These are the archives for the week ending 27th October 2006
Bush's balancing act
President Bush declared yesterday that the United States is winning the war in Iraq despite the deadliest month for U.S. troops in a year, but he added that he is not satisfied with the situation and vowed to press Iraqi leaders to do more to stabilize their country on their own.
The president tried to balance a variety of competing ideas. He insisted on keeping U.S. troops in Iraq "until the job is done" but also talked about changing course to meet an adapting enemy. He promoted benchmarks for Iraqi leaders to meet in terms of taking over security of their country while distinguishing that from Democratic-proposed timetables for withdrawal of U.S. troops. He said he is pushing Maliki to do more but expressed confidence in the Iraqi leader as "the right man to achieve the goal."
Washington Post, 26/10/06
Iraq's PM denies timetable
Iraq's embattled prime minister has rejected the notion that the United States or anyone else could set him a timetable to stabilise his war-torn country.
"Everyone knows that this government is a government of the popular will and no one may set a timetable for it," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Wednesday at a news conference in Baghdad. "It is an elected government and only the people who elected it have the right to speak about a timetable, or a change in policy," he added.
Maliki was speaking after the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said that the government had agreed a programme of steps to reconcile the country's warring factions and disarm illegal militias. "Iraqi leaders have agreed to a timeline for making the hard decisions needed to resolve these issues," the ambassador said, predicting that Maliki would have a "national compact" in place within 12 months.
AFP, 25/10/06
US troops call for withdrawal
More than 200 active duty U.S. armed service members, fed up with the war in Iraq, have joined an unusual protest calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, organizers said on Wednesday.
The campaign, called the Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq, is the first of its kind in the Iraq war and takes advantage of Defense Department rules allowing active duty troops to express personal opinions to members of Congress without fear of retaliation, organizers said. "As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," states the appeal posted on the campaign's Web site at www.appealforredress.org.
"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home," it adds.
Reuters, 25/10/06
Iraq's paper army
On paper, Iraq has substantial security forces. The Pentagon noted in an August report to Congress that Iraq had more than 277,000 troops and police officers, including some 115,000 army combat soldiers.
But those figures, which have often been cited at Pentagon news conferences as an indicator of progress and a potential exit strategy for American troops, paint a distorted picture. When the deep-seated reluctance of many soldiers to serve outside their home regions, leaves of absence and AWOL rates are taken into account, only a portion of the Iraqi Army is readily available for duty in Baghdad and other hot spots.
The fact that the Ministry of Defense has sent only two of the six additional battalions that American commanders have requested for Baghdad speaks volumes about the difficulty the Iraqi government has encountered in fielding a professional military. The four battalions that American commanders are still waiting for is equivalent to 2,800 soldiers, hardly a large commitment in the abstract but one that the Iraqis are still struggling to meet.
New York Times, 25/10/06
MOD bans ITV reporters
Britain's Defense Ministry has barred the country's largest commercial news broadcaster from reporting alongside the nation's troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a dispute over the network's coverage of wounded soldiers, a ministry official said Tuesday.
The ministry accused ITV News of inaccurate and intrusive reporting in a series of broadcasts last week that documented the treatment provided to injured troops returning from combat. Several of the reports were critical of the standards of hospital care offered to the injured and of the treatment of soldiers who said they were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Employees for the network will not be allowed to join British military units on embed programs _ where journalists report alongside troops in battle zones _ until the dispute is resolved, said a Defense Ministry spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity under civil service restrictions.
Associated Press, 24/10/06
US envoy's contempt for Iraqis
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad insisted Tuesday that things are not all bad in Iraq, citing the growing number of satellite dishes on rooftops and consumers with cell phones as signs of economic progress. Some Iraqis saw things differently.
"We'd prefer he take those back and return just 10 percent of our prewar life," said Mohammed Ibrahim, a 50-year-old government employee from Baghdad. "Saying things like that shows the Americans' contempt for us Iraqis."
Analogies between conditions in Iraq now and life before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq are common among Iraqis, angered over what they see as the failure of successive Iraqi governments and their American backers to provide security, services or jobs.
Associated Press, 24/10/06
Overheads eat reconstruction money
Overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government estimate released yesterday, leaving far less money than expected to provide the oil, water and electricity needed to improve the lives of Iraqis. The report by a federal oversight agency provided the first official estimate that in some cases, more money was being spent on things like housing and feeding employees, completing paperwork and providing security than on actual construction.
In some cases those costs have eaten up 55 percent or more of the budget, according to the report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. On similar projects in the United States, those costs generally run to a few percent. The highest proportions of overhead were incurred in oil-facility contracts won by KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, which has frequently been challenged by critics in Congress and elsewhere.
The report said the prime reason for the overhead was not the need to provide security, though those costs have clearly risen in the perilous environment of Iraq, and are a burden that both contractors and American officials routinely blame for such increases. Instead, the inspector general pointed to a simple bureaucratic flaw: the United States ordered the contractors and their equipment to Iraq and then let them sit idle for months at a time. The delay between "mobilization," or assembling the teams in Iraq, and the start of actual construction was as long as nine months, the report said.
New York Times, 24/10/06
Britons want troops out
A majority of Britons feel their troops should be withdrawn from Iraq sooner rather than later, two opinion polls showed on Tuesday. A poll for the Guardian found more than 60 percent of Britons wanted the troops to be pulled out this year, while 45 percent believed the withdrawal should occur immediately. Only 30 percent supported the stance of Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally on Iraq, that British forces must stay until their Iraqi counterparts were able to provide security for the country on their own.
A poll for the Independent newspaper found 62 percent of Britons wanted the troops to be pulled out as soon as possible. The poll showed 72 percent felt the Iraq war was "unwinnable".
Reuters, 24/10/06
Intimidatory tactics in hospitals
American forces have their own well-equipped hospital and ambulance service. The Iraqi military use the civilian hospitals, which are already overstretched.
Intimidatory tactics by the Iraqi armed forces are often extended to the medical staff. Doctors and support workers complained about harassment and physical abuse by servicemen. This would usually occur when they brought in a wounded comrade and demanded, at gunpoint, immediate treatment. Now the situation has degenerated so much that ER staff have recently gone on strike.
Guardian 23/10/06
Iraq is in flight
Iraq is in flight. Everywhere inside and outside the country, Iraqis who once lived in their own houses cower for safety six or seven to a room in hovels. Many go after they have been threatened. Often they leave after receiving an envelope with a bullet inside and a scrawled note telling them to get out immediately. Others flee after a relative has been killed, believing they will be next.
Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month.
It is one of the largest long-term population movements in the Middle East since Israel expelled Palestinians in the 1940s. Few of the Iraqis taking flight now show any desire to return to their homes.
Independent, 23/10/06
US may 'penalise' Iraq
President George W Bush met his top generals to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq as it was reported that America is considering punishing Baghdad if it fails to meet deadlines to stop the violence. The new policy would mark a dramatic shift from the previous position that progress could only be determined by the "situation on the ground".
Instead benchmarks would be set covering progress in the Iraqi military, police and economy that if missed would result in the imposition of "penalties" by Washington. These would include "changes in military strategy", which could mean troop cuts or redeployment within Iraq, or the removal of ministers deemed incompetent or corrupt.
The revelation comes after Mr Bush indicated on Saturday that the US, which suffered one of its deadliest months in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003, intended to change its tactics. "Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: our goal is victory," he said in his weekly radio address. "What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal."
Daily Telegraph, 23/10/06
Arms fraud cost $800 million
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 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."
Most of the fraudulent arms purchases were allegedly made during the term of former interim Prime Minster Ayad Allawi, who took office after occupation authorities turned over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 28, 2004.
San Jose Mercury News, 22/10/06
Official: US was 'stupid' and 'arrogant'
A senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation. In an interview with Al-Jazeera television aired late Saturday, Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department offered an unusually candid assessment of America's war in Iraq.
"We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," he said.
ABC News, 22/10/06
The war has cut Iraq economy by 40%
Professor Rowat, a specialist on the Iraqi economy at the University of Birmingham in Britain, relied mainly on data from the International Monetary Fund to estimate the war's overall effect on the Iraqi economy. His calculations are a work in progress, but what he has found so far is sobering: the cost amounts to a cut of at least 40 percent in Iraq's national income.
Using Professor Rowat's calculations, what might the economic cost of the war be for Iraq? If there had been no war, Iraq's economy in 2005 might have amounted to $61 billion in today's dollars, compared with the actual $37 billion, he estimates. That works out to a loss of $24 billion because of the war. Excluding foreign aid from the calculations, the loss estimate is around $30 billion. Consider the more conservative figure, $24 billion. It amounts to a 40 percent cut in gross domestic product per capita - an average loss of around $900 for each Iraqi in 2005.
Straightforward comparisons with the United States aren't possible, but rough estimates of the war's overall cost to Americans are in the neighborhood of $1 trillion over a 10-year period. That works out to around 1 percent of the nation's income during that period.
New York Times, 22/10/06
British may return to Amara
British troops are on standby to re-enter Amara in southern Iraq after an outbreak of serious violence. The Army could return to the city just two months after it pulled out if the Amara authorities ask for help, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed. Clashes between police and up to 300 gunmen have left at least 31 people dead and 90 injured.
The MoD pulled all UK troops out of Amara in August because the security situation was "relatively quiet" there. Iraqi forces took over security in the city - in Maysan province - and British troops were given other responsibilities in the surrounding area.
But about 700 Iraqi troops have been sent to Amara to deal with the current violence, and a 500-strong battle group of British soldiers has been put on standby. A curfew has been put into force, but BBC reporters in Iraq say it is unclear whether the situation is under control. Major Charlie Burbridge, based in Basra, confirmed that British forces were providing air surveillance in the city.
BBC News, 21/10/06
Iraq censors civilian death figures
The United Nations office in Baghdad says that Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has ordered the country's medical authorities to stop providing the organization with monthly figures on the number of civilians killed and wounded in the conflict there, according to a confidential cable.
The cable, dated Oct. 17 and sent to United Nations officials in New York and Geneva by Ashraf Qazi, the United Nations envoy to Iraq, says the prohibition may hinder the ability of his office to give accurate accounts in its bimonthly human rights reports on the levels of violence and the effect on Iraqi society. Concern over the numbers of civilians who have died in Iraq has risen sharply at a time when organized attacks by insurgents are swelling the numbers of victims and when a new report from a team of Iraqi and American researchers shows that more than 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion.
Mr. Qazi, a former Pakistani diplomat, says that the order to let the prime minister's office take over the release of the numbers came down a day after a United Nations report for July and August showed a serious upward spike in the number of dead and wounded.
New York Times, 21/10/06
Iraq health service disintegrating
The disintegration of Iraq's health service is leaving its civilians defenceless in the continuing violence that is rocking the country, Iraqi doctors warn today. As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper medical care had been provided to the victims, they say.
In March, the campaign group Medact said 18,000 physicians had left the country since 2003, an estimated 250 of those that remained had been kidnapped and, in 2005 alone, 65 killed. Medact also said "easily treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and respiratory illness caused 70 per cent of all child deaths", and that " of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed and none opened".
Independent, 20/10/06
Baghdad security plan fails
The US military has said a security initiative aimed at reducing violence in Baghdad has failed to meet expectations and is being reviewed. Military spokesman Maj Gen William Caldwell said there had been a "disheartening" 22% rise in attacks in Baghdad since the end of last month. His comments came as a wave of bombings across Iraq killed at least 41 people.
President George W Bush has said the surge in Iraq may be equivalent to the US experience in the Vietnam War. Mr Bush acknowledged that the escalation of violence "could be" comparable to the 1968 Tet Offensive against US troops, which helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War. But, speaking on ABC News, Mr Bush denied that the rising number of Iraqi and US military deaths in Iraq meant the campaign there was failing.
BBC News, 20/10/06
Rumsfeld 'inspired by god'
The top US general on Thursday defended the leadership of defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God. "He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said marine General Peter Pace, chair of the joint chiefs of staff.
News 24, 19/10/06