Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.
TOP TOPICS
- The Bush administration is drafting a timetable that lists milestones for Iraq's government to carry out in order to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. The plan will be presented to Iraq's Prime Minister by the end of the year.
- Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army seized control of the Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday, but the Iraqi Army retook the city under a truce brokered by an ally of al-Sadr.
Other Topics Today Include: U.S. deaths spike; violence against Palestinians continues; UNHRC says huge refugee problem; plan to refurbish Syria pipeline; plans for 10 new hospitals; train coordination; Vice President asks rebel groups to negotiate; reorganization of Iraqi National Police; Mecca document signed; hiding true casualties in Iraq (?); consensus on Kirkuk wanted; Carnival of the Liberated; Egypt welcomes Mecca agreement; White House rejects two Iraq options; Pope urges reduction in violence; Howard promises to stay in Iraq as long as necessary; Pentagon propaganda program deemed legal.
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
- American deaths in Iraq spiked upwards this week, prompting some to argue a comparison between the current situation in Iraq and the Tet Offensive in Vietnam.
- Violence against Palestinians in Iraq continues to spike, with an estimated 14,000 Palestinians having fled Iraq or been killed since the invasion.
- UNHCR reports that three million Iraqis have been displaced due to violence in the country, although this report did come after the UNHCR budget was slashed.
RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY
- The Oil ministry has prepared a plan to refurbish the oil pipeline between Syrian and Iraq to increase exports from the northern oil fields.
- Minister of health, Ali al-Shamarii has increased the effort to supply medicines to treatments centers and aims to build 10 hospitals in several provinces with the capacity of 400 beds each.
- Transporting ministry specified 20 Billion Iraqi Dinars for developing communication methods between the rail stations and the trains. This will coordinate the movement of trains in the general transport lines.
IRAQI POLITICS
- Iraqi Vice President Tarek al-Hashemi urged various rebel groups in Iraq to negotiate either with the Iraqi government or the US-led multinational force.
- Iraq's National Police is being completely reorganised and 1 228 officers have been dismissed for breaking the law.
- Religious leaders from all Iraq met in Saudi Arabia Friday to discuss ways to reduce the level of violence in Iraq. They signed a document declaring that the shedding of Muslim blood is forbidden.
- The French daily Le Monde claims the Iraqi government is hiding the true extent of civilian casualties in Iraq.
- The U.S. is beginning to pressure Iraq to reach a consensus on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
- This week's Carnival of the Liberated is up.
THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
- Egypt on Saturday welcomed the Mecca agreement reached by major Iraqi factions, in which Muslim Shiite and Sunni groups called for a stop to bloodshed and an end to sectarian violence.
- The White House rejected two options for Iraq, deeming partition and a phased withdrawal of five percent of U.S. troops every two months as inappropriate solutions to the current violence in Iraq. But the Bush Doctrine appears to be on the way out nonetheless. President Bush will meet with his senior advisors to discuss the future direction of the U.S. in Iraq.
- Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, arrived in Amman on a several-day visit for talks about regional development with senior Jordanian officials.
- The Pope urged Iraqis to stop the violence between religious factions in Iraq on Sunday.
- Jason Brown, the Missouri state representative who was shot in Iraq, offered more details about the event which left him wounded.
- Support for the Iraq venture is fading fast even among the President's supporters.
- Iraq-Tet comparisons are not an issue for the Bush White House.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair says British troops may leave Iraq in the next 10-16 months, the security situation permitting.
- Australia's Prime Minister pledged to maintain force in Iraq as long as necessary to provide the Iraqi government time to develop the ability to protect and preserve itself. A former Australian diplomat, however, claims that urged Prime Minister John Howard to take the Lancet study of Iraqi excess deaths seriously after he dismissed the figures as not credible or believable.
ETCETERA
- The Pentagon program to pay to place stories in Iraqi media has been deemed legal under the laws of psychological operations.
- Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.
- The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!
- Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!
- Many American troops have taken it upon themselves to reconstruct schools and gather learning tools for the children of Iraq. Their efforts have been met with immense gratitude from the local Iraqis and their children. You can help too! Visit Operation Iraqi Children and get involved.
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THIS is proof of how low the left is willing to sink. Apparently, they now think the protection of our country is funny. How sad.
THIS is proof of how low the left is willing to sink. Apparently, they now think the protection of our country is funny. How sad.
There was a time Neal when the US considered waterboarding to be a war crime.
Even gave one Japanese soldier 15 years in prison for using the method
You're misleading again, Davebo.
From the UCB War Crimes Studies CenterTo claim that Asano was sentenced to 15 years because of waterboarding is much akin to claiming that a man sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of rape, murder, kidnapping, perjury, extortion, and witness tampering was given that sentence because he lied in court.
It's dishonest.
It's really quite simple: waterboarding was the "water torture" count. Now, had that been the only count, perhaps the 15 years would have been less, but what sort of a "defense" would that be?
Andrew, you're being as dishonest as Davebo is.
Since your and Davebo's claim is that the U.S. has always treated waterboarding as a war crime worth 15 years hard labor, go right ahead and provide an actual example of someone being charged, convicted, and sentenced for waterboarding alone.
Serious charges.
No evidence.
Dishonesty in spades.
No, my position is we don't know just how many years water boarding all by itself was worth, but defending water boarding on this basis is sick. It certainly was one of the counts against Asano, and your idea that it was the least significant count is as unfounded as the idea it was the most significant.
Davebo made a wholly fraudulent claim.
I posted a link to actual evidence discrediting his claim.
You popped in to claim that despite the contrary evidence present in the historical record, maybe the original claim was somehow, possibly correct -- we'll just never know!
I responded by pointing out that once again you're levelling serious charges and once again providing no evidence to support them.
And now we're again at the point where you simply ignore contrary evidence, repeat your serious charges, and continue to provide no evidence to support your position. I don't see any value in trying to argue against figments of your imagination.
I highlighted the evidence from the historical record in my earlier comment, and I think readers here are more than capable of comparing the talking points to the facts.
Let's review.
One side says, "Hey! Waterboarding has happened all the time, it's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things."
The other side says, "Crapola! Here is a case from sixty years ago of a Japanese guy who did a laundry list of things, including waterboarding. He got 15 years in prison."
The first side says, "But he did a BUNCH of things. Show me where it happened and that was the only charge." (I might also add that waterboarding has been around a long, long time.)
The crackerjack crowd says, "Neener neener! You're sick! Sick I tell you! It's bad, and to defend it is sick! I feel emotion, therefore you will not assail me with your silly logic and facts!"
Of course I exaggerate. That's just how it all sounds to me -- silly. So a guy thinks he is drowning for a couple of minutes. It sounds terrifying. Life goes on. Our enemies will use this, for sure, since we've made such a public spectacle of it. (Thanks again guys.) And this type of thinking is going to be in charge of defending us? I just hope that whoever is in charge of baking cookies for the terrorists down in Gitmo don't burn them, because there'll be heck to pay.
"The Bush administration is drafting a timetable that lists milestones for Iraq's government to carry out in order to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. The plan will be presented to Iraq's Prime Minister by the end of the year."
I think the Americans should make up a list of what Americans have to do before they pull out. It would be instructive to see what the Americans think ought to be done by Americans, not Iraqis, that the Americans have not done yet.
A list of milestones that the Iraqi government can achieve unilaterally would also be interesting. Of course, this transfers control over the withdrawal of American forces to the Iraqi government.
A list of milestones consisting of agreements transfers power to nobody in particular, or to whoever is the most obstructive. If consensus is not reached, American forces will stay in no-man's land with nothing to achieve and an increasingly hostile population, while nobody in particular is likely to be held responsible for a lack of universal agreement among all the legitimate players - including Moqtada Al-Sadr.
Um, guys? Every military pilot and every Ranger (and, I presume, SEAL and PJ) was waterboarded at one point in the recent past (don't know if they do it today) as a part of SERE training.
So were their trainers then charged with war crimes?
And Daniel, go back and look at this post and tell me that thanks to us, the other side has discovered torture.
A.L.
I believe I said "our enemies will use this" not that they discovered it from us, A.L. This war, above all others, is fought through publicity and popular opinion. You publicize something, you make more of it happen. That doesn't mean that it's wrong to publicize it, only that free speech carries a little more weight than it did back when we spoke on top of a soap box. By "thanks guys" I meant that it seems that some folks don't think before yapping, probably because they have no skin in the game except their lofty untarnished ideals.
If I personally would be waterboarded as part of service to my country, I have a difficult time explaining why I would not want my country's prisoners in wartime to be so treated as well. It's important to distinguish a prisoner/land pirate from a POW and from a criminal prisoner. Some folks want to mix them all up. I do not.