Wrecked Iraq
…what was once the most advanced Middle Eastern society - economically, socially, and technologically - has become an economic basket case, rivaling the most desperate countries in the world. Only the (as yet unfulfilled) promise of oil riches, which probably cannot be effectively accessed or used until US forces withdraw from the country, provides a glimmer of hope that Iraq will someday lift itself out of the abyss into which the US invasion pushed it.
By Michael Schwartz
Even before the spectacular presidential election campaign became a national obsession, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression crowded out other news, coverage of the Iraq War had dwindled to next to nothing. National newspapers had long since discontinued their daily feasts of multiple - usually front page - reports on the country, replacing them with meager meals of mostly summary stories buried inside the paper. On broadcast and cable TV channels, where violence in Iraq had once been the nightly lead, whole news cycles went by without a mention of the war.
The tone of the coverage also changed. The powerful reports of desperate battles and miserable Iraqis disappeared. There are still occasional stories about high-profile bombings or military campaigns in obscure places, but the bulk of the news is about quiescence in old hot spots, political maneuvering by Iraqi factions, and the newly emerging routines of ordinary life.
A typical “return to normal life” piece appeared October 11 in the New York Times under the headline, “Schools Open, and the First Test is Iraqi Safety.” Featured was a Baghdad schoolteacher welcoming her students by assuring them that “security has returned to Baghdad, city of peace”.
Even as his report began, though, Times reporter Sam Dagher hedged the “return to normal” theme. Here was his first paragraph in full:
“On the first day of school, 10-year-old Basma Osama looked uneasy standing in formation under an already stifling morning sun. She and dozens of schoolmates listened to a teacher’s pep talk - probably a necessary one, given the barren and garbage-strewn playground.”
This glimpse of the degraded conditions at one Baghdad public school, amplified in the body of Dagher’s article by other examples, is symptomatic of the larger reality in Iraq. In a sense, the (often exaggerated) decline in violence in…
Timothy R. Anderson:
I go immediately to the news-article I spotted on page 6 -A of the USA Today newspaper, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005 . In it, the author, Dave Moniz, describes how the Bush Administration asked Congress for
eighty-two billion dollars.
” WASHINGTON - The White House asked Congress for $ 82 billion in special spending Monday, almost $ 75 billion of which would go to the Pentagon to help pay for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fix broken equipment, and increase the size of the U.S. Army in 2005. ”
” Also included is nearly $ 1 billion for tsunami aid, $ 658 million for a new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to U.S. allies in the war on terrorism. ”
” But the overwhelming majority of the money would go to the
Pentagon. It comes as a ’supplemental ‘ request to the normal
Pentagon budget for 2005, which was approved by Congress last
year. ”
The reason that this is still significant, in my opinion, is that the
USA’s government continues to award money to the Pentagon, here it is October 2008; thousands of Iraqis have been killed, bombed,
made into homeless persons, etc. etc. etc. That’s not
a good way to spend billions of dollars !
Going into a foreign country, knocking their government’s leadership out of power ( justified by that government’s ” evil ” -ness or not ! ) , claiming that it was done to bring freedom to people who
are capable of running the show themselves………. that is
a horrible, horrible, horrible misuse of money. An incredible
arrogant horrible misuse of money.
Because it does not achieve good things for the Iraqi people.
Because it doesn ‘t achieve good things for the American military.
Because it does NOT achieve good things for the civilians of
the United States Of America.
Timothy R. Anderson
27 October 2008, 1:11 pmJohn Owens:
I wrote to you a few months back, but I haven’t heard anything back, one thing I forgot to mention in my last email was in I think June 2006 I was in FKTC Kuwaiti office talking to who was then the HR Director Cris, I can’t remember his last name but he was a British man, he told me there were 2500 FKTC employees working on US Gov. projects in Iraq, I was an employee of FKTC at that time, I only met two other Americans working for FKTC at that time, Doug Harger and Mike Ford. We spent billions of dollars rebuilding Iraq, yet we weren’t allowed to work there, I’m sure there were a lot of Americans who wanted to go there and work, I mean, it was US dollars why not let US citizens have the chance earn some those tax dollars back. When I was in Iraq nothing worked right, Electric, water, the roads were all messed up, whenever it rained all the sewers in the city backed up and often contaminated the water used for drinking and bathing. I keep telling everyone there was a reason Very Few Americans were allowed to work there, it was obvious on the US Embassy, OBO didn’t want Americans knowing what was going on there, but elsewhere in Iraq if we had skilled American workers doing the job and earning some of those tax dollars back, the rebuilding efforts wouldn’t have cost so much and gotten so screwed up.
Below is what I wrote to you last time, but I’m not sure you got it.
I was on that site and spent a total of 16 months in Iraq. I gave testimony before congress and have cooperated with the media in an effort to let not only Americans, but the world know what’s going on there.
I’m John Owens, the guy that worked on the US Embassy in Baghdad for 71/2 months from Nov.05 to July 06. When I spoke to congress on C-Span about the problems with the contractor FKTC and OBO about labor abuse and trafficking, it was a small portion of the problems I saw there.
Mary French was the most incompetent project manager I ever saw and should be brought up on criminal charges for a wide variety of reasons. How could a project director run a job site of that magnitude without any kind of safety program. I was on site everyday and I never saw one safety meeting. I think every labor law on the books was broken on that site, not to mention human and civil rights violations. Again, another reason they didn’t want Americans on that job.
The fact that she was not qualified to manage the project was the reason she got the job. She let FKTC do anything they wanted to do, and get away with shoddy and substandard workmanship as well as endangering peoples lives. This was partly because she didn’t know any better and also because Jim Golden and Ret. General Williams of Overseas Building Operations told her to.
I was amazed when I got there and saw OBO (US Government) only had a handful of people overseeing the job, and none of them had ever been on a embassy construction site before. Not including a few security people, there were only four people who were supposed to be supervising FKTC. The mechanical superintendent was from the Navy, he worked on ships boilers and had never been on an Embassy project before. There was a guy from another company “not OBO” who looked after electrical part time, then there was Juvencio Lopez who was there to supervise the staff housing buildings and didn’t seem to have a clue about embassy construction.
I think it was around April or May 06 when OBO ( Golden & Williams) brought in around twenty Malaysian or Indonesian engineers and secretaries (none had a security clearance), Golden’s wife was Indonesian and I’m told that’s how they got the job. I heard the logistics manager Jim Schofield also had a Indonesian wife. Schofield wasn’t allowed on site much because Mary French didn’t like him and FKTC hated him, FKTC did not want any Americans on the job, that’s why I was the only one on site who worked for FKTC. I guess they thought they could control me, and I’d keep quiet the same way they controlled Mary.
So, we had inexperienced primary contractor whose management staff was made up of about 95% Lebanese and twenty or so Indonesian staff for the State Dept. responsible for building the largest and most fortified US Embassy in the world. I would say the only time most of these people had ever even been in a US Embassy was to get turned down for a visa to the states, they certainly didn’t have a clue how to build one.
I could write a book on this, I mean, who would think you find could Anti-Americanism on a US Embassy Construction Project.
I have a lot of information about that job if the American public found out about, well, they would probably really get angry, think about all the skilled American tradesmen in the states who would have gone over there and built an Embassy that wouldn’t be condemned before it’s occupied, too bad Americans weren’t allowed to work there, they just send tax dollars for foreigners who don’t seem to like Americans, only American dollars.
Let me know if you need any info. I have copies of my DOD card, LOA, and contract
John Owens
MODERATOR: Sorry we missed this first time out. I wouldn’t call it “anti” American to take issue with powers and principalities that wrap themselves in flags. I am in th house with two other Americans right now (spouse and daughter), preparing to go to work with two other Americans, and to work with twenty volunteer Americans, in a town full of Americans, situated near the east coast of the United States. I’ll be driving and walking among Americans, and may greet an American as I buy tonight’s supper-fixins. I am not against them; though I share your outrage. On the other hand, I won’t valorize them above all others because they are American. That said, we a[[reciate this snapshot from the inside; and I for one am unsurprised, except by your willingness to witness. Thanks.
29 October 2008, 12:29 amKevin:
Blame it on post WWI British imperialism. They drew up the borders with economic conquest in mind and threw together three of the most warring factions in the same country under a hand picked minority rule. When we removed that brutal minority rule, Iraq balkanized; this is not a failure. Mark my word Stan, you will eat your words. We are not done yet; not as neighboring countries are pulling strings and stirring up shit. What you concieve as a failure will turn out to be a success and you will always deny it.
29 October 2008, 12:34 pmadam:
Kevin,
“Blame it on post WWI British imperialism. They drew up the borders with economic conquest in mind and threw together three of the most warring factions in the same country under a hand picked minority rule.”
Errrm. No we didn’t. The League of Nations, of which Britain was part, took a couple of provinces of the Ottoman empire that had been there since the 1600s and spot-welded them together. These two provinces were Baghdad and Basra, with Mosul being added in 1926. Baghdad had ruled these provinces as a regional capital for at least 300 years. We fitted into the local systems.
Look, a reality check. The British were brilliant Imperialists because we tried to avoid changing things locally; in fact we changed ourselves to work with the locals as far as possible. Its only within my granddads generation that the “30-year colonial man” ended - he did 25 years abroad in Africa and the Far East, among other things electrifying Borneo; but he worked with the locals, living like one, not in some weird military complex surrounded by lots of British soldiers. He’d never have got any work done that way.
As a result of not interfering and copying the locals the British empire lasted over two hundred years.
A simple, observable fact, Iraq was a stable country as late as 2003. In fact Iraq was capable of fighting the longest land war of the 20th Century without balkanising. The bulk of the army were Shi’ites, the majority of officers and Special Forces were Sunni. The army did not collapse, even in 2003, and it could have been reorganised easily enough.
“When we removed that brutal minority rule, Iraq balkanized; this is not a failure.”
Blimey. I’d hate to see what you consider to be a failure. Iraq was once the most advanced Middle Eastern nation. Its having a civil war. Millions of its citizens have fled. Extremists of all stripes are the majority leaders these days. No-ones sure how many people have died, but on the lowest estimate its the equivalent of a million or so Americans.
Assassinations and military actions are the order of the day and this is, in some way, not a failure? Wow.
Purely out of curiosity… what does success look like?
“Mark my word Stan, you will eat your words. We are not done yet; not as neighboring countries are pulling strings and stirring up shit.”
Unlike the Americans, who aren’t a neighbouring country, but do seem to be pulling strings and “stirring up shit” - whatever that means. I think it means not completely agreeing with the invasion of a neighbour and seeking to ensure that the government that comes out of that invasion is not implacably hostile. Naughty old them for having a foreign policy that makes sense.
But yes, its done. In 2005 the US military needed about a hundred billion dollars for Iraq alone. In 2009 there isn’t that kind of money available, it was all given to the American banks, and Ford and GM still need a bail-out. The US military will almost certainly be beginning pulling out of Iraq in the next 18 months, probably completing the pull out in 2011 or thereabouts.
“What you concieve as a failure will turn out to be a success and you will always deny it.”
And success is? Presumably something different from what we have right now, otherwise it won’t “turn out” to be anything.
30 October 2008, 2:51 amStan:
It’s been a raving success so far… over a million dead, as many wounded, more traumatized, almost 4 million displaced, infrastructure wrecked, and foreign troops occupying the country. Billions a week going down this rathole of a war, more than 4,000 US dead, multiply that for wounded, crazy, disabled… and a heavily-financed neonazi culture of DOD-hired thugs being whelped to come back and live among us. Wow. This is great, eh?
By the end of the Vietnam occupation, many many American males — still seeing everything through their win-or-lose masculinity, and never considering whether the US should cross oceans to dominate other countries that present no threat to the US — were talking about “winning” the war. By then, around 3 million Southeast Asians (majority civilian, as if we can delegitimate people who fight foreign invasions) had been killed, with displacement as well as disability and trauma affecting millions more. The question that was raised by these pesky numbers was, “How many do we have to kill befor we win?” Four million? Ten million?
Oh… and the mantra to the very end was that neighboring countries were responsible for the US inability to militarily subject a nation to US domination.
Been here, done this. Before Kevin was born.
I’m 57, Kevin. I was in the Army most of the time from January 1970 until February 1996. I’ve got a PhD in hearing bullshit stories from the government and its pet “journalists.”
After the war was decisively lost in Vietnam, American masculinity became petulant and bitter. Movies like Dirty Harry and Death Wish became the popular outlet for a national male imaginary with which to redeem that dominator-masculinity. Rambo… a pseudo-tragic figure of frustrated masculinity that was stopped by those ‘pussy’ politicians from winning his war… and who now persecuted him. So the [fictional] ex-occupier became a victim to stand in for the shattered martial masculinity of a nation’s males… males under assault by rebellious colonies and rebellious women (as feminism gained footholds). The quietude of the older, unquestioned, seemingly axiomatic masculinty passed into male sexual panic, salved by mouthiness, the need to humiliate others, braggadocio, macho-image-management, a more overt and aggressive hatred of all things “feminine.” At bottom, it was — and is — a socially-perilous fear with roots in the fragile dominator-male psyche.
What can a man be without enemies?
30 October 2008, 5:29 amLegume Sam:
Since I, like Stan, live in the American cocoon, I have to wonder to what extent nationalism is alive and well outside of the US. My guess is that it’s a lot less of a thing. It’s hard for me to imagine, say, Belgians getting all flag-waving and teary-eyed patriotic when their currency is that of the European Union, or maybe the residents of Upper Volta with daily proclamations of their pride at being Upper Voltans. Now, maybe you’ve got patriotic French or British out there — but (being of the questioning type) I’d have to ask: how much of that really has to do with nationalism, and how much with the perceived invasion of the country by “foreigners” (i.e. resident workers brought in as a labor force)? So you might have “nationalism” as a veneer for classism or racism in some places. I’m sure the world also contains nationalism of the sort to be found in places such as Croatia, nationalism for the sake of defending turf, or India, nationalism as a defense of religion. Then you might also have nationalism in places like Venezuela or Bolivia, for instance, as a veneer for national resistance to integration into a subordinate role within a global capitalism ruled by a transnational capitalist class. Arguably, all of the other nationalisms can be covered by the motives of the last nationalism I mentioned.
Many of the foreign authors I’ve read in the field of “international relations” seem to have figured out that we live in a globalized society run by institutions of global governance and commandeered by a transnational capitalist class. Their general goals tend to center around the ideal of global harmony, balancing out the needs of different communities within an established world-structure.
US nationalism, on the other hand, imagines the US and its proxy institutions as the only institutions of global governance worth recognizing. US nationalism has been fossilized in the same form it had during the Cold War; substitute “Islamofascists” for “Commies,” and you basically have the same recipe repeated in a different context. America imagines itself to be the superhero of countries: its propaganda imagines two types of foreign entities, damsels in distress and villainous aggressors. This is the mentality of a global police force, reinforced by Hollywood visions of Superman. Iraq is the current object of its fantasies of domination.
Arguably, then, the rest of the world has passed the US by in its concepts of nationalism. It should be fairly easy, now, for the rest of the world to figure out that there really is no meaningful reason for the human race to continue its customs of war and poverty and that some sort of reconciliation between civilization and that ecological realities will be necessary in the future. Only in the US, then, does the Pleasure Principle, the id, reign supreme, it its foreign-policy attempts to sweep aside all considerations of the Reality Principle, the ego.
30 October 2008, 1:34 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
I live in that cocoon as well. Other countries possibly get
(please chime in, at length if possible ! ) a different ” take”
on the current Iraq War than the US public does ……. I feel
confident about that claim, indeeeedy !
If ever a depiction of a war was distant from the actual war
itself the USA ’s Mainstream Media’s depiction of the current Iraq War qualifies as very, very, VERY distant.
Those folks dying over there in Iraq, since the spring of 2003,
them folks done died AFTER Saddam Hussein was knocked from power.
Thus, an awkward question:
Has the USA’s Rumsfeld-led and Gates-led ” Multi National Force”
done a good job of keeping Iraqis alive ?
Some of the people know the answer to that one.
Timothy R. Anderson
30 October 2008, 10:48 pmKevin:
I’m 57, Kevin. I was in the Army most of the time from January 1970 until February 1996. I’ve got a PhD in hearing bullshit stories from the government and its pet “journalists
Yup, 57 and an old relic of the cold war “bullshit”. You are not a phd, but hold an undergrad degree, in fact we share the same alma mater?
3 November 2008, 4:14 amLegume Sam:
I, on the other hand, do have a Ph.D., in Communication, from The Ohio State University, received 1998…
3 November 2008, 8:11 pmcharles:
Then you might also have nationalism in places like Venezuela or Bolivia, for instance, as a veneer for national resistance to integration into a subordinate role within a global capitalism ruled by a transnational capitalist class. Arguably, all of the other nationalisms can be covered by the motives of the last nationalism I mentioned.
^^^^
4 November 2008, 9:03 amnational liberation movements with state power
Timothy R. Anderson:
More persons in Iraq found out when the Multi National Force is in your country that the Multi National Force stays away from bombings that kill 28 persons.
I looked at yahooNews today. It said that a triple bombing in Baghdad today killed at least 28 persons. That’s a lot of people for a ” Surge” that “worked. ”
There’s a big difference between this happening during the first November of the current Iraq War, NOVEMBER 200 Three, and happening now, the sixth November of the current Iraq War, November
2008 …………..
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. Billions of dollars have been spent. More than 4, 150 American military servicemembers
have died in Iraq. More than 29, 000 American military service-
members have been wounded in Iraq.
Where I grew up the town had less than 29, 000 persons in it total.
That’s a lot of people !
Timothy R. Anderson
10 November 2008, 1:21 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
” Wrecked Iraq” and Wrecked Afghanistan.
Once in a while, I hear persons near to me claim that Afghanistan is on the mend. Uhhhr, uhhhh, no not really ! Since the USA’s military started being in Afghanistan ( along with Canada’s , Italy’s France’s
Germany’s, some others ) there’s been a peculiar habit emerging
among women in Afghanistan………………
” One woman committed suicide by setting herself ablaze after
her father-in-law tried to rape her.”
” Another woman set herself on fire because her brothers would not
let her marry, preferring that she remain their servant at home.”
” Yet another woman told her mother before she died that
her husband beat her daily.”
” All of this in Afghanistan.”
” Testimony gathered by the Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission documents how life for many Afghan women remains
so bleak that some choose a horrific and painful death instead.”
“The group interviewed about 800 Afghans whose sisters,
daughters, and daughters-in-law have killed themselves
by self-immolation to escape domestic abuse, forced marriage,
other misogynistic social customs, and stress from the
ongoing foreign military servicemembers’ presence. ”
” Researcher Nabila Wafiq, representing the aid group <<>>>> said ‘ When we asked most people
why they (tried) to commit self-immolation, they said
that when they take pills, they don’t die, but when they commit
self-immolation they believe they will die, 100 % . ‘ ”
“Reports from Herat, in western Afghanistan, show
about 90 women set fire to themselves last year and
more than 70 % died. ”
That stuff above was printed in my local newspaper,
on page A - 11, on Friday, March 16, 2007. An Associated Press
reporter named Alisa Tang wrote it.
The Pentagon and the White House seem to avoid this
development.
Timothy R. Anderson
12 November 2008, 2:02 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Once in a while, you know, RARELY, when Iraq is given more than
a passing glance by the USA’s mainstream media, I am reminded
that I haven’t typed in this yet, so I will………..
BAGHDAD, Iraq. September 25, 2008.
” Not even the elevators work now at Baghdad Medical City,
built once as the center for some of the best medical care.”
” One of the center’s ten elevators still works, and the priority
for this is patients who have lost their legs - and there are
many of them. The rest, the doctors, patients, and students
at the four specialized teaching hospitals within the building
complex, just take the stairs,
sometimes to the 18th floor. ”
” This is in a city that had been given
dreams of great development five years ago…….. ”
written by Arkan Hamed and Dahr Jamail
typed in by Tim
The Entire News Article can be seen
……….. under the title ” Iraq: The Biggest Hospitals
Become Sick”
……… at http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com
Timothy R. Anderson
3 December 2008, 1:33 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
A reporter named Hugh Naylor reported this:
” Sayyida Zeinab Refugee Camp, Syria:
Khalid Jafer Sahib hasn’t moved from his couch in almost a month,
except when his wife and two children help him limp to the bath-
room ……… across a living-room adorned with flimsy plastic
furniture. He sometimes tries to budge his left knee, but the bullet
that ripped through it last year in Baghdad has rendered it
all but useless. ”
” While his family spends their days looking for food handouts
from charity organizations and donations from wealthy Syrians
, Sahib, 45 years old, waits on his couch, alone. ”
” Sahib is among tens of thousands of displaced
Iraqis in Syria, who are maimed, crippled, and traumatized
by bullets and blast wounds in a raging civil war taking
place in Iraq. ”
Please take note. The ” Wrecked Iraq” factor is contagious !
Iraq’s neighbor Syria is having a tough time sheltering, feeding,
and keeping alive the tens of thousands of Iraqis who moved
in !
Timothy R. Anderson
15 December 2008, 2:59 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
I did some digging around on the issue of AMERICAN military women who’ve served in the Iraq War and found out some stuff. Interesting how their suffering is similar to the IRAQI women’s …….
http://www.mediamouse.org/features/031207iraqi.php
That’s the thing about the “Wrecked Iraq”, isn’t it ? It ends up
21 December 2008, 4:34 pmwrecking the USA pretty rough, too.
Timothy R. Anderson:
200, 000, 000, 000 for the Iraq War.
news-article by Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times newspaper.
Sunday ,September 23, 2007…….. ” After smothering efforts by critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq,
President Bush plans to ask lawmakers this week to approve another
massive spending measure - totalling nearly 200 billion dollars-
to fund the war through 2008, Pentagon officials said. ”
” If President Bush’s spending request is approved, 2008
will be the most expensive year of the Iraq War.”
” U.S. war-costs have continued to GROW because of the additional
combat forces sent to Iraq this year * ( * 2007 )
and because efforts to quickly ramp up production of new tech-
nology, like mine-resistant trucks designed to protect troops
from roadside bombs. The new trucks can cost
three to six times as much as an armored Humvee. The new trucks
can cost three to six times as much as an armored Humvee. ”
” The Bush administration said earlier in 2007 that it probably
would need $ 147.5 billion for 2008, but Pentagon officials
now say
that and about $ 47 billion more will be required. ”
— source: L.A. Times news article, by Julian E. Barnes,
Sunday, September 23, 2007 .
NOTES: Since September 23, 2007, the number of reported Iraqi
deaths is at least 3, 910 . Since September 23, 2007, the number of
reported American military servicemembers’ deaths in the Iraq War is
at least 405 . Since September 23, 2007, the number of
reported American military servicemembers being wounded in the Iraq
War is at least 2, 044 .
The number of new enemies created since September 23, 2007
is currently being debated.
Timothy R. Anderson
22 December 2008, 3:01 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
CORRECTION: Should read: ” Since September 23, 2007,
the number of reported American military servicemembers’
deaths in the Iraq War is at least 221 .”
Tim
22 December 2008, 3:07 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
President-Elect Obama will hit suffer two predictable setbacks after his inaguration : Mothers Day and Fathers Day. For, although the patriots take most things “in stride”, an uneasy feeling happens every Mothers Day and every Fathers Day since the Iraq War, in particular, began, and since the Global War On Terror started………
Death of a child while the child’s parent is still alive.
Is there a word for it ? If so, what is the word ?
A child without a parent is an orphan, sure……. but what about
a parent without a child ? An uneasy feeling might occur to the
hotly-anticipated Democratic Party big-shots………Now that
the oh-so-despised Bush Administration is vacating their Washington DC compound …………
These expensive wars are costing more than just money and credibility ; they are costing folks their kids !
Somethin’ to get one’s head around, perhaps……..
Timothy R. Anderson
2 January 2009, 3:20 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
” A fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength of feeling
and resorces of an enemy. ” ( wondering who said it ? please see the very end of this post )
Hi there. Even though the USA’s mainstream media is obsessing about President Obama and Phelps and this and that, and even though the oh-so-smart “experts” are weighing in on whether the USA ’s economy is
gonna recover, I keep looking at a newspaper article I saw back in
December 2006 ….. on page A- 16…….
” Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars
to insurgents in Iraq, and much of the money is used to buy weapons,
including shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, according
to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of
cash. ”
” Saudi government officials deny that any money from Saudi Arabia is being sent into Iraq. ”
” But the U.S.A. ’s Iraq Study Group Report said Saudis are a
source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. ”
” Several truck drivers interviewed by The Associated Press described
carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said
was headed for insurgents. ”
” Two high-ranking Iraqi officials told The Associated Press that most of the Saudi money comes from private donations, called zaqat,
collected for Islamic causes and charities. ”
source: Associated Press news-article, by Salah Nasrawi, Friday,
December 8, 2006 ; ” The Fresno (California ) Bee” newspaper,
page A- 16.
I think this goes on to a big degree. I mean, I seriously think that tens of millions of dollars goes from Saudi Arabia into Iraq monthly. Period.
The quote at the beginning of this post is from William T. Sherman.
Timothy R. Anderson
9 February 2009, 2:53 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Hostile Action Fatalities, today:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29102701/
Timothy R. Anderson
9 February 2009, 3:06 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Now that the War In Iraq is more than 2, 055 days old, one would hope that incidents such as this one would not still be happening http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-02-12-iraq-thursday_N.htm in a world where a lady gives birth to eight babies, an athlete smokes marijuana, the President’s wife is on the front-cover of a fashion magazine, it seems unfortunate that the persons that the USA’s government once claimed it cared about - THE IRAQIS - receive
so little attention…….. so little attention indeed.
Timothy R. Anderson
12 February 2009, 3:53 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Blackwater Changes Name. Blackwater Changes Name. Blackwater Changes Name.
It is evident by now that the War In Iraq has handsomely enriched certain persons. Some of those persons are employees of ” Xe.”
Yes, that’s the name chosen to replace the name ” Blackwater.”
It’s a wild, wild world, y’all………. here’s a link
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/02/blackwater-changes-name-xe-distance-it-iraq-work
By all names they’re still scabs.
Timothy R. Anderson
13 February 2009, 1:54 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
As American companies like Blackwater / Xe fight amongst themselves for position…… Iraqis, new and not-new are competing as well
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-iraq-kirkuk26-2009mar26,0,3828866.story
I guess one could say: Some folks die in wars ; others make big money.
Tim Anderson, USA civilian.
26 March 2009, 7:47 pmTim Anderson:
It truly is sad that the country of Iraq is indeed wrecked.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-04-30-iraq-violence_N.htm
An update from the files of ” Hostile Action Fatalities.”
The total number of USA military servicemembers in Iraq who died due to HOSTILE-ACTION during July 2008 was EIGHT.
The total number of USA military servicemembers in Iraq who died
due to HOSTILE-ACTION during April 2009 was THIRTEEN.
Today is six years to the day that then-President Bush announced that the Iraq War’s “major” combat phase was done. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Tim Anderson, USA civilian.
1 May 2009, 2:03 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
The total number of USA miiilitary servicemembers in Iraq who died due to hostile action during July 2008 was EIGHT.
The total number of USA military servicemembers in Iraq who died due to
hostile action during May 2009 was TWELVE .
Iraq’s a mess, y’all. It doesn’t get coverage on PBS, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CNN,
and CBS, but get this please if U get no other thing, IRAQ IS A MESS.
Do you, yes you, ever spend time thinking about what it is like to purchase
gasoline in Iraq, as a “regular ” ( i.e. non-terrorist ) Iraqi civilian ?
What do you think that’s like ?
Waiting in flippin hot weather just for the chance, the possibility of getting what you are waiting for ?
Do you consider what it is like when yourself or someone-you-care-about needs
medical attention in Iraq ? What would that be like ?
Hospitals lucky to get two hours worth of electricity a day ?
Is That Your Idea Of A Stable, Peaceful Society ?
What About Law And Order ?
Judges, Doctors, Lawyers, Witnesses, Who Is Speaking Up On Your Behalf ?
Please y’all since no one in the mainstream media can be bothered, please
consider visiting
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com
Because today it is happening in Iraq and betcha by golly wow, if things don’t
change and people here don’t WAKE UP soon it’ll be happening here because people need to WAKE UP my goodness.
Employees of these companies, and others, could very well not enjoy war, but
they are okay with making large sums of money from it:
Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, KBR, Halliburton, DynCorp,
Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, Blackwater ( now known as ” Xe ” )
Erinys, and Triple Canopy.
Once more with feeling
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-04-30-iraq-violence_N.htm
Who Are The Persons Preventing Iraqi Civilians From Being Killed ? Who ?
Yikes. Timothy R. Anderson, USA civilian.
6 June 2009, 1:45 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Who Are The Persons Preventing This Wrecked Iraq Achieving Real Independence ?
President Obama, for one.
Hi everyone, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-06-24-iraq-bombing_N.htm
The idea that, somehow, the American-led “coalition ” military servicemembers
are preventing violence today, or that they have prevented violence yesterday,
or the day before that, or the day before that, ……….
Where was I ? Oh, where I am from, when we’re sarcastically observing
an overblown ceremony of self-congratulations, folks ’round these here parts
like to say, ” That ’s the big hooooop-deee-doooooo, alright. ”
Please visit the above link and please realize that President Obama’s tenure
as President will include plenty of hollow self-congratulating.
Where’s I at, ‘zackly ? Eastern California, y’all.
Timothy R. Anderson, USA Citizen Since 1972.
24 June 2009, 4:46 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
President Obama probably appreciates the ongoing media
non-coverage of life in Iraq. When’s the most-recent time you saw
a reporter holding a microphone and speaking English into it while on Iraq’s soil ? Really ? Please tell me where I can see/hear that, because I do not get that channel, nor do I know of it.
Interestingly enough, with all the hoooopla concerning health care and Afghanistan and Mainstream American Media’s murder case of the month
, IRAQ actually is still where American taxpayers’ money is going and
American military servicemembers are dying.
IRAQ, yes Iraq, is where seven USA military servicemembers have died so far this month. The entire month of August 2009 also saw seven American military servicemembers’ fatalities in Iraq. History has shown that the likelihood of the numbers increasing as the autumn begins is, well, likely ! Not that President Obama appears to have lost any sleep over it. Or Vice President Biden. Excuse me, please, Mr. Vice President, how much time did you serve in Iraq ?
Oh, you know, 3,455 uhhhh, hmmmmmmmmmm, 3,455 minutes.
Anyway, if anyone can direct me to the place where a report
on current day-to-day living for the non-terrorist Iraqi civilians can be found, that’d be appreciated greatly.
When did the Vietnam War become really irksome to such and such persons ? Oh, it varies, you know. My guess is that by the time the year 1971 rolled around more-than-a-few Americans who genuinely liked their own country had had enough of President Nixon spewing his stuff forth. Aaaaaaaaaaand, furthermore, I’d guess the ones who didn’t
think of it earlier wish they had.
Timothy R. Anderson
19 September 2009, 1:00 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Vice President Biden’s brief visit into Iraq and quickly out failed to generate much change on-the-ground there. After being fed large doses of media-generated “news items” about Afghanistan, ACORN, Polansky,
Michael Jackson, and SWINE FLU ( germs germs germs GERMS ! )
it is likely that several thousand, nay, several MILLION American citizens have not given much thought to Vice President Biden’s September 2009 trip to Iraq.
Plus it is difficult to get Iraq-related reporting from MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, ABC, NBC, and CBS News. So here’s this link :
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48336
This hasn’t been an easy May through September for the USA’s military’s servicemembers in IRAQ. There’s been bombings, and shootings, and injuries, and deaths. President Obama and the Pentagon would rather that IRAQ not be brought up, evidently. It seldom is
mentioned . . . . . if it is, it is mentioned only after President Obama’s noble attempts to bring the Olympics to Illinois, after
the latest HEALTH CARE-policy tantrum, after the latest
celebrity-related failed relationship, after the latest economic
theory is hashed out . . . . . . Pretending that the American military servicemembers in Iraq today, Sept. 30, 2009, …… pretending that they’re here instead of waaaaaaaay over there doesn’t make the war there any less expensive, y’all. Period.
Timothy R. Anderson
30 September 2009, 6:22 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Memo to Anderson Cooper: Haiti is not the only place on planet earth where persons are struggling. See Iraq.
Stay. Please.
Hi there, everybody. All the coverage of Haiti
brings to my mind these words, published in February 2004 and written by Jeremy Friedlander . . .
( it was a Letter To The Editor )
” Editor - Thank you for your news article, ‘Workers
get oil to near prewar production ( San Francisco Chronicle newspaper Feb. 4, 2004 ). Given the enormous investment the United States has made in the rebuilding
of Iraq, I would like to know much more about the economic and social conditions in Iraq. ”
” To what extent does its economy remain dependent
on American aid ? How do people make a living ? Do they have enough to eat ? Is street crime under control ?
Are schools, hospitals, and the legal system functioning ? ”
” As the media focuses on terrorist bombings,political negotiations, and intelligence lapses, we learn
little about what life is like for ordinary Iraqis.
It is likewise difficult to evaluate the nation-buildinng we have undertaken in Iraq. The news-article about Iraq’s oil industry gave a welcome insight into that process. ”
Letters To The Editor section,
words written by Jeremy Friedlander, San Francisco.
San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, Friday, Feb. 6, 2004.
It’s sad, really. To think of all the effort made to
make Iraq secure ( it’s not). To think of all the effort made to make Iraq functioning, literate, sanitized, stable ( nope, barely, no, no ). All that money, all those lives.
Timothy R. Anderson
P.S. Dearest Anderson Cooper please go to Iraq and stay. Thanks.
29 January 2010, 2:23 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Please take a moment and consider the progress made in Iraq
wait has there been anything to call progress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/baghdad-hotels-bomb-blasts
Plus of course the female suicide-bomber’s attack in Baghdad earlier this week.
Interesting how the USA’s mainstream media wants to focus on
Haiti. Not Iraq . Not Iraq at all…….
Timothy R. Anderson
3 February 2010, 2:37 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
The Mainstream Media Here In the USA won’t Give It Much Coverage,
Won’t Dwell On It For Very Long, But there’s more Wreckage In Iraq…………….
Her’e’s a link to an example:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-violence-20100511,0,4392172.story
Has anyone else ever noticed that in April 2010 and so far in May 2010
the major media outlets oh say Fox News, MSNBC , NBC, CBS, PBS,
and ABC —— They Don’t HAVE a reporter reporting from Iraq !
They Don’t !
Timothy R. Anderson
10 May 2010, 11:17 amTimothy R. Anderson:
The Way That The (Clears Throat) Common American Civilian Gets Distracted And Stays Distracted.
A great many words have been put forth regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but living here in the USA as a civilian it all maintains a very loooooong
distance from, well, me.
Maybe President/Commander-In-Chief Obama has recently read this piece http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-24-army-study_x.htm It includes an interesting quote from retired U.S. Army General George Joulwan.
Joulwan ruffled a few feathers when the following quote made by him regarding the current War In Iraq was made public :
” If you’re asking me about it, no, I don’t think
it was worth it at all. I think it was not, in fact, an essential part of the war against the jihadis across the world and has been a diversion from that and has put us in a real mess. ”
Timothy R. Anderson
11 May 2010, 1:21 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Page Two-Nine-Nine.
On May 9, 2003, The Washington Post portrayed an American occupation of Iraq as hindered by poor planning.
” A month after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, the Pentagon’s occupation authority remains plagued by insufficient resources and inadequate
preparations, fueling complaints from Iraqis and doubts about the Bush
Administration’s promise to reconstruct the country swiftly and set
its politics on a new, democratic course . ”
Essential services - water and electricity - were intermittent ,
and Iraqis were waiting in mile-long lines for gasoline. The health
system was near collapse. Looting was ongoing. Crime was on the rise. Relief workers were attacked. Iraqis were settling old scores with
revenge-killings. There was no functioning Police in the capital.
The U.S. occupation operation lacked language interpreters.
source: pages 299 and 300 of David Corn’s book ” The Lies Of George
W. Bush. ”
Timothy R. Anderson
12 May 2010, 3:02 pm