This is not an Iraq War Blog

Dictator's head
Dick head.

"Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful."

The Horrors of War

As threatened, the Iraqi refugee clown story:

Exiled Iraqi clowns cheer refugees

Rahman, Ali and Safi are members of Happy Family Clowns group, established in 2004 to put smiles on the faces of Iraqi children. A few months ago the group started receiving death threats warning them against continuing their show, entitled A Child is as Scared as a Country.

But the clowns kept going, until two members of the troupe were murdered.

This was enough to drive the surviving three to leave Iraq.

"We don't know why they targeted us. We were entertaining children," says Rahman....

No you weren't. And while I don't advocate clownicide, I will just say that you can't squeeze in to a tiny car without the occasional accident.

Wow

While I have a deep respect for their intellectual approach to metal I can't stand System of a Down's music, so I have never paid them much attention. This morning however I happened to turn to VH1 while eating breakfast and caught the video for "Empty Walls", the new solo effort by SoD's front man Serj Tankian:



Brilliant in so many ways.

Behold, a Pale Horse

I have stumbled across some information that sheds light on the the ongoing tide of apparent larceny in Iraq (where oil, money, guns and munitions have been disappearing at an alarming rate). This information is red hot and could blow the roof off our systems of government, banking, law, and celebrity. I dare not write of it out loud, lest I draw the ire of the Reptilians who really run the planet. I can however offer you pictoral clues that tell the tale. The rest is up to you, but if you figure it out be careful: they shall not rest until the holders of this knowledge are swept from the chess board of life. Consider yourself forewarned, but if you can grasp the meaning of this sequence you will know where the missing weapons are and why we really went to war in Iraq:













On top of all of this, I also learned that Kenny Loggins is a threat to pygmy elephants.

Operation Constant Vigilance

As noted in the comments in the previous post, more people seem comfortable with cakes than espionage but I did want to mention one thing from the Milton Bearden lunch the other day before heading into the weekend. Asked how (Hindu) Bollywood movies and (Arab) Al Jazeera news broadcasts were changing the conservative culture of Afghanistan, Bearden demured but did note that President Bush was so obsessed with the idea that the Al Jazeera news crawl was sending coded messages to Al Qadea that he ordered the text to be constantly run through an NSA Cray super computer to dry to crack the code. It was such a big deal to him that in Bearden's words it resembled "Captain Queeg and the strawberries".

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Bush then insisted that if you played the audio book of Knights Under the Prophets Banner backwards it says "death to America, kill George Bush". Nevermind that it says that going forwards, but still, eh?

Dear Diary...

Had lunch Monday (along with about 80 others) with Milton Bearden, the former CIA chap who was head of station in Islamabad, Pakistan and who delivered the war-changing Stinger missiles to the Afghan Muj during their war against the Soviets. He later served as Eastern Europe honcho during the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. It can be said that he did his bit to hasten the demise of the ol' Evil Empire, but yesterday his comments over the caesar salad were mostly directed as to why the current lot running US foreign policy were about as much use as tits on a nun (I paraphrase). Most interesting, all told.

Its fascinating to me, who wanders past the transom when one stays moored to a spot long enough.

The Blues and (Not) Royals

From MSNBC:

"Prince Harry not to serve in Iraq
Ministry of Defense says deployment too dangerous for 3rd in line to throne... Insurgent groups looking to target Cornet Wales — as his rank is called in the Blues and Royals regiment — would have had a concentrated area in which to look for him."

Meanwhile Private Nobby Crabbes of C "Wumbutu Gorge" Company, the Royal Angle-Iron Rgt (pictured below), eagerly awaits the results of his DNA test he is convinced will prove he is 60 millionth in line for the throne and thus exempt from Iraq service.

Blogging on the Ground in Iraq

For quite a while I've been following the work of freelance war correspondent Kevin Sites through his blog of a "life in conflict". Not being a huge fan of network news (care for a mix of tabloid and facile comment, with a dash of cult of personality?) I hadn't realized that he had been retained by NBC news to cover the assault on Fallujah. It was only when I happened to go in search of news on the killing of the wounded insurgent in the mosque that I found out that the reporter I admired so much was now in the center of a firestorm of controversy. As an embedded reporter with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines it was his camera who captured the shocking image of a Marine executing a wounded man that helped fuel the fire of Muslim anger over our actions in Iraq.

A week or so after the event, Kevin wrote his own account of that day and ruminated on the effect of the events both in the mosque and afterwards on his life and the lives of others. It is a sometimes harrowing, sometimes hard nosed, always thought provoking piece. I recommend that you read it at some stage. Here's an excerpt to try and catch your interest:

Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1

Since the shooting in the Mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

This week I've even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle -- not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

But I find myself a lightning rod for controversy in reporting what I saw occur in front of me, camera rolling.

It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw -- without imposing on that Marine -- guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong. All the other armchair analysts don't mean a damn to me.

Here it goes.

It's Saturday morning and we're still at our strong point from the night before, a clearing between a set of buildings on the southern edge of the city. The advance has been swift, but pockets of resistance still exist. In fact, we're taking sniper fire from both the front and the rear.

Weapons Company uses its 81's (mortars) where they spot muzzle flashes. The tanks do some blasting of their own. By mid-morning, we're told we're moving north again. We'll be back clearing some of the area we passed yesterday. There are also reports that the mosque, where ten insurgents were killed and five wounded on Friday may have been re-occupied overnight.

I decide to leave you guys and pick up with one of the infantry squads as they move house-to-house back toward the mosque. (For their own privacy and protection I will not name or identify in any way, any of those I was traveling with during this incident.)

Many of the structures are empty of people -- but full of weapons. Outside one residence, a member of the squad lobs a frag grenade over the wall. Everyone piles in, including me.

While the Marines go into the house, I follow the flames caused by the grenade into the courtyard. When the smoke clears, I can see through my viewfinder that the fire is burning beside a large pile of anti-aircraft rounds.


I yell to the lieutenant that we need to move. Almost immediately after clearing out of the house, small explosions begin as the rounds cook off in the fire.

At that point, we hear the tanks firing their 240-machine guns into the mosque. There's radio chatter that insurgents inside could be shooting back. The tanks cease-fire and we file through a breach in the outer wall.

We hear gunshots from what seems to be coming from inside the mosque. A Marine from my squad yells, "Are there Marines in here?"

When we arrive at the front entrance, we see that another squad has already entered before us.

The lieutenant asks them, "Are there people inside?"

One of the Marines raises his hand signaling five.

"Did you shoot them," the lieutenant asks?

"Roger that, sir, " the same Marine responds.

"Were they armed?" The Marine just shrugs and we all move inside.

Immediately after going in, I see the same black plastic body bags spread around the mosque. The dead from the day before. But more surprising, I see the same five men that were wounded from Friday as well. It appears that one of them is now dead and three are bleeding to death from new gunshot wounds. The fifth is partially covered by a blanket and is in the same place and condition he was in on Friday, near a column. He has not been shot again. I look closely at both the dead and the wounded. There don't appear to be any weapons anywhere.

"These were the same wounded from yesterday," I say to the lieutenant. He takes a look around and goes outside the mosque with his radio operator to call in the situation to Battalion Forward HQ.

I see an old man in a red kaffiyeh lying against the back wall. Another is face down next to him, his hand on the old man's lap -- as if he were trying to take cover. I squat beside them, inches away and begin to videotape them. Then I notice that the blood coming from the old man's nose is bubbling. A sign he is still breathing. So is the man next to him.

While I continue to tape, a Marine walks up to the other two bodies about fifteen feet away, but also lying against the same back wall.

Then I hear him say this about one of the men:

"He's fucking faking he's dead -- he's faking he's fucking dead."

Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.

However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.

Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.

"Well he's dead now," says another Marine in the background.....Read the whole piece here.

Uprising In Mosul

Here goes the North

Mosul, in Kurdish Iraq (and patrolled by Maine's own 133rd Engineers, National Guard) exploded last night. And these are the sympathetic Iraqis.

Way to go, Red State voters.

Why Isn't Being Smart About Fallujah A "Moral Value"?

"Hey Mr. Zaquari! Eight nine ten coming, ready or not!"

Do you remember during the late, fondly remembered presidential campaign? About how when John Kerry suggested that American troops would end their mission within four years the Republicans pounced on him, yelling that setting timetables only telegraphed to insurgents about how long they had to wait before plunging Iraq into further violence and chaos?

How then does that view gel with our actions in Fallujah? It is credibly alleged that the ultimate attack on Fallujah was scheduled around the presidential vote, in order to spare Mr. Bush the embarrassment and damage of a potential graphic disaster prior to polling. The fact that it was coming was hardly a secret, despite this delay. Who wants to bet against the probability that Zaquari and the bulk of the islamist and nationalist insurgents left the city sometime on November 2?

The coalition now holds 70% of Fallujah; it is estimated that our capture of the city will be complete within 48 hours. Meanwhile, insurgents have once again melted back into the general population or have moved on to one of the other lawless cities and are asking the coalition to have another go at "guess which cup is the ball under."

Abrams tanks and night vision googles are fine; they let you capture real estate. However, until the coalition learns the lessons of fighting guerrilla enemies offered by battles from Hue to Tora Bora they will not be able to quell the insurgency.

Not a lot of fun, but true.

Black Watch Troops Killed In Iraq

"Three Black Watch troops killed in suicide attack"

British troops move north at the behest of the Bush Administration to cover Marines massing to attack insurgent strongholds and to try and undo some of the heavy handed damage that US military "force protection" doctrine has wrought on Coalition/Iraqi relations.

About a week after they moved, three Black Watch lie dead in the dust. Despite the more benign tactical approach of British troops the damage done to safety and security by Pentagon policies extracted its inevitable price. After 18 months in Iraq, Britain suffers its worst casualties in Iraq since the killing of 6 military police near the start of the occupation.

Soldiering is a dangerous business. Nobody denies that, least of all the troops. But to knowingly send British troops into a situation that can only lead to greater casualties in support of an ally's disastrous policies is so redolent of the stupidity and crassness of the First World War it should lead to the prosecution of Tony Blair for negligent homicide. Is it not enough that we have sacrificed our security, self-interest, and principles on the altar of American political expediency that we now must sacrifice our young men too?

And you wonder why British newspapers run front pages like this:

Here Comes Blair's Mission Creep

Here it comes. After 18 months of chaos in the American sector and near-calm in the British contolled south, the Pentagon has asked the Ministry of Defence to deploy British troops (most likely the cutback-threatened Black Watch) to the troubled Sunni triangle to free up American troops to go on offensive operations.

Regardless of the difference in strategic and tactical philosophies between the two militaries, this likely redefinition of the British role in Iraq points to a couple of interesting things that could have an impact on domestic politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is unlikely that this extended role will meet with much applause in the UK, and to many British voters it will only underscore the image of Tony Blair as an electoral tool of George Bush. Blair of course feels that he is in a position to make yet another unpopular foreign policy move as even with an election looming he feels that no effective alternative to his government is presenting itself (to which I say, come on Socialist Workers' Party, nows your chance! Phwerp.) Given the situation on the ground in Iraq it can be argued that Britain has little to gain and much to lose by agreeing to this request, with most of the loss coming in the form of young British lives. Maybe, just maybe, the different British approach to occupation (in which the insults to Iraqi dignity come clothed in a velvet glove rather than a mailed fist) might result in a calmer Sunni triangle, but given the twin facts that this redeployment is coming to enable more aggresive action by the famously "vigorous" US Marines and that at this stage it is improbable that Sunni insurgents will give up their growing advantage because the occupiers wear berets and not helmets I doubt that the patented British "smile shoot smile" approach will pay dividends.

It will be interesting how, if at all, this redeployment request will be reported here in America as coming on the back of damming remarks by former Iraqi mission commander General Ricardo Sanchez, former Iraq administrator Paul Bremmer, former Bush Secretary of the Army Thomas White and the long held cassandra like complaint of former Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki about inadequate troop levels in Iraq. Indeed, this request shows two things; namely that the adminstration is making a tacit concession to two of Senator Kerry's main campaign thrusts: that the Bush administration has given up on finding new allies to reduce the pressure on American and British troops; and that troop levels were and are woefully inadequate for the mission at hand.

With the mounting evidence of a mishandled mission, it is frankly incredible that anyone still feels that Bush is the best choice for national security. A war is a time for flexibility as well as steadfastness, and this latest move shows once again that sometimes a call to "stay the course" only leads to more mistakes, carnage and sorrow. In a race between two candidates to lead a nation that finds itself at war, America could do no better than to choose the guy with the ability to analyize, not just rest on assumption.

Here's the story that sparked it all: UK deployment raises tactical concerns

BBC NEWS, Middle East: Inspectors conclude no WMD in Iraq

Like amateurs like me, just doing telemetry on the available pre-war public data and known regional trends; like both US and UN weapons inspectors such as US Marine Scott Ritter and his ilk; like the mustachioed Fascist Saddam himself maintained:

Inspectors conclude no WMD in Iraq

Hmmm. You know, in their heart of hearts, I believe the politicians and ideologues who drove us to war suspected this too. Otherwise, they might just be suggesting to us that they are too clueless and prone to bad decision making to hold office, and they wouldn't want us to think that would they?

Quick! Change the channel! Who had more style at the debates? Who can be perceived as having more 'gravitas'? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Donald Rumsfeld, just in time to hole his own ship again

Finally US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has joined the prevailing, clear-headed, view on links between Saddam and Al Qadea:

Donald Rumsfeld casts doubt on whether there was ever a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

No doubt Dick Cheney will now have to stubbornly lie harder than ever about this in his debate with John Edwards tonight. If they do reinstitute the draft, I reckon Rumsfeld's number will be one of the first drawn by the vinegar-pussed pathologically truth adverse Vice President.

John Kerry Turns A Corner on Iraq

"Chief Donkey Calls Bush a Boneheaded Stubborn Ass- Official."

Yep, After months of trying to explain in mature, nuanced terms his votes on Iraq in the Senate, the other JFK from Massachusetts has decided to change the setting on his megaphone from Statesman Kerry to Candidate John and has come out swinging against the conduct of the Iraq war. As the marathon presidential race nears the sprint finish, John Kerry has finally stopped the fudge and is lashing himself to the mast for the duration of the storm.

So far, not a peep out of "Sunni Triangle Veterans for Truth", although I dare say its coming once Karl Rove gets it organized. Kerry should ignore the inevitable attacks on his patriotism, principles, and competence and stick to his guns. The polls show that the United States divided on whether or not invading Iraq was a smart move. The visibly conflicted John McCain (what has the White House got on that guy?) conceded that the situation in Iraq is worse than it was a year ago on Hardball tonight. Kerry has a chance to seize control of the direction of this race and highlight the cronyism and incompetence of the Bush administration in their execution of this misguided, mismanaged war.

Kerry should be shouting about the war. He should be asking where those WMDs are. He should be challenging the conceit that we are safer than we were before the invasion. He should be questioning the political calculations that are handing more and more military duties to private contractors; that are delaying efforts to solve the conundrums of Najaf and Fallujah; and that are still compelling members of the administration to hint at or outright lie about links between Saddam and Al Qadea. He should be incandescent with rage over insinuations about a vote for him equaling a vote for bin Laden.

Any objective reading of the situation in Iraq (and by extension the war on terror) by anyone with half a brain will show that the current situation has made the world more dangerous, America more isolated, and is leading Iraq down the road to being a failed state. And quite what it has to do with the war on terror is anyone's guess.

Still, if you need more than a layman's take, check out the views from the BBC show From Our Own Correspondent and Independent correspondent Robert Fisk

Iyad Allawi: Prime Minister of Iraq, or just de facto Mayor of Baghdad?

Iraqi Interim Government - An Interim Progress Assessment
By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli

This is an interesting (if long and academic) examination of the first thirty days of Iraq's return to limited sovereignty from MEMRI, an information clearing house that provides translations of Arab and Hebrew news articles and speeches (although it does tend towards the more inflamatory and sensational pieces).

History Friday Part Two: 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait

From back in the days when most American's struggled to find Iraq on a map and and Texans thought a "Saddam" was the pistol carried by police officers, we find this story:

ON THIS DAY Aug 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait

Just a reminder then of the crazy land grab that started it all and got us where we are today.

Reading this old report certainly brought back memories (not least Mr. Garton telling me to take down on grounds of taste the photo of Saddam with a speech bubble declaring my boarding school dorm room to be "the 19th province of Iraq" that Al Bowles had stuck up there for a laugh) and sparked these questions:

a) If Saddam's pre-emptive invasion of the dictatorship of Kuwait for what he considered economic security reasons was roundly condemned by the United States and resulted in a UN resolution for a coalition to push him out militarily, why was the United States' pre-emptive invasion of the dictatorship of Iraq for what we considered national security reasons OK? I can parse the difference from here, but the trouble is the Arab street, madrassas, and universities; the recruiting grounds for Al Qadea and Ansar Al Islam; cannot.

b) Daddy, what was a coalition?

c) Why do we let the Kuwaitis get away with it? If we are for building democracy in Iraq, how can we be friends with a kingdom that imported thousands of indentured guest workers before Iraq invaded so that the Kuwaiti population could live lives of unprecendented luxury, and then beat, executed, and imprisoned hundreds of those workers post war because they were deemed not to have shown sufficient resistance to Iraq (even while the Kuwaiti army was running south at full speed)?

Oy! Sorry, sorry; mustn't ask questions I already know the answers to; its a cheap rhetorical trick. I've been watching too much convention coverage. Besides, if we ask questions, the terrorists win.

Talking of the Democratic Convention, I spent most of the week on the couch watching the dang thing from pillar to post and marshalling my thoughts for a potentially epic post on the week's events after the weekend. Watch this space to see if I summon up the courage the write the darn thing.

BREAKING NEWS: IRAQI PM ACCUSED OF MURDER

US appointed Iraqi Prime Minister and former Baathist Iyad Allawi stands accused of the extra judicial killing of six suspected insurgents in front of his joint American/Iraqi security detail, just days before the hand-over, says Australia's The Age:
Iraqi PM executed six prisoners: By Paul McGeough, Baghdad

Britain's Butler Report Slams War Intelligence

More thoughts on this later, but hot on the heels of the US Senate Intelligence Committee report that eviscerated the US intelligence community over the crap they spewed about Iraq, British judge Lord Butler has issued his own damning account of the UKs own intelligence failings:

BBC NEWS | Politics | At-a-glance: Butler report

Further to a point touched on last week (I keep doing that. Man, I should have a show on a cable channel where I get to yell at people, I'm so ahead of the analysis curve. Phwwb) here is Marianne Means from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of Sunday June 27 (my blog post on this was June 23. Oh sut up, weasel):

Bush's Nixon Moment: "I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture"