Forgive and Forget or Be Progressively Pre-empted

Take a good look at the photo of this woman taken yesterday Friday May 26th, 2006. She's running franticallly to the Al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad's Al-Nahda district. As she runs she's screaming that her sons have been killed undergone the last stage of progressive pre-emption in yesterday's bombing of a market there. Now take look at the second photograph also taken taken yesterday Friday May 26th, 2006. This man is at the Al-Kindi hospital's morgue. He's searching unsuccessfully for a member of his family at al-Kindi missing probably terminally progressively pre-empted after the same bombing. The bomb was placed under a car at an outdoor market in the al-Nahda area of Baghdad. Reports vary as to how many were killed and how many were injured. Al-Nahda's a bit of a dump really. The name means “renewal” or more accurately “renaissance”, and as you might expect with such a name it's one of Baghdad's poorer quarters. It's largely inhabited by Shia Iraqis and if you want to get the bus to one of the cities in the Shia south. The Nahda bus station is the one to go to. If you go there you'll see that the station is for poor people, mothers with young children, unemployed labourers, and now grandparents bringing their grandchildren to the relative safety of the cities in the Shia south. Meanwhile Tony Blair, the poodle regnant of all colonialist hearts, who has loyally repeated one Cheney inspired lie after another, (and made up quite a few of his own) brings us this message from his master: Blair says world must forget past and help Iraq So Tony how will you be spending your weekend? I already know how this woman and this man will be spending theirs. Tony forget "The World" for a moment. How long do you think it'll be before Iraqis forget your role in sending so many of them to the morgue to search frantically for the bodies of the people whom they love as part of carving their homeland up? OK Tone come over here for a moment. Tony, HEEL! That's a good boy. Have a biscuit. Tony you daft little poodle-brain you.... Are you really so stupid as to believe that all those ... you know brown people ... don't know what you mean when you talk about "progressive pre-emption?" markfromireland

Truth About Iraqis Speaks The Truth To You

From: Truth About Iraqis Thursday, May 25, 2006 صبراً صبراً يا بغداد سحقاً سحقاً للغزاة Iraq, where now, how did we get here, and hypocrisy. This post is inspired by an email I got. Snarly best describes it. I posted this response at 24 Steps to Liberty. I think it explains how I feel about the situation in Iraq. There is no sovereignty in Iraq. It was revealed two days ago that Iraqi courts operate based on CPA laws, not Iraqi laws. Several "insurgents" were given jail time because they broke Order 3. Go look it up. Freedom is not worth 200,000 lives, am sorry. Freedom is not worth having your brothers and sisters tortured and mutilated. Freedom is not about having tens of thousands of armed units - gangs - kidnapping and murdering people and working under government supervision. A government you brought to power. Freedom is not about having 60% unemployment and child nutrition far worse than pre-war levels. Freedom is not about a debilitated power grid or failing phone system. Freedom is not about Halliburton coming in and robbing both the Iraqi people and American taxpayers blind. Freedom is not about raising the flag of reconstruction and then stealing monies from Iraq's oil money. Freedom is not about standing idly by while the government is looted. Most of Iraq's advanced machinery is now in ... Iran. Freedom is not about detention without charge. 35,000 Iraqis are in detention. Their families dont know where they are. No charge. No court. Freedom is not about the massacres in Haditha. Freedom is not about the US humiliation of Abu Ghraib. There were no elections in Iraq. So dont ask me. Bark all you want about it. People in Wichita, Kansas have signed on to illegally invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with you. Oppress and debilitate a people that can no longer even see their kids go to school. They died? Sorry, but not for Iraqis, they died for a US foreign policy run amuck and criticized openly by former administrations on a daily basis. Iraqis leave the house in the morning not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again. This is not the price to be paid for anything. But it is what the people in Wichita died for they died so Iraq can be a failed state. Thank you. Bottom line. Iraq is not an extension of Wichita. People of Wichita are welcome in Iraq if they come in good faith and as guests. We will welcome them with open arms, we will throw them grand feasts and we will talk about each others' lives. But if they walk in carrying guns, they will be fought with guns. If they walk in to oppress, they will be suppressed. Yes, I blame the US policies for what has happened in Iraq. Almost every Iraqi I know blames the US for what has happened in Iraq. You only think of Saddam. You only talk of Saddam. You only bring up Saddam when it is convenient. That is all you can do. That is your only government. "Heck boy, Saddam killed ya off, sees, so we git to do the same. Semper fi and land of the brave and you have democracy now!" But who do you think favored Saddam when he fought Iran for you? Who do you think favored Saddam when he hunted down, murdered and hung communists from the lampposts in Iraqi cities? Who gave Saddam loan guarantees in the 1980s and trade incentives? Live in your own hole filled with lies. At the end, Iraqi is for Iraqis. And like the body fights a virus to dispel it, the foreign occupier will be ejected. Or both body and virus will die together. And don't send me rosy emails as if you are genuinely interested in debate and discussion. You have no inkling of how to debate. US foreign policy is not built around debate and discussion. Iran has repeatedly called on one-to-one talks with the US only to be rebuffed. Watch the US administration rebuff Ahmadinejad. The US media has labelled him a devil and so now the premise is "How can America deal with the devil?". In the 1990s, Iraqi officials called on the US repeatedly for one-on-one talks to be rebuffed every single time. And then US leaders stand up and say they gave diplomacy every change they did. Lies. North Korea has asked for one-on-one talks with the US but the US has refused. Why? Ask yourself why. Go back and study the past 50 years of US foreign policy. Sorry, but Iraqis are being raped and murdered far, far more than before. And now foreign intelligence units are involved. Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel. The list is endless. But then again, I don't expect more from you. This is how it works. An invading army destroys a house and then asks the occupants to rebuild it. But it shoots and kills the workers. It also allows people from a neighboring house to steal your materiel. You have no home, you are exposed to thugs and gangs. But still the invader blames you for letting your house "fall". Blames you for not protecting your materiel. Blames you for not standing up to the thugs. So you pick up a gun to fight the thugs, but the thugs have convinced the invader you are a terrorist and bang, you're taken out like in a video game. The thugs also convinced the invader that your children are terrorists, so, bang, bang, bang the invader takes out your kids as well. I think it is the epitome of arrogance to ask me and other Iraqis what we will do. The onus is on you, not us. You want us to build a just society? Get out then. And stop supporting dictatorships. If you are so high and mighty about Liberty, I would like to call on the US military to invade the following countries: Saudi Arabia which tortures maims and beheads its citizens on a nearly daily basis. The most basic of freedoms are denied its citizens. Women in Saudi Arabia are tossed about as political fodder and must be clad in Darth Vader outfits to hide their faces and skin. They cannot even drive. No, instead you invaded Iraq where Iraqi women were the most liberated in the entire Arab World. Invade Bahrain where a Sunni minority kingship has ravaged the Shia majority for 32 years. 32 years! You are so big on protecting the Shia, right? So go ahead. Send the boys and girls of Wichita to protect the Shia who have endured horrific human rights abuses. Yallah 3ad! Do it! Protect liberty wherever it is stifled. I call also on the invasion of Tunisia for similar reasons. And an invasion of Jordan, because the secret police there is one of the most merciless in the world. What of Egypt? Egypt just gave you the finger, why not invade it? It has rolled back 20 years of democratic development (lack thereof) and practically made Gamal Mubarak the Son-God or Sun-God. No, no my fellow Arabs. I do not rightly call on the invasion of any countries because I am tired of seeing mothers weep. But I am trying to show the hypocrisy of those who come to the Iraqi blogs pretending they understand the Middle East, Islam, rah, rah, rah. Their veil of fighting in foreign lands for liberty is an illusion. Why no invasion of Saudi Arabia? The house of Saud il mal3oun have been the US strategic allies for 70 years and the oil just keeps flowing. Bahrain has opened its arms as base of the US navy. If true democracy were applied in Bahrain, the Shia would come to power and ask you to leave. So, nope, no liberty for Bahrain, status quo fits us fine. Egypt and Jordan? Why heck, dontcha know they have ties with Israel? If true democracy developed in both nations, the people would vote to cut of relations with Israel until at the very least the Occupation of Palestinian land is resolved. So, why was Iraq the only country to be invaded? Is it the only country with a dictator? Is it the only country lacking democracy in the Middle East? Why is it when Iraqi officials in the current government recently rebuffed Israel, the US government cried foul? Ah .... We did not invade and litter your home or destroy your heritage (see damage in Babylon and elswhere). You invaded ours. You want an answer to your questions, get out and let us rebuild. As my brother Baghdad Treasure said. Get out. Go home. The virus will be ejected. Reproduced here in it's entirety by gracious permission of "Truth About Iraqis" markfromireland

Wrong Caption

The supplied caption to this photograph reads as follows: "Young Iraqi athletes demonstrate in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, May 25, 2006 demanding the release of the 15-member Iraqi Taekwando team who were abducted a week ago whilst driving on their way to a training camp in Amman. Kidnappings of Iraqi citizens by both criminal gangs and political groups remains a major problem in the country." A single word provides a far more accurate alternative: "Courage" markfromireland

In Which The Gorilla Says "I told You So"

This is Mohammed Ali Salman. He's nine years old. Mohammed Ali was one of the eleven people injured by a blast in Baghdad's Tahrir Square today Thursday, May 25, 2006. Three people were killed in the explosion. "Tahrir" means "Liberation" by the way, so the nine year old child Mohammed Ali was injured in a place with a singularly ironic name. Neither Mohammed Ali 'nor any other Baghdadi is experiencing "liberation" they're experiencing, a reign of terror. They don't have the freedom to go peacefully about their lawful business without fear of being blown up, shot at, beaten up, humiliated, let's not even talk about food insecurity the lack of clean water and all the other privations brought down upon Baghdadis heads by the cynical corrupt and bloodsoaked occupation of Iraq being run by the US and her allies … … This was some "liberation" brought to Mohammed Ali by America and her allies. Does Mohammed Ali look "liberated" to you, or does he look like a nine year old child whose bodily integrity has been brutally violated? The anxious looking man comforting Mohammed Ali is his father Ali Salman. They're in Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital. Mohammed Ali won't be allowed stay there as long as he needs to recover from his injuries because there are so many injured brought into Baghdad's hospitals daily that doctors there have to discharge all but the most desperatlely ill and wounded. While Mohammed Ali was recovering in al-Kindi hospital Iraq's interim minister Defense minister was according to AFP "vowing" to restore security to Mohammed Ali's hometown. Tony Blair who demonstrated his complete contempt for Iraqi independence by flying into Baghdad to "endorse" its new prime minister was making plans to visit his main partner in the dismemberment of Iraq George W. Bush to work out how to continue their violent dismemberment of Mohammed Ali's country. And the American extreme right-winger a senior advise at the neo-con think than Center for Strategic and International Studies and an "expert on counter-terrorism" Edward N. Luttwak gave the game away by writing an "opinion piece" in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz entitled "Let them fight it out." Luttwak joins a long list of neo-cons chorusing their demand that Iraq be "permitted" to tear itself apart. This will come as no surprise to my regular readers. It's not even a month since in my posting entitled "A Barefaced and Stupid Lie" I said this: " The calls by Biden and his like are further proof if further proof were needed of the rampant imperialism that has infected the entire American body politic like a cancer for more than a generation. They are proof that the American political elite is trying to disassemble Iraq. That the American political elite is trying to smash Iraq and then say: "Well the Iraqis broke it so we own it. The American political elite wants to spin this as an Iraqi initiative and pretend that Iraqis want an ethnic government. The American political elite wants to silence those Iraqi voices, calling for unity such as Al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Sistani. And under Bush the American political elite has shown that there is no attrocity to which they will not stoop to achieve this end. Of course the have to show their humane and caring side: "The choice I’m proposing can give all of us -- Republicans, Independents, Democrats, Americans -- realistic hope that our sacrifices in Iraq were not in vain. " (Biden's Speech last two lines - the sacrifices forced upon the Iraqis don't of course count.) Expect more from the Biden Band and Chorus along the lines of: "we lost 2,400 troops and all that money so we deserve something for all our sacrifice and anyway we're the good guys - right? " Told you so. markfromireland

Site News - New Layout

Yes you've arrived at “Gorilla's Guides” it's just it looks a bit different :-) I'm still working on the layout for Gorilla's Guides. This layout is an interim solution. I'll probably keep the somewhat stark colour scheme as I tend to prefer minimalism. I have long been of the opinion that far too many sites concentrate on design when it is the content that is important. I think that this design is somewhat more readable than the previous template. Briefly the main changes I've made are: At present the navigation is the traditional left side-bar schema. The main content area now uses the entire remaining view portal. The main content area is now fluid. In other words it will "flow" to match different window sizes. I am well aware that many, and often most, of my readers read English not only as a foreign language but also as a foreign language written in a foreign script. Accordingly I've adjusted the line-height property for the relevant selectors to enchance readability. - To those readers I would particularly ask that you let me know if I've succeeded in making the site more usable for you by doing one or all of the following: Emailing me at the usual email address Leaving a comment in the usual forum under the thread that Declan has started for that purpose. Leaving a comment here. I have used font-size relative metrics throughout. This means that you will see the text in a size based upon your browser settings and not in a pixel size arbitarily chosen by some template designer. - Even in Microsoft's Internet Explorer the results should now be acceptable. If the text is too small or too large change the settings in your browser. From my point of view one the primary advantages of the new design is that I can code the text off-line using a "proper" :-) XHTML editor instead of having to rely upon blogger.com's quite remarkably dippy control panel. Further Changes in the works My inclination is to ultimately move the navigation bar to the right partly for SEO purposes and partly because I like it that way. Images will be floated using CSS rather than using blogger.com's horrid javascript once I work out the margin measurements and whether I prefer to place them in a div element or simply treat them as a standard inline element to be floated accordingly.

12 years old - hauled off the street whipped with electric cables, violated with an electric drill, shot, body dragged through the streets

BAGHDAD - A 12-year-old Shi'ite Muslim boy was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the southern Dora district of Baghdad, police said. They said he was blindfolded, handcuffed and tortured. Reuters May 23rd 2006 I got a 'phone call today (yesterday now it's gone midnight as I type) about this one from an old friend a brave American nun whom I admire. She had asked for and got a posting to El Salvador during the time of the death squads. Both of us had been dreading and expecting something like this. This follows the pattern of attrocities in El Salvador and to a somewhat lesser extent Bosnia. I've highlighted one or two particular points in the article. markfromireland. Full Reuters story here Torture, killing of 12-year-old horrifies Iraqi family May signal a new level of sectarian violence By Michael Georgy, Reuters | May 24, 2006 BAGHDAD -- Baghdad's sectarian hit squads don't spare the young. The family of 12-year-old Hani Saadoun has been traumatized by that reality since his tortured body, mutilated by electric drills, was found yesterday. They had been in a state of fear since he failed to return home for lunch a day earlier. It appears gunmen in three cars cornered him as he headed to work helping out at his father's parking lot, Interior Ministry sources and relatives said. The Shi'ite family started panicking when he had not turned up by Monday evening. By the time they learned of his fate yesterday, he was just another statistic in Iraq's packed morgues. The sense of loss mixed with shock as details of his brutal ordeal, shared by many dozens every day, became clear. Saadoun's body was found dumped in southern Baghdad's violent, mostly Sunni Arab, district of Dora. It bore the hallmarks of sectarian tit-for-tat killings that have exploded since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February. The youngster, with a bullet hole in his head and another through the chest, was blindfolded and his hands bound. He had been whipped with cables, tormented by electric drills, and his body dragged through the streets behind a car. There was no way of ruling out other possible reasons for his death. He could have been the victim of one of Iraq's bloody tribal feuds or criminal gangs. But one conclusion predominates in a country becoming familiar with corpses dumped by the road. ``This was definitely a sectarian killing," said the boy's uncle, a freelance journalist well known to Baghdad media, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. ``Witnesses told us that gunmen in three Opel cars grabbed him at a checkpoint. We know he was tortured and we know they dragged him through the streets by a rope and dumped him." While thousands of young children have been kidnapped for ransom or blown up in bombings, few appear to have been caught up in planned tit-for-tat sectarian abductions and killings. If Saadoun's death was a sectarian slaying, it raises the possibility of a new level of ruthlessness. It was also appalling bad luck. On a day off from school, eager to earn some pocket money, he set off to work at his father's lot. Normally his father or older brothers would have gone with him but, for the first time, they had pressing business at home and the youngster set off alone. At Saadoun's funeral, women in traditional black Shi'ite shawls wailed as his mother Fatima Oraybi stared up at his crude wooden coffin on the roof of a car. ``Oh my son," she cried. Others could not understand why he was targeted. The torture of such a young boy left his relatives shocked. ``What did he do? He was 12. He was not a general or a minister," said his cousin Amir Mohammad. Saadoun's family are not taking any chances. They moved the mourning tent to a Baghdad district far from their neighborhood for fear they will now be targeted. ``We are afraid we will be next," said the uncle. The new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has vowed to use maximum force to crush the men of violence. But his security forces can be hesitant. Saadoun's uncle said police and troops refused to help recover the body because Dora was too dangerous. ``His father had to round up relatives and people from the neighborhood to get the body," he said. ``He had nothing to do with sectarianism or politics. He was just a boy." See also: Easily Dispensable: Iraq's Children mfi

I didn't sign up to kill women and children ... Now that I look back at it we are the terrorists

"Sgt. Gehlen said... If you want to know what the U.S. military and Coalition troops are really up to, check out the CENTCOM website: www.centcom.mil. Sgt. Gehlen U.S. Central Command Public Affairs" From the comments to yesterday's posting "It's All Right Baby's Coming Home" "I'm not saying it's right what they did but if some people came into my .... came into America ... a huge foreign army they're doing the crap that we did to them i would just do the same thing back people people have the right to fight for their families and for their country and especially if we're terrorising someone's country they have the right to fight back and I don't blame them I would do the same thing ..... "When we were doing the night raids in the houses, we would pull people out and have them all on their knees and zip-tied. We would ask the man of the house questions. If he didn't answer the way we liked, we would shoot his youngest kid in the head. We would keep going, this was our interrogation...... "I felt wrong I felt disgusted you know with myself because I had to make myself hate them in order to do my job I had to make myself not think of them as people ".... I didn't keep count but I'd say by my hand along almost 200 people you know that were taken out by me ..... " a lot of them at close range .... "they would actually feel the hot muzzle of my rifle .... "I didn't sign up to kill women and children .... ...... ....... "The government's doing so much to not let us be heard the major media they don't play a lot of stuff ... "It needs to stop for my family's sake and for the rest of the world's sake ... (21 mins 33 seconds) (You may need to get flashplayer to see this film) "It's as if the more Americans find out about what is going on in Iraq the less they want to know and the less certain elements in the media want to tell them...... "They're trying to sanitise this war and you can't sanitise it...... "Now how can you measure progress?...... "They had no plan for success Chris this is the thing that I'm so disturbed about ..... "The responsibility goes right to the top ............ "Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power ....." Martin Luther King Jr. markfromireland Site News: You'll likely notice a few changes over the next while to how the site looks and behaves. For example the links list is currently disabled. This is becuase I'm rewriting some of the code and "normal service will resume shortly ... or whenever I get around to debugging the css, whichever comes first. Update: Having just read a posting on another blog I'd better make it clear that I take the Jesse Mac Beth interview with a lot of salt. I'd better make clear here in the body of the posting what has already been made clear in the comments. There are good reasons to suspect that Jesse MacBeth is to put it kindly at the very least greatly exagerrating his military experience. There are all sorts of details that are suspicious ranging from his uniform to the lenght of tour of duty to the fact that he confuses two different types of units. That was why I juxtaposed his film clip with the clip of Rep: Murtha about whom there is no such doubt. mfi

It's All Right Baby's Coming Home

"The War Party's response to these allegations, and all evidence of the horrors committed by U.S. troops in Iraq – from Abu Ghraib to everyday incidents like the drowning murder of a young Iraqi boy by U.S. soldiers – is that these are just the crimes of "a few bad apples." The problem, however, is that the tree that spawned them breeds poisonous fruit. [snip] The main concern of U.S. authorities, including the military police, seems to be that the gangbangers will utilize their training – and, in some cases, their access to equipment and weaponry – when they come back to the U.S. Only this time they won't be breaking into Iraqi homes and slaughtering women and children: they'll be holding up banks and committing crimes of violence in the U.S. While this is a valid worry, there is no mention, in the Sun-Times piece, of any concern for the fate of Iraqi civilians, who must endure daily indignities and deadly danger from these thugs. If it isn't all about us, Americans don't want to know. But with these latest revelations of dark deeds in Haditha, they are going to have it thrown in their faces." Full article here. Link to Chicago Sun-Times article "Gangs claim their turf in Iraq - BY Frank Main Crime Reporter" markfromireland

Sequence of Events

There are others for whom it is even worse: An Iraqi Mother's Most Dreaded Mission - Search for Missing Son in Baghdad Only Adds to Loss and Uncertainty markfromireland

Abdullah Yaseen Wept Alone

This is Abdullah Yaseen (his name Abdullah means "Servant of God") he's waiting outside Baghdad's Ibn al-Nafees hospital to receive his father's body. His father, Yaseen Abd, was among the 13 people killed today Sunday, May 21, 2006 when a suicide bomber detonated his payload at the Safar restaurant in Karada. Karada's a fairly up-market southern suburb of Baghdad with relatively good security and the Safar restaurant was known to be used by police officers. Only relatively good however there's no such thing as real security in Iraq. How could there be? Abdullah's country is under occupation and the occupiers have done their best to start a civil war there and to prevent a government being formed from the parties that are determined to hold the country together and demand that the occupiers leave. That's why the politcal process was deadlocked for so long. At present in Iraq the best that can be hoped for is "relative security" and relative security isn't good enough as Abdullah Yaseen now heartbrokenly knows. The ongoing war to destroy Iraq deliberately and knowingly waged on the basis of a pack of lies by the United States and her allies has claimed uncounted lives and wrecked countless others today Sunday, May 21, 2006 the child, Abdullah Yaseen, joined that number.At the same time as Abdullah was waiting to recieve his father's body. These three youths, relatives of people killed in the blast, were also outside the hospital trying to comfort one another. They at least had one another, someone to hold onto for comfort, but Abdullah Yaseen, "the Servant of God," was left to weep alone as he waited to receive his father's bomb-shattered corpse. markfromireland