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August 25, 2005

The good news from Iraq got it's ass kicked.

I'm mostly busy doing the mom thing today so posting may be a bit light. However....never let it be said that I let a busy day go by without taking a shot at the well deserved.

For those in the wingnuttery portion of the congregation wondering why we're not hearing the "good news" from Iraq, I have a project for you.

1. Go to Chrenkoff's blog.

2. At the top next to the "blogger" logo, you'll find a search window. Type in the word "Haditha". Your results should look something like this.

Haditha is a city in Iraq, nestled in the Al Anbar Province within the Sunni Triangle. Chrenkoff has a laundry list of stuff that American soldiers have been doing in Haditha to rebuild infrastructure.

So why aren't we hearing about this? Why is poor Chrenkoff the only guy reporting on these massive infrastructure improvements?

Probably because Haditha is completely out of US control:

A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.

That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications.

A three-hour drive north from Baghdad, under the nose of an American base, it is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to.

The Guardian story linked above about Haditha gives a brutal outline of the new sheriff in town, and it ain't pretty:

Last year the US trumpeted its rehabilitation of a nearby power plant: "The incredible progress at Haditha is just one example of the huge strides made by the US army corps of engineers."

Now insurgents earn praise from residents for allegedly pressuring managers to supply electricity almost 24 hours a day, a luxury denied the rest of Iraq.

The court caters solely for divorces and marriages. Alleged criminals are punished in the market. The Guardian witnessed a headmaster accused of adultery whipped 190 times with cables. Children laughed as he sobbed and his robe turned crimson.

Two men who robbed a foreign exchange shop were splayed on the ground. Masked men stood on their hands while others broke their arms with rocks. The shopkeeper offered the insurgents a reward but they declined.

DVDs of beheadings on the bridge are distributed free in the souk. Children prefer them to cartoons. "They should not watch such things," said one grandfather, but parents appeared not to object.

One DVD features a young, blond muscular man who had been disembowelled. He was said to have been a member of a six-strong US sniper team ambushed and killed on August 1. Residents said he had been paraded in town before being executed.

The US military denied that, saying six bodies were recovered and that all appeared to have died in combat. Shortly after the ambush three landmines killed 14 marines in a convoy which ventured from their base outside the town.

Twice in recent months marines backed by aircraft and armour swept into Haditha to flush out the rebels. In a pattern repeated across Anbar there were skirmishes, a few suspects killed or detained, and success was declared.

In reality, said residents, the insurgents withdrew for a few days and returned when the Americans left. They have learned from last November's battle in Falluja, when hundreds died fighting the marines and still lost the city.

Now their strategy appears to be to wait out the Americans, calculating they will leave within a few years, and then escalate what some consider the real war against a government led by Shias, a rival sect which Sunni extremists consider apostasy.

Civil war, here we come.

Kinda tough to cherrypick the good news when the bad news is kicking the good news' ass.

In other Iraq related news, T-Rex has an unfrigginbelievable CNN story about how some in the Bush Administration knew the Iraq intelligence was complete bullshit...while they were shoveling at the UN prior to the invasion.

And finally, Billmon finds another casualty of the Bush Administration's garbage pail of used propaganda tools. This time in the form of an activist for women's rights in Iraq.

Posted by Carla at August 25, 2005 09:15 AM