AProudNavyVeteran69 Loc: Burien,Washington

“Staggering” violence in Iraq: The legacy of US war and occupation
By Bill Van Auken
27 January 2016

Describing current levels of k*****g and mayhem in Iraq as “staggering” and “obscene,” two United Nations agencies released a report Tuesday that recorded at least 55,047 civilian casualties between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2015. The total included at least 18,802 civilians k**led and another 36,245 wounded.

The report added that over roughly the same period, a total of 3,206,736 civilians, including over 1 million school-age children, have been driven from their homes by the violence.

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said the report failed to reflect the full human toll inflicted by the conflict in Iraq. The numbers reported k**led or wounded, particularly in areas under ISIS control, undoubtedly fell well short of the real level of carnage. Moreover, many more had “died from lack of access to basic food, water or medical care,” he said.

The high commissioner added that the report “starkly illustrates what Iraqi refugees are attempting to escape when they flee to Europe and other regions. This is the horror they face in their homelands.”

The period dealt with in the report begins with the month the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in the predominantly Sunni Anbar Province, subsequently overrunning fully one-third of Iraq’s territory. It stops short of the upsurge in violence over the past few months, including US-backed military campaigns to retake Ramadi as well as Banji and Sinjar, which undoubtedly saw a further spike in casualties.

The report deals at length with atrocities carried out by ISIS as well as attacks on civilians by Iraqi government security forces, along with Shia and Kurdish m*****as.

It is decidedly muted, however, about Washington’s responsibility, not only for civilian casualties from thousands of airstrikes, but more fundamentally in terms of the historic destruction wrought by the illegal US invasion of 2003 and the more than eight years of military occupation that followed.

As the report was issued, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters in Paris that the Pentagon is preparing to substantially escalate the US military presence in Iraq. “I expect the number of trainers to increase, and also the variety of the training they’re giving,” he said.

A US military spokesman in Baghdad on Wednesday said the number of new “trainers” would be “not thousands, hundreds.” They would be in addition to the 3,670 US troops the Pentagon says are now deployed in Iraq.

Much of the UN report deals with the grisly violence unleashed by ISIS against the Iraqi population, targeting in particular both current and former employees of the Iraqi government and security forces, as well as Shia Muslims and members of religious minorities, together with Sunni Muslims perceived as too “moderate.”

The report recounts a series of ISIS atrocities, including mass k*****gs “in gruesome public spectacles, including by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings.” It documents sexual violence and ens***ement of women and children by ISIS, including 3,500 from the Yazidi community, which was early on invoked by the Obama administration as a pretext for US intervention, but has since been largely forgotten by the US government and media.

It also cites “unlawful k*****gs and abductions perpetrated by pro-Government forces” as well as their persecution of civilians forced by the fighting to flee their homes, particularly form predominantly Sunni areas. It reports that “some have experienced arbitrary arrest in raids by security forces and others have been forcibly expelled.”

In addition to Iraqi security forces, the report points to the abuse of civilians by both Shia m*****as and the Peshmerga, the forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

A report released Wednesday by Amnesty International further documents the systematic destruction of Sunni Arab homes by the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, saying that their actions may constitute war crimes.

Backed by US airstrikes, the Kurdish forces have taken over areas in Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces that were previously ethnically mixed. In an apparent attempt to incorporate these areas into Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdish forces have launched what amounts to a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The UN report includes accounts of large numbers of civilian casualties inflicted by airstrikes, while failing to attribute them to any party in the conflict and stating that its investigators have been unable to confirm the totals. The US military is responsible for the majority of airstrikes carried out in Iraq. While acknowledging, as of a week ago, dropping some 29,000 bombs and missiles on the country and claiming to have k**led more than 6,400 ISIS fighters over the past three months alone, the Pentagon has, incredibly, acknowledged only 15 civilians k**led.

The UN report tells a different story. Among last year’s airstrikes listed in the report, some of the bloodiest include:

May 22-23—“... airstrikes hit al-Najjar, al-Rifai and Sahaa areas in western Mosul in Ninewa, allegedly k*****g 30 civilians and wounding 62 others, including women and children.”

June 3—“... an explosion due to an airstrike in Kirkuk’s Hawija district allegedly k**led several ISIL fighters and civilians... A member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council was quoted by multiple local sources as stating that around 150 individuals, including women and children, were allegedly k**led and wounded in the blast.”

June 8—“... local sources reported that an airstrike in Mosul, Ninewa, caused 33 civilian casualties. The report alleged that several residential neighbourhoods in al-Zuhour district were hit, k*****g 20 civilians, including seven children and nine women, and wounding 13 others, mostly women.”

June 11—“... an airstrike reportedly hit an ISIL target near a market in Hawija, Kirkuk. According to a source, 10 civilians were k**led and wounded in the incident. Other reports mentioned more than 60 civilians k**led and over 80 wounded.”

July 1—“17 civilians, including four children and six women, were reportedly k**led in an airstrike conducted in the al-Rifaie area of western Mosul, Ninewa. Eleven other civilians were reportedly wounded.”

July 31—“... up to 40 civilians may have been k**led and over 30 wounded when three houses allegedly sheltering IDPs was hit by an airstrike in Rutba, west of Ramadi, Anbar. Official sources confirmed the incident and the number of casualties, which included 18 women and 11 children (under 14 years old).”

August 13—“... a maternity and children’s hospital in Nassaf village, south Fallujah, was hit by airstrikes reportedly carried out by ISF warplanes pursuing ISIL fighters. Sources confirmed the airstrikes destroyed the hospital and k**led at least 22 individuals (including six women and eight children) and wounded 52 (including eight women and 17children).”

September 3—“... an airstrike hit a bridge in Jazeera al-Khaldiya, around 20 kilometres east of Ramadi, Anbar, k*****g 46 civilians and wounding 20... On the same day, another airstrike reportedly hit a residential area in eastern Ramadi, k*****g 28 civilians.”

These murderous airstrikes are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the responsibility of US imperialism for the slaughter outlined in the UN report. The current situation is the direct product of over 25 years of US war against Iraq and of Washington’s interventions elsewhere in the region.

From the first Gulf War of 1991 through the 2003 invasion and subsequent military occupation of Iraq, US imperialism carried out the systematic destruction of what had been one of the most advanced healthcare and social infrastructures in the Arab world. The second war claimed the lives of over 1 million Iraqis, turning another 5 million into refugees, while the divide-and-rule strategy pursued by the Pentagon stoked a sectarian civil war by deliberately manipulating tensions between Iraq’s Shia and Sunni populations.

ISIS itself is the direct product of US interventions in the region, emerging first under the US occupation and then growing in strength thanks to the wars for regime-change launched first in Libya and then in Syria, in which it and similar Salafist jihadi m*****as received weapons and funding from the CIA and Washington’s closest regional allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

While the UN report asserts the necessity of holding accountable those responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Iraq, it fails to indict the principal criminals, who comprise the leading figures in the last two US administrations, from Bush and Obama on down.

http://www.wsws.org

:cry: It's a war with no end and we are being destroyed!!! Iraq and Afghanistan are forever our destruction. I blame Bush and Obama for these battles of Hell, !!!!! never to end. God Help us!!! find Peace!!!. We have lost enough American Lives in this Pits of Hell !!!!! . Obama leave Iraq alone and let them deal with their own problems. We have enough of our own Problems here at home, without adding more Fuel to the Fire!!!!.

son of witless

Obama is the only one to blame for the mess in Iraq. Your attempt to grant absolution to your piece of garbage Obama is feeble. We will have to go back into Iraq in the future to wipe out the pestilence Obama unleashed there because it will threaten us.

peter11937 Loc: NYS

http://wais.stanford.edu/Iraq/iraq_deathsundersaddamhussein42503.html
The pull out by Barack H. Obama, our president chose to pull out the troops there that were stabilizing the country caused many of the casualties there. .
Had Saddam and the "kids" still been in charge, how many more would have been murdered than those who died as a result of Pres Obama deciding to lead by retreating?
It was obvious to anyone even casually looking at the aftermath of Saddam's removal that there would be at least 20 years worth of occupation and education necessary for the Iraq to become a true independent democratic republic. Retreat from the world is a plan for disaster as it was before WW1 and WW2 ......The Art of War shows the stupidity of such behavior by any power.
It also shows clearly that the mindless savagery of islam as ISIS/IL demonstrates os not tolerable within the community of civilized nations, yet this American administration has decided not to end their existence. Why?

Ve'hoe

Omamba,,,, the destroyer,,,, bush handed him a victory,,, never send a boy to do a mans job

Never send hillary for anything,,,,


:cry: It's a war with no end and we are being destroyed!!! Iraq and Afghanistan are forever our destruction. I blame Bush and Obama for these battles of Hell, !!!!! never to end. God Help us!!! find Peace!!!. We have lost enough American Lives in this Pits of Hell !!!!! . Obama leave Iraq alone and let them deal with their own problems. We have enough of our own Problems here at home, without adding more Fuel to the Fire!!!!.[/quote]

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

As I've stated many, many times before, the defense industrial complex REQUIRES constant warfare, to maintain profit levels and indeed, to stay in business. Ike warned us of this before he left office - but we didn't listen.

We consistently ignore the evidence right in our faces and obey our masters when they say " we are in danger - we need MORE!" - and give it to them.

Remember the 100 million dollars in cash that disappeared in Afghanistan? I didn't think so. Remember the defense contractors caught funding the Taliban? I thought not. Remember the Iraqi army abandoning billions of dollars of military hardware, that we had just given them, leaving them in pristine condition - for ISIS? I doubt anyone remembers that either.

We have ZERO enemies today - that we ourselves did not create. We FORCE people to attack us, whether we the public are aware of it or not. Since WWII - every war, every enemy - was instigated and created - by us, but it's easier to swallow the lies handed to us by our government, than it is to accept the t***h - and stop.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Oh, bulls**t! What military/Industrial complex?

Look at the condition of our military today. Look at the condition of our industry. The game changed when Obama took office. The situation in the middle east (Iraq) would be very different right now if we had a leader rather than a feckless, bumbling pissant.

Only once since WW2 has America won a war. Before it was fought.

JMHO Loc: Utah

Yep, it's those big old meanies...the defense contractors. Yep, they start all wars...just for profit. MORON!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever worked in the defense contract industry???? Huh? Politicians start wars...moron. A defense contractor only bids on a request from the government for a proposal.

Pulfnick Loc: Knoxville, TN

Obama's cut-and-run policy is directly responsible for the rise of ISIS from a tiny group of Al-Qaeda jihadists when we left Iraq to it's growth into a global terror organization, larger and much more powerful than parent Al Qaeda had ever been. We needed to keep minimal troops in Iraq to prevent collapse into the power vacuum and Shia-Sunni hatred that existed. Bush warned about exactly what Obama did, and of its potential consequences. Bush was right.

trucksterbud

Just in case you were never exposed to the information, Bush directed his cabinet and advisors to design a strategy that would define "genocide" and then implement it in Iraq.. This is not my assumption or assertion, it is information available in text and video on the internet from various sources. This was the original intent of the Iraqi invasion.

I would point out, there was only small amounts of Mustard Gas - which the US gave Iraq in the late 1980's as a weapon of mass destruction.

There were NO operating fighter aircraft. In direct contradiction to the military's and Bush's statements. Only a small number were found - mostly hidden in orchards on backroads.

There were a vast number of Iraqi soldiers VERY ready to defect (and if you remember the news at the time, they DID.) to the protection of the Americans.

No, sorry, this was all orchestrated by the global criminal cabal using US POTUS and military might to enact the destruction of a society, and it continues to this day.

The destruction of the governments / societies in the middle east is well underway. All orchestrated by the Khazarian Mafia which is operated by out of - - - ,,, well you should know by now....

JMHO Loc: Utah

And, it is all bulls**t! Sheeessshhhh, what the hell do you conspiracy theorists put in your coffee to make you so paranoid, and ignorant?

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Then - where do you think the increased DoD budget is going? It certainly isn't going for personnel, so, it must be going for more "stuff", sold to us by the defense industry. You know, more drones and other "stuff".

Oh, BTW - Obama isn't responsible for the budget or how it's spent - that's the job of the Congress, You know, the one that the GOP has control of? :lol: :roll:

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

The politicians do what they're told to do - even YOU must know that, so yeah, politicians start wars - that they're TOLD to start. Are you REALLY that big a dumba$$, or are you just being paid to act like one?

I suppose you can list a defense contractor that does it's business out of patriotic duty and altruism - and does it "at cost". Sure, that would explain the aircraft and other things budgeted for by Congress - that the services neither asked for or need. The Congress OBVIOUSLY knows better than the Generals and Admirals what their forces need.

Then again, they may know of a pending war - that they've failed to notify the Joint Chiefs about. You do realize that every word out of YOUR mouth - proves MY case - better than I do myself? That's hilarious! :lol: :XD:

JMHO Loc: Utah

You're so full of s**t that your eyes must be brown... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Pulfnick Loc: Knoxville, TN

Maybe it's time to watch the news. You just might see occasional mention of totally unprovoked Islamist attacks, at least as early as Reagan's time in recent history, dramatically accelerating in 2001. Sometimes it pays to pay attention rather than ignoring reality. Or can you explain how we provoked Muslims to h**e us?

Louie27 Loc: Peoria, AZ

I think that you are off base about this problem being caused by the US invading Iraq. This ISIS problem was brought on by the removal of our forces from the area by Obama. Radical Muslims have always h**ed the free world and want to conquer all religions that do not believe as they were taught. They h**e our freedom and the rise of our society. No matter if we had left them alone or not they would out to destroy every country that is not Muslim controlled just for the sake of Muhammad, who was not interested in anything but power. Get a life and stop blaming Bush.