من الخيارات المطروحة للعراق
فيما تصاعَـد معدّل الخسائر في العراق وانهارت ثقة الشعب الأمريكي في استراتيجية بوش وقادته العسكريين، وفيما أصبحت انتخابات التجديد النصفي للكونغرس في أوائل الشهر القادم استفتاءً على كيفية الخروج من المأزق العراقي..
.. بدأ البحث في واشنطن عن خيارات تحفّـظ بعض ماء الوجه أمام الفشل الأمريكي في العراق، الذي ينزلق نحو حرب أهلية دامية.
بدأت موجة الخيارات المطروحة أشبه ما تكون بتقليعة أمريكية تستَـند إلى أسلوب التجربة والخطأ الذي وقعت فيه إدارة بوش في تعامُـلها مع عراق ما بعد الحرب، وكان أخطرها قرار تسريح الجيش العراقي الذي اتّـخذه بول بريمر، أفشل حاكم عسكري في تاريخ مغامرات الاحتلال الغربية، ويقضي هذا الخيار الذي ينسبه البعض في واشنطن إلى الجنرال جون أبي زيد، أعلى القادة العسكريين الأمريكيين في الشرق الأوسط، بأنه طالما أن الحكومات العراقية الأربع التي تعاقبت على الحكم الشكلي للعراق تحت الاحتلال منذ أغسطس 2003 قد أثبتت فشلا ذريعا في أدائها، وسيكون من الصّـعب تشكيل حكومة مدنية خامسة لمواجهة انزلاق العراق إلى أتُـون الحرب الأهلية، فإن الملاذ الوحيد هو السماح لجنرالات عراقيين أقوياء بتشكيل مجلس عسكري يتولّـى إدارة العراق.
وبدأ السفير الأمريكي في بغداد زالماي خليل زاد في جسّ نبض الزعماء العراقيين، واعترف لهم بأن مثل ذلك الخيار سيجلُـب انتقادات واسعة للولايات المتحدة، التي ستبدو وكأنها تُـناهض الديمقراطية وتخرج على مبادئها المعلنة، وستتحمّـل الولايات المتحدة هذه الانتقادات على أمل أنها ستنحسر تدريجيا، إذا نجحت الحكومة العسكرية العراقية المنشودة في تخفيف الاحتقان الطائفي وحلّ الميليشيات وتقليص العنف والاقتتال.
ولكن الروايات اختلفت حول كيفية تشكيل حكومة الجنرالات العراقيين، فقد تحدّثت الروايات الواردة من العراق عن أن المجلس العسكري العراقي سيضُـم الفريق نصير العبادي، الذي كان يشغل منصبا قياديا رفيعا في هيئة الأركان العراقية في عهد صدام حسين، واللواء محمد الشهواني، المدير الحالي للمخابرات العراقية، وقائد الطيران العراقي اللواء طيار كمال برزنجي، بالإضافة إلى ستة أعضاء آخرين يتم ضمّـهم للمجلس العسكري للإشراف على الوزارات العراقية.
وتتفق الرواية العراقية مع ما كشفت عنه بعض وسائل الإعلام الأمريكية، من أنه سيتم التمهيد لاستيلاء المجلس على الحكم في العراق بانقلاب عسكري، تُـسانده قوات الجيش الجديد الذي درّبته القوات الأمريكية على أن تغمض الولايات المتحدة عينيها عنه حتى يتم نجاحه، ثم تصدر بيانات علنية تُـدين الإطاحة بحكومة عراقية منتخبة ديمقراطيا! ولكنها تبدي الاستعداد لمواصلة مساندتها للعراقيين في محاولاتهم إطفاء جذوة التمرد والعنف.
ويدافع عن هذا السيناريو الكولونيل المتقاعد روبرت كيلبرو، محلل شؤون الأمن القومي الأمريكي، الذي يرى أن الوضع في العراق لا يتطلّـب نظاما ديمقراطيا، بل نظام حكم مُـستقر لا يناصب الولايات المتحدة العداء، كما أن عودة بعض قادة جيش صدام إلى القوات المسلحة سينزع فتيل أحد المظالم الرئيسية، التي تحرّك التمرّد المسلّـح منذ قرار تسريح الجيش الذي اتّـخذه بريمر، فيما سيوفر الحكّـام العسكريون الأمل لمُـعظم العراقيين في إبقاء العراق موحّـدا تحت قبضتهم.
Forced labor for Palestinian children in Israeli Labor
Many Palestinian children in Israeli Telmond Prison are being exploited by “forced labor in which they must work eight hours for a few shekels,” as reported by the Prisoners Information Center.
One of the children made a statement after his release. “The prison administration has forced all prisoners in Telmond Prison to work eight hours for very low wages.” He went on to say, “The Israeli soldiers come to the chambers at seven and force us to go with our legs tied with chains.” The child added that his job was to stand under guard and pack plastic spoons in boxes.
Even injured political prisoners are forced to work, according to Friday’s Nablus-based report. A former prisoner stated, “I had a broken bone but the soldiers forced me out of my cell to work anyway, without any consideration for the pain.”
There are approximately 375 Palestinians in Telmond Prison, with most of them being children. The oldest Palestinian in Telmond is 22 years old. The child laborers are given two meals per 24 hours, one at 11:00 pm and another at 6:00 am.
Israeli prison officials also attempt to extract information from children regarding members of the armed resistance and engage in frequent psychological abuse.
According to the Information Center there are 200 children less than 16 years old in Israeli prisons begin subjected to some of the worst forms of exploitation and humiliation. A total of 376 Palestinian children are currently imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention camps.
[Source: imemc]
Why Arabs won’t assist Palestinians
I found this interesting article by Arthur Mokin where he discusses the reasons why Arab countries do not assist Palestinians in any proper form. Though I do disagree with the author in many aspects, but here is the article:
The Oct. 4 Register-Guard carried a Los Angeles Times report on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic tour of the Middle East designed to build support for U.S. goals in the region. Among several factors threatening to undermine the secretary’s mission was the fact that “European and Arab countries, among others, are clamoring for progress in the Arab-Israeli dispute.”
We are reminded again and again by Arab diplomats that the road to peace in the Middle East lies through Jerusalem. If only, their argument goes, the United States would employ a more “even-handed” (i.e., pro-Palestinian) approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, peace could be achieved, U.S. stock in the Arab and Muslim world would appreciate dramatically, and good things would follow not only for America, but for East and West alike.
This argument is obviously predicated on the premise that the Arab world is seriously concerned about the plight of their Palestinian brothers.
That the Palestinians are in a bad way is incontestable. A Sept. 12 New York Times report datelined Gaza Strip declares, “It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza, with the Palestinian Authority cut off from funds by Israel, the United States, and the European Union after Hamas won the legislative elections on Jan. 25. Since then the authority has paid most of its 73,000 employees here, nearly 40 percent of Gaza’s work force, only 1.5 months’ salary, resulting in severe economic depression and growing signs of malnutrition, especially among the poorest children.”
Israel: "Why do they hate us?", "Oops, is it because we are stealing more land?"
Peace Now organization has published a scary report regarding settlers, here is a quick summary:
In the past months the government of Israel has continued to evade its responsibility to evacuate the unauthorized outposts in the West Bank. It appears that the summer of 2006, marked by the fighting in south Lebanon, provided a golden opportunity for the settlers to deepen their hold on the land without the media being available to cover it. Meanwhile, the situation in Lebanon gave the government the alibi it needed to excuse its continued shirking of its responsibility for what goes on in the territories regarding the outposts. The evacuation of the outpost of Yitav East is a case in point, as an exception that proves the rule, because it was an unmanned outpost consisting of three mobile homes that was built in the middle of 2005.
The evacuation of that outpost, just like its construction, did not require unusual effort and the choice to single it out for evacuation proves yet again that the government of Israel continues to be indecisive out of fear of confrontation with the settlers. But not only were the outposts not evacuated: during that period the government of Israel continued to allow the existing outposts to grow and develop. The list shows that in at least 31 outposts construction and development activities have been noted in the last months, while in 12 of them the construction of permanent structures was documented.
It appears that the government’s failure to evacuate two groups of outposts that were supposed to be the first two in a series of evacuations illustrates the extent of the continuing failure: the first was of outposts that were centers of particularly violent activity against the Palestinian residents of the area, which Amir Peretz promised to evacuate when he assumed the office of defense minister.
More information can be found:
For Construction in Outposts - click here
For Construction in the Settlements - click here
For the report in Ynetnews
for the report in Haaretz
Corruption in Iraq is out of imgination
Iraq’s former finance minister alleged in a U.S. television report aired Sunday that up to $800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.
The former minister Ali Allawi told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that $1.2 billion had been allocated from the Iraqi treasury to the defense ministry to buy new weapons. About $400 million was spent on outdated equipment, while the rest of the money was simply stolen, he said.
Allawi said the arms fraud is “one of the biggest thefts in history” and that corrupt former Iraqi officials are now “running around the world hiding and scurrying around.”
He did not name the officials who allegedly stole the money during the CBS report. But Iraqi investigators are probing several weapons and equipment deals engineered by former procurement officer Ziad Cattan and other officials including former Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan.
Iraq: The hidden story
This video shows you how the western media waters down the facts of Iraq war and the reality in Iraq’s ground.
Here it is:
Bush admits: we’ve lost battle for Baghdad
A day after George Bush conceded for the first time that America may have reached the equivalent of a Tet offensive in Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday admitted defeat in its strategy of securing Baghdad.
The admission from President Bush that the US may have arrived at a turning point in this war - the Tet offensive led to a massive loss of confidence in the American presence in Vietnam - comes during one of the deadliest months for US forces since the invasion.
With that said: Iraqi Primer minister Nouri Al Maliki office has instructed the country’s health ministry to stop providing mortality figures to the United Nations, jeopardizing a key source of information on the number of civilian war dead in Iraq, according a UN document.
I wonder how many people died since? I bet more than they claim it to be.