"He sees bodies every day"
In a story that contrasted the everyday lives of Iraqis with President Bush's September statement that normal life is beginning to return to Baghdad, she interviewed half a dozen residents, including a 28-year-old Shiite in Sadr City. "Two days ago, his friend Mustafa was kidnapped from his computer shop," she wrote. "He was later found dead, shot in the head. It wasn't unusual. In his neighborhood -- controlled by the Mahdi Army militia, loyal to cleric Muqtada al Sadr -- he sees bodies every day."
posted by storiesinamerica @ 6:55 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Has anyone told the Iraqi refugees that are now clogging border checkpoints as they return home about this?
http://www.juancole.com/
About 1/3 or over 400,000 Iraqis taking refuge in Syria skip at least one meal a day, according to McClatchy. The threat of widespread hunger among the refugees has increased in seriousness as winter approaches and fuel prices remain high. Some refugees may have a choice of eating or keeping warm. There are about 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. The American press has made a big deal out of 25,000 or so of them returning in recent months (informal polling does not suggest they are returning, for the most part, because the security situation has improved.) Since some Iraqis still are streaming out of the country, moreover, and the returnees are a tiny number, it is difficult to see this small population movement as significant. The significant numbers are 2 million displaced abroad and 2 million displaced internally.
Obviously, the United States Congress should be contributing money to feed these displaced Iraqis. They are displaced because of our actions. Can't we get up a campaign for this purpose? Couldn't they slip it into the defense budget? It is not right that Iraqi children should be going hungry in Damascus and Aleppo because of our actions, and yet we should just go 'tut, tut,' and ignore it all. It is not right.
The intrepid Nancy Youssef explores the limits of Bush's troop escalation and dependence on tribal levels, finding that neither is having any effect in the largely Sunni city of Samarra north of Baghdad.
Oh, and I couldn't help but notice that General John Batiste, whom you quoted extensively here...
http://storiesinamerica.blogspot.com/2006/09/republican-general-rumsfeld-is-not.html
...has Quit VoteVets.org, and joined Pro-War Vets For Freedom.
Thought you might want to know since you obviously believe his opinion is worth something.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/12/another_surge_convert.asp
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