I can still remember, as a child, the other children on the playground boasting that the US was the greatest country in the world, and the pride we all took from that. Predictably, George H. W. Bush’s cokehead son has managed to reduce the US to the second largest economy after the eurozone. Bush was second best all his life, and has managed to make America second best.
Warren Strobel of McClatchy considers all the ways that the Iraq War has hurt US prestige abroad.
Another US soldier was killed on Saturday, in southwestern Baghdad.
Thousands of protesters rallied in Los Angeles, London, Glasgow and elsewhere against the Iraq War on Saturday, as the fifth anniversary of the invasion approaches. A few thousand Canadians in Toronto and Montreal protested against that country’s involvement in the Afghanistan War.
Patrick Cockburn says that Iraq is no longer a country in any ordinary sense of the word.
The Aljazeera English discussion of the current situation in Iraq, below, is excellent. It includes Imad Khadduri, a former nuclear physicist from Iraq; Najeeb Nuaimi; my teacher Saad Eddin Ibrahim; and a US embassy spokesperson. The two Iraqis are very well informed and recite horrifying statistics. Saad Eddin (who was imprisoned by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for his human rights work) reveals that he advised Paul Wolfowitz and other Bush administration officials about the reality in Iraq but was not listened to. He said he met Wolfowitz a year later, and the deputy secretary of defense admitted he wished they had listened to Saad Eddin.
And Part 2:
Reuters reports political violence in Iraq on Saturday:
‘ BAGHDAD – One U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in southwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD – Two bodies were found in different areas of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said.
KIRKUK – Five policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Nineveh province police spokesman Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar said.
MOSUL – Three civilians were wounded when a car exploded near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Nineveh province police spokesman Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar said.
ISKANDARIYA – One man was killed when gunmen wearing Iraqi Army uniforms attacked a house in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The man’s son and brother were kidnapped.
SAMARRA – U.S. soldiers killed two suspected al Qaeda militants near Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, the U.S. military said.
HILLA – Eight Iraqi civilians were wounded when 29 Katyusha rockets damaged three houses and a school near a U.S. embassy regional office in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, on Friday, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said one woman was killed.
TAL AFAR – Iraqi security forces killed three suspected militants in Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said. Two of those killed were wearing belts packed with explosives.
RABIYA – A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed an interpreter in an attack on a border checkpoint at Rabiya on the Iraq-Syria border in Iraq’s northwest on Friday, the U.S. military said. Two U.S. soldiers, two U.S. Department of the Army personnel and two customs guards were wounded. . .
NUMANIYA – One body was found in a field in Numaniya, 120 km (75 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. ‘
‘ Baghdad
– Around 6:30 a.m. a bomb targeted a group of construction workers in Al Wathiq square, injuring 9 people. . .
Diyala
– A roadside bomb targeted police vehicle in Baladruz, injuring two policemen.
– Mortar shells missed police station and hit near by homes in Al Salam town near Baquba, injuring 3 citizens.
– Police found three dead bodies throughout Diyala. . .
Wasit
– Two athletes were killed and 9 others were injured due to hand grenade explosion in their bus in Al Hai town south of Kut yesterday. Police said one of the team members was playing with the grenade and it exploded.
– A parked motorcycle bomb targeted civilians in a market in Al Sweera, killing one civilian and injuring 10 others. . .
– Gunmen attacked police patrol west of Kut yesterday, killing one police man and injuring 8 others.
– Gunmen killed Hussein Awda, a civilian, in random shooting in west Kut.
– Gunmen attacked police forces in different areas in Kut injuring three policemen today.
– A mortar shell slammed into Al Hawra neighborhood in Kut today, injuring two men and one woman.’
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