Tag Archives: Iraq

Iraq – Animus, Instability, Repression – Challenging the State Concept

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars

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Across the Islamic Small Wars, one may wonder about the validity of the state concept in “states” barely holding it together across inchoate and uncooperative political campuses.

In some places, the answer to “Why can’t y’all just get along?” is “We all just don’t want to get along.”

That’s Iraq.

Let’s take this imagined internal dialogue two steps further:

“We believe that something has been taken away from us, and we can steal it back with vengeance.”

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“We believe we can achieve something greater and can force it into existence.”

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Part of what binds the contemporary functioning democracies of “the west” may be the experience of the corruption and tyranny of the feudal systems that preceded them.  The collective memory contains the inspired eruption of deeply repressed contempt and hatred for “ruling classes” and with it the smell and taste of blood spilled  in ways and in volumes that would today cast al-Nusra in Syria as the pale ghost of a minor devil.

In essence, all those pretty open democracies so peacefully gathered around the Mediterranean have been no strangers to sectarian warfare, mass beheading, industrialized death by every nefarious means available, and settlement, at times, through only the complete destruction of an armed foe.

Those Europeans “all get along” amid battle scarred landscapes and in the presence of cemeteries ranked with men too young for death because well they know how sickening nasty the war business can get, and they no longer want any part of it — and if they must be part of it, it’s going to be as short and violent and decisive an engagement as it may be made.

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We may be entering an area, or may be already within one, in which great private interests, no less than in feudal days albeit with greater subtlety, arrange their political environments out of sight of constituted and official governments.

Mafia defined by greed becomes the true underlying or hidden governing model, and the units of analysis: families and clans of note with business interests attending.

The politicians have handlers, payoff masters, as it were.

Perhaps.

In the letting of contracts and jobs, it may appear that nepotism trumps merit, and it may be so.

How to tell?

Who are the auditors and where are they?

Where are the journalists who report with integrity?

What is to temper power?

Where is the state leader brave and canny enough to promote an open conversation while carefully reigning in the only the elements intending to destroy core democratic political process?

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The New York Times reports that the United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq “to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.”

This happens in the context of the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis in 2013, the highest level of violence since 2008.

The President Who Lost Iraq « Commentary Magazine – 12/26/2013.

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Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq told CNN that he was “shocked” to hear U.S. President Barack Obama greet al-Maliki at the White House on Monday as “the elected leader of a sovereign, self-reliant and democratic Iraq.”

Iraq’s leader becoming a new ‘dictator,’ deputy warns – CNN.com – 12/13/2013.

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While Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been catching flak as another Washington-sponsored dictator in the making, one cannot assign to him the year-long uptick in sectarian tit-for-tat violence and terror even if assertions launched against him should prove true.  Example: 

Leaders of the popular uprisings in 6 Sunni provinces told me that the wave of terror which has claimed the lives of 7,000 people so far this year in Iraq is his responsibility, because he controls the military, the police, the intelligence services and all aspects of security in the country. Iraq is rapidly spiralling down towards a renewed insurgency and Maliki’s only response is to marginalise the Kurds, label the Sunnis as terrorists and turn a blind-eye to the systematic discrimination and violence against other ethnic minority groups.

European MEP in Erbil says “Maliki’s authoritarian policies are tearing the country apart” – CNN iReport – 11/27/2013.

Is the hearsay true?

Prove it — or call it slander.

What would the most balanced leader do if (setting out with a fair neutral force at his disposal) he were confronted with crimes against his constituents — all of them in representation — accompanied by accusation of sectarian preference in the operations of his government promoting attacks that in turn promote revenge?

Would he investigate the crimes as crimes only wrapped in political or religious cover and go on with the business of producing an institutionally open, responsive, and responsible government?

Or would he revert to the loyalty of his own and reconstruct a government built on deep wells of suspicion expressed in the application of tyrannical force against all suspected challengers not of his own affiliation?

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“Regretfully, the Arab revolutions were able to shake the dictatorships but were not able to fill the void in the right way,” Mr. Maliki said. “So a vacuum was created, and al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations were able to exploit it and to gain ground.”

Iraq’s Maliki Blames Rising Extremist Violence on Syria – Washington Wire – WSJ – 10/31/2013.

In the Arab world, deflections of responsibility inevitably produce harm.  They are part of lying (by omission: regulars here know the refrain: “to hide something; to get something”) as well as avoiding engagement with the values that in fact weaken the state in such a way as to make it a prize for factional contests through the usual means — intimidation, murder, terror — rather than a central forum for factional arguments in accord with Roberts Rules.

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And the violence shows no sign of letting up. Suspected Sunni Islamist militants on Christmas day set off three bombs in the heavily Christian Dora district of the capital, killing at least 38, including 24 who died at the conclusion of a church service. Western regions of the country were on edge on Sunday after the Shia-dominated government’s security forces arrested a popular Sunni lawmaker and killed his brother and five guards in a raid.

International companies aim to set up shop in Iraq despite violence – FT.com – 12/29/2013.

The bungling, if it was that, doesn’t help in Iraq’s difficult environment — and is it possible to balance that “Shia-dominated . . . security force” with greater Sunni and Christian complements?

Beyond that, so one might urge: get over the sickness in the head that divides others in the world into those worthy of one’s respect and those deserving of contempt, and that to the extent that they may be slaughtered at will: God did not authorize the humans judging to make such judgments.

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(Reuters) – Fighting erupted when Iraqi police broke up a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the western Anbar province on Monday, leaving at least 13 people dead, police and medical sources said.

The camp has been an irritant to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite Muslim-led government since Sunni protesters set it up a year ago to demonstrate against what they see as marginalization of their sect.

Fighting erupts as Iraq police break up Sunni protest camp | Reuters – 12/30/2013.

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Iraq’s security forces have almost entirely abandoned the successful formula of population-focused counter-insurgency developed by the US-led coalition, instead falling back on counter-productive traditional tactics such as mass arrests and collective punishment.

BBC News – Analysis: Iraq’s never-ending security crisis – 10/3/2013.

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The Iraqi government is now making many of the same mistakes the United States made back then: It is alienating the Sunnis and occupying their communities with a heavy-handed, military-led approach that doesn’t differentiate between diehard militants and the mass of peaceable civilians.

Yes, Iraq Is Unraveling – Foreign Policy – Michael Knights – 5/15/2013.

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The phrase “weak government” may itself be weak.

If the potential strength of a coalition of the moderate (well representative of population overall and intent on peace) does not display in firm martial ability, it invites fracturing along the more parochial lines associated with private financial, psychological, and religious agenda.

In essence, the state as a political whole may prove too weak to restrain the restive energies inhabiting its body — it literally cannot contain itself — and it then fails as a reliable political element.

Autocratic attempts to contain latent fracturing through repression may work as presently suggested by the Egyptian narrative that has developed between the army and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s still nascent, still potential democracy.

However, the same in Iraq, as the screws tighten, may isolate state authority and invite a civil contest so incoherent  with mixed factional motivations that the fighting cannot be resolved through compromise and accommodation — nor may it be won as the point of it becomes a continuous and ill-defined struggle beneath the delusion that there is something greater yet to be won when plainly there is not.

Peace is to be won first and foremost.

Without it, nothing else can be done.

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Iraq Returns (?) to Sectarian Violence

05 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Religion

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A wave of violence Friday killed 52 people in Iraq, most of whom were kidnapped and shot dead with their corpses abandoned, in scenes harking back to Iraq’s sectarian war . . .  More than 6,000 people have been killed this year, forcing Baghdad to appeal for international help in battling militancy just months before a general election, as official concern focuses on a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the war in neighbouring Syria.

52 dead in throwback to Iraq’s sectarian bloodshed | Bangkok Post: news – 11/30/2013.

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Oh my!

Will that do?  Or should we take it up a notch?

Those bastards!

Raise the volume all you like, talk is talk and that’s all it is: in coming days, so one may suspect with reason, it will become near impossible for the morally pissed off and remote to be heard over or through the bodies piling up as they do when the cause has become nothing short of madness itself.

* * *

STERLING HEIGHTS, MICH. — The Iraqi government is negotiating with the US government and BAE Systems to purchase 200 Bradley Fighting Vehicles sometime during the next 15 months, according to BAE officials.

The potential deal is expected sometime in 2014 and could come just before another expected agreement is reached with Saudi Arabia to buy Bradleys in 2015. The Iraq contract would provide recently upgraded M2A2 ODS (Operation Desert Storm) variants to the Baghdad government, the same vehicles that the US Army National Guard uses.

Iraq Requests 200 Bradley Fighting Vehicles; Saudi Deal in the Works | Defense News | defensenews.com – 8/28/2013.

Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

Related: Iraq’s Months of Sectarian Violence May Lead to a Civil War | TIME.com – 10/1/2013; Iraq suffers ‘accelerated surge’ in sectarian violence – CNN.com 10/6/2013; from this place: Iraq – Back to the Dark Ages Today | BackChannels – 11/8/2013.

The search string “Iraq Sectarian Violence 2013” doesn’t produce news anymore: it produces a story line that starts with taking off the lid covering this simmering pot of scorpions, the seemingly unintended consequence of the 2003 invasion — ten years and eight months ago — and opens a long scene two or three (I don’t think three acts will do it for this part of the world) that is playing now and keeps cycling back to unconventional, sub-state, guerrilla style barbarism and sadism within the context of (yawn) Sunni-Shiite predispositions that have absolutely nothing to do — and they will have nothing to do — with tomorrow.

▶ Iraq 2013: Year of Carnage (Promo) – YouTube – 11/26/2013.

I’m sure my life in media’s fringe would be more exciting (and solvent) if I worked for RT!

However, it takes no genius to understand the astoundingly absurd structure of this portion of the Islamic Small Wars: Putin : cash / Assad : survival / Khamenei : ambition / Shiite : expansion and survival vs. Obama : Obama / Sunni Quasi-Democratic Kerfuffle (Syria) / Iraq : Sunni Reassertion with “gorious” Al Qaeda-type Edging.

Iraqis are suffering murder associated with or motivated by cultural and religious precepts that have absolutely nothing to do with the nature of God, humanity, or the universe — and for that, or just perhaps ignoring that, Iraq as a state is laying in large arms contracts.

Beware the next Gulf War.

All this other bloodletting: calisthenics.

Iraqis need an army of detectives, psychologists (cultural, ethnographic, linguistic, social), and wondrous poetic minds (preferably Jewish or, perhaps, Presbyterian — for the kindness thing), for every surprised and tortured corpse in this year’s Iraq body count, so far, of 6,000 (update that: 6010 or so as I type) was murdered by somebody else’s programming in the head, which programming always exists and persists as language foremost albeit molded by emotion best interpreted through the portal opened by the terms “civilizational narcissism” and “malignant narcissism”.

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Gun battles between Iraqi security forces and armed attackers have left at least ten dead and more than 40 injured in Kirkuk.

Suicide bombers and gunmen initially launched an assault on police intelligence headquarters in the northern Iraqi city.

A two-hour exchange of fire followed.

Co-ordinated attack in Kirkuk leaves several dead as violence in Iraq escalates | euronews, world news – with video – 12/5/2013

▶ Iraq violence producing a ‘damaged generation’ NewsNews – YouTube – Posted 12/5/2013; however: BBC News – Iraq violence producing a ‘damaged generation’ – 11/1/2013; related: BBC News – Iraq army asks tribe leaders to help end violence – 10/29/2013; US, Iraq agree more equipment needed to fight al Qaeda in Iraq – World News – 11/1/2013 (if a dateline is absent, the date posted here comes from the Google search engine).

At the state level, state forces consistently engage Al Qaeda when apparent, much to their credit, but the sub-state, transnational character of that insult to humanity knows its way around tanks and patrols.  What’s needed would seem an extraordinary upgrade in intelligence concepts and methodology, including HUMINT.

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It was the second month in a row that the overall death toll declined, but the U.N. envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said he was “profoundly disturbed” by an uptick in “execution-style” killings. In three places around Baghdad last week, Iraqi police found bodies of 31 men, women and children who had been shot in the head.

World news digest: In Iraq, attacks raise fears of Sunni-Shiite violence – The Washington Post – 12/1/2013.

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By April 2013, simmering sectarian tensions boiled over and the country experienced its deadliest month in half a decade. If a day goes by in Iraq without scores being maimed or killed in car bombings outside schools, mosques or crowded markets, that day is the exception rather than the rule. Hundreds continue to die each month in such grisly attacks. What follows is an account of the violence that has gripped the country over the past year. There are no coffins draped in Stars and Stripes, but the cameras are rolling and the world is watching.

Iraq 2013: a year of carnage — About – 2013 attack data, month-by-month, day by day, to the end of November.

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RT: Score!

CNN: ?

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Syria has emerged as the new “Jihadist cause célèbre” across the Arab world, energizing that movement and providing a melting pot for foreign fighters from across the region to create personal ties that will underpin future terrorist networks.

By the measures of manpower, weaponry and territory, it can now be argued that the broader al Qaeda network is stronger than at any time since the peak of the Iraq insurgency half a decade ago, and perhaps even than at any time since 9/11.

Resurgent al Qaeda: new concern about U.S. homeland – CNN Security Clearance – CNN.com Blogs – 12/2/2013.

Maybe CNN will focus on Iraq a little more tomorrow.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

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Iraq – Back to the Dark Ages Today

08 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Psychology, Regions

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(CNN) — Gunmen burst into the home of a local leader Thursday in Iraq, killing him and five of his family members as they slept. The attackers then planted explosives and blew up the home, police said.
The attack took place in Tikrit.

Council leader, family killed in their sleep in Iraq – CNN.com – 11/8/2013.

* * *

The female MP recalled when Sheikh Ali was member of her political party, saying he used to live in a house owned by Iraq’s chief of staff and that he had 30 bodyguards who were all on the payroll of the government.

She further claimed that he used to praise and glorify the government day and night. But when it was no longer in his interest, he turned against the government and considered it his enemy.

TV debate goes wrong as Iraqi tribal sheikh removes microphone, throws it away – 1/20/2013.

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And Sheik Ali Hatem al-Suleiman, a leader in the Sunni Awakening movement, storms out of the conference after the opening speeches and threatens to leave the conference altogether. “People want answers from us,” he says. “We’re not going to sit here only to listen to speeches.” The Awakening opposes the Sunni-led insurgency within Iraq. Shi’ite leader Sheik Muhammed Fahman al-Rikahis wonders how any reconciliation can take place if key groups are not invited or fail to take part in the dialog.

Ali Hatem al-Suleiman – 3/18/2008.

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It’s not all the Sheik al-Suleiman’s fault, if it all.

The shadows creep across the landscape, sewing discord or renewing it, etching their program in blood to bear forth inconsolable sorrows to soak in endless cycles of revenge.

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Six high ranked Democrats and Republican senators claimed sectarian violence was rife also because of Maliki’s failure to give Iraq’s Sunnis, Kurds and other minorities a greater role in the country’s administration.

“This failure of governance is driving many Sunni Iraqis into the arms of al-Qaida in Iraq and fuelling the rise of violence,” a letter signed by both high ranked Democrats and Republican senators read.

Russia Supplies 44 Military Helicopters to Iraq after US Snub – IBTimes UK – 11/8/2013.

Perhaps Putin knows something about Al Qaeda – Wahhabi – Sunni Islam and the extremist fronts to which two, albeit from the darker shadows, contribute cash or favors for “field operations” to their perceived advanced guard.

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Al Qaeda’s main branch in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), will be disbanded but the jihadist al-Nusra Front will continue to operate in the country under al Qaeda’s command, al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said in an audio message broadcast by Al Jazeera on Friday . . . Zawahiri said in the message that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of al Qaeda operations in Iraq, had “made a mistake by establishing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant without asking for our permission, or even informing us”. It was not clear when his statement was recorded.”

Al Qaeda reshuffles operations in Syria – SYRIA – FRANCE 24 – 11/8/2013.

The legitimacy of a theocat’s power rests on several competitive dimensions — lineage, mentors, scholarship — approximated similarly among uncommon or exceptional personalities.

Of course, in lieu of other and more peaceful social methods and skills, they’re going to fight for position Alpha.

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▶ Iraq violence producing a damaged generation suicide bomber – YouTube

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BBC News – Iraq violence: Army base suicide bombings kill 16 – 11/7/2013.

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At first glance, they can look vibrant, busy and even welcoming. But without notice they can turn into a scene of the utmost violence.

Bombings of bus stations, cafes, restaurants and even mosques have become part of everyday life.

More than 400 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq this month . . . .

BBC News – Baghdad bomb blasts pile pressure on Iraq leaders – 10/29/2013.

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One may suggest that the invention of a religion synthesis the immediate concerns as well as habits of mind of the adapting and adopting culture, i.e., we invent our programs – sun worship or virgin sacrifice, holy emperor or more reasonably humble elected public servant — and then we live in them and call what we do “our culture” and our way and our calendar and our rites and our language.

Iraqis caught up in promoting and facilitating sectarian violence may be likened to dictators or mafia bosses: while we’re quick to notice the methods involved in making “offers that can’t be refused”, we’re slow to notice how dismally trapped — painted into their own corners, suffocated surrounded by their own mirrors — these personalities make themselves.

Having hitched their identity and honor to corruption, murder, and sadism, they’re “in it” but good with their associates behind them to keep them from backing up.

If that is the premise — and we could argue it some and it would probably hold up — what drives Iraq’s violence, what’s in the heart, i.e., combatant self-concept, has access to no program other than continued accelerated and escalated “gaming violence” and retribution.

Those who keep themselves out of it needs must passively, cautiously perhaps, weather it.

It’s a miserable condition in which to live with more moderate and productive passions and ends.

There are never enough dead for forestall the launch of one more attack.

And another.

Plus.

Appended

BBC News – Analysis: Iraq’s never-ending security crisis – 10/3/2013.

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FNS – ISW – War Fighting and Politics

17 Thursday Oct 2013

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Using these sources and methods, the Small Arms Survey has calculated that, worldwide, state militaries hold roughly 200 million small arms, out of a total of some 875 million firearms of all kinds.

Key findings of the Research Note include:

Just two countries (China and Russia) hold almost 25 per cent of the global total; and the top 20 countries hold 50 per cent;
Globally, military procurement of newly manufactured weapons outstrips destruction of surplus firearms;
A standardized international reporting system would be a great advance for global transparency and policy-making.

Small Arms Survey – Highlight: Research Note 34 – 9/2013

The organic qualities attending contemporary warfare may be underplayed by the mainstream press.  In swimming in the politics daily, it seems to me rare to see pieces on arms routing and supply.

Not too long ago and with Viktor Bout out in the wild, some interest seemed reflected in the press and in film (e.g., Lord of War, Blood Diamonds), but the etiology for the popular mind seems to have been let to go by the wayside, so here it may be refreshing as well as scary to NYT piece by former U.S. Navy Ordnance Disposal Officer John Ismay.

Apart from that, a fast tour of the war news looks about as usual — another bombing in Pakistan, a piece indirectly on the level of cooperation between anarchic Somalia and the Untied States, and some input on the field politics taking place in Syria between rebel forces less interested in theocracy and those hell bent on establishing just that.

Iraq

Al-Qaida surges back in Iraq, reviving old fears – Las Vegas Sun News – 10/17/2013.

Insight Into How Insurgents Fought in Iraq – NYTimes.com – 10/17/2013.

Report Examines MANPADS Threat and International Efforts to Address It – The FAS Blog – 10/11/2013.

This chart shows that the Iraq war was worse than we think – 10/16/2013.

Pakistan

Pakistani official killed in suicide bombing – Central & South Asia – Al Jazeera English 10/16/2013.

Somalia

We were informed of U.S. raid: Somali President – The Hindu – 10/14/2013:

“In the case of Barawe, we were informed. The way it happened, and the way it was planned was okay with us,” President Mahmoud said, describing Barawe as a target for further military action as the port had emerged as a safe haven and financial centre for Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda affiliated militia that took responsibility for last month’s attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi.

Syria

BBC News – Syria crisis: Who is fighting in the conflict? 10/17/2013.

Blast in Southern Syria Kills 21, Activists Say – ABC News – 10/15/2013.

Yemen

The Weekly Wonk | Drones Exposed & Wearable Galaxies – 10/17/2013.

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Violence Incoherent, Insensate, and In the Name Of

06 Sunday Oct 2013

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“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?”

Iraq: Children Killed In Playground Bombing – 10/6/2013.

Baghdad, 1 October 2013 – According to casualty figures released today by UNAMI, a total of 979 Iraqis were killed and another 2,133 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in September.

UN Releases Casualty Figures for September | ReliefWeb – 10/6/2013.

Related: Sectarian violence kills dozens in Iraq – CNN.com – 10/6/2013.

But a little over a year after it was suspended, the death penalty was reinstated by the new Shiite-led central government. A year later, in 2005, the executions, usually by hanging, resumed.

Since then, around 500 people have been executed, according to records kept by human rights observers including Amnesty International. During the first four months of this year alone at least 50 people were hanged.

In Iraq, executions rise as deadly attacks escalate | Al Jazeera America – 10/5/2013.

Iraq is one of the world’s most prolific executioners, as the government continues to battle against a high level of violence by armed groups. Hundreds of prisoners are currently held on death row. In 2012 a sharp rise in executions was recorded in Iraq making it the country with the third highest number of executions in the world, after China and Iran. At least 129 people were executed in 2012, almost twice the known total of 201 since the beginning of 2013 at least 83 people, including two women, have been executed.

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/017/2013/en/2c1cf331-1948-4e4e-bc58-7ec4548f9a11/mde140172013en.pdf

The civil war in neighboring Syria — itself a volatile, sectarian conflict — has spilled across the border, and Sunni jihadi factions are operating in both countries. Now, four months before the next parliamentary elections, Iraq increasingly appears to be spiraling toward a civil war.

Iraq’s Months of Sectarian Violence May Lead to a Civil War | TIME.com 10/1/2013.

The Iraqi government plans to form a division comprised of Iraqi Shi’a militia members. This planned division will be deployed in Baghdad. This development is recognition by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that current security measures are ineffective. While the formation of this division may appeal to the Iraqi Shi’a, it may lead to further discontent by the Iraqi Sunnis. Al-Qaeda in Iraq will capitalize on the formation of this division and seek new opportunities to escalate sectarian violence in Iraq. The formation of the division will damage Maliki’s credentials and likely lead to further instability.

The Baghdad Division: Iraqi Shi‘a Militia Elements to Form State-Backed Force | Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates – 9/27/2013.

For those who may take a special interest in Iraq. Stephen Wicken‘s blog on which the above quoted piece by Ahmed Ali appears, updates weekly.

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“Two mad wasps in a bell jar” — my analogy for Shia vs Sunni fighting in Syria would seem to hold up as well for Iraq, which looks to me to be dissolving into a purely retributive bloodbath of a civil war.

The UN’s count approaching 1,000 dead in Iraq in September appears in brief overview a reliable monthly rate with sources reporting 5,000 dead by way of political violence in the land since April of this year.

Related: Bullet-riddled corpses echo brutal Iraqi sectarian war | ReliefWeb 9/19/2013.

Saturday 5 October: 100 killed
Baghdad: 55 in bomb attacks.
Mosul: 5 by gunfire.
Balad: 15 by car bomb.
Baquba: 11 in separate bombings.
Yusufiya: 3 Sahwa members by IED.
Hawija: 3 Sahwa members by gunfire.
Muqdadiya: 1 by IED.
Tikrit: 3 (women and child) killed during clashes.
Falluja: 4 by gunfire, IED.

October casualties so far: 183 civilians killed.

Recent Events :: Iraq Body Count

The month is yet young.

Presuming that those remote to the fighting are nonetheless getting an accurate impression of Iraq’s fully functioning if entirely off-kilter slaughterhouse, one begs to ask about motivation on the part of killers, and never mind their affiliation.

“At the root of these attacks – said Msgr. Sako – is a strong tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni faction and this violence is clearly sectarian and confessional in nature.” In Kirkuk alone, the archbishop continued, there were four targeted killings of innocent people. “The aim – says the prelate – is to destabilize the country” because “the central government lacks unity and political force even within the same Shiite majority. There is great tension, there is no dialogue between groups and greater barriers are emerging “.

IRAQ Archbishop of Kirkuk: sectarian violence in Iraq “politically motivated” – Asia News – 9/10/2012.

Note the date!

Such explanations prove so good and useful that one may live with them for years . . . .

Related: Iraq will not become another Syria, says government, as car bombs kill 34 | Reuters – 8/15/2013; Sunni-Shi’ite Jihad in Iraq | FrontPage Magazine – 9/26/2013.

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It appears in Iraq that even such things as wanton destruction and murder may become habits, first of mind in excessively perceived oppressive, anxiety-ridden, paranoid, and infernal atmospheres, i.e., the bizarre, surreal, and untrustworthy atmosphere of a war zone, and then habits in activity and action: some population has long been accustomed to the presence of firearms, ammo, explosives and, this perhaps spelling the difference between a predominantly peaceful “gun ownership” and a restless one prone to violence, a mise en scene of explosions and shootings overlaying thousands of smaller but vicious acts of intimidation and suggestion.

There’s the madness of the wasps in the bell jar in that.

The state’s monopoly on violence, as in Hussain’s day, may suppress and reduce violence in the streets, but imposed along sectarian lines, or perceived as such, it will fail.

The battle that looks like Shiite vs Sunni may turn out an unformed middle — about to be called into being out necessity — against an habituated cast of aimless, mindless, morally bankrupt and vengeful war zombies today reduced to blowing themselves up among pilgrims and school children.

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Attacks Across Iraq Leave 66 Dead – YouTube – Rudaw English – 10/6/2013.

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No one who has retained either an ounce of their own courage or humanity can fail to see the inchoate and lost qualities in these deluded monsters who walk around with death their only real meaning.

While Robert Spencer noted recently, “. . . the idea that the Sunni-Shi’ite divide, which is 1,400 years old and goes all the way back to the murky origins of Islam, is something that can without undue difficulty be “overcome” is a sterling manifestation of the general superficiality of Washington’s analysis of the Middle East, during both the Bush and the Obama Administrations,” I would ask who is not fighting that fight today for the good reason they had on one day or another in this lifetime found the world changed when they opened their eyes.

Their numbers needs must dwarf these others.

Where are they?

Do they not understand what is killing them?

Habits of mind are like any other: one foregoes the behavior for a while, whether some form of gluttony or excessive passivity, and then, so one may hope, moves on to better thoughts and brighter days.

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Related: Iraq: Attacks Amount to Crimes Against Humanity | Human Rights Watch – 8/11/2013.

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Islamic Small Wars – A Few Days Toll in Death

22 Sunday Sep 2013

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▶ Westgate survivor: Ben recounts his narrow escape at Westgate mall – YouTube 9/22/2013

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From the following compilation alone, I tallied reports to 246 dead (rebels included) by way of Islamist violence in recent days.  I’m sure if I have miscounted, the figure is on the low side.  

Let’s round up: should “250 dead” in recent days prove high, somehow, we may wait half a day or a day, seldom more than two, and reality will catch up with it and overtake it.

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AL SHABAAB HITS KENYA, HOLDS HOSTAGES

From a report on the heavily armed assault on the very dangerous civilians shopping (like the one in the above video) at Westgate Mall, Nairobi, Kenya:

Gunmen stormed the mall about noon local time armed with grenades and assault rifles. They asked cornered victims if they were Muslim or non-Muslim, witnesses told the Associated Press. Non-Muslims were held, while Muslims were allowed to go free.

The al-Shabab group said the attacks were in response to a Kenyan military push into Somalia in 2011.

Americans injured in deadly Kenyan mall attack – POLITICO.com 9/21/2013.

*

Earlier reports —

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Fifty-nine dead. At least 175 injured. About 30 hostages still inside, as well as perhaps a dozen gunmen.

Those are the grim numbers, a day after attackers stormed an upscale Nairobi mall, spraying bullets and holding shoppers captive.

Kenya mall attack: About 30 hostages still inside, sources say – CNN.com 9/22/2013

Related: Al-Shabaab Attack Fulfills Threat in Kenyan Support for Somalia – Bloomberg 9/22/2013

Americans injured in deadly Kenyan mall attack – POLITICO.com 9/21/2013

Hostages Trapped Inside Nairobi Shopping Mall : The Two-Way : NPR 9/21/2013

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Afghanistan “Insider Attack”

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan wearing a security forces uniform turned his weapon against foreign troops Saturday, killing three in eastern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan officials said, in another apparent attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies.

NATO: 3 troops killed in Afghan insider attack – Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com 9/21/2013

***

In Peshawar, Pakistan Today

A TWIN suicide bombing has killed more than 70 people at a church service in northwest Pakistan, the attack believed to be the deadliest on Christians in the country.

The bombers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has borne the brunt of a bloody Islamist insurgency in recent years.

More than 70 killed at Pakistan church | The Australian 9/22/2013

The death toll figure has risen to 78 in many reports:

(Reuters) – A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year-old church in Pakistan after Sunday Mass, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim South Asian country.

Suicide bombers kill 78 Christians outside Pakistani church | Reuters 9/22/2013

***

Reports from the Philippines

Five rebels and a 71-year-old woman were killed Saturday as fighting dragged on in a southern Philippine city between government troops and Muslim insurgents holding out with about 20 civilian hostages, officials said.

6 More Die as Fighting Drags on in Philippine City – ABC News 9/20/2013

Related: Philippine leaders says Muslim armed challenge over soon | GlobalPost 9/22/2013

***

Near Azaz, Syria

Hundreds of fighters under the command of the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) have reportedly switched allegiance to al-Qaeda-aligned groups, in a move described as a huge blow to moderate rebel forces.

Activists and military sources have told Al Jazeera that the 11th Division – one of the biggest FSA brigades – has switched allegiance to the al-Nusra Front in Raqqah province, a border province with Turkey.

FSA brigade ‘joins al-Qaeda group’ in Syria – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

***

A Pool of Blood in Iraq

Two suicide bombers, one in an explosives-laden car and the other on foot, struck a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in a Shia neighbourhood in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks around Iraq that killed at least 96 people on Saturday.

Iraq violence: suicide bombers kill at least 72 at Baghdad funeral | World news | theguardian.com 9/21/2013

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Iraqi officials say two separate bombings, including a suicide car bomb attack, have killed two security force members and wounded 37 people in the country’s north.

Bombings in Northern Iraq Kill 2, Wound 37 – ABC News 9/22/2013

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Yemen

(CNN) — Militants killed 18 soldiers and eight police officers in south Yemen Friday morning, security officials said.

The attacks targeted installations in Shabwa province on Friday morning, the officials said. They said the attackers used car bombs and heavy artillery.

Yemen: Militants attack military, police installations, kill 26 – CNN.com 9/20/2013

***

Abuja, Nigeria

The shoot out took place near the main residential compound for lawmakers in Abuja on Friday and was the first clash involving Islamist militants in the capital this year.

Boko Haram fighting Nigerian troops in Abuja – Telegraph 9/20/2013

Related: BBC News – Nigeria’s ‘Boko Haram’: Abuja sees security forces targeted 9/20/2013

Additional Reference

BBC News – General killed as Egyptian forces raid pro-Morsi town September 19, 2013.

Kurds push jihadists from Syria village: NGO – Region – World – Ahram Online September 18, 2013

Has Syria Got a Prayer? Attacks on Christian Churches Near Damascus | National Review Online Interview with Raymond Ibrahim, September 7, 2013.

Syrian troops storm central village, killing 15 | Boston Herald September 22, 2013.

Syrian Christians may get pulled into war September 21, 2013.

Iran’s Chemical Weapons Double-Bind and the Effects of American Poor Judgment

06 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Regions, Syria

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It seems as though the Iranian government is certain about the damning evidence that confirms the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons. This causes an ethical dilemma for the Islamic Republic, including in how it presents the case to its citizens. Turning a blind eye to this information would also undermine the decades-long attempts by the Iranian government to punish those responsible for targeting citizens with a similar campaign during the Iran-Iraq war, using internationally banned chemical weapons. Iranian records indicate that the Iranian government is seeking to prosecute 400 international companies accused of providing assistance in the field of chemical weapons to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime (Al Jazeera Net, 2007).

Alsmadi, Fatima.  “On Syria: Has Iran Begun to Back Down?”  World Affairs, September 4, 2013.

His breath was loud and hard, his mouth open wide as he struggled to force air into his lungs. ”I am,” said Muhammad Moussavi, a ”living martyr.”

Almost 15 years after Iran’s war with Iraq ended, Mr. Moussavi and thousands of others like him are painful reminders of the long-lasting effect of Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in that eight-year conflict.

Sciolino, Elaine.  “Threats and Responses: The Iranians; Iraq Chemical Arms Condemned, but West Once Looked the Other Way.”  The New York Times, February 13, 2003.

Reagan was wrong!

Bush was too.

In part.

And the reason why is in the reaping today: “By any means necessary,” is not only never necessary — for whatever it may be, there are plenty of means limited only by imagination, perhaps, and a little money: on this, in fact, on might at last take a lesson from the Mujaheddin — but the lapse of ethical and moral investment in choice, even in war, perhaps especially in war, provides The Enemy opportunity for smug one-upmanship the next historic day.

In this way, the pot rightly calls the kettle black.

In the course of Iran’s brutal eight-year war with Iraq, it turns out President Reagan knowingly shipped dual use “poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses” — including anthrax and bubonic plague — to Saddam Hussein.

When in 1988, Hussein gassed Kurdish forces, the White House, by comparison with the same today, seemed . . . complacent.

This line of rant gets a bump with George W. Bush’s poker-faced claim about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear WMD capability, a claim helped along, actually, by Saddam’s own belligerent deflections of UN inspections.

Nonetheless, Iraq didn’t have those goods, and Bush, the CIA, Colin Powell, and the United States of America not only lost some integrity in the matter but took on the mantle its idiot enemies — far worse, as such tykes go — would give it: i.e., a big, clumsy, lumbering imperial power.

Of course, he who points that finger  — or those who point it most often — should point it back at himself (themselves).

Moreover, such American misdeeds in still recent history may be mightily overshadowed by presence and depth of evil involved.  Truly, Saddam Hussein was not such a nice guy.

* * *

In the headlines as I type:

BBC News – Tony Blair: Iraq War made UK ‘hesitant’ over Syria intervention

The Iraq Hangover: Lawmakers Who Backed War Now Skittish On Syria

Evidently, while flinging spittle at the Zionist Entity for the cause of entertaining its ignorant masses, Iran has a serious (gasp!) ethical dilemma going with Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

Chain murders?

Evin Prison?

No problem.

Then noted by Fatima Alsmadi in the above cited World Affairs piece: “The Martyr Foundation claims that 100,000 people in Iran were injured as a result of exposure to chemical gases during that war.”

If there’s a real basis for justice in the world, it may not be in what some (or one) may think God told them.

It may reside in this one fragment of thought indicating a glimmer of appreciation and consideration for others as well as one’s self: “Because it could happen to you.”

Updates

9/8/2013

At the German Bundestag Parliament in Bonn, then- German opposition leader Rudolf Dessler told CNN radio that German firms circumvented the ban on Germany exporting such lethal substances through a loophole allowed German firms to establish subsidiaries in the US, in an arrangement that operated with the full consent of the German government.

These firms worked on contractual arrangements with clearance and confidentiality agreements signed with the US Department of Defense.

Sanction Germany: Supplier of WMD Technology to Syria | David Bedein | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

The truth always comes out, always makes sense or, technically, proves robust, fitting ever more tightly with other pieces of knowledge.

Kenneth R. Timmerman – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 1987 to 1993, Timmerman published the Middle East Defense News and was international correspondent for Defense Electronics. He also wrote monographs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center on efforts by Iraq , Syria and Libya to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Iran, Syria and Libya Amassing Huge Arsenals, New Report Says | Jewish Telegraphic Agency 8/2/1992:

Named in the current report are 300 firms in 36 countries, which have supplied Iran, Syria and Libya with “dual-use” technology — materiel and equipment ostensibly for civilian uses but easily diverted to military purposes.

Germany led the list with 100 companies, followed by the United States, France and Britain. Timmerman noted, however, that Germany has recently enacted tough new laws to “prevent German companies from creating another Iraq.”

Additional Reference

Dobbs, Michael.  “U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup: Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds.”  The Washington Post, December 30, 2002; republished on Common Dreams.

Kessler, Glenn.  “History lesson: When the United States looked the other way on chemical weapons.”  The Washington Post, September 4, 2013.

Ohlheiser, Abby.  “New Docs Detail U.S. Involvement in Saddam’s Nerve Gas Attacks.”  The Atlantic Wire, August 25, 2013.

Other Fast Reference

Keep Us in the Loop – By Jeffrey Lewis | Foreign Policy:

What the United States has not done is provide the evidence itself — the satellite images, communications intercepts, and other data that would allow a fair-minded observer to reach the same conclusion on more than blind faith in the competence and integrity of our political leaders and intelligence services.

Behind the walls of Iran’s Evin Prison | World | DW.DE | 27.05.2013

Iran–Iraq War – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anne Applebaum: Syria and Obama’s mixed messages – The Washington Post 9/4/2013

Obituary: Saddam Hussein | World news | theguardian.com

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Q&A – A Comment on Iraq by Abdelwahab Al Jaza’iri In Dubai

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Middle East

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Q: Setting aside Iranian and other outside influence, do you view Shiite-Sunni rivalry and cultural-political organization of Iraqi society as modifiable or irreparably fixed?

A: It wasn’t much of a problem in the past – there was a time when Sunni and Shia Islamists cooperated against the influence of Sunni and Shia Arab nationalists. The problem of authoritarianism inevitably exposed that Sunnis controlled the top, and the rise of Islamism region wide pushed the Shiite protesters of the 1970’s to clash with the Sunni security apparatus. (The first major clash was in 1936 during which a Shiite revolt was brutally put down). The rise of Shiite Islamism in neighbouring Iran created a collusion between Arab nationalism and Sunni Islamism that persists today. Even Lebanese and Syrian Shiites and Alawis are publicly vilified as Persians in all kinds of derogatory language. 

It is absolutely modifiable. But given the damage that’s been done, and the resilience of the forces driving it, it may well last for decades more.

Source note: I asked the question on a closed Facebook group, and the respondent, Abdelwahab Al Jaza’iri in Dubai, provided what I’ve accepted as a very good and distilled answer providing background for recent events in Iraq, and it is with his permission that I post the same here.

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