Attentive Middle East watchers have remarked since 2003 on the similarities between Israel’s various military actions against its neighbors and those of the US in Iraq. The bottom line in all these engagements is that the “western” power has used its military to try to impose its control over the peoples of foreign countries. (I wanted to say “citizens” of foreign countries, but the “citizenship” the Palestinians have is fragmentary and thin, since they have no state of their own. But still, the West Bank and Gaza do not in any sense “belong” to Israel. Hence, my term “peoples of foreign countries.”) But in all these cases, the attempt to impose control– to extract the “compliance” of the natives by using brute force– has failed.
In Lebanon, in 2000 and once again in August 2006, the Israeli government came to recognize the counter-productive nature of its project, withdrew its forces, and halted the use of stand-off weapon attacks against the country.
In Gaza (and the West Bank), it is still grimly trying to continue the project.
In Sadr City, as in many other parts of Iraq, the US occupation forces are suddenly finding themselves in a very Gaza-like, or Dahiyya-like, situation. The natives are refusing to comply– and they are refusing to be cowed by the amazingly destructive arsenals used against them.
Like the Israelis in the 33-day war in Lebanon, the external assailants do not have anywhere near enough ground troops to be able to “swarm” the territory. So, like the Israelis in the 33-day war in Lebanon, they’re trying to cow the population of Sadr City by the use of very destructive standoff weapons. So almost inevitably, oops… here comes Petraeus’s Qana. AFP tells us:
- A US rocket attack damaged a hospital in the Iraqi capital’s violent Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, wounding 28 people as American forces claimed to have killed 14 militants in the district.
AFP had a reporter on the scene. He or she
- said the district’s main Al-Sadr hospital was badly damaged and a fleet of ambulances was destroyed.
Just outside the hospital, a shack which appeared to have been the target was reduced to a pile of rubble.
The military said it destroyed a “criminal element command and control centre” by munitions from a “rocket system” at approximately 10 am (0700 GMT).
“Intelligence reports indicate the command and control centre was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens,” it said.
Hospital staff said at least 28 people wounded in the strike were brought inside for treatment at the complex which had its windows shattered and medical and electrical equipment damaged.
Medical staff and other hospital workers were livid.
“They (the Americans) will say it was a weapons cache” that was hit, said the head of the Baghdad health department, Dr Ali Bistan, who arrived to assess the damage.
“But in fact they want to destroy the infrastructure of the country.”
He charged that the attack was aimed at preventing doctors and medicines from reaching the hospital which is in an area that has seen increased clashes between American troops and militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The hospital corridors were littered with glass shards, twisted metal and hanging electrical wiring. Partitions in wards had collapsed.
Huge concrete blocks placed to form a blast wall against explosions had toppled onto parked vehicles, including up to 17 ambulances, disabling emergency response teams.
So the US military claims that the shack was a “criminal element command and control centre.” I would like to see their evidence on that. I would also like to see the reasoning of the US military on why this structure, so close to a hospital, had to be destroyed at that time and in that disproportionately violent way.
The NYT’s Alissa Rubin writes that the destroyed structure was “a small building next door to the hospital that neighbors said was used as a place of prayer for hospital employees, pilgrims and neighborhood residents.” She notes that “the sign at the iron gate at the entrance to the building demolished by the American strike reads ‘Imam Hussein’s Resthouse.'”
She had a lot of other details about the attack. But the big picture is that US forces can’t win this battle, and there is no way they can “win” this war in Iraq. Meantime, they are sowing mayhem and destruction in communities around Iraq; causing Muslims around the world to hate Americans even more than they do already; eating up billions of dollars of US taxpayer dollars per month; and diverting resources and attention from solving the many other huge problems humankind faces around the world.
But tonight, it is the tragedy and shame of the US assault on Sadr City that I’m thinking most about.
A US rocket attack damaged a hospital in the Iraqi capital’s violent Shiite stronghold of Sadar City on Saturday, wounding 28 people as American forces claimed to have killed 14 militants in the district.
Gates spoke at a news conference after touring the Restoration and Resilience Centre at the West Texas base. ” said. “The question is, what’s the endgame?” .
For five years the invaders working hard with their proxy.
So is gate’s words means that the occupier is playing different versions of games,?
From dismantled Iraq forces (military and police) to posted beheading showed on video , kidnapping western in orange suits, to Zarqawi caught was a big win ending the orange suits and beheading as if Qaeda gone by killing Zarqawi crimes and acts done by one man not Qaeda although the western media never stopping talking about the strength of Qaeda in Iraq , followed by civil war and sectarian killing we ended with “Sahwa” (Awakening Councils), so now Maliki Military forces with their Al-Furssan cleansing mission in Basra then Sadar city.
So Gate he is right what he said “The question is, what’s the endgame?” but not for Iraq but in fact from the occupier “what’s the endgame?”
You either “with us” so your our friend and allies no matter you are democratic or not, or you are “against us” so you are terrorist should be fighting them under many name Mahdi Militia, Jond Assama’a (Solder of Sky 🙂 and so on and so forth
May be this story of Hamdyia she sales Tomatoes (Arabic text) near the hospital in Sadar city give better explanations what happening in that day when the hospital was bombed by US F-16 fighters.
Racists never learn, if Gates really wanted to understand where this is leading he should imagine that Sadr City were Dublin, that the airstrikes were shells fired from a Royal Navy frigate in the Bay and that the hospital was run by the Sisters of Mercy.
And wonder “what would the IRA do?” Because that is what the Iraqi resistance is going to have to do.
The tactics being used in Sadr City are, indeed, Israeli tactics. But what is often forgotten, about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, is that Israel (by which I mean the coterie of scoundrels dominating the government) has no interest in conciliating them. It does not want the “political settlement” which is the objective, we are assured, of the United States’s counter insurgency doctrine. On the contrary, Israel wants to pursue the Palestinians until there is a total submission.
The question is whether that is the US objective in Iraq. And, if it is not, what the devil are they doing bombing cities and targetting hospitals? The Israelis want the Palestinians to hate them, they want suicide bombers to attack them, providing excuses for escalation which they intend to ramp up into a complete expulsion of population.
Is that what the US wants in Iraq?
“Two weeks later, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney also made his way to Baghdad. However, despite his infamous pre-war prediction that U.S. forces would be greeted with “sweets and flowers,” security conditions forced him to travel under a blanket of secrecy, on a plane carrying a specially reinforced trailer for his sleeping accommodations in a country where 155,000 American troops patrol.”
Right wing Zionist neo-cons now are calling the “shots”(pun intended) in both Israel and the US — hence the similar brutal tactics empoyed by both.
It si no accident that the most pro-Israel President ever also is the worst US President ever.
Hillary Clinton and John McCain — totally controlled by the Israel lobby — would carry out the same policies of mass murder and aggression.
Obama might be a little better, but too early to say at this point.
As long as the Israel lobby calls the shots on US foreign policy these kinds of atrocities will continue and probably escalate.
It’s happened before.
Operation Phantom Fury, November, 2004, on the heels of Bush’s re-election, was directed against the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
news report (excerpts):
Nov. 9, 2004 – In a series of actions over the weekend, the United States military and Iraqi government destroyed a civilian hospital in a massive air raid, captured the main hospital and prohibited the use of ambulances in the besieged city of Fallujah.
Saturday morning, witnesses in Fallujah reported that an overnight air strike by US fighter crews had completely razed a trauma clinic, which was recently constructed using Saudi donations. Also destroyed were two adjacent facilities used by health care providers.
Iraqi commandos stormed and seized the Fallujah General Hospital, the city’s main health care facility, in the first reported ground operation carried out against the city during the renewed offensive. During the raid they reportedly detained some 50 patients, about 25 of whom were arrested.
This is the second time Marines have sealed off the hospital. Fallujah General is located on the Western edge of the Euphrates River, separating it from the rest of the city. Throughout the siege in April, Marines prevented ambulances and other vehicles from transporting sick or injured people to what was at that time — and after Saturday night’s bombing is once again — the city’s only trauma-capable health care facility.
A US Marine Corps spokesperson said any ambulances that Marines fired on must have been involved in carrying insurgents or arms, or else the Marines would not have opened fire.
Will Obama act differently??
Clinton boasted a week ago that during her husband’s candidacy Americans were enjoying economical and peaceful times, she never repeated the claim.
Perhaps she forgot about the embargo on Iraq that claimed 1.5 million lives, half a million children, Albright infamous answer was, yes it worth having the embargo. She forgot about the Rwandan genocide that took place under her husbands nose, she forgot how long it took to stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, in Somalia hundreds of thousands are being killed and many are made refugees, by empowering their neighbours with arms and monnies. But we still hear about Darfur, were the conflict is neither religious nor ethnic but based on unfair distribution of wealth.
Obama took his first step and denounced his reverend, will he be a different candidate ?
He had dreams about changing the mind sets that got his country into war in the first place. I think he has doubts as the presidency allure is nearing. What about the second term ?
President Jimmy Carter is one of the finest presidents Americans will ever dream of having, yet 99.9% do not see what this individual have been doing all these years. During the hostage taking in Iran, Americans for the first time and only time acted wisely.
They were viewed as good in comparison with Iran, since, the bully is back and “the march of destruction” was/is in full swing.
Carter was ruined by his own Democrat Party even before the Iranians got to him, and I fear that a reasonable Obama would suffer a similar fate.
“Will Obama act differently??”
Not likely – not significantly differently in any case. Look, Obama has virtually the same non-withdrawal “withdrawal” plan for Iraq as Hillary’s. Neither intends to withdraw. Both intend to maintain the U.S. occupation and attempted dominance of Iraq but with a lower profile that will be less visible, and therefore more tolerable for the American, and perhaps, they hope, the Iraqi people. It is obvious when you go beyond the “I will begin withdrawal upon taking office”, and “we must bring the troops home” campaign sound bites and look at their statements in any detail at all.
“the embargo on Iraq that claimed 1.5 million lives, half a million children…”
Actually the half a million children number, is a significant undercount of the total on two important levels. 1) The half million figure is only for children under five years, and does not include children more than five, among which there was undoubtedly significant mortality. 2) The half million statistic for children under five was the estimated “excess deaths” of children under five as of 1996, a mere 4-5 years into the nearly 13 years of sanctions and embargo. Therefore, the total child mortality as a result of the sanctions is very significantly greater than half a million.
“[Obama] had dreams about changing the mind sets that got his country into war in the first place.”
Not quite. Obama uttered campaign sound bites regarding dreams about changing those mindsets. At the same time, he has indicated a willingness to attack other countries, including Pakistan, a very fragile ally. Obama is a politician who dreams of advancing his career. What else he actually dreams of, who knows?
Obama is preferable to Clinton or McCain, but that’s not saying much. He used to be a Palestinian sympathizer–now he’s pretty firmly in AIPAC’s corner. What’s fascinating about the man is that both Martin Peretz and some Palestinian-sympathizing progressives think he is in their corner. The peace activist types think, like poor Jeremiah Wright, that Obama doesn’t really mean all the kneejerk pro-Israel things he says.
There’s no way to tell what Obama will do, but I don’t think left-leaning people should trust the guy.