US ‘Surges’ & Iraq’s Violence ‘Upsurges’
More horror stories are pouring in unabated from Iraq.
Gunmen have executed up to 50 Sunnis in an ethnically divided Iraqi town, in what appeared to be a horrific revenge attack for the slaughtering of 75 mainly Shia Muslims in a double-truck bombing only hours before, reports The Times.
“In signs that the sectarian conflict in the north-western Iraqi community of Tal Afar is rapidly spiralling out of control, dozens of men were randomly shot in the head by rampaging gunmen in an overnight attack at the Sunni district of al-Wahda.
“A doctor at Tal Afar’s main hospital said that he was rapidly losing control of the situation. ‘I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don’t have enough space in the hospital. All of the victims were shot in the head,’ he told Reuters.
“The attacks follow an upsurge in violence in Baghdad and outside the capital in recent days which has showed no sign of abating.
“The Tal Afar carnage is all the more ironic because George W Bush last year used the town as an example of the progress being made in Iraq after US-led forces freed it from al Qaeda in an offensive in 2005.”
Meanwhile reports suggest that Iraqi jails are extremely overcrowded. “Hundreds of Iraqis detained in the Baghdad security crackdown have been crammed into two detention centers run by the Defense Ministry that were designed to hold only dozens of people, a government monitoring group said Tuesday,” reports NYT.
“The numbers suggested that the security plan’s emphasis on aggressive block-by-block sweeps of troubled neighborhoods in the capital had flooded Iraq’s frail detention system, and appeared to confirm the fears of some human rights advocates who have been predicting that the new plan would aggravate already poor conditions.”
It is a fair question: If the US is not able control the genocide in Iraq, what are its soldiers doing there? If it has become helpless and irrelevant, why no alternative strategy is being discussed?
How long the world would continue to watch the massacre in Iraq? Who would be held responsible for this human tragedy?
Why is the United Nations a silent spectator, whereas it is quite vocal on Iran issue?
10 Responses to “US ‘Surges’ & Iraq’s Violence ‘Upsurges’”
Swaraaj:
Important questions all. I am once again snapped back from wishful thinking about things getting better in Iraq to the grim reality that it is going to take a whole lot more than dumping a few thousand more troops into Baghdad for this darkness to end. And that, in reality, it probably is too late to make lasting fixes.
The executions mark the first evidence of total failure of the surge plan because up to now the Shi’ites have acted with restraint, despite the provocations of Sunni militants. All of the evidence of the “success” of the surge at this point has to do with Shi’ite militias standing down and leaving the Sunnis alone. Perhaps that is still the case in Baghdad – though who knows for how much longer. But in Tal Afar, an example cited not only by President Bush but also by General Petraeus in his new counterinsurgency document as successful, the Shi’ite revenge attacks seem to be rapidly increasing. All of this suggests that either the US surge plan would have worked if it included 200,000 troops instead of 28,000, or that it would not have worked regardless of how many troops were added to the mix.
Swaraaj,
For your first question, the US has just begun a new strategy misnamed the “surge.” Not all the troops are even in place and it’s barely begun and already people are calling it a failure. I wonder why?
The world will continue to watch what’s going on in Iraq because the world largely doesn’t have the will or capability to do anything to help. It’s a lot easier to sit on the sidelines and criticize than actually, you know, DO something.
As for the UN, it has time and again proven itself incapable of confronting any kind of violence and only seems able to act as some kind a buffer between two parties that have already made a separate peace. Srebrenica should ring a bell. UN “peacekeeping” in Africa has largely been a total failure. The UN bailed out of Iraq after AQI punched it in the nose with the UN compound bombing a couple of years ago – ironic since the UN refused US security and naively believed they would be viewed as a neutral party.
So, what should the UN do? Pass more resolutions that it doesn’t have the power or will to enforce? There are NGO’s in Iraq doing great things – it’s a shame the UN doesn’t have the courage or will to do anything productive.
Iraq is a US failure – not the UN’s. Had Bush not decided to abandon the going for a second UN resolution perhaps the US would have gotten more support to overthrow Saddam. Remember, during Gulf War I, Bush senior was able to gather troops from Syria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia etc. If Bush had not been so headstrong maybe Iraq would have turned out differently having Arab troops along side us.
Excellent questions. The one I keep asking myself is Where is the world? Why don’t they care what is happening in Iraq?
There is not a day that goes by that I do not want to bring all the troops home and put them safely back in their loved ones arms and turn out the lights, build a big fence and tell the world to “go to hell.” However that would solve nothing.
Where is the world? During WW2 Admiral Halsey got a mistranslated message via radio during the battle of the Phillipines asking him” Where is Halsey? The world wants to know.”
Where is the world? The Iraqis want to know.
Dittos to HawkishDove. Sorry, jdledell, but pointing fingers at Bush and the US doesn’t get the job done in Iraq. Any other nations and/or international groups are despicable if they decide to avoid getting involved in Iraq in order to spite the US. Even if you wanted to make the most extreme comparison between Bush and any imperialistic despot in the world, if said tyrant unleashes a situation of immense violence and chaos the rest of the world should still do whatever it takes to stablize the situation rather than sitting back and saying “not my fault, therefore I have no responsibility for fixing it.”
> Where is the world?
Relying on us and making demands of us while not hesitating to criticize us, as usual.
[...] Something else: read this post by Swaraaj Chauhan at The Moderate Voice. It seems that “the sectarian conflict in the north-western Iraqi community of Tal Afar is rapidly spiralling out of control.” First Sunni insurgents killed approximately 75 (for the most part) Shia Iraqis, then, in response, Shia gunmen executed up to 50 Sunnis. A doctor said that all the victims had been shot in the head. [...]
“The world’ was averse to stirring the hornet’s nest that is the ME, and the US defied the world. Now ‘the world’ is afftected by and scared to death of the results of this US defiance.
Your conclusion is that “the world’ should somehow recognize the error of its ways? This is a new form of logic not yet known to the world.
No other country could be put out to address terrorism. I call it the school yard bully syndrome. When the bully shows up if we slink down, half hide and be quiet maybe he will ask someone else for their lunch money.
The world banks on the UN. When there is a dispute put it to the UN who then spends the next 10 years attempting to pass resolutions only to in the end be left holding a worthless piece of paper while millions die.
But they did their duty as good world citizens. They sent their representative and they “tried” to get something done.
Where is the world? Iraqis want to know. This is not a comical statement intended to be cute. Iraqis really do want to know where is the world. Where is the world in Darfur?
Where? They are in the UN passing worthless resolutions while they shirk from their duty to the world order.
Where is the World? Hiding. Afraid. Cowering in the corner afraid to stir up the hornets nest even though it might be the right thing to do.