News – Memorial Day Violence (1/2)

In a strange twist, there has been something of a ‘light’ surge of violence in Iraq over the Memorial Day holiday. It makes acute the point that time is running thin for this occupation to become effective in the eyes of the Iraqi people. A US convoy was ambushed in central Iraq on Monday One of three attacks that day. This one had one dead, one wounded as a result. The attackers were wielding Assault rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. That not being the arms of a handful of angry civvies. A second incident involved a grenade attack on a US military police position. Later US forces shot dead a woman who, they say, was advancing with grenades and wouldn’t stop approaching. The last incident an unknown assailant fired a rocket propelled grenade at 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) soldiers. The round, apparently, didn’t go off. Added to that was an unknown blast in Baghdad that destroyed the Humvee three solders were traveling in and wounded them. Source of the explosion unknown. One of the soldiers in the convoy that they vehicle was part of thought it might be a land mine, rather than an RPG hit. The saddest part of it comes near the end of this article. – “They deserved it and they deserve more. They are occupiers, not liberators,” said Ali Abbas, a resident of Amiriyah. One man’s opinion, but how many individuals share it? Too many, I’d wager, as just today another RPG attack adds a third fatality in the last 24 hours.

Added: Another separate attack 2 killed and 9 injured in an attack on a traffic control gunpoint in the town of Falluja. The attackers shot from two vehicles that had pulled up together. Two attackers were killed in the fight, six captured.

The warning of backlash from a UN senior humanitarian official seems unnecessary after all that. Obviously something is up.

A British MP is claiming that British forces aligned with the US coalition in Iraq were put at risk because of US commanders preference for the safety of US units. He cited that some British units had to wait 2 days for air strikes they called for, which seems strange with the number of planes they had in the air.

Major Stan Coerr, a US marines reservist who was attached to the unit of British officer Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Collins, has stepped forward to defend him. Collins has been accused of war crimes by another US reservist who was one of several attached to Collins’ group.

Rumsfeld has been quoted with a prominent promise to not let Iraq become an Islamic Republic like Iran. Personally, I don’t think Rummy will be able to stop it. How will he stop it if Shiite clerics start to organize the people in several regions and the people start to accept local guidance(which has started already on a small scale)? Will we stop them with bullets? Will we be able to stop them with words? Will we secretly arrest and make these clerics disappear? Rummy’s making promises that he can’t be certain he can keep. Especially when we don’t have the overwhelming goodwill of all of Iraq. What do they really want?

Some possible good news out of Korea. The North seems to be taking a softer stance on the nuke proliferation thing. Perhaps ready to finally make a deal with the South and bring this whole situation to an end. We’ll have to keep a close eye on them.

From Korea to Iran, which might be the next nuclear hot spot. Russia still intends to construct Iran’s first nuclear power plant despite mounting US unease over Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. Though they were sure to note that the plant would be civilian in design and the fuel rods would be shipped back to Russia for reprocessing, not left to Iran.

Whopper of the Week: Rummy claims no one in the administration ever said Iraq had nukes. Never mind that Cheney said something to that direct effect previously.

Israel has generally accepted the Bush road map to peace. A visit between him, Sharon and Abbas is planned for next week. What effect it might have will be debatable. Update: Abbas has pulled out, it seems. Though speculation on why(official reason scheduling difficulties) remains uncertain.