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Al Jazeera (English)
    Baghdad Burning Blog (by Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl)
            Dahr Jamail's Blog from Baghdad
                Imad Khadduri's blog "Free Iraq" (scroll down for English version)

Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Leading Iraqi paints grim picture of Iraq
(Eli J. Lake, United Press International, June 13, 2003)
In Baghdad today an American occupation authority issues decrees and drafts reports inside a palace ringed by tanks and built by a man whose government essentially vanished after three and a half weeks of fighting. . . . Outside the compound the streets of Baghdad are run by local criminals when the sun goes down and swaths of the country are still under control of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. Blackouts are common in Iraq's liberated capital. . . . When U.S. officials deign to meet with Iraqis, they must take at least three humvees with them for security reasons. Because there are only nine in Baghdad, the prospect of an Iraqi landing a meeting outside the American fortress is slim. There is no local cell phone network . . . A Pentagon organizational chart for the new authority released to the press last month shows the transitional Iraqi authority (comprised of elected Iraqis) as a consultative group, positioned to the side of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the same row as non-governmental organizations and the U.N. liaison. . . . The U.S. position shifted in the past six weeks. The special envoy of the President, Dr. Khalilzad, declared at the beginning of May that the United States will support the provisional government in Iraq, and he declared this to the press. Then this was reversed later. We don't know exactly how this decision was made and why, but I believe there were fears about the spread of Iranian influence and Islamic fundamentalism, which I think are basically unfounded." . . . A June 11 report from the International Crisis Group says Bremer has his work cut out for him. Its researchers found "Baghdad a city in distress, chaos and ferment." The report blasts the occupation authority for its infrequent contact with Iraqis; failure to repair infrastructure; unwillingness to empower Iraqis in the day-to-day management of the country; and lack of armed soldiers to guard public institutions. . . . Another major obstacle to establishing law and order is the fact that Saddam's army, security service, and indeed his government never formally surrendered. "What effectively has happened since the liberation is quite unique," Makiya said. "It's not that the state was defeated. No section of the Iraqi army surrendered. The same is true of the security services of the Muhabbarat and the other security services. We are in a very important sense beginning at ground zero, from scratch, in a way that knows very few parallels."

posted by Lorenzo 1:10 PM