The battle the US wants to provoke

[Tinoire]

The battle the US wants to provoke


Bremer is deliberately pushing Iraq's Shia south into all-out chaos

Naomi Klein in Baghdad
Tuesday April 6, 2004
The Guardian

I heard the sound of freedom in Baghdad's Firdos Square, the famous plaza where the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled one year ago. It sounds like machine-gun fire.
On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers, trained and controlled by coalition forces, opened fire on a demonstration here. As the protesters returned to their homes in the poor neighbourhood of Sadr City, the US army followed with tanks, helicopters and planes, firing at random on homes, shops, streets, even ambulances. According to local hospitals, 47 people were killed and many more injured. In Najaf, the day was also bloody: 20 demonstrators dead, more than 150 injured.

In Sadr City yesterday, funeral marches passed by US military tanks and the hospitals were overflowing with the injured. By afternoon, clashes had resumed.

Make no mistake: this is not the "civil war" that Washington has been predicting will break out between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. Rather, it is a war provoked by the US occupation authority and waged by its forces against the growing number of Shia who support Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sadr is the younger, more radical rival of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and portrayed by his supporters as a cross between Ayatollah Khomeini and Che Guevara. He blames the US for attacks on civilians; compares the US occupation chief, Paul Bremer, to Saddam Hussein; aligns himself with Hamas and Hizbullah; and has called for a jihad against the controversial interim constitution. His Iraq might look a lot like Iran.

<snip / fascinating read!>

At the front of the square was the statue that the Americans put up in place of the toppled one of Saddam. Its faceless figures are supposed to represent the liberation of the Iraqi people. Today they are plastered with photographs of Moqtada al-Sadr.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1186566,00.html

Pictures of the March 19 Protest March in Baghdad can be viewed here: http://indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674128.php

[skooooo]

1. We're in deep shit...

...and I don't like it.

[David Dunham]

2. Bush and Bremmer are really dumb. Our troops will suffer.

[movonne]

3. I guess this administration wants more blood...It makes me sick.

[DemoTex]

4. Naomi Klein's absolutely chilling scenario:

Here's one possible answer: Washington has given up on its plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, and is creating the chaos it needs to declare the handover impossible. A continued occupation will be bad news for George Bush on the campaign trail, but not as bad as if the hand-over happens and the country erupts, an increasingly likely scenario given the widespread rejection of the legitimacy of the interim constitution and the US- appointed governing council.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1186566,00.html

Almost every day, the Bu$h regime stoops to a new low. We are in a maelstrom of lies, hypocrisy (from the Cheney-lead government), and (the resultant and perhaps intended) violence in Iraq.

Likewise, on an almost weekly basis for the past few weeks, a good-citizen blows another shrill whistle at the Bu$h cabal. The latest is John W. Dean (Worse Than Watergate). Why is there so little traction to their stories? I am waiting for that mother-of-all-whistle-blowings. Colin, Colin, where art thou?

[mmm]

5. Very powerful photos. Especially Sunnis/Shias converging on a bridge.

WOW!

[DemoTex]

6. Indeed. The first pic raises a nomenclature question

What is the semi-checked red head-wear that the guy with the M-16 has on called? Ironically, it is similar the the head-wear worn by the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 70s. The name is at the tip of my tongue.

BTW and FWIW: Pol Pot was a nom-de-guerre. Pol Pot meant "brother number one." Pol Pot's real name was Salouth Sar. There was a great Granta essay on the subject about 10 years ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. A kaffiyeh

there may be alternate spellings in English.

[reprehensor]

8. Be careful, Naomi... n/t

[Dirk39]

9. Kerry and Bush

Kerry Says June 30 Iraq Handover Date a 'Mistake'
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4766378

Naomi Klein:
"Here's one possible answer: Washington has given up on its plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, and is creating the chaos it needs to declare the handover impossible. A continued occupation will be bad news for George Bush on the campaign trail, but not as bad as if the hand-over happens and the country erupts, an increasingly likely scenario given the widespread rejection of the legitimacy of the interim constitution and the US- appointed governing council."

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[9215]

10. Just when the 9/11 Commission was getting interesting. nt