No let-up in Iraq uprising (it's a mess and getting worse)

[UpInArms]

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=915932004

A BRITISH soldier died and five others were injured in Iraq yesterday when intense fighting erupted in Basra, leading to the suspension of oil production in the southern city.

Two British Army Land Rovers were destroyed by rocket-propelled grenades fired by followers of the rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on the fifth day of clashes between Shiite militants and coalition forces.

<snip>

Armed followers of Sadr roamed the streets of Basra and controlled major intersections yesterday, witnesses said. Most shops were shut and most employees in the city did not go to work.

<snip>

The Sadr threat coincided with mortar attacks by his militia in Baghdad against the oil ministry and threats against the State Oil Marketing Organisation, both situated near the al-Mahdi army stronghold of Sadr City.

<snip>

As the situation across southern Iraq continued to deteriorate, it emerged multi-national forces have given up control of two provinces to US marines because of the worsening violence in Najaf, the Polish military said yesterday.

...more...

[hatrack]

1. Funny, but you'd never know watching the Laci & Lori Update Shows

Uh, I'm sorry, I meant to type "Cable News Shows". My bad!

[Leilani]

6. TV does not cover stories without pictures...

Iraq is in such bad shape, it seems there are very few news crews there anymore.

Thousands of press people covered the triumphal race to Baghdad, but the war has become too dangerous.

Someone forgot to tell the cheerleaders about the danger.

[leftchick]

9. I stopped at Faux for 1 1/2 minutes while flipping channels yesterday.....

I have a bad back and have had to spend much of my time on the couch with limited access to the internet. :( Anyhow as I was flipping around looking desperately for some real news I happed to Spot lacky boy Dan Senor on Faux. It was a puff piece for the mindless about the REAL state of Iraq. He actually said the MAJORITY of Iraq is peacful and improving. No wonder faux watchers are so damn clueless. That channel should be banned from TV! :grr:

[DemoTex]

2. Uprising? Maybe the Scots have seen enough blood over time to be relative.

But uprising? That's a little understated, in my book.

[nolabels]

5. It's a sad tale that just gets worse

AFTERMATH:
Lives altered by photo of coffins

How one picture cost a couple their jobs, their financial stability and possibly even their marriage
BY HUGO KUGIYA
STAFF WRITER

August 8, 2004

The place, an airport in Kuwait, had the monotonous, ordinary drone of a factory, warehouse or depot. The routine rarely broke, except when the coffins arrived.

This was Tami Silicio's job, take inventory and process the U.S. military cargo at the Kuwait International Airport. Sometimes it was toilet paper, sometimes trucks. And often that April, it was people.

The night that Silicio, an employee of military contractor Maytag Aircraft, took the soon-to-be famous photograph that cost her a job and put her life on a negative turn, she was struck by how many coffins she saw: 20 or more, arranged in the hollowed-out body of a 747 jumbo jet bound for Germany, and eventually Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

On April 7, she took two photographs with her Nikon Coolpix digital camera. She intended to keep the images as a personal memory. She e-mailed a photo to a friend in the United States, Amy Katz, who brokered its use by The Seattle Times. It was published on the front page April 18. For some, it came to represent the rising death toll in Iraq and sparked debate around the country.
(snip)
http://www.antiwar.com/

On edit: wrong title on post

[jmcgowanjm]

3. As the situation across southern Iraq continued to deteriorate

Matt Chance talks about Najaf and Southern Iraq
and in his face shot in Baghdad in front of the
Sheraton, he's wearing a flak jacket.

My question:Why is Chance wearing a flak jacket?

Thanx for posting, UpinArms

[Dhalgren]

4. Because border to border,

town to town, village to village, Iraq is a war zone. This is such a monumental clusterfuck that I am constantly amazed that everyone, everywhere doesn't just go out onto the street and scream their heads off! Someone, somewhere, somewhen has got to DO something! This cannot be allowed to continue - I don't care who the president is or will be! THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!

[Disturbed]

7. It won't stop unless...

All the Iraqis who refuse to be colonized give up their struggle.

The Neo Fascists are determined to bring Iraq under their control. They claim that Iraq has been liberated and free to chose the kind of Govt they want yet appointed a Us Puppet Govt. to rule. Iraqis seem to be smarter than to be swallow this crap. I believe that Iraq will implode and the US Media will act surprised.

[amber dog democrat]

8. And the surprise will end when choppers lift the last fleeing Americans

out of the Green Zone. I actually think we are facing the same situation we had in Vietnam. Once we created a political vacuum and installed our own thugs, the Iraqis
have a clear choice regarding what to do. This could get worse yet and break down into tribal and religeous fighting before the political climate solidifies.

And horror of horrors, they may regain control of their oil fields.

[leftchick]

10. A bit here from Juan Cole regarding the Najaf situation....

The Marines should heed but of course they will not...

"Al-Zurufi and PM Iyad Allawi appear to have given the US Marines permission to fight in the shrine of Imam Ali if it became necessary in order to flush out the Mahdi Army militiamen holed up there. The outrage among Iraqi Shiites and Shiites throughout the world should the Marines pursue such a plan would likely cost the US the war, even if it won the battle."

http://www.juancole.com/

[Aidoneus]

11. here the words "mess" and "worse" could be defined further

as from whose eyes? What would be "better"--quiet submission and love for their servitude? I know who thinks like that, but I wouldn't expect that here.. (well, actually I would)

[Aidoneus]

13. personally..

I find the "mess" to be the mangled piles of masonry and body parts left behind a neighborhood where tanks and fighter jets recently passed by. Others seem to find the fact that these machines do not go about their way unmolested as the real "mess". There must be a clear stance taken or the net effect of this confusion is nothing, or worse.

[Francine Frensky]

12. Now it's OUR turn to ask: Why can't the media report all the BAD stuff

going on in Iraq.

Write a letter to the editor of the paper, and point out that the rest of the world has been informed by THEIR press that Iraq is near total anarchy and sheer chaos, but our press is still on a futile mission to find something good to write about to make the radical right wingers happy.

[catmandu57]

14. It is imploding

Right now, the spiral into chaos began 19 march 2003, and the desent is getting steeper now. This is the time we have to push here at home, ltte's coments to local bitch collums. We need to put this in the face of everyone who rah rahed this fucking evil mess on. See, we told you, this focus group was right, we're right about much, but, don't get heard.

[nolabels]

16. Civilians urged to leave Najaf

Civilians urged to leave Najaf

By Nicolas Rothwell
11aug04

US troops last night urged Iraqi civilians to leave the combat zones in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, raising speculation of an imminent full-scale offensive against rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Medhi Army militia.

Soldiers aboard Humvee military vehicles toured the flashpoint areas of the city, urging the population through loudspeakers to evacuate.

The US move came after Sadr's militia threatened to attack Iraq's oil infrastructure.

As fighting in Najaf and the suburbs of Baghdad continued for a sixth day, and spread south to Basra, production in the southern oilfields was shut down and the world price of crude soared towards $US45 ($62.84) a barrel.

With the security situation deteriorating, Poland, one of the key members of the multinational force seeking to establish peace in Iraq, handed responsibility for the two southern provinces it had been overseeing to the US.
(snip)
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10405550%5E401,00.html
http://www.antiwar.com/

[nolabels]

15. If they can't control it , they will try and throw it into civil war

Only a fool starts a fire to burn his neighbors house down

Iraq on a knife-edge
By Donald Macintyre in Baghdad

10 August 2004
(snip)
The crisis across the country prompted a determined new stand from Mr Allawi. His administration approved, in principle, attacks on the compound containing the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, which the US military said was being used as a base for attacks by insurgents. Almost 4,000 US and Iraqi forces confronted about 2,000 militiamen dug in around the holy sites in the heart of Najaf, which since Thursday has become the focal point of the new Iraqi state's efforts to defeat a 15-month-old insurgency.

The day after Mr Allawi warned on a visit to the city that there would be "no negotiations or truce" with leaders of the armed rebellion, an equally uncompromising Muqtada Sadr declared: "I will continue fighting. I will remain in Najaf until the last drop of my blood has been spilt."

Mr Allawi's government ordered a nightly, 14-hour curfew in Sadr City, scene of repeated clashes between American forces and gunmen loyal to the cleric since the fighting began in Najaf last week.

As US and Iraqi forces fought to clear sections of Najaf's ancient cemetery of gunmen and weapons, seven Iraqi policemen were killed when an early morning roadside bomb exploded close to the home of the assistant governor of Diyala in the village of Balad Ruz, just east of Baghdad. Hakil Hamid Barias was wounded. A senior military official yesterday stood by the so-far uncorroborated and contested death toll for the fighting in Najaf issued by the US Marines last Friday and said that 360 insurgents had now been killed since the fighting began. The official said that five US troops and at least four Iraqi National Guardsmen had also been killed but gave no estimate of possible civilian casualties.
(snip)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=549831
http://www.antiwar.com/

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. yes it is a mess that's why US kicked Al Jazeeraz(ms) out of Iraq AGAIN

can't let the people know the facts: that the Iraqi people are winning and want us OUT!