May Day 2011 - Baghdad, Iraq
I'm a global citizen, with an academic backgrund in the Middle East and Africa. Cities around the world feel like my home. I'm a professional Educator, which means something both in and out of public schools in the Bronx. And I believe in Solidarity. Wherever I am. Notes from my travels, research, and encounters tend to end up here...
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May 1, 2012
April 18, 2012
Huge, critical issue
Emos And Gays Are Being Slaughtered In Iraq
Young people who identify themselves as so-called Emos are being brutally killed at an alarming rate in Iraq, where militias have distributed hit lists of victims and security forces say they are unable to stop crimes against the subculture that is widely perceived in Iraq as being gay.
Officials and human rights groups estimated as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or believed to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone — forecasting what experts fear is a return to the rampant hate crimes against homosexuals in 2009. This year, eyewitnesses and human rights groups say some of the victims have been bludgeoned to death by militiamen smashing in their skulls with heavy cement blocks.
A recent list distributed by militants in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City neighborhood gives the names or nicknames of 33 people and their home addresses. At the top of the paper are a drawing of two handguns flanking a Quranic greeting that extolls God as merciful and compassionate.
Then follows a chilling warning.
“We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee,” the Shiite militia hit list says.
“If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen.”
All but one of the targets are men.
February 25, 2012
I recently found myself going over the countries in the “coalition” “war” against Iraq for intellectual reasons….
It was obvous then and now, themajority of the countries involved (besides the US and UK) had nothing to gain from the fight.
So it reasons to say that they must have had something else to gain, no?
It is a little bit disturbing to think of how easily a major power like the US (or the EU or any other body) can rapidly “purchase” a coalition, if it puts its mind to it.
Just a quick, very unfinished bit from wikipedia:
Many nations received monetary and other incentives from the United States in return for sending troops to or otherwise supporting the Iraq war.[116][117] Below is a partial list of some of the incentives offered to coalition members:
- Turkey — Turkey was offered approximately $8.5 billion in loans in exchange for sending 10,000 peacekeeping troops in 2003. Even though the US did say the loans and the sending of troops to Iraq were not directly linked, it also said the loans are contingent upon “cooperation” on Iraq.[118] The Turkish Government swiftly rejected all offers of financial aid and on 1 March 2003, the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) rejected taking part in the US-led coalition forces invasion of Iraq. Such a decision of the Turkish parliament was seen as both a reaction against the unilateral action of the USA in the Middle East and the desire to keep Turkey away from the Iraq war. Turkey however, allowed all humanitarian flights into and out of Turkey e.g. for evacuating wounded US and Coalition forces.
- United Kingdom: As of 2006, the Independent reported that British companies have received at least £1.1bn contracts for reconstruction work in postwar Iraq.[119]
In addition to direct incentives, critics of the war have argued that the involvement of other members of the coalition was in response for indirect benefits, such as support for NATO membership or other military and financial aid. Almost all of the Eastern European nations involved in the Coalition have either recently joined or are in the process of joining the US-led NATO alliance (namely Bulgaria, Georgia, Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia),[citation needed] the exceptions being Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, which joined NATO in 1999. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, for example, said on April 21 that Estonian troops had to remain in Iraq due to his country’s “important partnership” with the United States.[120]
At least one country, Georgia, is believed to have sent soldiers to Iraq as an act of repayment for the American training of security forces that could potentially be deployed to the break-away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.[121] Indeed, Georgian troops that were sent to Iraq have all undergone these training programs.[122]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-National_Force_%E2%80%93_Iraq#Troop_deployment_in_Iraq_2003-2011
January 11, 2012
"In Kuala Lumpur, after two years of investigation by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), a tribunal (the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, or KLWCT) consisting of five judges with judicial and academic backgrounds reached a unanimous verdict that found George W Bush and Tony Blair guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the Iraq War."
— http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111128105712109215.html
December 15, 2011
The Iraq War is officially over.
Over 1 trillion dollars spent.
4,486 US troops killed.
Over 1 million Iraqis killed in or as a result of the war.
Over 3 million displaced by the war.
Iraq, once one of the wealthiest and best educated countries in the Arab world is now in shambles. This is the cost of “freedom.” Are we at the part where they thank us yet?
(Source: athoughtfulreminder, via occupyallstreets)
September 22, 2011
This isn’t to take away white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’s murder of Mr Davis at all. But since in theory people are thinking about the US killing some innocent people at the moment…. According to Lancet, between 2003 and 2006, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” resulted in 1.25+ MILLION excess deaths, half of the Violent, in Iraq. .5 million from Sanctions before that. Pinochet? 100,000 innocent chileans interned, tortured, or killed with CIA assistance. Guerra Secco? 30,000 at least. Lets wait on the numbers in Bahrain. Or Libya. Or… whoever is next.
September 17, 2011
Misc Shots from time in Transit, Iraqi Kurdistan
September 15, 2011
"
Ten years ago, critics of the United States’ mad rush to war were right, but it didn’t matter.
Within hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it was clear that political leaders were going to use the attacks to justify war in Central Asia and the Middle East. And within hours, those of us critical of that policy began to offer principled and practical arguments against aggressive war as a response to the crimes.
It didn’t matter because neither the public nor policymakers were interested in principled or practical arguments. People wanted revenge, and the policymakers seized the opportunity to use US military power. Critical thinking became a mark not of conscientious citizenship but of dangerous disloyalty.
We were right, but the wars came.
The destructive capacity of the US military meant quick “victories” that just as quickly proved illusory. As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on, it became clearer that the position staked out by early opponents was correct - the wars not only were illegal (conforming to neither international nor constitutional law) and immoral (fought in ways that guaranteed large-scale civilian casualties and displacement), but a failure on any pragmatic criteria. The US military has killed some of the people who were targeting the United States and destroyed some of their infrastructure and organisation, but a decade later we are weaker and our sense of safety is more fragile. The ability to dominate militarily proved to be both inadequate and transitory , as predicted.
Ten years later, we are still right and it still doesn’t matter.
There’s a simple reason for this: Empires rarely learn in time, because power tends to dull people’s capacity for critical self-reflection. While ascending to power, empires believe themselves to be invincible. While declining in power, they cling desperately to old myths of remembered glory.
Today, the United States is morally bankrupt and spiritually broken. The problem is not that we have strayed from our founding principles, but that we are still operating on those principles - delusional notions about manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, the right to take more than our share of the world’s resources by whatever means necessary. As the United States grew in wealth and power, bounty for the chosen came at the cost of misery for the many.
September 13, 2011
September 9, 2011
The remains of Saddam’s Secret Police/Interrogation headquarters, seized by the Kurdish Paramilitary in 1991. Each broken peice of glass inside represents a Kurd killed by Sadam. Each christmas light in the ceiling represents a village erased.
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