The photos that shocked the world

I really don't know how people can still be shocked at the shameful, despicable policies and actions of the U.S., but at least they are still claiming to be.

Papers apparently aren't published on Fridays in Iraq, but the photos of extreme prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib have hit European publications, and the Arabs are certainly able to see them, as well as TV coverage showing the photographs. Of course, Iraqis have been complaining about the tortures and abuses all along. Perhaps, like most Americans, however, the majority of Iraqis, who had no first hand experience with the prison, are impacted by wide media visual proofs more than by a few stories.

"The expectation is that this is going to be a huge problem to the U.S.-led coalition trying to explain the situation, trying to calm down what are going to be some pretty fiery emotions."

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, agreed. "It is absolutely shocking. I think this is the end of the story, the straw that broke the camel's back, for America," he told the UK Press Association.

"People will be extremely angry ... sexual abuse is the worst thing in that part of the world. It is shocking to all Muslims. America has lost the battle completely. I believe there will be more attacks."

  article

Yeah. I believe there will.

Perhaps it is no coincidence in timing that the U.S. just announced it will put one of Saddam's generals (complete in full regalia of his Republican Guard unit when he met with tribal leaders) in charge of an Iraq armed detachment in Fallujah and is pulling out U.S. soldiers today.

The Fallujah force is expected to include former Iraqi police and soldiers including gunmen who fought against the Americans, particularly ex-soldiers disgruntled over losing their jobs when the United States disbanded the old Iraqi army.

...As negotiations continued, one of three battalions of U.S. Marines packed up and withdrew from most of its positions in an industrial zone in the southern area of the city.

...In an apparent move to help the Fallujah negotiations, U.S. authorities Thursday released the imam of the city's main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the U.S. occupation who was arrested in October.

...Marines in the southern industrial zone began packing up their gear Thursday in preparation for a withdrawal.

This isn't that cut-and-run move the Oaf says we can't choose, is it?

Saddam must be getting the last laugh if he has any idea what's happening. And American troops in the area must be shitting their pants about now. That scene of the four contractors' bodies being dismembered and dragged around town is still pretty fresh. We might want to consider some more reliable helicopters than those Black Hawks have appeared to be for some under-cover-of-night major mass evacuations of American military personnel, instead of trying to pull out one battalion at a time. Just a suggestion.

Anybody heard anything more about hostages since the Italians were executed?

And whatever happened to Izzat al-Douri?

And whatever happened to having bin Laden surrounded in the mountains on the Pakistan border?

Yeah. What.

"Returning to normal" in Fallujah

As Maureen Dowd quotes him, the pReznit has said most of Fallujah is returning to normal.

Apparently he isn't looking at this part:

US soldiers have fired on a minibus full of civilians near a checkpoint on the outskirts of the besieged Iraqi town of Falluja.

Witnesses said a hail of bullets from occupation forces on Thursday turned the vehicle into a ball of fire.

Iraqi policeman Fuad al-Hamdani said four civilians were killed in the unprovoked attack.

People have been leaving Falluja following major US airstrikes on the town, 50km west of Baghdad.

No one was able to explain why soldiers fired at the vehicle and the US military said it had yet to receive information on any incident in the area.

  Aljazeera article

Or maybe that's normal for the U.S. occupation.

Oh, and here's what they think of their new flag:

Ah, here's a fine idea

Former Saddam general put in charge of Fallujah security   article

Maybe we'll just keep screwing around until we put Saddam back.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Negotiations - the U.S. Army way

Explosions and gunfire rocked Falluja again today in new fighting after a heavy battle the night before in which U.S. warplanes and artillery pounded Sunni insurgents holed up in a slum.

...Despite three straight days of battles, U.S. officials say they were pushing ahead with negotiations to resolve the Falluja standoff rather than launch an all-out offensive. Iraqi police took up posts in parts of the city, laying the groundwork for marine patrols.

  article

I wonder if the Iraqis think three straight days of battle is "negotiations".

Juan Cole discusses whether it's legal.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Fallujah - additional

A spokesman for an Iraqi delegation from the violence-gripped city of Fallujah Monday accused U.S. troops of using internationally banned cluster bombs against the city and said they had asked the U.N. to mediate the conflict.

Mohammed Tareq, a spokesman for the governing council of Fallujah and a member of the four-person delegation, said U.S. military snipers were also responsible for the deaths of many children, women and elderly people.

"In Fallujah, the American troops killed at least 800 people and wounded 1,800," Tareq told reporters. "We want to inform the world about the massacres and the human rights violations by the Americans in our city."

The Iraqi delegation has been lobbying in the Jordanian capital for international pressure on the Americans to abide by a cease-fire in the battle-scarred city.

  article

Recent posts on the situation in Fallujah:
Drugged and Laughing
And in Fallujah, the truce ends
Baghdad Burning

Collective Punishment

And more.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, things are most likely a lot uglier in Iraq than our media let on. Collective punishment is a war crime, plain and simple. And you won't see that phrase used in mainstream media to describe our actions, but even the commanding officers admit using the tactic. They just don't call it that. Independent reports are another matter.

But the clinic had no disinfectant, no anaesthetic, and other vital equipment required for the type of surgery the horrific wounds demanded. And as a form of collective punishment all electricity to Falluja had been cut for days. The clinic had a generator, but when the petrol ran out the Doctors had to continue surgery using the glow from cigarette lighters, candles and torches.

We spoke to the Doctors - they were exhausted, and looked defeated as they told us the stories of their recent cases - a ten-year-old boy with a bullet wound to the head, a grandmother with an abdominal bullet wound - both the victims of U.S snipers, young men with severe burns, limbs blown off and so on. But each time a new patient arrived the Doctors quickly got up, put on a new set of surgical gloves and got to work.
...The Doctors asked if we could accompany an ambulance packed with food and medical supplies across town to a hospital that had been cut off. It was in the US controlled section of the town so it was not able to receive aid because of constant sniper fire.

The Doctors figured our foreign nationality could make a difference in negotiating the safe passage of the ambulance with the soldiers.

It might seem a strange and unnecessary mission to help an ambulance drive from one place to another - anywhere else in the world it's a basic thing, but this is Fallujah and this is war and nothing is as it should be, despite guarantees laid out in the Geneva Convention.

...We drove slowly through the parts of Fallujah controlled by Iraqi fighters then stopped in a side-street that faced a main road. We could not go any further because the main road was under watch and control of US snipers. They had developed a habit of shooting at anything that moved.

So we parked the ambulance in the side street and the four of us got out with the task of approaching the American soldiers, communicating with them and getting permission for the ambulance to continue to the hospital.

The area was completely quiet. The silence was unnerving.

We prepared the loudspeaker, put our hands in the air and held our passports high. Before we ventured onto the main road we called out a message from the side street.

"Hello? American soldiers! We are a group of international aid workers. We are unarmed. We are asking permission to transport an ambulance full of medical supplies to the hospital. Can you hear us?"

The reply was just a chilling silence.

We repeated the message. Silence again.

...We walked slowly with our arms raised in the air. My eyes scanned the tops of the buildings for snipers. We didn't know where they were set up so we walked in the direction of the hospital.

We repeated the message over and over again on the loudspeaker, in the silence it would have been heard for hundreds of metres. It echoed eerily throughout the neighbourhood.

I turned my head briefly and just in time. In the distance I saw two white flashes, then the loud bang of gunshots and the ugly realisation that they were shooting into our backs.

...We re-grouped, but we didn't want to give up. Now we knew where the soldiers were, we could walk towards them. We decided to go out again.

Same drill: we called out the message first, then stepped out onto the road, this time facing the direction the gunfire had come from.

"Hello! American soldiers. We are foreign aid workers- British, Australian, American. We are not armed. We are asking permission to transport an ambulance on this road."

My injured hand was shaking as I held my passport now damp with my blood. I tried to work out what I was feeling: fear, anger, determination. I still don't know.

We had only repeated the message twice and walked a few metres when our answer came.

Two more bullets. By this stage I think I entered a state of shock. I had been shot at, not once, but twice by American soldiers after politely asking permission to transport aid to a hospital.

I guess the answer was 'No'.

  Full article

Drugged and laughing

Jihad Unspun has some very different accounts of what's going on in Iraq. Some of it sounds suspect, like this:

Eyewitnesses: Drugged US Troops Laughing In Battle

Mafkarat al-Islam’s correspondent in al-Fallujah reports that for more than 10 days the Resistance fighters in the besieged city have been remarking about a phenomenon that they find strange and surprising. Resistance fighters have frequently noticed that many of the American aggressor troops are laughing as they storm into districts in al-Fallujah. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent personally witnessed this clearly when he was close to the events as US aggressors tried to storm an-Nizal neighborhood in the besieged city on Saturday.

The correspondent wrote that he saw two American soldiers laughing, such as to arouse pity for them, despite all the Resistance gunfire being poured at their position and their comrades dying around them. Both of the Americans were later killed in the battle. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent writes that the Resistance learned later from interrogations of captured American Marines that the US military medical service distributes a type of halucinogenic pill to the troops that prompts laughter and reduces the sense of fear in combat conditions.

The reverse situation has been revealed in the despair and terror exhibited by the US troops when their lines of supply of food and medicine have been cut – a phenomenon that has been witnessed by nearby Resistance fighters.

But, remember the case of the U.S. soldiers who mistakenly bombed Canadian allies in Afghanistan, allegedly because they were hopped up on speed to keep them alert?

And there are stories of possible military uses of a drug to eliminate feelings of guilt. Here's one. Here's another:

Speed is only one drug in the kitbag of the modern military; possibly more disturbing is the development of an anti-remorse pill which could potentially be taken in a combat situation. All reports indicate that this drug will not be available to troops currently in Iraq, however, US federally funded research is taking place on such a pill. It’s hoped that it will reduce feelings of regret, remorse and guilt, which are all core to the experience of Post Traumatic Stress.

Whatever the case, I think we can be pretty certain things are a lot uglier than our own news sources are letting on.