When I came online this morning I saw that the Green Zone in Iraq had suffered an attack of mortar bombs and/or rockets:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A barrage of mortar bombs or rockets hit Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone, home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government ministries, on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Of course for operational security reasons, we cannot know if there was any damage or what kind of damage or anything else:
“I can confirm that we did receive indirect fire and that it was multiple rounds,” said U.S. military spokesman Major Brad Leighton, referring further queries to the U.S. embassy.
U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo refused to say whether there had been casualties or damaged.
“To maintain operational security, we do not comment on indirect fire into the International Zone,” she said.
And of course what would the military official response be without a reference to Iran?
The U.S. military has blamed missile attacks on the Green Zone on so-called “special groups”, rogue elements of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia they say receives funding and weapons from neighbouring Iran. Iran denies the charge.
So we can’t know what damage was done by this attack. Yet we can hear the military tell us they know exactly where this attack came from and that Iran has to be behind it. Guess that’s not a secret so we can all know who the REAL enemy is!
And I’m tired of hearing the word “extremists” coming out of this misAdministration’s military’s mouth. The worst extremists in Iraq have been from our own country, under the lying machinations of a criminal gang who have taken power and are breaking all our laws.
Yes, I know el Sadr had called for a cease fire, and yes I know the region is in chaos because what else could be there given what we have done?
And I am no grand military analyst so I won’t try to give some big foreign policy riff here.
But this just stinks, all of it. They will try to attack Iran any chance they get. We all know this.
We need to cease this occupation of a country we have all but destroyed.
42 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
The worst damage that could ever have been done to Iraq has been done by us. No one has been more “extreme” than George W. Bush and his henchmen.
when I was driving home from work, NPR had a story on about Bush in Liberia. They played an excerpt of him saying this:
I just screamed at the radio…”No shit, shit-for-brains!!”
The irony of it all was just too much.
This is still all about oil. Ask an American how many foreigners should die to preserve US access to cheap gasoline and heating oil? If they answered honestly, the Kool Aid drinking 30% would say “unlimited.” Most others would accept killing a few hundred thousand a year – as long as it was done quietly. Only about 10% of Americans would tolerate sharply higher fuel prices in return for sparing the lives of Iraqis or other Mideastern people.
That is the ugly, dirty truth, and that is why we are still in Iraq. We are the bad guys, and we know it. This understanding is like a cancer eating at our society, and it will take more than Obamamania to cure it.
We invaded a country that was no threat to us and now are occupying it indefinitely because leaving might make it a threat to us. The only way it makes any sense is we want the oil. We have already proven that we do not give a shit about the Iraqis. Civilians killed? We do not count them. If Blackwater goes on a rampage, we protect them. Refugees? We do not allow them into the US and do not contribute to improving their lot in the countries that take in the Iraqis. Infrastructure? Still in shambles, but we built the largest embassy in the world. We suck.