Water supply damaged by mortar attack in Baghdad.
“BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Baghdad’s mayor decried the capital’s crumbling infrastructure and its inability to supply enough clean water to residents, threatening Thursday to resign if the government won’t provide more money.”
Water Plant Fire Deepens Misery in Baghdad
By MARIAM FAM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – A mortar attack sparked a fire Friday that forced authorities to shut down a water plant, leaving millions of weary Baghdad residents with dry taps in 100-degree heat, Iraqi officials said.
Just a day earlier, the mayor of the capital threatened to quit because of mounting infrastructure problems – including a lack of clean drinking water.[…]
The water shortage added to the misery of Baghdad’s estimated 6.5 million people, who face frequent electricity outages, erratic fuel supplies, congested traffic, diminished public services and the ever present threat of kidnappings and car bombings.
Hundreds killed in the ‘triangle of death’ area.
Tuesday 28 June 2005, 14:44 Makka Time, 11:44 GMT
Following one of the deadliest periods for Iraqis since the American-led invasion of the country in 2003, there is as yet no indication as to when the situation may improve.
Indeed, the war being waged in the middle of the streets of Baghdad and Mosul or Najaf and Falluja has made life for the average Iraqi difficult, precarious and dangerous, especially with no foreseeable end to the conflict.
In addition, promises to end the American occupation of Iraq figured largely in the campaigning of the United Iraqi Alliance, (UIA); in spite of victory, however, the alliance has taken no steps towards such an end – betraying or ignoring the wishes of the Iraqi electorate. […]
Consider the current situation in Falluja: According to a recent article by Daud Salman, of the 65 schools severely damaged by the American assault on Falluja, only one quarter have been repaired. Of these few, many are being used as American bases and staging points for military operations.
For the average resident of Falluja, the implication is clear – their standard of living and their children’s education are subordinate to the wishes and well-being of the American military campaign. Instead of labouring on behalf of the residents of Falluja, the current Iraqi government has conceded to American authority in this regard and has relegated the well-being of Iraqi people to a secondary concern.
Fallujah 2005
Dispatch from Fallujah, 1920
T.E. Lawrence, The Sunday Times, August 1920
Follow this link if you dare, for graphic images of Fallujah citizens who were killed in their beds, shot in the head while sleeping. Disabled people shot to death in their homes.
On top of lack of security from suicide bombs, mortar fire, kidnappings, US raids on their homes, arrests without trial, Iraqis’ daily lives are made miserable by lack of infrastructure like clean water supply, sewage treatment, electricity, traffic control.
Most Iraqis consider the US Military as occupiers and not liberators. Since the grievous death toll against innocent Iraqis has instilled outrage and a will for vengeance against the US forces, that cannot be undone. No amount of reconstruction, rebuilding, training of Iraqi troops can undo this. The majority of the Iraqi people want the US Military to leave. So leave.
Update [2005-7-3 16:27:36 by sybil]:
A Political Strategy for Iraq
[…]
What about spending the billions allocated for Iraq in ways that directly help the Iraqis themselves in countless small projects rather than a few big ones? What about creating networks of non-governmental institutions to work with Iraqi NGOs? What about creating networks of government officials, from justice to education to health to the economy, extending from the region to the EU and across the Atlantic to provide aid, technical assistance, moral support, and public visibility to Iraqi efforts on the civil side. What about shaming the Arab League into offering tangible support? In short, what about a concrete plan for delivering tangible economic and social benefits to Iraqis so that life is getting better even in the teeth of the violence?
Our response is security, security, security. But giving ordinary citizens a stake in something to secure can only help. Further, the larger point is that the Administration only knows how to measure and use military power. That is the sum total of what power means in their world. In fact, we live in a world in which military power is still vitally important, but it’s only a part of the equation — something the Administration just can’t seem to get. We need to build up our civilian power and work with as many other nations and regional and international organizations as possible to increase it and use it as widely as possible.
The answer to the rising death toll in Iraq is not to pull our troops out. Nor is it to put more in, even if we had more to put. It is to match our military effort with a political and economic effort, to ensure that it not just our soldiers who are on the line. But all the President’s talk of a “political strategy” is just that.
Crap! That was just a dream last night that I was President of the United States of America! No fricken fair.
I can spell like the President of the United States of America. Maybe those numbskulls will vote me in next time. Oh Crap! I have Vagina, I don’t know, I don’t think this is going to work.
That’s why I continue to post diaries that hardly anyone ever reads, except for smart people like you 😉
It is just a voice, but it is better than apathy.
I read your diaries sybil – consider it a compliment when they leave me speechless and unable to comment.
Keep bringing those analogies home and you will gain a faithful reader here.
regards, Hal C.
It was the area that my husband was in when he was there, before the Marines took it over. I look at the photos and think about my husband having flown over and lived nearby, and those murdered people…..did my husband ever make eye contact with any who are gone…..did they ever share a smile maybe? My husband talks about coming upon a herder in the middle of no where with his goats near the Syrian border. The guy stood there staring at them and suddenly started waving, like one lonely person in the middle of no where waving to another lonely person in the middle of no where.
leave. That is the only truly, humane, viable option, to stop the killing. Leave. It is time to leave.
This diary is awesome. Recommended.
and for your positive comments. I write diaries for myself but when someone reads them, it is a bonus! like wine with dinner.
we are going to bring our troops home (and give them intensive support).
We are going to take Juan Cole’s advice and bring in massive numbers of troops from all nations.
We are going to divide the country of Iraq and match it with a place in the U.S. Each community in the U.S. will take on the responsibility of caring for “their” community in Iraq.
And every family in the U.S. will send a member to Iraq. Those who do not want to send their children will go themselves.
These U.S. citizens will be trained in culturally appropriate behavior, manners, and dress. They will live in Iraqi communities, even with families. They will function as Red Cross, Peace Corps, and “Sister City” envoys.
There will be daily communications from Iraq to the corresponding neighborhoods in the U.S. People will meet people via digital cameras and the internet.
School boards in the U.S. which have had great experience in the last few years with managing ever tightening budgets, will manage funds. These funds will be collected directly from the communities in the U.S., just like school taxes. There will be constant oversight!
Community working with community – people working with people. When it gets personal, people care deeply. Not “us” versus “them,” but “us” and “us” in this together.
My fantasy solution based on the deeply held belief we need to solve this differently.
Thanks for your diary!
The truth is we, and I say we because I’m an American and as such feel some responsibility through association, aren’t leaving any time soon. We (again) have created such a catastrophic situation there that no matter what the next moves are there will be much more violence and chaos. Our presence there without doubt is making things so much worse, but to leave will create the conditions for an all out, bloody civil war where more innocents will be murdered.
Personally I think we should leave and let them figure it out for themselves. I don’t give a shit what America’s image suffers from this anymore because it surely can’t get much worse, and as far as I’m concerned, maybe this country needs to be brought to it’s knees in order for all the sleepwalking, ignorant morons who voted for all of this to finally wake up and see what their complicity has wrought.