THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

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Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Badr: Foreign Troops Unneeded

The Badr Corps claims to be in military control of Muthanna province, including the city of Samawah. Regional Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri said Monday that Samawah is secure, and there is no need for Australian troops to be deployed there. The Dutch used to be stationed in Samawah but have gone home, and are due to be replaced by 450 Australian troops. In fact, local policing in Samawah has been supplied by the Badr Corps of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq for some time. At one point the Dawa Party militia was also patrolling there. Al-Amiri's comment is the opening salvo in a struggle for control of the Iraqi south, where Shiite religious parties now control the provincial councils and therefore the police and bureaucracy.

In a related development, Shiite cleric Sayyid Mahmud al-Hasani, a supporter of Muqtada al-Sadr in Karbala, led a demonstration on Monday in Baghdad demanding that US troops withdraw to camps outside the cities and establish a timeline for US withdrawal from Iraq. Some 2,000 persons gathered in West Baghdad. Monday was the commemoration day for the death of the 11th Imam or descendant of the Prophet. They said they wanted a complete withdrawal of US and coalition troops. Al-Hasani's representative in the holy city of Karbala, Sayyid Diya' al-Musawi, said, "We do not accept the presence of the Occupier on the land of the Fertile Crescent . . . They have been in our land for more than two years with no justification." He added, "We reject the sectarian conflict that the Occupier attempts to provoke." He noted that many Sunni Arabs accused the Shiites of supporting the American occupation, but said that he is now calling for a US withdrawal.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-04-18-border-violence_x.htm

Violence is 'off the chart' in area on Iraq border
By Elliot Blair Smith, USA TODAY

HUSAYBAH, Iraq ?- Uprooting the criminal gangs that control this violent border town and defeating a small but well-trained insurgent force here may be left to new Iraqi security forces when they begin moving into the western desert this year, Marine Maj. John Reed says.

Until Iraqi forces can be deployed to this remote outpost, a small contingent of Marines is focused on stopping foreign religious warriors, or jihadis, from entering Iraq, and rounding up insurgents that launch attacks here.

Untamed even by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the area has been a haven for insurgents, smugglers and thieves who wage daily battles among themselves in the city, Reed says.

Almost as frequently, he says, the combatants turn their automatic weapons, grenades and mortar blasts on Marines camped at the town's edge.

"We're facing a well-developed, mature insurgency with the support of the local population" of about 100,000 townspeople, Reed says. "There is no Iraqi security force here. They are not effective. There are no police. They are dead or doing something else."

In stark contrast to the inroads multinational forces have made in such hot spots as Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, Marines in Husaybah have been forced to hunker down in defensive positions. Their base, Camp Gannon, is named for Capt. Rick Gannon who died April 17, 2004, while leading an effort to rescue two sniper squads trapped on a rooftop in the city. Five Marines died that day in a fight against about 100 insurgents.

Unable for safety reasons to patrol the city on foot and in vehicles, troops are limited in their ability to gain important street-level intelligence. So the Marines primarily mount counterattacks on insurgents and criminals who fire into the camp. Last week, the Marines averted disaster when three car bombers backed by 30 insurgents assaulted the camp.

Marine Lt. Col. Tim Mundy, commander of the Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment, who oversees Husaybah from his base in Al-Qaim, about 10 miles away, says he believes many insurgents recently pushed out of Fallujah and Ramadi by coalition forces regrouped here even as foreign fighters continued to flow in from Syria.

Mundy, 40, says, "This is about as complex a situation as I can imagine any battalion facing."

The insurgents face not only the Marines but also resistance from two Sunni Muslim tribes. The Mahalowis and Salmanis historically controlled the town's cross-border trade. Reed says those tribes dominate the local criminal gangs, police and politicians. They feud with each other but unite to oppose the U.S. presence. "There was always violence here, and now it's much higher. It's off the chart. They're killing each other every day, and we're killing them," Reed says.

Saddam once talked of converting the area's smuggler trails into a major trade route from Syria through Baghdad to Kuwait. That ended with the Gulf War in 1991. In April 2003, U.S. forces entered Baghdad and toppled Saddam, but they didn't reach Husaybah until three months later.

Violence became routine here last fall after U.S. financial aid to the area dried up in anticipation of Iraq's provisional government taking over the local administration. That still hasn't happened.

In October, U.S. forces closed a border gate to constrict the flow into Iraq of foreign jihadis. But with trade shut down, merchants began to convert their shops into bombmaking studios, Reed says. Insurgents hired local youths to set the bombs and mines and fire on U.S. troops, and they terrorized families to get them to cooperate, he says. "When they go into a house, decapitate the men, rape the women and disappear with a few children, I guarantee you the rest are doing what they're told," Reed says.

New Iraqi security forces might help stabilize the situation when they are trained and arrive in the late summer or fall, Reed says. He adds, "If we go it alone, we will have a flash point like Fallujah. We're near that point now."

Reed says he has doubts about this border town's future.

"When the multinational force leaves, maybe the insurgency does," he says. "I don't think so. I think it has a higher goal: to make the new Iraq fail. What the future here is, it's kill them all. It really is. Or make them run somewhere else."

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Gelisgesti wrote:

Quote:

comment | Posted April 14, 2005
What I Didn't See in Iraq
by Jim McGovern

...

Quote:
Jim McGovern is the Representative of the Third Congressional District of Massachusetts.

Articles by Jim McGovern

What I Didn't See in Iraq
May 2, 2005 issue

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McTag wrote:

Although I suppose Ican is still smiling.

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revel wrote:

Quote:
... Marine Maj. John Reed says ...he has doubts about this border town's future.

"When the multinational force leaves, maybe the insurgency does," he says. "I don't think so. I think it has a higher goal: to make the new Iraq fail. What the future here is, it's kill them all. It really is. Or make them run somewhere else."

If the subverters, aka insurgents, like other pernicious enviers, run somewhere else, they will try to make that somewhere else fail.

The failure of all those who would make things better is highly coveted by all pernicious enviers. Possibly it's something in their genomes that compel them to seek and celebrate stifling more productive people rather than emulating them.

More evolution is required. Crying or Very sad

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Ican, that is one man's opinion about people. Being so close he may not may not be right about the insurgents desire.

What I was interested in was how there are still uncontrolled areas in Iraq. I believe when all is said and done we will have sections of Iraq that will be a new government albeit with violence and larger remote sections that will be ungoverned and violent.

(at least that is the impressions I am getting with reading about different things happening over there and judging by Afghanistan.)

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revel wrote:

...What I was interested in was how there are still uncontrolled areas in Iraq. I believe when all is said and done we will have sections of Iraq that will be a new government albeit with violence and larger remote sections that will be ungoverned and violent.

You may be right! I hope not! I hope that in a reasonable time, say within a couple of generations, both countries will become fully self-governed and civilized.

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Senate signals problems with Iraq funding

Washington, DC, Apr. 19 (UPI) -- In a symbolic blow to the Bush administration, the U.S. Senate has signaled its disdain for funding Iraq military operations outside the annual budget cycle.
Click to Visit

The Senate attached a non-binding resolution Monday evening to the $80.7 billion supplemental 2005 spending bill now being considered. The resolution said war funds should be allocated in annual budget requests from the White House.

Although other appropriations are included in the supplemental bill, including Indian Ocean tsunami relief funds and for ther U.S. military efforts, the main focus of the measure is to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and reflects the way the administration has funded those operations so far.

Receiving support from 21 Republicans, Senate Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd's, D-W.Va., amendment reflects a growing bipartisan unease with the limited oversight being given to the funding during a period of immense budget deficits.

Nevertheless, the overall measure will be surely approved in the end, but then must be reconciled with a competing House version of the bill.

Finally, a sign of testicular growth in the senate ... such as it is.

Source

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gel, I guess when it is crunch time idealism goes to the way side.

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You can fool some of the people all of the time and alll of the people some of the time ..... but you can't fool mom.. Wink

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Twelve NGOs representing Iraq's minority ethnic groups have promised to work together with the transitional government to ensure that minority rights will be protected under the permanent Iraqi constitution to be drafted by the new National Assembly.

The groups concluded a two-day conference in Baghdad today called "to highlight the fact that Iraqi minorities have the right to be involved in the preparation and writing of the new constitution to ensure our rights are the same as other groups such as the Muslims and Christians."
Citing concerns that there has been little follow-through on promises of government participation given by larger parties, conference participants said if they did nothing they were "afraid that we will lose our rights when they write the constitution."

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IRAQ: Religious and ethnic minorities want rights enshrined in new constitution
20 Apr 2005

Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 20 April (IRIN) - Iraqi NGOs, representing minority ethnic groups in the country, held a two-day conference in the capital Baghdad this week to ensure that their rights are enshrined in the new constitution being drafted by the transitional government.

"Through this conference, we have tried to highlight the fact that Iraqi minorities have the right to be involved in the preparation and writing of the new constitution to ensure our rights are the same as other groups such as the Muslims and Christians," director of the Iraqi Commission for Civil Society Enterprises (CCSE), Basel al-Azawi, told IRIN in Baghdad.

The event, organised by the CCSE, came to an end on Tuesday. It resulted in the formation of a committee which will liaise with the new government to ensure that minority rights are genuinely protected under the new constitution.

"Promises of participating in the new government were given from the bigger parties like the Shi'ite Iraqi Alliance, but nothing has been done so far and we are afraid that we will lose our rights when they write the constitution," a member of the Mandaean Democracy Congregation (MDC), working to protect the rights of the Mandaean community, Sameea Dawood Salman, told IRIN.

Iraq consists of a number of ethnic and religious groups. According to the US State Department, 97 percent of a population of 22 million people are Muslim.

Shi'ite Muslims, predominantly Arab, although some come from Turkomen, Kurdish and other ethnic origins, constitute 60 percent of the population. Sunni Muslims make up 37 percent and the remainder are Christians, comprised of Assyrians, Chaldeans, Roman Catholics and Armenians.

There are also a small number of Jews, Mandaeans, who follow the teachings of John the Baptist and Yazidis, who follow a mixture of religions. It is these smaller groups, particularly the latter two and the Assyrians, which are voicing their concerns.

The Yazidis live near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, with smaller communities in Syria, Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Armenia, and are estimated to number 500,000. The Mandaeans are smaller in number at some 100,000 and live mainly in southern Iraq, according to members of both groups.

Under the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, who ruthlessly promoted his Sunni brethren, a campaign of persecution against religious leaders and followers of the majority Shi'ites was carried out, as well as no acknowledgement of Assyrian, Chaldean and Yazidi groups, according to human rights observers.

In addition, the minority groups were not allowed to participate in elections with their own independent parties. Following the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003 and the 30 January election, minority religious groups want to make sure that there will be no more discrimination against them.

"The people from minorities who have been neglected after the [30 January] elections are some of the oldest residents in Iraq," Santa Mikhail, a member of the Assyrian Women's Union (AWU), told IRIN.

"We want to have a clear vision through the media and through the people who believe in our rights as Iraqi citizens and [we want] civil society foundations that care about minority rights," al-Azawi added.

Some 12 local NGOs, and many university professors and researchers participated in the event. "We are part of Iraqi society, we had original roots and civilisations on this land, but we are afraid that the winners in the parliament will forget or ignore us," director of the Iraqi centre for interlocutions and religion NGO, Khezhal al-Khalidy, told IRIN.

source: via Reuters

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Gelisgesti wrote:

Finally, a sign of testicular growth in the senate ... such as it is.

The politically correct form is, gonadal growth.

I assume you meant courageousness growth.

Cutting the US's Iraq development budget is one effective way to assure failure of Bush&Adm efforts to secure a democracy of the Iraqis own design. Assuring failure of these efforts doesn't require courage. It requires resentment sufficient to blind oneself to one's own enlightened self-interest.

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simply put ...balls Smile

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Gelisgesti wrote:

simply put ...balls

Eunuchs, "simply put," lost theirs too. Sad

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Walter, what do you think the chances are?

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No idea, really, Revel. I could imagine, however, some more long-lasting discussions.

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Quote:

No answer for reporters slain in Iraq
Posted by: azipser on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 01:42 PM Print article Printer-friendly page Email to a friend Send this story to someone
From Newspaper Guild - CWA
By Diana Barahona,
Northern California Media Guild, CWA

The story of Telecinco cameraman José Couso is familiar to most journalists. How, on the morning of April 8, 2003, he stood on a balcony of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, watching with other journalists and cameramen as a Third Infantry tank division exchanged fire with Iraqi forces. How, after a 35-minute lull in the battle, a tank commanded by Sgt. Shawn Gibson swung its cannon toward the hotel and, 10 minutes later, fired an incendiary shell. And how that one shell seriously injured three journalists and killed two, including Couso and Taras Protsyuk, from Reuters.

Two years later, there still has been no official independent investigation of the incident, nor any credible explanation of why an American tank crew was given permission to target a clearly identifiable landmark housing several hundred journalists. The Pentagon's claim that the tank was returning fire has been disputed by every reporter at the hotel who has spoken out on the event.

Indeed, Couso and Protsyuk were only two of 14 media workers slain in Iraq by U.S. forces without credible explanation, prompting the International Federation of Journalists to renew its demand that the U.S. properly investigate the various incidents. The demand was given additional impetus by the recent U.S. shooting of an Italian journalist who had been taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents.

Now Couso's younger brother, Javier, also has joined the fray, touring the U.S. in recent weeks to build support for an independent probe of the Palestine Hotel shelling. On the second anniversary of his brother's death he stood in front of the White House, joined in a memorial service by TNG-CWA members and other supporters.

"The recent attack on the Italian journalist shows yet again that the U.S. military has decided that journalists are fair game in Iraq," he explained. "We believe that a full, independent investigation is long overdue into the attack which killed my brother. Then, those responsible should be brought to justice."

Both the Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists sent letters April 8 to President George Bush, calling on the administration to "heed the requests from journalists around the world for an independent investigation into the record number of deaths among media staff covering the war in Iraq." The Pentagon's report on the shelling at the Palestine Hotel, wrote TNG-CWA President Linda Foley, "has been inadequate and unconvincing, raising more questions than it resolved."

But getting those answers has been an uphill battle for the Couso family, which has had to contend not only with Pentagon stonewalling but with its own government's indifference to requests that it pressure the U.S. for an independent inquiry.

To be sure, some progress has been made. Hundreds of supporters, including many journalists, protest outside the U.S. embassy in Madrid on the eighth of each month. Spain's new president, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, granted compensation to Couso's widow under a law to help victims of terrorism and asked Secretary of State Colin Powell for an explanation for the attack. Support is building in the European Parliament behind a demand for an independent investigation. And the family has filed a war crimes complaint under the Geneva Conventions against three U.S. officers.

But when asked about Couso's slaying, President Bush reflected an official American nonchalance about the incident by responding, "I think war is a dangerous place." The Pentagon report on the shelling had more menacing overtones, observing that "The media were repeatedly cautioned that the battlefield was a dangerous place and especially so for non-embedded reporters . . . News agencies were specifically advised that DOD could provide no guarantee of safety or any sort of specific warnings when it came to their reporters in Baghdad."

The same message was delivered last month to Reuters, which has been pressing for an investigation into the abuse of three of its employees by U.S. forces, including repeated beatings, torture and sexual humiliation. Despite the seriousness of these complaints, the Pentagon has never interviewed the Reuters' employees but has concluded that there is no reason to investigate further. Instead, it continues what appears to be a campaign of veiled threats.

"Of course, I reiterate my recommendation that you consider embedding your reporters with U.S. units," Lawrence Di Rita, special assistant to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wrote March 7 in response to the news service's request for a proper investigation. "It is an excellent opportunity to cover U.S. military activities in Iraq."

As if to make its meaning clearer, the U.S. actually attacked three media targets the morning it shelled the hotel, also bombing Al-Jazeera television?-killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub?-and attacking Abu Dhabi TV and its 25 trapped workers with small arms fire and a tank shell. Now battle lines are being drawn between those who think journalists should take orders from the Pentagon, and those who believe they should be respected as stipulated under international law. Ending impunity for military personnel who fire on journalists has become Couso's personal goal.

"My brother still lives in the memory of many people and he has become a symbol of attacks on journalists," he explains. "It's a titanic struggle, but it's worth it. It can't be cheap to murder journalists. There has to be effective protection, because freedom of information is a basic of a democratic society."

Although Couso's family has been assisted by individual journalists, it feels betrayed by the headline-grabbing Reporters sans Frontières (see March 11 GR), which took a high profile in the matter. While the Paris-based organization investigated some aspects of the shelling and announced its findings at a Madrid press conference, Couso's family saw the report just hours before its release and was dismayed by the conclusion: that the tank crew and its immediate superiors were "not to blame" since they "had not been properly informed by their own superiors."

The Cousos believe the RSF report does more to excuse the military than to clarify events, not least because RSF didn't talk to any journalists at the hotel?-only to those embedded with the tank crews. The family repeatedly has asked RSF, which receives U.S. government grants, to withdraw from their complaint.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists conducted a more thorough investigation, verifying that "Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists." Joel Campagna, CPJ senior program coordinator, is convinced that Sgt. Gibson was not aware of that fact when he fired the shell, but the report Campagna wrote raises several disquieting questions that challenge such a conviction?-as in this passage:

"For example, how is it possible for a tank officer to observe a person or persons with binoculars, wait 10 minutes for authorization to fire, according to the tank sergeant, and, during that interval, not notice journalists with cameras and tripods located on other balconies, or the large, English-language sign reading ?'Hotel Palestine'?"

What is certain is that Gibson received permission to fire from the tank company commander, Capt. Philip Wolford, who has given contradictory versions of the incident.

Despite such inconsistencies, the CPJ is not asking for an independent investigation, but rather has called for another investigation by the Pentagon itself. Nor is it seeking prosecution of military personnel who kill journalists. Nor has the well-connected organization offered any assistance to the Couso family or helped with Javier's tour, which was organized by a loose network of independent media and peace activists.

Nonetheless, Javier said he had been received sympathetically by U.S. journalists and others, as was evidenced when he spoke in Los Angeles before a clapping audience of 1,100. "Every day, I believe more and more that the Pentagon was right when it said it attacked the Palestine Hotel, Al-Jazeera and Abu-Dhabi TV in self-defense," he said, "because it has to defend itself from journalists who tell the truth."

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yea, they seem to like discussions. Which is a good thing.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=MJEKID2WNNEJSCRBAEOCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=8250319

Iraq Govt Seen Delayed; Violence Hits Baghdad
Thu Apr 21, 2005 06:09 AM ET
21, 2005 06:09 AM ET

By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Last-minute disagreements appeared to have derailed Iraq's hopes of unveiling a government on Thursday, nearly three months after elections, with negotiations also strained by a surge in violence.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told Turkish television he did not think a deal could be reached, reversing hopes he expressed on Wednesday. Disagreement remained evident among the main factions -- Shi'ite Muslims, Kurds and Sunnis.

"I think the government will not be announced today ... We want to see the Sunni Arabs represented as well ... Negotiations also continue over the allocation of some posts," the Kurdish leader told Turkey's CNN Turk television in an interview.

Disputes surfaced at a meeting late on Wednesday, with caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who narrowly escaped assassination shortly after the talks, rejecting an offer to join the cabinet, sources involved in the negotiations said.

"The talks were going well, but the Shi'ites offered Allawi just two ministries, not the four that he wants, and he rejected the offer," one source said, referring to ministries offered to Allawi's political grouping.

"There was also continued disagreement over what ministries the Sunnis should get. The question really is whether the Shi'ites want to create a government of national unity, or just a Shi'ite-Kurd government," he said.

Shi'ite politicians said they were still hoping to announce a deal later in the day, but could not say when.

"We have made progress. An announcement will be made," said a senior official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main Shi'ite party.

There has been furious debate over the makeup of the government for nearly three months, since elections were held on Jan. 30, an event which handed power to Iraq's majority Shi'ite community after decades of Sunni Muslim domination.

The constant delays in forming a government have heightened tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis at the leadership level, and also appear to have fueled the insurgency.

RENEWED VIOLENCE

Immediately after January's election there appeared to be a tapering in militant activity, with the country buoyed by the fact that more than 8 million people had turned out to vote. But in recent weeks violence has returned.

Since early April there has been a marked step up in suicide car bombings, shootings and other attacks, both in Baghdad and around the country. In the past week, there have been almost 20 car bombings in the capital alone.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying foreign security contractors on the road to Baghdad's airport, killing two people. Their nationalities were not known.

Three foreign contractors were killed on the same stretch of road on Wednesday, and two U.S. soldiers were killed in the same vicinity the day before.

The road to the airport, not much longer than a few kilometers (miles) and flanked by U.S. military bases on both sides, remains one of the most dangerous stretches in the entire country, more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion.

The inability to secure the route, an essential link for military and civilian supplies, as well as the only safe point of entry and exit to the capital, has come to symbolize the difficulty U.S. forces have had in taking on the insurgency.

The surge in violence, underlined by the closeness of the assassination attempt on Allawi, one of the most protected men in the country, comes amid a general elevation in tension, especially between the Shi'ite and Sunni communities.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt in a statement on the Internet. The group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks over the last month.

Talabani said on Wednesday that the bodies of more than 50 people, believed to be those of Shi'ites said to have been taken hostage in the town of Madaen, near Baghdad, last week, had been found in the Tigris river south of the capital.

Shi'ite officials were the first to claim last Saturday that dozens of Shi'ites had been taken hostage by Sunni gunmen in Madaen, but searches of the town by Iraqi security forces failed to find any evidence of hostages or gunmen.

Some government and religious officials then suggested that the story had been fabricated for political purposes. That aggravated tensions and later led Shi'ite officials to say that evidence of the bodies had been found.

It is still not clear that the bodies found in the river are those of the people said to have been taken hostage. Police in the area say the bodies have been recovered over the past several weeks, not since the hostage crisis.

Talabani said details of the names of those killed would be released soon.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Lutfi Abu-Oun and Michael Georgy in Baghdad and Gareth Jones in Ankara)

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I don't think there can be any further dispute about what the invasion of Iraq was all about.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1464050,00.html

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Steve (as 41oo) wrote:

I don't think there can be any further dispute about what the invasion of Iraq was all about.

I read your reference article from the Guardian, and I agree with you! There should not be any further dispute about what the invasion of Iraq was all about.

Clearly, the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with the availability of oil. In fact the invasion of Iraq put the production of Iraqi oil at risk. Iraqi oil was more available when Saddam's regime governed Iraq than it is now. Not until the Baathist-al-Qaeda terrorists are exterminated will production of Iraqi oil meet pre-invasion levels.

The invasion of Iraq had to do with removal of the al Qaeda training bases in Iraq and the replacement of the Saddam regime with a government that would not allow those al Qaeda bases to be re-established once the US left Iraq.

Quote:

1. President Bush announced to the nation, Tuesday night, 9/11/2001, that our war was not only with the terrorists who have declared war on us, it is also with those governments that “harbor” terrorists. President Bush announced to the nation, to Congress and to the rest of the world, Thursday night, 9/20/2001, that our war was not only with the terrorists who have declared war on us, it is also with those governments that “support” terrorists. [Reference A]

2. Al Qaeda terrorist bases are necessary for the successful perpetration by al Qaeda terrorists of al Qaeda terrorism. [Reference A]

3. The US must remove those governments that persist in knowingly providing sanctuary for al Qaeda terrorist bases. [Reference A]

4. On 9/11/2001 there were terrorist training bases in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The terrorist training bases in Afghanistan were established in 1988 after the Russians abandoned their war in Afghanistan. The terrorist training bases in Iraq were re-established in 2001 after the Kurds had defeated them a couple of years earlier. [References A, B, C, D]

5. We invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 without obtaining UN approval and removed Afghanistan's tyrannical government, because that government refused to attempt to remove the terrorist bases from Afghanistan. [Reference A]

6. We invaded Iraq in March 2003 without obtaining UN approval and removed Iraq's tyrannical government, because that government refused to attempt to remove the terrorist bases from Iraq. [References A, B, D, E]

7. We are attempting to secure a democratic government of the Afghanistan people’s own design in Afghanistan primarily because such a government is presumed less likely to permit the re-establishment of terrorist bases there. [Reference A]

8. We are attempting to secure a democratic government of the Iraq people’s own design in Iraq primarily because such a government is presumed less likely to permit the re-establishment of terrorist bases there. [Reference A]

9. I think that only after this enormously difficult work is completed successfully, will the US again possess sufficient means to seriously consider invasions to remove any other tyrannical governments that refuse to attempt to remove terrorist bases from their countries.

References:

A. 9-11 Commission, 9/20/2004
www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm

B. Secretary of State, Colin Powell’s speech to UN, “sinister nexus,” 2/5/2003:
NEW LINK:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/17300.htm

C. “The Encyclopedia Britannica, Iraq”
www.britannica.com

D. "American Soldier," by General Tommy Franks, 7/1/2004
“10” Regan Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

E. Charles Duelfer's Report, 30 September 2004
www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_Report_Key_Findings.pdf

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THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

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