Has the ‘surge’ in Iraq worked?
In 2006, things seemed to be going badly for the U.S. military efforts in Iraq. The Iraq war became a top issue in the 2006 Congressional elections in the United States. It is generally agreed that the Republicans did poorly in those elections, largely because the U.S. electorate had become disillusioned with the viability and...Iraqi Shi’a party rises as Sadr falls
NAJAF At a teeming rally in this holy city last Thursday, thousands of Iraqi Shi'a made an election pledge. "We are at your beck and call, Hakim," they shouted in unison to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), arguably now the country's most influential and best organized Shi'a religious...U.S. forces to hand over hard-won Anbar Province?
FALLUJAH This is a city literally rising from the ashes. While reminders of two major U.S. assaults here in April and November 2004 are inescapable, signs of rebirth are plenty. Men in jumpsuits busily work on construction sites, sewers are being installed, and a hospital is nearly completed. Now, the U.S. military is poised to...
A blueprint for withdrawal from Iraq
June 27th, 20080 WASHINGTON (IPS) Proponents of a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq routinely brush off criticisms that their ideas are "irresponsible." But until this week, the charge that withdrawal cannot be accomplished responsibly and just how that would be done has never been coherently answered. With the release Wednesday of the...How the war will end in Iraq
All eyes are on the U.S. presidential campaign, in which the candidates have taken quite different positions concerning the war in Iraq. This is the wrong place to look. I believe it is fairly certain that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. And his views of the war in Iraq are almost the polar opposite of...
Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under U.S. control
June 6th, 20080 A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq....Iraqis questioning U.S.-Iraq deals
WASHINGTON (IPS) Iraqi parliamentarians are increasingly concerned that they are being left out of talks between Iraqi and U.S. officials over a strategic deal to determine the future relationship between the two countries, at a time when the U.S. Congress failed to include a provision in a bill to fund the Iraq and Afghan wars...No evidence to prove U.S. claims against Iran
WASHINGTON (IPS) Early this month, the George W. Bush administration's plan to create a new crescendo of accusations against Iran for allegedly smuggling arms to Shi'a militias in Iraq encountered not just one but two setbacks. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to endorse U.S. charges of Iranian...Iraq’s antiquities garner international attention
Across southern Iraq, large stretches of terrain resemble a moonscape, the earth pocked by dozens of untidy craters. The man-made holes have been dug as part of the looting of Mesopotamia's archaeological sites that experts say is robbing Iraq of its ancient heritage. The looting not only funds unscrupulous dealers of...Iran shifts attention to brokering peace in Iraq
Details from a secret meeting between top Iranian and Iraqi officials signal Iran's aim to 'stop arming' militias ISTANBUL and BAGHDAD Iran's role in helping broker a cease-fire in Baghdad's Sadr City may be the first sign that it is acting to fulfill recent promises to stop arming Iraq's militias and...Pressure to cut costs, troops strains “surge”
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Growing impatience in Congress over the enormous costs being racked up by the Iraq war, as well as the Pentagon's belief that it needs more troops in Afghanistan to fight insurgents there, is putting the vaunted success of the George W. Bush administration's "surge" strategy to the test. Although the House of...The ten commandments of Iraq
The Iraq war is over. The failure of Bush's surge to produce political reconciliation in Iraq, combined with the unsustainable stress on our military and Congress' unwillingness to keep writing checks for $12 billion a month, all point in one direction: withdrawal. Even if John McCain is somehow elected president and for that to...The new walls of Baghdad
The new "surge" strategy in Iraq, led by General David Petreaus, has been heavily marketed as an example of the U.S. military's application of the "lessons of history" from previous counterinsurgencies to Iraq, foremost among them the need to win the population over from insurgents through cultivating human relationships, addressing...
Iraqi chaos hardening sectarian fiefdoms
April 18th, 20080 To the extent that a government in Iraq exists, it provides services on a sectarian basis WASHINGTON (IPS) There are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organizations?...
Reality ignored in hearings on Iraq
April 11th, 20080 Sure, Arizona Senator John McCain's campaign may still be selling him as some kind of "maverick" or "independent thinker" and most of the media may still be buying that ridiculous line. But when it comes to the fundamental foreign policy issue of the 2008 race whether to continue the war in Iraq, and at what cost McCain's a......
Iraqi Olympians dodge violence and politics on the path to Beijing
A sprinter and an archer two of the four Iraqis who have qualified so far struggle to train amid sectarian divides and a dearth of equipment. BAGHDAD It's a glorious spring day and sprinter Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq is busy stretching and warming up ahead of her morning training routine. Nearby, under the shade of...Basra battles: What reporters omitted and fabricated
The latest battles in Basra, Iraqs largest city and a vital oil port, provide ample examples of misleading and manipulative practice in corporate journalism today. One commonly used tactic is to describe events using self-styled or "official" terminology, which deliberately confuses the reader by giving no real indication or...Iraq still a quagmire say experts
WASHINGTON (IPS) Despite a reduction in violence over the past 15 months, "the U.S. risks getting bogged down in Iraq for a long time to come, with serious consequences for its interests in other parts of the world," according to a new assessment by the same group of experts who advised the bipartisan blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group...Ghosts from the land of milk and honey
NEW YORK (IPS) Somewhere in Baghdad, a family sits down to dinner. Heaped plates of food line the long table. A man sits at the head, fork in hand. Beside him, a youngish woman with immaculately shaped eyebrows turns to speak with a young girl. Forks and spoons face upwards on still empty flowered plates. Somewhere in Baghdad,......
Iraq lawmakers seek help from Iran
BAGHDAD (IPS) Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure. The date March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation. Fighting had...
Fierce fighting shows failure of Petraeus strategy
March 28th, 20080 WASHINGTON The escalation of fighting between Mahdi Army militiamen and their Shi'a rivals, which could mark the end of Moqtada al-Sadr's self-imposed ceasefire, also exposes Gen. David Petraeus's strategy for controlling Sadr's forces as a failure. Petraeus reacted immediately to Sunday's rocket attacks on the Green Zone by......
Iraqi Christians cling to last refuges
BARTELLA The bullets lay on the desk amid Bibles and rosaries. They're for two pistols owned by Father Ayman Danna. "The only solution left for our people is to bear arms. We either live or die. We must be strong," says the Syriac Catholic priest at the Church of Saint George in Bartella, a northern Iraqi town in a swath of...Strategic alliances in Iraq remain elusive
WASHINGTON (IPS) The George W. Bush administration has ballyhooed recent legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament as a sign that its troop escalation strategy has indeed created space for political reconciliation. But observers say a closer look at the legislation in the context of the grander Iraqi quagmire suggests that the......