Powell Doctrine to be reinstated?

In today’s WaPo, Ellen Knickmeyer reports that, “The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say.”
And so, friends, this is the way that the end of the cataclysmic project the US government has pursued in Iraq over the past four years gets announced.
Evidently, if no more funds will be requested for “reconstruction” the Bush administration will be cutting Iraq loose to fend for itself. Once there is no more pretext of “reconstruction”, the US military footprint will almost certainly be radically reduced and, in effect, most of the country handed over to the Iranians. (Or, in a slightly better scenario, the Iranians and/or Ayatollah Sistani will see the wisdom of reaching some form of a new nationalist consensus with the Sunni Arabs and any Kurds who might care to join it… Which might not, actually, be very many at all.)
But anyway, by announcing the rapid winding down of the “reconstruction” project, the Bushies are signaling that the speeches the Prez made over the past six weeks were, indeed, the “declaration of victory” that was required before the administration implemented its plan for a “strategically wise redployment of the troop presence” in Iraq.
(Let the words “cut and run” never cross my lips.)
So this is the way the war ends. Not without many continuing bangs, certainly; but equally certainly with this damp squib of a whimper. Knickmeyer quotes Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the reconstruction work in Iraq, as saying: “The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq… This was just supposed to be a jump-start.”
Truly breath-taking, how they tried to sneak this latest declaration past an unsuspecting public while Americans were still dozing off their post-New Year’s hangovers, and while Congress is most assuredly out of session.
Still, all caveats having been taken into consideration, I have to breathe a massive sign of relief. Phew!!!! It looks as though they have finally decided they need to bite the bullet of a large-scale (if still not yet total) reduction of the troop presence in Iraq.
And even if the withdrawal envisaged is still not total, it is already appropriate to start to think about what this development means for US strategic doctrine and for Washington’s relationship with the rest of the world.
As I’ve written here before, any large-scale US withdrawal from Iraq will have ramifications far beyond the borders of that benighted country, and far beyond the Persian Gulf region, too. To start to think through some of these ramifications, I think it’s best to back up and see just what it was that Bushies were trying to achieve, back in late 2001 when– just a few weeks after 9/11– they decided they needed to invade and take over not just Afghanistan, but also Iraq.
Here is my first quick stab at this assessment…
https://vintage.justworldnews.org/archives/001657.html

Continue reading “Powell Doctrine to be reinstated?”

Christmas in the ER, Baghdad

    Our delightful and multi-talented friend C, who is also the son of long-time family friends, is an ER doc with the US military who recently deployed to Iraq. What follows is most of his account of Christmas in the ER in the Baghdad Green Zone. My deep thanks to you, C., for letting me share this beautiful and heart-rending piece of writing. I pray to God you stay safe. ~HC

Christmas was not peaceful here in Baghdad… By 10 am the slightly desparate sound of Medivac requests crackled from the radio, followed by the drum of rotors passing over the hospital and landing at our helipad. The wounded came in three and four at a time. Just as one group were sent up to surgery another would land on our doorstep. One felt drained physically by the end of the day, sapped from the emotional toll of so much pain on Christmas, rather than the actual exertion of repeated resuscitations. The work is exhilarating and terrible at the same time and I do not know how to respond to the excitement and dread we all feel upon
hearing the radio call: “three litter urgent, 4 minutes out.” It takes several hours for the true impact of the experience to sink in. The wounded begin to blur in my
memory, and even the next morning I cannot easily remember exactly who had what injury and when I saw them. We are at war, make no mistake about that.
Everyday young men (and women) place body armor on and patrol the streets and suburbs of this sprawling city. Helmets are strapped on, ballistic glasses and earplugs in place. They look very much like modern day samurai preparing for battle. They drive, or walk knowing that someone in their unit will stumble across an explosive at some point during the day. Hopefully they will recognize and defuse it. Perhaps it will go off and no one but the hapless triggerman will be injured. Or, maybe, a friend with whom they just shared a joke or memory or cigarette will have his body torn by shrapnel, legs amputated, or life quickly ended in a flash. Imagine that a part of your daily routine and you begin to understand exactly what sort of strain these soldiers are under. Yet they are remarkably free of the tortured doubt and dread that you would believe all to harbor. Each brings to the anticipation of violence a fatalistic humor that defuses the greatest threat in this conflic t: fear. There will be some difficult homecomings, I imagine. The ramifications of what they have seen and done will not end for many years.
One soldier in particular sticks in my mind. He came into our trauma room, his body torn, but his will to live powerfully strong. His lips were deathly pale as he struggled to speak to me. I could never make out the words. I placed a tube in his throat to help him breath as we placed him in a chemically induced sleep. We put lines deep into his body and wrapped him tightly in a sheet. With blood, saline and oxygen, his skin turned soft pink and his face look calm. His blood pressure and pulse improved and we quickly pushed him up to the operating room. I was proud of my team and how quickly they were able to stabilize this young soldier. I spoke to his commander who looked so young himself. “If you get them in here alive, I promise we can save them,” I told his unit.
He died on the operating table before the end of the hour. Too much damage. Nothing could have been done. Christmas day in Iraq. It is New Years. The Iraqi celebrate by firing Kalishnikov’s into the sky. Occasionally the deeper thump of a 50 cal or some equivalent can be heard. Traces streak up as the city celbrates a new year. Miraculously, no one is yet injured. I think one bad holiday is enough. Tonight we will just celebrate quietly and think of everyone at home. Have a safe and peaceful New Year.

Appreciation to Juan Cole

Regular JWN readers are probably aware that I have a couple of fairly serious disagreements with Juan Cole; and it occurs to me that I probably spend a disproportionate amount of space on this blog criticizing his views. I have always tried to do so in a way that expresses the huge admiration in which I have always held his scholarship and his strong stand in support of academic and human freedoms.
But I was made aware yet again today of the truly massive contribution Juan makes to the wellbeing of the world, day after day after day, simply by virtue of the dedication and levelheadedness with which he sticks to trying to understand what’s going on in Iraq and to sharing that understanding with the English-speaking public through his blog.
I am constantly amazed at how much, truly excellent work he produces there! It makes me tired just to think of how many hours he must spend at it each day. Any of you JWN readers who writes a blog must also know how much just darn’ hard work this businss entails.
Today, one commenter on Juan’s blog suggested that the CIA should simply be dismantled so the world could rely on what Juan tells us, instead… Not such a bad idea. What certainly is true is that by reading and digesting into English a wide variety of Arabic-language sources on Iraq, and then by making those digests/analyses available in a timely fashion on a no-cost open source, Juan is providing an amazing service that you cannot find anywhere else.
Today, I didn’t have time to read Al-Hayat till fairly late in the day. Reading Juan’s blog got me up to speed, showed me which articles to look at… I used to find the Institute for War and Peace Reporting’s daily “Iraqi Press Monitor” was a helpful supplementary source. But that operation, which no doubt has a hefty budget and a large number of staff members, has produced nothing at all since December 20! (Back in the good old days, of course, there was the CIA’s open-source translation service, FBIS, freely available in all US Government depositary libraries. But that got axed. Now the US government has a subscription-only service called “World News Connection” which promises its potential paying readers that, “New information is added within 24-72 hours from the time of original publication or broadcast”. Thanks, but no thanks.)
So anyway, I want to express some special New Year’s good wishes to my colleague and friend Juan Cole. We may have our disagreements, and they are over serious matters. But that fact does nothing at all to dim the admiration I have for you, Juan. In this business, you really are the gold standard. A healthy and long life to you!

More heavy politicking inside the UIA

I got around to reading Juan Cole and a couple of pieces from today’s Al-Hayat– but a little late, today. The Hayat articles (as indicated by Juan) had noted that the Shiite mega-list, the United Iraqi Alliance, has decided to anoint SCIRI head Abdel-Aziz Hakim as al-marja’iyyeh as-siyasiyyeh for the list, in return for which SCIRI will drop its insistence on Adel Abdul-Mahdi being prime minister.
Marja’iyeh siyasiyyeh, that is, a “political marja’iyyeh“, is a concept I’ve never come across before. (If anyone else out there has come across it before, please, please elucidate for us in a comment.) Among pious Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere, a marja’ is a religious source of inspiration and object of emulation. In Iraqi Shiism, the marja’iyyeh is a collective noun used to describe both the institution of a collectively exercized marja’-dom and its current most elevated representative, currently Ayatollah Sistani. The adjective “political” added to that indicates that this new role is thought of as one of religio-political guidance, perhaps standing above that of the elected leadership.
Not, I would have thought, a terribly democratic notion?
In this article in today’s Hayat, A SCIRI spokesman is quoted as saying that, “the Alliance will be running the state administration for the next four years, and this necessitates that there be a political marja’iyyeh for all the sides (atraf) both inside the Alliance and outside it to resolve the big problems.”
Well, that doesn’t tell us much about this new position, either. It is, of course, entirely possible that the position of “marja’iyyeh siyasiyyeh” might be a a mere consolation prize, given to Hakim if he has actually already lost out in his battle to have SCIRI and its views dominating the policies of the new government. We have yet to see. But certainly, the analysis that Reidar Visser had done over the past ten days, as shown in the body and comments sections of this JWN post, indicated that SCIRI was not nearly as strong within the UIA as Hakim liked to present it as being, while supporters of Moqtada Sadr were stronger in the UIA than most westerners seemed to understand.
It is quite probable that the jockeying for position among the different trends within the UIA has not been resolved yet. (And of course, the final results of the elections haven’t been announced yet, either.)
I think the outcome of the intra-UIA power struggle will be very important for the course Iraq takes over the coming months and years. Thus far, I see the two poles of the main struggle being occupied by Hakim and Sadr, with the current PM, Ibrahim Jaafari straddling somewhere between them. (If any JWN readers can explain the situation even better than this, please do tell us in the comments!)
Hakim and Sadr seem to favor very different approaches to building a nationwide governing coalition. Hakim seems to favor one that is built on pursuing a strong relationship with PUK leader Jalal Talabani. Those two men both favor the radical dismemberment of the Iraqi state and its breakup into “super-regions” endowed with so many powers that if they retain any lasting links with each other at all those would be only the links of a confederation, rather than a federation. Hakim has also seemed quite happy to go along with Talabani’s insistence on bringing the laregly discredited former US-appointed PM Iyad Allawi into a new coalition.
Moqtada Sadr differs from Hakim in all these respects. He seems to have much more of an Iraqi-nationalist sensibility than Hakim does, and has very consistently worked on maintaining and strengthening his links with nationalist (i.e. anti-US) activists inside the Sunni community. His Iraqi-nationalist sensibility seems to have two strands to it: an antipathy for radical dismemberment of the state, and a strong opposition to the US presence and influence. The first of those strands probably makes him very wary of the two big, and very secession-minded Kurdish parties. The second strand fuels his distrust of Allawi. (It was Allawi’s administration, remember, that worked with the Americans to launch vicious anti-Sadrist military operations in both April and August 2004.)
It is not clear to me whether a united UIA might have a chance of forming a governing coalition without the Kurds, but with the nationalist Sunnis and a few other small parties. The biggest hurdle in government formation is the requirement that the parliament muster a 2/3 majority to name the President. That would require 180 votes. Up to now, Talabani has acted as though keeping the “presidency” that he’s occupied since last spring is his right in the next government, as well. (Indeed, he and Hakim were recently reported as reaching an agreement that the presidency’s powers would even be increased!) But it strikes me that Talabani isn’t necessarily a shoo-in for president. If the UIA can really act as a smart and united bloc, they could surely start a nice little bidding war among several different candidates for the presidency… And/or, they could take some steps to cut back the presidency’s presently bloated powers… It does seem very bizarre and anti-democratic that a small ethnic minority like the Kurds would be able to dominate a position in the central state administration that is more powerful than that of the prime minister.
… Well, no doubt we’ll find out much more about all this within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Kenya: prison inmates showing compassion

Thhe BBC reported yesterday that in kenya, tens of thousands of prison inmates were planning to skip a meal today to raise money for compatriots affected by droughts.
This story is so moving. (Hat-tip to Carol who sent it to me.)
The piece quoted Simon Ole Sakrop, described as a death row inmate, as saying: “Prisons have changed and we can afford to give our brothers some of our food rations without getting affected.” It also estimated that “up to 50,000 prisoners” had signed up to take part in the action, which was being coordinated by the Kenyan Red Cross Society.
The drought now blighting vast areas of north-east Kenya has been described by some people as “the Christmas famine.” This Dec. 30 report from Reliefweb says the following:

    In Kenya, an estimated 2.5 million people are predicted to require emergency food aid (at 100% food ration) and other non-food interventions. The situation is particularly serious in Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit, Kajiado… and also in Garissa, and Moyale districts, but other districts will also require emergency relief operations.

Craig Murray

I just want to bookmark the website of Craig Murray, the morally gutsy former British Anmbassador in Uzbekistan who quit in 2004 in disgust over the Blair government’s continued support for President Islam Karimov’s extremely rights-abusing practices.
Since resigning, Craig has worked as a tireless activist to expose Karimov’s use of torture and other abusive practices– and also, the US and UK government’s complicity in this.
On December 29, he posted a number of documents on his site that chart his and the FCO’s knowledge of the reliance of the UK and US governments on “information” obtained from suspects by Karimov’s thugs, using torture.
Craig Murray’s courage and clearheaded moral thinking are an example to all.
Given the very much larger number of US diplomats and other government employees who know this kind of information about Karimov– and much more, too, about him and about other thuggish “allies” in the “GWOT– I am really sad that none of them has yet seen fit to follow her or his conscience to the extent that Craig has. (Though I recognize that some US government employees have resigned and “gone public” over other, non-torture aspects of the “GWOT”.)
I know a lot’s been written about Craig Murray elsewhere– including in the MSM. But I needed to put a link in here, certainly.

Year’s-turn thoughts

I guess some JWN readers have already entered 2006, and the rest of us are being pulled along to midnight behind you as this heavy old planet of ours continues to spin its way through the ether. What a precious home we all have here on Mother Earth. May we look after her better in 2006: work on cutting back the greenhouse gases; stop producing and dumping toxic chemicals; gain a deeper understanding of our interdependency as humans and with all of creation.
May humanity be protected and start to flourish anew in 2006. I mean “humanity” in two senses: both our sense of all women and men being, at root, one connected family, and our sense of the decent respect that we owe each and every person on the globe.
I don’t see any way for humanity in those two senses to flourish without a deep recommitment to the concept and practice of human equality. We can’t reach that in 2006… reaching it will truly be the work of one or more generations. But we can continue working towards it.
Happy New Year to JWN readers, to all of humanity, and to the ideal of humanity itself!

Unfolding tragedy in Palestine

I haven’t written much here recently about the ever unfolding tragedy in Palestine. Partly because I find it so painful. I have so many, very good friends who have made huge sacrifices in their lives (sometimes, of their lives) in pursuit of the goal of an independent and basically secular Palestinian state. I have felt their pain, even at times when the vast majority of people here in the US seemed quite insensitive to it, and seemed quite happy to deride any Palestinian nationalist longings as “terroristic” from the get-go. The first year I was living here in the US, in 1982, was the summer the Israeli armed forces were battling the Palestinians and their allies in West Beirut. The summer of the Sabra and Shatila camp massacres. I had lived in Beirut until just the previous year. Many of my friends were trapped in the grotesque, extremely violent siege that the IDF– under Sharon’s orders– maintained around the city.
Jane Fonda, once the icon of the US left, went to Lebanon and was prominently photographed posing with some IDF soldiers on top of their tank, that was perched above West Beirut, ready to fire. That’s how strongly most members even of the US “left” supported the Israelis (and opposed the Palestinians) at that time.
I’ve been wondering recently how to describe the current, cascading collapse of Palestinian secular nationalism. It’s hard to do. There are so many causes.
In one real sense, Palestinian secular nationalism– in the form in which it became incarnated back in the 1960s– has been on life support since at least 1993. The current collapse is just the end (or maybe not quite the end) of a very painful and long-drawn-out decay…

Continue reading “Unfolding tragedy in Palestine”

Quaker prison ministry, California

I found a wonderful blog today, written by a Quaker from Sacramento, California who pursues a QiGong-based prison ministry inside some of the state’s biggest and most inhumane prisons. It’s called Qigong Prison Ministry. (How hard is that?)
The blog’s author, Judy Tretheway, writes in a very straightforward, intimate , and inspiring way about her work. I particularly enjoyed the following recent posts:

Also, this one from November, which says:

    The Ultimate form of Worship is Silence.
    After meditating Saturday evening, preparing for Sunday Meeting for Worship.
    I can not offer myself in a greater way
    to the service of another,
    to God,
    than to listen silently,
    setting my own ideas and needs aside,
    to wait upon their direction;
    to hold them in highest esteem,
    to be in Worship.
    To be in awe
    is to be wordless.
    Not words, nor music; no scent, nor image
    can reflect God, name God or approach God.
    They are self-serving scratches
    at a keyhole so vast
    only the unbounded silence of expectant waiting
    might have a chance at opening the lock,
    that was never locked,
    And open the door
    that has always been open.
    Come put your silence into the lock,
    Open the door into the heart of God,
    Lay yourself in the doorway.
    Offer all that you might ever be
    And always have been.

Thanks so much for everything you do, and everything you have put on this blog, Judy.

Kurds acting independent

So now the Iraqi Kurds are reportedly going to be welcoming tour groups from Israel. Between that and their conclusion of a successful oil-exploration deal with Norway’s DNO oil company, the Kurdistan “regional” authority sure seems to be acting like an independent state already, doesn’t it?
Reidar Visser has a good analysis of some of the constitutional issues involved in the oil-exploration deal, here. As he notes, Article 110 of the (still by no means finalized) Iraqi constitution states that,

    “The federal and the producing regional and governorate authorities shall jointly [italics added, ma‘an in the Arabic] devise the necessary strategic policies for the development [italics added] of the oil and gas wealth in a way that achieves the highest possible benefit for the Iraqi people…” Additionally, the question of resource ownership remains unresolved altogether. The studiously ambiguous article 108 simply reads, “oil and gas are the property of the entire Iraqi population, in all the regions and governorates”.

Regarding control over borders, I am pretty near certain that the constitution still reserves that to the central government.
But what central government, you might ask?