Sunday, January 27, 2008

U.S. POLICY IN IRAQ BACKFIRES

Very few people in the United States have even an inkling of what is taking place in Iraq because the media is fixated on the race for POTUS.

Reports of violence in Iraq are no longer carried on cable news stations, and even the deaths of American GIs no longer are mentioned.

The Iraq war has become the 21st century edition of "The Forgotten War" just like the Korean War was "The Forgotten War" in the 20th Century.

Two outstanding reporters who are determined not to allow the Iraq war be put on the back burner are Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail of IPS News.

These two outstanding journalists continue to bring their readers information that should be covered by the mainstream media in the United States but isn't anymore.

This blog is devoted to sharing reports with our readers from all over the Middle East about conditions on the ground in Iraq.

Here is just one of them that tells a story that you will NEVER see in the mainstream media in the United States.

By Bill Corcoran, editor/host of CORKSPHERE
http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the only blog in America dedicated exclusively to bringing readers information from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

IRAQ: 'US the Biggest Producer of Terror'

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40924

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*


BAQUBA, Jan 25 (IPS) - Broken promises have brought a dramatic increase in anti-U.S. sentiment across the capital city of Iraq's Diyala province.Many people in Baquba, capital of Diyala 40 km northeast of Baghdad, had supported U.S. forces when they ousted former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

But failed reconstruction projects and muddled policies mean the U.S. has lost that support. "The Americans based their strategy in Iraq on certain Shias here who have direct enmity with Sunnis and allegiance to Iran," resident Ayub Ibrahim told IPS. "This was the source of the gap between certain Shias which the U.S. backs, and certain Sunnis they back." Shias and Sunnis are different sects within Islam.

The U.S. has also alienated people through its policy of extensive detentions. Many believe that raids that lead to arrests are based on motivated information given to the U.S. military by Shia militiamen who have infiltrated the Iraqi army and police. "We never witnessed an attempt to arrest Shia people either by the U.S. army or the Iraqi police and army," resident Abdul Sattar al-Badri told IPS. Most people see no reasonable basis for many of the arrests.

In November the International Committee of the Red Cross said that around 60,000 people are currently detained in Iraq.

"The Americans occupied our country and put our men in prisons," Dhafir al-Rubaiee, an officer from Iraq's previous army told IPS. "The majority of these prisoners have been arrested for nothing other than for being Sunni. Every one of these prisoners has a family, and these families now have reason to hate Americans."

Others blame the lack of security and the destroyed infrastructure for the increasing anti-U.S. sentiment. "The lack of security is a direct result of the occupation," resident Abu Ali told IPS. "The Americans crossed thousands of miles to destroy our home and kill our men. They are the reason for all our disasters."

Another resident, speaking on condition of anonymity added, "We lived in need during the period of the Saddam government, but we were safe. We were compelled to work sometimes 20 hours a day to earn our living, but we were happy to see our children and relatives together." U.S. forces, he said, have ended all that.

Click on link above for the full story.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What else is new? This is worse than Vietnam because we should know better.

P.S I'm starting to like Johnny $'s site. He appears to be reasonable.

Bill Corcoran said...

Hi TR: I agree about J$ site. And he is funny too. I laughed out loud at how he answered Michelle.

Incidentally, you will be happy to know I've had almost 60 page views today for this blog and they are coming in from all over including
Dublin, London and Canada.

Most people apparently don't go to the hassle of posting a comment, but that's OK with me as long as they are looking. Plus the google thing blows my mind.

Put Bill Corcoran Iraq War into your google search and look what it comes up with.

Thanks again for posting a comment here.

Bill

Anonymous said...

Your welcome. I went over to J$ site and posted that the press used to pound Presidents, but with Bush Jr they have not. "Fox Fan" did not like it.

As for Michelle, for her to say NH is not a creation of the Iraq War is ridiculous.

Bill Corcoran said...

TR: Fox Fan is constantly picking on me. He claims the post about 935 lies was only TWO lies. Well, if you tell the same two lies 935 times then it is 935 times you have lied.

Also, he claims Clinton and Edwards gave authorization to go to war. No. They gave authorization to continue to try and work with the UN for a resolution.

I'll warn you ahead of time about a guy that is a real pain. Scott. He wants to argue military stuff all the time and a month or so ago Johnny$ had to step in a put a stop to it. He is constantly asking me for my DD214 and other military stuff. I've learned to ignore him for the most part.

Bill Corcoran said...

Oh, and TR. Michelle is dead wrong. Without the Iraq war there would never have been a NH.

All you have to do is go to the site now and look at how few people are posting comments there anymore.

I see a lot of people are making comments on the OT Forum about the problems. Frank C. tossed in the towell.

Anonymous said...

Bill:

They are starting to get irratated with me because I posted on J$. I suppose this is some kind of sin. But, they have the problem not me. As long as they continue to freeze out comments, the message is they don't want you around.

Now what is interesting is want you to go to the "off topic" area. If so, what is the purpose of the main threads?? Also, the "off topic" has a registration requirement, so why not have one on the mains as well?

Even since you got run off, it has been a mess.

Bill Corcoran said...

It makes no sense to have an "open" forum and then ban people from posting on it.

I checked earlier today and I'm still BANNED from posting on the "OPEN (hahahahaha Forum"

I blame it all on Ellen. I know for a fact she really ticked off my editor Chris when they tried to control what I write about and NEVER told Chris about it. That is when Chris started writing her resignation.

She told me it wasn't the first time Ellen had left her out of the loop when addresing site issues.

Ellen is going to destroy that site, if she hasn't done so already.

Anonymous said...

Bill:

Maybe you should ask Scott the three mundane questions and see if he knows the answers.

Bill Corcoran said...

TR: I did that a few months ago with Scott. It got so bad, J$ had to step in a put a stop to it. I see where even Fox Fan says to ignore Scott.

And J$ had to delete some of Scott's comments because of language.

He is a very, very mean person and the best thing to do is ignore him.

Anonymous said...

Well, if J$ had to break it up, then it makes sense to ignore him.

Bill Corcoran said...

TR: Definitely ignore him. He just wants to argue and he twists everything around and makes outrageous comments that are not worth responding to.