So, more and more, I'm only able to get to a computer with decent internet access about once a week. I decided that instead of trying to fit a week's worth of opinions into one diary, I'd instead just comment on news stories that relate to Iraq once a week.
This week has a couple of important days. The most obvious one is the Fourth of July. The second one is more personal. On the 9th of July, it will have been five years in the Army for me. Five years, a couple of weak ankles, and a shoulder with tendonitis later, I've only got another year left. That's assuming of course that I don't get screwed again.
Anyway, on to the news.
First, here's something we already know.
The Sydney Morning Heraldreported this week that Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister in Australia, has admitted that oil is why we're in Iraq.
THE Foreign Minister has contradicted the Prime Minister, saying that the mission in Iraq is linked to safeguarding the war-torn nation's oil reserves.
Now, I must admit that I know almost nothing about Austrailian politcs, so I'd love to hear from someone more knowledgable me, but I think that this is worth noting. It's not as if anyone is surprised by the news that oil is why we invaded, but at least it's been said by someone in power in a country involved. We would have never invaded had it not been for the oil.
And of course the news that countries hosting Iraqi Refugees are being shafted by the international community comes as no real surprise either. While Bush and his cronies love to talk up their commitment to the Iraqi people, they forget that those people need things like food, and educations. The article makes an excellent point about education as well, saying that
Syria has, for example, put its elementary schools on double shifts but still lacks capacity. "A whole generation of Iraqi children is in danger of missing out on an education," he said.
Of course, since Democracy doesn't require it's citizens to be educated, that's no big deal. As far as Bush sees it, it's better if the citizenry is ignorant, Iraq probably wouldn't have ever been invaded if the people of the United States had been paying attention, and then where would those refugee children be? They'd probably be in school, I suppose.
There has also been a lot said about Iran lately. The Christian Science Monitor ran an article two days ago about the arrest of Ali Musa Daqduq, who is thought by the Americans to be a high ranking member of Hizbulla. Given Hizbulla's links to Iran, this arrest has definately been announced in an attempt to bolster claims that Iran is involved in Iraq. Many American generals, as well as the president, have been fond of linking Iran to EFPs, a particularly deadly kind of roadside bombs. Of course, as the Monitor points out,
There are many sources for enhanced roadside bombs. Some of the explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) copy previous Hizbullah ones, though Abedin notes that Saddam Hussein sent a military intelligence team to Lebanon in 1995 to learn about Hizbullah's use of the bombs. US and British forces routinely find EFP workshops in central and southern Iraq.
Lets get one thing clear, Iran is involved in Iraq. And who would blame them? If China was occupying Canada, I imagine we'd want to influence the outcome. Add to that decades of hostility and war between Iran and Iraq and you get an odvious national interest on Iran's part to be in Iraq. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Iran is as active on the military front as it is often accused of being. If Iran left the country, the insurgency would continue. The main cause of the fight is, frankly, us.
Kurdistan has been in the news as well. First, The Jerusalem Post has this article from the third about detainees being tortured in the northern section of Iraq. This is particularly interesting because of the military's reliance on the Kurdish Peshmerga militia to help provide that surge of security in Baghdad. Once again, the Bush administration has no problem with torture. As the Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director for Human Rights watch points out, it is particularly surprising that "the Kurds are practicing such violations after they were victims of torture during the Saddam era." Violence begets violence.
The northern third of Iraq has also come under the threat of military action by Turkey, as the Associated Press reported on the fourth. Turkey has been making noises for a while now about its "need" to invade Northern Iraq in order to stop the insurgents crossing into its own borders. The United States cannot allow this becuase of the chaos it would cause amongst the Kurds, one of the few groups in Iraq with something resembling security. Four years ago, it was Turkey that was discouraging the US invasion of Iraq. Move forward a few years, add a US occupation of Iraq, and switch places.
And in the disturbing category (like the rest of it isn't), the Los Angelos Times was one of several papers to report the fact that US hired contractors are now the largest foreign presence in Iraq, outnumbering even American military forces. That's right, we are officially fighting a mercenary war in Iraq. Services usually provided by soldiers such as food production, construction, and supply deliveries, have been taken over by greedy civilian corparations, with disasterous results. I'll limit my comments on this to two things. First, if you haven't seen Iraq for Sale, you need to. Second, war should not be profitable. Maybe I'm just an idealist, but I don't like the idea of putting my life on the line every day so that the CEO of KBR can drive a nice gas-guzzler.
Another story that's gotten some traction this week has been a proposal by some scholars to partition Iraq into three areas, one each for Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'ites. ABC News has a report on the plan that would involve a great deal of involuntary movement of ethnic minorities to whatever part of the country that their ethnic group controls. This is not the first time this solution has been proposed, and the problems with it haven't gone away with time. First, it would require pretty much the same level of American military presence. Second, a formal partition of any kind would most likely result in more ethnic cleansing, not less.
And, just because, here's an article from the Sydney Morning Herald where Bush claims that the war in Iraq is just like the American Revolution. I'll leave the commentary on that to everyone else.