Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
Huge increase in birth defects in Falluja, other battle zones
“Chemical Rummie”
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
Doctors in Iraq’s war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja’s over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.
Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.
A group of Iraqi and British officials…have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted…
Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.
Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba’athists and Iraqi army elements.
The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.
Having supported efforts to prevent testing of depleted uranium projectiles here in New Mexico, knowing something of the residue from radioactive pyrophoric metals, I’m not surprised by any of this.
Presumably, most of you won’t be surprised by the protestations of innocence and patriotic rationales that will flow from the Pentagon, politicians and other pimps of our military-industrial complex. Those who authorized most of this, those who continue to do so, will not relent until we stop them, folks.
Support grows for Matthew Hoh, leaving the Afghan War
A State Department employee who resigned last month in protest over America’s war in Afghanistan said he has received an outpouring of support from Afghan-Americans and U.S. active-duty military.
“I’ve had a lot of Afghan-Americans contact me and say, ‘Matt, you get it,’ ” Matthew Hoh told CNN. “You understand — yes, there is a civil war going on. You understand how Afghan society works. You understand this split within the Pashtuns. You understand valley-ism, or whatever you want to call it.”
The 36-year-old former Marine Corps captain resigned on September 10 over what he termed a “cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure.” Since then, even active-duty military have supported his decision, he said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”.
“I have received many many e-mails from active-duty military and some guys who just separated from the service,” Hoh said. “Some guys are here in the States. I’ve gotten many e-mails from guys in Afghanistan. Some are people I know. But a lot are people I do not know. Men and women who are saying, ‘Thanks for doing this. Keep it up. We don’t know why we’re here. We’re not sure why we’re taking these casualties. We don’t know what it’s accomplishing.’”
In his letter, the senior civilian representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, said he was resigning because “I fail to see the value or worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war.” He concluded the letter by saying that he had “lost confidence” that the “dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished and promised dreams unkept.”
Since Obama’s election I have been willing to re-examine the Afghan War in light of the potential of new and intelligent leadership. The leaders are there – especially Gen. McChrystal – and I think that absent the worst political pressures, President Obama is capable of making a decision on the war that will bear fruit.
But, that culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Republicans, chickenhawk Dems, tea-bagger war-lovers rally round the flag of self-destruction every day. I fear that Obama will accept a consensus of ignorance rather than lead us to daylight.
I agonized over my own opinion. After all, I have a great deal of interest in military history, strategy and tactics – as regulars here well know. I would have had confidence in Stanley McChrystal if someone of his caliber was leading the fray 8 years ago instead of being dropped in to pull the Bush/Rumsfeld chestnuts out of the fire less than 8 months ago.
Matthew Hoh has convinced me. I would hope we work to support the “valley defence” and continue to train soldiers and police officers to defend what passes for human rights in Afghanistan. I hope we could continue to build an intelligence operation in the region capable of supporting both Pakistan and Afghan efforts to terminate the gangsters and warlords pretending to be religious seers.
I hope we finish getting the hell out of Iraq, remove the bulk of offensive troops from Afghanistan – and while we’re at it, let’s bring the rest of our military home from around the world and quit throwing good money after bad by retaining a Cold War infrastructure that is past due on closing down.
U.S. military drone crashes into Iraq political party’s office
File Photo
An unmanned U.S. reconnaissance drone has crashed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, hitting the offices of one of Iraq’s biggest political parties, the U.S. military said.
No injuries were reported, and there was no indication the aircraft was shot down, said Major Derrick Cheng, a military spokesman in northern Iraq.
Cheng said it was a coincidence that the drone struck the local offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq’s biggest Sunni Arab political group, the military said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
They had better start having these drones tested by fanboys.
Iraqi shoe thrower – Muntazer al-Zaidi – to walk free!
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
As his size 10s spun through the air towards George W Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi – the man the world now knows as the shoe-thrower – was bracing for an American bullet.
“He thought the secret service was going to shoot him,” says Zaidi’s younger brother, Maitham. “He expected that, and he was not afraid to die.”
Zaidi’s actions during the former US president’s swansong visit to Iraq last December have not stopped reverberating in the nine months since.
Next Monday, when the journalist walks out of prison, his 10 raging seconds, which came to define his country’s last six miserable years, are set to take on a new life even more dramatic than the opening act.
Across Iraq and in every corner of the Arab world, Zaidi is being feted. The 20 words or so he spat at Bush – “This is your farewell kiss, you dog. This is for the widows and orphans of Iraq” – have been immortalised, and in many cases memorised.
Pictures of the president ducking have been etched onto walls across Baghdad, made into T-shirts in Egypt, and appeared in children’s games in Turkey.
Zaidi has won the adulation of millions, who believe his act of defiance did what their leaders had been too cowed to do.
RTFA. Learn a little bit more about how most of the world feels about the New American Century – as well as the previous.
Eight years of Bush and Cheney brought the world to a new level of hatred for American arrogance. Eight years of Bush and Cheney turned loose unbridled greed through unregulated speculation and market rigging, dishonest – or no – oversight.
These were not inmates running an asylum. That would require forgiving the demented. This was crime and corruption at the highest levels of government. Deceit and profiteering by those elected to serve the needs of the people.
PTSD is the primary suicide risk factor for veterans
Researchers working with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have found that post-traumatic stress disorder, the current most common mental disorder among veterans returning from service in the Middle East, is associated with an increased risk for thoughts of suicide.
Results of the study indicated that veterans who screened positive for PTSD were four times more likely to report suicide-related thoughts relative to veterans without the disorder.
The research, published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, establishes PTSD as a risk factor for thoughts of suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. This holds true, even after accounting for other psychiatric disorder diagnoses, such as substance abuse and depression. Veterans who screened positive for PTSD and two or more comorbid mental disorders were significantly more likely to experience thoughts of suicide relative to veterans with PTSD alone.
As many as forty-six percent of veterans in the study experienced suicidal thoughts or behaviors in the month prior to seeking care, and of those veterans, three percent reported an actual attempt within four months prior to seeking the care. Suicide-related thoughts and behaviors discovered in a returning veteran who has been diagnosed with PTSD, especially in the presence of other mental disorders, may suggest an increased risk for suicide.
I don’t know if you ever “get over” PTSD. My closest friend for most of my life provided his own therapy by becoming an activist against war. He was the most decorated soldier in WW2 from our home state. Had 16 months to think about it in a VA hospital after he came home on a stretcher.
Everyone thought he was cool with what he had been through. D-Day. At Bastogne. At the liberation of Buchenwald.
I knew better.
New GI Bill budgets $78 billion for college tuition
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
President Obama on Monday called a new GI Bill offering college tuition assistance to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “an investment in our own country.”
The new law is expected to offer veterans $78 billion in benefits over the coming decade. It is the most comprehensive education benefit offered to veterans since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill for World War II veterans in 1944…
The maximum benefit available under a law that took effect Saturday will cover the full tuition at a public college or university for four years for each eligible veteran, reservist and National Guard member. It also offers a monthly housing stipend and as much as $1,000 a year for books.
For those attending a private institution or graduate school, about 1,100 schools are offering additional scholarships matched by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, a provision of the new GI Bill, support is available for tuition that exceeds the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition…
“While our discourse often produced more heat than light, especially here in Washington, they have put their very lives on the line for America. They have borne the responsibility of war,” Obama said.
“And now, with this policy, we are making it clear that the United States of America must reward responsibility, and not irresponsibility. Now, with this policy, we are letting those who have borne the heaviest burden lead us into the 21st century.”
Blue Dog Dems, Republicans, chickenhawks, beancounters and other blivets gasped in dismay.
Brits and Chinese win lucrative Iraq oil contract
Iraq awarded a lucrative oil contract to BP and China National Petroleum Corp., government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said while rejecting other companies’ offers for other oil fields.
The joint BP-CNPC bid was for the al-Rumeila oil field, one of the largest in the world. The energy companies are expected to increase production at the oil field by 50 percent, to 285,000 barrels a day, for a service charge of $2 for each additional barrel produced, al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
The Iraqi government rejected bids for five other oil fields and a natural gas field because the bidders did not agree to the service charge set by the Ministry of Oil, he said.
The Ministry of Oil rejected the idea that the failure to award more than one contract made the much-anticipated auction a flop.
Iraq did not say how much the BP-CNPC bid was worth. It runs for 20 years…
He said the government was satisfied with the auction, even though only one contract was awarded, because the contract was for Iraq’s largest oil field.
Gee, do you think there may be some ill will towards the American Oil Patch Boys – in Iraq? Especially after all the wonderful aid and comfort we brought to that tormented land?
U.S. combat troops on track to leave Iraqi cities by month’s end
U.S. combat forces will vacate all Iraqi cities on schedule by the end of this month, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said, including the still violent insurgent holdout of Mosul.
U.S. combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq’s towns and cities by June 30 and redeploy to bases outside, according to a security pact that took effect in January. Some U.S. and Iraqi officials had suggested this might have to be delayed in the case of Mosul, where al Qaeda and other insurgent groups still carry out frequent attacks…
“We will come out of the cities. We will provide some trainers and advisers, LNOs (liaison officers) … inside of Mosul … but that’ll be it,” he said in an interview. “We’ve made some good progress up there in the last several months. I feel much better about where we’re at in terms of security in Mosul … We’ll be able to turn it over,” he said…
He said that since 2006, Iraqi security forces had made huge leaps in the size of their forces, and better training and equipment, but U.S. forces would remain in Iraq in an advisory role until the end of 2011, the withdrawal date agreed with Baghdad in the bilateral security pact.
“I think it’s time for us to move out of the cities, I think it’s important that people understand we are going to abide by the agreement that we’ve signed,” he said…
“You’ll never know until you leave. As long as we’re here, we can’t say they’re standing on their own two feet,” he said.
It’s amazing. We seem to have acquired a generation of officers which contains a noticeable – albeit small – number of folks with brains and the ability to use them. Somewhere along the way between Ho Chi Minh City and Kabul.
If we continue to keep our homegrown ideologues out of the way maybe we’ll get to bring everyone home?
KBR does crap contracting in Iraq. Pentagon forks over bonuses!
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
The U.S. Army paid “tens of millions of dollars in bonuses” to KBR, its biggest contractor in Iraq, even after it concluded the firm’s electrical work had put U.S. soldiers at risk.
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee plans to hold a hearing today to examine KBR’s operations in Iraq, and question why the Army rewarded the Houston-based company.
The panel says KBR has been linked to at least two, and as many as five, electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq due to “shoddy work.”
Investigators believe hundreds of other soldiers may have received electrical shocks, the source added. The Army is investigating…
During the Bush administration, some critics claimed Cheney’s deferred compensation from the company represented a conflict of interest and questioned Halliburton’s winning of lucrative government contracts in Iraq.
Don’t you love how polite everyone is to these creeps?
Cheney’s Oil Patch buddies get endless no-bid contracts for the war he and Bush started. They do shoddy work. They are caught time and again ripping off taxpayer’s dollars. Our soldiers’ lives are further endangered by their lousy work. And what’s the response from the Pentagon?
They pay ‘em bonuses.
Christopher Hill confirmed as US ambassador to Iraq – finally
Daylife/Getty Images
The Senate confirmed veteran diplomat Christopher Hill as U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Tuesday, voting 73-23 to put Hill in chargeof the largest U.S. embassy in the world.
Hill, a career Foreign Service officer, was the lead U.S. negotiator in the now-stalled North Korean disarmament talks. He will take over the Baghdad post at a time when President Barack Obama is attempting to wind down the 6-year-old war in Iraq.
His nomination made it past a key Senate test Monday as opponents failed to block the nomination. All 23 votes against the nomination Tuesday came from Republicans, several of whom argued that the nominee has no hands-on experience in the Middle East and speaks no Arabic.
But Sen. John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday that Hill had great experience “in negotiating complex, high-stakes, multilateral deals in conflict zones.”
“The entire resolution of Iraq as a success will revolve around the diplomacy that we apply to it and our ability to seek political reconciliation, which will be implemented by that diplomacy,” said Kerry, D-Massachusetts. Hill replaces Ryan Crocker, who was the top American diplomat in Baghdad from March 2007 until February.
Chris Hill has always been an honest man and a conservative. Qualities which didn’t used to be considered contradictory. Especially for a New England Yankee like Hill.
The honesty surely is what confounded both McCain and Brownback – prompting them to lead an attempt to stonewall Hill’s appointment,
