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By Brenda Wineapple
$18.45
By Morris Dickstein
$19.77
$35
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news.yahoo.com
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A series of coordinated car bombings and mortar attacks in Baghdad’s Sadr City killed at least 157 161 people and injured 257 (source: AP). Shiite militia members responded to the attacks with their own mortar barrage on the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad, making this one of the most violent days in Iraq since the U.S. invasion.
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“Beit Beut,” an Iraqi reality TV show similar to “Survivor” and “Big Brother,” speaks to Iraqi compassion despite the sectarian violence ravaging the country.
Posted on Oct 28, 2006
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Authorities are scrambling to address a possible resurgence of violence after two buses were torched near Paris on Wednesday. Last year’s civil unrest led to the destruction of some 9,000 vehicles in and around the city.
Posted on Oct 26, 2006
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Gen. George W. Casey announced that he is considering sending more U.S. troops to Iraq in order to help quell the violence. This is a major reversal of the military withdrawal that started last December. The reductions stopped in June when the violence in Baghdad showed no signs of abatement.
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Bill O’Reilly claims Iran is “upping the violence” in Iraq to give Democrats a boost in the November election. O’Reilly then hypocritically encourages Bush to use military action to achieve a political end. (Video & Transcript)
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They’re calling it a “strike of crossed legs,” and it’s supported by the Pereira, Colombia, mayor’s office: The wives and girlfriends of gang members will deny their partners sex until they vow to renounce violence.
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UPDATE: The numbers keep rising.
It’s carnage so grisly that the largest Sunni group demanded that the Shiite-led government take steps to disarm militias. The AP called it a “violent day even by the standards of Baghdad.”
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It appeared for a while that the death toll had dropped drastically in Iraq in August, but then word leaked out that the initial numbers were two-thirds too low. We didn’t know why. But it appears we do now: The Pentagon isn’t counting those killed in car bombs or mortar attacks—and it has no good excuse. (h/t: Huff Po)
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Flickr/YourLocalDave
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Iraqis have been taking great pains to conceal their identities in order to avoid sectarian violence. Because personal information, such as a name and province of origin, can hint at whether they are Shiite or Sunni, the fake ID trade is booming and worried Iraqis sometimes even change their license plates.
Posted on Sep 6, 2006
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ThinkProgress drew our attention to this nugget buried at the end of a N.Y. Times article yesterday: Bush administration officials are “beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive.”
Reporters bury this kind of news only if it’s not very well sourced. So we’re staying conservative on this one.
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From devrije.nl
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In the above photo, arch neoconservative William Kristol takes a pie in the face while delivering a pro-Iraq war speech in 2005. Bestselling author Glenn Greenwald describes (Salon, ad wall) how pundits like Kristol are on the run everywhere—after their bloodthirsty, imperialist policies have proved disastrous for America and global stability.
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As U.S. forces have given Iraqi security officers responsibility for policing Baghdad, violence has notably increased, undercutting America’s premise that Iraqis are capable of securing their own country.
Posted on Aug 6, 2006
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From brandeis.edu
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Tom Friedman, the N.Y. Times columnist whose Mideast and Iraq war analyses formed the “conventional thinking” for centrists and lefties the world ‘round, has thrown in the towel on his three-year-long support of the Iraq war: “It is now obvious that we are not midwifing democracy in Iraq. We are baby-sitting a civil war.” (more…)
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Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, told a congressional committee this morning that “the sectarian violence is probably as bad as Ive seen it in Baghdad in particular, and ... if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war.”
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At least 44 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq in July, well below the average monthly death toll of about 64. However, the sectarian conflict is worsening: Baghdad’s morgue received 1,595 bodies in June, up 16% over May. (July figures were not available.) “American troops are no longer the primary focus of the people perpetuating the violence inside Iraq,” said a U.S. think tank expert, “they have become a secondary target.”
Posted on Aug 1, 2006
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Don’t miss this observation by the Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin: “President Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley yesterday for the first time publicly acknowledged the momentous shift in the role for U.S. troops in Iraq, from fighting terrorists to trying to suppress religious violence.”
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Official diplomatic relations between the two countries may be at a nadir, but young citizens on both sides are finding common ground on Internet chat boards. Says a blogger: “We have tons of things in common. We come from two of the most liberal, educated countries in the Middle East….”
Also: Read the back story on that infamous picture of Israeli girls writing on rocket shells.
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The number of rapes per capita has dropped by more that 85% since the 1970s, and reported rape decreased even with other violent crime on the rise, according to federal crime data. Some criminologists say these numbers might be a statistical mirage, but most are convinced that the numbers indicate a real decrease in sexual violence. Rape remains the most underreported of crimes.
Posted on Jun 19, 2006
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Michael Berg, father of the young contractor whose brutal death at the hands of Al Qaeda was videotaped and broadcast to the world, speaks out against the war in Iraq and violence as retribution, and condemns George W. Bush in an interview with a stunned Soledad O’Brien. Berg said that Zarqawi’s death brings him no joy and will only perpetuate the cycle of revenge. Watch the interview.
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From Christoph Bangert / Polaris, for The New York Times
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In the last 10 months, as the violence has continued unabated, Iraq has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7% of the population and a quarter of the country’s middle class.
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“Death squads,” “ethnic cleansing” and political assasinations are the realities of the democracy said to be emerging in Iraq. The New York Times paints a grim picture of the new Iraq, as both Sunnis and Shiites flee their homes in response to escalating sectarian violence.
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After Donald Rumsfeld dismissed reports of a possible strike on Iran by mockingly saying, “Henny penny the sky is falling…” Jon Stewart spanked the secretary of defense with a clip of him using the same phrase three years ago—to mock the idea that Iraq was descending into chaos.
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An estimated 65,000 Iraqis have fled their homes as a result of chaos, intimidation and sectarian violence bred by “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” U.N. officials expect Iraq’s internal refugee problem to grow.
Posted on Apr 13, 2006
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Illustration by Karen Spector
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By Blair Golson — The best-selling author of “The End of Faith” talks about the way to navigate a dinner party without coming off as the Antichrist; about the “Salman Rushdie effect” that accompanies his newfound celebrity as America’s most prominent atheist; and about the new secular foundation he is founding.
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From printroom.com
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By Sheerly Avni — The prominent black activist and mentor for incarcerated youth in Oakland, Calif. argues that it’s time to hold hip-hop artists accountable for the messages behind their music.
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From printroom.com
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By Sheerly Avni — The prominent black activist and mentor for incarcerated youth in Oakland, Calif. argues that it’s time to hold hip-hop artists accountable for the messages behind their music.
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The sectarian violence continues unabated.
Also, a N.Y. Times reporter returns to Iraq after a year away and immediately sizes up the difference between an anti-U.S. insurgency and a civil war (although he doesn’t use that word).
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Luke MacGregor / AP
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Two days after being freed from a four-month captivity in Iraq, UK peace activist Norman Kember tries to deflect attention away from himself and onto Iraqis suffering amid the continuing violence.
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From elconfidencial.com
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This excellent article from the Boston Review opens with a brutal killing and goes on to stitch together the disparate threads of the sectarian violence now wracking the country.
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Jacob Silberberg / AP
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In his first formal testimony in his trial, the deposed Iraqi leader called on Iraqis to cease the sectarian violence and join forces against the Americans—while insisting that he is still the rightful leader of Iraq.
The judge trying the case, quarreling with Hussein several times during his 40-minute speech, ended by closing the session to the public.
Posted on Mar 15, 2006
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America’s top envoy to Iraq: “The possibility is there” for sectarian violence to lead to civil war and all-out war in the region.
A BBC reporter in Baghdad: “It gives me no pleasure today to forecast further doom and gloom here in Iraq. But, as in Iran in 1978, the facts on the street contradict the assertions of the generals, the politicians and the diplomats.”
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Paul Szep
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A bomb in a vegetable market killed 36 people in Baghdad, prompting the government to announce a one-day ban on all vehicles in the city.
This comes on the heels of similarly deadly bombings Wednesday and the day before. The Washington Post put the death toll of this recent spate of violence at over 1,300.
What’s worse, America’s spy chief tells Congress that the violence could destabilize the entire region—which would completely upend one of Bush’s main reasons for invasion in the first place.
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The Supreme Court ruling had nothing to do with the underlying issue of abortion. Rather, the court ruled that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations. (Alito, by the way, sat this one out.)
Posted on Feb 28, 2006
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The cartoon-fueled hysteria continues unabated:
In Libya: 10 die in the bloodiest protests yet.
In Russia: Authorities shut down a newspaper that printed a tame cartoon of Muhammad, along with other religious figures.
In Manhattan: 1,000 protesters rally in front of the Danish consulate.
In Italy: An official quits after wearing a T-shirt with the controversial Muhammad cartoons.
Update:
16 Killed in Nigerian cartoon protests, along with five this week in Pakistan
Hey, Muslim centrists/moderates, if you want to do something to quell this insane violence, now would be a pretty good time to do so.
Posted on Feb 18, 2006
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The decision over whether to republish controversial images of Muhammad has caused intense debates in the editorial board rooms of news organizations across the country. Truthdig offers its readers a primer.
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America’s former top spy for the Middle East accuses the White House of “cherry-picking information” to justify a decision it had already made to go to war. | story
Who wants to bet on how long it will take the CIA to start swift-boating this guy?
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Look past the cartoons, writes Christian Parenti of The Nation. The violence in Afghanistan stems from grievances over four years of occupation by U.S. and NATO troops and ineffectual foreign aid schemes. | story
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The entire editorial staff of The New York Press, an alternative weekly, quits in the wake of the paper’s decision not to run the controversial Muhammad cartoons. | story
Posted on Feb 7, 2006
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The Tehran city council-owned newspaper says it is testing the West’s arguments about freedom of expression. | story
Meanwhile, Four Afghans are killed in cartoon-related protests near the U.S. base in Bagram—the first time violence has been directed against America in the controversy. | story
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From Jyllands-Posten
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As violence spreads across the world, Editor & Publisher has the best take yet on why most U.S. news outlets won’t re-publish the satirical images. | story
ABC is one of the very few to do so. | video (there’s a commercial)
Update: Check out the way Truthdig’s Mr. Fish depicted Jesus in a cartoon.
Is it offensive, an exercise in free speech, or both?
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Two suicide bombs claim majority of deaths | story
Posted on Jan 5, 2006
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Pope Benedict XVI, in his World Day of Peace speech Jan. 1, had more than a few choice words for world leaders who use lies to incite their citizens towards violence. more (hat tip: Stephen Rivers)
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