"Democracy" in Iraq

Yesterday Hassan Nuaimi, high ranking member of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) was found dead in Baghdad. One of his arms was broken and a hole was drilled into the side of his head.

 

This coming the day after the AMS had accused the Shia led governmnet of state sponsored terrorism by using the Badr Brigades to murder Sunnis.

In response to the murdering of Nuaimi, two Shia clerics were gunned down in Baghdad yesterday.

 

Harith al-Dhari, head of the AMS, blamed the Shia Badr Brigades for the recent spate of killings of Sunni clerics in the country.

 

Dhari, making a statement that could be interpreted as an announcement of civil war, said Sunnis would not keep silent over the killings.

 

"We are heading towards a catastrophe, only God knows when it will end, this is a warning from us," he said angrily.

 

The Badr Brigades were in exile in Iran during much of Saddam's rule, and returned to Iraq after the invasion and have been a fully operational militia in Iraq ever since. I have seen their members in full uniform and with heavy weapons in Baghdad during a Shia demonstration last summer. The Badr Brigades was headed for years by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance who won the largest percentage of votes in the January 30 "election."

 

There has been a low-grade civil war going on for quite some time-but now the veil has been ripped off by the statements made by Dhari. All Sunni mosques in Iraq will be closed for three days...an ominous symbol of things to come.

 

Thus, any argument that the US military should remain in Iraq to prevent a civil war can be flushed. Besides, anyone arguing that the US military was there to protect the Iraqi people is either blind, in denial, or knows absolutely nothing about the reality on the ground in occupied Iraq. The US military in Iraq are unable even to protect themselves, let alone civilians.

 

I conducted an informal interview two days ago with a UN official here in Amman...thus I'll leave his name out of this...for now. He told me that 95% of the reconstruction funds for rebuilding Iraq have been spent outside of Iraq.

 

So the argument of staying in Iraq to help rebuild the country-that too could have been flushed long ago. Want to find someone accountable-look to some of the larger contributors to the Bush Administration. We all know their names by now. Check their profit margins as of late while you're at it.

 

I watched the news about the aforementioned statements by al-Dahri on Al-Jazeera with one of my close Iraqi friends here. As we watched the large funeral procession with the body of the murdered cleric while al-Dahri made his ferocious statements, I watched her head drop into her hands as she said softly, "This is so horrible what has happened to my country since the Americans came."

And she couldn't be more correct. For the Bush Administration is guilty under international law for the catastrophe Iraq has become. Under international law it is the primary responsibility of the occupier to safeguard the citizens of the country they occupy.

 

For the Bush Administration, that means over 100,000 dead Iraqis and counting.

Other news most likely ommitted by most corporate television outlets in the US today?

 

In Baquba a car bomb detonated near a police convoy which injured 18 people, most of them policemen.

 

In Kirkuk 7 bodies of Iraqis who worked for a security company were found.

 

In Baghdad a roadside bomb aimed at a US convoy injured 7 Iraqis.

 

A Transport Ministry driver was shot dead in Sadr City.

 

In Beji 2 Iraqi police were killed by a car bomb.

 

In Mosul mortar attacks killed 2 Iraqis and injured 7 school kids.

 

So that's nearly 500 dead Iraqis in a little over two weeks to add to the list of crimes for the Bush Administration, which grows longer with each passing day.