The UN, US and Iraq IV

Not sure I follow you re demographics, CdK ...
And as far as the mindset and motive of the attackers, I clearly think there is a mix of socio-political agenda and simple predatory, criminal, opportunity grabbing. Some of the violence is directed specifically at impeding the Coalition. Some, such as carjackings, robbery, rapes, drug trade, smuggling, and murder are decidedly apolitical.

Re demographics the US military itself has poor data on what demographics make up the attacks. You appear to be better informed than they.

As to the rest of these crimes there are places with worse crime rates. Are we going to bring it to the "bad guys" in every crime ridden alley as well? "Take" land and fight them on their terms? Or is the notion of "bad guys" who need land "taken" from them decidedly more complicated than that? My point is that you've treated geopolitics like a novel, with it's hero villain and foils. Far more simplistics than life tends to be

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

The Red Cross and Terrorism
The Red Cross have started pulling out their personnel. A friend of mine who works with the Red Crescent said that they were going to try to pull out most of their personnel, while trying to continue with what they're doing- humanitarian assistance. When I heard Nada Domani, the head of the ICRC in Iraq, say that they'd begin pulling out their personnel on Tuesday, I wished I could yell out, "Don't abandon us Nada!" But I realize that their first priority is to ensure the safety of their employees.

The Red Cross is especially important at this point because they are the 'link' that is connecting the families of the detainees and the military. When someone suddenly disappears, people go to the Red Cross and after a few grueling days, the missing person can often be tracked down at one of the prison camps or prisons.

The easy and na�ve thing to do would be to blame the whole situation on fundamentalists/extremists/terrorists/loyalists/ba'athists/foreigners which many people, apparently, think are one and the same. Another trend in western media is to blame the whole of them on the 'Sunni triangle' and 'neighboring countries'.

There are *several* groups orchestrating the attacks against the various targets. The first and most obvious indicator is the method of attack, while the second indicator is the variety of the targets.

The techniques being used in the attacks range from primitive, to professional. We hear that some of the explosive devices being used are home-made and uncomplicated, obviously made by amateurs. We know for a fact that there are high-tech attacks against Coalition headquarters- like at the Baghdad International Airport and some of the palaces where high-ranking army personnel are located. On some of these places, like the airport, missiles are being used which is an indicator that the source of the attack is a highly trained group.

One of my uncles lives in one of the areas closer to the airport, which is on the outskirts of Baghdad. During June, we spent a couple of weeks with him. Almost every night, we would wake up to a colossal explosion that seems to be coming from the direction of the airport and less than a minute later, the helicopters would begin hovering overhead. Another example of a high-tech attack, was the attack on Rasheed Hotel a few days ago, where Wolfowitz was shocked and awed out of a meeting. (I don't understand why the CPA is trying very hard to pretend the attack had nothing to do with his presence there).

The majority associate such attacks with resistance and many people believe that they are being carried out by people with access and knowledge of advanced military equipment- perhaps Iraqis who were a part of the Guard or former members of the Iraqi army. Now, while some may certainly be labeled as Ba'athists, or loyalists, they aren't fundamentalists. We do, after all, have hundreds of thousands of disgruntled former military personnel and soldiers who were made to sit at home without retirement, a pension or any form of compensation. The relatively few who were promised a monthly 'retirement wage', complain that they aren't getting the money. (I can never emphasize enough the mistake of dissolving the army� was anyone thinking when they came up with that decision?!)

New resistance groups are popping up every day. The techniques are becoming more sophisticated and we even hear of 'menshoorat' being passed around. Menshoorat are underground 'fliers'.

The suicide bombings, on the other hand, are more often attributed to fundamentalist groups. To say that these groups are fighting to bring back the former regime is ridiculous: People chose to ignore the fact that the majority of fundamentalists were completely against the former regime because members of Al Qaeda, Ansar Al Islam, Al Da'awa and other political fundamentalist groups were prone to detention, exile and in some cases, execution.

These groups are both Sunni and Shi'a fundamentalist groups (as the attacks on the British and Polish troops in the southern region have proven). Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack on Baghdad Hotel a couple of weeks ago, while in the south, people swear that one of Al Hakim's personal bodyguards helped to conspire with his assassination (which would explain how a car full of explosives made it through his personal army of bodyguards and into the parking area where his own car was).

The irony is hearing about the 'War on Terrorism' on CNN and then tuning in to the CPA channel to see the Al-Da'awa people sitting there, polished and suited, Puppet Knights of the Round Table. To see Al-Jaffari, you almost forget that they had a reputation for terrorism over the decades, here in Iraq. They were one of the first political/religious groups to use bombings in Iraq to get their political message across to the people.

Their most famous debacle was one that occurred in 1980. One of the most prominent universities in Iraq, Mustansiriya University, was hosting a major, international conference on economics for various international youth groups. Tariq Aziz, who was then the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Iraq, was visiting the conference during the opening. Suddenly, in the middle of thousands of students from over 70 international and Iraqi youth organizations, two bombs exploded, killing 2 students and injuring dozens. The next day, while a demonstration of outraged students was following the funeral procession to a local graveyard, two more bombs were thrown in their midst, killing two high school students. Al-Da'awa later claimed responsibility.

Later that same year, in an attempt to assassinate the president of the University of Technology in Baghdad, they instead killed one of the university custodians who stood in their way.

In the '70s, members of Al Da'awa used to throw 'acid' in the faces of 'safirat' or females who don't wear the 'hijab', both in certain parts of Baghdad, and in certain areas in the south of Iraq. Shi'a clerics who didn't agree with their violent message, were often assassinated or assaulted.

The fact that they are currently one of the leading political parties involved with the "New Iraq" sends a wonderful message to 'terrorist organizations': Bombing works, terror works. People here are terrified we'll end up another Afghanistan� that these fundamentalist groups the CPA is currently flirting with are Iraq's Taliban.

Finally, there are all those strange, mystery attacks that no one understands and even the most extreme members of society can't condone or legitimatize. One such attack includes the attack on the UN headquarters. No one claimed responsibility for that. Another such attack was the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad� the Red Cross, the police stations... Many people believe that Al-Chalabi and his party are responsible for such incidents. Some of his guards are trained terrorists...

Al Chalabi arrived in April with a militia of Free Iraqi Fighters who, after several weeks of car hijacking, a few abductions, and some even say assassinations, suddenly disappeared� his 600+ thugs were supposedly 'interpreters'. I have very limited information on them, but someone said they were trained in Hungary? Today, people think they are acting as a sort of secret militia responsible for many of the assassinations and explosions all over Baghdad.

I'll blog about Ramadhan tomorrow� there's so much to tell.

BTW, are you able to substantiate your assertion that we have killed more innocents than Saddam had?

insurgent attacks have killed more innocent Iraqis and noncombatant third-nation citizens than have Coalition actions, so far as I know.

Another things Iraqis who work for the CPA or related offices are not allowed to have is Breakfast. If you are seen in the Cafeteria during the breakfast period your badge gets taken away from you and without a badge you get booted out of the compound. I talked to a couple of young women working for the CPA in the green zone and what they told me was very interesting, it seems from what they have been telling me that the ratio of women to men on there is much higher than the normal work space (if you exclude banks, it is very much women's domain don't ask me why) that is interesting by itself added to that Iraqis never get promoted to anything, they stay at "level zero". The maximum pay is $15 a day and in order to be on time for the start of the working day you have to start queuing from 6am because of the long lines at the entrance gates. This lining up is one thing they are all freaked out about, all except the Americans in their green zone. Both women I talked to have been warned against telling anyone their home address and the communication between Iraqis in there is not very good, you don't want to tell someone where you live only to start getting phone calls telling you stop helping the Americans. This has happened quite often. So although they have this on their minds all they time thay still come to their jobs, yes the pay is good but if they stop coming the "coalition" will be in the blind. They depend on these people to be their link to the "outside" world. And what do they do to insure they safety? They make them wait for hours in lines outside the green zone. The 14th of July Bridge and the Jumhuriya Bridge entrances are very nice places for any sort of saboteur. You only have to drive by with a Kalashnikov to mow down the Iraqis. Look these people are working for you and don't tell me you don't need them because that would be a lie, do you want to bring your own civil servants into a war zone? So the least you can do is not to make them into sitting ducks like the Iraqi police now are. This is another thing I would like people to pay some respect to. Iraqi Police kick major ass. Much respect. Wherever you go now and open up that subject you will see a lot of sympathy with those brave men and women and a total incomprehension to what this so called resistance is doing. They are killing Iraqis now. They say Jihad against the Infidel Occupier and they go kill those Iraqi police men. The Baghdad Hotel, the Turkish embassy and many more. It is not the Infidel the attackers are killing but Iraqis and this just might be good because the general sentiment now is "what the **** do the Jihadis think they are doing?". I wrote or said some time ago that most Iraqis are just sitting on the fence, well the last couple of attacks are tipping the balance against the Jihadis because they are killing all those Iraqis, they are putting bombs in streets and in front of schools, threatening to bomb banks where Iraqis are standing in line waiting to get their new Iraqi Dinars. So as we say here [biha saleh - something good will come out of it] maybe the people who are dying in those attacks are helping us understand that what those saboteurs are doing is just pure evil, telling people they are Muslim Jihadis doesn't cut it anymore because they are killing civilians indiscriminately.
:: salam 8:40 PM [+] ::

Iraq's soccer coach blasts U.S.-led coalition
[size=7]Copyright © 2003 Nando Media
Copyright © 2003 AP Online [/size]

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (November 3, 2:24 a.m. AST) - Iraq's soccer coach criticized the U.S.-led coalition for ignoring the needs of the national team and threatened to resign unless authorities help the squad prepare for the upcoming Asian championships.
"In a country without any working cinemas or theaters, where people are afraid to go out at night, the successes of our team are a matter of huge national pride," Bernd Stange said Sunday. "That's important for the return of normalcy. Doesn't the coalition, doesn't Paul Bremer understand this?"

Stange, from Germany, complained that Bremer, Iraq's chief U.S. administrator, had provided no support for the team and had not even called to congratulate the players after they qualified for the Asia Cup, the continent's most prestigious competition that will be played in China in June. The Associated Press called coalition spokesmen several times but they were either out of their office or would not comment.

Soccer is by far the most popular sport in this country of 25 million people, and the national team was considered a regional powerhouse in the 1980s. In 1986, its team took part in the World Cup in Mexico.

Stange, who used to coach East Germany and Australia's Perth Glory, took over the Iraqi national team in November. He remained outside the country during the U.S.-led invasion that ended in May with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Stange returned to Baghdad soon after to find the country's soccer infrastructure devastated by looters and the invading forces.

"I came here and found nothing, no balls, no nets, no funds, no competitions and no players," he said. "The main stadium had been turned into a parking lot for American tanks and its turf destroyed."

Stange quickly reassembled the team ahead of the qualifiers for the Asia Cup, which Iraq had to play in Malaysia and Bahrain because it was impossible to have home games.

"We started from zero and we had three months to prepare for the qualifiers, but we did it," he said. "We came ahead in our group of teams that had spent millions to get to China."

FIFA, world soccer's ruling body, and the Asian Football Confederation provided for funding and equipment and are assisting in refurbishing the national stadium and the soccer federation headquarters, which was destroyed during the war. The German Football Union paid for his team to come and train in Germany.

"Without that help we would not have been able to qualify for the Asia Cup at the top of our group," he said.

Stange lauded his "as extremely talented and motivated" players as well as the leadership of the Iraqi association, including interim president Hussain Saeed Mohamed and vice president Ahmed Rhady and other volunteers "who are working 20 hours a day without pay to revive the national league."

"But for the coalition, I only have hard words," Stange said. "I know that soccer is not the most important thing in life, but this country has always been crazy about the game and they should understand that our successes are helping boost morale and lift Iraq from the ashes."

He said that without an immediate infusion of money for soccer, it will be impossible to keep the national team together because all of its members have already signed or have been offered lucrative contracts in the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia.

"If there is no change, I will leave my job by the end of the year," Stange said.

In postwar Iraq, even the national coach is not immune to dangers. This week gunmen shot his driver in the leg, arm and head. On other occasion, Stange drove through a firefight between American troops and Iraqi fighters on the highway near the city of Fallujah.

Stange says he wants to remain in Iraq because he believes the team will do well in the Asia Cup and qualify for the World Cup in Germany in 2006.

"That's my plan, I want them to play in my country as a symbol of the new Iraq," said Stange.
Anchorage Daily

Rumsfeld gave the impression that the loss of one aircraft was worth it. But what is "it"? What are American troops actually doing in Iraq that makes their sacrifice, on balance, worth it?

Saddam is playing a subtle game. Far too subtle for George W.

armed Islamofacists and their travelling companions, the displaced Ba'athist thugs and assorted opportunistic brigands of indeterminate ideology