At least now the issue is over and this poor woman can no longer be used as a political pawn in a disgraceful chess match that never had anything to do with her well-being and of which she was never even aware let alone voice an opinion.

May she Rest In Peace.

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While much of Iraq is still a mess 2 years on… the fact remains that it can be fixed. The insurgency is not insurmountable, the situation is not hopeless.

There are ways out of this mess, but it requires a change in tactic by the US and Iraqi government. This fact is not only being pointed out endlessly by academics in the US and elsewhere but also by American officers on the ground in Iraq.

Take these two quotes from the Academic and the Officer respectively:

Basic services are the core political goods of the modern state.  A failure to deliver these services will delegitimize any state that does not quickly correct the problem.  Allawi’s interim government and the US occupation lost its legitimacy in large part due to this process.

We are about to see another victim.  The new government in Iraq….

The UPI’s Baghdad correspondent, Beth Potter, picks up on this trend:
Iraqi voters aren’t happy.  They don’t care that some of the biggest political changes ever to happen in their lifetime are going on in their country. All they know is that the electricity still is off for hours every day, the water doesn’t always flow out of the faucets, there are still long gas queues at the stations, and the situation still seems pretty lawless in the streets.

From the Officer:

1. A soldier’s natural inclination is to finish the fight first, provide security, and then work on development. This won’t work in Iraq. The Army needs to work on security and development in parallel.
2. Poor services is one of the man things encouraging support to the insurgency. Most attacks occur in parts of the city where services are the worst. Large unemployment also contributes to dissatisfaction and resistance (it’s better than before the war, but still very high).
3. Most insurgents fight out of general dissatisfaction, simple nationalism, need for money, etc….
4. Sanitation was the problem he spent most of his time on. Streets with several inches of raw sewage running down them are common in Baghdad, particularly in Sadr City. The sewers that exist get clogged up with trash because garbage collection is poor, it piles up in the street, and it gets washed into the drains. Americans tend to want to build new schools, which are great, but not the primary need. Even fancy new sewage treatment plants are not the primary need—one is running at less than 1/3 capacity because the piping doesn’t exist to get the sewage to it. Step one is getting the sewage off the streets and into the Tigris, nasty as that sounds. Then we can worry about treating it on the way.

So we see that the US Army officer and the Academic are actually talking the same language…

John Robb points to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which states that in order for a person to be self-actualized (and basically happy with his/her situation) there is a simple hierarchy or priority list to reach a level of happiness. First comes basic survival… food, water, electricity. Then comes shelter, security and employment. Then belonging, respect and affection. Then opportunity for advancement…

What John Robb points out and what the US Army commander is noting on the ground, is that the current US policy has attempted to rebuild Iraqi society in a backwards fashion. While so much emphasis was put on bringing about elections and interim governments and building new schools, basic services were never secured and provided reliably… and still aren’t today. This is the foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy… and the failure of that has effectively cut the legs out from under the US and Iraqi ability to manage Iraq, the security situation, and the fledgling government.

So, what do we do to change this?

Well, I think it’s time the US get some *real* help.

The US needs to ask the world to help it restore basic services and functionality to Iraq. Yes, I think it should be coordinated by the UN, only because the UN is the only agency that can coordinate the international effort that this should be.

The UN needs to be tasked to go in, with military support where needed, and repair the basic infrastructure in Iraq. If that means having patrols along every Iraqi oil pipeline for a few months, then so be it. The US and Iraqi government needs to have the balls to truly ask for help and the International community needs to respond swiftly and completely.

Baghdad must be cleaned up and its’ sewer system repaired.

The electricity grid must be repaired and secured.

The water system was must be repaired and upgraded.

The oil/gas delivery system must be repaired and secured.

As the saying goes… many hands make light work.

It’s time for the US to bite the bullet and the UN (including Canada) to step up.

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If Wolfy made you laugh… this will surely make you cry:

Here is just an excerpt you can read the entire thing at A Citizen of Mosul:

The horrors of war have been brought to the people of Falluja. The people there say the city had 500,000 people in it, not the 250,000 quoted by our media. The refugees told me that they were given one week notice to leave the city. After three days, they were told they could no longer drive out, they had to walk. No camps were established for them and no refugee location was given. There was no planning by the American government for the people, no food, no shelter and no water. They were just told to leave or be killed. Anyone who stayed in the city after one week would be considered a terrorist and would be killed.

For five months these people have been living in any location they could find, nothing was established for them in the surrounding areas of the Falluja countryside. They are living in tents in the mud, schools, abandoned chicken coups, burned out buildings, cars and other buildings that people were not using or where others have made room for them. The weather is bad, with much rain and it is very cold. When they were told to leave the city, it was summer and they were not dressed for this cold and many could not carry out their clothes. Some lucky children are going to school in tents and all the classes have been shortened to 2 hours per day. Food is short and they are eating what the farmers grow and the surrounding community can spare. Again, even after five months they have received no outside aid from either the American government or the new Iraqi government.

Is this the type of planning and execution people should expect from the US Administration? Why are people putting up with this?

A Citizen from Mosul is just a regular person… 57 years old… a doctor. What happens when his views become the views of the majority of Iraq (if they aren’t already).

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You may remember one of the key justifications for war in Iraq were stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that were “unaccounted for”. And thus obviously out there to be lobbed at Jerusalem…

well, the AP refered to a paragraph in the Iraqi Survey Group that apparently accounts for 1800 gallons of “missing” anthrax.

What pragraph you might ask?

I’ve found it for you (page 135 Vol-3):

ISG judges that in 1991 and 1992, Iraq appears to have destroyed its undeclared stocks of BW weapons and probably destroyed remaining holdings of bulk BW agent. However ISG lacks evidence to document complete destruction. Iraq retained some BW-related seed stocks until their discovery after Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).
…

Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha Al ‘Azzawi, head of the bacterial program claims she retained BW seed stocks until early 1992 when she destroyed them. ISG has not found a means of verifying this. Some seed stocks were retained by another Iraqi offi cial until 2003 when they were recovered by ISG.
…
ISG is aware of BW-applicable research since 1996, but ISG judges it was not conducted in connection with a BW program.

Why am I beating this dead horse, you ask?

Well… because it seems that there are many many people out there who still believe the propaganda that the US Administration was spouting before the Iraq war. There are *still* people who believe that Saddam helped in some way with 9/11. There are *still* people who believe Saddam had active chemical and bio weapons programs in 2003.

The fact is that all of that is untrue. And it has been PROVEN false by the Administrations own studies.

I can only hope that by pointing out, bit by bit, the incontrovertible evidence of the Administration admitting its’ own wrongdoing perhaps those who still believe in them will realise their mistake and see them for the self-serving liars that they are.

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The BBC is reporting that demonstrators have taken to the streets across Egypt.

As I’ve said before, the protesters affinity toward the Bush “domino effect” may be up for debate, but one thing is clear, they want democracy on their own terms and they are willing to defy threats of retalitation by government forces to do it.

More updates as I see more information.

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