businessman and his two sons and seized the three in southeastern Baghdad. Gunmen killed Maad Jihad, an advisor to the health minister, in the Mansour district of Baghdad. Gunmen in a sedan shot and killed two vendors selling cooking-gas cylinders in Baghdad's western Yarmouk neighborhood. Gunmen opened fire on municipal street sweepers in the capital, killing one and injuring two. Gunmen killed Fakhri Salman, a brigadier in the Iraqi National Intelligence Service. Two people were killed in shootings in Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed a policeman in Baghdad. Police discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of three men in the Baghdad area. Two had their hands and feet tied, and the third was fished out of the Tigris river, his body showing signs of torture. Amara: Assassins gunned down an employee of the Sunni endowment, which manages the Sunni mosques, in a drive-by shooting as he left his house in Amara in mainly Shiite southern Iraq. Two workmen were shot dead and two more injured in another shooting in Amara. Mosul: Two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a joint Iraqi-U.S. military patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. A suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck near an Iraqi observation post outside Mosul, killing four soldiers and wounding six. Hawija: Gunmen Sunday ordered four policemen and a lawyer out of their car and beheaded them near the northern town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad. >> NEWS Iraqi Vice President accused Israel of "massacres" in Lebanon, the toughest criticism so far of the Jewish state by the U.S.-backed Baghdad government. "These ugly massacres, which are being implemented by the hands of the Israeli aggression, incites in us the spirit of brotherhood, solidarity," [Adel Abdul Mahdi] said. Moqtada al-Sadr accused Arab states on Monday of failing to stand behind Lebanon in its crisis with Israel and said they had done the same with Iraq in its time of need. "We are used to being disappointed by them. They were just silent over Iraq or interfered in a negative way," he told a news conference. "When it served their interests they ran to help the (Saddam Hussein's) Baath Party but they have failed to support unity now. They are doing the same in Lebanon. They talk but only about rubbish." Iraq's interior minister faced calls for his dismissal because of the security crisis in Baghdad and surrounding towns. Key Democratic leaders in the House and Senate united to call on Bush to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of the year, citing an overtaxed military, billions of dollars spent and ongoing sectarian violence. >> REPORTS The number of refugees in Iraq increased by 20,000 in the last 10 days alone, the migration ministry said on Monday. It said in a statement the total number of people displaced has reached 182,154. The crisis is likely to be far graver because ministry figures include only those who formally ask for aid within the country, some of them living in tented camps. By excluding thousands fleeing abroad or quietly seeking refuge with relatives, officials accept the data is an underestimate. VIDEO: BAGHDAD HOSPITAL CHILDREN'S WARD In war and peace children are always amongst the most vulnerable of communities. Iraq has been no exception. In this episode, Alive in Baghdad takes you to the children's ward of Baghdad Hospital, to make visible the plight of some very sick children, stricken with cancer by the presence of Depleted Uranium munitions, left over from the last to US wars in Iraq. link CHILD PRISONERS LEFT WITHOUT SUPPORT He isn't a criminal, but just the sight of a police officer terrifies 14-year-old Omar. The boy was released last month from an Iraqi prison, after being detained there for more than seven months. "They arrested me because they said I was a suspect after a car bomb exploded in a road near my home and resulted in the killing of an American," Omar explains. He happened to be near the explosion and was arrested along with adult Iraqis suspected of the attack. Omar was one of 450 detainees who were let out of the two Iraqi and US-run prisons on 27 June, under a national reconciliation plan aimed at bringing insurgents into the political process and ending the bloodshed in Iraq. Although Omar was falsely arrested, dozens of other children have been imprisoned for their roles in attacks, or because poverty turned them to crime, according to reports from local and international groups and the news media in the past three years. Omar said the experience of being in prison was terrifying, "and I was crying day and night for my family." The trauma of the experience remains with him: "I would rather die than go there again." read in full... US WAR COSTS CONTINUE TO SHOOT UP It was reported in February that the army is asking for $9 billion to "reset" its war-depleted stocks - the vast bulk to replace and repair tanks, helicopters and vehicles. Since the Iraq insurgency heated up in autumn 2003, the army's combat losses include about 20 M1 Abrams tanks, 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 20 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles, 20 M113 armored personnel carriers, and 250 Humvees. The number of vehicles lost in battle comes to nearly 1,000 after adding in heavy and medium trucks and trailers, mine-clearing vehicles and Fox wheeled reconnaissance vehicles. Nearly all these losses were caused by improvised explosive devices in Iraq. The army said unfunded repair and upgrade work alone totals more than $3 billion. During fiscal 2005 the army deployed 23% of its trucks, 15% of its combat vehicles and 15% of its helicopters in Iraq, according to the Association of the United States Army. Much of this equipment does not rotate out when troops do, either because the army is trying to minimize transport costs or because it wants to retain key items such as up-armored vehicles in the war zone. As a result, the equipment is exposed to continuous use for long periods of time - more than two years in the case of some Chinook helicopters - and may not receive scheduled maintenance in a timely fashion. The army conducted an analysis of how such stresses affect field equipment and concluded that a single year of deployment in Iraq would cause as much wear and tear as five years of peacetime use. That is hardly surprising, given that much of the equipment in Iraq is being used at a rate several times as high as typically prevails in peacetime. The operating tempo, or "optempo", of helicopters is twice as high in the war zone as elsewhere. Combat vehicles such as the Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle operate at five or six times normal rates. And trucks are used at up to 10 times their peacetime rates (which helps explain why so many are washed out by the end of their time in Iraq). But high utilization rates are only the beginning of the problem, because the conditions under which systems operate in Iraq are harsher than those encountered in peacetime training exercises. For example, Abrams tanks are designed to operate in open country, but in Iraq they often travel on paved roads, accelerating wear. Their mechanical and electronic systems are exposed to sand, wind, precipitation and vibration far in excess of what would be experienced in peacetime. Maintenance is deferred, or carried out in sub-optimal circumstances. And then there is the enemy, which seldom misses an opportunity to shoot a rocket-propelled grenade at whatever US vehicle is going by. read in full... "I CAME OVER HERE BECAUSE I WANTED TO KILL PEOPLE" Writing in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post, Andrew Tilghman, a former correspondent for the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes, said he interviewed [Steven Green, a former US soldier accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl] several times in February at his unit south of Baghdad. "I came over here because I wanted to kill people," he quoted Green as saying. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. "I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience," Green was quoted as saying. "And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' "I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," Green was quoted as saying. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. "I mean, you kill somebody and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'" read in full… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS JUAN COLE: SISTANI THREATENS U.S. OVER ISRAELI WAR ON LEBANON The Associated Press is carrying the story that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has demanded an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Lebanon, in the wake of the Qana massacre:

"Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire,'' al-Sistani said in a clear reference to the United States. "It is not possible to stand helpless in front of this Israeli aggression on Lebanon,'' he added. ``If an immediate cease-fire in this Israeli aggression is not imposed, dire consequences will befall the region.''

Sistani had earlier condemned Israeli air raids on Lebanon but had confined himself to ordering the Iraqi Shiite religious establishment to provide aid to victims of the war in Lebanon. Sistani's statements of early Monday morning (which are not yet reflected at his website in Arabic) go substantially beyond his earlier statement. Several questions arise: 1) Why is Sistani speaking like this? 2) What can he do about it all? and 3) What are the possible consequences if he turns anti-American in practice, not just in rhetoric, as in the past? Sistani is taking such a hard line on this issue not only because he feels strongly about it (his fatwa against the Jenin operation of 2002 was vehement) but also because he is in danger of being outflanked by Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's Mahdi Army is said to be "boiling" over the Israeli war on Hizbullah, since after all the Sadrists are also fundamentalist Shiites and they identify with the Lebanese Hizbullah. There have already been big demonstrations in Baghdad against the Israeli attacks, to which Sadrists flocked but probably also other Shiites. Sistani cannot allow Muqtada to monopolize this issue, or the young cleric's legitimacy will grow among the angry Shiite masses at the expense of Sistani's. (...) Sistani has issued a warning to the United States. He wants Bush to intervene to arrange a ceasefire, i.e. the cessation of israeli air raids on Lebanon in general. What could he do if he were ignored? Sistani could call massive anti-US and anti-Israel demonstrations. Given Iraq's profound political instability, this development could be extremely dangerous. US troops in Baghdad and elsewhere are planning offensives against Shiite paramilitary groups, so tensions are likely to rise in the Shiite areas anyway. But big demonstrations could easily boil over into actual attacks on US and British troops. Both depend heavily on fuel that is transported through the Shiite south. Were the Shiites actively to turn on the US for its wholehearted support of continued Israeli air raids, the US military could be cut off from fuel and supplies. The British only have around 8,000 troops in Iraq, and they would be in profound danger if Iraq's Shiites became militantly anti-occupation. (...) Sistani does not issue threats lightly, and he has repeatedly shown a willingness to back them up with action. Bush and US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad will ignore him to their peril. read in full... QANA WILL IMPACT IRAQ Expect life to get short, lonely, and interesting, for a lot more American body bag contents dead men walking soldiers in Iraq in the near future. I rather suspect the same is true for much of the Maliki "government" I wrote about the cabinet reshuffle last Friday, there are strong rumours that a coup was only barely foiled, and now this. I expect life to get just as short, lonely, and interesting for the Maliki government as it will become for more and more American soldiers particularly as regional governors seen as too close to the Americans and the green zone government are being increasingly targetted by Sunni and Shia resistance fighters alike. read in full... RIVERBEND: QANA MASSACRE... I woke up this morning to scenes of carnage and destruction on the television and for the briefest of moments, I thought it was footage of Iraq. It took me a few seconds to realize it was actually Qana in Lebanon. (...) I just sat there and cried in front of the television. I didn't know I could still feel that sort of sorrow towards what has become a daily reality for Iraqis. It's not Iraq but it might as well be: It's civilians under lethal attack; it's a country fighting occupation. (...) And the world wonders how 'terrorists' are created! A 15-year-old Lebanese girl lost five of her siblings and her parents and home in the Qana bombing... Ehud Olmert might as well kill her now because if he thinks she's going to grow up with anything but hate in her heart towards him and everything he represents, then he's delusional. Is this whole debacle the fine line between terrorism and protecting ones nation? If it's a militia, insurgent or military resistance- then it's terrorism (unless of course the militia, insurgent(s) and/or resistance are being funded exclusively by the CIA). If it's the Israeli, American or British army, then it's a pre-emptive strike, or a 'war on terror'. No matter the loss of hundreds of innocent lives. No matter the children who died last night- they're only Arabs, after all, right? Right? read in full... SUICIDE IN BASRA: THE UNRAVELLING OF A MILITARY MAN After a flawless military career that had seen him rise to the rank of captain in just 15 years, the task of leading the British Military Police's investigative unit in Basra should have been the crowning achievement for Ken Masters, a soldier for whom, on missions from Afghanistan to Bosnia, the glass was always half full. "The accom is good," he told his wife Alison in a letter sent soon after he had reached his garrison in the southern Iraqi city in April last year. "It is air conditioned and we have two windows either end and a real bed and proper mattress, which makes a difference. Missing you all. Love to you and my girls. Daddy xxxooo." This was the way he signed each of the many letters he sent from Iraq to the home they had made in Porta-down, Northern Ireland. But Capt Masters never made it back. Six months after sending that letter, he walked into his small barrack-room at the Waterloo Lines military camp and took his own life. Aged 40, he was five days away from the end of a tour that had reduced him from a high-flying officer, and prospective Major, to a broken man. He is one of two British soldiers - both from the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) - to have committed suicide in the current conflict. Today, the story of Capt Masters' mental disintegration can be told for the first time. Pieced together from the testimony of his wife and colleagues, and from his own letters and e-mails from Basra, it provides a sense of the pressure facing the small Military Police team he led which, amid political pressure for quick results, has investigated mounting abuse allegations against British troops. The story also raises a profound question about a military establishment that is sending hundreds of men and women to serve under enormous daily pressures in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is this: how could Capt Masters have been allowed to die when so many people knew he was suffering? "Imagine your worst day and multiply it by a thousand," Capt Masters told his wife in one of their regular Sunday evening telephone calls (each of them was limited to 20 minutes) towards the end of his life. read in full... TUNING IN, TUNING OUT Let's face it. These are not easy times for America's effort to make friends in the Middle East. The key media outlets in this campaign -- al-Hurra television and Radio Sawa -- are laboring hard. But a recent survey of college students in the region -- done before Israel's re-invasion of Lebanon -- says U.S. policies on Israel and in Iraq are such that "these networks may be completely unable to change opinions on these two issues." The survey, an unscientific sampling of attitudes of 394 university communications students in such places as Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco, found that these young people listened to Radio Sawa's pop music, but there was "no significant relationship between the frequency of listening to Radio Sawa and favorability toward US foreign policy." The same held true for al-Hurra. Worse yet, the more they listened, the less they liked us, according to the new study, "U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World," published in the current Global Media and Communication. "One significant finding," said author Mohammed el-Nawawy of Queens University of Charlotte, "is that respondents' attitudes toward U.S. foreign policy have worsened slightly since their exposure to Radio Sawa and Television Alhurra." Bad study, Broadcasting Board of Governors spokesman Larry Hart responded: "The self-selected sample is too small, nearly half [were] Palestinian and some of them . . . never saw or heard our broadcasts." Al-Hurra, with a budget of $73 million this year, and Sawa, budget $23 million, are asking for an additional $10 million for fiscal 2007. Can't hurt that much more. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ "A CRUSHING DEFEAT FOR ISRAEL" Hezbollah on Sunday fired its largest missile barrage yet into northern Israel - 156 Katyusha rockets. The missiles damaged buildings, caused minor injuries and sparked panic. But their biggest impact was the message they sent: after nearly three weeks of fierce Israeli aerial bombardment, Hezbollah is still standing. With pressure mounting for a cease-fire - and Israel agreeing to a 48-hour suspension of airstrikes - Israel appears poised to fall short of its original goal of routing the militant group and preventing it from rising again as a threat. "Hezbollah looks like the big winner here," said Dick Leurdijk, a terrorism expert at Holland's prestigious Clingendael Institute. "They are clearly winning the war for world public opinion. From a public relations point of view, Israel is doing a very poor job." Analysts say Israel's failure to make quick work of Hezbollah after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 is likely to have long-term ramifications, emboldening Israel's opponents and shattering the regional belief that Israel's military is all but unbeatable. "Militarily it looks pretty much like a stand-off," said Robert Lowe, manager of English political research center Chatham House's Middle East program. "From a public relations perspective, it looks like a crushing defeat for Israel." read in full... “HEZBOLLAH COULD BE YOU OR ME” "One Western journalist spent days scouring the south Lebanese port city of Tyre and the surrounding villages for a sign of the militants who triggered the Israeli assault, but came up empty. Then, two men showed up at his seafront hotel. He had asked too many questions, they said. He would have to return to Beirut. The journalist in question asked not to be identified fearing Hezbollah retaliation. "This is their counter intelligence. They have a very effective local networks who report every thing that is going on," says Goksel, the former UN advisor. An ice cream vendor in downtown Tyre simply shrugs his shoulders when asked about the shadowy organization. He knows they are around, he says, but no one knows where. "Even during peaceful times we never see them anywhere," says Ali Mohammed, 56. "They are a part of the people. We don't know who is Hezbollah and who is not. It could be you or me." read in full… URI AVNERY: A NICE LITTLE WAR It is the old story about the losing gambler: he cannot stop. He continues to play, in order to win his losses back. He continues to lose and continues to gamble, until he has lost everything: his ranch, his wife, his shirt. The same thing happens in the biggest gamble of all: war. The leaders that start a war and get stuck in the mud are compelled to fight their way ever deeper into the mud. That is a part of the very essence of war: it is impossible to stop after a failure. Public opinion demands the promised victory. Incompetent generals need to cover up their failure. Military commentators and other armchair strategists demand a massive offensive. Cynical politicians are riding the wave. The government is carried away by the flood that they themselves have let loose. That is what happened this week, following the battle of Bint-Jbeil, which the Arabs have already started to call proudly Nasrallahgrad. All over Israel the cry goes up: get into it! Quicker! Further! Deeper! A day after the bloody battle, the cabinet decided on a massive mobilization of the reserves. What for? The ministers do not know. But it does not depend on them any more, nor on the generals. The political and military leadership is tossed about on the waves of war like a boat without a rudder. As has been said before: it is much easier to start a war than to finish one. The cabinet believes that it controls the war, but in reality it is the war that controls them. They have mounted a tiger, and can't be sure of getting off without being torn to pieces. War has its own rules. Unexpected things happen and dictate the next moves. And the next moves tend to be in one direction: escalation. (…) What next? One cannot stop. Public opinion will demand more decisive moves. Political demagogues will shout. Commentators will grumble. The people in the shelters will cry out. The generals will feel the heat. One cannot keep tens of thousands of reserve soldiers mobilized indefinitely. It is impossible to prolong a situation which paralyzes a third of the country. Everybody will clamour to storm forwards. Where to? Towards Beirut in the north? Or towards Damascus, in the east? The cabinet ministers recite in unison: No! Never ever! We shall not attack Syria! Perhaps some of them really don't intend to. They do not dream of a war with Syria. Definitely not. But the ministers only delude themselves when they believe that they control the war. The war controls them. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The situation in Iraq is spiralling out of control but not as the US/UK and Western media would have us believe, into a civil war, but what amounts to a US internal 'withdrawal' to its firebases. Most cities in the country are effectively 'no-go' areas for the occupation forces.” -- William Bowles

WAR NEWS UPDATE FOR SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2006 A masked Iraqi policeman aims his weapon as shots are fired after a suicide car bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul July 30, 2006. Three policemen were seriously wounded by a suicide car bombing near their patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. REUTERS/Khaled al-Mousily (IRAQ) Note: Because of Matt's very comprehensive post which came early on Sunday morning, I'm doing an abbreviated post today. Unfortunately, there has been some news. Bring 'em on: Four Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 killed in action in Anbar province on Saturday. No further details announced at this time. Note: These are not the four Marines KIA cited in Matt's post, whose deaths Thursday were only announced yesterday. Total U.S. military deaths in Iraq now stand at 2,578, according to ICCC. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Two killed, 36 injured by bomb targeting a bus in al-Hillah, south of Baghdad. Bomb targeting police vehicle in Baqouba kills one police officer, wounds one civilian. Civilian also killed by unknown gunman in nearby town of Maqdadiya. U.S. airstrike kills two people who the U.S. describes as terrorists. Four people arrested by ground forces in the same incident. Car bomb near the U.S. consulate in Kirkuk kills 2 Iraqis, injures 7. Four Iraqi police killed in ambush in Kirkuk. Also, an attorney was assassinated in the same city. Three Iraq police injured in car bombing in Mosul. Five killed by bomb targeting minibus on highway between Mahmudiya and Alexandria. Also, policeman killed and another injured by a roadside bomb in Fallujah. Note: This story also refers to a bomb killing two people in a minibus near Mahaweel. This may be the same incident referred to above as happening near Hillah. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS Let Freedom Reign: al-Maliki warns TV outlets against reports that "capitalize on the footage of victims of terrorist attacks." He is not more specific but appears to be concerned about incitement. Shake-up expected in Iraq cabinet as security situation continues to deteriorate.

AP, Sunday, July 30, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq — Changes will be made in the Iraqi Cabinet following an escalation in violence threatening Baghdad, politicians said Sunday. The Cabinet changes could take place as soon as next week, said Hassan al-Suneid, a lawmaker from the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party. Among the ministries that could be affected is Interior because of a collapse in security as bloody sectarian attacks escalate. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani is under fire because of the ongoing violence. On Sunday, al-Bolani acknowledged sectarian influences have corrupted the government and jeopardized the country. He conceded corruption exists in his own ministry. "We will not allow any act of violence and sectarianism inside the ministry. Our country faces big confrontations and challenges," al-Bolani told parliament members as he briefed them on what he said is a new security plan to be announced in September. Al-Suneid said the minister's previous comments to parliament "have not been encouraging," adding that "there are fears he will be replaced and that's why he addressed the parliament." Al-Bolani, however, told The Associated Press he was unaware of any cabinet reshuffle. Some ministries expected to be affected include the health, transport and justice ministries. The first set of changes in al-Maliki's cabinet will include the service ministries, followed shortly afterward by security ministries — which are among the most important as bloody sectarian clashes threaten to unravel the country. Sheik Mahid Mualla, a cleric from the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's biggest Shiite party, said upcoming changes are necessary for the country to survive. "The success of these is the success of the government," Mualla said.

Rumors circulate of a possible coup attempt in Iraq. Excerpt:

By Joshua Partlow and Saad Sarhan Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, July 29, 2006; Page A13 BAGHDAD, July 28 -- A Shiite Muslim political leader said Friday that rumors were circulating of an impending coup attempt against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and warned that "we will not allow it." Hadi al-Amiri, a member of parliament from Iraq's most powerful political party, said in a speech in the holy city of Najaf that "some tongues" were talking about toppling Maliki's Shiite-led government and replacing it with a "national salvation government, which we call a military coup government." He did not detail the allegation. A new government would mean "canceling the constitution, canceling the results of the elections and going back to square one . . . and we will not accept that," he said. Amiri is also a top official in the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the leading member of a coalition of Shiite political parties governing Iraq.

U.S. troops in Iraq suffering from kidney stones due to excessive Gatorade consumption. Command Sgt. Major Lawrence A. Hall of the 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry, is restricting Gatorade consumption at Camp Anaconda. A secondary benefit -- "Cutting back on the amount of Gatorade also means fewer convoys on the highways bringing the stuff in and, as a result, fewer people dying from roadside bomb attacks.." You can't make this stuff up -- C NOTE: As many people have noted, the Lebanon war has drawn attention away from Iraq. We want to make sure we stay focused on our mission. However, for a comprehensive update and analysis of the situation in Lebanon, I recommend Juan Cole's post today. There's no need for me to reinvent it. -- C QUOTE OF THE DAY In 2004, Mr. Lieberman praised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for expressing regret about Abu Ghraib, then added: “I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized.” To suggest even rhetorically that the American military could be held to the same standard of behavior as terrorists is outrageous, and a good example of how avidly the senator has adopted the Bush spin and helped the administration avoid accounting for Abu Ghraib. . . . If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support. Believe it or not, The New York Times.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2006 Photo: Hassen Abdula holds his daughter Yakim, 2, as he mourns the death of his two sons killed in a rocket attack on their apartment building, Thursday, July 27, 2006, in a Shiite controlled area of Baghdad, Iraq. A mortar barrage followed. "We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

Abu Sayda

In the village of Abu Sayda, near the northeastern city of Baqubah, Iraqi police battled unidentified gunmen throughout the day Saturday. Witnesses said the attackers first destroyed the village's Shiite mosque with several bombs, then fought off attempts by police to apprehend them.

Anbar Province

Four Marines were killed Thursday in unspecified "enemy action" in the western province of Anbar. The names of the four Marines — three assigned to the Army's 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, and one from Regimental Combat Team 5 — were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Baghdad

Armed men in two cars sprayed gunfire at the Muhammad Rassulluallah mosque shattering windows and damaging walls. An hour later gunmen stormed the nearby Ashra al-Mubashara mosque, fleeing when police arrived.

Two roadside bombs in different parts of Baghdad city center killed three people and wounded 16 on Saturday morning.

A US sailor assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Eight, serving with Multinational Corps Iraq in Baghdad, died after ordnance exploded during a disposal operation. Six people, including three policemen, were wounded by a roadside bomb near a police patrol in Baghdad’s northern Waziriya district.

Iraqi security forces said they had arrested over 60 suspected insurgents in different parts of Iraq in the last 24 hours. One policeman was killed during the raids.

Iraqi forces captured a foreign fighter on Thursday in a raid on the Abu Ghraib district in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The statement did not say what nationality the fighter carried.

A grenade attack wounded 12 people as they queued for temporary labour work in central Baghdad.

Baiji

One policeman was killed and another wounded when gunmen opened fire in a drive-by shooting on their patrol in the oil refinery city of Baiji.

Baquba

Gunmen opened fire at two brothers in south of Baquba, killing one of them and wounding the other.

Gunmen kidnapped a man in the busy market of Baquba and seriously wounded another, while another local resident, Hassan Humoud, was also kidnapped in the city by a group of gunmen.

Diwaniyah

American troops clashed Saturday with gunmen of the Mahdi Army militia, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad. Seven militiamen were wounded but a local militia leader sought by the Americans escaped, police said.

Seven police were wounded in a joint U.S. and Iraqi raid against members of the Mehdi Army, a powerful militia loyal to Shi'ite firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr. The incident took place in the town of Diwaniya.

(These reports appear to describe the same incident but note that who was wounded is different. Go figure.)

Diyala Province

Suspected Sunni radicals planted a bomb in a small Shiite shrine in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, destroying it.

Unknown gunmen on Saturday killed two people, wounded two others and kidnapped two more in separate incidents in Diyala province in northeast Baghdad.

Karbala

Gunmen assassinated the western regional commander of the Iraqi Border Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Jawad Hadi al-Selawi, in Karbala.

Kirkuk

Iraqis waiting in a long line of cars to buy gasoline in Kirkuk were hit by a car bomb Saturday afternoon. The bomb detonated about 2:30 p.m., killing four people and wounding 13.

A car bomb in northern Kirkuk killed one and wounded three in a neighbourhood popular with oil industry workers.

Maqdadiyah

Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi army soldier in Maqdadiyah.

Mosul

A minibus driver was killed when three gunmen in a car opened fire on him in southeastern Mosul.

Musayyib

The U.S. military provided more information about a clash with Shiite militiamen Sunday in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad. U.S. troops, along with Iraqi soldiers and police, killed 33 insurgents in the daylong battle, the U.S. military said in a statement. The U.S. troops came under gunfire and "rocket-propelled attack" when they entered the downtown area and responded with the assistance of Apache helicopters and Abrams tanks.

Najaf

An Iraqi soldier shot dead a policeman after an argument at a checkpoint in Najaf.

Qaim

A suicide bicycle bomber hurt two policemen when he blew himself up at their checkpoint near Qaim, in western Anbar on the Syrian border. The bomber died.

Tikrit

A woman was killed and two others wounded when a mortar hit a house in the small town of al-Alam, near Tikrit.

Samarra

A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaeda was killed while driving in Samarra.

There was an explosion on an oil pipeline near Samarra.

Suwayrah

In the Shiite town of Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, Mayor Hussein Mohammed al-Ghurabi, said Saturday that more than 500 armed Sunnis had gathered in a nearby village and were firing on his town daily.

Police said they pulled two headless corpses wearing military uniform from the Tigris river in the town of Suwayra.

Death threat: Iraq's national soccer coach has resigned after receiving death threats against him and his family, a top sporting official said yesterday.

Troop increase: The U.S. command announced Saturday that it was sending 3,700 troops to Baghdad to try to quell the sectarian violence sweeping the capital, and a U.S. official said more American soldiers would follow as the military gears up to take the streets from gunmen.

The 172nd Stryker Brigade, which had been due to return home after a year in Iraq, will bring quick-moving, light-armored vehicles to patrol this sprawling city of 6 million people, hoping security forces respond faster to the tit-for-tat killings by Shiite militias and Sunni Arab insurgents.

Tour extensions: The tours of 4,000 American soldiers who had been scheduled to leave Iraq in the coming weeks have been extended for up to four months, signaling that there would almost certainly be no significant troop pullout before the year’s end, military officials and analysts said Saturday.

The new security plan allows almost no room for significant troop withdrawals by the end of 2006, Anthony H. Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an interview on Saturday.

If any troop pullout takes place in the coming months, “it would be so cosmetic that it would be meaningless,” he said. “It would be statistical gamesmanship.”

“People are now talking about 2009 as the goal for achieving really serious security,” he added.

Reassurance: Pentagon officials have said plans call for adding military police, armored vehicles and tanks to the streets of the capital to work alongside Iraq's U.S.-trained police and army units. Those units are heavily Shiite, and the presence of Americans is intended to assure Sunnis that the Iraqi forces are not Shiite death squads in uniform.

U.S. and British officials have said Iraqi units, especially the police, have been infiltrated by Shiite militias and have lost the confidence of many Iraqi civilians.

However, the strategy also risks further discrediting Iraqi forces, affecting their morale and making Americans more vulnerable to attack. U.S. casualties have eased in recent months as Americans handed over more security responsibility to the Iraqis and assumed a support role.

But the bitterness of the sectarian conflict and the high stakes at play have proven too much for the Iraqi force in the capital. The surge in attacks also pointed to the failure of al-Maliki's security plan for Baghdad, unveiled with great fanfare last month.

Calmer in Baghdad – we’ll see what happens elsewhere this week: Heavily armed American troops have returned to some of the most violent areas of Baghdad, patrolling the streets and setting up checkpoints in an attempt to regain control of the city and quell increasing sectarian violence.

Their return sparked fierce criticism from opposition leaders but was welcomed by many ordinary Iraqis desperate for peace after months of murderous violence between rival militias.

Yesterday proved to be one of the most peaceful days in months with no deaths reported in the capital by late afternoon, although two Sunni mosques were raked by gunfire which injured a guard. In contrast, an average of 100 people have been dying in sectarian attacks every day in Baghdad.

Another $5 billion down the rathole: Appearing with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki earlier this week, President Bush vowed to provide more equipment to Iraq's security forces. There are no specifics yet, but defense analysts say the forces are woefully under-equipped. Aside from concerns that the United States could be equipping a civil war, the cost is substantial.

Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey says the Iraqis need about 2,000 armored Humvees, 2,000 M-113 armored vehicles, 120 Blackhawk transport vehicles, and 24 C-130 transport planes. McCaffrey says the cost -- an estimated $5 billion -- has both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Office of Management and Budget concerned.

Team Shiite objects: One of Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders rejected the use of US forces to stabilize Iraq's security situation, as the Pentagon announced an increase in troop numbers.

Abdel Aziz Hakim told a rally in the holy city of Najaf that Iraqis should handle their own security, despite the mounting death toll in Baghdad, which is in the grip of a dirty war between rival Sunni and Shiite death squads.

Coup talk: A Shiite Muslim political leader said Friday that rumors were circulating of an impending coup attempt against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and warned that "we will not allow it."

Hadi al-Amiri, a member of parliament from Iraq's most powerful political party, said in a speech in the holy city of Najaf that "some tongues" were talking about toppling al-Maliki's Shiite-led government and replacing it with a "national salvation government, which we call a military coup government." He did not detail the allegation.

A new government would mean "canceling the constitution, canceling the results of the elections and going back to square one ... and we will not accept that," he said. Al-Amiri is also a top official in the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the leading member of a coalition of Shiite political parties governing Iraq.

Life In Iraq

Death in the morgue: As violence in the Iraqi capital continues to rise, the task of tracking down missing people here has become a grim ordeal. Iraq’s anemic investigative agencies have been ill-equipped to keep up with soaring crime, so for families seeking information, the morgues have often provided the only certainty.

Now, even the morgues have become a source of danger, at least for Sunni Arabs. In recent months, Shiite militias have been staking out Baghdad’s central morgue in particular, and the authorities have received dozens of reports of kidnappings and killings of Sunni Arabs there.

Many Sunnis now refuse to go there to look for missing family members and are forced to take extraordinary measures to recover a relative’s body, including sending Shiite friends in their stead.

Sickening uncertainty: The violence here is mercurial and episodic. A politician is assassinated in a drive-by shooting. Several men are pulled from a bus and are later found floating in the Tigris River with bullets in their heads. Militiamen clash with government forces in a running battle through a residential block. A suicide bomber walks into a mosque and wipes out the congregation.

It can strike inside the fortified Green Zone or out, against the rich and the poor, in darkness or daylight. Its motivation might be sectarian, or it might be simple greed or anger. It’s this randomness and ubiquity that makes it so insidious.

The constant threat has forced a redesign of the urban landscape. Neighborhoods have been carved up by concrete barriers and roadblocks, forcing residents to relearn how to get around town. Soldiers and the police are everywhere.

But the violence has reconfigured the emotional geography as well — and this is what Umm Hassan was saying. Iraqis live with the creeping, paralyzing dread that anything can happen at any time, and when it does, they will be powerless to stop it.

So they struggle to control their environment by limiting their movement, cutting off all but the most essential contact with other people and staying indoors. The space in which people believe they can safely operate shrinks with every attack, no matter where it occurs.

Bank robbers: The two armored vans left a branch of the Warka Bank on Thursday around noon, loaded with 1.191 billion dinars, or nearly $800,000. Almost immediately, on a busy street near the Baghdad zoo, the drivers spotted an oncoming Iraqi Army convoy, led by a shiny new Humvee. They followed standard procedure and pulled over.

But the convoy stopped, and an officer politely ordered the surprised drivers and guards to lay down their guns while his men searched the vans for bombs.

Within minutes all eight drivers and guards had been handcuffed and locked in the back of one of the vans on a suffocating 120-degree day, the cash had been stolen by the men in the convoy — whoever they were — and the Iraqi banking system marked another day of its slow slide into oblivion.

This Is Worrisome

Things could get a lot worse: Opposition parties in the parliament have given their full support to the Turkish Cabinet’s statement that “Turkey is going to make full use of its international rights to prevent terrorist attacks against the country.”

The Republican People's Party (CHP) said the decision may even be called a belated one, while the True Path Party (DYP) said they would fully support the government in a “cross-border operation.”

The Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) said Turkey should risk everything for the unity of the country.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stated Turkey’s legitimate defense right is fully supported in international law, while the Great Union Party (BBP) announced Turkey should enter northern Iraq and eradicate terrorism by implementing permanent measures.

American Military

Priorities, priorities: A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.

Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 -- less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.

We need to see a whole lot more of this: The youngest son of U.S. Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and a vocal proponent of more American troops in Iraq, will soon report for duty in the Marine Corps, Time Magazine reported on Saturday.

Jimmy McCain, 18, will spend three months in boot camp in California this autumn and another month in specialized training.

Depending on his unit, the younger McCain could eventually wind up in Iraq where Marines have experienced heavy fighting, Time reported. Marines are also in combat in Afghanistan.

(McCain is an asshole but I honor his son’s service. As usual, though, the kicker is the very last paragraph in the article…)

The percentage of members of Congress with children serving in the military is only slightly above 1 percent. Sens. Christopher Bond, a Missouri Republican, and Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, have had sons serve combat missions in Iraq, Time said.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Shell game: The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit, written by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office that reports to Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department.

Called the United States Agency for International Development, or A.I.D., the agency administers foreign aid projects around the world. It has been working in Iraq on reconstruction since shortly after the 2003 invasion.

Overuns: The United States is dropping Bechtel, the American construction giant, from a project to build a high-tech children’s hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after the project fell nearly a year behind schedule and exceeded its expected cost by as much as 150 percent.

Called the Basra Children’s Hospital, the project has been consistently championed by the first lady, Laura Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and was designed to house sophisticated equipment for treating childhood cancer.

Now it becomes the latest in a series of American taxpayer-financed health projects in Iraq to face overruns, delays and cancellations. Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers canceled more than $300 million in contracts held by Parsons, another American contractor, to build and refurbish hospitals and clinics across Iraq.

Readiness: Up to two-thirds of the Army's combat brigades are not ready for wartime missions, largely because they are hampered by equipment shortfalls, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday, citing unclassified documents.

In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that "nearly every non-deployed combat brigade in the active Army is reporting that they are not ready" for combat. The figures, he said, represent an unacceptable risk to the nation.

Training: The father of a Wisconsin National Guard member killed in Iraq says a top military leader told him a team will be sent to talk with his son's fellow troops about his concerns that they didn't get adequate training or equipment. Stephen Castner from Cedarburg also tells The Associated Press that since he went public with his complaints, relatives of other Guard soldiers have been contacting him to say they heard the same reports. He says every one of them has said their sons told them the training had nothing to do with what's in Iraq. An Army official has defended the training, saying the unit was -- quote -- "trained to standard."

Mercenaries: * In addition to its ongoing assignments guarding American officials and facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater has won contracts to combat the booming opium trade in Afghanistan and to support a SEAL-like maritime commando force in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic.

* On the home front, Hurricane Katrina's $73 million purse has persuaded Blackwater officials to position themselves as the go-to guys for natural disasters. Operating licenses are being applied for in every coastal state of the country. Governors are being given the pitch, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom a Blackwater official recently visited to discuss earthquake response.

"We want to make sure they're aware of who we are and what we can bring to the table," said Seamus Flatley, deputy director of Blackwater's new domestic operations division. "We want to get out ahead of it."

* Last year, the company opened offices in Baghdad and Amman, Jordan. More recent expansion plans call for a Blackwater West in Southern California and a jungle training facility at the former Subic Bay naval base in the Philippines.

Image is already affecting the Philippines deal. News reports out of the area indicate strong local opposition, fueled by fears of an influx of "mercenaries." A Filipino senator says he intends to investigate accusations that Blackwater is recruiting his countrymen for security jobs in Iraq; the Filipino government forbids its citizens to work there.

Finally, Our Mideast Policy Is Articulated

War is good: At today’s press conference, NBC’s David Gregory noted that, three years ago, the Bush administration predicted that “the invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace,” but that hasn’t happened.

In response, President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger and resentment lie “beneath the surface.” Bush said that the violence in the Middle East was evidence of a more effective foreign policy that addresses “root causes.”

Domestic Affairs

Unprecedented divisions: No military conflict in modern times has divided Americans on partisan lines more than the war in Iraq, scholars and pollsters say — not even Vietnam. And those divisions are likely to intensify in what is expected to be a contentious fall election campaign.

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows what one expert describes as a continuing “chasm” between the way Republicans and Democrats see the war. Three-fourths of the Republicans, for example, said the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, while just 24 percent of the Democrats did. Independents split down the middle.

“The present divisions are quite without precedent,” said Ole R. Holsti, a professor of political science at Duke University and the author of “Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy.”

Spying on citizens: The American Civil Liberties Union released a compilation of covert government surveillance of war protesters and other political activists in California, decrying it as evidence of a "greater expansion of government power and the abuse of power" since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The ACLU's Northern California branch said the findings show oversight of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies is too weak and called for the state to create a new watchdog over their activities.

War crimes: An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

Language in the administration's draft…seeks to protect U.S. personnel by ruling out detainee lawsuits to enforce Geneva protections and by incorporating language making U.S. enforcement of the War Crimes Act subject to U.S. -- not foreign -- understandings of what the Conventions require.

The aim, Justice Department lawyers say, is also to take advantage of U.S. legal precedents that limit sanctions to conduct that "shocks the conscience." This phrase allows some consideration by courts of the context in which abusive treatment occurs, such as an urgent need for information, the lawyers say -- even though the Geneva prohibitions are absolute.

Secret prisons: A United Nations human rights body told Washington on Friday that any "secret detention" centers for terrorism suspects it operated abroad violated international law and should be shut immediately.

Saying it had "credible and uncontested" reports of such jails, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said the United States appeared to have been detaining people "secretly and in secret places for months and years".

"The state party should immediately abolish all secret detention," it said, echoing a similar demand in May by the U.N. Committee Against Torture.

Commentary

Michael Hirsh: Reading "Fiasco," Thomas Ricks's devastating new book about the Iraq war, brought back memories for me. Memories of going on night raids in Samarra in January 2004, in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, with the Fourth Infantry Division units that Ricks describes. During these raids, confused young Americans would burst into Iraqi homes, overturn beds, dump out drawers, and summarily arrest all military-age men—actions that made them unwitting recruits for the insurgency. For American soldiers battling the resistance throughout Iraq, the unspoken rule was that all Iraqis were guilty until proven innocent. Arrests, beatings and sometimes killings were arbitrary, often based on the flimsiest intelligence, and Iraqis had no recourse whatever to justice. Imagine the sense of helpless rage that emerges from this sort of treatment. Apply three years of it and you have one furious, traumatized population. And a country out of control.

As most U.S. military experts now acknowledge, these tactics violated the most basic principles of counterinsurgency, which require winning over the local population, thus depriving the bad guys of a base of support within which to hide. Such rules were apparently unknown to the 4th ID commander, Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno. The general is a particular and deserving target of Ricks's book, which is perhaps the most exhaustive account to date of all that went wrong with Iraq. Nonetheless—according to that iron law of the Bush administration under which incompetence is rewarded with promotion, as long as it is accompanied by loyalty—Odierno will soon be returning to Iraq as America's No. 2 commander there, the man who will oversee day-to-day military operations.

David Sirota: Maliki's government cannot protect Iraqis from their own neighbors, so he is looking to Bush to be his nation's cop-on-the-beat. But can the US military be an effective police force in a society increasingly plagued by sectarian violence that has little, if anything, to do with the fight against al Qaeda and Islamic jihadism? Maliki's own government is even part of the problem. Death squads connected to the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry have been lead players in the current killing spree. If Maliki cannot control these elements, how can the US military? (In his speech to the US Congress, Maliki didn't address the knotty matter of the government-linked death squads. He briefly referred to "armed militias" but claimed that the rule of law and human rights are "flourishing" in Iraq.)

Sunni leaders--who once called for US forces to quit Iraq right away--now fear the ascendancy of Shiite killing squads so much that they have quieted their demands for a US withdrawal, fearing such a move would leave the Shiite militias even more unfettered. But should the United States remain in Iraq in response to such concerns? If so, US troops would be risking and sacrificing their lives to assist a government that is tied to death squads in order to prevent (Sunni) opponents of the leading (Shiite) bloc of that government from being killed by (Shiite) supporters of that leading bloc. Yes, politics in the Middle East have always been notoriously complicated and Byzantine. How many books--or intelligence reports--has Bush read about the intricacies of Arabic culture, history and politics?

Bush, all too obviously, has no good ideas how to navigate these shoals--which may not be navigable. After saying that more troops would be deployed to Baghdad, Bush was asked by an Iraqi reporter what could be done to improve the security situation in Baghdad. "There needs to be more forces inside Baghdad who are willing to hold people to account," he replied. "In other words if you find somebody who's kidnapping and murdering, the murderer ought to be held to account. And it ought to be clear in society that that kind of behavior is not tolerated....We ought to be saying that, if you murder, you're responsible for your actions. And I think the Iraqi people appreciate that type of attitude."

In other words, just say no to killing. That's not much of a plan.

Brian E. Fogarty: Imagine this situation: Your country has had a military setback in a war that was supposed to be over after a few months of "shock and awe." Because of that war, it has lost the goodwill and prestige of much of the international community.

The national debt has grown to staggering size. Citizens complain bitterly about the government, especially the legislative branch, for being a bunch of do-nothings working solely for themselves or for special interest groups. In fact, the political scene has pretty much lost its center -- moderates are attacked by all sides as the political discourse becomes a clamor of increasingly extreme positions.

It seems there are election campaigns going on all the time, and they are increasingly vicious. The politicians just want to argue about moral issues -- sexuality, decadent art, the crumbling family and the like -- while pragmatic matters of governance seem neglected.

Sound familiar? That society was Germany of the 1920s -- the ill-fated Weimar Republic. But it also describes more and more the political climate in America today.

Glenn Greenwald: For almost two years now, polls have continuously shown (.pdf) that a solid majority of Americans opposes the war in Iraq — the signature policy of the Bush administration and its followers — and believes it was a mistake. But a new analysis of Gallup poll data reveals that opposition to the war isn’t just substantial, but is greater than it was for the Korean War, and roughly equal to the opposition Americans expressed towards the Vietnam War even as late as 1970:

An analysis released today by Frank Newport, director of The Gallup Poll, shows that current public wishes for U.S. policy in the Iraq war eerily echo attitudes about the Vietnam war in 1970. The most recent Gallup poll this month found that 52% of adult Americans want to see all U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year, with 19% advocating immediate withdrawal. In the summer of 1970, Gallup found that 48% wanted a pullout within a year, with 23% embracing the “immediate” option. Just 7% want to send more troops now, vs. 10% then.

At present, 56% call the decision to invade Iraq a “mistake,” with 41% disagreeing. Again this echoes the view of the Vietnam war in 1970, when that exact same number, 56%, in May 1970 called it a mistake in a Gallup poll.

Polling data such as this conclusively demonstrates — in a way that even the national media can no longer ignore — just how dishonest and corrupt has been the favorite tactic of pro-war Bush followers: namely, to depict their pro-war views as "mainstream," while even more loudly characterizing truly mainstream anti-war views as being fringe, radical and anti-American.

Andy Ostroy: As the need for a multi-nation peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon becomes paramount towards finding an end to the violence there, the Pentagon has made it clear that U.S. forces are stretched so thin primarily from Iraq that we cannot, unlike in the past, send out troops to participate in this mission. "As far as boots on the ground, that doesn't seem to be in the cards," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. This position was echoed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "I do not think that it is anticipated that U.S. ground forces . . . are expected for that force." That we need to rely on France, Turkey and other nations to go it alone without U.S. participation is a sad day for America in its role as the great super-power and defender of freedom. That we now also have to send even more troops to safeguard Baghdad, as announced earlier this week, is mind-numbing. As the Middle East is imploding, with terror organizations and the countries that sponsor them--Syria and Iran--tipping the balance of power, it's criminal that we are so handcuffed by Iraq, so drained by this debacle, that we cannot play a meaningful role in securing the region. I don't care what color your state is, every American should be outraged at the Bush administration for taking this nation down such as self-destructive and wasteful path. That we're now subjected to the constant cable news images of an impotent United States, with a tired, frustrated Rice with her head in her hands trying to blow smoke up the world's ass while it contributes nothing diplomatically or militarily, is an utter disgrace and an embarrassment. We're the United States of America, for crap's sake, and we're coming off dazed and confused and powerless. It's especially infuriating as we compare America's stature and influence in the world today to that of the FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy days. In the eyes of the world, and on the political, diplomatic and military stage, America's become a sad joke. And we can thank our court jester Bush for that.

tristero: Dear Liberal Hawks and other fence sitters from 2002/2003 (you know who you are), Don't even think about a "thoughtful, measured response" to this bullshit.

President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger and resentment lie “beneath the surface.” Bush said that the violence in the Middle East was evidence of a more effective foreign policy that addresses “root causes.”

This is sheer, abject lunacy of the sort that imagined the invasion of Iraq would lead to city squares in Iraq named after George W. Bush and the invasion would pay for itself out of oil revenues. The only appropriate reaction is to very loudly proclaim this is the reasoning of madmen. No rational human being thinks like this.

Andrew Greeley: What is the worth of a single Iraqi life?

The New York Times reported that during recent months a hundred Iraqis die violently every day, 3,000 every month. In terms of size of population, that is the equivalent of 300,000 Americans a month, 10,000 every day. Yet the typical television clip on the evening news -- an explosion, automatic weapon fire, dead bodies on the streets -- has become as much a cliche as the weather report or another loss by the Cubs. The dead Iraqis are of no more value to us than artificial humans in video games. The Iraqis seem less than human, pajama-wearing people with dark skin, hate in their eyes, and a weird religion, screaming in pain over their losses. Weep with them, weep for them?

Why bother?

Rarely do Americans tell themselves that the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is responsible for this slaughter. In a spasm of arrogance and power, we destroyed their political and social structure and are now unable to protect them from one another. Their blood is on the hands of our leaders who launched a war on false premises, without adequate forces, without plans for the time after the war and then sent in inept administrators who could not provide even a hint of adequate public services.

…

The hundred who die every day are not merely numbers, they are real human beings. Their deaths are personal disasters for the dead person and also for all those who love them: parents, children, wives, husbands. Most Americans are not outraged. Iraqis are a little less than human. If a hundred people were dying every day in our neighborhoods, we would scream in outrage and horror. Not many of us are lamenting these daily tragedies. Quite the contrary, we wish the newscast would go on to the weather for the next weekend.

Is blood on the hands of those Americans who support the war? Again, one must leave them to heaven. But in the objective order it is difficult to see why they are not responsible for the mass murders. They permitted their leaders to deceive them about the war, often enthusiastically. How can they watch the continuing murders in Iraq and not feel guilty?

How would you feel if the street were drenched with the blood of your son or daughter, if your father was in the hospital with his legs blown off?

We cannot permit ourselves to grieve for Iraqi pain because then we would weep bitter and guilty tears every day.

Award Received

His family in the Midwest never doubted that R.J. Mitchell II would do whatever was necessary to protect his fellow Marines in Iraq. "We were concerned about him, of course, but we always knew he'd take care of himself and the men under him," said Bill Raiser of Lamoni, Iowa, Mitchell's maternal grandfather. Just how well Mitchell took care of his men as a squad leader with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment will be recognized here Friday as he receives the Navy Cross for heroism during the vicious house-to-house fighting in Fallouja in 2004.

Casualty Reports

A 21-year-old Ohio Marine killed in Iraq had planned to return on leave in October to see his daughter, born two weeks ago, for the first time, family members said.

Cpl. Timothy Roos of Delhi Township in suburban Cincinnati was killed Thursday in Ramadi, said his father, Rick.

Family members laid to rest on Saturday a Marine who died in combat earlier this month in one of Iraq's most volatile regions.

Cpl. Julian A. Ramon of Queens was killed July 20 while in the Anbar province, west of Baghdad. He was on his second tour of duty and was due to return home in September. Military officials told his family he had died in an explosion.

A sailor from Towson has died in Iraq after ordnance exploded during a disposal operation, the Pentagon said. Petty Officer 2nd Class Edward A. Koth died July 26 at Camp Victory in Iraq, the military said. Koth, 30, was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Eight, serving with Multinational Corps Iraq in Baghdad.

Saturday morning residents of Ruckersville gathered at William Monroe High School to pay tribute a fallen hero. Adam Fargo was stationed in Iraq when he was killed last week and community members took part in a memorial celebration remembering one of their own.

WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2006 (PART ONE) Note to Readers: Due to scheduling conflicts and Blogger related problems, Saturday’s regular post will not be up until very early Sunday morning for our European readers or very late Saturday for those of you in the States. In the meantime here’s something to chew on: SCORECARD Iraq – Security Approximate number of U.S. troops currently in Iraq: 126,900 Percent of coalition forces contributed by the U.S.: 86 Approximate amount appropriated by Congress for Iraq operations so far (including funding authorized by the Fiscal Year 2006 Emergency Supplemental): $320 billion Approximate amount spent by the U.S. in World War I (in inflation-adjusted dollars): $205 billion Approximate amount the U.S. is spending in Iraq per month in Fiscal Year 2006 (including operational and investment costs): $8.1 billion Approximate amount the U.S. spent in Iraq per month in Fiscal Year 2003 (including operational and investment costs): $4.4 billion Number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq: 2,547 Number reported wounded by the Defense Department: 18,988 Number of National Guard soldiers killed in Iraq through July 1, 2006: 364 Number of National Guard soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War: 97 Number of Iraqi military and police killed since training began (June 2003): 4,898 Number of journalists killed in Iraq: 74 Number of journalists killed in Vietnam: 63 Estimated number of insurgents in Iraq (November 2003): 5,000 Estimated number of insurgents in Iraq (June 2006): 20,000 + Estimated number of foreign fighters in Iraq in May 2003: 100 Estimated number of foreign fighters in Iraq in May 2006: 1,500 Number of civilian casualties in Iraq since U.S.-led invasion: 20,600 – 37,200 Estimated number of 88 Iraqi military battalions that are capable of operating independently: 0 Number of multi-fatality bombings in June 2004: 9 Number of multi-fatality bombings in June 2006: 57 Average number of daily attacks by insurgents in June 2004: 45 Average number of daily attacks by insurgents in June 2006: 90 Iraq – Political Amount requested by the President in his Fiscal Year 2007 budget for democracy promotion in Iraq: 0 Percent of Iraqis who say they are optimistic about their future: 30 percent According to a recent World Public Opinion poll, percent of Iraqis who approve of a timeline for U.S. withdrawal: 70 percent Degree of corruption in Iraq on the Transparency International 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index (on a scale of 0-10, with 0 representing “highly corrupt” and 10 representing “highly clean”): 2.2 Number of corruption cases that have been filed since the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity was established in 2004: 1,400 Approximate number of Iraqi families internally displaced as of February 2006 (prior to February 22 bombing of Shiite shrine in Samarra): 3,000 Approximate number of Iraqi families internally displaced as of June 2006, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration: 21,731 or 130,386 people Number of Iraqi civilians killed in May, according to data from the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue: 2,669 Number of Iraqi civilians killed in June, according to data from the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue: 3,149 Civilian death toll in Iraq in June 2006: 100 per day Rank of Iraq in Minority Rights Group International’s list of peoples most under threat from persecution, discrimination, and mass killing: 1 The number of passports issued in the past ten months, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees: 2 million Percent of Iraq’s professional class that has left the country since late 2003: 40 percent Iraq – Reconstruction Amount of the $13.5 billion pledged by the international community for Iraq’s reconstruction that has been dispersed (as of March 2006): $3.5 billion Amount of taxpayer money spent by Halliburton that the Defense Contract Audit Agency has deemed either excessive or insufficiently documented: $1.47 billion Amount of Iraqi reconstruction funds the military has failed to account for (according to the Defense Department’s inspector general): $8.8 billion Amount, of the $20.9 billion appropriated for the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF), that the U.S. has spent as of July 2006: $14.9 billion Percent of Iraq reconstruction funds used for security: 25 Number of days before all funding will be obligated and no new work orders will be allowed under the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund: 71 Anticipated reconstruction gap (difference between estimates of what is needed to rebuild and what the international community has pledged in aid) that the new Iraqi government will face: $18-28 billion Percent decline in Iraq’s GDP in 2005: 3 Average oil output for 2006 (barrels per day): 2.0 million Average oil output prior to invasion (barrels per day): 2.5 million Bush Administration’s prewar projections of Iraq’s post-war oil output (barrels per day): 3 million Average oil output for 2005 (barrels per day): 1.83 million Iraq’s lost oil revenues in 2005: $6.25 billion Percent of Iraq’s economy represented by oil revenues: 94 Amount U.S. taxpayers have invested in Iraq’s oil industry reconstruction: $2 billion Approximate number of guards who actually were trained in protecting Iraq’s oil equipment, of the 21,000 originally targeted: 11,000 Electricity capacity in Iraq (in megawatts) prior to invasion (March 2003): 4,500 Electricity capacity in Iraq (in megawatts) in July 2006: 4,200 Approximate amount U.S. taxpayers have invested in Iraq’s electricity sector: $5 billion Percent of Iraqis who had access to sewer service prior to invasion: 24 Percent of Iraqis who had access to sewer service in February 2006: 20 Number of Iraqis who had access to potable water before invasion: 13 million Number of Iraqis who have access to potable water, according to the April 2006 SIGIR report: 8 million Number of the planned 142 health care clinics that actually will be completed under the Army Corps of Engineers $243 million program: 20 Number of the planned 136 sanitation and water projects that will be completed: 49 Number of Iraqi physicians registered prior to the invasion: 34,000 Number of Iraqi physicians who have been murdered or fled the country since the invasion: 14,000 Infant mortality rate in Iraq: (Middle East average is 37, sub-Saharan Africa average is 105): 102 Terrorism Days since September 11, 2001 that Osama bin Laden has remained uncaptured: 1,772 Days after bombing Pearl Harbor that Japan surrendered to U.S. forces: 1,365 Number of significant global terrorist attacks reported by the State Department in 2003: 175 Total number of worldwide global terrorist attacks reported by the U.S. Government’s National Counterterrorism Center in 2004: 3,194 Total number of worldwide global terrorist attacks reported by the U.S. Government’s National Counterterrorism Center in 2005: 11,111 Percentage of total worldwide suicide attacks that have occurred since 9/11: 81 percent Percent of more than 100 of America’s top foreign policy experts (bipartisan group) who say the U.S. is not winning the war on terror: 84 percent Percent of those experts who believe that Bush Administration policies are undermining the war on terror: 81 percent Rank of Iraq on the “failed states” index: 4 Rank of Afghanistan on the “failed states” index: 10 Rank of Iraq among all nations as a training ground for terrorists: 1 Percent of top FBI jobs in the Washington area that currently are vacant (including counter-terrorism experts): 20 Percentage of respondents in a recent Financial Times/Harris poll conducted in Spain, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy who identified the U.S. as the greatest threat to global stability: 36 percent

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, July 28, 2006 Photo: Iraqi Shiites gather in protest to denounce Israeli attacks on Lebanon following prayers, Friday, July 28, 2006, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, southern Iraq. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani) Police reported clashes between the Shia Mehdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr and US forces in the Babil province south of Baghdad. A curfew was placed on the town after the fighting. Sources within the militia said that one of their members was killed by US forces and one wounded. Bring ‘em on:A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province today. (MNF – Iraq) Bring 'em on: A Salvadoran soldier was killed in Iraq in an attack on the Halliburton Co. convoy he was escorting. The soldier died yesterday when the vehicles from Halliburton's KBR unit were hit by an explosion on the outskirts of Diwaniyah, a city south of Baghdad. Another Salvadoran soldier was injured in the incident. Sub-sergeant Donald Alberto Ramirez, a 35-year-old nurse, is the fourth member of the Salvadoran armed forces to be killed in Iraq. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A mortar bomb struck a mosque in Baghdad killing at least four people. Six people were wounded in the incident which took place at the al-Alee al-A'atheem Sunni Arab mosque on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. A rocket exploded in central Baghdad at midmorning, injuring three. Baiji: A train station official was shot dead by gunmen in Baiji, in the centre of the country. Continual attacks, including some in the last week, have kept the refinery in Beiji from producing amid an oil shortage. Hilla: (Baquba?) Five Iraqi civilians including three brothers were killed in Hilla. An army statement told Kuna that three brothers were killed by unidentified gunmen when they were about to board their car, early morning, in the heart of Baquba. Baqubah: A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding two policemen in Baquba 65km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. Balad Ruz: (near) A Shia shrine has been blown up. Attackers planted several bombs inside the shrine to Imam Askar between the towns of Balad Ruz and Mandalay on Friday morning. The resulting explosion destroyed the monument. (near) Gunmen in a car opened fire on three brothers from a family, killing them all in a small village in the Imam Ways region west of the shrine to Imam Askar. Samarra: (near) An explosion struck a crude oil pipeline in central Iraq early Friday, a police officer in the area said. The blast, in the Tharthar area 20 kilometers west of Samarra, struck a pipeline carrying crude from Beiji refinery in the North to the Doura refinery near Baghdad, the Samarra-based policeman said. The officer didn't have any further details about the cause of the explosion and the time needed for repairs. Tikrit: Two Iraqis were killed outside their house in Tikrit. Kirkuk: Three people were killed south of Kirkuk when a roadside bomb destroyed their car. Gunmen kidnapped a Kurdish security guard in Kirkuk. An Iraqi army lieutenant was killed as his checkpoint was attacked by unknown gunmen southwest of Kirkuk. An improvised bomb exploded in one of the patrolling police vehicles on the main street of Kirkuk, while a similar attack targeted Multi-National Force (MNF) vehicle on the way of Kirkuk. Hawija: A policeman and a bystander were shot dead in an attack aimed at a passing police patrol in Hawija East of Kirkuk. Riyadh: Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in the village of Riyadh near Hawija. Ramadi: US warplanes attacked a house used as a hideout for gunmen in the western city of Ramadi. An army statement said the Multi-National Forces the raid also targeted a car used by insurgents. It gave no details about the insurgents' losses. >> NEWS The Pentagon's move to increase U.S. forces in Iraq will push troops levels to roughly 135,000, dashing Bush administration hopes of dropping that figure by tens of thousands by the fall congressional campaigns. As of Friday, there were 16 Army and Marine brigades in Iraq, two more than the level several months ago. And the total troops there had already reached 132,000, and will climb in the coming weeks, buoyed by the decision to delay the scheduled return home this month of an Alaskan Army brigade. (…) "The announcement that the U.S. is sending more troops into Baghdad is a grim warning of just how serious the situation in Iraq has become," said Anthony H. Cordesman, analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. One of Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders has rejected the use of US forces to stabilize Iraq's security situation, as the Pentagon announced an increase in troop numbers. Abdel Aziz Hakim told a rally in the holy city of Najaf that Iraqis should handle their own security, despite the mounting death toll in Baghdad, which is in the grip of a dirty war between rival Sunni and Shiite death squads. The Pentagon announced that 3,500 US combat troops who had been due to return home after a 12-month tour will be held back in Iraq for 120 days to help the US-led coalition restore order to the war-torn capital. (…) Currently 7,200 US troops are working with 43,000 Iraqi forces but have failed to stem the tide of violence in the capital, with another 4,000 US troops being sent to reinforce them. But Hakim, whose party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) is one of the largest in Maliki's coalition government, told a chanting crowd of thousands that Iraqis should take matters into their own hands. "We must activate the project of popular committees to secure the neighbourhoods," he said, echoing calls from other Shiite leaders for local militias to protect their districts from Iraq's roving death squads. "The security file should be handed over to Iraqi forces and no one should interfere with it," he told supporters in Najaf. "The interference in the work of Iraqi security forces prevents them from catching terrorists." Hakim's intervention reflects a deepening divide in perceptions of Iraq's security problems among the country's political leaders. Shiite groups like Hakim's see an unfinished war against supporters of former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime and Sunni religious radicals. (…) "Those who kill the Iraqis are the takfirists (Sunni extremists), Saddamists, and Baathists," he said, referring to members of Saddam's former ruling party. "Any talk about anything else is directing the war away from its focus." Mahmud Mahdi al-Sumaidaie, a member of the hardline Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, and imam of the Umm al-Qura mosque preferred to lay the blame for the security situation on US forces. "The US occupiers are responsible for what is going on with the violence and destruction -- they are the ones controlling the security file," he said in his Friday sermon. US troops have come under increasing attack by groups linked to Shiite militias: Colonel John Tully, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, said people associated with radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi militia were often linked to the attacks in his area. The attacks, which mainly involved roadside bombs, were up by about 25 percent, he said. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS PRISONERS OF WAR, CONT'D From the Associated Press this afternoon:

Military commanders in Iraq are developing a plan to move as many as 5,000 U.S. troops with armored vehicles and tanks into the country's capital in an effort to quell escalating violence, defense officials said Thursday. As part of the plan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday extended the tours of some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. It was scheduled to be leaving now, but instead, most of its 3,900 troops will serve for up to four more months. . . . All flights out for soldiers currently at the end of their deployment were canceled as of Tuesday, as commanders wrestled with the plan and how to supply troops needed for it, a third official said.

"Bring 'em on," the man said three years ago. "We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation" . . . Update: The reliable Tom Lasseter of Knight Ridder McClatchy Newspapers explains the blunt truth for anyone who hasn't been paying attention:

The Bush administration's decision to move thousands of U.S. soldiers into Baghdad to quell sectarian warfare before it explodes into outright civil war underscores a problem that's hindered the American effort to rebuild Iraq from the beginning: There aren't enough troops to do the job. Many U.S. officials in Baghdad and in Washington privately concede the point. They say they've been forced to shuffle American units from one part of the country to another for at least two years because there haven't been enough soldiers and Marines to deal simultaneously with Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite militias; train Iraqi forces; and secure roads, power lines, border crossings and ammunition dumps. . . . "This is exactly what happens when there aren't enough troops: You extend people and you deplete your theater reserve," said an American defense official in Iraq, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. During embedded reporting trips beginning in the summer of 2003 - which included time with troops from eight Army divisions, an armored cavalry regiment and several Marine units -- yours truly a McClatchy reporter was told repeatedly that more manpower was needed. . . . Almost no high-ranking, active-duty U.S. officers are willing to discuss their concerns about troop levels publicly, for fear of being reprimanded or having their careers cut short. There's an unwritten understanding, they said, that the Bush administration doesn't want to hear about the need for more troops. "They're not allowed to ask for more troops," the U.S. defense official in Iraq said. "If you say something you're gone, you're relieved, you're not in the Army anymore."

If only Democratic politicians would realize that this is the story they need to tell about Iraq -- not simply that we need more troops (because there aren't more troops to send), but that there aren't enough troops to accomplish the "mission" that Dubya fantasizes about. And sending American soldiers on a mission they can't accomplish is betraying their trust, whereas Democrats will either redefine the mission into a more modest one that can be accomplished (with far fewer casualties) or bring them home. More on this "soon," as they say... link "IT WON'T BE LIKE VIETNAM AT ALL - WE GOT OUT OF VIETNAM ALIVE" The Army is dying. Not the same as Vietnam. I was in right after that. Still lots of drug use then, mid to late 70s. Lots of disrespect for authority. Middle NCO's were shot. Senior NCO's were ok but burned out. Today, no drugs, not a race problem like we were having at the end of Vietnam. Respect for military authority more or less okay still. But the soldiers are burned out, and don't know what they're fighting for. And too many second raters are there now. Furthermore, none of this is going to matter if the word is given and half a million fighting men suddenly storm the lines. It won't be like Vietnam at all - we got out of Vietnam alive. If it's word up, we could lose a Division or more. Because what we've got left just ain't got what it takes. The Army's broken. Only question left for me is, how long till someone who ain't us decides to pick our Army up and throw it on the ground. -- Comment by Jesse Wendel posted 07.28.06 - 1:39 am at The News Blog BUSH'S IRAQ: A BLOODBATH ECONOMY Iraqis have been brutalized not only by bombs and bullets; they've also been the victims of economic violence in the form of the free market "shock therapy" cooked up by a firm in Virginia on a $250 million no-bid contract before the U.S. invasion. Tranforming Iraq's economy overnight was a matter of ideology trumping commonsense, and it's killed thousands of innocent Iraqis and shattered a way of life for hundreds of thousands more. That the radical restructuring of Iraq's political economy has received so little critical attention -- even as Iraq's nascent government threatens to crash and burn -- is a testament to how deeply indoctrinated we are --especially our media -- in the narrative of what "American-style" capitalism is. It was taken as a given that after knocking off Saddam, we'd rapidly privatize huge swaths of Iraq's national companies, get rid of hundreds of thousands of civil servants, completely restructure the country's tax and finance laws and throw Iraq's economy wide open for foreign multinationals. File it under bringing "democracy and capitalism" to the poor, backward Arabs. The reality is that the economic policies we imposed on Iraq were not some generic form of "capitalism"; they included the most radical business-state rules imaginable -- policies that developing countries have vehemently resisted for over a decade. What's more, imposing them at the point of a gun appears to have violated both international and U.S. laws. There's nothing "normal" about it. And while "democratization" and "free markets" supposedly go hand-in-hand, the truth is that Iraq's economic transformation was mutually exclusive with the goal of forming a legitimate government, and the Bush administration knew it well in advance of the occupation. That's because it's universally accepted -- even among the most vocal proponents of the very model of corporate globalization that inspired Iraq's new economy -- that in the short-term those policies create economic pain, displacement, anger and civil unrest, as well as a lack of faith in government. That's no way to win hearts and minds. read in full... AMERICA'S LEGACY IN IRAQ In the wake of recent unrest and "sectarian attacks in Iraq", Muslim leaders in India blamed the U.S. for the escalation in Shia-Sunni tensions. "The people who are behind this fratricide in Iraq are those who ultimately want to destroy Islam and Muslims, those who want to defame the community," said Naib Imam Moulvi Mouzzam Ahmed of the Fatehpuri mosque in Old Delhi. "These things never happened in Iraq until the Americans came," he added. "So long as the Americans don't leave Iraq, these things will continue," the Imam told IANS. "Unfortunately, just as the British left behind the cancer of Hindu-Muslim tensions in India, America's legacy in Iraq will be Shia-Sunni tensions." "America is fully involved in this violence," said Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam at the Jama Masjid, the city's biggest mosque. "They will use this violence to keep their forces in Iraq for ever. They don't want normalcy to return to Iraq." read in full... BILLMON: AXIS OF WEEVIL Glenn Greenwald directs our attention to this astonishing column from ubercon David Frum, in which the master of disaster essentially recants four years worth of views on the wisdom, necessity and feasibility of invading Iraq -- without, of course, ever admitting that he is doing so.

It's like some baby boomer nightmare: after decades of swearing that we would never repeat the mistakes of our parents, we are re-enacting the errors committed in Indochina in the 1960s and 1970s, every single one.

It seems like everybody's hopping on that bandwagon these days. Of course in Frum's view, the Vietnam errors repeated in Iraq weren't the lies and distortions used to sell the war to the public, the absence of a realistic plan, the lack of international support, the bureaucratic inefficiency, the ideological blindness, etc. etc. No, the big mistake we repeated, according to Frum, is underestimating the strength of Iraq's "internal enemies" and the willingness of hostile neighbors to provide them with sanctuary and support:

Only the US has tried to pretend that the war zone stops at the international border. In some horrible rerun of Vietnam, the US has let the enemy establish safe havens just on the other side of the line, from which it draws supplies and reinforcements with impunity.

Now this is a bit unfair, in my opinion, because it's easy to understand why the Pentagon and the Cheney administration lowballed the potential for guerrilla warfare. They were told by some pretty world-class foreign policy experts that they didn't have to worry about the risk of guerrilla warfare. And who were these experts? Why, David Frum and his mentor, Richard Perle. read in full... IRAQ, WE HARDLY KNEW YOU As the spokesman for my generation -- Ferris Bueller -- once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Ferris' bit of wisdom came back to us this morning when, in the blur of violent news from the Middle East, we saw a CNN.com headline that read: "Iraq: The forgotten war." (Hat tip to Atrios for flagging it.) Iraq, forgotten? Is that possible? While calling the war "forgotten" is a little too extreme (we'll save that title for Afghanistan), recent coverage of the constant, staggering daily death toll has begun to take on the pall of boilerplate copy in the nation's newspapers. In one sense, it's understandable: After three years of grinding conflict and daily body counts, eyes may begin to gloss over when reading a story about the latest suicide bombing in Baghdad. That is, until you step back and realize the massive toll the sectarian violence in Iraq has exacted. Earlier this month, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq estimated that during the first six months of 2006 the civilian death toll in Iraq shot up more than 77 percent, from 1,778 deaths in January to 3,149 in June. During May and June alone, 5,818 Iraqi civilians were killed in sectarian violence and a horrific 14,338 civilians have been killed so far in 2006, which adds up to an average of 100 deaths a day. Former CJR Daily staffer Brian Montopoli has written about "Iraq fatigue" and TNR's Ryan Lizza has had some interesting observations about the placement of stories dealing with civilian casualties in Iraq over the last several months. Writing about the relatively scant media coverage of the bombings in Mumbai, Montopoli asked: "Can we now say that the growing list of terrorist acts in recent years -- 9/11, Madrid, London, to name but a few -- have blurred into normalcy?" He speculated that "we seem to be moving towards a situation in which we view world events as we might a violent movie -- dimly aware of each individual death, but not terribly affected, thanks to the desensitizing regularity with which we absorb them." A good point, and one made even before the recent fighting in Lebanon and Israel (which was what the CNN headline referred to), which pushed Iraq off the front pages, or at least bumped it below the fold. But it's a chilling comment on the news these days that the bloodletting in Iraq has become so common as to be relegated to the inside pages, and, aside from a few media monitors, few seem to notice. Part of that may be due to unease with the fact that neither the U.S. nor anyone else appears to be making much progress in Iraq. For how long can anyone remain interested in what increasingly seems a stalemate? But part of it is also the seeming inability of the press to pay attention to more than one big story at a time. As Howard Kurtz put it yesterday on his CNN show Reliable Sources:

"Hundreds of innocent people killed by bombs in an awful war with huge civilian casualties. No, I'm not talking about Lebanon. The carnage in Iraq continues day after day, but that conflict has largely been blown off television and newspaper front pages by a newer story, the fighting in the Middle East. "The media seemed unable to handle two wars at the same time."

link FIRST IRAQ, NOW LEBANON When Iraqi complaints of disproportionate firepower levelled at Iraqi cities and civilians surfaced in global media, the US military response was that "insurgents" had hidden among the civilian population. US media, especially in the case of Fallujah, referred to Iraqi cities where fighting against occupation troops had erupted as "strongholds". The most popular definition for this term alludes to a militarised area akin to a fortress, populated by military or militia-affiliated personnel. The civilian component is therefore removed from the collective psyche. By performing such a sleight of hand definitions, Fallujah, once home to 400,000 Iraqi men, women and children, was then considered a legitimate target -- an area upon which open warfare and the many horrors thereof was permitted. This, too, is the semantic strategy for qualifying the destruction of entire neighbourhoods in Beirut and all outlying villages and towns in South Lebanon. Villages dotting the Lebanese side of the border with Israel are now referred to as strongholds. (…) When Iraqi civilians are killed in a US military raid on a village or neighbourhood, US spokespersons immediately exonerate US troops by claiming that they came under fire and therefore returned fire to defend themselves. Any civilians killed in such actions are blamed not on the US troops pulling the trigger but on "insurgents" who were in civilian areas to begin with. Such is the case today with Lebanon. The media is persistently hammered by declarations that the civilian death toll should not blamed on Israel but on Hizbullah fighters who disappear within the civilian population, hide out among women and children, use women and children as human shields, and are hiding their rockets and weaponry in civilian homes. (…) It's the same when it comes to the issue of "civilian infrastructure". Again, one must refer to the applied model in Iraq. In routing out dead-enders in Iraq, the US military pounded entire neighbourhoods into rubble. Thousands of families were forced to live in tents and many still do as their houses, shops and livelihoods have been destroyed. This modus operandi is ongoing, and may soon be inflicted upon Ramadi. The situation in Lebanon, sadly, is identical. In the 1991 bombing of Baghdad, US warplanes targeted water filtration plants that had zero military significance but would eventually give rise to disease as thousands of Iraqis suffered from the lack of potable water. Bridges, factories, homes, ministries, power plants, communications, and sewage treatment and health facilities were also targeted. The strategy behind targeting such civilian infrastructure was to create difficult conditions for the populace thereby hoping to coerce them into rising up against the Saddam Hussein-led government. In Lebanon, the severe bombing of cities and towns is designed to shock and awe the civilian populace to pressure its government to move against Hizbullah and disarm it. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghaniatan: Two coalition soldiers were wounded during a clash with Taliban rebels in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a coalition spokesman. He did not disclose the soldiers' nationalities. He said their conditions were not life-threatening. Lebanon: 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll [by the Beirut Center for Research and Information] conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis. THESE PLACES ARE NOT VILLAGES Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon, the guy who claimed that the Rome conference's failure, under American pressure, to denounce Israeli military operations in Lebanon was in fact "permission from the world" to finish the job, has announced that all of southern Lebanon is a legitimate target for indiscriminate bombing. Villages there may be completely destroyed, he says, because "These places are not villages. They are military bases". Ditto the people: "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hizbollah." Ramon is a moderate by Israeli political standards (you can look him up), but this sort of language, and the collective punishment and wholesale killing that language is intended to justify, could not be more racist if he came right out and called the Lebanese sand niggers. link "OUR OWN PEOPLE" Israel is making another wasteland; the Lebanese mustn't have an economy, tourists, electricity; they mustn't have any means to resist, and they mustn't use any water for swimming pools. Iraq is flaunted as the model New Middle East, (itself modelled on Gaza). In this crusade, even top shelf branded humanity (Americans, Israeli soldiers) are utterly disposable; the Auschwitzization of the planet begins with the reduction of selected segments of humanity to insects and then, as if as a concession to égalité and fraternité, the sinking of the rest to the same level. Palestinian Arabs, then Lebanese Muslim Arabs, then Lebanese Christian Arabs, then Arab-Americans, then sentimental Swedes who 'sympathise' with them. The apocalyptic onslaught pauses as Condoleeza Rice descends, like Athena from Olympus, to the battlefield, to chant and prophesy, distribute depleted uranium weapons to poison the land irreperably, and bless the bloodbath. They Rule From The Heavens. read in full... BILLMON: HIROHITO WATCH I guess this is going to become a standing feature:

There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah - and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long - would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. (emphasis added)

Boy, you just can't beat the New York Times for clueless understatement, delivered about a week behind the curve. Chris Dickey of Newsweek gives us the unvarnished version:

The bottom line: Hizbullah is winning. That's the hideous truth about the direction this war is taking, not in spite of the way the Israelis have waged their counterattack, but precisely because of it. As my source Mr. Frankly put it, "Hizbullah is eating their lunch."

Sheik Nasrallah: Tastes like chicken! link EXACTLY WHAT BREED IS TONY BLAIR? Boy, poor ol' Tony is in deep doo-doo when his friends think this is the way to tweak his reputation. He's stopping in Washington on his way to California with this brand-new image makeover: After his stop-over in Washington, Mr Blair will fly on to California tonight to attend a conference with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch. An ally of Mr Murdoch, Irwin Stelzer, insisted Mr Blair was not Mr Bush's "poodle", but his "guide dog", particularly over the Middle East. Now I'm not going to make the faux pas of ridiculing guide dogs--but then, poodles are intelligent as well. But I suppose it works insofar as it casts Bush as the blind man. What's next? "Arf!" "What's that, Tony? You say there's a crisis in the Mideast?" "Arf arf arf!" "And we should do nothing about it? Good boy! Here's some kibble!" link QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If we punish a person who killed an American soldier, who is an occupier, we should punish the American soldiers who killed an Iraqi who fought against occupation. In my view, a person who killed Americans in defense of his country, in other countries, they would build a statue to him." -- Iraqi parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhandani

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, July 27, 2006 Photo: Iraqi woman runs for cover moments after a bomb attack in central Baghdad July 27, 2006. The death toll from a car bombing and mortar attacks in central Baghdad on Thursday has risen to at least 25, Ministry of Interior sources said. They said 45 people were wounded in the attacks. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz (IRAQ) (See below) A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb blasted Baghdad's upscale Karradah district, killing 31 people and wounding 153. Several mortars landed in the district, some destroying a bank and an apartment building that later collapsed in flames. The car bomb exploded near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Gunmen killed four security guards outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad. Two mortar shells hit the Dora district of southern Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding four civilians, Interior Ministry sources said on Thursday. Three people were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Mansur district of the capital. Gunmen wearing military uniforms and using military vehicles attacked a cash-in-transit vehicle and stole two Iraqi billion dinars, worth around 1.3 million dollars. Nineteen bodies with bullet holes and showing signs of torture were found in different areas of the capital. Baqubah: Gunmen opened fire on Gerogian troops manning a checkpoint near Baquba and hurt five, according to the U.S. military. An official from the office of the Georgian president said six had been injured. Four people were killed, including three women, and five others wounded when an ambulance hit a roadside bomb near Baquba. A car bomb exploded in Baquba 65 km, (40 miles) north of Baghdad, wounding three people. Ishaqee: A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded four others in the city of Ishaqee, 90 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. Kut: A translator working for U.S. troops was found killed in his car near Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad. A former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party was killed in a drive by shooting in front of his house. Tikrit: A roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded two more near Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. Kirkuk: An army lieutenant was wounded and a soldier was killed when gunmen attacked their car in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad. (Debes) A policeman and an Iraqi soldier were killed after their patrols opened fire on each other near a petrol station in the town of Debes, 45 km (28 miles) northeast of Kirkuk. A body was found with bullet wounds and signs of torture near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad. Mosul: A policeman was wounded when gunmen opened fire on him in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Karmah: A roadside bomb exploded on an Iraqi army patrol, killing four soldiers, near Karmah, 25 miles west of Baghdad. >> NEWS Video A group of Iraqis in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday signed up to join the Shia militant group Hezbollah in solidarity with Hezbollah fighters under attack from Israel in southern Lebanon Video The Iraqi government on Tuesday announced a 35 million dollar aid package for Lebanon. Iraqis IHA spoke to were critical of the aid, stating that they need the money more than Lebanon. >> REPORTS Up to two-thirds of the Army's combat brigades are not ready for wartime missions, largely because they are hampered by equipment shortfalls, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday, citing unclassified documents. In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that "nearly every non-deployed combat brigade in the active Army is reporting that they are not ready" for combat. The figures, he said, represent an unacceptable risk to the nation. At a news conference, other leading Democrats said that those strategic reserve forces are critically short of personnel and equipment. "They're the units that could be called upon or would be called upon to go to war in North Korea, Iran, or any other country or region," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine who has called for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. A DANCE OF DISPLACEMENT Wiam Mohammed, a 32-year-old Sunni Arab car painter, fled here from the mostly Shiite city of Basra in May, hoping to find a more peaceful place. But he found there may not be anywhere safe in Iraq, not really. Mohammed had sought a place with fewer bombings and a life free from the men with guns who killed at least 36 people around the country, including one U.S. serviceperson, on Tuesday. Instead he found more trouble, and has begun moving back to his hometown in what has become a dance of displacement among Iraqis scuttling around the country in search of havens. read in full... 'WAITING TO GET BLOWN UP' Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer. "Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is." Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said. As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians. But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded. "It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard." "No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding." read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS PERHAPS THEY'LL RENAME THE TIGRIS THE "BERLIN RIVER" I would be remiss in my duties as an Iraq blogger if I didn't mention this ominous Reuters story from Friday:

Iraqi leaders have all but given up on holding the country together and, just two months after forming a national unity government, talk in private of "black days" of civil war ahead. Signalling a dramatic abandonment of the U.S.-backed project for Iraq, there is even talk among them of pre-empting the worst bloodshed by agreeing to an east-west division of Baghdad into Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim zones, senior officials told Reuters. Tens of thousands have already fled homes on either side. "Iraq as a political project is finished," one senior government official said -- anonymously because the coalition under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to the U.S.-sponsored constitution that preserves Iraq's unity. . . . "The parties have moved to Plan B," the senior official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million. . . . "The situation is terrifying and black," said Rida Jawad al -Takki, a senior member of parliament from Maliki's dominant Shi'ite Alliance bloc, and one of the few officials from all the main factions willing to speak publicly on the issue. "We have received information of a plan to divide Baghdad. The government is incapable of solving the situation," he said. . . . Officials say the Tigris river is already looking like the Beirut "Green Line", dividing Sunni west Baghdad, known by its ancient name of Karkh, from the mainly Shi'ite east, or Rusafa.

How could the leaders of a supposed "national unity government" give in to a plan that breaks the country apart? In a story about the latest carnage in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times gives us a hint:

The attacks came as Iraq's political leaders attempted to jump-start a process of reconciliation among the country's warring factions. Iraqis hope such talks can stem a further descent into civil war.

But the conference, held in a hotel inside the heavily protected Green Zone, failed to draw or include representatives from insurgent and militia groups fueling much of the violence. . . . so far reconciliation plans have amounted to talk about establishing committees that would discuss possible "mechanisms," said Pascale Warda, a human rights advisor to parliament. Many of Iraq's political leaders were in exile during Hussein's rule and are viewed with contempt by armed groups and as ineffective outsiders by much of the Iraqi public.

Oh, yes, now I remember, there's an old legend about this -- something about a baby and a custody dispute, and an imposter "mother" who's willing to see the child split in half rather than give it up. Only in this case, there's no wise judge, and no real parent willing to save the child. Real life can be disappointing that way. link MALIKI: DEAD MAN WALKING Maliki's message [to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday] was a simple one, and he delivered while standing in front of his puppet master, the scowling Dick Cheney. Did Maliki headline the sectarian bloodletting and ethnic cleansing in Iraq, the death squads and militias? No. Did Maliki present a plan for securing Iraq's capital? No. Instead, he stuck to the Republican Party's 2006 electoral talking points: that Iraq is the central front in the so-called Global War on Terrorism. He cited 9/11, a crime perpetrated by what he called "impostors of Islam," and he portrayed the violence in Iraq as the direct continuation of America's effort against Al Qaeda: Iraq is the front line of this struggle. ... Iraq is your ally in the War on Terror. ... The greatest threat Iraq faces is terror created by extremists. Iraq is free and the terrorists cannot stand this. ... This terrorist front is a threat to every civilized country. Iraq is the battle that will determine the war. ... I will not allow Iraq to become a launching pad for Al Qaeda. .. Iraq will be the graveyard for terrorism and terrorists." (...) The fact is, getting out of Iraq is a winning position, despite efforts by the GOP and Maliki to link the war to the struggle against Al Qaeda. Even Republicans, especially those in swing districts in the Northeast and the Midwest, are getting the message. Last week, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a six-term Republican congressman from Minnesota, put it bluntly: "What the White House is saying is, 'Stay the course, stay the course.' I don't think that course is politically sustainable." One highly placed political insider told me: "There are people in the [Republican] party, on the Hill and in the White House, who see a political train wreck coming." If the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress in November, he said, that would unleash a series of investigative hearings on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and civil liberties that could fatally weaken the administration and remove the last props of political support for the war. And that prospect has moved many moderate GOPers, such as Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, and Jim Gerlach and Charles Dent of Pennsylvania to question the Bush administration's stay-the-course idiocy. During Maliki's dead-man-walking performance on the Hill, the applause was lackluster. Members seemed distracted and unenthusiastic, and Cheney looked downright glum. Some Democrats, such as Reid, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, tried to make a big deal of Maliki's refusal to condemn Hezbollah, going so far as to suggest that Maliki's invitation to speak to Congress be repudiated. (In the end, Reid and Pelosi relented, dutifully joining the pall-bearers who carried Maliki into the House chamber.) But in fact, these Democrats have a point: Maliki's regime, despite being installed by the Pentagon's puppeteers, maintains close ties to Iran, further complicating the ability of the United States to halt the civil war and disarm Iranian-backed Shiite death squads. Meanwhile, no one seriously believes that the latest plan to secure Baghdad will work. The New York Times devilishly pointed out that while Maliki calls it "Phase II" of the plan announced six weeks ago, in fact there was never meant to be a Phase II; instead, it is Plan B. But even this is more wish that plan. read in full... MALIKI THE IDIOT He went to America to ask for the withdrawal of the occupiers

Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday in London suggested that foreign troops could leave Iraq within months rather than year, despite the virtual raging civil war,

Top Iraqi leaders ready to ask the US to leave He will comeback to Iraq with more occupation forces.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after meeting the visiting Iraqi leader at the Pentagon, said the increase in forces in the Baghdad area will be "more than hundreds," but was no more precise.

Bush, Maliki agree on more US troops for Baghdad link CHARTING A NEW COURSE AFTER YOU'VE ALREADY STRUCK AN ICEBERG A few days ago, I responded to the announced U.S. desperate improvisation plan to shift troops to Baghdad from other areas of Iraq by comparing it to "a fire engulfing a house, with an overwhelmed man racing from one end to the other wondering where to pour his lone bucket of water." This morning, the New York Times tries to explain where and how the water will be wasted used:

The plan is to concentrate on specific neighborhoods rather than distribute the forces throughout the city, control movement in and out of sectors of the capital and try to sweep them of insurgents and violent militias. In effect, the scheme is a version of the "ink blot" counterinsurgency strategy of grabbing a piece of terrain, stabilizing it and gradually expanding it. Only this time the objective is not a far-flung Iraqi city or town, but the capital, the seat of the fledgling government and home to some seven million Iraqis. . . . By securing the city a sector at a time, American and Iraqi commanders hope to allow the Iraqi government to restore essential services and build support and legitimacy among an anxious public. . . . The Americans and the Iraqis are likely to start with the easiest sectors, calculating that they need to demonstrate a measure of success before taking on the most contested areas.

Uhh, but who's going to notice your "measure of success" when death squads and car bombs are still running rampant through the rest of the city? After all, there already is a well-secured area of Baghdad -- the Green Zone -- and nobody in the streets seems to be deriving a great deal of confidence from that. Come to think of it, maybe the Green Zone is where they intend to deploy the added troops. It would make about as much sense as anything else. (P.S. The NYT story includes this sobering reminder: "In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel.") link JULY 27TH 2006 MID-MORNING I expect today to be bad. Juan Cole has saved me the trouble of giving a prècis of this article in Al-Zaman [Arabic] really you need to read whole thing, the situation in the south of the country is coming very badly unstuck for the green zone government. In particular this statement by Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi is ominous:

"We fear the coming of a day when we cannot restrain a revolution of the people, with all its unsavory consequences."

Al-Najafi is often thought to be second most important of the four Grand Ayatollahs living in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani being "primus inter pares" (the fifth Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Hairi lives in Iran.) Al-Najafi's office would not under any circumstances have issued that statement unless the Grand Ayatollahs (who act collegially) were of the opinion that their ability to restrain their followers was slipping. Please note the scale of the attacks. I also expect today to be dire in Baghdad. Why do I expect today to be dire? Because yesterday night there was heavy fighting on Haifa Street. Why is Haifa Street important? Well if you look at a map of Baghdad it's the big street pointing like a dagger right into the heart of the green zone. It's been "pacified" oh a couple of hundred times by now. At the time of writing (just gone 11 a.m my time) the death toll in Baghdad from what seems to be a particularly well coordinated set of combined mortar/bombing attacks is at least 25 including children and rising. I wonder will the Syrians give al-Maliki political asylum again ... ... ... maybe, if Dubya asks them really nicely. That's if he stumps up their price for extracting his buddy Olmert from Lebanon of course ... ... ... Oh by the way the movement of more American [hostages body bag occupants -- crossed out] soldiers ordered by the [Cheney -- crossed out] Bush administration is well underway. The [Cheney -- crossed out] Bush administration bringing an entire new meaning to the expression "charlie fox." link >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: (update) A Russian-made helicopter crashed in bad weather in eastern Afghan mountains, killing all 16 on board, including at least two American civilians and two Dutch military officers, officials said Thursday. ROBERT FISK: A WARNING TO ISRAEL Is it possible - is it conceivable - that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon? From this hill village [Qlaya] in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a "terrorist centre". (...) The battle for southern Lebanon is on an epic scale but, from the heights above Khiam, the Israelis appear to be in deep trouble. Their F-16s turn in the high bright sun - small, silver fish whose whispers gain in volume as they dive - and their bombs burst over the old prison, where the Hizbollah are still holding out; beyond the frontier, I can see livid fires burning across the Israeli hillsides and the Jewish settlement of Metullah billowing smoke. It was not meant to be like this, 15 days into Israel's assault on Lebanon. The Katyushas still streak in pairs out of southern Lebanon, clearly visible to the naked eye, white contrails that thump into Israeli's hillsides and border towns. read in full... IS BEIRUT BURNING? "It seems that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut, where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker. An interesting formulation. A few hours after the bombing, Nazrallah had given an interview to Aljazeera television. Not only did he look alive, but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment - proof that the interview was recorded on the same day. So what does "it seems that" mean? Very simple: Nasrallah pretends to be alive, but you can't believe an Arab. Everyone knows that Arabs always lie. That's in their very nature, as Ehud Barak once pronounced. The killing of the man is a national aim, almost the main aim of the war. This is, perhaps, the first war in history waged by a state in order to kill one person. Until now, only the Mafia thought along those lines. Even the British in World War II did not proclaim that their aim was to kill Hitler. On the contrary, they wanted to catch him alive, in order to put him on trial. Probably that's what the Americans wanted, too, in their war against Saddam Hussein. But our ministers have officially decided that that is the aim. There is not much novelty in that: successive Israeli governments have adopted a policy of killing the leaders of opposing groups. Our army has killed, among others, Hizbullah leader Abbas Mussawi, PLO no. 2 Abu Jihad, as well as Sheik Ahmad Yassin and other Hamas leaders. Almost all Palestinians, and not only they, are convinced that Yassir Arafat was also murdered. And the results? The place of Mussawi was filled by Nasrallah, who is far more able. Sheik Yassin was succeeded by far more radical leaders. Instead of Arafat we got Hamas. As in other political matters, a primitive military mindset governs this reasoning too. -- Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist, writer and peace activist read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Iraq debacle predicts utter collapse for the United States? Not at all. One suspects a 'soft landing' will happen instead. Bush or one of his successors in the White House will find a respectable way to remove the American presence from Iraq, and our political and economic leadership will do everything necessary to maneuver a gentle aftermath when the dollar finally bottoms out, as it shall. Afterwards we will be able to carry on with our lives just as Spaniards have done since the seventeenth century, just as the French have done since Waterloo, and just as the English and Germans have done since the end of World War II. And, lest we forget, just as Canada has done since its very beginning. Of course our imperial pretensions will be far more modest than before, but we shall be better for it. And eventually we might live down our infamous reputation acquired in both Vietnam and Iraq." -- from Bush Does Iraq: Anatomy of a Failed Operation by Edward Jayne

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, July 26, 2006 Photo: Iraqis carry a victim of a car bomb outside a court house in the northern city of Kirkuk, July 23, 2006. (Slahaldeen Rasheed/Reuters) (See below under "Kirkuk") SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped 17 people from a Baghdad apartment building on Wednesday, Interior Ministry sources said. They said the kidnappers abducted 10 men, five women and two children from different families. Two brothers serving in Iraq's police forces were killed today when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle as they returned home in southeastern Baghdad. The attack occurred as the two returned to the Baghdad suburb of Nahrawan. A police patrol in Al-Nahrwan, east of Baghdad, killed local police chief Lieutenant Colonel Khadum Bressam and his brother, and wounded four officers. Gunmen abducted the Interior Ministry's residence director as he travelled in an unmarked car. It was not clear who seized Brigadier Abdullah Humoud. One civilian was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Five bodies which had been tortured and shot were found in three districts of Baghdad. A Sailor assigned to Multinational Corps -- Iraq died at approximately 2:15 p.m today in Baghdad. The incident does not appear to be the result of enemy action and is under investigation. (CENTCOM) Karbala: Gunmen on a motorcycle sprayed three men with bullets at a wedding ceremony in central Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad. Nahrawan: Gunmen shot at a police convoy, killing three policemen and wounding four others in Nahrawan, 15 km south of Baghdad. Baqubah: Gunmen assaulted an Iraqi police checkpoint, killing one officer and wounding another and two bystanders in Baquba. Gunmen opened fire on a Shiite Muslim family in Baquba as they gathered their possessions and prepared to flee their mainly Sunni district. One family member was killed and two wounded. Samawah: Australian troops have shot and wounded an Iraqi man who opened fire on their patrol near the capital of Al Muthanna province. Defence spokesman Brigadier Gus Gilmore said the incident happened on Monday night when the man began firing on the Australian patrol near the city of Samawah. Maysan Prv: A British armoured vehicle has been attacked in Iraq, although there were no casualties among troops, according to the Ministry of Defence. The attack took place in the Maysan province north of Basra, according to an MoD spokesman. Major Charlie Burbridge said forces came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades which did not detonate. The troops subsequently returned fire. It is not known whether there were any Iraqi casualties. Balad: An "insurgent" was killed and three others were detained in a raid by the combined security forces in the town of Balad 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Mosul: A policeman was wounded when a roadside bomb went off targeting his patrol in the city of Mosul 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Seven people were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a gas station in central Mosul. Kirkuk: A car bomb was detonated among a crowd of civilians in Kirkuk, killing one of them and wounding four more. Tal Afar: Eight suspected "insurgents" were detained in Tal Afar, about 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad. >> NEWS Saddam Hussein returned to court for the first time since his hunger strike, saying that if he's convicted, he wants to die like a soldier by firing squad rather than on the gallows "as a common criminal." Saddam also said he was brought by the Americans against his will from a hospital, where he was taken Sunday on the 17th day of a hunger strike and fed through a tube. Despite more than two weeks without food, Saddam seemed no less vigorous, although he appeared to have lost some weight. Alarming new questions about the death of Iraq weapons inspector David Kelly have been raised as a major investigation cast doubt on the official verdict that he committed suicide. The inquiry by campaigning MP Norman Baker will spark renewed speculation about how the Government's leading expert on weapons of mass destruction was found dead in a field in Oxfordshire three years ago. In particular, the dossier compiled by the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes shows that the method of suicide said to have been chosen by Dr Kelly, far from being common as was claimed at the time, was in fact unique. Dr Kelly was the only person in the United Kingdom that year deemed to have died from severing the ulnar artery in his wrist, a particularly difficult and painful process as the artery is deep and Dr Kelly had only a blunt garden knife. The MP reveals that the Oxfordshire coroner held an 'unusual' meeting with Home Office officials before he determined the cause of Dr Kelly's death. >> REPORTS U.S. COULD FACE A SHOWDOWN WITH AL-SADR Putting more U.S. soldiers in the streets of Baghdad risks a new showdown with a radical anti-American cleric who has modeled his movement after Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas. Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has re-emerged as a key force in the majority Shiite community after suffering substantial losses during two uprisings against the U.S. military in 2004. (…) U.S. officials believe disbanding Shiite and Sunni armed groups is essential to curbing the sectarian violence threatening the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. plans for removing substantial numbers of troops before U.S. congressional elections in November. "If you don't do this, you end up with a situation like you have in Lebanon, where the militia becomes a state within a state," the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, said in an interview this week with National Public Radio. "It makes the state impotent to be able to deal with security challenges," he said. Coalition forces already have begun moving against the Mahdi Army. In the last month, British troops have arrested the Mahdi commander in the southern city of Basra. And American soldiers killed 15 militiamen in a gunfight 40 miles south of the capital last weekend. U.S. and Iraqi forces have staged at least two major raids this month in Sadr City, the Mahdi Army's Baghdad stronghold. read in full… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS PEPE ESCOBAR: THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE In Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was forced to issue a fatwa denouncing the Israeli assault. This means that Sistani knows very well Iraqi Shi'ites may be on the verge of turning all their anger against - who else - the occupying Anglo-American axis. The fatwa may not be enough to appease them. Israel's rampage has even unified Baghdad's parliament; Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds took a unanimous vote condemning Israel and calling for a ceasefire. Fiery nationalist Muqtada al-Sadr, whose rising influence rivals Sistani's in US President George W Bush's "democratic" Iraq, hinted what may happen when he said at his Friday sermon in Kufa, "I will continue defending my Shi'ite and Sunni brothers, and I tell them that if we unite, we will defeat Israel without the use of weapons." As if the few thousand Sunni Arab guerrillas bogging down the mightiest army in history were not enough, Muqtada's Mehdi Army has all the potential to make life even more hellish for the Americans in Iraq. read in full... WHY THE MILITIAS ARE GROWING IN STRENGTH Al-Maliki became prime minister only because the U.S. and Britain were determined to get rid of his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Al-Maliki is inexperienced, personally isolated without his own kitchen cabinet, guarded by U.S. guards and heavily reliant on shadowy U.S. advisers. The quasi-colonial nature of the Iraqi government may not be obvious to outsiders who see that it has been democratically elected. But its independence has always been a mirage. For instance, its own intelligence organization should be essential to a government fighting for its life against a violent insurgency. At first sight, Iraq might appear to have one under Maj.-Gen. Mohammed al-Shahwani, but it has no budget because it is funded directly by the CIA, to the tune of $110 million to $160 million a year and, not surprising, it is to the CIA that it first reports. Not surprising, Iraqis will need a lot of convincing that Al-Maliki is not one more U.S. pawn. In theory he should be in charge of a substantial army force. The number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police has grown from 169,000 in June 2005 to 264,000 this June. But the extra 105,000 armed men have not only made no difference to security in Iraq but that security has markedly deteriorated over the past year. The reason is that the armed forces put their allegiance to their own communities -- Kurd, Sunni or Shiite -- well before their loyalty to the state. Shiites do not believe they will be defended from a pogrom by Sunni units and the Sunni feel the same way about Shiite units. This is why the militias are growing in strength. (...). Not only is Al-Maliki's suggestion that the militiamen might be stood down untrue but also the trend is entirely the other way. The army and police are themselves becoming sectarian and ethnic militias. This makes absurd Bush's and Tony Blair's claim that at some stage the U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces will be strong enough to stand alone. Al-Maliki's visit to Washington has more to do with the White House's domestic political agenda than with the dire reality of Iraq. The Bush administration wants to have live Iraqis say in the lead-up to mid-term elections in November that progress is being made in Iraq. A frustration of being a journalist in Iraq is that the lethal anarchy there cannot be reported without getting oneself killed in the process. read in full... KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE AN OBJECTIVE Bush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki today. He seems to have been having flashbacks to his days in b-school. "The Prime Minister has laid out a comprehensive plan. That's what leaders do. They see problems, they address problems, and they lay out a plan to solve the problems. The Prime Minister understands he's got challenges and he's identified priorities." But wait, what if the enemy has discovered the secret of doing things to accomplish goals too? Oh no! they have: "These are people that just kill innocent people to achieve an objective, which is to destabilize his government." I blame the New York Times, cause we so had the idea of killing innocent people to achieve an objective first, and it was secret, and the media just leaked it like the traitors they are. So the best idea Bush has left is to "lay out a plan," possibly using different colored pencils. Oh, and form committees, lots and lots of committees, those are always good: "The Prime Minister and I agreed to establish a joint committee to achieve Iraqi self-reliance." Let me say that again: a joint committee of Iraqis and Americans to end Iraqi reliance on Americans. Hey, does anyone know what happened to that female Sunni MP who was kidnapped? I can't believe I completely forgot about her. Oh, he's really firing on all cylinders today; he has another bold idea: an Iraqi Leaders Initiative, to bring 200 Iraqi high school and college students to the US next summer to study and "build personal friendships with the people of our country." Hurrah! Iraq is saved! Really, did Maliki come thousands of miles from a war zone to discuss a summer program for 200 students with the so-called leader of the so-called free so-called world? read in full... FOR MANY, SADDAM HAS BECOME SYMBOL OF ARAB UNITY Boushra Khalil walked through the metal detectors and into the vast convention center, a crumbling relic of a fallen dictatorship with walls still emblazoned with murals of Scud missiles. It took only a few minutes for one of the security guards prowling the halls to catch sight of her. "Hey, excuse me," his voice rang out. "Aren't you Saddam's lawyer?" Soon they were all around her, five young men with U.S. military-issued badges clipped to their sports shirts. Their eyes were wide; they smiled. "Tell him you met young people here, youth that are sending their greetings to the president," one of the young men said. "We believe he is suffering injustice," said another. They spoke quickly and eagerly and pressed Khalil for her autograph. Iraqis who had been cleared to work in the drab nerve center of Iraq's U.S.-backed government, in the heavily fortified Green Zone, might appear to be unlikely fans of the ousted president. (…) To Khalil, Saddam is a figure of martyrdom. Although she acknowledges that he was "hard" on those who opposed his reign, she also compares him to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and describes him as a man willing to follow his political vision all the way into death. Nor does she accept the conventional view that it's unusual for a Shiite to defend a Sunni leader famous for persecuting Shiites. "Saddam Hussein stood in the face of American occupation, so if Imam Ali were present, on which side would he stand?" she asked, invoking the cousin of the prophet Muhammad and a central figure in Shiite Islam. "America or Saddam Hussein? Definitely, Saddam Hussein. So because I am Shia, I stand with Saddam Hussein." read in full… >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: Six Australian special forces soldiers have been wounded in fighting in Afghanistan. Defence spokesman Brigadier Gus Gilmore said the injuries occurred during heavy fighting earlier this month at unspecified locations in southern Afghanistan. An unidentified plane crashed in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, reportedly causing casualties, but few other details were available, Western and Afghan officials told Reuters. The plane had taken off from the southeastern province of Khost, where U.S.-led coalition forces have a base, before crashing in a nearby province, Afghan officials said. A Western source said he had heard reports of casualties, but had no further information. A spokesman for the coalition forces in Kabul confirmed the crash, but said he had no details. The crash occurred in an area where Taliban insurgents are active. An unidentified helicopter has crashed in the south-eastern Afghan province of Paktia, officials say. One unconfirmed report says there were four people on board, all of whom died. It is not clear what caused the crash. Details of the incident are sketchy. A defence official said the helicopter took off in nearby Khost province and hit the Qalandar mountains, 35km away. Lebanon/Israel Israel on Wednesday suffered its heaviest losses in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with militants killing eight soldiers in a battle for a key town. A top Israeli commander said he expected the campaign to last "several more weeks." U.N. observers in southern Lebanon called the Israeli military 10 times during a six-hour period to ask it to halt an airstrike before their observation post was hit, according to details of a preliminary U.N. report on the incident. Four U.N. observers were killed in the bombing Tuesday. During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a U.N. official who had seen the preliminary report. WHY ISRAEL IS LOSING The world is witnessing what could be a critical turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel is now engaged in a war that could permanently undermine the efficacy of its much-vaunted military apparatus. Ironically, there are several reasons for believing that Israel's destruction of southern Lebanon and southern Beirut will weaken its bargaining position relative to its adversaries, and will strengthen its adversaries' hands. (...) As will soon be demonstrated by events on the ground, Israel will not be able to destroy or even disarm Hizballah. Neither will Hamas, Hizballah, Lebanon, or Syria permit Israel or America to dictate terms to them. Consequently, if Israel lingers too long in Southern Lebanon, its presence will be paid for at such a high cost, that it will be forced to withdraw in ignominy, as it has so many times in the past. In the end however, Israel's loss of power will make it even more dangerous, because the more threatened the Israelis feel, the more likely they will launch destructive wars against the Palestinians and Israel's other adversaries. Finally, the same can be said of the U.S., with respect to its loss of global power. Instead of becoming more careful with its use of force, the erosion of America's global dominance will likely make the U.S. government more aggressive, as it attempts to re-assert its former position relative to its adversaries and competitors. And it is precisely because America and Israel are losing influence over global events, that an American attack upon Iran in 2007 becomes more likely. God help us all. read in full... GORE VIDAL INTERVIEW: "THAT'S THE END OF OUR WARS" Q: Bush’s ratings have been at personal lows. Cheney has had an 18 percent approval rating. Vidal: Well, he deserves it. Q: Yet the wars go on. It’s almost as if the people don’t matter. Vidal: The people don’t matter to this gang. They pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms. They’ve got the troops. They’ve got the army. They’ve got Congress. They’ve got the judiciary. Why should they worry? Let the chattering classes chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something really wrong with him. Q: What do you think of the conspiracy theories about September 11? Vidal: I’m willing to believe practically any mischief on the part of the Bush people. No, I don’t think they did it, as some conspiracy people think. Why? Because it was too intelligently done. This is beyond the competence of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld. They couldn’t pull off a caper like 9/11. They are too clumsy. Q: Today the United States is fighting two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and is now threatening to launch a third one on Iran. What is it going to take to stop the Bush onslaught? Vidal: Economic collapse. We are too deeply in debt. We can’t service the debt, or so my financial friends tell me, that’s paying the interest on the Treasury bonds, particularly to the foreign countries that have been financing us. I think the Chinese will say the hell with you and pull their money out of the United States. That’s the end of our wars. read in full… QUOTE OF THE DAY: "All of the information we receive sometimes from the Pentagon and the State Department isn't always true." -- The pro-war Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) recently returned from a trip to Iraq

WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006

“We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”

Baghdad

Four mortar bombs fell in the southern Baghdad suburb of Abu Dshir, killing two civilians and injuring seven more. Earlier, one civilian and one soldier were killed in a series of bomb attacks which injured seven people.

The final death toll from an explosion and clashes which erupted between gunmen and the police on Monday on Haifa street in central Baghdad is four policemen killed and 36 wounded.

One policeman was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in the Zayouna district of the capital.

Gunmen killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting in southwestern Baghdad.

Five civilians were killed and four others were wounded Monday evening when mortar shells crashed into a southern Baghdad neighborhood.

A Youth Ministry employee in Baghdad was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.

Monday afternoon gunmen shot a civilian in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.

In north Baghdad, four bodies were found, all killed execution-style.

On Sunday gunmen killed one man in the Baghdad suburb of Dawra.

On Sunday a volley of mortars in western Baghdad killed one and wounded 12, including 5 children and 2 women.

On Sunday three policemen were killed in the Qadasiya neighborhood in western Baghdad after gunmen opened fire on their car.

On Sunday in Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood, four unidentified bodies were found in the Tigris, bound and with gunshot wounds to the head.

On Tuesday, two roadside bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding two bystanders and a policeman.

A family of Shiite civilians who had been threatened by a sectarian death squad were ambushed by gunmen as they fled a mainly Sunni neighbourhood south of Baghdad. Two of the family were killed and one was wounded when their removal van was sprayed with bullets.

Four civilians were shot dead around the capital, two of them in drive-by shootings, while the corpses of two tortured murder victims were also found by the roadside, police said.

Mosul

Gunmen set fire to food ration stores run by the Ministry of Trade at midnight in Mosul.

Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol in Mosul.

A policeman in Mosul was gunned down in a drive by shooting

Samarra

A suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in the southern city of Samarra, killing himself and a male bystander and wounding seven police officers, four civilian women and six children. Two of the children and four policemen were in a critical condition. (This may be one of the bombings reported in yesterday’s summary)

Taji

Three bodies, identified as Sunnis, were found behind a factory in Taji, all shot in the head.

Baquba

A former policeman was shot dead in Baquba.

The bodies of five people were found shot dead on Monday night in a village near Baquba after being abducted hours earlier.

On Sunday gunmen killed at least two people near the city of Baquba.

Balad

A Multi-National Force statement announced that troops killed one insurgent and wounded and arrested two others Monday in Balad.

Falluja

The bodies of two people were found with gunshot wounds near Falluja.

Saqlawiya

The U.S. military killed two civilians on Monday after a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Saqlawiya. The U.S. military said they did not have information on the incident.

Kirkuk

Gunmen fired rocket propelled grenades at two fuel trucks, killing two drivers and abducting the third on the main road between Kirkuk and Baghdad. One of trucks was set on fire.

Daquq

Gunmen wounded four people working for a private Iraqi company which deals with the U.S. military near the town of Daquq, 45 km (20 miles) south of Kirkuk.

Ishaqi

Gunmen killed a police officer while he headed to work in the town of Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

Diwaniya

Gunmen killed a former member of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party on Monday in the city of Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad.

Kut

On Monday, the city morgue in Kut, a mostly Shiite city southeast of Baghdad, reported receiving 19 bodies - blindfolded and some showing signs of torture. They were believed to be victims of sectarian death squads.

Ramadi

Gunmen killed four men selling construction materials in Ramadi.

On Monday the U.S. military announced that two soldiers assigned to the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, based in Ramadi, had been killed. Although the military released no more details, a witness reported that a roadside bomb had exploded near a Humvee at about 5 p.m., apparently killing the U.S. troops.

Four civilians were killed during a clash between an American military patrol and gunmen in Ramadi.

On Sunday night, the mayor of Ramadi, Muhamed Ahmed Al-Dulami, was killed around 9 p.m. by a group of gunmen. Three policemen were also killed.

On Sunday near Ramadi gunmen attacked three trucks carrying fuel, killing the drivers.

Suwayra

On Sunday near Suwayra Iraqi police officers retrieved the bodies of seven people who had been handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and chest.

Mussayib

On Sunday one person was killed when a mortar hit a house in Mussayib.

Anbar Province

On Sunday an American soldier was killed “due to enemy action” in Anbar province.

Too little too late: The US is planning to deploy thousands of extra troops in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in an attempt to combat the deteriorating security situation.

US President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki are to meet at the White House to discuss details.

US officials said the extra troops would be sent from other areas of Iraq.

They’re going to combat death squads? What are they going to do, attack the Interior Ministry?: American troops are stepping up operations in the Baghdad area to combat death squads and dampen down the violence threatening the new unity government, a U.S. general said Monday. U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted 19 operations last week targeting death squads, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters. All but two were in Baghdad, he said. "Clearly Baghdad is the center that everybody is fighting for," Caldwell said. "We will do whatever it takes to bring security to Baghdad."

It’s Bin Laden’s fault!: What explains the persistent and spiraling sectarian strife? Now that Shiite death squads, which infiltrated Iraqi forces, are doing as much killing as their militant Sunni Arab counterparts, Sunni Arabs no longer have a monopoly on the insurgency. Both camps include powerful well-organized, militant forces that want a divorce, and not a unified, multiethnic state. By carrying out a campaign of systematic sectarian killings and redrawing the map of Baghdad, armed Sunni and Shiite militias have pushed the country closer to full-scale civil war. This analysis might be dismissed by Iraqis as academic because they say they are living in the midst of civil war.

It was widely assumed that Mr. Zarqawi's death would herald a shift in Al Qaeda's strategy, as it was also assumed that Zarqawi had acted against the will of his senior bosses, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, in targeting Shiites and their religious shrines. Mr. bin Laden's recent rhetoric clearly shows otherwise. In an apparent, dramatic shift of strategy, bin Laden, in two audiotapes posted on an Al Qaeda website, called on Sunnis everywhere to punish the Shiites whom he referred to as "rejectionists," "traitors," and "agents of the Americans." Believing that Sunni Arabs are experiencing "annihilation," bin Laden warned Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims they were not safe from Al Qaeda's new leader in the country, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer (his real identity still unknown), whom he endorsed as Zarqawi's successor.

Designed to gain Al Qaeda new recruits and stature among Sunni Arabs, bin Laden's call complicates the efforts by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to end the sectarian bloodletting that is tearing the country apart.

No, it’s the Iraqi government’s fault!: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Washington starting today comes as the mood about the war in the capital outside the Bush administration is increasingly somber and fearful that the Iraqi leader's new government has not acted forcefully enough to stem the growing insurgency and sectarian violence.

With midterm congressional elections just over three months away, with U.S. casualties mounting and with al-Maliki conceding that some 100 Iraqis a day are being killed daily, the pressure is on President Bush to show progress in Iraq. But hopes for one indicator of such progress, a significant drawdown of the 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq before the Nov. 7 election, are fading.

(WTF? Now we’re calling a drawdown of US forces before November a metric? Gee, and here I thought it would just be a cheap ploy for electoral advantage...)

Well, whoever’s fault it is, let’s not tell Bubble Boy: I reported in May that despite the deteriorating situation in Iraq, no National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has been produced on that country since the summer of 2004. The last NIE, a classified document that the CIA describes as “the most authoritative written judgment concerning a national security issue,” was rejected by the Bush Administration (after being leaked to the New York Times) as being too negative, though its grim assessment subsequently proved to be highly accurate.

The situation has gotten even darker since my initial story—a United Nations report cited in Wednesday's New York Times found that an average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed each day in June—and I've learned from two sources that some senior figures at the CIA, along with a number of Iraq analysts, have been pushing to produce a new NIE. They've been stonewalled, however, by John Negroponte, the administration's Director of National Intelligence, who knows that any honest take on the situation would produce an NIE even more pessimistic than the 2004 version. That could create problems on the Hill and, if it is leaked as the last one was, with the public as well.

“What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?” asked one person familiar with the situation. “The analysts know that it's a civil war, but there's a feeling at the top that [using that term] will complicate matters.” Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, “doesn't want the president to have to deal with that.”

Or maybe Maliki can just tell him it’s not really happening: Iraq's morgues are overflowing and 100 civilians a day are killed in communal violence, but official statistics tell only part of the story of a slide into civil war -- for the rest, just listen to ordinary Iraqis.

President George W. Bush will hear the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in Washington on Tuesday tell him of plans for stemming bloodshed in Baghdad and repeat assurances he gave on Monday that Iraq is not at war with itself.

But talk to people at random in the capital and a picture quickly emerges of a city where virtually everyone has a friend, relative or neighbour who has fallen victim to the sectarian shootings and death threats that Washington accepts are now an even bigger threat than the 3-year-old Sunni insurgency.

Every one of 20 people who spoke to Reuters around their workplace in central Baghdad, from a variety of sects and ethnic groups, had a horror story of conflict touching their lives.

Japan’s outathere: The last contingent of Japanese ground troops based in Iraq came home on Tuesday, completing the military's riskiest overseas mission since World War Two without firing a shot or suffering any casualties.

The dispatch was a milestone in Japan's shift away from a purely defensive posture towards a bigger international role for the nation's military, no member of which has fired a shot in combat or been killed in an overseas mission since 1945.

But Wait – There’s Good News From Iraq!

They found something they can agree on!: Though embroiled in a bloody war over the future shape and identity of their country, Iraq's Sunni Arabs, Shiites, Kurds and even Christians have unified in condemning Israel over its fighting in Lebanon against the Hezbollah militia. Condemnation of Israel's actions in Lebanon and of the United States as the Jewish state's backer has emerged as a rare bridge issue, cutting across political, ethnic and religious lines.

Demonstrators loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr marched through the city center of Najaf on Sunday evening in support of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, chanting "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" Across the city, more moderate Shiite clerics loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a statement urging support for the Islamist militia in Lebanon and condemning the U.S. and Israel.

Heck, they’re practically working together: U.S. forces in Iraq were attacked last week by insurgents claiming revenge for Israel's war on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, the Daily News has learned.

Both Sunni and Shiite Muslim insurgent groups have released Internet videos depicting "revenge" attacks on U.S. tanks and Humvees south of Baghdad, in Ramadi, Karbala and Hilla, according to the SITE Institute.

"These operations are retaliation for the attacks by the Zionist forces on our brothers in Lebanon," a voice on one video shouted over a scene of a Humvee getting blown up in Hilla.

"If the [Israeli offensive] continues, the reverberations of the Lebanon crisis will likely be heard in the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq," said Fawaz Gerges, a Carnegie scholar in Beirut who studies Islamic militants.

The Professionals Who Didn’t Flee

Could get much worse: Najla Muhammad, 34, is a biologist who graduated from one of the best universities in the capital. Unfortunately, however, rising unemployment has forced her to seek work as a housekeeper in order to support her family.

"I didn't have a choice. My family was going to starve if I didn't find a better job," says Najla. "For years I worked in a scientific laboratory in Baghdad, but they couldn't pay all their employees. I was left with three children and a mother to look after."

Najla now works as a housekeeper to make ends meet, receiving between US $100 and US $120 dollars a month. Her husband, meanwhile, holds a degree in economics but has been unemployed for nearly a year and has few prospects for work.

National unemployment figures have risen ever since the occupation of the country by US-led forces three years ago. Local NGOs say this has led to increasing numbers of female professionals being driven to search for work as domestic servants.

"In most cases, they seek work as housekeepers," says Mayada Zuhair, vice-president of the Women's Rights Association of Iraq. "But you can also find doctors working as hairdressers, dentists working as chefs and engineers working in Laundromats. They're desperate, and with poverty increasing, the situation could get much worse."

American Values

What have they become?: The torture of prisoners in US custody in Iraq was authorised and routine even after the Abu Ghraib scandal came to light, a US-based rights group says.

Soldiers' accounts show that detainees routinely faced severe beatings, sleep deprivation and other abuses for much of 2003-2005, Human Rights Watch says.

Soldiers who tried to complain about the abuse were rebuffed or ignored.

But a Pentagon spokesman said 12 reviews had found there was no policy condoning or encouraging abuse.

What they should be: "Simply put, I am wholeheartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership." These were the impassioned, defiant words of Army First Lt. Ehren K. Latada, 28, in a letter he sent in January "with deep regret" to his brigade commander, Col. Stephen J. Townsend, asking to be allowed to leave the army "with honor and dignity" on Constitutional grounds. The Army's charged him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with one count of missing movement, for not deploying, two counts of contempt towards officials and three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer. For taking this rare stand, he faces an Article 32 hearing and possible court-martial this Fall. He would be the first Army officer to be court-martialed for refusing to serve in Iraq. To be sure, Lt. Watada is no coward, and he is fundamentally not opposed to war. To the contrary, after the attacks on 9/11 he enlisted in the Army "out of a desire to protect our country," even paying $800 of his own funds for a medical test to prove he qualified for duty despite having asthma as a child. He served in South Korea, and has been lauded by fellow officers and commanders with praise of his "exemplary" service and "unlimited potential."

Support Lt. Watada!

Commentary

NY Times Editorial: People who have seen “The War Tapes,” a documentary film focused on three National Guardsmen serving in Iraq, will remember them grousing at the assignment of riding shotgun on Halliburton’s lucrative supply convoys, then complaining later in the mess hall about the obvious overpricing of Halliburton chow-line utensils. The Pentagon, on the other hand, has insisted that stories of the $45 cases of soda, double-billed meals and $100 bags of laundry are largely myth and that Halliburton has done far better than a heckuva job. And a company official described its work in Iraq and Afghanistan as “nothing short of amazing.”

Yet now it turns out that military brass have been quietly making plans to end Halliburton’s regal status as the single contractor of so much. The Pentagon’s new plan is to split the work among three companies to be chosen by competitive bidding. And for good measure they’ll pick a fourth to keep an eye on the other three, according to The Washington Post. The reasons for the change were described by an Army official as the search for better prices, more accountability and protection against having all the logistical eggs in one basket. This strangely echoes what critics of the Halliburton deal have been saying for the last four years.

Casualty Reports

A Marine from Oregon is one of the latest casualties in the Iraq war, officials said Monday. Capt. Christopher T. Pate, 29, who was listed from Portland, died Friday during combat in the Anbar province of Iraq, according to the Marine Corps. Pate was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and assigned to the 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, Command Element, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, his unit said in a release.

A Cedarburg man says his son -- a Wisconsin National Guard member in Iraq -- was killed in an explosion. Stephen Castner says his namesake -- 27-year-old Steve Castner -- died only days after being sent to the Middle East. He says his family was informed of the death just after noon Monday (July 24, 2006). A 101st Airborne Division soldier from Texas was killed in Iraq when he was hit by enemy fire, the Army said yesterday. Capt. Blake H. Russell, 35, of Fort Worth, died Saturday. Russell was killed while investigating a possible mortar cache during combat operations in Baghdad.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, July 24, 2006 The comic book cover shown (…) was created by Latuff of Brazil. In his country, there are actual Iraqi resistance clubs that hold regular meetings and discuss the latest news of the resistance. (See more Iraq cartoons by Carlos Latuff) SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: An Iraqi soldier was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in the western Mansour district of Baghdad. A civilian was killed and three policemen wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the Waziriya district of Baghdad. One Iraqi soldier was killed and two wounded Monday in one of three Baghdad bombings in which one civilian was also killed. The bodyguard of a Sunni politician was shot dead in west Baghdad. Four mortar bombs fell in the southern Baghdad suburb of Abu Dshir, killing two civilians and injuring seven more. Earlier, one civilian and one soldier were killed in a series of bomb attacks which injured seven people. The technical director of the Dora power station was shot dead. The bodies of at least 23 murder victims were discovered in west Baghdad, including eight found shot dead and dumped by the roadside in the southwest of the city. Karbala: Gunmen killed an agricultural engineer near the city of Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad. Hilla: Gunmen attacked a group of civilians, killing two and wounding 17, near the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad. Samarra: A suicide bomber targeted police in the southern city of Samarra, killing himself and a male bystander. A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in Samarra killing two civilians and wounding 17 others, seven of them policemen. Kut: An Iraqi was shot dead by gunmen near the city of Kut 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Mosul: Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded when a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near their patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed the local head of the Turkmen Front, a small political party, along with his three bodyguards in Mosul. A civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. military patrol in Mosul. Four civilians were shot dead after gunmen opened fire on them in Mosul. Tikrit: A lawyer and a tribal leader were killed when attackers fired on them as they sat at a café in Tikrit. Taji: Three people were were gunned down in Taji, north of the. >> NEWS Hundreds of radical Shiite Muslims, some wielding assault rifles and rocket launchers, marched Friday in support of the Hezbollah movement and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in the capital's Sadr City district, home to loyalists of Shiite fundamentalist cleric Muqtada Sadr. "Here we are, ready for your orders, oh Muqtada and Nasrallah," they chanted before Friday prayers, while holding up posters depicting both Shiite militia leaders as well as flags of Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants. "Woe to you, Israel! We will strike you!" US forces have committed butchery in Iraq and should leave, the speaker of the country's parliament has said. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was speaking on Saturday at a UN-sponsored conference on transitional justice and reconciliation in Baghdad. "Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right," he said in a speech as the conference opened. "What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people." He also criticised US support for Israeli attacks against Lebanon. (See below "Good News from Iraq") Bush and al-Maliki will consider adding more U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and other ways to counter surging violence when they meet at the White House on Tuesday. (See below "Robbing Ramadi to Pay Baghdad") Britain plans to send nearly 300 new armoured vehicles to better protect the country's troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Defence Secretary Des Browne said. >> REPORTS "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL": SOLDIERS' ACCOUNTS OF DETAINEE ABUSE IN IRAQ I. Task Force 20/121/6-26/145 Camp Nama, Baghdad (...) Sergeant "Jeff Perry"3 was an interrogator with the special task force at Camp Nama during the first half of 2004. He told Human Rights Watch about his experiences there, about abuses he saw, and about his efforts to report the abuses. (...) Jeff described the interrogation facility at NAMA as "a normal-sized building, maybe even a small building," with five interrogation rooms: the black room, the blue room, the red room [also known as the wood room], the soft room, and the medical screening room (reportedly the same room used for the initial medical screening of Saddam Hussein immediately after his capture; parts of the video footage of the screening were televised internationally). Jeff said detainees were also taken outside the building for interrogations, into a courtyard between that building and another one. Jeff described the black room, where the harshest interrogations would take place: The black room was 12 by 12 [feet]. It was painted black floor to ceiling. The door was black, everything was black. It had speakers in the corners, all four corners, up at the ceiling. It had a small table in one of the corners, and maybe some chairs. But usually in the black room nobody was sitting down. It was standing, stress positions, and so forth. The table would be for the boom box and the computer. We patched it into the speakers and made the noise and stuff. Most of the harsh interrogations were in that room. . . . Sleep deprivation, environmental controls, hot and cold, water. . . . I never saw anybody who was hot, you know, but it was cold a lot of times or we used cold water, we poured cold water onto them. [Certain times interrogators would] take clothes from the prisoners and so forth. . . loud music, strobe lights-they were used as well. Jeff said that some interrogators would beat detainees in the black room-hitting and kicking them during interrogations. read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS SADDAM HUSSEIN ON A FEEDING TUBE Saddam Hussein is on the 17th day of a hunger strike and has just been taken to a hospital and put on a feeding tube. I remember when people were making fun of him because it was reported that his hunger strike had lasted for exactly one meal. But the reason I'm posting this isn't that, and isn't to report news which most of you will have heard or will hear. It's to point out the negative - that you (or I) haven't heard a word about this for the last two weeks. Which is an indication of just how much is going on in Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza and elsewhere, so much so that the fact that Saddam Hussein had been on a hunger strike for a week, or for 10 days, or for 14 days, wasn't even significant enough to make the news. And with 100 people a day being killed in Iraq, 50 or more a day in Lebanon, a dozen or so a day in Gaza, and a small number of Israelis, I don't even intend this as a criticism of the media, not a major one anyway. link IRRELIGIOUS QUESTIONS Sistani had issued the following announcement concerning the onslaught on Lebanon on July 16, 2006, calling upon "The world community needs to move on to stop the continuation of this flagrant aggression". There is not a single mention of the United States of America. . The following are a few questions that might be posed to him (as he is an authority to respond): - Who is supporting Israeli to the hilt militarily, financially, diplomatically and politically? - Who is claiming that what is happening to Lebanon are merely "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and that "Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire"? - Who is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel in order to swiftly replenish those American munitions that were dropped by Israel on the heads of Lebanese civilians, villages and cities? - Who occupied Iraq? - Who initiated, encouraged and promoted the original death squads in Iraq? - Who has forcefully wedged religious strife into the Iraqi society that is leading to the death of thousands of Iraqis every month as a consequence of it? Hence, - Who issued an edict in March 2003 exhorting the faithful "not to fight the American soldiers" who were in the process of occupying Iraq, and has not, till now, rescinded it? (It should be noted that all edicts, and only those issued after the occupation, are posted on the www.sistani.org site) - What will be the position of his eminence in the event that the conflict does expand to include an Israeli/American attack on Iran itself, as the neoconservatives and the Israeli government have been clamoring for? What will be the position of his eminence's religious/political parties? Will they defend those that are protecting them in the 'Green Zone' or scramble to assist their political mentors in Tehran? These humble questions were posted to the sistani.org page where his eminence is hoped to answer them. They were posted under the section of "abortion". link ROBBING RAMADI TO PAY BAGHDAD Continuing the misadventures of our Godot-esque inability to reduce troop levels in Iraq, the New York Times reports tonight:

The top American commander for the Middle East said Friday that the escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become a greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital. "The situation with sectarian violence in Baghdad is very serious," Gen. John P. Abizaid of the Army, the head of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Friday. "The country can deal with the insurgency better than it can with the sectarian violence, and it needs to move decisively against the sectarian violence now." . . . General Abizaid flew to Camp Falluja to meet with Marine commanders who oversee the vast Sunni-dominated Anbar region in western Iraq. The region is one of the most violent in the country. Insurgents' attacks here seem to be as numerous as ever. But the prospect that sectarian strife could set off a broader civil war that would overwhelm Iraq's capital has been a greater worry for top American commanders. . . . The shifting of additional forces to the Baghdad area is expected to come at the expense of troop levels in other parts of the country.

In other words, because we have so few combat forces available in Iraq, the only way the U.S. can even try to stem the chaos in Baghdad is to deprive commanders in insurgent-dominated Anbar province even further. It would be too generous to classify this as a game of whack-a-mole with far too many moles and too few hammers. If you compared it to a fire engulfing a house, with an overwhelmed man racing from one end to the other wondering where to pour his lone bucket of water, you might be closer to the mark link GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ While we were following the Zionists crimes in Lebanon, there is a big development in Iraq. Iraq announces peace plan, refuses foreign interference

What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only - there can be no third party,

(For young readers and people who can't read between the lines that means the US should keep their tentacles away from Iraq domestic affairs) Much better news is:

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament Al-Mashhadani said: The U.S. occupation is butcher's work under the slogan of democracy and human rights and justice..... Leave us to solve our problems........We don't need an agenda from outside.

Iraqi Demands U.S. Stay Out Of Politics This is by the way for the first time the government admitted that the previous reconciliation plan was US orchestrated Yesterday on Al-Arabyia Al-Mashhadani said:

If Iraqis killed Americans, then it is a legitimate resistance against the occupation,

The news getting better and better: Al-Maliki is canceling his visit to meet Bush,

The United States along with its allies gave the green light for Israeli troops to commit these crimes," said Sheik Sabah Saadi, a lawmaker who belongs to the Fadhilla Party, one of the main parties within the Shiite bloc. "Canceling the trip is support for the Lebanese people, who are suffering very much from the Israeli attacks.

Prime Minister Is Pressured To Cancel Visit To Washington link GOP WINS. FACTS NO LONGER MATTER The latest Harris poll includes the following: 50% of Americans believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (this relapse after 36% in February). 64% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda. link DEATH MASK: THE DELIBERATE DISINTEGRATION OF IRAQ The recent revelations about the virulent spread of death squads ravaging Iraq have only confirmed for many people the lethal incompetence of the Bush Regime, whose brutal bungling appears to have unleashed the demon of sectarian strife in the conquered land. The general reaction, even among some war supporters, has been bitter derision: "Jeez, these bozos couldn't boil an egg without causing collateral damage." But what if the truth is even more sinister? What if this murderous chaos is not the fruit of rank incompetence but instead the desired product of carefully crafted, efficiently managed White House policy? Investigative journalist Max Fuller marshals a convincing case for this dread conclusion in a remarkable work of synthesis drawn from information buried in reams of mainstream news stories and public Pentagon documents. Piling fact on damning fact, he shows that the vast majority of atrocities now attributed to "rogue" Shiite and Sunni militias are in fact the work of government-controlled commandos and "special forces," trained by Americans, "advised" by Americans and run largely by former CIA assets, Global Research reports. We first reported here in June 2003 that the U.S. was already hiring Saddam's security muscle for "special ops" against the nascent insurgency and re-opening his torture haven, Abu Ghraib. Meanwhile, powerful Shiite militias - including Talibanic religious extremists armed and trained by Iran - were loosed upon the land. As direct "Coalition" rule gave way to various "interim" and "elected" Iraqi governments, these violent gangs were formally incorporated into the Iraqi Interior Ministry, where the supposedly inimical Sunni and Shiite units often share officers and divvy up territories. read in full... THE VULNERABLE LINE OF SUPPLY TO US TROOPS IN IRAQ American forces in Iraq are in danger of having their line of supply cut by guerrillas. Napoleon once said that "an army travels on its stomach." By that he meant that the problem of keeping an army supplied is the prerequisite for the very existence of the force. A 21st-century military force "burns up" a tremendous volume of expendable supplies and continuously needs repairs to equipment as well as medical treatment. Without a plentiful and dependable source of fuel, food, and ammunition, a military force falters. First it stops moving, then it begins to starve, and eventually it becomes unable to resist the enemy. In 1915, for example, this happened to British forces that had invaded Mesopotamia. A British-Indian force traveled up the line of the Tigris River, advancing to Kut, southeast of Baghdad. They became besieged there after their line of supply was cut along the river to the south. Some 11,000 troops ultimately surrendered, after the allies suffered another 23,000 casualties trying to rescue them. (…) At present, the convoys of trucks supplying our forces in Iraq are driven by civilians - either South Asians or Turks. If the route is indeed turned into a shooting gallery, these civilian truck drivers would not persist or would require a heavier escort by the US military. It might then be necessary to "fight" the trucks through ambushes on the roads. This is a daunting possibility. Trucks loaded with supplies are defenseless against many armaments, such as rocket-propelled grenades, small arms, and improvised explosive devices. A long, linear target such as a convoy of trucks is very hard to defend against irregulars operating in and around their own towns. The volume of "throughput" would probably be seriously lessened in such a situation. A reduction in supplies would inevitably affect operational capability. This might lead to a downward spiral of potential against the insurgents and the militias. This would be very dangerous for our forces. Are there alternatives to the present line of supply leading to Kuwait? There may be, but they are not immediately apparent. (…) What about air resupply? It appears that only 5 to 10 percent of day-to-day military deliveries into Iraq are currently transferred by air. Inside Iraq, local deliveries by air probably amount to more. In a difficult situation, the tonnages delivered could be increased, but given the bulk in weight and volume of the needed supplies, it seems unlikely that air resupply could exceed 25 percent of daily requirements. This would not be enough to sustain the force. Compounding the looming menace of the Kuwait-based line of supply is the route followed by the cargo ships en route to Kuwait. Geography dictates that the ships all pass through the Strait of Hormuz and then proceed to the ports at the other end of the Gulf. Those who are familiar with the record of Iran's efforts against Kuwaiti shipping in the Iran-Iraq War will be concerned about this maritime vulnerability. read in full… >> REYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: Hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades on Monday attacked a district headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan, killing three police and wounding seven. About 400 Taliban militants riding in about 35 pickup trucks arrived in the town late Sunday and launched a heavy assault on a district police and administration headquarters using dozens of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, said Gen. Sayed Aga Saqib, provincial police chief. The militants fled back toward neighboring Helmand province after a five-hour battle, carrying an unknown number of militant casualties with them from a bloodstained battleground. The clash left three police dead, and seven wounded, he said. A remotely donated car bomb seriously wounded two U.S.-led coalition soldiers Monday as they patrolled with Afghan army soldiers in Daman district of southern Kandahar province, on the main highway toward the capital Kabul. A van had appeared to have broken down on the road, then exploded as the patrol passed, said coalition spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy. Afghan officials said it was a suicide attack but the coalition said initial reports showed the bomb was remotely detonated from a house. The nationality of the two coalition soldiers has not been revealed, however witnesses say they were American. ISRAEL'S MILITARY STUNNED BY THE FAILURE OF ITS AIR WAR Israel's new chief of staff, an air force general, believed that most of Israel's future operations would be conducted from the air. Military leaders were convinced that with superior communications and air power they did not even need new U.S. "bunker buster" munitions to root out terror leaders in underground hideaways. Today, this vision of air power as a panacea has been shattered. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and his advisers have been stunned by the failure of Israel's air war against Hizbullah, which has shrugged massive air bombings on its headquarters in Beirut to maintain the rocket war against the Jewish state. "Air power is not the answer here," a senior officer said. 'You have to go from one Hizbullah [weapons] bunker to another. Some of these bunkers are seven meters deep and can't be destroyed by aircraft, even if you could find them." The air force learned that lesson in Beirut as fighter-jets sought to destroy Hizbullah headquarters, Middle East Newsline reported. Officials acknowledged that 23 tons of munitions failed to penetrate the thick walls of the underground command headquarters constructed by Iran. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “[Condoleeza Rice visiting Lebanon today] talked about the need for Lebanon ‘regaining sovereignty over all its territory’. As in Iraq, sovereignty for an Arab country seems to consist of killing those of its citizens we don't approve of.” -- Whatever It Is I’m Against It blog

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2006 An Iraqi woman and a boy walk past the wreckage of a car in Baghdad's poor neighborhood of Sadr City. Bombers have struck a bloody blow against Iraq's fledgling hopes for peace, killing at least 64 people just one day after the government launched national reconciliation talks.(AFP/Wissam Al-Okaili) Army medic killed by roadside bomb Saturday in Baghdad is identified as Adam Fargo, 22, of Ruckersville, VA. Cpl. Matthew P. Wallace, 22, of Lexington Park, Md., died on July 21, in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle during combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 16. Wallace was assigned to the Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. U.S. soldier killed by small arms fire in Baghdad Saturday night. I believe this came too late for yesterday's post. Car bomb at Jameelah market in Sadr City kills 34, wounds 73, according to Iraqi Army statement."In Sadr City, dazed and angry people milled about the car bombing site, many of them still reeling from the effects of an early morning raid against what the U.S. military described as "death squad" members. "We could not sleep because of the raid, and today we woke up with the explosion of the car bomb," one man told Associated Press Television without giving his name. "How long is it going to be like this?" Police searched through the wreckage of the car bomb for more victims and warned bystanders to leave or they would be arrested. An elderly man, his clothes soaked in blood, wept as he called out the name of a missing relative." Remote-controlled bomb near Kirkuk courthouse kills 15, wounds 60. This Washington Post story also gives the toll in the Baghdad bombing as 48 dead. Two Iraqi soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Mosul. Second bomb two hours later kills 8 near municipal building in Sadr City. AP also reports that "before dawn Sunday, Iraqi troops and U.S. advisers raided Sadr City and the mostly Shiite district of Shula, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The sounds of explosions and bursts of automatic fire echoed through the heart of the capital. Two hostages were freed in the Sadr City operation. Two people were arrested in Shula, officials said." Five civilians killed in separate attacks in Baquobah. AFP also reports:

• In Moqtadiya, four Shiites who were kidnapped on Saturday were found murdered, according to the interior minister.
• Gives death toll in Kirkuk bombing as 22.
• US security contractors buzzed the area in helicopters shortly after the Sadr City blast, but there were no reports of casualties among coalition forces. I'm noting this item because it's news to me that mercenaries are using helicopters. -- C

Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested 150 suspects during a 10-day raid and search operation in the towns of Riyadh, Hawija and Rashad, southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Sunday. They seized 350 weapons of varying kinds. For what it's worth, Mujahedeen claims Iranian-sponsored attack on water pipelines to Ashraf City. This is the armed Iranian opposition organization which is still being harbored in Iraq. The allegation that the Iranian regime is behind such an attack is dubious, to say the least, but the sabotage may well have occurred -- C. Other News of the Day Human Rights Watch reports that abuse of prisoners in Iraq continued long after Abu Ghraib revelations. Much of report focuses on Camp Nama at Baghdad airport. The actions were fully authorized and formally documented. Excerpt:

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 34 minutes ago NEW YORK - The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal called attention to the issue in 2004. Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the interrogation process, the report said. "Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. The organization said it based its conclusion on interviews with military personnel and sworn statements in declassified documents. A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said he wasn't aware of the report, but noted the military is reviewing its procedures regarding detainees following a Supreme Court ruling that the Geneva Conventions should apply in the conflict with al-Qaida. The Bush administration had previously held that certain enemies, including terrorists, were illegal combatants and not protected by those rules. The conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

Read in Full Maliki departs for Washington, plans to demand that U.S. press Israel for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Context and analysis from Alastair MacDonald for Reuters:

BAGHDAD, July 23 (Reuters) - With concern on the Middle East focused on Lebanon, this week's visit to Washington by Iraq's prime minister may offer U.S. policymakers a timely reminder of how deeply troubled their project in Iraq has become. Nuri al-Maliki said he will also demand President George W. Bush press Israel to cease fire against Hizbollah, the premier's fellow Shi'ite Islamists in Lebanon, highlighting, too, how closely the region's problems are interwoven. "We are all part of this region and the deterioration may affect us," Maliki said on Saturday after denouncing Israeli action in Lebanon as "dangerous". Maliki begins his first trip outside the Middle East since forming his unity government two months ago by visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Monday before meeting Bush at the White House on Tuesday and addressing Congress on Wednesday. Maliki, who calls his outline national reconciliation plan a "last chance" for peace, says he will discuss better security for Baghdad, where a car bomb killed 36 more people on Sunday. U.S. commanders say more American and Iraqi troops may be deployed in the capital, where a month-long clampdown has so far had little effect on communal bloodshed, despite their killing last month of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There was little sign of reconciliation at a first meeting on Saturday to flesh out Maliki's plan. Many Sunnis stayed away. Facing elections in November that will determine control of Congress, the Bush administration will be keen to present Maliki's visit as a mark of progress in Iraq. U.S. officials are already characterising his sharp criticism of Israel and anger over crimes by U.S. troops in Iraq as signs of a healthy democracy. But with 100 people killed daily, by U.N. estimates, senior Iraqis warn the U.S. plan to replace Saddam Hussein's Sunni dictatorship with a multi-confessional, multi-ethnic democracy is all but dead and the oil-rich state heading for a break-up.

Read in Full Saddam is hospitalized due to hunger strike. Prosecutor says he is being fed by tube, doesn't specifically say that this is involuntary, but that appears to be the implication. U.S. military clears specialist Nathan Lynn of charges in shooting of an unarmed Iraqi civilian in Ramadi. Concludes he "had reason to believe" the man was carrying a gun. U.S. has set up network of combat outposts and security bases in Ramadi. Borzou Daragahi of the LA Times tells the story of the Jihad massacre. Excerpt:

July 23, 2006 BAGHDAD — The uniformed gunmen knocked politely on Hamid Shammari's door. They took away his 20-year-old son, promising to let him go the next day. He hasn't been seen or heard from since that dreadful Sunday that changed the Jihad neighborhood of western Baghdad, and perhaps the rest of Iraq. For several hours on the morning of July 9, Jihad became a place of unspeakable brutality, not so much for the wanton bloodshed that has become a daily part of Iraqi life, but for the systematic nature of the killings. At least 36 and possibly as many as 55 Sunni Arab men were executed in what appears to have been a revenge operation condoned or even overseen by law enforcement officials. The shooting began early, in ferocious barrages that shook the neighborhood. Shiite youths acting in apparent collaboration with police officials cordoned off the area with barbed wire. Gunmen stood guard at checkpoints and prevented many from leaving. And later, men in police uniforms went door-to-door holding lists of names. Witnesses say the Jihad massacre, which many Iraqis consider a disquieting watershed in the country's descent into an undeclared civil war between Shiite and Sunni Muslim factions, was carried out with clocklike precision as residents cowered in their homes making panicked cellphone calls to U.S. security forces, the Iraqi equivalent of 911 and, in one case, a commander in a Shiite militia.

Read in Full News from the Levant Thanks, as usual, to Whisker. Items without hotlinks are from same source as previous. --C #1: Early Sunday, Israel hit inside Sidon for the first time in its campaign, destroying a religious complex linked to Hezbollah and wounding four people. #2: Large explosions shook Beirut as Israeli warplanes again pounded guerrilla targets in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital. #3: After sunrise, Israeli bombs hit a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and injuring two, mayor Ali Rahal told The Associated Press. The death brought the civilian toll in Lebanon to 373. #4: Warplanes and helicopters Sunday bombed Nabi Sheet, in the hills near Baalbek, wounding at least five people, witnesses said. In Baalbek, strikes leveled an agricultural compound belonging to Hezbollah. Raids also targeted a factory producing prefab houses near the main highway that links Beirut to the Syrian capital of Damascus, witnesses said. #5: Rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas have pounded the northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing at least two people. #6: A police spokesman says 13 rockets fell in the Haifa area, with most landing in open areas. Rockets also pounded other communities throughout the region. Rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas have pounded the northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing at least two people. #7: On Saturday, soldiers moved across the border into southern Lebanon and pushed into Maroun al-Ras. Armoured vehicles continued to travel in and out of the village. #8: The military also confirmed Hezbollah attacked the Nurit army base near the Israeli town of Avivim near the Lebanese border, wounding one soldier. #9: Israeli warplanes Sunday hit a minibus carrying Lebanese fleeing border villages, killing three and wounding 13, Lebanese security forces said. #10: Israel renewed bombardments on south Lebanon on Sunday and a Lebanese woman photographer was killed in the Israeli air raid, local media reported. Layal Nagib, a 23-year-old freelance, was killed near a village east of the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre when an Israeli missile struck next to a taxi, said the reports. #12: In addition, at least five Lebanese civilians were killed and about 80 others wounded in Israeli air raids on south Lebanon on Sunday. Tyre bore the brunt of the strikes. Quote of the Day When it comes to the immediate, and the short term, security and liberty can appear to conflict. Indeed government justify their actions by claiming a trade-off exists - it's a callous attempt to scare a population into granting powers that ultimately undermine liberty and security. To think that the Iraq war has made Britain safer is absolute nonsense. Anthony J. Evans

# posted by Cervantes : 7/23/2006 06:06:00 AM

WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, JULY 22, 2006

“We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”

Baghdad

Iraqi forces backed by a U.S. helicopter battled Sunni gunmen south of Baghdad on Friday, and at least 11 combatants died.

Seven Shiites died in a drive-by shooting near Baghdad International Airport. Two other workers were wounded.

An Iraqi police patrol was targeted by a bombing in eastern Baghdad which killed a civilian.

Two rockets exploded Saturday in the heavily guarded Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies. There was no report of casualties.

Gunmen opened fire on workers in a house in western Baghdad, killing seven and wounding one.

A U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

Baghdad recorded an average of 34 major bombings and shootings for the week ending July 13, the U.S. military said. That was up 40 percent from the previous period last month.

Mosul

An insurgent attack killed five people in Mosul.

Gunmen attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Mosul with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire. A suicide car bombing followed, but no casualties were reported.

One civilian was killed in the crossfire when masked gunmen attacked Iraqi police in Mosul.

Three gunmen died in a firefight with police in Mosul.

Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi man in the city of Mosul.

Baquba

Three people were killed and five were injured in a bombing and shooting in the market in Baquba.

Three policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting their patrol exploded in Baquba.

Four policemen and three civilians were killed when a roadside bomb went off in a local market in Baquba.

Samarra

A curfew was imposed on Samarra after a bodyguard of the city council chairman detonated an explosives belt, injuring the chairman and another security officer.

Hillah

An Iraqi soldier was killed by a bomb at his home in Hillah, south of Baghdad.

Musayyib

Six people were wounded by a bomb at the bus station in Musayyib.

Kut

A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army convoy exploded in the city of Kut killing one soldier and wounding four others.

Tal Afar

A child was killed and another six civilians were wounded Saturday in mortar shell attacks targeting a residential compound in Talaafar in west Mosul, north Iraq.

Kirkuk

Unidentified armed men kidnapped an Iraqi civilian in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Another suicide?: A US servicemember assigned to the 43rd Military Police Brigade died of a non-combat related injury on July 20. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

Car ban: The Iraqi military extended its weekly vehicle ban in Baghdad Friday, after the U.S. military warned that insurgents are pouring into the city for an all-out assault.

Officials extended the ban by four hours to prevent car bomb attacks against worshippers at weekly prayer services. Despite the ban, a bomb killed one person and wounded two others at a Sunni mosque in the capital.

Change of plan: The U.S. command had drawn up plans to reduce the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 14 to 12 by September. But that plan has been shelved because of the security crisis in the capital. A senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon was moving ahead with scheduled deployments to Iraq next month and was moving one battalion to Baghdad from Kuwait.

A distinction I fail to grasp: The top American commander for the Middle East said Friday that the escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become a greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital.

“The situation with sectarian violence in Baghdad is very serious,” Gen. John P. Abizaid of the Army, the head of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Friday. “The country can deal with the insurgency better than it can with the sectarian violence, and it needs to move decisively against the sectarian violence now.”

Amnesty proposals: Saturday, a government committee formed to reconcile Iraq's sectarian and political groups held its first meeting, but differences emerged immediately between top Shiite and Sunni officials over amnesty for insurgents.

The Supreme National Committee for Reconciliation and National Dialogue convened behind the blast walls and barbed wire of the Green Zone in Baghdad.

After the meeting, al-Maliki, a Shiite, told reporters that despite his proposal for amnesty for some insurgents, "all those whose hands were tainted with blood should be brought to justice."

But the Sunni speaker of parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, said "if we punish a person who killed an American soldier, who is an occupier, we should punish the American soldiers who killed an Iraqi who fought against occupation."

Security concerns: At her home in central Baghdad, Niran al-Sammarai frets over the fate of her husband, kidnapped Saturday with 30 of his colleagues from a conference hall in one of the most heavily patrolled parts of Baghdad.

In Rasafah district, a police captain says he and colleagues are contemplating mass resignations in frustration over mistrust from US forces and orders from Iraqi politicians to release known criminals.

In the once fashionable Mansoor shopping district, metal grates are drawn over half of the businesses. And in Karada, one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods, many of the businesses are shuttered too. The remaining shopkeepers complain that poor security is driving customers away.

In Baghdad and across much of the center and south of the country, the rhythms of normal life and commerce are rapidly breaking down in a sign that US and Iraqi government plans to build an effective security force are faltering. Reports of police standing aside as civilians get attacked are common, as are claims by survivors that government security forces, infiltrated by sectarian militias, took part in the killings.

Refugees: Tens of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes in fear as sectarian violence has turned ever more bitter since a U.S.-backed national unity government was formed two months ago, official data showed on Thursday.

A day after the United States issued a stern warning to both Shi'ite and minority Sunni leaders to match talk with action on reining in and reconciling "death squads" and "terrorists" from their respective communities, the Migration Ministry said more than 30,000 people had registered as refugees this month alone.

"We consider this to be a dangerous sign," ministry spokesman Sattar Nowruz told Reuters, acknowledging that many more people fled abroad or quietly sought refuge with relatives rather than sign up for official aid or move into state camps.

The increase took to 27,000 families -- some 162,000 people -- the number who have registered for help with the ministry in the five months since the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine at Samarra sparked a new phase of communal bloodshed.

War on bakers: The front line in this city's sectarian war runs through Edrice al-Aaraji's backyard. He is a Shiite and a baker. So are his two brothers.

For the past year, Sunni Arab militants have swept through their old neighborhood, a heavily Sunni district in northwest Baghdad that borders a Shiite area, forcing Shiites out of their homes and destroying their businesses by killing customers and workers. One after another, bakeries, whose workers are overwhelmingly poor and Shiite like Aaraji, began to close.

Now, out of 11 bakeries in the area, northern Ghaziliya, just one, the Sunni-owned Al Obeidi on Center Street, remains open. The neighborhood, like a mouth with missing teeth, is almost entirely without the simplest of Iraqi needs - freshly baked bread.

"To shut down a well-known bakery in a neighborhood, that means you paralyze life there," Aaraji said, sitting in a bakery in a Shiite neighborhood where he now works and usually sleeps. As the most basic of local institutions, Baghdad's bakeries are an everyday measure of just how far the sectarian war here has spread.

But 14 provinces are pacified!: U.S. officials have long pointed to relative peace in many of Iraq’s 18 provinces, dismissing the insurgency as a problem limited to Baghdad and sparsely populated Sunni Arab areas to the west and north.

However, Baghdad is the country’s major transportation hub, the center of political and economic power, and home to more than 20 percent of the population. Its religiously and politically mixed population makes it a natural battleground for control of the country.

“Baghdad is a must-win not only for the prime minister, but for al-Qaida in Iraq,” Caldwell said. “Without Baghdad’s centralized access to power brokers, Baghdad’s large, diverse population, its financial resources, the terrorists elements will lose here in this country.”

With the stakes high, al-Maliki last month unveiled a much-heralded security plan for Baghdad, including up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets, more checkpoints and raids in neighborhoods where violence is high.

But with surging attacks in the capital — including the kidnappings of Iraqi officials — leading politicians from Shiite and Sunni parties have declared the plan a failure. The United Nations said this week that about 6,000 civilians were killed in May and June, many of them in sectarian violence.

News From The Home Front

Supplying them here so we don’t have to supply them over there: Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

"The body armor could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "Many of the other military items have weapons applications that would also be useful to terrorists."

Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.

Compassionate conservatism - 100 dead a day is “old ground” and a “bad summer rerun”: Declaring that he believes the situation in Iraq has devolved into a civil war, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he plans to try to bring the war back up for debate on the Senate floor.

The Nevada Democrat said he has been "somewhat gingerly approaching this.... No longer. There is a civil war going on in Iraq. In the last two months, more than 6,000 Iraqis have been killed. That's averaging more than 100 a day being killed in Iraq and we need to make sure there is a debate on this."

Republicans questioned why Reid wants to go over old ground and were ready to highlight the divisions among Democrats once again.

"Talk about your bad summer reruns," said Eric Ueland, Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Bill Frist, "if they want to do that we'll go to the mats," he said.

Digby: I know it seems ridiculous in light of what we are seeing in Iraq that they would think of running on their superior competence in dealing with the middle east. But remember, the Republicans are counting on thirty years of rightwing propaganda to get them over the line again. They expect that many voters will simply fall back into their comfortable understanding of the two parties: the Republicans are tough men who can handle national security and the Democrats are sensitive women who will help you when you need help (if you're a pathetic loser who actually needs help that is.) The Fighters and the Lovers. This is the paradigm under which we've lived for many years and people find it very disconcerting to be asked to relinquish such reflexive internalized beliefs --- no matter what they see before them. I do not know that they can pull it off one more time. We may have finally reached a tipping point. But I'm not counting any chickens.

The defining issue: Voter unrest over the war in Iraq has elevated foreign policy issues to a rare level of importance in Democratic politics and is the top concern at the moment, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said Saturday. "At the moment, it is probably the most defining issue," Feingold said. "Whether or not it will be in the middle of the election is not clear." Feingold opened his second swing through Iowa, where precinct caucuses traditionally open the presidential nominating season, with a heavy schedule of events. It includes meetings with local Democratic activists and fundraising for Democratic candidates. Feingold has been among the harshest critics of the war in Iraq and has urged a pullout of troops.

Wrecking the US military: Recent allegations of sexual abuse by U.S. military personnel should make us wary of the culture of sexist violence that the Pentagon is fostering. More than 500 U.S. servicewomen who have been or are stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or other countries say they have been assaulted by fellow soldiers since 2003, according to the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of violence associated with the military.

The Defense Department says that reports of sexual assaults involving members of the armed forces rose 40 percent in 2005, and 65 percent in the last two years.

Sexual harassment of female soldiers is often blatant, and harassment and assault often go hand in hand.

Our Creeping Stalinism

The people have no need to know: Imagine my disappointment. Two long-awaited Pentagon reports on detainee policy had finally reached public view: the Jacoby Report on Afghanistan and the Formica Report on Iraq, available as a result of Freedom of Information Act suits, like thousands of other pages of government reports on the war on terror. As the co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, a collection of the memos, reports, and interview logs related to Bush administration detainee policy, I was naturally eager to see those parts of the story that were unfortunately still classified at the time of the book's publication in December 2004.

Both reports promised to contain new information about detainee policy. In June of 2004, Brigadier General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr. had submitted the results of his investigation into detainee operations and standards of detainee treatment in Afghanistan. In November of that year, Brigadier General Richard P. Formica had delivered his findings on command and control questions and allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq. Lieutenant General Richard Sanchez, Commander of the Multinational Force in Iraq and the military officer connected to the interrogation unit at Abu Ghraib, had commissioned Formica to determine whether or not U.S. forces in Iraq were in compliance with Department of Defense guidelines on detainee treatment.

Now, a mere two years or so later, I began skimming through the introductory matter and the boldface headings of the Jacoby Report. I stopped first at "Detainee Operations Standard Operating Procedures." Here it would be in black and white -- or so I thought. But, as it happened, I was only half right. Startling amounts of the report were redacted or blacked out. Where there should have been text against white space, there was section after section filled with nothing but solid black blocs. Even some subsection titles were missing. Pure ink. Meant not to be read.

Due process: Benamar Benatta, believed to be the last remaining domestic detainee from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was released yesterday after negotiations involving Canada, the United States and his attorneys ended his captivity at nearly five years.

Benatta crossed the border from the United States to Canada, where he will be allowed to resume the bid for political asylum that resulted in his detention shortly before the terrorist attacks.

The Algerian air force lieutenant spent more than 58 months behind bars even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism.

He was among more than 1,200 mainly Muslim men who were arrested after the attacks and held under tight security while authorities scoured their backgrounds for links to terrorist groups. It is believed that Benatta was the last to be released, though it is difficult to be certain because of the secrecy that surrounded some of the cases.

"This is the result of an individual being labeled a terrorist and the government treating him as such," Benatta's attorney Catherine Amirfar said yesterday. "He was fully cleared by the FBI of any connection to terrorism . . . but the label stuck, so a man with no previous criminal record was detained for a visa overstay."

Worth Reading Twice

Joshua Holland: There's never been a global war on terror. It's a sham, a ruse. The conflict that's broken out between Israel and Hezbollah shows us, again, how important it is to articulate that. It's a real war, and it has both neocons and Islamic extremists praying that it will escalate into the global Clash of Civilizations that they've long lusted after.

Bush and Congress gave Israel the green light to pummel Lebanon for a while because "Israel is fighting a brave battle in a dangerous front in the War on Terror." And what can we, as Americans, really say about that? After all, we accepted the idea (some of us grudgingly) that there was a global "War on Terror" ourselves -- why shouldn't Lebanon be the next front?

When the media and our political class accepted the war frame, the hawks got a blank check. Everything that followed -- invasions, illegal surveillance and prisoners held in limbo, are all expected during times of war. Once we went to "war," resisting those policies became an uphill fight. War talk justifies powerful states responding to terrorist or insurgent attacks with disproportionate force. That makes the hawks feel macho and will likely create a whole new generation of potentially violent radicals who hate our guts.

We should have fought the "War on Terror" narrative from the beginning. Calling it a "war" is a numerical error, not an ideological difference. There are a few tens of thousands of potentially violent extremists dispersed around the world. They're not gathered in large groups, and you can't distinguish them from ordinary civilians. That makes it fundamentally an intelligence and law enforcement problem (which may require some military support).

Commentary

Paul Krugman: Today we call them neoconservatives, but when the first George Bush was president, those who believed that America could remake the world to its liking with a series of splendid little wars — people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld — were known within the administration as “the crazies.” Grown-ups in both parties rejected their vision as a dangerous fantasy. But in 2000 the Supreme Court delivered the White House to a man who, although he may be 60, doesn’t act like a grown-up. The second President Bush obviously confuses swagger with strength, and prefers tough talkers like the crazies to people who actually think things through. He got the chance to implement the crazies’ vision after 9/11, which created a climate in which few people in Congress or the news media dared to ask hard questions. And the result is the bloody mess we’re now in.

Patrick Cockburn: While the eyes of the world are elsewhere, Baghdad is still dying and the daily toll is hitting record levels. While the plumes of fire and smoke over Lebanon have dominated headlines for 11 days, with Britain and the US opposing a UN call for an immediate ceasefire, another Bush-Blair foreign policy disaster is unfolding in Iraq.

Invoking the sanctity of human life, George Bush wielded the presidential veto for the first time in his presidency to halt US embryonic stem cell research in its tracks. He even paraded one-year-old Jack Jones, born from one of the frozen embryos that can now never be used for federally funded research, and talked of preventing the "taking of innocent human life". How hollow that sounds to Iraqis.

More people are dying here - probably more than 150 a day - in the escalating sectarian civil war between Shia and Sunni Muslims and the continuing war with US troops than in the bombardment of Lebanon.

Marc Sandalow: The path from the U.S. invasion of Iraq to this week's clash between Israel and Hezbollah is a matter of conjecture. However, most analysts agree that Syria and Iran are behind Hezbollah's actions, and have been stirred, in part, by the 2003 attack.

"It's an inescapable fact, as uncomfortable as it is, that the ... Iranian position is stronger than it otherwise would be,'' Blacker said. "It's not an accident that on the more traditional Middle East front, things are heating up again. The Iranians are trying to send a concrete signal.''

The overthrow of Iran's Sunni enemies in Iraq has "created an Iranian moment,'' Cook said.

The Syrians, who are largely Sunnis, withdrew from Lebanon last year, a move which was widely hailed as a positive consequence of Hussein's demise. Yet they left behind a government in Lebanon, though democratically elected, apparently too weak to control the violent Hezbollah forces who have been firing missiles at the Israelis and killing scores of its citizens.

This was not the sort of geopolitical shakeup predicted by President Bush when he declared two weeks before the Iraq invasion that "acting against the danger will also contribute greatly to the long-term safety and stability of our world.''

One Pissed Off Liberal: It has become fashionable in our overly conservative society to have a certain disdain, be it mild or extreme, for pacifists. I guess it's been long enough since our national humiliation in Vietnam that the concept of war has been successfully rehabilitated, and people who would counsel against it are deemed unwise or somehow disconnected from the `real world.' Yes, it seems America has overcome its squeamishness, shaken off its self-doubt, and gotten its swagger back. Once again we are the cocky kid on the block, the neighborhood bully, the macho superpower prepared to dominate the world. We have come to a place where the lessons of Vietnam have been discarded, our national memory of it buried and forgotten.

DISCLAIMER: I believe in legitimate self-defense and in intervention in the case of genocide, etc. as I see a qualitative difference between waging war and coming to someone's rescue. This is known as the pragmatic school of pacifism. My view is that pacifists are the real heroes - and I say that as the son of a warrior. As much as I love and admire my father, a career soldier, it is the peacemakers whom I look up to. Why? Because as the son of a warrior, and one who lived for 3 months among warring factions in Laos, I know what war is. The people who really know war are those who have lived through them. Ask any combat veteran...

Billmon: It's very hard, after more than three years of anticipating, dreading and now watching the catastrophe blossoming in Iraq, to tolerate the pathetic whimpering of former hawks who've finally managed to drag themselves into the searing light of reality -- and feel ill used because they must suffer the slings and arrows of the deluded goons who still refuse to leave the cave of winds. Welcome to the camp, guys. Ivan over there will show you around.

Back in days of the real gulags, the Stalinists used to talk about "useful idiots" -- well-meaning but hopelessly naive Western politicians and intellectuals (i.e. parlor pinks) who could be used to advance the proletarian cause, even though their reward in the event of an actual revolution would have been a one-way ticket to Siberia. For the comrades of the modern authoritarian right, guys like Sullivan and Djerejian served a very similar purpose. But now they're not so useful any more, in fact they've been revealed as deviationists -- which means they must be struggled against, lest they infect the party cadres with their counterrevolutionary poison.

I suppose I should welcome these refugees to reality, and let them be useful idiots for the Left Opposition for a change. But they don't actually bring much to the table -- just lots of wishful thinking and a water-down Wilsonian idealism that bears absolutely no relationship to the modern Middle East -- or the old one, for that matter. And so far that kind of misplaced idealism has only helped the neocons (who generally know better) get a lot of people killed.

What we are dealing with here, in other words, are some truly useless idiots. And this country -- and this world -- have far too many of those already.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, July 21, 2006 Photo: Holding banners that read 'Sunni and Shiite Muslims unite!,' hundreds of protesters gather to denounce the continued Israeli bombing of Lebanon, July 20, 2006, in Samarra. (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed) Bring ‘em on: A Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province today. (MNF- Iraq) Bring ‘em on: Matthew Wallace of Lexington Park was seriously injured by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Iraq on Sunday. Mr. Wallace is a member of the U.S. Army. Wallace suffered significant burns as a result of the explosion. According to a BLOG that is being maintained by members of his family's church, the Patuxent River Assembly of God (PRAG), doctors don't expect Wallace to survive his injuries. At 07:30a.m. EST, the family chose to unplug Matthew from the ventilator. He very quickly and peacefully passed away. Bring ‘em on: One Salvadoran soldier died Wednesday and another was wounded in a bombing near Kut, southwest of Baghdad, his country's defense minister said. It was the third fatality among Salvadoran troops since the Central American nation sent forces in 2003. Bring ‘em on: Two soldiers, a Dane and a Lithuanian, were injured in two separate incidents while on patrol in southern Iraq, the Danish military said Wednesday. Both soldiers were hit in the right shoulder by bullets while on patrol near Basra on Tuesday. Bring 'em on: Four Polish soldiers have been injured in an attack on their convoy in Iraq. Doctors describe their condition as stable. Ten terrorists were detained. The attack took place in Wasit province. The terrorists caused an explosion and fired at armoured vehicles of the international South Centre division, which responded with fire and called a rapid reaction force for help. Apart from four Polish soldiers, two troops from Salvador and an interpreter were injured. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Three Iraqi police and three soldiers were killed in a firefight with insurgents in Baghdad. A government official was shot dead in Baghdad. Four dead bodies were found bearing signs of torture in Baghdad. A bomb outside a Sunni mosque killed one worshipper and wounded two more in the eastern Baghdad suburb of Jadida Mahmoudiya: Gunmen attacked two Shiite neighborhoods Friday in Mahmoudiya, prompting Iraqi forces to call for American air support in a clash that killed at least 18 people, the Iraqi army said. The attacks on Shiite neighborhoods occurred in Mahmoudiya, where 50 people were killed this week in a raid by Sunni gunmen on a market. Most of the victims were believed to be Shiites. The 18 killed Friday included 11 attackers, four Iraqi soldiers and three police officers, the Iraqi army statement said. [It seems to me they're spinning a classic resistance attack for a sectarian one -- zig] Baqubah: (near) U.S. forces killed two suspected militants as well as two women and a child in a raid in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Friday, the military said. Police officers and neighbors said six members of one family were killed when U.S. helicopters rocketed their house. (…) "The U.S. forces bombed civilian houses in Baquba, killing and wounding civilians," Raad al-Dahlaki, the head of the Baquba provincial council, told Reuters. Police and neighbors said people in one of several houses that were attacked by U.S. forces and helicopters had mistaken the Americans for hostile Shi'ite militiamen because they were wearing black. As a result they fired on the U.S. troops. "They saw men who they thought were militiamen coming to harm them and they fired at them and then the Americans responded with shooting and helicopter attacks," Fawzi Ahmed, a relative of the Abdul Hassan family. Khalis: One worshipper was killed by a bomb as he went in to midday prayers at a Sunni mosque in Khalis, 70km north of the capital. Two others were wounded, police said. Kirkuk: Two dead bodies were found on Friday, one of them is for a child, in the city of Kirkuk, northern Iraq. The body of an unidentified headless man was found in the southern part of Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad. Mosul: A policeman was gunned down in the centre of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Fallujah: The bodies of three Iraqi soldiers in uniform with gunshot wounds, bearing signs of torture, were found in a deserted area about 20 km north of Falluja, which is 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad. >> NEWS Saddam Hussein and three of his aides are pursuing a hunger strike they began almost two weeks ago and are risking their health, defence lawyers said. (…) "President Saddam Hussein and his (three) co-accused are pursuing their hunger strike which is threatening to jeopardise their health," said a statement by the defence committee sent to AFP in the Jordanian capital. The committee blamed the "American occupation forces" which were the only authority able to take decisions over the detainees. Last week, US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Keir Kevin Curry said: "Saddam Hussein and his three co-defendants have now refused meals since their evening meal on July 7." >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS THE ILL-LOGIC OF IRAQ As the civil war in Iraq has become more overt this past week, the administration would still tell us that we invaded a country three years ago and continue to fight, kill and die there, for good, sound reasons. But somehow those reasons oddly seem not to add up to anything that makes much sense. The illogic seems to permeate the war and the rhetoric surrounding it in so many ways. We offer but a few questions about the illogic of our invasion of Iraq and continued killing of its citizens, and our own Americans. 1. Why is it that when insurgency attacks go down we are winning the war; but when they go up, the insurgency is desperate? 2. Why is it that if Iraqis are so pleased by their new democracy that we are so generally disliked there? 3. Why is it that in a country with so much oil in the ground that Iraqis cannot buy gasoline at any price and must fill their gas tanks after we do --- even when it's their oil? 4. Why do we say when insurgents bomb mosques that it is “intended to foment sectarian violence and civil war” -- when it already is sectarian violence and civil war? 5. Why is it that we are to honor those who died in Iraq, but our government and our media will not allow us to see those being honored in their flag-draped coffins? 6. Why do we support the Iraqi government and praise them as saviors and bastions of freedom, when they allow their country to be dominated by a foreign invader? 7. Why is the future U.S. Embassy in Iraq the only major construction project that is going well there? 8. Why does the Administration oppose religious control in Iraq but embraces it in our country? 9. Why is freedom to vote and have public discourse more important than freedom from crime, hunger, and disease? 10. Why when “they” kill innocent women and children, it is a matter for outrage, but when we do it, it is “collateral damage” or just part of the price of “liberty?” 11. Why do many U.S. citizens want to end the war because about 2,600 Americans have been killed, rather than because many thousands of Iraqis have been killed? 12. Why do we send more soldiers to be wrongly killed so that previous soldiers did not "die in vain."? Do we honor those killed by drunk drivers by sending more drunk drivers on the road to kill further? link DESTABILIZATION WORRIES Just yesterday, Washington said Turkey has "the right to protect itself," just as Israel does. But while that means Israel can cross borders to fight and bomb terrorists, Turkey shouldn't consider doing the same with rebel Kurds operating just over the border in Iraq:

Like Ankara, Washington considers the PKK a "terrorist" organisation and has pledged support for Turkish efforts to combat the Kurdish separatist group. "Terrorism is terrorism everywhere," [Prime Minister] Erdogan said. "It is not possible to agree with a mentality that tolerates country A and displays a different attitude when it comes to country B." Earlier, US Ambassador Ross Wilson had warned that a cross-border operation against the PKK would be "unwise" and urged Ankara to coordinate its moves with the United States. [....] Washington argues that its forces in Iraq are overwhelmed by violence in other parts of the country and that military action against the PKK in the north could upset the relative stability of the Kurdish-populated region.

Kinda boggles the mind, eh? It seems we're worried about destabilizing the region, since our troops are too tied up to help because...um...we've destabilized the region. link DEMOCRACY, IRAQ-STYLE I love the president. President Vladimir Putin. At the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, "our" president, George W. Bush, observed, apparently without irony:

"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing."

Not that Russia should look like America, President Bush allowed. Russia should look like Iraq. Apparently the latter is the new democratic model for the world. President Putin seemed taken aback by this rather astonishing assertion. He responded,"We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." Well, "just wait," replied George Bush. Uh, yeah. The two presidents talked on a Saturday. More than 100 people died in Baghdad in the previous Sunday through Tuesday. And on the succeeding Monday, reported The Washington Post,

"Masked attackers with heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks slaughtered at least 40 people in a crowded market area south of Baghdad on Monday, hurling grenades to blow up merchants at their counters and shooting down mothers as they fled with their children, witnesses and authorities said."

The next day, according to the Associated Press,

"A suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of laborers gathered across the street from a major Shi'ite shrine in southern Iraq Tuesday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105, officials and witnesses said. The attacker drove a minivan to where Shi'ite laborers gather daily to look for work in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad. He offered them jobs, loaded the minivan with volunteers, and then detonated the vehicle."

Democracy at work, Iraq-style. We would all be blessed to live in such a place. read in full… VIVA LEBANON... VIVA IRAQ... History repeats itself, I said within myself as I was watching the news bulletin: same footage, same suffering and almost same attacker for the same reason. Buildings collapse and people die, cry and flee homes. Children are hurt, mothers weep and parents sob. Maybe no one in the world feel what is happening in Lebanon like Iraqis. Footage of a destroyed beautiful country like Lebanon reminded me with the same footage I saw in Baghdad but in reality, not on TV. Footage of warplanes bombing and destroying one of the most beautiful cities like Beirut also reminded me with the warplanes that destroyed my lovely Baghdad twice, in 1991 and 2003. Media broadcasted how Lebanese families are fleeing their homes fearing the aggressive strikes reach them. My God! We went through exactly the same thing in 1991 and 2003 when we had to flee our houses fearing the aggression reach us, Iraqi civilians, which actually did. Many families were left homeless, hopeless and sleepless. I strongly remember how Baghdad looked after the 1991 aggression. It was scary and gloomy and very sad to see. Nothing was left but rubbles of destroyed infrastructure. Bridges, operators, towers, government buildings, and water and oil projects were all destroyed leaving civilians with no chance to live. Even medicine was banned. Wow! History really repeats itself. Lebanon which survived a long fierce civil war has to suffer again and go through the same destruction which the same attacker took part in creating. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: Taliban fighters ambushed a Canadian patrol here with rockets and small arms fire (in Darvishan) as the soldiers attempted to extend coalition control over the town. Canadian forces believe they killed two or three of the five or six Taliban fighters involved in the ambush. There were no Canadian casualties. Dutch commandos killed 18 enemy fighters who set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in southern Afghanistan, the country's military chief said Friday. There were no Dutch casualties during a 10-day mission. HEZBOLLAH IS THE WILD CARD Israel will probably not send ground troops into Lebanon to confront Hezbollah. Israel realizes it cannot decisively defeat Hezbollah, as its experience prior to 2000 made painfully obvious. In fact, the mass murder campaign currently underway in Lebanon has little to do with Hezbollah, as our pro-Israel corporate media tells us, ad nauseam. Instead, it has to do with "order out of chaos," rendering Arabs and Muslims helpless, destroying their societies. It has to do with balkanizing the Middle East, reducing once organized societies to mutually hostile tribal and ethnic factions, forever at each others throats, and thus exploitable and malleable. It is an updated version of British colonialism, the time-tested divide and conquer strategy. If you require and example of this, look no further than Iraq where "civil war," externally imposed, works like an acid on the political and social fabric of the country, if indeed you can characterize what remains of Iraq a country. It is devolving into a patchwork of mutually antagonistic factions, tribes, religious sects, a situation created by false flag terrorism straight out of the neocon Pentagon. Syria is next. (...) Hezbollah is purely indigenous and any support by Syria or Iran is strictly secondary. In order to decisively defeat Hezbollah-basically a catch-all for Shia-based resistance to Israeli hegemony-hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Muslims will need be eradicated. Israel and the Israel First neocons have no problem with this horrific scenario. Depleted uranium is the slow way to do it, while "small build enhanced radiation weapons" of about one kiloton will be a lot quicker. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Iraq has become a monumental blunder no matter what kind of an outcome takes place. Even if our troops finally win in Iraq, we have already lost the war relevant to the far more important objective of securing what might be described as the 'fealty' of Iraq's government and people as well as promoting our friendly and cooperative hegemonic dominance in the world's economy. For we have become demonstrably the single most dangerous 'rogue nation' in the entire world -- so dangerous, in fact, that nobody in power elsewhere (except Hugo Chavez of Venezuela) is quite willing to admit it publicly." -- from Bush Does Iraq: Anatomy of a Failed Operation by Edward Jayne

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, July 20, 2006 Photo: Internally-displaced Iraqi Sunni children walk in a refugee camp in Baghdad July 20, 2006. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes in fear of sectarian violence that has worsened since formation of a U.S.-backed national unity government two months ago, official data showed on Thursday. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ) (See below under "Reports") Bring 'em on: A British soldier was killed and five others were injured on Wednesday during armed confrontations with insurgents in Basra, said the spokesman for British forces. In a press release, he added that British structures and military bases in Basra were bombarded with missiles and rockets on Tuesday and Wednesday. Armed groups bombarded the British consulate and military bases with over 100 rockets and projectiles, he said. He said three insurgents were arrested and quantities of weapons were confiscated during search operation by the British forces. Bring 'em on: A Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province today. U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded and entered two towns near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Thursday in search of suspected al Qaeda militants, the military said on Thursday. The operation follows a series of insurgent attacks in the area where 31 Iraqi soldiers have been killed by rebels in the past five weeks, said a military statement. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: The bodies of four men were found in two areas in eastern Baghdad. Five people were injured when police detonated a car bomb at Amin Square. Police tried to evacuate the area before detonating the vehicle but the area was too crowded, officials said. A car bomb went off in a busy area in downtown Baghdad on Thursday, killing a civilian and wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry source said. A parked explosive-packed car detonated near the Shorjah commercial area, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. At least three people were killed and 10 others wounded when a car bomb exploded on a busy central Baghdad street. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army convoy south of the capital, injuring five soldiers. Two people were killed, including a police officer, and 11 others wounded, including five policemen when a roadside bomb hit a passing police patrol in the Sakhrah intersection on the Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad. Iraqi police recovered the 38 bodies showing signs of torture in the capital city during a 24-hour period ending Thursday morning. An Iraqi army convoy traveling in the western Baghdad neighborhood al-Jamia was bombed by insurgents. Police cordoned off the area and have not released a casualty report. One civilian was killed and six wounded when clashes erupted between gunmen and the police in the southern Dora district of the capital. Karbala: Gunmen assassinated a former official of Saddam Hussein's party in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Five Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol near Kerbala. Najaf: Ten civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy exploded on a main road near the holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad. Baiji: Gunmen killed three engineers working in the oil refinery in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad. Numaniya: Iraqi police found the body of a taxi driver in his car on a main road in the small town of Numaniya south of Baghdad. Diwanija: The Polish military base in Diwanija has been under attack. Four rockets were fired at Camp Echo of the multinational forces stationed in Iraq's south-central stabilization zone. No casualties have been reported. (unconfirmed) A Multi-National Forces (MNF) chopper crashed Wednesday in southern Iraq, according to eyewitness reports. Eyewitnesses told KUNA Thursday, a Polish chopper crashd near a MNF military base in Diwaniya, southern Iraq. The crash was not a result of fire, although reports are inconclusive, a malfunction in the chopper is suspected. MNF spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the news. An Iraqi army officer was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a joint Iraqi and Polish patrol in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad. Gunmen kidnapped and killed a taxi driver, who was a former member of the ousted Baath Party, on Thursday in Diwaniya. Balad: The bodies of two people with gunshot wounds were found near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Tikrit: Gunmen killed a police officer near a checkpoint in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. The body of a translator for U.S. forces was found near Tikrit with gunshot wounds, police said. He was kidnapped on Tuesday, police added. A car bomb killed 12 people who had gathered around a vehicle after discovering a corpse inside. A police captain says the victims were staring at the car parked at a gas station when it blew up. Seven others were injured in the village about 155 miles north of Baghdad. At least four people were killed and 12 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a small village between the cities of Tikrit and Baiji in central Iraq. US Army fired two rockets on the Albu Adil village in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday, killing two civilians. Kirkuk: Three people were wounded late on Wednesday when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad. A car bomb killed one person and wounded seven in Kirkuk. So far this month, at least 84 people have been killed in Kirkuk and surrounding areas. Sulaimaniya: (N. of) A senior Iraqi-Kurdish official accused Iranian forces on Thursday of shelling Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. Othman Mahmoud, interior minister of the Kurdish regional government in the north, said shelling was going on along the border about 170 km (105 miles) north of the city of Sulaimaniya. Mahmoud said it was still not clear whether there were any casualties. There was no immediate comment from officials in Iran. Fallujah: Gunmen kidnapped and killed a policeman in Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad. Mosul: Governor of Mosu survived an assassination attempt after a bomb exploded near his convoy in the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq. A security source told reporters that the explosion occurred in Al-Faisaliya area in Mosul. The source added that the explosion did not cause any damage. Basra: At least five Iraqis were killed and 15 were wounded in clashes with British troops and insurgents on Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. (Video)

The Regional Council of Basra in Iraq blamed on Tuesday the British army for the wave of violence in the region and condemned them for the deaths of the five Iraqis killed Monday night during an operation against insurgents. (Video)

>> NEWS Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani urged religious and community leaders to "exert maximum efforts to stop the bloodletting." He warned that the ongoing violence will only prolong the presence of U.S.-led forces in Iraq. The cleric said the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra had unleashed a "blind violence" that was sweeping the country. Unless the violence stops, he said, it "will harm the unity of the people and block their hopes of liberation and independence for a long time." U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said there has been an average of 34 attacks a day against U.S. and Iraqi forces in the capital over the past five days. The daily average for the period June 14 until July 13 was 24 a day, he said. "We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world," U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news briefing Thursday. "The only way we're going to be successful in Baghdad is to get the weapons off the streets." Iraq's Defense Ministry again called for members of Saddam Hussein's former army to contact military recruiting centers: While a previous appeal did not yield substantial results, a senior army officer said the call was reissued "to reduce violence," suggesting there was hope that some insurgents might return to government service. Hundreds of Sunni Arabs demonstrate in Samarra against plans to rebuild a massive Shiite shrine which was destroyed earlier this year: "The people of Samarra reject any outside interference, whether by the government or Moqtada because it will bring sectarian war," said protestor Saad Mahdi, in response to plans by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to send a "million" people to rebuild the shrine. "The people of Samarra are all armed and it will lead to a massacre," said Mahdi, while around him people carried banners which said: "The sons of Samarra reject any interference in the city's affairs." The protest was organized by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, the Muslim Scholars Association and local tribal leaders. The Turkish military is moving forward with plans to send forces into northern Iraq to clear out Turkish Kurdish guerrilla bases, the prime minister said Wednesday. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said officials were holding talks with the United States and Iraq in an attempt to defuse tensions. Diplomats and officials have said repeatedly that Turkey's threats to send troops into Iraq were largely aimed at pressing the United States and Iraq to take action against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, whose fighters have killed 15 Turks in the southeast in the past week. Saddam Hussein is receiving psychiatric counseling to convince him to start eating again after 12 days on hunger strike in a U.S. military prison. Saying that the 69-year-old ousted Iraqi president was still refusing food but taking liquid nourishment, a U.S. spokesman said such counseling was part of additional daily medical care for inmates who risked damaging their health by their actions. (...) Saddam and three co-defendants who last ate on July 7 are all healthy, Curry said. Iraqi officials: U.S. and coalition forces behind much of the surge in civilian casualties cited in a U.N. report: The report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq said nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in May and June in a wave of assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation. However, deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie blamed U.S. and other coalition forces for much of the violence, saying their troops were responsible for about half the deaths due to "raids, shootings and clashes with insurgents." "They came to protect the people and democracy and all the problems we have today are because of them. It is a loss for Iraq," said al-Zubaie, a Sunni Muslim. He also said Iraq's Interior and Defense Ministries had been infiltrated by militiamen who are responsible for many deaths. Four more people seized last weekend at a sports conference have been found blindfolded and dumped unharmed in an east Baghdad neighborhood, officials said Thursday. There was no word on the fate of Iraq's Olympic committee chairman. >> REPORTS Raging violence has pushed up the number of displaced people in Iraq to at least 162,000, the Ministry of Displaced and Migration said on Thursday. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS US PLAYS A DOUBLE GAME Caught between the need to explore a possible diplomatic way out of an otherwise hopeless mess in Iraq and the domestic political need to keep the Democrats on the defensive, US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are playing a double game on the issue of a timetable for withdrawal. For many months, the Bush White House has been attacking some Democrats in Congress for calling for a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Cheney condemned such proposals in a CNN interview June 22 as "the worst possible thing we could do", and portrayed them as "validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight". But for the past six months, the Bush administration has been secretly pursuing peace negotiations with the Sunni insurgents, in which it has explicitly accepted the principle that an eventual peace agreement will include a timetable for US withdrawal. read in full... AT LEAST ONE WAR CHEERLEADER IS WISING UP Rep. Gil Gutknecht has been a big supporter of the war, but a recent visit to Baghdad--err, make that just the Green Zone--has got him wondering, at least a little, about the smokescreen that comes out of the White House and Pentagon on a daily basis:

Congressman Gil Gutknecht found the situation in Iraq more bleak than he anticipated during a weekend visit to the war zone, and said a partial withdrawal of some American troops might be wise. Gutknecht, a strong supporter of the war since it began in March of 2003, told reporters in a telephone conference call Tuesday that American forces appear to have no operational control of much of Baghdad. "The condition there is worse than I expected," he said. "... I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem." [....] While Gutknecht is still not in favor of setting deadlines for the withdrawal of all American troops, he said the situation in Iraq's largest city has clearly deteriorated. "Baghdad is worse today than it was three years ago," he said. [....] Gutknecht was critical of some of the "spin" from Bush administration officials in the Pentagon and the State Department. He specifically pointed to past statements that a few hundred insurgents were causing the violence in the Iraq. Military officials say they've captured 10,000 even as the insurgency continues unabated. "That's a far cry from what we were told originally," he said. "... All of the information we receive sometimes from the Pentagon and the State Department isn't always true."

Gutknecht now thinks some troop withdrawals might be a good idea, although his opponent in the Nov. election, a retired command sergeant major from the National Guard, detects a whiff of pre-election conversion here. link WHO'S BEHIND THE DAILY KILLINGS IN IRAQ? From the time of invasion of Iraq in March 2003 till June 2004, the phenomenon of death squads was unknown to Iraq and the U.S. soldiers were being killed and injured daily by the Iraqi resistance, something the Americans were unprepared for and had not expected. The U.S. response was to send John Negroponte, the former U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 - during the worst of death squads operations there, to Baghdad as 'ambassador'. Negroponte was notorious during his tenure in Honduras for not only failing to admit to existence of death squads there, he was almost universally believed to be directing death squads in both Honduras and Nicaragua. His appointment as ambassador to Iraq by Bush in June 2004 until April 2005 marked the development and the formation of the now notorious Iraqi death squads. The fact that death squads were to be formed by the U.S. and let loose on the long suffering Iraqi population was so widely known and discussed that the US Newsweek magazine even ran an article speculating about the fact that the U.S. government was seriously considering the option of following the Latin American model of simply killing anyone remotely suspected of being against the U.S. interest. A U.S. military source was quoted by the American media as saying, "The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving the terrorists. ... From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation." The traumatized populations of Central America could have told the Iraqis of the death squad's methods. People would be kidnapped and tortured by soldiers who wore uniforms by day but used unmarked cars by night to kidnap and kill those hostile to the regime or their suspected sympathizers. Witnesses in Iraq almost always recount that the victims were abducted by people who "came in white police Toyota Land Cruisers, wore police commando uniforms, flak vests and helmets" and were armed with 9mm Glock pistols. Glock side arms are used by many U.S. law enforcement agencies and have been supplied to Iraqi security forces by the U.S. military. read in full... THE LESSONS THAT HAVEN'T BEEN LEARNED Remember how the war in Iraq was going to "begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace" by "bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions"? Those were the words George W. Bush used to sell the war during a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in February 2003. Well, those, and a few more about how Saddam Hussein was "building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world." Those weapons were never found, of course. As for the transforming-the-Middle East stuff? Here's where we stand today: Iraq is such a mess that even an ardent war supporter says it's time to start getting out. Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas are at war; several hundred people are dead, yet Hezbollah is still vowing to "humiliate" Israel, and -- as shown in the photograph above -- Israeli girls are still writing messages on shells destined for southern Lebanon. Beirut is under siege. U.S. troops are under attack from Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. The president is warning that Syria is trying to reassert control over Lebanon. Iran is hoping -- successfully, so far -- that the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel will distract attention from its nuclear plans. And now Turkey is signaling that it's ready to send troops into Iraq to fight Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there. They've got a director of lessons learned over at the White House. Is our children learning? read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: Canadian troops narrowly missed death and serious injury when an American jet dropped a 225-kilogram laser-guided bomb on their position earlier this month. (update) The Kandahar Air Field, where Canadian soldiers are based, came under rocket attack again Wednesday as the Taliban threatened escalated attacks against foreign forces in Afghanistan. A coalition soldier was injured in Wednesday's attack when a single rocket slammed into the base. Australian soldiers have suffered minor injuries in southern Afghanistan: A Defence spokesman has confirmed some soldiers were injured during a coalition patrol. He says for operational reasons no details can be given on how many soldiers where injured or when the incident occurred. THE UGLY TRUTH: OUR PRESIDENT IS AN IMBECILE You know it, I know it and the American people know it. But everyone is afraid to say it. They say it privately, but people are afraid of saying it publicly because you will be branded as a liberal, elite, intellectual snob. But believe me, you don't have to be an intellectual to see how painfully stupid our president is. Just look at the conversation he is having with world leaders at the G-8 summit. Mikes picked up the causal talk between the world leaders. Forget that Bush appears to have three sandwiches in his mouth while talking. Forget that he calls out to the Prime Minister of Britain as if he is Flounder in "Animal House." Forget that he uses profanity. I don't give a shit about those things. I thought it was ridiculous that people made fun of George H. W, Bush for vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister. What was he going to do? He had to puke, so he puked. It happens to the best of us, and more importantly, has nothing to do with his intelligence or how capable he is as a leader. But his son's verbal vomit does have a lot to do with his ability to lead this country and the world. What I found to be the most damning is the least quoted part of Bush's comments. As you read this transcript, remember that this is not a small child talking, but the President of the United States of America: The camera is focused elsewhere and it is not clear whom Bush is talking to, but possibly Chinese President Hu Jintao, a guest at the summit. "Bush: Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home? "Bush: This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home? " Reply is inaudible. "Bush: Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country. " At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation. "Bush: It takes him eight hours to fly home. " He turns his attention to a server. "Bush : No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke. " He turns back to whomever he was talking with. "Bush: It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's big and so is China." Russia's big and so is China??????? This guys sounds like a third grader. Do you know anyone who would have a conversation like this with their neighbor, let alone a business associate, let alone a world leader? Who's proud to know that Russia is big and so is China? Can anyone now credibly claim that Bush is secretly working on a master plan behind the scenes and that he's just playing cowboy for the cameras? I hope the master plan doesn't involve figuring out how long it takes to get to China. If someone is this ignorant, they're usually embarrassed and try not to talk much. But this guy is so dumb he has no idea how dumb he is. This sounds like a conversation you might have with a child, a mentally challenged child. Johnny, do you know how big Russia is? How about China? This would all be unfortunate if George was your dentist, or worse yet, your accountant. But he is the leader of the free world. This man makes life or death decisions every day. If you say you're not scared about that, you're lying. Would you let him do the books for your business? Would you trust your company in his hands for eight years? (No matter how Republican you are, you know you just said no to that question.) Would you trust him to be your kids' guidance counselor and take his advice seriously? If your kids were in the Army and he was their field commander, would you feel good about putting their lives in his hands? Come on, no one is crazy enough to say yes to that. Yet, he has all of our lives in his hands. The emperor has no clothes. The emperor has no clothes. It's about time someone in the mainstream media said it. (...) Unfortunately, right now we are in the position of being pitied by the rest of the world. We have third grader for a President. And worse yet, the Vice President has him convinced he is the second coming of Winston Churchill. Scared yet? read in full... TORN TO SHREDS Your war crimes digest: Israel destroys a hillside village, continues to blow up Beirut's southern suburbs, continues to target the civilian infrastructure, warplanes flatten houses and buildings as ground troops invade southern Lebanon, more than 300 people killed and 500,0000 displaced, displaced expected to top 900,000 $2bn worth of damage, 100 civilians killed in Gaza, UN envoy suggests maybe saying something about Israel's war crimes, refugee camp invaded, people die under rubble of flattened homes, Israel inflicting 'mass punishment' on a whole people - and nowhere is safe from the bombing. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Do you know, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, that I asked one of the American officials who talked with me perhaps two weeks after my arrest, just what was it that you based those false charges on? He said that as far as the weapons of mass destruction were concerned, "we didn't have anything to confirm what you were saying." And as for the links to terrorism, he said, because you, Saddam Hussein, did not send a letter of condolence to President Bush after the incident [of 11 September]." -- from Letter from President Saddam Hussein to the American people, dated 7 July 2006.

WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2006 “We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.” Gunmen stormed a market in the town of Rasheed, south of Baghdad, on Wednesday, killing three people in the second such raid in the area in three days. Police and Iraqi troops killed two of the unidentified assailants and were now in control of the town. Two policemen were among 11 people wounded. A senior staff member of the Interior Ministry was gunned down in a drive-by shooting Wednesday. Major General Fakhrou Abdul Mohsen, was leaving his home Wednesday morning when he was ambushed and killed by insurgent gunmen. A car bomb, followed by two other blasts, killed five Iraqis -- including three police officers -- near the Technology University in southeast Baghdad. The explosions also wounded 20 people. Four Iraqi police officers were wounded by a bomb targeting a police patrol in the Belediyat section of southeast Baghdad. Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms on Tuesday stole 1.24 billion Iraqi dinars (about $675,000) from Rafidain Bank in western Baghdad early Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday a roadside bomb killed six policemen and another police officer was wounded in the incident, which occurred in Hawija. A bomb outside a cafe killed four people and wounded 16 in Kirkuk. The body of an unidentified man was found with gunshot wounds in western Mosul. One policeman was wounded when gunmen ambushed a police patrol in central Mosul. Gunmen killed a Kurdish man on Tuesday in Mosul. Police found seven bullet-riddled bodies dumped in water sanitation tanks near Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped 20 employees of a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines nationwide, and the organization suspended its work until further notice, an official said. (Baghdad?) Six people died when a bomb hidden in a plastic bag exploded inside a vegetable shop in eastern Baghdad. Clashes erupted between gunmen and Iraqi security forces in the tense area between Youssifiyah and Mahmoudiya. A member of a Shiite political organization and two of his bodyguards were gunned down Wednesday on the highway between Youssifiyah and Mahmoudiya. One person was killed and five were kidnapped Wednesday in Mahmoudiya. A roadside bombing killed two people in Kirkuk. Three people were killed in smallscale attacks in Baghdad and Yousifiyah. Good news if true: A Jordanian who killed two U.S. soldiers last month was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces, a senior Iraqi official said Tuesday.Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, known as Abu al-Afghani, was identified as the killer of the two soldiers, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told reporters. The two soldiers' mutilated bodies were found after they were captured in a clash near Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad. The descent: When Iraq's new unity government was installed two months ago, hopes rose that the sectarian violence tearing the country apart would end. When Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed last month and Iraq's new leaders quickly followed up with a plan for national reconciliation, hopes rose that the insurgents would lay down their arms and join the political process. And when all of that failed to stop the bloodshed, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a security crackdown in Baghdad, which included 50,000 Iraqi police and troops manning checkpoints and patrolling the streets. None of it has worked. Reprisals: A Sunni driver lures Shiites into a van by promising jobs — then blows it up, killing 53 people. Sunni gunmen spray bullets and grenades at shoppers, not caring that they include women and children. Shiite death squads roam Baghdad streets, singling out and slaughtering Sunnis. The new unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds was supposed to bring Iraqis together. Instead, sectarian bloodletting is spiraling out of control. In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in two spectacular examples of Sunni-Shiite violence — 53 in the suicide van bombing Tuesday in Kufa and 50 in the massacre Monday in the market in Mahmoudiya. Since then, at least 19 more have been slain in Mahmoudiya in what police say were reprisals for the market massacre. Their bodies were found by police, scattered in different parts of town. Hell city: Sectarian violence in Iraq is escalating to horrifying levels. Just as dismaying, Iraq's modest democratic gains have not had the result of holding militias, insurgents and terrorists in check. Indeed, were it not for the distraction of the heavy fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, the Bush administration would doubtless now be facing some of the sharpest challenges to date of its assurances that significant progress is being made in Iraq toward stability and withdrawal of U.S. forces. Even by the standards in Baghdad, an increasingly hellish city at the mercy of marauding gangs and death squads, the July 9 massacre of at least 40 Sunni Muslims by Shiite gunmen triggered outrage. Hundreds have died since then in a spiral of retribution that begets further retaliation. A substantial increase: An average of more than 100 civilians a day were killed in Iraq last month, the United Nations reported Tuesday, registering what appears to be the highest official monthly tally of violent deaths since the fall of Baghdad. The death toll, drawn from Iraqi government agencies, was the most precise measurement of civilian deaths provided by any government organization since the 2003 invasion and represents a substantial increase over the figures in daily media reports. Standing up while we stand down: Iraqi forces are accused of standing idly by while gunmen sprayed grenades and automatic weapons fire in a market south of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 50 people, most of them Shiites. Women and children were among the dead and wounded in the assault in Mahmoudiya, hospital officials said. Late Monday, police said they found 12 bodies in different parts of town - possible victims of reprisal killings. The Mahmoudiya assault occurred a few hundred yards from Iraqi army and police positions, but the troops did not intervene until the attackers were fleeing, several witnesses said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals. No trust, no hope: When her home became unlivable, when her neighbors were gunned down in the streets, a mother of seven said goodbye to her teenage sons and set out on foot into the lethal Baghdad night. Ignoring the citywide curfew, the woman known as Um Mustafa grabbed her two youngest children and walked five miles down the back roads of moonlit urban slums to the refugee camp that has become their new home. In a patch of crusted dirt and scratchy grass, they are now among 30 families living under the camp's green tents, surviving on rations of rice and tomatoes, and watching as violence engulfs much of their city. "I left my boys in al-Jihad because they refused to leave their house. They said, 'We will never leave our home. We will fight for it,' " recalled Um Mustafa, too afraid to give her full name, as she stood outside her tent. "I ran away when the shooting started. We left with the clothes that were on our bodies." "Neighbors are killing neighbors," she said. "We cannot trust anyone." Foreign Affairs Sayanara: The last batch of Japanese troops touched down in Kuwait from southern Iraq on Monday, ending the country's largest and most dangerous overseas mission since World War II. About 220 troops arrived at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base from Samawah, the provincial capital of Muthanna, on C-130 transport air planes, the Defense Agency said in a statement. The contingent was the last of about 600 non-combat soldiers previously stationed in Samawah to distribute water and assist in other humanitarian tasks. Following Israel's lead: Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there - a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States. Turkey is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed fighting the guerrillas in southeastern Turkey in the past week. Sauce for the goose…:Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rapped the US yesterday for tolerating Israel’s attacks on its enemies in Lebanon while refusing to allow Ankara to crush Kurdish rebels hiding in northern Iraq. Erdogan is under mounting domestic pressure to get tough with the rebels, who have killed 16 Turkish security personnel in separate attacks over the past week. “The way they look at terror there (in Israel) and in Turkey is not the same. They show tolerance towards country A (fighting terrorism) and show a different approach to country B. This is unacceptable,” Erdogan said. He did not mention the US or Israel by name but it was clear to whom he was referring. Helping the theocracy: Iran's most prominent dissident said Sunday that the war in Iraq has hurt his country's reform movement by giving its regime an excuse to stifle dissent. Journalist Akbar Ganji said in an interview that the West can best promote change in Iran by lending moral support to the country's democratic movement. "We do not want the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, this is our problem. Any intervention by any foreign power would bring charges of conspiracy against us," he said. "What has happened in Iraq did not support our movement in any significant way." Instead, he said, it gave Iran's regime an excuse to crack down on dissidents, accusing them of colluding with the U.S. and promoting an invasion of the Islamic republic. Your Tax Dollars At Work Boondoggle: If you were to gather together the finest, most creative minds and ask them to come up with a plan to outsource the reconstruction of Iraq that would guarantee shoddy work, overcharges, unfinished projects and overt graft, they would probably devise a system very similar to what U.S. taxpayers have enjoyed -- to the tune of about $30 billion -- for the past three years. In Baghdad, basics like electricity, sanitation and clean drinking water are at lower levels today than they were before the war. A poll last year found that after more than two years of work, only 30 percent of Iraqis had any idea that there was any kind of reconstruction effort at all. The reconstruction of Iraq has become a boondoggle of historic proportions, but make no mistake: It's a boondoggle by design. No duh, Dave: U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress last week that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry is hampering the country's ability to govern itself. "It took me about, you know, a second and a half to realize that, obviously, there was massive corruption going on, because the numbers just didn't add up," Walker said, referring to a trip he took to Iraq this year in which he was shown figures on oil production and revenue. Walker, who heads the Government Accountability Office, made his remarks at a House Government Reform subcommittee meeting last Tuesday called to examine implementation of the Bush administration's 2005 "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." He said one of the failures of the U.S. program was related to the prewar assumption that Iraq would be able to pay for its reconstruction "in large part through oil revenues." He said about 10 percent of Iraq's refined fuels and 30 percent of its imported fuels are being stolen, in part because the subsidized Iraqi price of gasoline, about 44 cents a gallon, is less than half the regional price of 90 cents a gallon. "That provides a tremendous incentive to be able to steal these fuels and be able to sell them for whatever purposes, corruption or otherwise," Walker said. Walker noted that oil production, which was to provide prime support to the new government, is below prewar production and distribution levels, complicated by the insurgency and difficulties in maintaining the aging oil infrastructure. Another Bush failure: Key to Washington's efforts to get its message across to the Arab world are two Arab-language networks – Radio Sawa, begun in 2002, and Television Alhurra, launched in 2004. Backed by $78 million in federal funding this year, the efforts are meant to duplicate the success of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe during the Cold War. The networks have garnered their share of both accolades and criticism, but now comes controversial research alleging that they could actually be making matters worse. A new study by Mohammed el-Nawawy, a communications professor at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., surveyed 394 Arab college students in five Arab countries on the credibility of the two networks. Nawawy found that once students began watching and listening to the networks, their attitudes toward U.S. foreign policy, in fact, worsened slightly. The study, "U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World: The News Credibility of Radio Sawa and Television Alhurra in Five Countries," is in the August issue of Global Media and Communication, an academic journal. Nawawy surveyed students in Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and the Palestinian territories, and he concluded that U.S. officials face a tough time changing Arab hearts and minds. The bottom line, he writes: "No matter how savvy its public diplomacy efforts ... they will be ineffective in changing Arab public opinion if that public is dissatisfied with U.S. policies on the ground." Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the two networks, issued a blistering response to U.S. News about the study. "It is astonishing that a flawed study such as this would appear in a peer-reviewed journal and looks more like a conclusion in search of a reinforcing study instead of the other way around," he wrote. "It does not meet the universally accepted standards of international media research. Its sample is too small, it is skewed by population with nearly half the respondents identified as Palestinian, and some of the respondents were not even listeners or viewers." "I did not have a predetermined agenda," fired back Nawawy, who insists he followed well-established guidelines in preparing the study. "But I expected the BBG to be unhappy with the study outcome. ... I just thought that it would have been beneficial to work together to try to strengthen the U.S public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East instead of criticizing a study which simply conveyed the opinions of a sample of Arab students who were available to take the survey at the time." Tomlinson…hmmm. Where have we heard that name before?: Kenneth Y. Tomlinson is an American government official. He currently serves as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which manages Voice of America radio. According to The New York Times, there is an ongoing inquiry concerning possible criminal misuse of federal money by Tomlinson. Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said on 15 November 2005 "that they had uncovered evidence that its former chairman had repeatedly broken federal law and the organization's own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias." He is a former board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and served as chairman from September 2003 to September 2005. During his time as chairman, he pursued aggressive policies of adding conservative viewpoint to CPB's programming. An internal investigation into his acts as chairman led to his resignation in November 2005. Commentary Letter to the Editor: Let's talk about "cut and run." Cut and run was the awful strategy used by this administration when it gave up on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida when we had them cornered on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. We cut and ran from Afghanistan so that Iraq could become the news. As most news in early 2002 was about the poor economy, low employment and a record surplus becoming a huge deficit, administration officials in the spring of 2002 are on record saying "change the subject or we will lose the 2002 congressional election." Iraq was in no way a threat to the U.S. This strategy (the worst in U.S. history) caused thousands of U.S. and Iraqis to be killed and wounded so that this administration could change the subject and helped it win the 2002 elections. Where are the families and congressmen of all the brave and patriotic troops killed and wounded so the administration could win in 2002 when they knew Iraq was no threat? Sold down the river to win in 2002, possibly the worst crime in U.S. history. Talk about "cut and run." NYT Editorial: It is only now, nearly five years after Sept. 11, that the full picture of the Bush administration’s response to the terror attacks is becoming clear. Much of it, we can see now, had far less to do with fighting Osama bin Laden than with expanding presidential power. Over and over again, the same pattern emerges: Given a choice between following the rules or carving out some unprecedented executive power, the White House always shrugged off the legal constraints. Even when the only challenge was to get required approval from an ever-cooperative Congress, the president and his staff preferred to go it alone. While no one questions the determination of the White House to fight terrorism, the methods this administration has used to do it have been shaped by another, perverse determination: never to consult, never to ask and always to fight against any constraint on the executive branch. One result has been a frayed democratic fabric in a country founded on a constitutional system of checks and balances. Another has been a less effective war on terror. NYT Editorial: William Haynes II, the Pentagon’s general counsel, has been closely involved in shaping some of the Bush administration’s most legally and morally objectionable policies, notably on the use of torture. The last thing he is suited to be is a federal judge, but that is just what President Bush wants to make him. The Senate has been far too willing to rubber-stamp the president’s extreme judicial nominees. But there is reason to hope that strong opposition to Mr. Haynes, including from the military, may block this thoroughly inappropriate choice. Mr. Haynes has been nominated for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., a court that has heard some of the most important cases about the constitutional limits on the war on terror. This is a subject on which Mr. Haynes has no business posing as an impartial jurist. He has for years been part of a small group of insiders who have mapped out the Bush administration’s policies on questioning detainees and declaring American citizens to be “enemy combatants.” The administration’s policies in this area have been indecent and lawless, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly had to step in to rein them in. Mr. Haynes was by many accounts a key player in the administration’s development of its shamefully narrow definition of “torture,” which gave the green light for a wide array of abuses. The decisions made in Washington cleared the way for abusive treatment of the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay, and created the environment necessary for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to occur. It is disturbing that while low-level soldiers have been convicted for their actions at the Iraqi prison, Mr. Haynes has been rewarded with a coveted judicial nomination. Bob Herbert: Mr. Bush has tried to scrap the very idea of checks and balances. The Republican-controlled Congress has, for the most part, rolled over like trained seals for the president. And Mr. Bush is trying mightily to pack the courts with right-wingers who will do the same. Under those circumstances, his will becomes law. Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the majority opinion in the Hamdan case, referred to a seminal quote from James Madison. The entire quote is as follows: "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." As the center noted in a recent report, "The U.S. government has employed every possible tactic to evade judicial review of its detention and interrogation practices in the war on terror,' including allegations that U.S. personnel subject prisoners to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." There is every reason to be alarmed about the wretched road that Bush, Cheney et al. are speeding along. It is as if they were following a route deliberately designed to undermine a great nation. A lot of Americans are like spoiled rich kids who take their wealth for granted. Too many of us have forgotten — or never learned — the real value of the great American ideals. Too many are standing silently by as Mr. Bush and his cronies engage in the kind of tyrannical and uncivilized behavior that has brought so much misery — and ultimately ruin — to previous societies. Frank Rich: As American foreign policy lies in ruins from Pyongyang to Baghdad to Beirut, its epitaph is already being written in Washington. Last week's Time cover, "The End of Cowboy Diplomacy," lays out the conventional wisdom: the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, upended by chaos in Iraq and the nuclear intransigence of North Korea and Iran, is now officially kaput. In its stead, a sadder but more patient White House, under the sway of Condi Rice, is embracing the fine art of multilateral diplomacy and dumping the "bring 'em on" gun-slinging that got the world into this jam. The only flaw in this narrative — a big one — is that it understates the administration's failure by assuming that President Bush actually had a grand, if misguided, vision in the first place. Would that this were so. But in truth this presidency never had a vision for the world. It instead had an idée fixe about one country, Iraq, and in pursuit of that obsession recklessly harnessed American power to gut-driven improvisation and P.R. strategies, not doctrine. This has not changed, even now. Only if we remember that the core values of this White House are marketing and political expediency, not principle and substance, can we fully grasp its past errors and, more important, decipher the endgame to come. The Bush era has not been defined by big government or small government but by virtual government. Its enduring shrine will be a hollow Department of Homeland Security that finds more potential terrorist targets in Indiana than in New York. Casualty Reports A soldier from White County was killed while traveling with an Army convoy in Iraq, becoming the fourth serviceman with an Indiana connection to be killed overseas this month. Army Spc. Nathaniel Baughman, was killed in Iraq, workers at the Cass County Red Cross confirmed Tuesday. His mother, Jill Baughman, is the agency’s executive director. Baughman told WSAL-AM in Logansport that her son’s convoy was hit with a missile and he suffered massive head injuries. She said it was her son’s last mission and he was scheduled to return home in a few weeks. The son of a former administrator at Stockton's University of the Pacific was killed this week in a bomb blast while on tank patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, a Department of Defense spokesman said Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Jason M. Evey, 29, died immediately Sunday afternoon when the Bradley tank he commanded ran over an improvised explosive device on a road, said Maj. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman. John Evey said his son wasn't shy about stating his opinion against the United States' war in Iraq, but he nonetheless led with dedication and honor. After three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army Staff Sgt. Michael A. Dickinson II of Battle Creek was preparing to leave the war. "He told me he was on his last mission and he would be home," Dickinson's mother, Vicki Dickinson said Tuesday, a day after her son was killed by a sniper in Ramadi, Iraq. "But he's not supposed to come home like this." Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry Tharp, 44, of Aledo, Ill., was killed July 12 as a result of enemy action when his dismounted patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device in Iraq. He was assigned to the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25, the Seabees, which is based Arsenal Island. Staff Sgt. Andres Jonathan Contreras, 24, of Huntington Park, Calif., died Saturday as a result of wounds received when an improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle during combat operations, the U.S. Defense Department reported Tuesday. Contreras was a military policeman assigned to the 258th Military Police Company, 519th Military Police Battalion.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, July 18, 2006 Photo: Local Iraqis gather around the wreckage of a car bomb attack, Tuesday, July 18, 2006, in the Shiite holy city of Kufa, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani) (See below) At least 54 people, mostly day labourers, were killed and dozens of others wounded as a car bomb blew up on Tuesday in the centre of Iraq's Shiite shrine city of Kufa, security and medical sources said. At least 105 others were wounded in the attack, said Dr Mundher al-Adhari, chief health official of the southern city of Najaf, adding that most of the victims were young men. Witnesses said a car drove up and parked in the square in front of Kufa's grand mosque, immediately attracting a crowd of people assuming it was a contractor looking for day labourers. "A blue car pulled into the area and dozens of people surrounded the car thinking that they were looking for workers," said Nasser Kadhim, who lost his brother in the blast and was himself wounded. "A few minutes later the explosion happened and everything was thrown into the air." The blast was the third attack with a heavy death toll in as many days, all of them apparently motivated by sectarian divisions. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the latest bombing and vowed to punish the perpetrators. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Armed men wearing Iraqi military uniforms stormed into the Rafidain Bank in Baghdad and made off with about $675,000. Few other details were released. Morgue officials reported the discovery of 32 bodies of Iraqi men, found with their hands bound, bodies bloodied and bullet wounds to the head in various parts of the capital. Mahmoudiya: (near) Three Iraqi soldiers were killed as gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. Iraqi police found bodies of 14 people killed in the execution style near a town south of Baghdad, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source said. "Our police patrols found 14 bodies of men outside the town of Mahmudiyah," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The bodies, showing signs of torture, were bound and with bullet holes in the heads and chests, the source said. Baqubah: One police officer and two gunmen were killed in an attack on Baquba police station, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, security sources said Tuesday. The sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that unidentified armed men attacked the Tahrir Police Station in Baquba on Monday night killing one police officer and injuring another two members of the police force, while two of the gunmen were killed in the attack.' Tikrit: Iraqi police found the head of a young woman near Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. A man was killed when a bomb planted under the head exploded as he was trying to take a photo of the head, police said. Basra: British forces in the southern Iraqi city of Basra said they conducted a large operation to search for weapons early on Tuesday, and Iraqi police said five Shi'ite militia fighters had been killed in clashes. He said there were no British casualties and that three suspects had been arrested. Kut: Five Iraqi soldiers were wounded when several rockets landed near a military base used for training Iraqi forces in Kut. Kirkuk: Gunmen killed sheikh Khalid Ahmed Hasan, a tribal leader, near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad Hawija: A roadside bomb killed nine Iraqis, including six policemen, at Howeija, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, a police source said. The bomb went off as a police patrol was passing through the town, south-west of Kirkuk. Haditha: Gunmen killed three translators who worked for the U.S. forces in Haditha, 240 km (150 miles) northwest Baghdad. >> NEWS The director general of the Independent Electoral Commission in Iraq and 10 other employees have been arrested on charges of corruption, the head of the government's anti-corruption body said Tuesday. Adel al-Lami surrendered to authorities Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is accused of misusing public funds along with the 10 others, including senior election officials, said Judge Radhi al-Radhi, chairman of the High Commission of Integrity. (…) Meanwhile, Al-Lami has sued five former colleagues on similar charges, al-Radhi said. He would not give further details, but said investigators were looking into the claim. IRAQ'S PARLIAMENT STANDS UNITED OVER ISRAEL Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers in Iraq's U.S.-backed parliament often fail to see eye to eye, but on Sunday they stood united in their condemnation of Israel's military offensive against Lebanon. Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been pleading with fellow Iraqis to put aside deep sectarian and ethnic divisions of the kind that plunged Lebanon into civil war 30 years ago. His pleas have gone largely unheeded, but Israel's five-day-old assault on Lebanon that has killed well over 120 people, all but four of them civilians, has evoked strong feelings of solidarity among Iraqis, bridging the sectarian divide, with hostility toward Israel and the United States. "Support Hassan Nasrallah and stand by his side and you will be closer to the angels in heaven," wrote Hameed Abdullah, a Sunni, in an editorial in al-Mashriq newspaper, referring to the leader of Shi'ite Hizbollah, the target of the Israeli campaign. The Iraqi media has closely followed developments in the offensive, and Iraqiya state television has flashed breaking news in red script across normal programming, a practice usually reserved for its coverage of the daily carnage in Iraq. read in full… >> REPORTS Nearly 6,000 civilians were killed in Iraq during the two months of May and June, according to a report prepared by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. "A total of 5,818 civilians were reportedly killed and at least 5,762 wounded during May and June 2006," the human rights report said Tuesday. It said "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread in Iraq and the number of civilians killed continues to grow", adding that 244 women and 71 children were killed during these two months. Most of the victims were killed in Baghdad. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF EXPLAINS WHY WAR IN IRAQ IS LOST The rate of consumption and the cost reset of equipment being used in Iraq and Afghanistan is draining the Army's coffers, delaying the modernization of battle platforms, the Army chief of staff said Friday. "In the last seven years, we have retrenched in the Army to pay our bills and terminated $86 billion worth of modernization." [Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter] Schoomaker pointed out that the Army's five major depots are operating at about 50 percent of capacity and that right now, there are 1,000 Humvees and 500 tanks rare being held back from reset for lack of funds. Roughly 30 percent of troops on the ground in Iraq are combat forces and more than 45 percent provide logistics. [Meaning the idiots are trying to occupy a nation of 22 million with 39,000 combat troops. Assuming they work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with no letup at all, that means only 19,500 on duty at any given moment. Game over. Time to come home.] The remainder are trainers and advisors working with the Iraqi security forces, according to Schoomaker. The logistics and combat equipment, he said, is being consumed at about four times the normal rate and as that equipment gets repaired and reset over and over again, the Army is reaching a point of diminishing returns which will soon make it cheaper to buy new equipment. Two years ago, he said, it was costing about $4 billion a year to reset the equipment, now it's costing about $12 billion to $13 billion a year to replace the equipment or reset it. link LETTERS FROM BAGHDADIS A., lives in Baghdad, a professional and Iraqi through and through. He has never thought of leaving Iraq, not during the 1991 onslaught, during the misery of the embargo years, when like so many, he risked even his eyesight, writing reports by candle light or flickering lantern in the evenings due to embargo of parts for the bombed electricity stations and sub-stations. He had an opportunity to work abroad for two years, which he took up, to send hard currency back to his family in a country suffering stratospheric inflation. His friends wondered whether he might claim asylum. (Say Saddam would kill you and that would guarantee leave to remain, many pulled that card and also said they had secrets to tell - and told the authorities what they wanted to hear, never mind it often had all the validity of a child's bed time story as fact. Think Ahmed Chalabi, Ayad Allawy who were paid handsomely for pretty well getting the UK and US into Iraq's quagmire and heartbreak.) But A., relinquished the ease of western life and returned to the embargo's rigors and deprivations - where a kilo of chicken cost the average monthly salary and normality of a family meal out in this formerly late-night city, a distant memory - and his warm close knit family. A man who brought a new meaning to 'resourcefulness', he was never without work of some kind or another and like all Iraqis, then and now, his car was his lifeline. After the invasion, when the kidnapping and car-jackings began he traveled with a gun and a fearsome knife to scare off those with ill intent. It made no difference. This week I received:

'Hello Dear Felicity, 'The b ... d and evil militias of (Iranian backed) Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Badr Corps are mercilessly and brutally kidnapping and assassinating the innocents from both sects, Shi'ite or Sunni under pre- made charges (of being 'Ba'athist, Saddamist..') 'They kidnapped me and put me in my car boot (in 100f heat) for ninety minutes.' They also kidnapped his brother, beat them both severely, relieved them of the two cars and $5,000 - their all. Iraqis now carry any money they are lucky enough to have, knowing if the Americans 'soldiers' or their militias (spot the difference) break into their homes it will be stolen along with all their valuables. The kidnappers also did some fancy, anesthetic-free surgery to one ear. But they escaped with their lives. A., whose formative years were under Iranian bombardment of the eight year (western driven) Iran-Iraq war and like all Iraqis has suffered so grievously from the actions of the UK and US without a thought of emigrating, ended with a plea, from one who had never begged for anything in his life : 'Please, please, help me to get to Europe.'

read in full... IRAQIS IN LEBANON EVACUATED TO WHERE EXACTLY? Just heard this:

The Iraq embassy in Lebanon has asked all Iraqi citizens to register so that means of safe passage out of Beirut and other cities can be arranged.

I laughed my *** off when I heard this. Honestly. This is the real message from the Iraqi embassy:

Dear Iraqi citizens and those of you who managed to escape the great purge, Please let us know who you are, where you live, when you escaped our stranglehold, particularly if you are scientists, medics, and all other professionals who have been targeted in recent years. We will send our valiant Iraqi forces (shhh, Badr and Mehdi have volunteered for this auspicious task) to get you out of Lebanon safely. Also, let us know who your relatives in Iraq are, where they live and what sect they belong to.

Not be outdone, Finance Minister Bayan Baqr Solagh (world renown war criminal and facilitator of death squads and sectarian conflict) in Iraq has called on all former Iraqi senior military officers, elite unit commanders and those who were forcibly retired and/or retired after years of service to report to the ministry to pick up their pensions and wages. The real message here is:

Dear Iraqi patriot and former army officer, soldier, and volunteer, We can't find you. We killed your kin, raped your mothers, sisters and daughters but you still didn't show up. We cannot beat the resistance you have formed for the honor of Iraq, nor can we accept Maliki's reconciliation plan. So please, come and get your pay. We will greet you with drill machines and cranes and ready the swords and daggers to behead you. Come all you valiant, Iraqis.

Ha! link BUSH'S BLOODBATH IN BABYLON: 'COINCIDENCE' AND CONSEQUENCES Can it be a total coincidence that the hellstorm of murder and mayhem that has now turned Baghdad into "a skeleton of a city" began just after Bush and al-Maliki announced their ballyhooed "security push," pouring thousands of new troops and police into the capital's streets? Can it be a total coincidence that much of the new violence has been carried out by "men dressed in the uniforms of the Iraqi police," to use the timid euphemism adopted by the mainstream media, and by militia forces associated with perhaps the key political player in the new "sovereign" government, the hidebound religious crank Motqada al-Sadr? Can it be a total coincidence that the new horror devouring the conquered land has led some hardline Sunni leaders once bitterly opposed to the U.S. occupation now want American forces to stay, in order to quell the chaos, offset Shiite dominance and ward off Iranian influence? Can it be a total coincidence that this desire bolsters the Bush Regime's long-held intention to establish a permanent military presence in Iraq? Can it be a total coincidence that the steady rise in militia violence - now reaching apocalyptic heights - has followed the Bush Regime's open bruiting of the "Salvador Option" - i.e., employing militias and death squads as part of "counterinsurgency" operations in Iraq, just like those Reagan-Bush glory days of yore, when the ditches and back alleys of Central America ran red with the blood of innocent thousands slaughtered by U.S.-backed, U.S.-bought terrorists? read in full... SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN When I started this blog a key goal was to highlight the effect of the American occupation of Iraq and it's attempts to dismember the country upon Iraqi civilians. In particular I wanted to draw attention to plight of widows and children. The human rights report for the period May 1st to June 30th has just been published I've extracted the section on children for you: • Death • Mutilation • Disease • Hunger • Fear • Rape • Poverty • Unlawful imprisonment • Orphandom This is what America's occupation of Iraq has brought to Iraq's children. Mission accomplished, I hope you're fucking proud of yourselves: Children 45. Children remained victims in Iraq in many ways. Although not necessarily targeted, they are killed or maimed in sectarian-motivated attacks and in terrorist and insurgency acts. They are civilian casualties in MNF-I and Iraqi security forces-led raids against insurgents or militias, and suffer the most from other political, social and economic consequences of Iraqi's violent daily reality. The extent of violence in areas other than the Region of Kurdistan is such that likely every child, to some degree, has been exposed to it. Children suffering disabilities have also been unable to access adequate care and education. 46. On 26 June, 10 children were reported to be among at least forty people killed in targeted explosions on two crowded markets in Hilla and Ba'quba. Three children were reported as casualties in June clashes between the MNF-I and anti-Coalition forces in Maysan. Conversely, MNF-I informed UNAMI that only one insurgent was killed in this incident. In the first week of May, Iraqi police reported finding a group of 100 brutally murdered people in Karbala, among them a 13-year-old child. 47. In one case the body of a 12-year-old Osama was reportedly found by the Iraqi Police in a plastic bag after his family paid a ransom of some 30,000 US dollars. The boy had been sexually assaulted by the kidnappers, before being hanged by his own clothing. The police captured members of this gang who confessed of raping and killing many boys and girls before Osama. 48. Minors are often witnesses of extreme violence, killings and scene of carnage and dead and mutilated bodies. On 21 June, the dean of the Basra Abdullah Bin Om Kalthoum School was assassinated in front of his students. 49. Violence, corruption, inefficiency of state organs to exert control over security, establish the rule of law and protect individual and collective rights all lead to inability of both the state and the family to meet the needs of children. 50. According to the joint UN and Iraqi government food security and vulnerability analysis, children are the primary victims of food insecurity, with every one in ten child suffering from malnutrition. The survey also records the growing drop-out rate among pupils less than 15 years of age - 25 percent of students under the age of 15 lived mostly in rural areas and were identified as extremely poor. The main reason given for the dropout rate is the inability of the families to afford to pay for the schooling and schools being located too far away from home. 51. Another area where support to the Iraqi government is urgently required is that of juvenile justice. UNICEF has held a number of trainings for staff of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the need to improve the situation of the juveniles in prison. Juveniles are however often subjugated to the same lack of proper conduct by Iraqi police as are the adults. They are often held in police detention for a prolonged period of time without access to a social worker, lawyer, and sometimes even the family. Over 20 students, all age of 18, have been held in a police detention for eight months in Basra. Thanks to the Iraqi Ministries of Justice and Labor and Social Affairs, as well as the Coalition prison advisers, the practice to separate the adults from youth in prisons has made progress, although many facilities where minors are detained are still overcrowded and require further adaptations. 52. UNAMI HRO is also aware of the extreme hardship of the children of internally displaced families, whose numbers are growing every day. The living conditions are substandard, without access to education and health care services, trauma counseling, available support to children with disabilities, to mention a few examples. 53. Additional hardship for families and children is caused by the lack of adequate places to socialize, play and learn as would be necessary for their healthy development. Many Iraqis complain of having to keep their children at home for prolonged periods of time. The full 22 page PDF report covers all aspects of the Human Rights situation in Iraq. and is available here: "UN Assistance Mission for Iraq Human Rights Report 1 May -30 June 2006" link A WISH AND A PRAYER (…) the [Bush] administration has fiddled in Iraq while Islamic radicalism has burned brighter and the rest of the Axis of Evil, not to mention Afghanistan and the Middle East, have grown into just the gathering threat that Saddam was not. And there's still no policy. As Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution writes on his foreign-affairs blog, Mr. Bush isn't pursuing diplomacy in his post-cowboy phase so much as "a foreign policy of empty gestures" consisting of "strong words here; a soothing telephone call and hasty meetings there." The ambition is not to control events but "to kick the proverbial can down the road - far enough so the next president can deal with it." There is no plan for victory in Iraq, only a wish and a prayer that the apocalypse won't arrive before Mr. Bush retires to his ranch. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: The U.S.-led military in Afghanistan confirmed Tuesday that the Taliban have captured two southern Afghan towns. Coalition forces vowed "decisive action" to reclaim the towns. THE EMPIRE OF MEXICO HAS BOMBED RONALD REAGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT! I was chatting with one of my co-workers, a Lebanese-American, about the Israeli reaction to the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by the extremist group Hezbollah. While our misAdministration spouts apologia about the clearly disproportionate attack, my co-worker put it pretty succinctly: "They bombed the airport in our capital! It would be like Mexico bombing Ronald Reagan airport and ports in San Diego and Atlanta in retaliation for some Aryan extremist group abducting a couple of American National Guardsman." To connect his analogy to American politics in terms that Red-Staters can relate to, our Middle-Eastern attack dog has broken through the fence and has started to rampage through the block biting and killing the neighbors. link US 'COULD BE GOING BANKRUPT' The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank. A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve. Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked. According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds''. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “There is a real sense of panic here [Lebanon] among people. The foreigners and young people who have never experienced war are freaked out. And the Lebanese who lived through the civil war and remember it well are freaked out. I seem to be the only one walking around, noting the closed stores and subdued traffic and thinking, 'hm, compared to Baghdad, this isn't so bad'. I think I was in Iraq too long." -- Chris Allbritton, Back to Iraq

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, July 17, 2006 Photo: A woman cries as doctors treat her husband, a victim of gunfire at a open market, Monday, July 17, 2006, at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital in Iraq. Dozens of heavily armed attackers raided an open air market Monday in a tense town south of Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 42, police and hospital officials said. Most of the victims were believed to be Shiites. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban) (See below under ‘Mahmudiya’) Bring 'em on: A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died from wounds today at approximately 12:55 p.m. after being hit by small-arms fire in western Baghdad earlier in the day. (MNF-Iraq) Bring 'em on: A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 4:30 p.m. today when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad. (MNF-Iraq) Bring 'em on: A Soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province today. (MNF-Iraq) Bring 'em on: The US military on Monday announced the death of two soldiers raising the military's death toll in Iraq since the invasion to 2,547, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. It was the fourth U.S. military fatality in the Baghdad area since Saturday. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A bomb killed two people and wounded nine Monday in east Baghdad. Mahmudiya: There were conflicting accounts from officials as residents and police reported the sound of clashes continuing and roadblocks thrown up around the town of Mahmudiya, which lies on the main highway south from Baghdad to the Shi'ite holy cities. The Defence Ministry spokesman in Baghdad said 42 people were killed by two car bombs. The mayor, Muayyad Fadhil, and another resident told Reuters by telephone that gunmen stormed the market from a Shi'ite suburb of Mahmudiya, where the population is mixed between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. A local hospital said it had received 40 bodies and 48 wounded. A local police commander said 55 were dead. And Iraqiya state television ran an unsourced flash putting the toll at 70.

Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed criticised media reports and said 42 had died. Members of parliament from the Shi'ite Islamist faction led by militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr quit Monday's session, describing the Mahmudiya incident as an ambush against a Shi'ite funeral convoy heading between the capital and a traditional cemetery at Najaf. Some said police had failed in their duty.But police Colonel Iyad Mohammed told Reuters from Mahmudiya that a series of explosions, reported by residents, were mortars falling on the town, followed by a rampage by gunmen through the market -- a rare tactic in Iraq against civilian targets, although seen a week ago in Baghdad. He said 55 people were killed and 58 wounded. Mayor Fadhil said: "There was a mortar attack. Then gunmen came from ... the eastern side of the town. They came into the market and opened fire at random on the people shopping." (update) The local hospital said it took in 56 dead bodies and 67 wounded.

Baqubah: Six people were killed in several incidents in the town of Baquba, north of Baghdad. Ad-Divania: Two Ukrainian military specialists were wounded in Iraq on Monday when an improvised mine exploded, the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports. The press service says the incident occurred at 06:00 near the city of Ad-Divania in the province of Kadisia. Tuz Khurmatu: (update) The death toll from the Tuz Khurmatu suicide bombing on Sunday rose to 28, police said. Haditha: Gunmen killed Laith al-Rawi, local leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the main Sunni parties, in Haditha, 240 km (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad,. >> NEWS U.S. Commerce Secretary arrived in the Iraqi capital Monday and signed an agreement with the Iraqis to encourage foreign investment, acknowledging that the country's deteriorating security made that a challenge. Iraq oil exports were restored last month after a long delay but halted again last week and not expected to resume soon. Japan has completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq. Saddam Hussein spent a ninth day without food on Sunday, the U.S. military said, continuing a hunger strike to demand better protection for defence lawyers after a third advocate was killed in Baghdad last month. "There’s no change," said Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for U.S. military detention operations in Iraq. "Despite their refusal to eat, they’re still deemed to be in good health." >> REPORTS IRAQ WAR COSTS TO TOP VIETNAM AND KOREA A report released recently by the Congressional Budget Office stated that Iraq war is likely to overtake Korea and Vietnam as the second-most expensive war U.S. fought. The war in Iraq has so far cost $291 billion and would total almost half a trillion dollars even if the U.S. government decided to pull out all American form Iraq troops by the end of 2009, the nonpartisan CBO analysis added. read in full... THE IRAQI INVASION You can notice it everywhere you go in Amman [Jordan]. At shopping malls and supermarkets; at restaurants and coffee shops; at hotels and net cafés; at discos and nightclubs; at bus stops and fruit stands: the signs and symptoms of an Iraqi invasion. An unofficial estimation by Jordanian authorities, based on residency records, recently put the number of Iraqis inside Jordan at half a million, which in a country of 6 million is, understandably, an alarming trend. All other evidence, however, indicates that actual numbers are much higher. The majority of Iraqis here work around the restrictions of Jordanian immigration laws by paying fines or by staying illegally. (...) I mentioned that my family was expected to arrive here a few days ago. They made it safely, but they experienced a 12-hour ordeal at the Karama border center on the Iraqi-Jordanian border. (...) It took my family exactly 24 hours to get here through the land route from Baghdad. They literally collapsed on the floor from stress and exhaustion when they got to my apartment. The ride cost them $700. Now, it's $800 and rising. My family said that about 120 transport SUVs from Iraq, each carrying 7 passengers, were waiting in queue to enter Jordan that day. That's close to a thousand people. Flights from Baghdad to Amman are all booked until early August. A good deal of those passengers will try not to return, and even if they do, it will be just to get their residencies renewed. read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS WHO'S TRAINING IRAQ'S INSURGENTS? MAYBE IT'S BEST NOT TO ASK From the Associated Press today [July 14]:

Their televised graduation was supposed to be a moment of national celebration: A class of 1,000 Sunni Arab soldiers emerging from basic training would show Iraqis that the country's worsening religious divide was not afflicting the national army. Two months later, only about 300 of them have reported for duty, U.S. officials say.

. . . It's a problem in many places, particularly Iraq's unstable areas. Iraq's 1st and 7th army divisions in Anbar should have about 10,000 soldiers, but U.S. officers acknowledge the units have only half that.

They haven't given up on the Sunni class of 1,000, however.

"We've put out the message to get them back. We've asked city leaders to help get the message out," said Marine 1st Lt. David Meadows. "It doesn't mean they're lost."

I don't think they're lost at all. They've probably just taken their U.S.-provided training (and a month or two of U.S.-paid salaries) and joined the insurgency. You'd think they could have at least said thanks. link SERPENT'S EGG: BUSH NURSES NAZI VIPERS IN IRAQ Over and over, the Bush Regime and its media apologists have peddled the same mendacious line in defense of their war crime in Iraq: "We're fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them over here." But in fact the brutal occupation is actually breeding a cadre of vicious terrorists intent on bringing death and destruction back home to America's streets, using the deadly skills they've learned - in the U.S. military. Hundreds, possibly thousands of neo-Nazis and "white power" extremists have infiltrated U.S. forces in a deliberate strategy to get training in weapons, urban warfare and covert operations, the Pentagon's own investigators report. These homegrown terrorists - avowed enemies of democracy, committed to sparking the same kind of horrific civil war in America that George W. Bush has spawned in Iraq - have wormed their way into some of most elite military units, as well as filling up the ordinary ranks with cretinous "race warriors." (...) The infiltration is part of a concerted strategy by the neo-Nazi movement to use Bush's war for terrorist training - much as their extremist brothers in al Qaeda are doing. In skinhead magazines and innumerable websites, they pass along handy hints and exhortations to their cloaked comrades in the field and potential recruits at home. "Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war," writes Steven Barry, a former Special Forces officer now serving as "military unit coordinator" for the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the New York Times reports. "[The race war] will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed,'" writes Barry, as if he were channeling one of the deadly Iraqi militias sponsored by the Bushists in their self-confessed "Salvador Option" - an undercover program named for the right-wing Central American death squads armed and trained by the Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s, as the New Yorker reports. (...) The tacit acceptance of neo-Nazis in the military is part of a broader pattern at work in the Bush Imperium: the "mainstreaming" of right-wing extremism in American society, an alarming development well documented by journalist Dave Niewert at Orcinus. White-power advocates once stuck under rocks on the lunatic fringe now appear on network television as respected spokesmen on the "immigration question." High-profile Bush-backers in the mainstream media - Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and other gasbags - routinely tout "fantasies" of ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, and death for "traitors," i.e., anyone who opposes the hard-right line. (...) In its heedless lust for loot and dominion, the Bush Faction will use anyone: neo-Nazis, neoconservatives, theocrats, dictators, death squads, nutballs, gasbags. The blowback from this nest of vipers will poison American life for generations - but of course the Bushists don't care. America is nothing to them but a cash cow and a billy club. Let the stupid rabble worry about war-trained Nazis in the streets; the Bush elite will be safe and cozy in their gated, guarded mansions. read in full... FORCE WAS THEIR IDOL Consider the possibility that the most fundamental belief, perhaps in all of history, but specifically in these last catastrophic years, seems to be in the efficacy of force - and the more of it the merrier. That deep belief in force above all else is perhaps the monotheism of monotheisms, a faith remarkably accepting of adherents of any other imaginable faith - or of no other faith at all. Like many fundamentalist faiths, it is also resistant to drawing any reasonable lessons from actual experience on this planet. (...) [The Bush administration] believed themselves uniquely in possession of an ability to project force in ways no other power on the planet or in history ever could. While hardly elevating the actual military leadership of the country (whom they were eager to sideline), they raised the all-volunteer US military itself on to a pedestal and worshipped it as the highest tech, most shock-and-awesome institution around. They were dazzled by the fact that it was armed with the smartest, most planet-spanning, most destructive set of weapons imaginable and backed by an unparalleled military-industrial complex as well as a "defense" budget that would knock anyone's socks off (and their communications systems down). It was enough to dazzle the administration's top officials with dreams of global domination; to fill them with a vision of a planetwide Pax Americana; to send them off to the moon (which, by the way, was certainly militarizable). Force, then, was their idol and they bowed down before it. When it came to the loosing of that force (and the forces at their command), they were nothing short of fervent utopians and blind believers. They were convinced that with such force (and forces), they could reshape the world in just about any way they wanted to fit their visionary desires. (...) If Bush and his top officials arrived on the Iraqi scene believing that the force was with them and only them, the past three-plus years have offered (if not taught) a rather different lesson. After all, they now find themselves in a roiling crowd of medium-sized and smaller states, stateless movements, and extremist grouplets, all passionately devoted to the same principle of force as them. The fundamentalist belief in force, once let loose in this fashion - once (you might say) modeled by the globe's reigning hyperpower - turns out to be a distinctly pagan faith. From the streets of Gaza to the slums of Baghdad, from the mountains of Afghanistan to Beirut International Airport and the halls of the Pentagon, this is a religion open to one and all, ready to embrace many contradictory gods into its pantheon. And here's the irony. The hyperpower that loosed this singular round of force on our world seems strangely sidelined, while others move boldly to apply its most essential principles profligately, every one of them emboldened both by the US example and by its dismal failure. Talk about Pandora's box (without Hope anywhere in sight)! read in full... THE DANGER OF AN UNEQUAL STRUGGLE Reading the headline of Beirut's Daily Star of July 13, "Lebanon Under Attack", one is reminded of another military campaign, the US invasion of Iraq. The chief similarity between the two was the tremendous power asymmetry that existed between the US and Iraq then - and between Israel and Lebanon now. (...) In the post-September 11, 2001 era, using military prowess to cow and pacify Arab defiance and anger has become a common tool of the US and Israel. That has emerged as the first rule of that era. Bush spelled that out in his doctrine of preemption and regime-change even before he invaded Iraq. The military campaign in Iraq was driven by the desire to create "shock and awe", which was aimed at nipping in the bud any aspirations of the Iraqi military to confront or defy the American forces through the use of overwhelming power. However, the Arab world - or Muslim world, to be precise, because the same thing is also happening in Afghanistan - like the US, is operating under a different rule of the post-September 11 era. This is the second rule of that era. It states that the use of awe-inspiring power begets equally devastating confrontation and resistance. One side fights with awesome high-tech weapons; while the other side fights with whatever it can get its hands on. The Iraqis (and now the Afghans) did not invent the art of asymmetric warfare, but they seem to be writing a new chapter. In the process, Iraq and Afghanistan are steadily sliding toward mayhem. The "victor" in this war will be the one that has the political capability and resolve to outlast the other side. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ US, ISRAEL PUSH WORLD TO BRINK OF WORLD WAR In unleashing an all-out Middle East war with the bombing and blockade of Lebanon, and mounting escalations involving all surrounding countries in the region (Iran, Syria), Israel has committed an act of naked aggression and open fascism that easily rivals the worst acts of Hitler's Third Reich. In the space of mere hours, the world has been collectively incited, provoked, and dragged into an all-out war that is on course towards potential nuclear super power conflict. (Analysis from independent sources such as Electronic Intifada, Dahr Jamail, and Angry Arab News provide bloody detail on unfolding conditions, as well as historic context.) What must be underscored and grasped at this historic moment are not simply the atrocities on the part of Israel, but the Bush administration's pathologically sinister actions fanning the flames of this mushrooming war. • The insane Condoleezza Rice condoned the bombing of Lebanon, and then condemned Syria and Iran, and launched into the "terrorists" talking point mantra, repeatedly. Quoting the sick bitch (and I use the two words studiously and without hyperbole; they are accurately descriptive), "I am not going to try to judge every single act." The fact that this monster is the US Secretary of State is beyond words. • The insane George W. Bush repeated the same "terrorists" talking point mantra, the same "get Iran and Syria at the same time" memo: "Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life." • The Bush administration and its insane UN Ambassador John Bolton cast the lone vote (1-10) against a UN resolution condemning the Israeli aggression, killing the resolution. The entire world knows that only the US can stop it. The Bush administration won't. It has only not even bothered to script words that sound like diplomacy, it has purposely congratulated Israel, which has spectacularly executed the shared 9/11-created policy of presumptive unilateral war against "terrorists" (all political opponents are "terrorists"). Bush neocon maniacs like what its demented cousins in Tel Aviv have unleashed -- and want more. This comes in the wake of 1) the insane Donald Rumsfeld re-declaring war in the Middle East, reiterating that the US "is not going anywhere"; 2) a terror bombing in Mumbai (Bombay), India that can be traced to US-linked Pakistani terror groups, sparking possible India-Pakistan nuclear conflict; 3) new rounds of provocation towards Iran, and 4) North Korea. Going back several months to the events that began this specific chain of events in the Middle East, what was the role of Israel and the US in the assassination of Rafik Hariri? With the actions of Israel and the Bush administration, the words of Hitler burst forth once again: "The victor will not be asked, later on, whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war, it is not Right that matters but Victory. Have no pity." Could the Israeli aggression be the Bush administration pretext for the bigger Middle East war that the neocons have long dreamed about, with the US and Israel destroying Iran and Syria simultaneously, daring Russia and China to stop them? Is this the next stage of World War Three (begun on 9/11), or World War Four, a new and truly planetary holocaust? read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "(pause) ‘Ah, the question is, are we winning in Iraq?’ (longer pause) ‘The answer is that we are not losing.’” –- Gen Peter Schoomaker USA Chief of Staff at a news conference in 14 JUL 06

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2006 A crashed US military helicopter southwest of Baghdad. US hopes of bringing troops home from Iraq in significant numbers this year appear dimmer than ever with Baghdad in the throes of a new wave of sectarian violence(AFP/Jim Watson) See below, "U.S. Army Chief of Staff can't say whether U.S. is winning." Bring 'em on: A Multinational Corps – Iraq service member died at approximately 11:25 a.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb near Sadr City, an area in northeast Baghdad. Bring 'em on: A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 3:55 p.m. today when he was hit by an improvised-explosive device in southern Baghdad. Bring 'em on: A 49th Military Police Brigade service member died at approximately 11:25 a.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb near Sadr City, an area in northeast Baghdad. Note: Since CentCom put out two separate releases, I am presuming that two soldiers were killed in the incident in Sadr City at 11:25 am. We'll have to await clarification, however. Bring 'em on British soldier killed, one wounded in operation in Basra. Also, DoD identifies Sailor killed July 12 in Anbar as Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry A. Tharp, 44, of Muscatine, Iowa. He was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 25, Rock Island, Ill. Other Security Incidents Five hostages seized from Iraqi Olympic Committee are released , fate of approximately 25 others, including Olympic Committee head Ahmed al-Hadjiya, is still unknown. 75 year old Nashat Mahir al-Salman is found blindfolded and bound, but otherwise unharmed, Baladiyat neighborhood of the capital. A driver and three guards also released. Still no information about the perpetrators or their motives. Bomb hidden in a trash bag explodes in commercial area of the Karradah district of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 21 others, police said. AP also reports:

• One person was killed and two were wounded when a bomb exploded near a police patrol in north Baghdad.
• Two barbers killed in drive-by shooting in Kirkuk.
• One killed in drive-by shooting in Mosul.
• One killed in drive-by shooting in Muqdadiyah.

Four people were killed and 10 wounded when two mortar rounds landed on al-Rasool village 30 km northeast of Baghdad. Reuters also reports:

• One gunman was killed and two wounded in clashes with Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers in Kirkuk in northern Iraq. The gunbattle erupted after the gunmen ambushed an army major in his car, wounding him, police said.
• Gunmen attacked the medical detention department in Baquba main hospital and freed at least 13 prisoners and killed four policemen, police said. Three mortar rounds landed around the hospital before the attack, police added.
• Gunmen killed three people near Tikrit, police said.
• Two bodies were found shot dead with signs of torture in two separate incidents in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, on Saturday and Sunday, police said.
• Gunmen killed Faris Abdul Latif, a former member of the ousted Baath Party, along with his son in a market in Muqdadiya, 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said. A woman passerby was also killed in the attack.
• The bodies of three women with gunshot wounds were found in the northern city of Mosul, a medical source said.
• The body of a police officer was found in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. He was one of four policeman abducted on Saturday, police added.
• Gunmen killed two truck drivers and abducted a third on the main road between Baghdad and Kirkuk, police said.
• Two British soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Zubair, a town south of Basra, British military spokesman said.
• Two people were killed and 30 wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a gathering of labourers in southeastern Baghdad, police said. The target of the explosion was not clear.
• Gunmen killed two barbers on Saturday in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
• The body of a dead person was found shot dead with signs of torture on Saturday in Kirkuk, police said.
• The bodies of three people were found shot dead on Saturday in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

In Kirkuk, a security source requesting anonymity said three US soldiers were wounded in confrontations with militants, as well as two Iraqi officers. KUNA also reports:

• Unidentified member of Iraqi security forces was killed in an armed assault in the area of Abi Saida in Miqdadiya village.
• Iraqi police source told KUNA that unidentified militants opened fire on two brothers in the Nasr district of Kirkuk, killing them immediately.
• Civilian kidnapped in the industrial district of Kirkuk and his body was later found near Zaidan village.
• Confrontations between an Iraqi Army patrol unit and militants in Kirkuk kill oe militant, while an officer and a soldier were wounded.
• Three Iraqi soldiers wounded by explosive device as their patrol vehicle passed by the Kirkuk-Riyadh road.

AFP provides more details on deaths and injuries of British forces. OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY Government of India is attempting to win release of five Indian truck drivers, employees of a Kuwaiti company, who have been in Iraqi police custody for 25 days. India has stopped permits for its citizens to go to Iraq or Kuwait. Satire has become obsolete department. U.S. President Bush extols Iraq as an example of what Russia can become in joint appearance with Vladimir Putin. Excerpt:

"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there’s a free press and free religion," Bush said at the news conference, "and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing." Putin, in a barbed reply, said: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." Bush’s face reddened as he tried to laugh off the remark. "Just wait," Bush replied about Iraq. Putin also said Russia would not take part "in any crusades, in any holy alliances" - a remark seemingly intended to win points with Arab allies. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said he was perplexed by the comment.

Read in Full U.S. Army Chief of Staff can't say whether U.S. is winning in Iraq. Excerpt:

By Peter Spiegel, L. A. Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — It seemed like a routine question, one that military leaders involved in prosecuting the war in Iraq must ask themselves with some regularity: Is the U.S. winning? But for Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff known for his straight-shooting bluntness, it proved a hard one to answer. During a Capitol Hill briefing for an audience mostly of congressional aides, Schoomaker paused for more than 10 seconds after he was asked the question — lips pursed and brow furrowed — before venturing: "I think I would answer that by telling you I don't think we're losing." It was a small but telling window into the thinking of the Army's top uniformed officer and one of the military's most important commanders: Despite the progress being made by the new Iraqi government and the continuing improvement of local security forces, the outcome in Iraq, in many ways, is growing more uncertain by the day. "The challenge … is becoming more complex, and it's going to continue to be," Schoomaker mused. "That's why I'll tell you I think we're closer to the beginning than we are to the end of all this."

Read in Full Note: I would like to be able to provide news about the efforts of the Iraqi government to respond to the ongoing crisis, but they seem to have vanished. COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS I hope you aren't here to talk about Palestine. Syrian academic discusses the perceptions of the Arab world by Arab-Americans. Excerpt:

Dr Bouthaina Shaaban I was getting ready to give a talk at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s conference (ADC), when a young Arab came up to me and said: “I hope you are not here to talk about Palestine!” My surprised answer was that in fact, I was there to talk about Palestine, the Golan Heights, the martyrs, the prisoners and all the tragedies that have beset Arab countries. Instead of talking about general Arab issues, like all other Arab officials, she wanted me to talk in details about my own country’s “issues”. Like many others in the audience, the young Arab woman wanted to hear about the failures and faults of Arab countries. That would help justify the crimes committed against Arabs in Iraq and Palestine, by blaming the chaos on them. By depicting Arabs as incapable of enjoying freedom and democracy, it makes more sense that other countries should have custody over their lives and their natural resources. At the ADC conference I also met many Americans who were courageously critical of Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians, and the tragic situation in Iraq, brought about by the American occupation. Some were journalists, others active intellectuals and concerned citizens of the world. That same morning I was reading about Mahmoud Rafe’e in Lebanon who confessed to the assassination of members of the Lebanese resistance, the brothers Nidal and Mahmoud Al-Majzoub, as well as Ali Hasan Dib, known as “Abu Hasan Salameh,” Jihad Jibril, and Dib Saleh; not to mention the other failing bombing attempts he carried out. Yet, some of my audience would rather hear about democracy and human rights in the Arab world, than ponder with me the question of why crime against national resistance and liberty falls to the side lines. We have been plagued with two kinds of infiltration. The conventional one is the likes of Mahmoud Rafe’e and the Southern Lebanon Army. The other is intellectual. It is adopting the antagonistic logic of the Israeli government. Defending Arabs and Muslims has become a liability of its own. To stand clear of accusation, one has to drop Palestine, Iraq, Darfour, and the suffering of their peoples out of the conversation. Instead, focus should be on the differences between Arabs and African Arabs and between Sunni and Shia.

Read in Full Kurdish commentator is, ahh, skeptical of U.S. claims to export democracy. Excerpt:

Democrats from Hell KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Fereydun Hilmi After a long confused and boring speech Bush started patronizing the Russians, telling them they were doing well in some aspects of their democracy but not all. Putin gave him the biggest metaphoric slap on the mouth when he started his reply by saying: We certainly do not want the Kind of democracy you have brought to Iraq. The look on Bush’s face became even more stupid. Al-Jazeera which covered Bush’s speech right to the end promptly stopped the coverage when Putin pronounced his comment. The American government is going round the world like a headless chicken lashing out at any and all who try to put the true picture before the public outside the US – they wouldn’t dare touch their own media – through handouts to the “starving beggars” of Third World, financing some while threatening the others to toe the line and publish only that which conforms to the pack of lies and deception they would like people to be told. Their bombings and threat of bombings of some of the new style Arab TV which they helped finance either directly or indirectly through their Dumb-dom friends of the Arabs left only one or two still standing. However they recently managed to topple the last bastion of the opposite view by threatening the country housing it. This is akin to threatening Britain because the BBC may actually say something to annoy GWB. The similarity there ends. This democracy Hitler style and who cares if Qatar or Lebanon is threatened, after all they are no democrats by Joseph Goebbles standards. . The facts which we are well aware of point without a shadow of any doubt to a continuing spree of murder, rape and pillage by the occupation forces in Iraq and an unbearable situation for millions of men, women and children who had done Britain and the US no harm. The shortages of every type of basic services, medicine, and extremely unhealthy living conditions which the “Great” USA brought to the country directly or indirectly through the rabid dogs she released everywhere speak for themselves and do not need any TV propaganda station or mealy-mouthed “Offence Minister” to tell the Iraqis about and ultimately it is the Iraqis who will take their lives into their own hands and expel the new world-dominating fascists out of their homeland.

Read in Full Hey, we just link 'em, we don't write 'em. WHISKER'S ROUND-UP OF WOUNDED The family of a Farragut, Tennessee injured marine is still waiting for news on their son. Lance Cpl. Austin Davis was on patrol Wednesday in Iraq, when a bomb exploded a few yards away. The 22-year-old broke his left arm and part of his body was sprayed with shrapnel. Jason Kedzior of Pekin, IL is recovering from injuries after his Humvee struck a roadside bomb in Iraq. His mother, Mary Kedzior, spoke with him yesterday just a few hours after the blast. Kedzior was sitting in the gunner hatch when his truck hit the improvised bomb. His mother tells us he suffered a concussion and shrapnel wounds on his arms. 1st Lt. Bret Wellensiek is in a wheelchair and his legs are in bandages from a roadside bomb that struck his platoon May 30 south of Baghdad. He suffered a fractured left heel and a collapsed lung, among other injuries. But he still has his spirit, and he’s expected to make a full recovery. Sgt. Kevin Downs had spent about a year in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, after being injured by a bomb last August in Iraq. He was the only survivor, said Joe Downs, Kevin’s father. He lost part of both legs and suffered second-and third-degree burns. Pvt. Christopher Williams is at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., with extensive shrapnel wounds, shattered bones and spinal injuries. Williams had been manning a gun atop a Humvee when it went over a bomb during patrol in Baghdad. Three GIs were killed in the incident, and he and another soldier were severely wounded. Since June 22, he's been operated on multiple times, starting in Baghdad where they removed his spleen. He also has had arteries transplanted from his left to right leg. After arriving at Walter Reed on June 29, doctors discovered one of his vertebrae missing and another one protruding. Jeffrey Reffner was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded July 5, blowing apart his left leg and burning his face, family members said Tuesday. “He lost a big chunk of his fibula, and we have to make sure it doesn’t get infected,”--Jeffrey Jr., a U.S. Army combat engineer, was on night patrol with four others when their humvee struck a bomb implanted in the ground. He was the only one seriously injured when he couldn’t escape from the vehicle in time. He sustained first- and second-degree burns to his face, hands and forearms. “His glasses just melted into his face,” his father said. His left leg suffered a double compact fracture, shattering his fibula and tibula. A 22-year-old McMinnville soldier is recovering in a Texas military hospital from burns suffered in a roadside attack on his Bradley fighting vehicle on June 23 in Iraq. Salvador Trujillo-Lopez suffered second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body, according to his wife, Brittnay. Sergeant John Bennett is paralyzed from the waist-down after being shot last year while serving with the Montana Army National Guard in Iraq. Spc. Jason Kedzior has shrapnel wounds in his arm and suffered a concussion from the blast, which occurred as his convoy rolled past the bomb. Brian Radke, a Washington state native who came to Arizona in 2002 in order to become a police officer, will never be able to chase criminals or write traffic tickets after a roadside bomb in Baghdad riddled 87 percent of his body with shrapnel. He will spend as much as a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and has already passed nine months in recovery. 23 year old Jeffrey Reffner of Altoona, PA, a US Army combat engineer, was injured last week in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded. Of the five soldiers in the humvee, Reffner was hurt the worst. He has second and third degree burns on his face and hands, as well as several compound fractures in his leg. Brian Saaristo, a soldier from Wright who is serving with the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division, has been wounded while in Iraq. According to Pastor Matt Saarem of Bethany Lutheran Church of Cromwell, Saaristo lost both of his legs below the knees as the result of injuries incurred during an attack. Reportedly, a roadside bomb hit the Humvee Saaristo was travelling in. Staff Sgt. Phillip Baldwin had suffered gunshot wounds to his spine and left foot during a firefight in mid-June in Afghanistan. A member of the 10th Mountain Division was shot in his spine while loading other injured soldiers onto a helicopter. The bullet had passed through another soldier's body before it struck Baldwin, military officials told the family. Afghanistan Spanish newspaper identifies Spanish casualties in explosion in Western Afghanistan. My translation: The patrol effected by the explosion that ended the life of a soldier of the Spanish army was composed of a complete section of 33 personnel aboard 9 armored vehicles, according to the Ministry of Defense. This patrol completed a mission ordered by the Italian general in charge of the Western region of Afghanistan and another Spanish and Portuguese section also participated in the operation. All of these sectiosn were coordinated and under the command of the Spanish captain who was in the area affected by the explosion. The Defense Ministry reports that technicians are investigating the cause of the explosion. During the development of a patrol through the region of Bakua, the death of the soldier Jorge Arnaldo Hernández Seminario occurred, and another four were wounded. Alll of them belonged to the the Paracaidista brigage based in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). According to information provided by Defense, Seminario was married, 26 years old, and a native of Piura, Perú. The injured were: First Corporal José Antonio Murías Pillado, 31 years old, born in Asturias: Corporal Rubén Sánchez López, 25 years old and born in en Getafe, Madrid; and the soldiers Carlos Iván Macías Morán, 21 years; and Javier Rubio Bellod, 22 years old and native of Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. #1: At least 37 Taliban rebels have been killed in fighting with Afghan and US-led coalition troops in southern Afghanistan, an official said Sunday, taking the death toll to almost 100 in three days. "Twenty seven Taliban were killed during a joint Afghan and coalition operation in Sangin district of Helmand province," said Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil, the police chief in Helmand. "Coalition forces killed 10 Taliban and drove the others out, but it is difficult to say if the remainder are still nearby," Lundy said. #2: Elsewhere in Uruzgan, Afghan and coalition soldiers repelled an attack by 20 insurgents, killing one, the U.S. military said. Same link: #3: Militants also attacked an Afghan army convoy in southern Zabul province's Shinkay district Friday, sparking a gunbattle that killed four Taliban, said local army commander Razzaq Khan. Soldiers detained one Taliban. Also same link: #4: Outside Zabul's provincial capital early Saturday, a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy delivering supplies to U.S.-led coalition forces killed one bystander and wounded a truck driver, said police chief Noor Mohammed. Police responding to the attack wounded two militants and captured another. #5: The military base Canadian soldiers call home in Afghanistan has come under another rocket attack. Two rockets were fired on the Kandahar Airfield late Saturday evening, local time. No one was injured by the blasts. #6: Suicide bomber kills four civilians, wounds 23 in southeastern Afghanistan, Interior Ministry says. #7: A ROADSIDE bomb blast killed six Afghan soldiers and wounded three more in western Herat province, an Afghani army commander said. Abdul Wahab Walizada said the explosion targeted a joint Afghani-coalition patrol in Herat's Shindand district, destroying one vehicle. Six soldiers travelling in the vehicle were killed and three others wounded, he said. #8: A Canadian reconnaissance platoon ran into an ambush Saturday, coming under attack by rockets and small arms. What had started as a mission to avoid engagement with Taliban and Taliban supporters turned into a 10-minute firefight. As per orders, the platoon pulled back soon after the insurgents fire stopped. Note to Readers: We have been discussing whether we can and should add regular updates on the war in the Levant. The consensus of the editors at this stage is that we need to keep our focus on Iraq. We've been providing more limited coverage of Afghanistan because of reader demand and the lack of attention elsewhere to that crisis. Whisker has provided some extensive links to coverage of the Israel-Lebanon-Palestine war, which I have decided to post, for today only on Stayin' Alive. At this point, we just don't have the personnel to cover that crisis, and the posts here are long enough as it is. But we have discussed setting up a subsidiary site to handle overflow from this one and emerging crises that are relevant to the Iraq situation. Any ideas (and volunteer help) from commenters are welcome. - C.) Quote of the Day The case for reducing our commitment to Iraq in the interest of other and larger foreign policy purposes -- has anyone noticed the growing mess in Afghanistan? -- is built on a compelling proposition: that the administration made a huge bet on Iraq and it lost. American voters can decide to keep the gamble going, to risk more lives and money, and hope that something turns up. Or they can decide that this gamble will never deliver the winnings that those who took it on our behalf promised. By late November of this year, the United States will have been at war in Iraq for as long as we were involved in World War II. Under those circumstances, the burden of proof should not be on those who argue for changing what we're doing. It should be on those who set a failed policy in motion and keep promising, despite the evidence, that it will somehow pay off if only we "stay the course." E.J. Dionne

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, July 15, 2006

The War President (Image from Salon.com) The War: Fourteen people killed and five wounded in the bombing of a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad Friday. (Note: This is probably one of the mosque attacks reported yesterday, with revised casualty figures.)

The coach of Iraq's national wrestling team was killed in an attack in Baghdad Friday. He was seized with one of his wrestlers and shot to death while trying to escape; the other wrestler got away.

Gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint on a highway near Kirkuk Friday, killing 11 soldiers and wounding three.

A body dressed in traditional Arab clothing, shot in the chest and showing signs of torture, was found in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad.

In Mosul Friday a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol, killing two civilians and wounding two others.

Clashes between gunmen and police in Mosul killed a civilian Friday. Gunmen wearing camouflage uniforms abducted the head of Iraq's national Olympic committee and 50 other people including bodyguards and committee staff as they met in Baghdad on Saturday. The body of one of the guards was found dumped in a street in Karrada in central Baghdad shortly afterwards. The guard had been shot in the head. At least three people were killed and eleven wounded in street battles today between government troops and gunmen (presumably in Baghdad). Seven people were hurt when mortar rounds landed in a Baghdad neighborhood just blocks from the Green Zone. Gunmen attacked a truck loaded with sheep, killing the driver (presumably in Baghdad). Gunmen killed a member of the Iraqi Parliament Friday in Ramadi. Not far from Balad Ruz, the bodies of two brothers and a cousin were found in a field, handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head. Twenty-four bodies had already been found on Wednesday.

An Iraqi contractor working with the US forces was shot dead by gunmen close to the northern city of Tikrit. The contractor’s 18-year-old son was also wounded in the attack. A U.S. soldier was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb near Sadr City, a Shi'ite area in northeast Baghdad.

A suicide car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in eastern Baghdad killing two police commandos and wounding four.

Iraqi troops killed 23 insurgents and detained 147 suspects over the past 24 hours, the army said in a statement.

One person was killed and two wounded when a bomb placed inside a computer exploded inside an Internet cafe in central Kirkuk.

The U.S. military said initial reports indicated that an Apache attack helicopter that crashed in a dangerous area southwest of Baghdad on Thursday was brought down by hostile fire.

Gunmen killed three brothers, two of them Iraqi soldiers, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Baquba.

Two people were killed and seven wounded when clashes erupted overnight between gunmen and residents in the predominantly Sunni al-Fadhil area in central Baghdad.

Two people were killed and six arrested when Iraqi troops raided Baghdad's northern Sunni district of Adhamiya. Residents reported hearing explosions and machinegun fire overnight. Umm, Jalal, don’t look now, but…: President Jalal Talabani has called for establishment of a national front to prevent a sectarian civil war.

Talabani's statement was issued late Friday to mark the 1958 coup that overthrew the Iraqi monarchy and led to years of turmoil until the Baath Party took control of the country in 1968. The party held power until it was removed by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"The country is facing dangers and heading toward sectarian strife," Talabani said. Heading toward sectarian strife, Part 1: No one, including US forces, has stepped in to halt the sectarian cleansing operation engulfing Baghdad in the last six months, the largest of its kind the world has seen in recent years.

Shiite fighters, many in the uniforms of the new Iraqi national army or Iraqi security forces, are battling Sunni gunmen, in defiance of their duties to - and the authority of – the Nouri al-Maliki government. This conflict is nothing but outright civil war.

First the two hostile camps fought one another for Baghdad suburbs. In early June, they clashed over the control of streets. Now they are dueling for single buildings that overlook strategic sections or installations in the capital. Some streets are consequently ruled half and half, and any Sunni or Shiite venturing into the wrong end of the street takes his life in his hands. Heading toward sectarian strife, Part 2: Ali phoned me on Tuesday night, about 10.30pm. There were cars full of gunmen prowling his mixed neighbourhood, he said. He and his neighbours were frantically exchanging information, trying to identify the gunmen.

Were they the Mahdi Army, the Shia militia blamed for drilling holes in their victims’ eyes and limbs before executing them by the dozen? Or were they Sunni insurgents hunting down Shias to avenge last Sunday’s massacre, when Shia gunmen rampaged through an area called Jihad, pulling people from their cars and homes and shooting them in the streets?

Ali has a surname that could easily pass for Shia. His brother-in-law has an unmistakably Sunni name. They agreed that if they could determine that the gunmen were Shia, Ali would answer the door. If they were Sunnis, his brother-in-law would go.

Whoever didn’t answer the door would hide in the dog kennel on the roof.

Their Plan B was simpler: to dash 50 yards to their neighbours’ house — home to a dozen brothers. All Iraqi homes are awash with guns for self-defence in these merciless times. Together they would shoot it out with the gunmen — one of a dozen unsung Alamos now being fought nightly on Iraq’s blacked-out streets. Heading toward sectarian strife, Part 3: Sunni families have fled their homes in Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Jihad neighborhood after Shiite militiamen killed at least 50 fellow ones in the latest gruesome sectarian attack in the US occupied country.

"What have I done wrong? What crime have my children committed?" cried a terrified mother.

"As you can see, I only grabbed a bag with some clothes for my children," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Saturday, July 15.

"I couldn't take beds or more bags since we were fleeing on foot." Priorities, priorities: In the mosques and streets of Iraq, all talk Friday was of war, but for a change it was someone else's.

In Iraq, a country that seemed to be spiraling out of control toward civil war, where whole neighborhoods were engulfed in ugly sectarian battles, the escalating fighting in Lebanon involving Israel dominated talk in Friday prayers, on the streets and in newscasts.

``Dozens of innocent men, women and children are being killed for a couple of military men while they can be freed through negotiations,'' Sheik Abdul-Mahdi Karbalai told worshipers in the Shiite city of Karbala, condemning the ``destruction, killing and horror'' of the ``Zionist war machine.''

Certainly the violence and chaos here hasn't stopped: Friday, 11 Iraqi soldiers were killed at a checkpoint, two mosques bombed and at least three people beheaded.

Yet sermons -- many by preachers allied with the U.S.-backed government -- were not aimed at rival sects, lawless militiamen, ineffective politicians or U.S. forces.

They were aimed almost exclusively at Israel, which sealed off Beirut by bombing the airport and road to Damascus, Syria, as well as blockading maritime exits from Lebanon. Turning the corner and on the right track. Yay!: A US commander said yesterday he was confident American and Iraqi troops can take control of the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi without a large-scale offensive like that used to seize Fallujah in 2004.

“I think we have turned a corner here in Ramadi. There is still a lot to do, but we’re on the right track,” said Army Colonel Sean MacFarland, who commands forces in and around the Sunni Muslim city of 400,000 people, 177km west of Baghdad.

MacFarland declined to predict how long it would take to pacify Ramadi, capital of the restive Anbar province. Your Grandkid's Credit Card The party of fiscal responsibility: Yesterday, the White House released its FY2007 mid-session budget review with great fanfare, celebrating its projection that the deficit will be nearly $300 billion this year.

Buried within the mid-session review, the White House reveals that it will ask Congress for another $110 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year.

If you add together the amounts already allocated, plus the appropriations expected to be approved this year ($116 billion) and next year, the total spending for Iraq will soon exceed $400 billion. Half a trillion by '09: Congressional auditors say the war in Iraq has cost almost 300 (b) billion dollars so far and will total almost a half (t) trillion dollars even if all U-S troops were withdrawn by the end of 2009.

Congress has approved 432 (b) billion for military operations and other costs related to the war against terror since Nine-Eleven. Political Pusillanimity

Cowards: Democrats pulled an Internet ad that showed flag-draped coffins Friday after Republicans and at least two Democrats demanded it be taken down on grounds the image was insensitive and not fit for a political commercial.

Bush’s war is a Republican war. They chose it. They made it happen. They should be held responsible for it. The blood of American soldiers who have died and been grievously wounded in this vanity war of choice is on their hands and there is nothing insensitive in saying so. If the needless deaths of our sons and daughters in a vanity war isn't a fit subject for political discussion, what in the hell is?

Commentary

Larry Wilkerson: Ask Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Q. Define torture.

Q. Do we do torture?

Q. There have been dozens of homicides and more than a hundred deaths in U.S. custody. Is killing someone not the ultimate torture?

Q. If those cases were just the work of bad apples, why were the investigations dragged out so long? Why, for instance, did it take the Army two years before filing charges related to the homicides at Bagram Air Force Base in December 2002?

Q. Why are the sentences for the “bad apples” so light? Isn’t it the case that in these military courts martial, their military peers recognize they were following orders?

Documents and memos that have already made their way into the public domain make it clear that the Office of the Vice President bears responsibility for creating an environment conducive to the acts of torture and murder committed by U.S. forces in the war on terror.

There is, in my view, insufficient evidence to walk into an American courtroom and win a legal case (though an international courtroom for war crimes might feel differently). But there is enough evidence for a soldier of long service -- someone like me with 31 years in the Army -- to know that what started with John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes at the Pentagon, and several others, all under the watchful and willing eye of the Vice President, went down through the Secretary of Defense to the commanders in the field, and created two separate pressures that resulted in the violation of longstanding practice and law.

Joshua Frank: It was just last month when President Bush assured the world that the situation in Iraq was dramatically improving. Sectarian tensions were going to relax as a result of Zarqawi's overly publicized death. As Bush put it bluntly, the death of Zarqawi served as "an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide in this struggle." But it's becoming painfully evident that Zarqawi, like Saddam's illusive WMDs, was just another creation of the US propaganda machine. There were other times the White House attempted to paint the chaos in Iraq in a positive light. Remember when US armed forces annihilated Saddam's wretched sons Oday and Qusay? Or how about when they captured Saddam and promised things were starting to look up? At best these token events only served as minor diversions for most of the US media, not unlike the alleged thwarting of a terrorist attack on the Holland Tunnel in New York late last week. Over the weekend, Sunni and Shi'ite militias were said to have been responsible for the deaths of more than 60 Iraqi civilians while injuring dozens more. Just another tranquil weekend in the streets of Baghdad. Rarely do we hear reports of what's going on outside the Green Zone, where the ethnically driven civil war is believed to be even worse.

Sidney Blumenthal: President Bush was against diplomacy before he was for it. But with the collapse of U.S. foreign policy across the board he has discarded talk of preemptive strikes and reluctantly claimed to have become a born-again realist. "And it's, kind of -- you know, it's kind of painful in a way for some to watch, because it takes a while to get people on the same page," he said at his July 7 press conference, adding, in an astonished tone, "Not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. Different words mean different things to different people."

Just two years ago, he appeared before the Republican Convention boasting of his "swagger, which in Texas is called walking." But in the face of the consequences of his failures, he has not adopted a new doctrine so much as swaggered into a corner. The cowboy's White House has become Fort Apache.

A homeowner in Maine (Scroll down): I came out of the house on the morning of July 13, on my way to take my daughter out for her birthday breakfast, to find that our house had been vandalized again. Raw eggs had been splattered all over the door, the porch, the front of the house. And toilet paper was in the bushes, throughout the red flags, and up on the roof. Ours is the house in Orono with the red flags in the yard, each flag representing one American soldier killed in Iraq. Each flag symbolizing the tens or hundreds of other lives affected by the one lost. I'm disgusted and I'm angry. Police report filed (again). House cleaned up (again). Lessons regarding ignorance and cowardice learned (again). If you have any information, please come forward. We are getting mighty tired of this. And anyone with a long ladder and lots of courage - we could still use some help getting the toilet paper off the roof.

Betty Baye: Americans may be divided over the war, but all of them should be troubled that, when researching their book "Cobra II," Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor found racist stereotyping even in the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq. They cited a senior officer who said of Iraqis, "The only thing these sand [N-words] understand is force, and I'm about to introduce them to it""

Some will argue, of course, that the battlefield is no place for "political correctness" or claim that pelting enemies with ugly names is hardly new. In Korea and Vietnam, Americans commonly referred to their enemies with derogatory names.

But maybe that senior officer was a neo-Nazi or skinhead who managed to move up the ranks. And even if he wouldn't think of being part of such a group, his language screams out an attitude that would comfort them, and that's dangerous in an integrated military.

That officer is a walking, talking, living, breathing morale problem. Such language may be why some low-ranking soldiers accused of atrocities in Iraq seem to believe that ill-treatment of their prisoners is not just justified, but condoned by higher-ups.

Casualty Report

Standing a short distance from his son's flower-covered coffin, Geoffrey Mason Sr. took a moment to take it all in: The scores of mourners walking slowly back to their cars, or gathering in small clusters around the grave, sobbing, hugging and remembering Army Spc. Collin Tyree Mason.

"I feel my son's spirit here," he said. "I feel my son's spirit in all of these people."

Mason, a 20-year-old South Beach native, was killed July 2 after he was hit by mortar fire at a checkpoint outside Fort Taji in Baghdad.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, July 14, 2006 Photo: Armed supporters of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stand behind a makeshift Lebanese flag in Baghdad's Sadr City. Iraqis from both sides of the country's sectarian divide have condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.(AFP/Wissam Al-Okaili) Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Iraq, killing 12 soldiers and wounding one, in one of the deadliest single attacks in months against the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces. (…) Gunmen in four cars and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns attacked an army checkpoint in the town of Rashad near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi army Major General Anwar Hamad Ameen said. "This area is a stronghold for Takfirists and terrorists," Ameen told Reuters. Takfirists is a