Iraq: Of Missing US Soldiers, Hostile Parliament & Oil Scandal

Three more disturbing recent news items from Iraq – missing US soldiers, hostile Iraqi parliament and oil scandal – again put a question mark over the U.S. troops’ continued occupation of a hostile country.

“U.S. and Iraqi troops searched house-to-house and combed fields with their bare hands Saturday after American troops and their Iraqi interpreter came under attack in the notorious ‘triangle of death’ south of Baghdad, leaving five dead and three missing,” Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer.

“The attack occurred at 4:44 a.m. about 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya, a town of about 65,000 in a Sunni area dubbed the ‘triangle of death’ for the frequent attacks against Shiite civilians and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

“On June 16, 2006, two American soldiers — Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras, Ore. — went missing after their Humvee was ambushed at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah, north of Mahmoudiya.

“Their bodies were found days later, tied together with a bomb between one of the victim’s legs. But the remains were not recovered until the next morning, after an Iraqi civilian warned that bombs had been planted in the area.

“Five U.S. soldiers also have been charged in the rape of a 14-year-old Mahmoudiya girl and the killing of her and her entire family, and three have pleaded guilty in the March 12, 2006, attack, which was initially blamed on insurgents.”

More here…

And then there is the growing opposition from Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to the walls being built by the US troops dividing Baghdad. “Iraq’s parliament objected Saturday to the construction of walls around Baghdad neighborhoods and called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to testify about other security issues.

“Parliament took up the issue Saturday in a raucous session that included debate on the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, security raids and human rights abuses. Lawmakers interrupted each other and speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhdani struggled to maintain order.

“They (security walls) don’t protect residents because these areas are shelled by mortars and Katyusha rockets. … Will they build roofs too?” said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. “We must build bridges between the different groups, not build walls to separate them.”

“The resolution, voted on by a show of hands, passed 138-to-88 in the 275-member house. The president and his two deputies must unanimously approve the legislation for it to become law, or else it will be sent back to the house for re-examination.

“Last month, al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he had ordered a halt to the construction in Azamiyah, but his aides later said he was responding to exaggerated media reports and that construction would continue.”

To read more please click here…

As if this is not enough, here is the Iraqi oil scandal story. “Between five million and 15 million dollars worth of oil a day is reportedly unaccounted for in Iraq and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling.

“Citing a draft US government report it gained access to, The New York Times said the amounts relate to between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years.”

Read more here…

A BBC report says: “In the past year, six US soldiers have been abducted and killed by insurgents in two similar incidents. More than 3,300 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.”

These are the continuous alarming reports from the ground. But the White House and the US Congress have decided to wait and watch for a few months more. For what? A typical case of ‘Nero busy fiddling while Rome burns’…