Reuters AlertNet - Reuters demands release of wounded Iraq journalist: "29 Aug 2005 10:57:56 GMT | Source: Reuters | By Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Reuters demanded the immediate release on Monday of an Iraqi cameraman who was still being held by U.S. forces more than 24 hours after being wounded in an incident in which his soundman was killed.

Iraqi police said the news team was shot by U.S. soldiers.

The U.S. military said it was still investigating and refused to say what questions it was putting to cameraman Haider Kadhem. It would not say where in Baghdad he was held nor identify the unit holding him.

'Reuters demands the immediate release of Haider Kadhem,' Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said."
- posted by Editor @ 2:19 PM

A United Iraq Is a Western Joke - by Charley Reese: "August 27, 2005 | by Charley Reese

Iraq has always been ruled by a strong central authority, whether the rulers were the Turks, the British or the Ba'athists. The reason is that the differences are too wide and too deep to be bridged by political compromise.

Compromise requires that all the parties agree to the same basic premise. The easiest example is the sale of a house. If I wish to sell my house and you wish to buy it, then we can reach a compromise on the price. That's because we both want the same thing – to transfer the house from my ownership to yours.

But if I don't want to sell and you want to buy, no compromise is possible. For you to get what you want, I would have to lose what I want.

In Iraq, the Kurds want autonomy, and the Sunnis want a strong central government. You can't have both, as we discovered in 1860. The Shi'ite faction wants government based on Islamic law; the Sunnis and the Kurds want a secular state. Again, you can't have both. The Sunnis, who have ruled Iraq in modern times, don't want to be under the thumb of the Shi'ites and the Kurds. The Shi'ites and the Kurds, who were the underdogs, now intend to be the top dogs.

The United States, which set up the rules for adopting the Iraqi constitution, has probably shot itself in the foot, as it usually does when it tries to play the imperial game. One of those rules states that the constitution is dead meat if it fails to get a two-thirds vote in three provinces. The Sunnis are a majority in four provinces. They call the draft constitution a plan for civil war."
- posted by Editor @ 4:03 PM

The Trillion-Dollar War - New York Times: "August 20, 2005 |By LINDA BILMES | Cambridge, Mass.

THE human cost of the more than 2,000 American military personnel killed and 14,500 wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan is all too apparent. But the financial toll is still largely hidden from public view and, like the suffering of those who have lost loved ones, will persist long after the fighting is over.

The cost goes well beyond the more than $250 billion already spent on military operations and reconstruction. Basic running costs of the current conflicts are $6 billion a month - a figure that reflects the Pentagon's unprecedented reliance on expensive private contractors. Other factors keeping costs high include inducements for recruits and for military personnel serving second and third deployments, extra pay for reservists and members of the National Guard, as well as more than $2 billion a year in additional foreign aid to Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey and others to reward their cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill for repairing and replacing military hardware is $20 billion a year, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office.

But the biggest long-term costs are disability and health payments for returning troops, which will be incurred even if hostilities were to stop tomorrow. The United States currently pays more than $2 billion in disability claims per year for 159,000 veterans of the 1991 gulf war, even though that conflict lasted only five weeks, with 148 dead and 467 wounded. Even assuming that the 525,000 American troops who have so far served in Iraq and Afghanistan will require treatment only on the same scale as their predecessors from the gulf war, these payments are likely to run at $7 billion a year for the next 45 years.

All of this spending will need to be financed by adding to the federal debt. Extra interest payments will total $200 billion or more even if the borrowing is repaid quickly. Conflict in the Middle East has also played a part in doubling the price of oil from $30 a barrel just prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to $60 a barrel today. Each $5 increase in the price of oil reduces our national income by about $17 billion a year.

Even by this simple yardstick, if the American military presence in the region lasts another five years, the total outlay for the war could stretch to more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States.
- posted by Editor @ 5:43 AM

Excite News: "U.S. 'concession' on Islam said to turn Iraq talks | Aug 20, 8:39 AM (ET) | By Luke Baker and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. concessions to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraqi law marked a turn in talks on a constitution, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline under intense U.S. pressure to clinch a deal.
...
The Kurdish negotiator rushed to make clear his outrage at a deal on Islam: "We don't want dictatorship of any kind, including any religious dictatorship.

"Perhaps the Americans are negotiating to get a deal at any cost, but we will not accept a constitution at any cost," he said, adding that he believed Shi'ite leaders had used the precedent of Afghanistan to win over the ambassador's support.

Khalilzad, who said this month there would be "no compromise" on equal rights for women and minorities, helped draft a constitution in his native Afghanistan that declared it an "Islamic Republic" in which no law could contradict Muslim principles.
- posted by Editor @ 5:58 AM

Telegraph | News | Bush slaps down top general after he calls for troops to be pulled out of Iraq: "By Philip Sherwell in Washington | (Filed: 14/08/2005)

The top American commander in Iraq has been privately rebuked by the Bush administration for openly discussing plans to reduce troop levels there next year, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

President George W Bush personally intervened last week to play down as 'speculation' all talk of troop pull-outs because he fears that even discussing options for an 'exit strategy' implies weakening resolve.

Gen George Casey, the US ground commander in Iraq, was given his dressing-down after he briefed that troop levels - now 138,000 - could be reduced by 30,000 in the early months of next year as Iraqi security forces take on a greater role."
- posted by Editor @ 2:01 PM

Deep Background: "

There is increasing evidence that the Iraqi police forces, now under Shi’ite control, are carrying out systematic revenge killings against Sunnis in Baghdad. The bodies now showing up at the morgue have obvious signs of handcuffing and blindfolding and evidence of being tortured before death. U.S. sources indicate that the suspicious killings have reached the rate of almost 700 per month. The police are supervised by the Shi’ite-run Ministry of Interior, which claims that the killings are being carried out by insurgents wearing stolen police uniforms. But American intelligence sources disagree, noting that many of the killers appear to be actual policemen carrying the expensive standard-issue Glock automatics and driving official Toyota Land Cruisers. "
- posted by Editor @ 7:16 PM

Polish PM: Iraq Nation-Building 'Failed' - Yahoo! News: "By MATTIAS KAREN, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 1,11:06 PM ET

TALLBERG, Sweden - Poland's prime minister said Monday that postwar nation-building efforts in Iraq have "failed totally," but expressed hope that the country's different religious groups can work together to build an independent nation.

Prime Minister Marek Belka, whose country has been a close U.S. ally since the invasion of Iraq, said the United States and its allies made a mistake by basing its postwar plan for Iraq on the same model used for Germany after World War II.

"It failed totally," Belka said at a panel discussion on nation-building at an international forum in Sweden. "Many mistakes, major mistakes, have been committed." ...
- posted by Editor @ 7:06 PM

GAO Reveals Iraq Reconstruction Is Failing: "By: Committee on Government Reform Minority Office, Rep. Henry Waxman | Published: July 29, 2005 at 12:38

In a new report, GAO finds that despite the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars on reconstruction efforts, oil and electricity production in Iraq has fallen below pre-war levels.

On July 28, 2005, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issued a report entitled Rebuilding Iraq: Status of Funding and Reconstruction Efforts. This audit report reveals that despite the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars, U.S. reconstruction efforts in key sectors of the Iraqi economy are failing.

In its new report, GAO finds that two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, oil and electricity production has fallen below pre-war levels. GAO also finds that the Administration has failed to measure how many Iraqis have access to drinkable water and has no plans to improve the primary health care of Iraqis.

Oil: The Administration has obligated over $2.2 billion in U.S. and Iraqi funds to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure and boost crude oil production. Yet according to GAO, oil production and export levels have actually dropped below pre-war levels. In March 2003, Iraq produced 2.6 million barrels of oil per day and exported 2.1 million barrels per day. By May 2005, Iraq was producing just 2.1 million barrels of oil per day and exporting only 1.4 to 1.6 million barrels per day.

Electricity: The Administration has obligated over $4.4 billion in U.S. and Iraqi funds to increase Iraq's electricity production. GAO reports, however, that electricity production was lower in May 2005 than in March 2003. In March 2003, Iraq generated about 100,000 megawatt hours of electricity per day. By May 2005, electricity production levels were as low as 51,000 megawatt hours per day and never exceeded 99,800 megawatt hours per day.1

Water and Sanitation: The Administration has obligated $1.2 billion for specific water and sanitation projects in Iraq. Despite this significant expenditure, GAO was unable to determine whether any real progress was made. Though the State Department claimed that 64 projects were complete, GAO reported that "State was unable to provide a list of those completed projects."2 GAO also found that the Administration's methods for tracking progress in this sector "do not show how the U.S. program is affecting the Iraqi people" because they do not "measure increased access to clean water and improved sanitation in Iraq."3
- posted by Editor @ 8:42 PM