The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Sunday, March 25, 2007

News & Views 03/25/07

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ


VIDEO: Abdullah Leaves

In a city with no future, friendships survive on borrowed time.


VIDEO: Source Code

In this 10 minute piece, Dahr Jamail gives an Iraq update with exclusive video from Iraq. He describes some of the origins of the "sectarianism" that the US corporate media is so apt to point to when discussing Iraq, and shows how the US has been involved in fueling the sectarian tensions.


VIDEO: Four Years Later, Speaking to Americans


Sunni Baghdad Becomes Land of Silent Ruins

The cityscape of Iraq’s capital tells a stark story of the toll the past four years have taken on Iraq’s once powerful Sunni Arabs. Theirs is a world of ruined buildings, damaged mosques, streets pitted by mortar shells, uncollected trash and so little electricity that many people have abandoned using refrigerators altogether. The contrast with Shiite neighborhoods is sharp. Markets there are in full swing, community projects are under way, and while electricity is scarce throughout the city, there is less trouble finding fuel for generators in those areas. When the government cannot provide services, civilian arms of the Shiite militias step in to try to fill the gap. But in Adhamiya, a community with a Sunni majority, any semblance of normal life vanished more than a year ago. Its only hospital, Al Numan, is so short of basic items like gauze and cotton pads that when mortar attacks hit the community last fall, the doctors broadcast appeals for supplies over local mosque loudspeakers. Here, as in so much of Baghdad, the sectarian divide makes itself felt in its own deadly and destructive ways. Far more than in Shiite areas, sectarian hatred has shredded whatever remained of community life and created a cycle of violence that pits Sunni against Sunni as well as Sunni against Shiite.


War of Words Over Kirkuk Intensifies

Fiery rhetoric over who will eventually control the oil-rich city of Kirkuk has intensified recently, signaling that the opposite sides are not willing to compromise. A statement by Nejirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, has illustrated once again that the Kurds will never give up their claim to the city. Barzani warned that the Kurds patience over the fate of the disputed city was wearing thin and that they could not wait indefinitely. He was referring to an article in the Iraqi Constitution which stipulates the holding of a referendum in the city which the Kurds believe will show that they are the majority. Arabs and Turkmen who oppose the referendum and the transferring of Kirkuk’s administration to Kurds were furious over the remarks. “Giving up Kirkuk (to Kurds) means undermining the country’s future,” said Saad al-Janabi who, with other Iraqi politicians, leads the opposition to Kurdish moves to annex the city. Arabs and Turkmen have formed a joint front to oppose any Kurdish attempt to spread control over Kirkuk.


A New Shiite-Sunni Radio Station Offers Hope in Northern Iraq

In one of the most violent provinces in Iraq, two Shiites and two Sunnis kicked off their first broadcast of a new radio and television station on Sunday. Their message is one of peace, and they hope it will help quiet the sectarian violence that has shattered their lives in the bloody province of Diyala, which has a Sunni majority. Inside a U.S. army outpost southeast of Baquba, cut off from the outside world with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers surrounding them, with U.S. help the three men and one woman restarted the station, which once operated under Saddam Hussein’s rule and, later, as part of the Iraqi Media Network. “I feel we are standing on the pages of the history books. It is time to make our mark. I am carrying the most effective weapon in this war. It is my microphone and it will carry my voice,” said Samir Khamies, 28, a Sunni from Baquba and co-founder of the Independent Radio and Television Station. They’re funding comes from advertising revenue bought by the U.S. 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in Diyala to send out coalition messages. The brigade invested $36,000 to start the station. A Global Outreach Team from the U.S. Embassy was commissioned to help. They used jumper cables and a 12-volt battery to restart the radio transmitter, and they use a tower built for Saddam to preach a message of unity. But the price is dear.


COMMENTARY


Call for Aid as Iraqi Refugees’ Misery Compounds

Life for Ahlam al-Mulla, her husband and three children was meant to get easier after they fled their home outside Baghdad for the safety of Syria. In July 2004, the 42-year-old Sunni was kidnapped on her way to work for the Iraqi Help Centre - a US-sponsored welfare organisation. The militia men who took her accused her of being an agent of the US occupation. They beat her for eight days, she said. “My husband had to pay US $50,000 to get me released, otherwise I would have been killed,” Ahlam told IRIN in her bare living room in Damascus. “I was absolutely terrified.” The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that there are more than one million Iraqi refugees living in Syria. With new visa restrictions in place, soaring inflation, dwindling resources and no prospect of legal work, daily life for them has become increasingly unsustainable. Unable to obtain official work permits in Syria, many Iraqi families, such as the Mullas, have spent the meagre resources they brought with them from Iraq and now rely on donations from relatives. ……… According to a study by the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) on the effect of Iraqi refugees on inflation, an average two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Damascus two years ago could be rented monthly for 8,000 Syrian pounds (US $160) but now costs 20,000 Syrian pounds (US $400) - a 250 percent increase. “Syrians believe the Iraqi refugees are the main reason for inflation,” said Ammar Qurabi, NOHR Chairman. “In addition to the prices, Iraqis have brought with them many other problems, one of them being prostitution.” For the Mulla family, who live in Damascus’ majority Shia suburb of Sayyeda Zeinab, it was the overburden on Syria’s healthcare system that was to have tragic consequences. Delayed in admitting their 12-year-old son Anas to private healthcare in Sayyeda Zeinab after he fell sick, the parents watched in agony as doctors were unable to save their child, who died from internal bleeding.

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