OMNI
NEWSLETTER
ON IRAQ
BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE & JUSTICE TO REPLACE THE CULTURE OF WAR
and EMPIRE, Dick Bennett, Editor.
(#15
Sept. 30, 2013; #14 March 19, 2013; #13, Nov. 3, 2012; #12 March 19, 2012; #11
Feb.9, 2012; #10, October 18, 2011; #9
August 8, 2011; #8 March 19, 2011; #7, April 29, 2010; #6 March 17, 2010, # 5
June 1, 2008; #4 April 3, 2008; #3 March
24, 2008, #2 Jan. 16, 2008, #1 Nov. 2, 2007.)
“America Iraq war is not over, and
that’s why we need to have a record, so the next time someone in Washington Washington Report on Middle
East Affairs (May 2014, p. 44).
MARCH 19, 2013: 10th ANNIVERSARY OF US
For a full list of US military deaths
in Iraq and Afghanistan Iraq
GLOBAL
IS LOCAL, LOCAL GLOBAL
“Conflicts
in our age have become both local and global, blurring the distinction between
the two. We can no longer speak of local
and national conflicts without considering their international implications,
nor can we ignore the impact of global trends and relations on local
issues.” Ibrahim Kalin, “Islam and
Peace,” in Crescent and Dove, ed. by
Qamar-ul Huda (USIP, 2010, p. 30).
"To initiate a war of aggression,
therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international
crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself
the accumulated evil of the whole." -- Robert H. Jackson, Chief U.S.
Prosecutor, Nuremberg
My blog: War Department/Peace Department
My Newsletters:
Index:
See
OMNI Patriotism Forum, Patriot Day
Nos. 10-15 at
end.
Contents
Illegal Iraq
JUNE 2014 INSURRECTION IN IRAQ
Common Dreams, Obama Considering Air Strikes in Civil
War
Boardman, Another Undeclared War
WAND, Call the President
CREDO, Don’t Bomb
Just Foreign Policy, Sign Petition
Progressive Secretary, Congress Repeal Authorization
for Iraq
BACKGROUNDS to the Uprising of June 2014
Vibes, Failure and Fraud of Construction Program
Van Buren, Botched Construction But What’s a Trillion
Dollars in a Senseless War
Reagan: At least Half-Million Iraqis Killed, One of
Worst Crimes of 21st Century
Iraqi Refugees and Rescuers
Google
Search, UNHCR and Iraqis, April 11, 2014
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Citizens
Reach Out-- to Bring Them to US and Europe
2014
Salaheddin, 703 Killed in February 2014
Germanos, Mounting Deaths Attributed to US Invasion
and Occupation
Isabel Coles, May 2014 Most Violent Month So Far This
Year
Benedict, Women Soldiers in Sexist Army, 2011
Goodell, Woman in Marine Mortuary Attachment and
After, 2010
JUNE 2014 INSURRECTION
Common Dreams, Despite
Disastrous Iraq War, Obama "Considering" Airstrikes
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/13-4
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/13-4
ANOTHER
UNDECLARED WAR
William Boardman,
Another War in Iraq US
Boardman writes: "By the time you read this, America's next undeclared war in Iraq may already be under way."
READ MORE
Boardman writes: "By the time you read this, America's next undeclared war in Iraq may already be under way."
READ MORE
CALL
PRESIDENT OBAMA
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Don't Bomb
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Sign the petition:
"Mr. President: Don’t bomb
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Dear Dick,
Insurgents in
One thing won’t change. It was George W. Bush who lost the war
in
President Obama is now faced with a decision: Does he
double down on Bush’s catastrophic decision 12 years ago to invade
For the last 12 years,
CREDO opposed the war before it began back in 2002. In advance
of the invasion, our members raised over $150,000 to fight back against the
Bush administration and war mongers in Congress. And today we’re still
fighting to revoke the blank check for war — the Authorization for Use of
Military Force -- that gives the president the ability to effectively wage
war in
It was as clear back in 2002 before the unilateral invasion of
With your help, we stopped the president from starting a war
with
It was a catastrophic mistake and tremendous moral failure to
invade
While what is happening in
Please join us in saying, once again, no to war in
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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© 2014 CREDO. All rights reserved.
SIGN PETITION
Dear Dick,
Tell President Obama and Congress: No
New
Sign our petition
Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain have called for direct
Act now! Sign our petition at
MoveOn telling President Obama and Congress NO to a new
Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin has correctly called
for caution. Levin said: "It's unclear how air strikes on our part can
succeed unless the Iraqi army is willing to fight, and that's uncertain given
the fact that several Iraqi army divisions have melted away." As the New York Times has written, “The United States
simply cannot be sucked into another round of war in
The
To avoid another rush to war, Members of Congress must insist
that an explicit Congressional authorization of force precede any direct
Sign and share our petition now. When you sign our
petition, it will be automatically delivered to President Obama and Congress.
Thanks for all you do to help prevent more war,
Robert Naiman and Megan Iorio Just Foreign Policy Help us reach our June fundraising goal—make a $10 tax-deductible contribution today! If you can, please make a donation today. Your financial support helps us create opportunities for Americans to agitate for a more just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate 
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Apr 12,
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Here is a new Progressive Secretary letter. You will be able to edit your name, address, etc. in the next step.
This letter supports a campaign by Win Without War asking Congress to repeal the
In the past, Congress didn't have to repeal war authorizations because Presidents were trusted to come back to Congress for further authority, but unless the original authorization is rescinded, future Presidents could again establish actions in
Our letter will be sent to Congress, and to the President.
No
President, however trustworthy, should have a blank check to wage war without
input from Congress and from the public.
Even though theIraq war
has ended, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for Iraq
S. 1919 and H.R. 3852 would repeal the AUMF for Iraq. Please see that these bills are enacted, and that the American system of checks and balances is restored in this crucial area.
Click here to send this letter or to
learn more (you can
edit the subject or the letter itself in the next step, if you wish).Even though the
S. 1919 and H.R. 3852 would repeal the AUMF for Iraq. Please see that these bills are enacted, and that the American system of checks and balances is restored in this crucial area.
Sincerely,
Kathie Turner, Executive Director
Kathie Turner, Executive Director
Can't get enough?
Want to make Progressive Secretary
even better?
BACKGROUNDS TO THE UPRISING OF JUNE 2014
IRAQ RUINED
The Anti-Empire Report #85
By William Blum, September
1st, 2010
Things which don’t go
away. Things the American government and media don’t let go of. And neither do
I.
Iraq
“They’re
leaving as heroes. I want them to walk home with pride in their hearts,”
declared Col. John Norris, the head of a US Army brigade in Iraq. 1
It’s enough to bring tears to the eyes
of an American, enough to make him choke up.
Enough to make him forget.
But
no American should be allowed to forget that the nation of Iraq, the society of
Iraq, have been destroyed, ruined, a failed state. The Americans, beginning 1991, bombed
for 12 years, with one excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew
the government, killed wantonly, tortured … the people of that unhappy land
have lost everything — their homes, their schools, their electricity, their
clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their
archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run
enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care,
their welfare state, their women’s rights, their religious tolerance, their
safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their
present, their future, their lives … More than half the population either dead,
wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile …
The air, soil, water, blood and genes drenched with depleted uranium … the most
awful birth defects … unexploded cluster bombs lie in wait for children to pick
them up … an army of young Islamic men went to Iraq to fight the American
invaders; they left the country more militant, hardened by war, to spread
across the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia … a river of blood runs
alongside the Euphrates and Tigris … through a country that may never be put
back together again.
“It is a common refrain among war-weary
Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003,” reported
the Washington Post on
May 5, 2007.
No matter … drum roll, please … Stand
tall American GI hero! And don’t even think of
ever apologizing. Iraq is forced by the United States to continue paying
reparations for its own invasion of Kuwait in 1990. How much will the American
heroes pay the people of Iraq?
“Unhappy the land that has no heroes …
No. Unhappy the land that needs heroes.”
– Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo
No. Unhappy the land that needs heroes.”
– Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo
“What we need to discover in the social
realm is the moral equivalent of war; something heroic that will speak to men
as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual
selves as war has proved to be incompatible.”
– William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
– William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
Perhaps the groundwork for that heroism
already exists … February 15, 2003, a month before the US invasion of Iraq,
probably the largest protest in human history, between six and ten million
protesters took to the streets of some 800 cities in nearly sixty countries
across the globe.
Iraq. Love it or leave it.
Not a single reconstruction project was completed in Iraq:
report By John Vibes, December 29, 2013.
After many years and roughly a trillion dollars spent on
reconstruction in Iraq, not one major project has been completed
IRAQ (INTELLIHUB) — A new report has revealed what many
people have been saying for years, that the reconstruction program in Iraq is a
total scam. There is no telling exactly how much money has been wasted,
but it is likely to be many trillions of dollars.
According to
investigations by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
(SIGIR), which he presents in his 220sten report, the U.S. has put $ 60 billion
in reconstruction projects.
New
From The American Empire Project
We Meant Well
How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People
by Peter Van Buren
From a State Department insider, the first account of our blundering efforts to rebuild Iraq—a shocking and rollicking true-life tale of Americans abroad
Charged with rebuilding Iraq, would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhood to promote reconciliation through art? How about an isolated milk factory that cannot get its milk to market? Or a pastry class training women to open cafes on bombed-out streets without water or electricity?
According to Peter Van Buren, we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. We Meant Well is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge, that surreal and bollixed attempt to defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy. . . .
We Meant Well
How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People
by Peter Van Buren
From a State Department insider, the first account of our blundering efforts to rebuild Iraq—a shocking and rollicking true-life tale of Americans abroad
Charged with rebuilding Iraq, would you spend taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhood to promote reconciliation through art? How about an isolated milk factory that cannot get its milk to market? Or a pastry class training women to open cafes on bombed-out streets without water or electricity?
According to Peter Van Buren, we bought all these projects and more in the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan. We Meant Well is his eyewitness account of the civilian side of the surge, that surreal and bollixed attempt to defeat terrorism and win over Iraqis by reconstructing the world we had just destroyed. Leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team on its quixotic mission, Van Buren details, with laser-like irony, his yearlong encounter with pointless projects, bureaucratic fumbling, overwhelmed soldiers, and oblivious administrators secluded in the world's largest embassy. . . .
American Empire Project americanempireproject@e.macmillan.com
via uark.edu to jbennet
Freedom Isn’t Free at
the State Department
The Only Employee at
State Who May Be Fired Because of WikiLeaks By Peter Van Buren
On the same day that more than 250,000 unredacted State Department
cables hemorrhaged out onto the Internet, I was interrogated for the first time
in my 23-year State Department career by State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security
(DS) and told I was under investigation for allegedly disclosing classified
information. The evidence of my crime? A posting on my blog from the previous
month that included a link to a WikiLeaks document already available elsewhere
on the Web.
As we sat in a small, gray, windowless room, resplendent with a
two-way mirror, multiple ceiling-mounted cameras, and iron rungs on the table
to which handcuffs could be attached, the two DS agents stated that the
inclusion of that link amounted to disclosing classified material. In other
words, a link to a document posted by who-knows-who on a public website
available at this moment to anyone in the world was the legal equivalent of me
stealing a Top Secret report, hiding it under my coat, and passing it to a
Chinese spy in a dark alley.
The agents demanded to know who might be helping me with my blog
(“Name names!”), if I had donated any money from my upcoming book on my wacky
year-long State Department assignment to a forward military base in Iraq, and
if so to which charities, the details of my contract with my publisher, how
much money (if any) I had been paid, and -- by the way -- whether I had
otherwise “transferred” classified information.
Had I, they asked, looked at the WikiLeaks site at home on my
own time on my own computer? Every blog post, every Facebook post, and every
Tweet by every State Department employee, they told me, must be pre-cleared by
the Department prior to “publication.” Then they called me back for a second
90-minute interview, stating that my refusal to answer questions would lead to
my being fired, never mind the Fifth (or the First) Amendments.
By Stephen
Zunes, National Catholic
Reporter, posted January 25,
2014. [Via HAW].
Traces the current
conflicts largely to US policies during the occupation. Zunes is a notable scholar, and this essay
sounds highly relevant to my newsletter, but I could not copy it. –Dick]
Tuesday, December 31,
2013
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Iraq: Counting the Bodies
(Photo: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
On
Saturday a car bomb in Baghdad exploded in a crowded commercial street. Kamal
Mahmoud, a school teacher, witnessed the blast. He told the New
York Times, “I
felt the heat of the blast on my face and the bodies of two women thrown in the
middle of the street covered in blood, one of them without legs.” It’s not
clear if the women survived. Fourteen people were killed.
Political violence has increased this year,
one of the bloodiest since the partial U.S. withdrawal in 2011. According to
media reports, 6,000 people died from violence in 2013, over 1,000 in September
alone. These numbers come largely from deaths recorded in the press, notoriously
inaccurate for a comprehensive picture of mortality in Iraq, or any combat
zone.
A
new study released today and published in the Public Library of Science – Medicine journal
tries to create a more accurate picture of what death in Iraq has looked like
since 2003.
An international team of researchers from the University of Washington, Simon
Fraser University, John Hopkins University, and Mustansiriya University
(Baghdad) sampled 2000 households, asking for information on deaths of family
and household members.
It finds that approximately one half million Iraqis died from war related causes
between 2003 and 2011. A majority, more than sixty percent of the deaths,
were directly caused by violence – gunshots, explosions like Saturday’s car
bomb, or areal bombings. The rest are attributable to social collapse, the loss
of infrastructure and health care from the invasion, occupation, and political
and sectarian violence that followed.
What’s significant about the study is
that it is the first household statistical sampling to emerge following the US
withdrawal of combat troops, and therefore attempts to provide something of a
comprehensive picture of violence in Iraq during the period of U.S. occupation.
Although perhaps low, the numbers from
this study are devastating. It would make Iraq one of the worst humanitarian
disasters – crimes if we think about responsibility – of the 21stcentury, second only to Congolese war in terms of
numbers of dead.
Counting Bodies
Pervious
numbers of Iraqi dead vary wildly. Unlike U.S. and coalition occupation forces,
for which we have exact numbers, Iraq lives and deaths are not given careful
attention. Demonstrating the U.S. military’s attention to civilian casualties,
U.S. General Tommy Franks, in reference to Afghanistan, famously told the San
Francisco Chronicle in
2002 that “we don’t do body counts.” Those concerned with human loss of life
have to find information elsewhere, and that has meant two board and
contrasting approaches – using media reports on casualties, or a statistical
sampling method like the one used in this study.
Basing civilian body counts on media reports
is notoriously unreliable. A number of studies have found that as violence in a
country increases, the coverage of violence tends to decrease. This is because
as a country becomes more violent, it becomes more dangerous for journalists to
attempt to access sites of conflict. Through 2010, Iraq remained the most
dangerous place on earth for journalists. This means that in some instances
body counts through careful media analysis can be as much 80% below actual
death tolls.
Iraq Body Count, the most visible group that
uses this method, puts their figure between 114,000 and 126,000 war dead. Even
though they have been hostile to previous studies using the household sampling
method, they write on their website that their information is intended to be
“an irrefutable baseline figure,” and provide a “conservative cautious minimum”
for numbers of dead.
The PLS-Medicine study uses household survey sampling methods
to look at “excess deaths” from 2003 to 2011 that can be attributed to the war.
Lead authors Amy Hagopian and Abraham Flaxman write that “approximately a
half-million deaths in Iraq could be directly attributable to the war.” But
this figure is rounding up from their own numbers. Based on their survey
sample, the “hard” number they offer is 405,000 excess deaths. But they seek to
adjust for a large outmigration of Iraqi emigrants during the war, an estimated
two million people. Based on this loss of sampling population, they adjust
their figures upward by 55,000 to 460,000 war dead.
Compared to other studies, these numbers seem
low. Two previous studies, one by researchers at Johns Hopkins University
published in the Lancet in 2006, and another published in 2007 by a private
British research firm, Opinion Research Business, put the death toll at 655,000
and over one million, respectively.
Although
the authors of the PLoS-Medicine study
attempted to correct for out migration, the effect of population loss and
mobility may have impacted the study. The samplings produced in 2006 and 2007,
at the height of the conflict, probably reflect a closer account of what really
happened during the war. But these studies produced missed the remaining 4-5
years of war. The PLoS-Medicine study attempts to cover this period, and
it seems unlikely that numbers of war dead, for the entire period of war, would
be substantially lower than those numbers produced half way through the
occupation.
The
Human Impact of Numbers
Whatever the actual numbers, half a million to
a million, the human cost of these numbers are hard to contemplate.
To try to understand those numbers, I think
back to the stories of individuals, published periodically through the height
of the war. Stories of those killed, kidnapped, tortured or displaced that
jumped through the dense mist of American news coverage to remind us what war
is about.
Like the story of Abeer Hamza, who
stands out because of the particular brutality of her case.
In the spring of 2006 fourteen year old Abeer
Hamza and her family were killed by five US service members on guard at a
nearby checkpoint. The Army soldiers had been eyeing Abeer, and told her mother
that the girl was “very good.” In broad daylight, the soldiers broke into the
Hamza house, killed Abeer parents, 34 year old mother, Fakhriyah Taha Muhusin,
father Qasim Hamza Raheem, and Abeer’s six year sister Hadeel. After killing
Abeer’s family, the soldiers gang-raped Abeer, and then killed her. They lit
her body on fire which quickly spread to the rest of the house. The fire was
the reason they were caught and tried for their crime.
Like Abeer, Namir Noor-Eldeen stands out for
the uniqueness of his death.
Noor-Eldeen
was an Iraqi correspondent for Rueters. On July 12th, 2007 a US military
helicopter supporting U.S. forces in a fire fight in a North Bahgdad
neighborhood mistook Namir’s camera for a weapon. With glee, the copter and
their support team wanted to “light ‘em all up” and opened fire, killing
altogether 11 people. Eight were killed in the first round of shooting,
including Namir, and three more when a van arrived to help the wounded. In the
copter’s video feed, obtained and released by Wikileaks, the soldiers are
jubilant at their accuracy, “right through the windshield,” laughing as the
panicked survivors “drove over a body.” This in contrast to the desperation on
the voices of the soldiers on the ground, including Ethan McCord, who can be
heard as they discover and attempt to save a four year old girl and seven year
old boy wounded in the shooting.
In contrast to Abeer and Namir, hardly anyone
knows of Safa Nawar Mohammed.
Safa was riding in the back of a pickup truck
in Mahmudiayah in the spring of 2006 when her truck approached a platoon of
U.S. soldiers. Spooked by an earlier incident, the soldiers fired shots at the
vehicle, striking Safa through the head. Although not quite dead when soldiers
found her, no medical assistance was called because of the severity of her
wound, and Safa died a few minutes later.
Safa is one of innumerable and largely
unrecognizanced victims of the the U.S. invasion. Like those killed in the
Hadytha massacre, or countless checkpoints shootings, or in the first and
second battles for Falllujah.
These
are the stories of the numbers of the dead found the PLoS study. These stories are multiplied by
a hundred, by a thousand, by a hundred-thousand, and two hundred thousand, and
we begin to approach the meaning of the study.
The
Right to Heal
There have been efforts to reach out to Iraqi
victims and their families on the part of U.S service members. Following
the release of the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video, two veterans, Josh
Stieber and Ethan McCord, wrote “An Open Letter of Reconciliation and
Responsibility to the Iraqi People,” in which they apologized for the crimes
they participated in, and sought dialogue with Iraqis.
In
March of this year, on the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Iraq Veterans
Against the War (IVAW), and the Federation
of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) launched the Right to Heal
Initiative. From their website:
Iraqis
and veterans are coming together to hold the U.S. government accountable for
the lasting effects of war and the rights of veterans and civilians to heal.
The Iraq war is not over for Iraqi civilians and U.S. veterans who continue to
struggle with various forms of trauma and injury; the effects of environmental
poisoning due to certain U.S. munitions and burn pits of hazardous materials;
and with a generation of orphans and displaced. As Iraqi civil society tries to
rebuild from the Iraq war as well as a decade of U.S. bombing and sanctions,
they face political repression by a corrupt U.S.-established government that is
selling off the country’s natural resources to foreign interests.
Along with the Center for Constitutional
Rights, these groups have filed a request for a hearing with the Inter-American
Commission for Human Rights.
These
efforts by veteran and human rights groups need to be supported. Even
with withdrawal of U.S. combat troops, Iraqis continue to live and die because
of the impacts of the invasion of their country of which the car bombing last
Saturday is just one incident. ThePLoS-Medicine study
published today helps us understand some of those impacts.
Copyright 2013 War Times
Michael
Reagan is an organizer with the Seattle Solidarity Network and student at the
University of Washington where he studies the history of Ameri
IRAQI REFUGEES: SOME 5 MILLION BY NOW HAVE FLED
FROM THE INVASION, OCCUPATION, RESISTANCE, AND CIVIL WAR
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR
GOOGLE SEARCH, UNHCR AND IRAQ, APRIL 11, 2014
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Now - unrefugees.org
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United Nations High Commissioner for
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2014 UNHCR country operations
profile - Iraq. | Overview | .... This
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Mar 30, 2014 - Refugees Dispersed in Iraq ... UNHCR Information Kit March
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INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
FOR MIGRATION
Today's Top Stories APRIL 11, 2014
Video
Standing in solidarity
with the Iraqi people
IOM has had an uninterrupted presence in Iraq since 2003, and
during this critical post-war period, will continue to stand in solidarity with
the Iraqi people. This video highlights the work of IOM in Iraq and how
critical the need is.
Latest
Situation Reports
Syria - In cooperation with
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Organization for Migration ( IOM )
17, Route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland, Tel: +41.22.717.9111, Fax: +41.22.798.6150
17, Route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland, Tel: +41.22.717.9111, Fax: +41.22.798.6150
DOCUMENTING WHAT HAPPENED TO PEOPLE IN
COUNTRIES INVADED BY THE US AS ANOTHER WAY TO PREVENT FUTURE INVASIONS
“America has some great ideas, but one of
the things it is really short on is memory.
Once something is no longer new, we abandon it and pay no
attention. We dropped 10 years of war on
people halfway around the world that disrupted their society completely and
have yet to take a good look at exactly what we did. We fool ourselves when we start thinking that
we can turn a war on and off like a faucet. . . .The Iraq war is not over, and
that’s why we need to have a record, so the next time someone in Washington
comes up with the bright idea that they want to install a government that they
like better than another one halfway around the world we will have something
that isn’t bullshit to talk about.” David Harris in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (May 2014, p.
44). Through video and digital
recordings, Citizens Reach Out (CRO), [Iraq] “What Happened” Project,”
documents and archives firsthand stories of what happened to war refugees. These accounts are preserved in the University
of California at Berkeley’s Merritt System.
Preserving the stories of Iraqi refugees to the US is the purpose of the
“What Happened?” project of Citizens Reach Out. This Project concentrates on professional
Iraqis threatened by Shia militias. --Dick
·
Welcome
B.
The
“What Happened?” Project
It has been more than a decade since the US invaded Iraq, and
almost three years since it finally withdrew its troops. But since the early
days of the invasion Iraqis, especially those who had academic and intellectual
backgrounds or were professionals working for government agencies have been
targeted and assassinated by the militant forces that came after the U.S.
invasion. Such militant forces were AL Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade, both
shia militias that were trained to target and assassinate Iraqi intellectuals
and minorities all around the country. This resulted in large numbers of Iraqis
fleeing their country and seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
Mahdi Army fighters in Iraq
As of 2010, the estimated number of Iraqi refugees has mounted
to 4 million refugees, most of whom lived in Syria and Jordan after escaping
Iraq. With limited ways of earning a sustainable living, Iraqi refugees endured
tough living conditions. In some cases both parents were often working in
menial jobs not related to their original professions in order to provide for
their families.
Starting in 2004, the UNHCR
in collaboration with International Organization of Migration (IOM), began
helping Iraqis to resettle in the US and Europe in hopes of finding a better
future where they could use their experience and educational backgrounds to
restart a new life far away from war zones. Since then, almost
thirty-thousand Iraqis have been resettled in the US. They have settled
mostly in El Cajon, CA, Sacramento, CA, San Jose, CA, Tucson, Arizona, and
Dallas, TX, to name a few places.
Citizens Reach Out
launched the “What Happened?” Project to document the stories of these refugees and preserve their
journey from home to the country that invaded their homeland.
Their stories are compelling, powerful and often heartbreaking.
CRO records the raw tales of mothers, fathers and sons who saw the horrid
images of war and lived under skies that were lit by jet fighter airplanes and
woke up to the sounds of explosions. Some of them lost a parent, a sibling, a
cousin, and they all lost their homes.
The “What Happened?” Project is a small window to the big world
of the Iraqi refugee crises, so won’t you take a moment and look through this
window to learn about the tragedy that was created by this war?
UN Says 703 Killed in Iraq in February Attacks
Sinan Salaheddin, The Associated Press, Reader Supported News, March 1, 2014
Salaheddin reports: "The figures issued by the U.N.'s mission to Iraq is close to January's death toll of 733, showing that a surge of violence that began 10 months ago with a government crackdown on a Sunni protest camp is not receding."
Sinan Salaheddin, The Associated Press, Reader Supported News, March 1, 2014
Salaheddin reports: "The figures issued by the U.N.'s mission to Iraq is close to January's death toll of 733, showing that a surge of violence that began 10 months ago with a government crackdown on a Sunni protest camp is not receding."
In Iraq, Legacy of US Occupation
Continues
Mounting deaths of Iraqis offer somber
reminder of what US intervention has brought
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Iraq,
a country "wrecked"
by U.S. invasion and occupation, continues to experience yet another month with
hundreds of civilian casualties.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen.
Martin Dempsey talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in 2012. (Photo:
DOD/D. Myles Cullen. According to a statement issued Saturday by the United Nations
mission to Iraq, 703 Iraqis were killed in February, and 564 of those were
civilians. There were also 1,381 Iraqis injured last month. Those figures
follow a month in which 733 Iraqis were killed,
including 618 civilians. The figures for both months leave off deaths in Anbar
province, because the UN stated it could not validate those numbers.
2013 also marked a somber record for Iraq—the highest number of
civilian casualties since 2008.
The U.S. has recently poured Hellfire missiles and surveillance
drones into the country,
purportedly to help Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fight al Qaeda.
"The political, social and religious leaders of Iraq have
an urgent responsibility to come together in the face of the terrorist threat
that the country is facing," Nickolay Mladenov, Special Representative of
the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, stated Monday.
Yet Raed Jarrar, an
Arab-American blogger and political analyst, explained to Common
Dreams that "what is causing violence and
casualties in Iraq today has little to do with terrorism. It's caused by
corruption, sectarian politics, and other legacies of the U.S. occupation in
Iraq."
"What started last year as a legitimate nonviolent movement
was crushed by Iraqi government tanks in late December," Jarrar continued.
"It has since turned into an armed uprising against the Iraqi government.
The U.S. continues to interfere in Iraq by sending weapons and providing
political support to its allies in the country."
Other critics of
military intervention have also charged that the ongoing violence gripping
Iraq has "everything to do with the aftermath of the U.S. invasion and
occupation."
Nearly 800 Killed in
Iraq's Bloodiest Month This Year: UN
Isabel Coles, Reuters , Reader Supported news, June 2, 2014
Coles reports: “Nearly 800 people were killed in violence across Iraq in May, the United Nations said on Sunday, making it the deadliest month so far this year.”
READ MORE
Isabel Coles, Reuters , Reader Supported news, June 2, 2014
Coles reports: “Nearly 800 people were killed in violence across Iraq in May, the United Nations said on Sunday, making it the deadliest month so far this year.”
READ MORE
Analysis of Washington
Post Editorial, published in the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette, titled “Iraq’s Descent,” May 5, 2014. By Dick Bennett
The Post makes twelve claims
regarding the condition of Iraq at this time, which it blames on Obama’s
“readiness to dismiss this mess.”
1. The country is “sliding into civil war.”
2. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s rule
has become “increasingly authoritarian and sectarian.”
3. His government and “U.S.-trained Army” are
“losing control over much of the country.”
4. His “military campaign against sunni tribes”
failed, resulting in the “takeover of Fallujah by al-Qaida and waves of
bombings against Shiites in Baghdad.”
[These first four assertions seem to be borne our by the uprising. –D]
5. In desperation, like Assad of Syria, he has
“resorted to using Syrian-backed Shiite militias.” [Using?
When, where? How many?]
6. Kurdistan “has become a de facto independent
state.”
7. His government coalition was “brokered by
Iran.” [To what extent? Iran is a demonizing word. ]
8. He has accelerated “the sectarian crumbling
of the American-built democratic system.”
[Iraq had become a democratic country?
The WP writer was desperate for arguments by this point. ]
9. His imminent failure will “reverse the gains
won by the hundreds of thousands of Americans who served there…” [This appeal to sentiment for our troops to
defend a wildly wrong war repeats one of the worst falsehoods of the Vietnam
War. What is the gain in the deaths of
perhaps a million Iraqi civilians (and desperate soldiers)?]
10. “Al-Qaida and its affiliates are close to
consolidating control of a wide swath of territory across western Iraq and
northern Syria.” [Really, when the
rebels are Sunnis in a religious civil war?]
11. These “extremists…aspire to launch attacks
against the U.S. homeland,” and the “new Iraqi government” probably cannot
“eliminate this threat.” [This is an egregious, laughable example of
fear-mongering.]
12. “At least some of this trouble could have
been avoided had the Obama administration managed Iraq better.” [This claim appears in the text following #6,
but its application to all is implied. The
Obama administration inherited Iraq from the Bush administration, whose
invasion of Iraq was so deeply and thoroughly ill-conceived and mismanaged that
Obama could hardly be expected to remedy it—except by withdrawing, which he
lacked the stature to do.]
I wanted to dissect this editorial to
identify clearly the Post’s position regarding Iraq, toward examining
its validity, since the WP is
widely known as a mouthpiece for the warfare state.
At the beginning of the editorial, the
writer concedes that “Iraq’s best days in the past decade have been its
elections,” including the latest, when “about 12 million people went to the
polls to vote in the first parliamentary elections held without the presence of
U.S. troops.” Yet this achievement
seems nullified by the twelve “failures.”
That is, the election was an illusion.
The criticism of the Obama, “At least
some of this trouble,” is deceptive in its extreme vagueness, since “some”
could mean 1% or 49%. And shouldn’t the Post
include the Bush Administration? “Some”
of this trouble could have been avoided had the illegal, unnecessary, lying
invasion never occurred in the first place.
Surely the claim that al-Qaida et al.
“aspire” to attack the US is the most absurd sort of fear-mongering. Yes some probably feel such aspirations, but
does that translate into credible threat?
Any evidence? Such hyperbolical
over-reaching invites us to examine all of the Post’s claims
carefully.
RELATED: WOMEN
SOLDIERS
|
RELATED
BACKGROUNDS: WOMEN SOLDIERS
Shade It Black: Death and After in
Iraq
Jess
Goodell, with John Hearn. Casemate, 2011
In this absorbing memoir, Iraq veteran Goodell recounts her
service, the brutal, sexist culture of the Marine Corps, and her struggle to
adapt to the world upon her return from Iraq. After enlisting, Goodell
volunteered to serve with the Marines' first
declared Mortuary Attachment in Iraq's Al Anbar province, in 2004. The
Mortuary Attachment platoon was responsible for doing "what had to be
done but that no one wanted to know about": they "processed"
the bodies of U.S. and other soldiers killed in combat, so that they could be
identified and returned to their families. She describes in gruesome detail
what this involved, and how it affects the soldiers who care for their
comrades in this way. She rubbed up against a Marine Corp culture that
includes routine indignities (calling an unfit Marine a "fat nasty"
or worse), outright misogyny ("Don't even...tell me that's a woman.
Get...out of my formation!"), and sexist marching cadences. Coming home,
unable to gain weight or sleep or relax and unprepared for post-service life
among a population that had no idea of who she was or what she had gone
through, Goodell began to come apart. Her memoir is a courageous settling of
accounts, and a very good read. (May)
Publisher’s Weekly, Reviewed on: 05/23/2011
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Contents of #10
Support the Lee Bill
Occupation and Resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan
Pew Poll of US Troops: War Not Worth It
Kucinich Steadfast
Bennis: Iraq War Continues
100 Poets Against the War
Violence Follows Withdrawal?
Leave Iraq When Promised
Van Buren: We Meant Well?
Contents of #11 Feb. 9, 2012
Haditha Films
IVAW Winter
Soldier Film
Four Articles from HAW
Engelhardt: US Weakness
USA Today versus Invasion of Iraq
Cindy Sheehan on Leaving Iraq
WRL on Iraq’s Future
Cockburn, Lost Battle Against IEDs
Hedges and Al-Arian on Killing Innocents
Van Buren, on US Aid
Shear, Novel About Returned Marine
Zunes, Those Responsible
Hayden, Sectarian Future
Vets for Peace: Obama Declares End of War
Casualties and Deaths
Contents #12, March 19, 2012, Invasion Anniversary
Dick Bennett, Harms of Iraq
Wars, Embargo, Occupation
Google References
Contents #13
LOOKING BACK
Best Novel about Iraq War? The Yellow Birds
Falluja Massacre
Miller, Blood
Money
IVAW Trauma Posters
Wikileaks
Schwartz, War
Without End
Powell’s New Book: No Debate by Bush Admin.
New Film on Cheney, War Criminal
Suicides
Photos of Iraq War
Tutu Urges Bush/Blair Prosecution
Iraq and Iran Alliance
Contents
#14 , March 19, 2013
Mass Killing in the Two Invasions
Abdul Haq al-Ani, Tarik al-Ani: Genocide, Gulf War, Decade of Sanctions 1990s, 2003 Invasion, Occupation
New Film on Fallujah Massacre
Dick, Cost of the War,
Fraudulent Hidden Costs
Al-Ani and Baker:
Book on Uranium Poisoning
Faith Positions
Episcopal Church
Laufer, US Soldiers Reject Iraq War
Independent Photo-journalists Report War
Breen, the Suffering of Individual Iraqis
Dick: Reporting Iraq in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 2012
Google Search:
Commemorating Invasion of Iraq March 18-19, 2003
Contents
#15
Payne:
Operation Desert Storm, First Iraq War
David Hare’s Play, Stuff Happens
Bennis, Challenging
Empire
Tomas Young, Last Letter to Bush, Cheney, March 18,
2013
Young Documentary, “Body of War”
Young, Google Search May 4, 2013
Forthofer, US Leaders Guilty of War Crimes
Khawaja, Failure and Complicity of US Media
Kamber, Photojournalists Tell Untold Stories
The Yellow
Birds, Google
Search
Davies, CIA and Other War Crimes
2013 Violence Highest Since 2008
WRL, Reparations and Healing
Recent Related Newsletters
6-12 Nonviolence, 6-3 Internationalism, 6-1 Resist, 5-26 Memorial Day, 5-25 Lawlessness
Contact Arkansas
Congressional Delegation
Arkansas
is represented in Congress by two senators and four representatives. Here is
how to reach them. None of the senators or representatives publishes his e-mail
address, but each can be contacted by filling in forms offered through his
website.
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SENATORS
Sen. John Boozman
Republican, first term 320 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371 Arkansas offices: FORT SMITH: (479) 573-0189 JONESBORO: (870) 268-6925 LITTLE ROCK: (501) 372-7153 LOWELL: (479) 725-0400 MOUNTAIN HOME: (870) 424-0129 STUTTGART: (870) 672-6941 EL DORADO: (870) 863-4641 Website: www.boozman.senate.gov
Sen. Mark Pryor
Democrat, second term 255 Dirksen Office Building Constitution Avenue and First Street NE Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908 Little Rock office: (501) 324-6336 Website: www.pryor.senate.gov
Rep. Tom Cotton
4TH DISTRICT Republican, first term 415 Cannon House Office Building Washington 20515 Phone: (202) 225-43772 Arkansas offices: CLARKSVILLE: (479) 754-2120 EL DORADO: (870) 881-0631 HOT SPRINGS: (501) 520-5892 PINE BLUFF: (870) 536-3376 Website: www.cotton.house.gov |
REPRESENTATIVES
Rep. Rick Crawford
1ST DISTRICT Republican, second term 1771 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4076 Fax: (202) 225-5602 JONESBORO: (870) 203-0540 CABOT: (501) 843-3043 MOUNTAIN HOME: (870) 424-2075 Website: www.crawford.house.gov
Rep. Tim Griffin
2ND DISTRICT Republican, second term 1232 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2506 Fax: (202) 225-5903 Arkansas offices: LITTLE ROCK: (501) 324-5491 Website: www.griffin.house.gov
Rep. Steve Womack
3RD DISTRICT Republican, second term 1119 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4301 Fax: (202) 225-5713 Arkansas offices: ROGERS: (479) 464-0446 HARRISON: (870) 741-7741 FORT SMITH: (479) 424-1146 Website: www.womack.house.gov
Con
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END IRAQ WARS NEWSLETTER: THEY HAVE NOT ENDED #16
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