Weekly Commentary -- The Battle of Basra
by Rahul Mahajan, Empire Notes

It seems as if the fighting in Basra – and in Nasiriyyah and in numerous neighborhoods of Baghdad – is winding down, after claiming over 350 lives. It remains to be seen whether this violence will impact the much-quotes “success of the surge,” the dominant storyline in the U.S. media even though it was outdated even before the latest round of clashes.

The past week should remind us that one of the main elements of the “success of the surge” was actually Moqtada al-Sadr’s decision to order his Jaish al-Mehdi to stand down; no doubt, this was partly out of fear of the U.S. military and its heightened presence in Baghdad, but it was a responsible action nonetheless. Unfortunately, Sadr’s reward for his restraint was to be targeted in an attempt to rout his forces out of some of their strongholds in Basra.

IRAQ: Five Years, And Counting
By Dahr Jamail

WASHINGTON, Mar 18 (IPS) - Devastation on the ground and largely held Iraqi opinion contradicts claims by U.S. officials that the situation in Iraq has improved towards the fifth anniversary of the invasion Mar. 20.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, during a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavour".

According to the group Just Foreign Policy, more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion and occupation, now entering its sixth year. A survey by British polling agency ORB estimates the number of dead at more than 1.2 million.

Ottawa Citizen
March 26, 2003
Pg. A4
The 'coalition of the willing: ' 3 of 45 have sent combat troops to war;
many of the others will expect payback
Ian MacLeod

Canada's role in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan is indirectly providing more support to the U.S.-led war in Iraq than most of the nations in the coalition fighting Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci said yesterday.

Showtimes:

May 22 - 7pm
May 25 - 7pm

Brunswick Theatre
296 Brunswick Avenue (2nd Floor), Toronto Ontario

Toronto Premiere
With filmmaker David Martinez in person

A one hour documentary, not about soldiers, not about governments, but about Iraqi civilians and a handful of independent journalists in a country turned into hell. A cinema cerite narrative of daily life, disintegration, and the humor that ordinary people adapt when living in a war zone. Includes rare footage from inside besieged Fallujah, April 2004, and a Choubi music soundtrack provided by Sublime Frequencies. Unlike any Iraq movie you have seen.

by Paul Craig Roberts

Is the surge an orchestrated distraction from the real war plan?

A good case can be made that it is. The US Congress and media are
focused on President Bush's proposal for an increase of 20,000 US
troops in Iraq, while Israel and its American neoconservative allies
prepare an assault on Iran.

Commentators have expressed puzzlement over President Bush's
appointment of a US Navy admiral as commander in charge of the ground

By Dahr Jamail
Tuesday 25 July 2006

"Habibi, to live in Baghdad now is to live in a big prison," he told me
recently, "You stay in your home, and that's it. You only go out when
you must. So many are being killed daily, and you only hope that your
day to die is not today."

While reporting from Damascus for nearly two weeks, I've worked with my
interpreter from Baghdad who came out to meet me, Abu Talat.

The business of war in Vancouver
The WestEnder: http://www.westender.com/
By Sean Condon
Mar 23 2006
In the dusty and narrow streets of Baghdad, a U.S. Stryker combat vehicle carefully navigates itself through a volatile neighbourhood. Suddenly, a volley of gunfire from Iraqi insurgents descends upon the armoured tank. A sniper armed with a missile launcher seems to appear out of nowhere and fires a direct hit. "We're under attack," screams a U.S. soldier.
The Stryker is forced to retreat, and darts through the tight Baghdad back alleys until the coast is clear. A second U.S. soldier confirms that there is serious tire damage and goes to make an assessment.
It's at this point that a voice welcomes a computer user to the "Stryker battle damage assessment and repair virtual mobile training team," and a three-dimensional image of a bullet-torn tire appears onscreen. Fortunately, this street fight didn’t take place in Iraq, but in the Kitsilano head office of NGRAIN, a Vancouver-based high-tech software firm that has created a virtual training program with which U.S. soldiers in Iraq can practice their tire-repair skills.

Six Nations native protesters lock arms at a mass rally yesterday to stop housing construction on land they say still belongs to them.

No showdown with police at native rally to stop builders

By Paul Legall
The Hamilton Spectator
CALEDONIA (Mar 23, 2006)

More than a hundred native women including powerful clan mothers locked arms in a
human chain to block a police arresting party that never happened.

U.S. Strategy in Iraq
By Rahul Mahajan

Bush's new "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" is, indeed, a sorry mess of bullet points. Bush's rhetorical strategy on the war most closely resembles that of the old-fashioned American tourist in a foreign land who says "Where is the bathroom?" and then, when nobody understands, repeats it LOUDER: "You know, BATHROOM?"

And yet, notwithstanding the derision of liberals, there is a U.S. strategy in Iraq that has already had some success and may well have more.

Even though Bush has said it repeatedly, it's still true: the strategy is to create an Iraqi security force that will fight the counterinsurgency so the United States won't have to.

Good background on West Asian conflict, Iraq, and Kurdish self-determination struggles.
***
"Greater Kurdistan" Ambitions Could Spark Regional War

by Sarkis Pogossian
Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Nov. 1, 2005

It is now the Sunni insurgency in central and western Iraq that is drawing blood and media attention in Iraq, but the situation in the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan, at present the most peaceful part of the country, is waiting to explode—and holds far greater potential to internationalize the conflict. The Kurdish people, numbering some 20 million, were left off the map when the victorious allies carved new states out of the ruins of the Turkish Ottoman Empire after World War I. They are now divided mostly between Iraq and Turkey, with smaller populations in Iran and Syria. The emergence of a highly autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq has re-ignited ambitions for a "Greater Kurdistan" which would unite Kurdish lands across the borders of these four nation-states.

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 25 September 2005

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an
estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American
ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having
to import supplies from Israel.

A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds
of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five

Here are the highlights of this in-depth report. Check out the whole text at Foreign Policy in Focus.

By Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver and the IPS Iraq Task Force, August 31, 2005

"The Iraq Quagmire" is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs and consequences of the Iraq War on the United States, Iraq, and the world. Among its major findings are stark figures that quantify the continuing of costs since the Iraqi elections, a period that the Bush administration claimed would be characterized by a reduction in the human and economic costs.

Release them all!
by Iraqi Association of the Victims of American Occupation Prisons

The Association of the Victims of American Occupation Prisons (1h1050 NGO) was founded by Haj Ali, the former mayor of Abu Ghraib and the victim of US torture depicted on the photograph with the hood and the electrodes.

in the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful
we have honoured the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation. (israa' / 70)

American Obsession
The friction between Shia, Sunni and Kurd is likely to be exacerbated rather than muted
by Patrick Cockburn, August 24, 2005

At the beginning of the First World War, an Austro-Hungarian general led his army to catastrophic defeat against Serbia because he made a premature advance based on the need to mark the birthday of Emperor Franz Josef with a striking victory.

The determination of American diplomats in Baghdad over the past few days to force a draft constitution through the Iraqi national assembly at high speed is not aimed at producing a political success to coincide with the birthday of President George Bush. But it has everything to do with the desperate need of the White House, as popular support for the war in Iraq ebbs by the day across the US, to show that it is making progress. It is not Iraqi but American political priorities which are paramount.

Iraq has descended into chaos way beyond West-s worst-case scenario
By Patrick Cockburn

The Duke of Wellington, warning hawkish politicians in Britain against ill-considered military intervention abroad, once said: "Great nations do not have small wars." He meant that supposedly limited conflicts can inflict terrible damage on powerful states. Having seen what a small war in Spain did to Napoleon, he knew what he was talking about.

The war in Iraq is now joining the South African War (1899-1902) and the Suez crisis in 1956 as ill-considered ventures that have done Britain more harm than good. It has demonstrably strengthened al-Qaeda by providing it with a large pool of activists and sympathisers across the Muslim world it did not possess before the invasion of 2003. The war that started out as a demonstration of US strength as the world's only superpower has turned into a demonstration of weakness. Its 135 000-strong army does not control much of Iraq.

The Crawford Agreement: Another Secret Pact
By Adel Safty
Al-Jazeerah, June 16, 2005

In 1915 the English and the French governments entered into a secret pact, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, whereby they agreed to divide the Middle East among themselves after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. In 1956, the English, the French and the Israeli governments entered into a secret pact, the Sevres Agreement, whereby they devised a plan to attack Egypt in order to seize the Suez Canal and bring down Nasser's nationalist regime.

June 15, 2005
US dragged down by news from Iraq
By Jim Lobe, Asia Times On-line

WASHINGTON - Readers of the Pentagon's Early Bird news file, a daily compilation of about 50 stories circulated throughout the US national-security bureaucracy, could be forgiven on Monday for reaching for the Rolaids, a popular over-the-counter medication for queasy stomachs.

Iraq's future: the present course and the alternatives
by Dave Wearing; June 14, 2005

"There are some who feel like that if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about, if that's the case. My answer is, bring them on. We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation." George W. Bush -- 2 July 2003

"George W. Bush, you have asked us to 'bring it on.' And so help me, (we will) like you never expected. Do you have another challenge?" Iraqi resistance propaganda video -- 2004

State Sponsored Civil War
by Dahr Jamail; Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches, June 14, 2005

Yesterday at a conference in Baghdad, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent Shia leader who is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq announced, "In gratitude to the efforts, sacrifices and heroic positions of our brothers and brave sons from the Badr Organization."

"We must give them the priority in bearing administrative and government responsibilities especially in the security field," he added, while the "President" of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, listened on.

June 10, 2005
THE ROVING EYE
Exit strategy: Civil war
By Pepe Escobar

"In reality, the electoral process was designed to legitimize the occupation, rather than ridding the country of the occupation...Anyone who sees himself capable of bringing about political reform should go ahead and try, but my belief is that the occupiers won't allow him."
- Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr

As Shi'ites and Kurds fought for three months to come up with an Iraqi cabinet, it is emerging from Baghdad that soon a broad front will emerge on the political scene composed of politicians, religious leaders, clan and tribal sheikhs - basically Sunni but with Shi'ite participation - with a single-minded agenda: the end of the US-led occupation.

(from Full Spectrum Disorder - The Military in the New American Century, pp. 53-57, from Chapter 5, "Somalia - The Meanings of Bakara" by Stan Goff)

South Mogadishu - 1993

In Somalia, all (Somali) parties significantly, and predictably, strengthened their defensive postures to ensure they held onto the terrain they already controlled.

A Pakistani attack in June 1993 against Mohammed Farah Aidid’s Somali National Alliance (SNA) in Mogadishu met that well-prepared defense, and the SNA delivered them a decisive tactical defeat that pivoted on a very well-prepared anti-armor ambush – which the Day paper refers to, demagogically, as a "massacre." The SNA’s next major ambush would be against the Americans in Bakara.

The occupation and new US threats could spark neighbouring uprisings

Jawad al-Khalisi
Friday April 1, 2005

Guardian

The US-British occupation of Iraq is poisoning all political processes in my country and across the Middle East. The elections held under the control of the occupying forces in January were neither free nor fair. Instead of being a step towards solving Iraq's problems, they have been used to prolong foreign rule over the Iraqi people.

WHITHER IRAQ?
The US occupation and the antiwar movement after the election
by Gilbert Achcar; February 25, 2005

Anyone who happened to watch the message on Iraq in George W. Bush's State of the Union address to the US Congress on February 3 must be convinced that the members of both Houses, starting with Dick Cheney himself, are definitely making the physical effort needed to sustain their cardiac health. The frenzied rhythm of their standing ovations equaled indeed the most intensive aerobics. As for seeking an Oscar award, it was a total failure, the scriptwriters of the Bush administration being better at soap operas than at good quality movies, and Bush himself being a pitiful actor, even by Ronald Reagan's easy-to-match standard.

Sadr Group Signals Rejection Of Election
Shiite Cleric Eyes Role Outside System
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 24, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Around the corner from a five-mile line stretching toward a gas station, past election posters calling voting a religious duty, hundreds of bleary-eyed protesters threw down what goes for prayer carpets among followers of the Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr. They put down black-checkered kaffiyehs, the sweaters they wore, sacks of flour distributed as government rations and, most commonly, scraps of cardboard.

Tip of the Iceberg
by Bilal El-Amine
from Left Turn

The US elections revealed the unfortunate fact that a large section of the American population does not appreciate the profound mess created by the Bush administration in Iraq. Fresh figures of US casualties for November easily matched the record set last April (2003) when occupation forces besieged Najaf and Falluja. And December looks just as grim - the first weekend alone harvested 80 Iraqi deaths, mostly national guardsmen or police, who are being slaughtered by the dozens at the hands of the resistance. No doubt, the road to the Iraqi elections set for the end of January will be paved with blood.

Occupation on the Rocks: Three Views on War and Liberation
by Left Turn

The US occupation of Iraq is passing through a critical stage that may very well decide its fate. The November attack on Fallujah was intended to cripple the Iraqi resistance enough to clear the way for the January 30 elections. Instead it may have inflamed the insurgency and alienated the Sunni population, casting doubt on the legitimacy of any new Iraqi government. Who is the resistance and can it be overcome? What is the state of the occupation going into the elections and can a legitimate government be created under foreign occupation?

By Michael Schwartz - http://www.atimes.com

Sadr City - the overcrowded, under-serviced 3 million-person Baghdad slum that has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq - is the linchpin of the war.

By Mike Whitney
Jan 2, 2005

The American media has descended on the Asian tsunami with all the
fervor of feral animals in a meat locker. The newspapers and TV's are
plastered with bodies drifting out to sea, battered carcasses strewn

The Iraqi newspaper "al-Adalah" published on Dec. 23 the platform of the United Iraqi Alliance, the mainly Shiite coalition sponsored by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. It was translated by BBC World Monitoring. Since this party very likely will dominate parliament, it is worth looking at the platform.

No, you don't own it

by Naomi Klein, December 28, 2004

Colin Powell invoked it before the invasion, telling aides that if the US went into Iraq "you're going to be owning this place". John Kerry pledged his allegiance to it during the first presidential debate, saying: "Now, if you break it, you made a mistake. It's the wrong thing to do. But you own it."