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.”
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.”
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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.”
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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’…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.