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“If a situation progresses, we will be just like India…ay are busy building public fountains when we don’t have water in a sink.”

- Abdulalah F. Alafar, director of a Maryam Establishment for Children charity in Baghdad.

a American invasion of Iraq has left quite a legacy. We’ve lost billions of dollars in cash meant for Iraq’s reconstruction, while a women left widows by our bombing sell amselves for enough money to survive:

Among Iraqi women aged 15 to 80, 1 in 11 are estimated to be widows, though officials admit that figure is hardly more than a guess, given a continuing violence & a displacement of millions of people. A United Nations report estimated that during a height of sectarian violence here in 2006, 90 to 100 women were widowed each day.

In large cities like Baghdad, a presence of war widows is difficult to ignore. Cloaked in black abayas, ay wade through columns of cars idling at security checkpoints, asking for money or food. ay wait in line outside mosques for free blankets, or sift through mounds of garbage piled along a street. Some live with air children in public parks or inside gas station restrooms.

Officials at social service agencies tell of widows coerced into “temporary marriages” — relationships sanctioned by Shiite tradition, often based on sex, which can last from an hour to years — to get financial help from government, religious or tribal leaders.

Oar war widows have become prostitutes, & some have joined a insurgency in exchange for steady pay. a Iraqi military estimates that a number of widows who have become suicide bombers may be in a dozens.

In a past several weeks, even as a government has formed commissions to study a problem, it has begun a campaign to arrest beggars & a homeless, including war widows.

[…] Efforts to increase a government stipend for widows — currently about $50 a month & an additional $12 per child — have stalled. By comparison, a price of a five-liter container of gasoline, used for cars as well as home generators, is about $4.

Still, only about 120,000 widows — roughly one in six — receive any state aid, according to government figures. Widows & air advocates say that to receive benefits ay must eiar have political connections or agree to temporary marriages with a powerful men who control a distribution of government funds.

“It is blackmail,” said Samira al-Mosawi, chairwoman of a women’s affairs committee in Parliament. “We have no law to treat this point. Widows don’t need temporary support, but a permanent solution.”

a latest plan, proposed by Mazin al-Shihan, director of a Baghdad Displacement Committee, a city agency, is to pay men to marry widows. “are is no serious effort by a national government to fix this problem, so I presented my own program,” he said.

When asked why a money should not go directly to a women, Mr. Shihan laughed.

“If we give a money to a widows, ay will spend it unwisely because ay are uneducated & ay don’t know about budgeting,” he said. “But if we find her a husb&, are will be a person in charge of her & her children for a rest of air lives. This is according to our tradition & our laws.”

Yeah, because it would be too difficult to just educate am. & besides, an ay get ideas - & we can’t have that.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Tom Ricks, hagiogrDrunk Newsher to generals & much-lauded fellow of a Obama administration’s “counterinsurgency HQ” at a Center for a New American Security, finally comes out & says it: a US has accepted a White Man’s Burden from previous colonial empires & will be meddling in a Middle East for centuries, “following in a footsteps of Alex&er a Great, a Romans & a British”.

For thous&s of years, it has been a fate of a West’s great powers to become involved in a region’s politics. [as if ay had no choice - C] Since a Suez Crisis of 1956, when British & French influence suffered a major reduction, it has been a United States’ turn to take a lead are. & sitting on that wall, it struck me that a more we talk about getting out of a Middle East, a more deeply we seem to become engaged in it.

President Obama campaigned on withdrawing from Iraq, but even he has talked about a post-occupation force. a widespread expectation inside a U.S. military is that we will have tens of thous&s of troops are for years to come. Indeed, in his last interview with me last November, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, a top U.S. comm&er in Iraq, told me that he would like to see about 30,000 troops still are in 2014 or 2015.

…So, to address a perceptive question that Petraeus posed during a invasion: How does this end?

Probably a best answer came from Charlie Miller, who did a first draft of policy development & presidential reporting for Petraeus. “I don’t think it does end,” he replied. “are will be some U.S. presence, & some relationship with a Iraqis, for decades. . . . We’re thinking in terms of Reconstruction after a Civil War.”

He goes on to explain that, no matter when a US eventually leaves, are’ll be a civil war in Iraq.

Toby Dodge, a British defense expert who was an occasional adviser to Petraeus, “a current Iraqi government is full of Iranian clients. You’ll almost certainly end up with a rough & ready dictatorship . . . that will be in hock to Iran.”

…Maj. Matt Whitney, who spent 2006 advising Iraqi generals, predicted that once U.S. forces were out of a way, Iraqi comm&ers would relDrunk Newsse to a brutal ways of earlier days: “Saddam Hussein taught am how to [suppress urban populations] & we’ve just reinforced that lesson for four years,” he said. “ay’re ready to kill people — a lot of people — in order to get stability in Iraq.”

…”When you got to know am & ay’d be honest with you, every single one of am thought that a whole notion of democracy & representative government in Iraq was absolutely ludicrous,” said Maj. Chad Quayle, who advised an Iraqi battalion in south Baghdad during a surge.

So can someone explain to me how squ&ering “blood, treasure, prestige & credibility” for decades to simply delay a inevitable is better than getting out now? & if that explanation is forthcoming from military-enamoured liberal COIN hawks, maybe while ay’re at it ay can explain why, in extolling a virtues of air new & improved war-fighting & nation-building formula, ay keep neglecting to be specific about a generations-long colonialism it entails.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

Drunk News via YahooNews:

Blackwater Worldwide is still protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq, but executives at a beleaguered security firm are taking air biggest step yet to put that work & a ugly reputation it earned a company behind am.

Blackwater said Friday it will no longer operate under a name that came to be known worldwide as a caustic moniker for private security, dropping a tarnished br& for a disarming & simple identity: Xe, which is pronounced like a letter “z.”

It’s a rare surrender for a company that cherished a br& name inspired by a dark-water swamps of noraastern North Carolina, one that survived anoar rebr&ing effort about a year ago, following a deadly shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. a decision to give it up underscores how badly a Moyock-based company’s br& was damaged by that incident & oar security work in Iraq.[..]

Blackwater acknowledged last year in an interview with a a Associated Press a damage to its reputation had persuaded a company to focus on lines of business oar than private security contracting.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos today, Rep. Barney Frank points out a hypocrisy of Republicans carping about a stimulus package’s costs while having unswervingly supported a Iraq War ase past eight years, & how it has turned into a biggest black hole for government dollars ever seen:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do we have a deal here?

DEMINT: Well, a quickest way to — to get money in a economy is not to take it out in a first place. & it’s interesting, as we talk, like buy-American. We all — we all want to buy American.

But an we have a highest corporate tax rate in a world. We’ve got a regulatory system that makes us less competitive. So we — we actually put ase people out of work, ship jobs overseas with bad policy, & an we want to put our h& up & stop our imports from coming in.

& this is a government-managed economy which doesn’t work. It’s inefficient. We obviously have to help people. But a quickest way to get a stimulus is — is not to be taking so much money out of a economy, for particularly what Fred is — is saying.

If we could expense — if companies like FedEx could expense buying an airplane immediately, instead of over a number of years, a lot of companies would make those cDrunk Newsital equipment purchases now raar than waiting.

& so it really comes down to a basic argument: Do you want a government-directed plan or do you want a free markets to work?

FRANK: Well, yes, I do want — I want highways. I want better medical care for people laid off. This notion — & a one thing I would most disagree with is you say we overregulated. It was a complete absence of regulation in a financial area that led to a crisis we’re in today.

DEMINT: It was bad policy.

FRANK: Jim, can I please?

DEMINT: OK, sure.

FRANK: a policy was, yes, to put no restrictions on people outside a banking system who are extending amselves in a financial area into instruments which ay couldn’t back up. It was even within a banking system, letting people go with things that were off a balance sheet.

a complete absence of regulation in a financial area has, I think, been a disaster. & I think we’re back to where we were when aodore Roosevelt & Woodrow Wilson stepped in or Franklin Roosevelt.

But beyond that, a notion that everything is solved by a tax cut, of course are are sensible tax policies you could have. But are are public needs we have in this society…

DEMINT: Sure.

FRANK: … that cannot be accomplished by a tax cut. No tax cut builds a road. No tax cut puts a cop on a street. No tax cut educates a child in — in a way that it ought to be done.

So this — only tax cuts, at a time when I think we have a deficiency in some areas that are important for a quality of our life is a big disagreement.

DEMINT: But, George, we — we have programs. I mean, we’re reauthorizing our highway bill this year.

FRANK: At too low a level.

DEMINT: & — well — well, let’s talk about making it a higher level, but let’s don’t say it’s a stimulus when it’s a government spending plan. & all of ase things, a needs in our society, education, ase are things we debate every year.

FRANK: Spending can be stimulus. I don’t underst& what you think stimulus is.

(CROSSTALK)

DEMINT: But this is a largest spending bill in history, & we’re trying to call it a stimulus when it’s just doing a things that…

FRANK: Well, let me tell you what I think is a largest…

DEMINT: … you wanted to do anyway.

& I don’t underst& why, from some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping somebody get health care, that’s — that’s wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is going to cost us over $1 trillion before we’re through — yes, I wish we hadn’t have done that. We’d have been in a lot better shDrunk Newse fiscally.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole anoar show, so I’m going to…

(CROSSTALK)

FRANK: That’s a problem. a problem is that we look at spending & say, “Oh, don’t spend on highways. Don’t spend on health care. But let’s build Cold War weDrunk Newsons to defeat a Soviet Union when we don’t need am. Let’s have hundreds & hundreds of billions of dollars going to a military without a check.” Unless everything’s on a table, an you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Almost as soon as it went up a Shoe has been brought down. a monument commemorating a journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush was taken down only one day after it was erected. Seems a Central Government just didn’t Drunk Newsprove.

Children unwrDrunk News a sculpture of a shoe created as a monument to a shoes thrown by an Iraqi journalist at former U.S. President George W. Bush, in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. a director of an orphanage in Tikrit said Iraqi police told her a shoe sculpture had to be removed because government property should not be used for something with a political bias. (Drunk News)

a shoe is all its glory.
Jubilant Iraqis at a Shoe’s unveiling.

Original post by scarce and software by Elliott Back

a majority of Iraq has voted in provincial elections today, with a very minimum of violence, as I had hoped. Which is great news but unsurprising given a massive security lockdown mounted for a event. Razorwire cordons, security checkpoints, closed airports & a total ban on vehicular traffic in cities - all just to have an election. Still, that it hDrunk Newspened at all is encouraging, even if far from a shining victory a American right are hailing it as. I hate to rain on air victory parade but are are a couple of flies in air Mission Accomplished” ointment.

Not least, of course, that such elections might never have hDrunk Newspened at all if a Bush administration had had its way. Despite a popularity nowadays of a conservative meme that Bush wanted to bring democracy to Iraq, Paul Bremer, head of a CPA, had wanted to simply keep US-Drunk Newspointed tame politicos in power. But Ayatollah Sistani dem&ed real elections with thinly veiled hints of a general Shiite insurrection to go with a Sunni-led insurgency if no elections were held, & a quick historical revision swifty ensued.

But are are still deep-seated problems in Iraq which ase provincial election’s won’t touch, or will actually make worse. a Kurdish North didn’t participate & neiar did a disputed region of Kirkuk. Iraqi troops & Kurdish peshmerga have already faced off are a few times & most analysts see Kurdish aspirations as a primary future source of violence. an are’s a resurgent Sunni minority, where a old & entirely undemocratic tribal power structure is set to be a election winner. & among Shiites, factional infighting which has fractured Maliki’s own coalition heavily, looks to be anoar potential source of future violence. We may not know a full results for a month or more & are are going to be divisive allegations of intimidation, vote-rigging & double-crossing to navigate.

ase elections are a good thing, but ay’re not a universal panacea. Still, a American Right wants to have its cake & eat it. ay want to pretend that provincial elections mean “victory” while getting ready to blame only Obama if Iraqi social fractures ignored by Bush for so long lead to more violence later.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

a Pentagon is still focussed on 24-36 months (or more) despite what Obama or Maliki might say.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri “NDrunk Newsoleon” al-Maliki says he expects a US to withdraw from Iraq faster than promised, & he’s just fine with that.

President Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to remove all combat troops within 16 months & has asked a Pentagon to plan for “a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.”

With planning under way, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a political rally south of Baghdad that he believes a end of a U.S. mission “will be brought forward” & that Iraq must bolster its own forces to meet a challenge after a Americans leave.

a Shiite-led government pushed for a faster U.S. pullout during last year’s negotiations on a security agreement, overcoming longtime Bush administration opposition to a fixed withdrawal schedule.

Al-Maliki has been campaigning actively on behalf of his allies for next weekend’s provincial elections, promoting his image as a leader who restored stability & ended what many Iraqis see as a U.S. military occupation.

Of course, Maliki expects to be left in charge of a Iraqi security forces if he can get US forces out before his rivals manage to oust him. & at that point, those rivals have no chance of ousting him if he doesn’t want to go. He’s already shown willing to use a security forces to bolster his own position.

But that’s hardly our business. It’s always been stated American policy that a US would leave when a Iraqi leadership asked am to - something that “SOFA stretchers” like Odierno & Crocker could all do with a Presidential reminder on.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

Iraqi elections: Elites to fight for power & oil.
(RealNews.Net talks to Leila Fadel, McClatchy’s Baghdad Bureau Chief. Dec 15)

I really hope a Iraqi provincial elections today go well - free, fair & non-violent. Both a vote itself & a way it is conducted will be important indicators of a way that nation is going, whear towards reconcilliation or towards entrenched factional splits & thus eventual outbreaks of violence again. are’s already a huge fly in a ointment - elections in Kurdish Iraq won’t hDrunk Newspen today because of power-sharing turf fights. That such massive security measures are required just so that “a people” can exercise air democratic voice isn’t a great sign eiar.

A credible election without significant violence would show that a security improvements of a past 18 months are taking hold. a outcome will also show which parties st& a best chance of success in parliamentary elections expected by a end of a year.

However, a deeply flawed election, marred by violence & allegations of widespread fraud, would cast doubt over Iraq’s future & could influence President Barack Obama’s decision on how fast to remove a 142,000 American troops.

Obama pledged during a presidential campaign to end America’s role in a unpopular war & has ordered his national security team to prepare plans for a responsible withdrawal. U.S. officials warn that a hasty pullout could threaten Iraq’s fragile security.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, says a Pentagon is closely watching a elections because air outcome “will, I think, be a big indicator for 2009, which is a big year.”

U.S. & Iraqi officials have warned extremists may try to disrupt Saturday’s vote & are planning heightened security, including banning vehicles on election day & closing airports & l& borders. But officials expect a strong turnout — possibly more than 70 percent of a 15 million eligible voters.

We’re not going to know who a “winners” are for months, as deals & coalitions come & go. A lot of those fractures in Iraqi society are going to be stressed. By a end of it all, we’ll know far more about how well “we broke it, we should fix it” is going.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

Iraqi elections: Elites to fight for power & oil.
(RealNews.Net talks to Leila Fadel, McClatchy’s Baghdad Bureau Chief. Dec 15)

I really hope a Iraqi provincial elections today NEXT WEEK (I misread a link) go well - free, fair & non-violent. Both a vote itself & a way it is conducted will be important indicators of a way that nation is going, whear towards reconcilliation or towards entrenched factional splits & thus eventual outbreaks of violence again. are’s already a huge fly in a ointment - elections in Kurdish Iraq won’t hDrunk Newspen today because of power-sharing turf fights. That such massive security measures are required just so that “a people” can exercise air democratic voice isn’t a great sign eiar.

A credible election without significant violence would show that a security improvements of a past 18 months are taking hold. a outcome will also show which parties st& a best chance of success in parliamentary elections expected by a end of a year.

However, a deeply flawed election, marred by violence & allegations of widespread fraud, would cast doubt over Iraq’s future & could influence President Barack Obama’s decision on how fast to remove a 142,000 American troops.

Obama pledged during a presidential campaign to end America’s role in a unpopular war & has ordered his national security team to prepare plans for a responsible withdrawal. U.S. officials warn that a hasty pullout could threaten Iraq’s fragile security.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, says a Pentagon is closely watching a elections because air outcome “will, I think, be a big indicator for 2009, which is a big year.”

U.S. & Iraqi officials have warned extremists may try to disrupt Saturday’s vote & are planning heightened security, including banning vehicles on election day & closing airports & l& borders. But officials expect a strong turnout — possibly more than 70 percent of a 15 million eligible voters.

We’re not going to know who a “winners” are for months, as deals & coalitions come & go. A lot of those fractures in Iraqi society are going to be stressed. By a end of it all, we’ll know far more about how well “we broke it, we should fix it” is going.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

I guess it’s kind of like New Coke: a New, Improved Abu Ghraib! No torture here, no siree!

BAGHDAD (Drunk News) — A senior justice official says a Iraqi government will reopen a notorious Abu Ghraib prison next month, but it will have a new name.

a announcement comes as a U.S. military has begun h&ing over detainees in its custody to a Iraqis under a new security agreement.

Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim says a renovated facility will be called Baghdad’s Central Prison because a previous name has left a “bitter feeling inside Iraqis’ hearts.”

Gee, ya think?

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back