I dont even know what to say, but it seems to me that most solders are kids who assume war is more like a video game, they would shoot and then keep asking why those people are shooting at us. on the other hands Iraqis seems to expect American solders to fix everything for them. At the end of the day, many live lost for a decision made by 2 so called leaders who did not really respect these lives.
The Irony is that many of these stories are lost in a junkyard.
From NYTimes:
he documents ultimately led to a report that concluded that the Marine Corps’s chain of command engaged in “willful negligence” in failing to investigate the episode and that Marine commanders were far too willing to tolerate civilian casualties. That report, however, did not include the transcripts.
This creates new problem with moms who can not register their kids because sometimes they are not married, a problem that Iraqi useless politicians should act to fix it.
Source CNN:
CNN's Arwa Damon reports women were often raped by al Qaeda members and forced into marriage in areas they controlled.
Today the government did not allow even the peaceful crowd to mourn there loss as they claimed its a security threat
Source: Human Rights Watch
“The killing of Hadi al-Mahdi sadly highlights that journalism in Iraq remains a deadly profession,” said Joe Stork deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “After more than six years of democratic rule, Iraqis who publicly express their views still do so at great peril.”
Iraqi authorities should conduct an immediate, full, and transparent investigation into the September 8, 2011 killing of Hadi al-Mahdi, a popular radio journalist often critical of the government, at his home in Baghdad, and prosecute those responsible, Human Rights Watch said today.
Any decent elected government would resign after such a pathic tactic is used against peacful protesters.
Source: Human Rights Watch
In the days following the attack, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 25 demonstrators who said they were punched, beaten with sticks or other weapons, or stabbed during the June 10 assault. Human Rights Watch observed and witnesses said that security forces stood by and watched in several instances. Several organizers told Human Rights Watch that the attacks have had a severe chilling effect on people exercising their right to peaceful assembly. In the two Friday demonstrations since then, on June 17 and 24, many regular protesters and organizers have stopped attending the demonstration, mainly because of fear of attacks, they said.
I dont think I need to add a lot more text than the poinnts mentioned in this article on the their website, even though the article is about the New UNICEF Iraq Ambassador Kadhum Al-Sahir, but the value is really inside the post.
Source UNICEF:
In the 1970s, Iraq was one of the best countries in the Middle East and North Africa to be a child, but due to decades of war and neglect, it has become one of the worst. Some of the issues facing Iraq’s 15 million children now include the following:
Each year, around 35,000 infants die before reaching their first birthday
Over 1.5 million children under the age of five are undernourished
Around 700,000 children are not enrolled in primary school, while hundreds of thousands more drop out before graduating
2.5 million children do not have access to safe water, and 3.5 million lack adequate sanitation facilities
Around 800,000 children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working.
Lets see if the provincial governor will step down after the loss of innocinet live or he will pull a Saddam behaviour
Source NYTimes
Security forces in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut on Wednesday fired on a group of protesters calling for the provincial governor to step down, killing at least three people, according to a local government official.
I usually refrain from writing a post about issue and provide links to other views, mainly because I see a lot of repetitive information, this post will be an exception because I feel very passionately about this era and most of my beliefs today was shapped based on how humane the world have been in the last 2 decades toward human lives when they look differently than yours. Today I opened my eyes to read the news that the economic sanctions against Iraq are to be lifted, something that took Iraq toward total collapse and got millions of Iraqis to flee the country.
Sadaam the guy who by his practices and disgusting politics dragged Iraq into invading Kuwait for what he described in his speech who he addressed the "honorable" in this world, he said the action was needed because Kuwait played an unfair economical rule that got Iraq to lose a billion dollar of revenue for each dollar the price of barrel went down. Now some may see the economical effect as a huge deal but what he cared about at that moment was really grabbing more power, as he never cared about the economical game, in fact under his rule Iraq went broke right from the get go with Iraq-Iran war.
Now lets see how the civilized world reacted to Saddam's stupid behavior after invading Kuwait, first economical sanctions (which is the reason I felt I need to write this), and then a war in 1991 that killed many in Iraq, then they allowed Saddam to use his Helicopters to attack civilians in the North and South of Iraq (All this under the name of the (Civilized world), then bombing through the 90's that killed many , one of them is one of Iraq amazing artist "Layla Al Attar", who got killed during one of those bombings in the 90s.
One of the "most civilized" reaction to the sanctions came from someone I thought at that time she could be a force for good.
When asked on US television if she [Madeline Albright, US Secretary of State] thought that the death of half a million Iraqi children [from sanctions in Iraq] was a price worth paying, Albright replied: “This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it.”
I could not believe that she said that but then remembered as long as you are not portrayed by the media as a "bad guy" like Saddam was , its OK to make a screwed up policy and the media would keep calling you sweet names, at the end of the day half a million Iraqi children don't have a media campaign behind them that will make the world stand against such words or actions.
Now many will start blabing about the Oil for food program and how corrupted it was, It was supposedly intended to be there to help Iraqis to survive, I usually tend to think of those who come up with this argument as "brain dead" at their best. That program was a tool to look less inhumane by politicians and it opened doors for companies to benefit from the huge oil resources of Iraq, through giving Saddam cash. It was never intended to help Iraqis, the only benefit that Iraqis got out of it was simply more food on their table through the government rations that made few more survive another year or 2, Iraq was crippled economically to a point that kids at schools were coming to school without breakfast because their parents could not afford it.
Then we fast forward to 2003 when the evil Saddam was taken out under the promise of "Freeing the Iraqi People" which only the naive believe, even though if you read and educate yourself about the situation you will see that many politicians disregard human lives beyond belief, I have heared so many politicians say these exact words without hesitation
Its better to fight ALQAIDA over there than we fight them here
I have been disgusted by Saddam so many times, but I expect him to be like that because from day one no one beleived he was a good guy, well except for idiots in the Arab world who never lived , but politician who call themselves civilised and humanee and talk about freedom , saying that is beyond disgusting especially when you associate yourself with mainstream politicians.
Iraqis today are reading the news that the sanction that was installed on Iraq because of Invading Kuwait is nearing an end, guess why this time. So that companies can sell civilian nuclear technology to Iraq.
Brilliant, 20 years of suffering and more than a million Iraqis dead, and what move the civilised international community to remove sanctions is simply money.
I am trying to translate things quickly but wanted to let people see whats happening in Iraq, and do not forget how Iraqis are treated under this government, This government called this rescue operation a success (yes believe it or not they did call it a successful operation).
this video of a girl who had a brother and sister and a young child (nephew) that got killed during the attack, she was one of the hostages,
She is very emotional as you can see in the video, she is describing the attacker and what they did. this is how she explain it
The attackers went into the church by having couple of explosions and the smoke start to enter the church, when the priest went out to tell them to cool down they right away shot him, her and her sister and Auday (her brother and his son (Adam)), there was few young men they attackers were telling each other to kill all of them.
His young child named Adam (was crying and attached to his dad), the kid was scared, his dad is trying to calm him down, the girls (2 sisters) were very close to their brother and his son, all scared and shaking, the only one who was trying to calm them is the brother. he was telling his sisters that these people will take money and leave, so just keep quite.
but the attackers went and shot the brother on the shoulder, his child started crying, and one of the girls got shot in the leg and fell over the brother and the child,
this girl was explaining how she moved that girl from above her nephew because so that the kid can breath.
She is explaining: The terrorist kept throwing grande toward us, and he was telling us that you all infernal gonna go to hell even when you live you are in hell, while no matter what we do, we are going to heaven,
she was explaining how cold blooded those terrorist are, while all the carnage around them the discussion between them was like this
Terroist 1: Is everything good with you,
Terroist 2: : am good, dont worry about me
Terroist 1: did you pray
Terroist 2: ya I did
all this while they are shooting innocent people ,
Adam (the young child) voice went down and I did not know what happen to him and could not do anything , she was scared when her phone went on and started vibrating and one of the terrorist was looking for the cause of the noise, she hid the phone quickly into her purse and laid over the purse so that they wont find her and her sister.
One of The terrorist started praying then blow himself up, she was trying to check if her sister was alive,
then the Army went in, but we did not know them and we though they were terrorist too (I think they were playing dead), so the army identified themselves as army and start asking people to leave if they are alive, she moved and searched for her brother son , using her cell phone light , she saw the child fully burned .
they left and church and it was a total mess the girl was crying and all what the army were doing is shouting at them to calm down , she shut them up. she was asking loudly whith all those army outside how come you keep us inside for so long (they were under siege for about 4 hours)
she said while leaving we were walking over flesh of people scattered around the church.
I am trying to translate things quickly but wanted to let people see whats happening in Iraq, and do not forget how Iraqis are treated under this government, This government called this rescue operation a success (yes believe it or not they did call it a successful operation).
Please share and let people see whats really happening for the innocent people in Iraq, nd try to watch the video , even if you dont understand the language you can see the pain and suffering of those people
the guy is talking about the attack on Sayedat Al-Najat church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010 through an interview with a Christian channel NourSat in the middle east
his son got killed in that attack, he is explaining what he saw during the time he spent outside waiting for his family to get rescued, the 2 girls around him are his daughters who both were next to their brother (the guys son, and his young child) (who both got killed).
his son called him at 5:15PM when the attackers went into the church so he told his son to hide, At 5:30 he called his son again and the son said that the attackers are shooting randomly and killing people, and the father heard the shooting as a background noise during the phone call, this was the last time he was able to speak to his son.
He made it to the church at 6: an Iraqi officer helped him get close to the church, he is explaining that the smoke was going out of the church and the police and the army was around there by the hundreds but they were just sitting and doing nothing, in fact he was saying that it looked like they were chitchating as if nothing happened.
He is saying that from 6:00PM till 8:30 there were killing inside the church while the army and police outside doing Nothing, they were just standing there, every 15 minutes there would be shooting and then quite.
He said I told the officers that I know the back stairs of the church and can help you and get you in but no one listened , He said till the terrorist finished all their ammunition , nothing was done, the officers were sitting as if they cared less,
He said if the Minister of defense or the Minster of interior family were Christians would of they waited that long, He said most of the top ranking officers were doing nothing , just sitting around and chit chatting, and they even told him to not get aggravated (its only 20 people in the church), he got furious as he have (8 of his family members inside) and told them "In the western world they negotiate and try to save one person life and you tell me to be quite for only 20 people" , he mentioned that there were hundreds inside the church (the estimated number was 120 ).
Till the SWAT team arrived at 9:00 PM nothing was done by either the police nor the army, while the terrorist were kept killing people, he said even when the SWAT came and went into the church the terrorist did not have any ammunition anymore and even when they went in, it was a mess and they may have killed even more innocent people.
And above all that they said that after the SWAT finished they just left and also the army and the police, they did not even help in clearing the church from the bodies, the only help came from the ministry of health as the ambulances were taking people to the hospitals, otherwise till 1:00 AM there were no one helping to move the bodies.
He is saying also that there is even probability that some terrorist made it out with the people.
He says the we are the Christian in Iraq is second class citizen, thats why they did not care, He was getting very angry at the government and how some people look at Iraqi Christians as a tool for the American in Iraq, and he said that him and his grandparents and his great great great grandparents are from Iraq "the American did not bring us here, this land is our land as much as its for any other Iraqi."
I dont think I can say anything more than what the article says by a friend if mine Haider
Source PBS:
In my last weekend in Syria, a group of young Iraqi men suggested we go to a party at a night club on the outskirts of Damascus. One of my companions said to me: "Here you'll find the most beautiful Iraqi refugee women ... and they are very affordable."
As we walked in, the stage was packed with women wearing heavy make up and revealing clothes. An Iraqi singer was performing live and the surrounding tables were occupied mostly by Arab men from the wealthy Gulf States and surrounding countries. Alcohol was being served and smoking was permitted.
