On the ground in Al-Anbar province:
"We are dying," he began.
"Not in some philosophical, chronological, 'the end comes for all of us sooner or later' sense. Just dying. Sure, it's an occupational hazard, and yeah, you can get killed walking down the street in Anytown, USA. But not like this. Not car bombs that leave craters in the road, not jeering crowds that celebrate your destruction."
"What do you say to your men after you've scraped up the scalps of an entire Iraqi family off the road, right next to the shattered bodies of your soldiers, held together only by their shoelaces, body armor or helmets?"
- Sgt. John McCary
- United States Army, Al-Anbar Province
Washington Post
Part 3 of this weekly series continues past the fold. (pt. 1, pt. 2)
The premise of this series is that the Iraqi Civil War has already begun. The facts on the ground speak to that. It's up to us to present these facts and I intend to do so, weekly - without the noise. For more background, read here or here.
As in any war, the fight in Iraq is about territory. Two weeks ago the VOA reported on a plan which proposes to divide Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions.
A strong central goverment kept Sunni Baathists and Saddam in control of Iraq for 35 years. Now, the Kurds enjoy a great deal of autonomy in the north and would like more. Along with the Shiites they want local control of the vast oil resources (and associated revenue) in the Kurdish North and the Shiite South.
The Sunnis oppose this. Fallujah, Al-Anbar province and the Sunni West contain considerably less lucrative natural resources (oil) and decentralization also runs contrary to the Sunnis regaining authority.
***
From the Newswires:
Saturday 9 Sept, Sunday 10 Sept
(NOTE: Several diarists reported last weekend on the well publicized "secret report" speculating on the US military's dim prospects in the Anbar province, where US forces number approximately 30,000. It's my contention that the goverment leaked this report on purpose so it wouldn't look like they didn't see the coming chaos. -- BentLiberal)
Sat, 09/09/2006 - 14 Pakistani and Indian Shi'ite pilgrims were abducted and killed in Iraq's western desert. The 11 Pakistanis and three Indians had been travelling to holy Shi'ite sites in Iraq when they were attacked in Anbar province, heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Officials said gunmen stopped the convoy and separated the men from the women in the party, which included 14 Indians and 26 Pakistanis. Police found the bodies of the men in neighboring Kerbala province the following day. An official at the hospital in Kerbala, where the bodies were taken, said the men had their hands bound and had been shot in the head. Some had been tortured. One was partially decapitated.
Scotland Sunday Herald via ww4report
DOVER TOWNSHIP -- Through the etched glass in the door, Terri Frassetto could see two dark blue uniforms and white caps. She opened the door...
In a few moments she would learn that her son Vincent was killed by an "improvised explosive device" while riding in a vehicle at 1:20 a.m. Thursday Iraqi time,
...
Flaring violence in Iraq's Anbar province has claimed the lives of Frassetto, other marines, soldiers and a Navy corpsman in the past week...While insurgents have increasingly targeted Iraqi security forces and civilians, American troops are still a primary target in Anbar province, heartland of the Sunni Arab establishment during Saddam Hussein's regime...
Home News Tribune 09/9/06 Photo credit: Asbury Park Press
Monday 11 Sept
The Sunnis threatened to leave Parliament over a proposal to further decentralize the goverment:
(09-11) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- A parliamentary vote on a Shiite proposal to grant greater autonomy to Iraq's provinces was scuttled Sunday when Sunni Arab legislators, fearing it would divide and weaken the central government, threatened a walkout.
...
In Baquba, located 25 miles north of Baghdad, a shootout between Sunni Arab and Shiite gunmen left at least five dead and 14 injured. And in two separate incidents, gunmen killed a police general and his two bodyguards, and a pair of brothers who were police intelligence agents. Baquba authorities said there were at least 20 sectarian killings over the weekend.
...
Six bodies were found floating in the Tigris River near Kut, a city 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. They had been blindfolded, had their hands and feet tied and showed signs of torture, officials at the Kut morgue said. LA Times via sfgate
(Reuters) A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a minibus full of Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad on Monday, killing 12 people and wounding seven, police said.
Most of the dead were young recruits who had boarded the public service minibus outside the Muthanna base in central Baghdad, which has been targeted in the past by insurgents from the Sunni Arab minority, including al Qaeda Islamists, who oppose the U.S.-backed Shi'ite-led government.
...
Hours later, a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol killed three civilians in western Baghdad. Reuters via sfgate
Tuesday 12 September
104 members of the Iraqi Parliament demand a timetable for US withdrawal:
A group of lawmakers tried Tuesday to take advantage of the unpopularity of U.S. troops among many Shiite and Sunni legislators to seek approval of a resolution setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops -- something the Shiite-dominated government has refused to do.
Sponsored by supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and some Sunni Arabs, the resolution managed to gather 104 signatures in the 275-member parliament before it was effectively shelved by being sent to a committee for review. AP
At least 27 people killed in Iraq violence
Tue Sep 12, 10:49 AM ET - Insurgents have killed at least 27 people in Iraq, including six in a car bomb attack against a US convoy in Baghdad, security officials said.
The car bomb attack in the Iraqi capital's upscale Mansur neighbourhood left another 15 people wounded on Tuesday.
...
Northeast of the capital in the country's restive Diyala province, 11 people were killed in a string of bombings and shootings. AFP
(Click the link above for details on more attacks in Muqdadiyah, Baquba, Mosul, Samarra and Kirkuk. -- BentLiberal)
Meanwhile, Business is also Booming:
BAE First-Half Profit Increases 28% on U.S. Orders for Iraq
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- BAE Systems Plc, Europe's biggest weapons maker, said first-half profit rose 28 percent, more than analysts estimated, on U.S. orders for refitted Bradley fighting vehicles used in Iraq.
Net income increased to 405 million pounds ($759 million), or 12.4 pence a share, from 317 million pounds, or 10.8 pence, a year earlier, the company said in a Regulatory News Service statement today. Profit beat the 354 million-pound median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
BAE purchased United Defense Industries Inc., the maker of the Bradley, in June 2005 to become the Pentagon's seventh- biggest contractor. London-based BAE on Sept. 6 recommended shareholders approve the sale of its 20 percent stake in Airbus SAS to concentrate on U.S. defense acquisitions. Bloomberg
Wednesday 13 September
Baghdad death squads kill 60, bombs kill 22
Wed Sep 13, 6:02 PM ET - Police recovered 60 bodies over the past day across Baghdad, most bound and tortured, officials said on Wednesday, highlighting how sectarian death squads are still plaguing the Iraqi capital despite a major security drive.
Two car bombs targeting police killed 22 people in the morning and wounded another 76 people. The first killed 14 outside Baghdad's traffic police headquarters, a second targeted guards at an electricity station in the east of the city...
U.S. and Iraqi leaders say the biggest threat to Iraq no longer comes from the three-year-old revolt among ousted President Saddam Hussein's fellow Sunni Muslims but from the bloodshed between Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority now in power. Reuters
Above: A man walks past body bags containing beheaded bodies outside the Yarmouk hospital morgue in Baghdad September 12, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)
Thursday 14 September
24 hours in capital -- nearly 100 slain
(09-14) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Nearly 100 people were killed or found dead in the Iraqi capital in a 24-hour period, authorities said Wednesday, continuing a wave of sectarian violence that has defied American efforts to thwart the carnage.
Sixty-two bullet-riddled corpses -- all bearing signs of torture, some of them beheaded -- were found dumped in streets throughout the city since Tuesday night...
(Hmm...Wonder where the CIA is putting all those people from the secret prisons they're closing? Only 14 made it to Guantamamo. -- BentLiberal)
...Bombings and mortar attacks on Iraqi police in and around the capital killed another 27 people Wednesday morning.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near an indoor stadium in Baghdad, killing 12 traffic police officers and wounding 13, Mahmood said. As a crowd swarmed the scene to aid the wounded, another bomb went off, killing seven civilians and injuring 47.
WAPO via sfgate
Friday 15 September
Police find 30 bodies across Baghdad
(Associated Press) - Police found 30 bodies bearing signs of torture Friday, the latest in a wave of sectarian killings sweeping the Iraqi capital despite a monthlong security operation.
A U.S. Marine was killed Friday in Anbar province, and an American soldier was killed Thursday evening by a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the military said. The soldier was the fifth to have died on Thursday, making it a particularly bloody day for U.S. forces.
...
Violence has intensified over the past two days, with more than 130 people either killed by attacks or their bodies found dumped in the streets of Baghdad. All the bodies found Friday had signs of torture, and one that washed up on the banks of the Tigris River had been dismembered. AP
Finally, here's the kind of reporting that you never see on American Television, (though you can read SusanG's
story on it). But check out this Video from Reuters:
Click on this Reuters link.
The shock value is mildly to medium upsetting and it's mildly graphic. But what strikes me the most is the contrast from watching U.S. news reports on Iraq. Much of the noise and pro-U.S. subtlty is absent especially in the footage shown. This is an example of the kind of news reporting that everyone in the world sees, except for the American people who are paying for this war.
Now compare it to this news reel from CNN (or any U.S. broadcast): you'll be amazed at the difference in tone and content.
***
Conclusion: The Iraqi Civil war has started. It's a crazy chaotic mess at the moment. The only question is how much it will escalate and when it will end.