Surge advocates have been pointing to accounts of a decrease in the number of corpses found in and around Baghdad as a sign that their “plan” is reducing the intensity of sectarian violence. They can no longer make that argument. More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again. From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue … Continue reading Grisly Harvest

Today’s editorial published in the Tuscaloosa News. Jimmy Carter’s criticism of George W. Bush’s administration as “the worst in history” in international relations may have violated the code of politeness for former presidents. But Carter’s remarks, published Sunday, are deadly accurate. [snip] Bush’s many miscalculations, his shallow scholarship and his arrogant obstinacy — coupled with consistently bad advice from those within his presidential bubble — have led us directly to the tragedy that has unfolded in Iraq. Attacking that country was just as Carter said — an “overt reversal of America’s basic values” that runs counter to the policies of … Continue reading That’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama, People

May is turning out to be a horrible month in Iraq. The deaths raise to 71 the number of U.S. service members killed this month. Worse yet, it’s part of a trend. [US] Military deaths have been rising since fall, and the first half of this year has already been deadlier than any six-month period since the war began more than four years ago. According to iCasualties.org, 531 U.S. service members have been killed since Dec. 1, an average of more than three deaths a day. In all, at least 3,421 members of the U.S. military have died since the … Continue reading 71 New Notches On Chimpy’s Gun

Crap, these people can’t do anything right. For all those who keep whining about how the government can’t do anything right, we’re happy to report that the massive New Embassy Compound in Baghdad, the biggest U.S. embassy on earth, is going to be completed pretty much as scheduled in August. The bad news is that it appears it’s not going to have enough housing for all the employees who’ll be moving to the 27-building complex on a 104-acre tract of land — about the size of the Vatican, two-thirds the size of the Mall — within the Green Zone. In … Continue reading The Biggest US Embassy Ever Is Too Small

Yepper. Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says. Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country. It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq’s neighbours more. [snip] The Chatham House report, written by Gareth Stansfield, a Middle East expert, is unremittingly bleak, says BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins. Mr Stansfield argues that the break-up of Iraq is becoming increasingly likely. In large … Continue reading Failed State

I’ve always assumed that there were plenty of artillery pieces laying around Iraq, left over from Saddam’s powerful land-based forces. But I also assumed that the insurgency would never use proper artillery because of American air superiority. It’s one thing to pop off a few mortar rounds or let fly with an RPG and then disappear with your easily concealable weapon. It’s quite another thing to set up and fire an artilery peice, then take it down and get it into hiding before a US Cobra attack helipcopter eliminates you. But now it looks like all bets are off. Baghdad, … Continue reading Artillery? What the Fuck?

What’s left of Iraq seems to be disintegrating. Sprawling street battles between militia gunme and Iraqi security forces erupted in three cities on Wednesday on a day of wide-ranging violence that underscored the grave security situation across much of Iraq. In the northern city of Mosul, more than 200 Sunni Arab insurgents carried out a sophisticated attack on several targets using suicide car bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and improvised bombs, said Major General Watheq al-Hamdani, the top police commander in Mosul. [snip] Earlier in the day, in the southern city of Diwaniya, scores of militiamen loyal to the Shiite … Continue reading Running Street Battles