Video Diary: The Dentist9 Apr 2007In this video diary, produced by the Hometown Baghdad project, Saif, 22, is about to graduate from dentistry school. He plans to go abroad with his certificate and work as a dentist in a more secure country. As his departure date approaches, the Iraqi government announces a new law that effects many but doesn’t make the headlines. Saif is forced to make a difficult decision.
Invisible lives: Iraqis in Lebanon8 Apr 2007Estimates for the number of Iraqis who have fled to Lebanon ever since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 vary. While the Beirut office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that approximately 40,000 Iraqis are currently in Lebanon, security officials the Lebanese Ministry of Internal Affairs say they believe the number is actually closer to 100,000. Lebanon not being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, many Iraqis do not register with UNHCR and live in fear of detention and deportation back to Iraq.
Out How? Juan Cole on Withdrawing from Iraq8 Apr 2007Juan Cole has an interesting article in the Nation this week. In “How to Get Out of Iraq,” he argues that “Bush is profoundly in error to think that continued US military occupation can forestall further warfare. Sunni Arabs perceive the Americans to have tortured them, destroyed several of their cities and to be keeping them under siege at the behest of the joint Shiite-Kurdish government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. American missteps have steadily driven more and more Sunnis to violence and the support of violence. The Pentagon’s own polling shows that between 2003 and 2006 the percentage of Sunni Arabs who thought attacking US troops was legitimate grew from 14 to more than 70.”
Soldiers with Mental Health Problems Shipped Back to Iraq8 Apr 2007Columbus, Georgia’s Fort Benning is notorious for its involvement in training foreign soldiers, most notably some of the worst human rights offenders in the Latin America of the 80’s and 90’s. Today Fort Benning is in the news for a different kind of game: commanders at Fort Benning are reportedly ordering soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress disorder back to Iraq. From training foreign soldiers to torture to forcing tortured soldiers back into a war in a foreign land. It’s a disgraceful legacy.
Video Diary: Brains on Campus8 Apr 2007Recently a series of short documentaries made by Iraqis and filmed in Iraq began appearing on a website called Hometown Baghdad. When the web documentary project is completed, there will be 45 ‘webisodes’, each one presenting something rarely captured in the blur of daily headlines about Iraq: humanity. Electronic Iraq will be posting Hometown Baghdad episodes daily with our other Iraq Diaries.
Medical waste a growing health hazard7 Apr 2007Raghed Sarmad and her two children spend their days scavenging through piles of rubbish in Baghdad, in search of anything they can sell for food. She prefers medical waste, because there is a greater chance of finding items of some value. Many hospitals in Baghdad leave their medical waste for collection at their main gates. They used to burn this waste, but no longer do so because of a lack of fuel. Compounding this health hazard is the fact that insecurity has led dwindling numbers of refuse collectors to work ever more sporadically.
No Inquiry into Dutch support to the War on Iraq5 Apr 2007Eventhough both the Bush administration and Tony Blair have said that mistakes were made, the Dutch government refuses support for an inquiry into the government decision to support the war in 2003. The Prime Minister, who was also leading the country when it decided to support the war on Iraq stressed that the government agreement only applies to the coalition parties in the parliament. The Dutch Socialist Party is currently organizing a petition to mobilize support for such an inquiry. Radio programme Argos said that Dutch F-16s and special forces were involved in the war on Iraq. When the war on Iraq began, Prime Minister Balkenende said it “has sufficient legal basis.”
Civilian Court Sides With “Conscientious Objector”5 Apr 2007University of California Santa Cruz student Robert Zabala joined the Marine Corps thinking it would be a “place where he could find security” after the death of his grandmother in 2003. But when he began boot camp in June 2003, Zabala said he had an ethical awakening that would not allow him to kill other people. He was particularly appalled by the boot camp’s attempts to desensitize the recruits to violence. Zabala sued and on Mar. 29, a federal judge in Northern California overruled the military justice system, ordering the Marine Corps to discharge Zabala as a conscientious objector within 15 days.
Iraq’s Devastated Healthcare System5 Apr 2007Iraqis surviving violence are not so sure they can also survive disease. Iraq’s health index has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, Joseph Chamie, former director of the United Nations Population Division and an Iraq specialist has said. With only sparse care now available at hospitals, Iraqis in need cross the border to Syria and Jordan for treatment. That comes at a price because as foreigners they can go only to private hospitals.
Bush’s Bluster on Iran Was Cover for Direct Talks5 Apr 2007When the Bush administration launched a campaign accusing Iran of exporting bombs to Shiite militias in Iraq, seizing Iranian officials in Iraq, threatening cross-border raids against Iran and sending a second carrier battle group into the Gulf, it seemed that it was entering a much more aggressive phase of Middle East policy. A few weeks later, it is apparent that the administration’s earlier bluster was to provide political cover for a move to open direct talks with Iran.
Tough Week for Bush Middle East Strategy1 Apr 2007To the extent the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has a coherent Middle East policy, it took some serious hits this past week. A resurgence of horrific sectarian violence – coupled with the release of an exceptionally gloomy report by a highly influential and heretofore optimistic retired general – cast new doubts on the on-the-ground viability of Bush’s “surge”.
Major Confrontation Looms Over Iraq Withdrawal28 Mar 2007With President Bush reiterating his threat to veto legislation that makes funding for the Iraq war conditional on a deadline for withdrawing at least some U.S. troops, Washington appeared Wednesday to be moving rapidly toward a major confrontation between the White House and Democrats in Congress. The latter won a major victory Tuesday when the Senate voted 50-48 to reject an administration backed amendment that would have stripped from a pending emergency military-spending bill a timetable for the withdrawal of all US combat troops by the end of March ‘08.
Anfal Proceedings Raise Concerns: Open Letter to the President of the Iraqi High Tribunal27 Mar 2007“We are writing this public letter to express our concerns arising in the Anfal trial. We hope the shortcomings identified below can be rectified to bring this trial into compliance with internationally recognized fair trial standards. Fair trials are instrumental to providing justice for victims and their families and will play a crucial role in ensuring that the brutal practices of the past regime are not repeated.”
Close to Million Displaced and Desperate in Southern Iraq27 Mar 2007Nearly a million displaced people in Iraq’s increasingly volatile southern provinces are in urgent need of food, medicines and municipal services, local officials and NGOs say. Aid workers have called on international humanitarian organizations and the central government to provide more assistance to the growing numbers of displaced in the south of the country.
Iraqis Exploited in Jordanian Labor Market27 Mar 2007According to specialists, most of the Iraqis in Jordan work in ‘black market jobs’, without proper documentation or government approval. With a huge pool of Iraqis willing to do menial jobs, business owners prefer to hire illegal Iraqi workers at a lower pay.
Have the Car-bombers Already Defeated the Surge?27 Mar 2007Despite reassurances from both the White House and the Pentagon that the six-week-old U.S. escalation in Baghdad and al-Anbar Province is proceeding on course, suicide car-bombers continue to devastate Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods, often under the noses of reinforced American patrols and checkpoints. February was a record month for car bombings, with at least 44 deadly explosions in Baghdad alone, and March promises to duplicate the carnage.
Four Years of War: A Round Table Discussion26 Mar 2007Sadly, anniversaries are often marked by the squashing of nuance under the weight of rote review. The four year anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq was no exception. For a more nuanced discussion of all that has happened since 2003, Electronic Iraq turned to four keen observers of Middle East politics and US foreign policy in the region. Add their years of experience watching, commenting on, visiting and living in the Middle East, and you have in this panel nearly a century of hard-earned wisdom. We invite you to join the discussion!
Bad Water Afflicting Iraq’s Children25 Mar 2007Four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq that ousted deceased former president Saddam Hussein, the majority of Iraqis find it difficult to get safe water, despite the fact that the country is blessed with two abundant natural water sources, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Like much of Iraq’s infrastructure, its national water networks have been left to fall into disrepair over the past two decades as a result of Iraq’s long economic stagnation under United Nations-imposed sanctions during Saddam’s era.
Demobilizing America: Outsourcing Action in an Imperial World25 Mar 2007“I went marching against the President’s Iraqi war of choice in my hometown last Sunday,” writes Tom Engelhardt. “I found myself in an older crowd, it was relatively quiet and lacking in energy; a modestly dispiriting experience. I couldn’t help puzzling over the gap between public opinion on the President’s war and public action.”
Congressman Trades Iraq Vote for Spinach22 Mar 2007A liberal Congressman from California is under fire for trading his vote on the Iraq war for spinach. Rep. Sam Farr, a Democrat, originally voted against the Iraq war and has voted against proposals to fund it. This time he’s singing a different tune. Farr’s district includes the farms were hit by a deadly e-coli bacteria outbreak that caused spinach to be pulled from store shelves worldwide. Farr has inserted a 25-million-dollar disaster relief programme to bail out California spinach growers into the 100-billion-dollar war appropriations funding bill sought by the White House.
“I Know Shut Up”: New Iraq Documentary Offers Rare Glimpse of Detention and Life After22 Mar 2007Filmmaker David Boodel reviews The Prisoner Or: How I planned to kill Tony Blair, the new film by the the director of Gunner Palace. The film retraces the story of Iraqi journalist Yunis Khatayer Abbas from house raid to detention to release. Found guilty of nothing, the film is an unusually complete portrait of the perils of life under occupation.
I sell half of our monthly food ration to raise money to flee…21 Mar 2007Marwan Hussein, 31, is an unemployed displaced father who has resorted to selling half his monthly food rations to make money to flee Iraq. “We’ve tried different ways to survive in a dignified way,” says Hussein, “but we’ve reached the end of the road now. We need to leave the country but we don’t have money for that. We are all tired of living without government support. We are on our own.”
Key Democrat Pressured to Cut War Funding21 Mar 2007Peace activists entered their 10th day camped outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home Wednesday, the latest in an almost daily barrage of demonstrations, vigils and local government votes designed to convince Pelosi to refuse President George W. Bush’s 100-billion-dollar war funding request. The speaker says she will support the request with conditions.
Environmental Nightmare Drags On21 Mar 2007Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and despite 22 billion dollars spent on recovery and reconstruction, Iraq’s environment remains in disastrous shape. Industrial waste, hospital waste, fertilizer run-off from farming, as well as oil spills plague the two rivers that define the Mesopotamia region and which provide much of the irrigation and drinking water.
Drivers of US policy on Iraq20 Mar 2007Blogger and Christian Science Monitor columnist Helena Cobban looks at reports that US ground forces are over-stretched, under-trained, and fatigued. She also considers the implications of growing frustration with Washington among military leadership and what both realities mean for the US global hegemony and for troop withdrawal or drawdown in Iraq.
Electronic Iraq