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Irak 'sikkert' eller hvad?
Baghdad er nu nærmest helt sikkert, fortæller senator John McCain efter en lynvisit i byen, hvor han utvivlsomt er blevet fulgt nøje af tungt bevæbnede bodyguards.
Den amerikanske general Barry McCaffrey giver dog en noget anden vurdering i en overraskende åbenhjertig rapport (pdf af hele rapporten), der kan tjene som et manende svar til McCains propaganda. Et par uddrag:
Iraq is ripped by a low grade civil war which has worsened to catastrophic levels with as many as 3000 citizens murdered per month. The population is in despair. Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate. A handful of foreign fighters (500+)--and a couple of thousand Al Qaeda operatives incite open factional struggle through suicide bombings which target Shia holy places and innocent civilians. Thousands of attacks target US Military Forces (2900 IED’s) a month--primarily stand off attacks with IED’s, rockets, mortars, snipers, and mines from both Shia (EFP attacks are a primary casualty producer)--and Sunni (85% of all attacks--80% of US deaths—16% of Iraqi population.)(Via, mine fremhævelser).
Three million Iraqis are internally displaced or have fled the country to Syria and Jordan. The technical and educated elites are going into self-imposed exile--a huge brain drain that imperils the ability to govern. The Maliki government has little credibility among the Shia populations from which it emerged. It is despised by the Sunni as a Persian surrogate. It is believed untrustworthy and incompetent by the Kurds.
There is no function of government that operates effectively across the nation--not health care, not justice, not education, not transportation, not labor and commerce, not electricity, not oil production. There is no province in the country in which the government has dominance. The government cannot spend its own money effectively. ($7.1 billion sits in New York banks.) No Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat, reporter, foreign NGO, nor contractor can walk the streets of Baghdad, nor Mosul, nor Kirkuk, nor Basra, nor Tikrit, nor Najaf, nor Ramadi--without heavily armed protection.
The police force is feared as a Shia militia in uniform which is responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings. There is no effective nation-wide court system. There are in general almost no acceptable Iraqi penal institutions. The population is terrorized by rampant criminal gangs involved in kidnapping, extortion, robbery, rape, massive stealing of public property--such as electrical lines, oil production material, government transportation, etc.
Raed Jarrar opsummerer sit syn på McCains "sikre" Baghdad i et åbent brev til McCain, Dear John:
I read about your latest trip to Baghdad in articles like McCain, in Baghdad, says city is safer than before, McCain lauds security during Baghdad visit, and McCain Sees Improvement in Iraq.Jarrar afslutter sit brev til McCain således: Dear John, leave us alone. Go shop elsewhere and let Iraqis and Americans find a better option than continuing this expensive and pointless war.
I'm sure you wanted to stage a "shopping in baghdad" spree to show us how great and safe baghdad is, and to encourage more Americans to go do their Shopping in downtown baghdad, but I'm not sure your plan has worked.
It doesn't seem like good security to me when One shop-owner in Shorja, which was closed to traffic after the February bombings, said there had been a heavy security presence, with many U.S. soldiers on the ground and U.S. helicopters overhead. I don't think many Iraqis can afford to hire some hundreds of bodyguards and a few helicopters to protect them while they are shopping. Do you realize how would it be for a regular Iraqi to go shopping without the US army's protection, do you realize how your shopping spree would have looked like if you went to a real market with cars driving around?
How does it feel when you can't stop lying? Don't you think that a better way to support the US, the President, the Republicans, or even yourself is to tell the truth and end illegal interventions in other countries?
Did you check the number of Iraqis who have died last month? It's more than 2000, which is 15 percent higher than the month before. Does this look like an improvement to you?
Did you check the number of Americans killed in Iraq last month? It's more than 80, an increase over the previous month. Do you know that the US casualties in the first three months of 2007 are 65% higher than the US casualties in the first three months of 2006? Does this look like an improvement to you?
En usædvanligt velanbragt salut, må man sige. Irak har udviklet sig til én af de største katastrofer i nyere amerikansk historie, og amerikanerne har intet at gøre i landet længere - hvis de da nogensinde har haft det.