THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ, TENTH THREAD.

How about we:
-Remove Bush and his cronies from leadership before things can get worse?
...
Cycloptichorn

Kurdish leader bans Iraqi flag
Abdelhamid Zebari
AFP
September 1, 2006

ARBIL, Iraq -- The leader of northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has ordered officials not to fly the Iraqi national flag, in a further sign of the country's separatist tensions.

"According to the Kurdistan Administration of Iraq's decree number 60, we decide to hoist the flag of Iraqi Kurdistan officially on all offices and government institutions in the Kurdistan region," a statement from Kurdish President Massud Barzani's office in Arbil said Friday.

The order said that "regions in Iraq's Kurdistan which have been hoisting the Baathist flag should lower it and hoist only the Kurdistan flag."

Iraq's Kurdish minority associates Iraq's red, white, and black banner with the ousted leader Saddam Hussein's hated Baath party, although it has been retained as the national flag by the post-Saddam government in Baghdad.

On May 7 the Kurdish administrations of Arbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces were united with one parliament and government for the whole of the northern Kurdish region, which enjoys broad self-rule.

Before unification some official buildings in the Sulaimaniyah region - which was ruled by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - used to hoist the Iraqi flag along with the PUK party flag.

Barzani's Arbil administration never hoisted the Iraqi flag.

Last year Barzani, the current leader of the Kurdish region, said that Iraq's flag "dates back to 1963 since when many pogroms and mass-killings were committed in its name. Therefore, it is impossible to hoist this flag in Kurdistan."

Iraq's Kurdish minority has enjoyed wide autonomy since Saddam's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait and strongly supported the 2003 US-led invasion which unseated him.

Since Saddam's fall Kurdish politicians have taken part in national politics and put their historic demands for independence on hold but, as violence rages around the country, separatist tensions remain high.

In April 2004 the then interim government of Iraq attempted to resolve the controversy over the flag, which is emblazoned with three green stars and the legend "God is greatest," by proposing a new national banner.

The new blue and white design, however, caused much controversy - some felt that it was too close to the Israeli flag - and it was swiftly abandoned.

Most Arab Iraqis accept the 1963 design as their national flag, although the design of the Islamic slogan - which was reportedly based on Saddam's own handwriting - has been changed to a generic typeface.

Kurdistan's banner is three red, white, and green horizontal bars emblazoned with a golden sun motif. It flies across the Kurdish region over government buildings and military bases.

Some Kurdish official bodies fly Iraq's 1958-63 flag, which was Abdel Karim Qassim's republic after he overthrew the monarchy in preference to the later Iraqi symbol and its Baathist associations.

ican,

The date IBQ updates their numbers has nothing to do with the month people are killed in. It only is the date that a death was added to their database.

Who or what is IBQ? The data I post comes from IBC (i.e., Iraq Body Count).

On May 7th, 2006 IBQ added roughly 1390-1420 deaths because they added both the Feb and March morgue numbers that day. I notice you don't use May as a seperate month. What was your total for the end of March?

Your statements mischaracterize what IBC does and what I do with what IBC does. IBC posts the actual dates of violent civilian deaths as well as the dates of the morgue reports when it posts morgue reports. In August for example, IBC posted this:

[quote="IBC"]
k3703 18 Aug 2006 -
19 Aug 2006 overnight Muqdadiya - gunfire 1 1 VOI 19 Aug
KUNA 19 Aug
k3702 19 Aug 2006 - Mosul police patrol sniper fire 1 1 REU 19 Aug
NYT 20 Aug
x589 28 Apr 2006 -
4 May 2006 - near Taji Rafet Ibrahim "kidnapped and killed" 1 1 AFP 06 May
DPA 05 Jun
(morgue)
x588 2 May 2006 -
4 May 2006 - Resident of Sadr City: body found at Baghdad city morgue Ali Hassan al-Duri gunfire; also "signs of electric shocks on his body" 1 1 AFP 06 May
DPA 05 Jun
(morgue)

FROM IBC DAILY COUNTS AS OF August 24, 2006
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

01/01/2003 through 12/31/2005 = 36,859; 36,859 / 36 = about 1,024 per month;

01/01/2003 through 05/31/2006 = 42,922;

01/01/2003 through 06/30/2006 = 43,778;

01/01/2003 through 07/31/2006 = 44,911;

01/01/2006 through 05/31/2006 = 42,922 - 36,859 = 6,063;

January 2006 = 6,063 / 5 = about 1,213;

February 2006 = 6,063 / 5 = about 1,213;

March 2006 = 6,063 / 5 = about 1,213;

April 2006 = 6,063 / 5 = about 1,213;

May 2006 = 6,063 / 5 = about 1,213;

June 2006 = 43,778 - 42,922 = 856;

July 2006 = 44,911 - 43,778 = 1133;

01/01/2003 through 08/24/2006 = 45,613;

08/01/2003 through 08/24/2006 = 45,613 - 44,911 = 702; (702 / 24) x 31 = about 907.

Iraqi forces have taken full military control of only one province so far -- Muthanna, in a relatively calm area of southern Iraq -- but Maliki said they would soon take security responsibility of the area around Diwaniyah, in Qadisiyah province.

Idiocy, to compare Soros to Bush.

That's really out there for you, Ican.

Cycloptichorn

The Constitution of the United States of America
Effective as of March 4, 1789
...
Article III
...
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

How many of those Iraqi units are capable of taking control of a whole providence completely on their own? Answer, one.
...

Perhaps we should take Venezuela. :wink:

Attacks up by 15 percentSpreading outside Baghdad
It said sectarian violence has spread from Baghdad into Diyala and Kirkuk provinces north of the capital. It also cited a rising problem with violence in the predominantly Shiite southern region, especially in the city of Basra.

"The security situation is currently at its most complex state since the initiation of Operation Iraq Freedom," the report said, using the U.S. military's name for the war that was launched in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

Although it acknowledged the risk of civil war, the report said the current violence does not amount to civil war and asserted momentum toward a civil war can be stopped.

"Breaking the cycle of violence is the most pressing goal of coalition and Iraqi operations," it said.

The release of the report comes as the Bush administration pursues a campaign to bolster sagging U.S. public support, with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others attacking critics two months before U.S. congressional elections.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14622992/

ICAN PREDICTIONS MADE IN JUNE 2006

1,050 Iraqi civilians died violently in June 2006.

950 Iraqi civilians died violently in July 2006.

850 Iraqi civilians died violently in August 2006.

http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Paine/Crisis/Crisis-TOC.html

The American Crisis
by Thomas Paine
(1776 - 1783)
...
I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city [Philadelphia]; should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the Tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory may never more be mentioned; but should the Tories give him encouragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.
...

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Idiocy, to compare Soros to Bush.

That's really out there for you, Ican.

Cycloptichorn

You are right! George Soros has been many orders of magnitude more destructive than George Bush. One order of magnitude in this context is a factor of 10.

George Soros and the faithful adherents to his particular gospel of pseudology (i.e., falsity or lying), have encouraged IT to keep on killing non-combatants, and have thereby made the Afghanistan and Iraq efforts to secure democracies there, far more difficult and deadly than they would have been had he early on been removed from control of the Democratic party. I'll give that damn pseudology gospel an acronym: GSPG = George Soros Pseudology Gospel.

IT = Islamo Totalitarians (e.g., Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Baathists).

GSPG gives "aid and comfort" to IT, the enemy of humanity in general and of Americans in particular.

emphasis by ican

Quote:

The Constitution of the United States of America
Effective as of March 4, 1789
...
Article III
...
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.