United States Wars, News and Casualties

The War Criminals

The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.

How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.

The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.

Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry. (A year ago Mr. Bush was on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” dancing and talking about his paintings.)

We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!

The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.

The McGlynn

War News

NYT: Hodeidah Offensive Prompts France to Downgrade Yemen Conference

PARIS — France is downgrading an international humanitarian conference on Yemen after Saudi-led coalition forces stormed the main port Hodeidah, diplomatic and aid sources said on Thursday.

The gathering of countries and international organizations, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia, had been due to take place at ministerial level in Paris on June 27 with the objective of addressing the “urgent humanitarian situation” in Yemen.

The conference was announced in May by President Emmanuel Macron with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman alongside him, and Macron had been due to deliver a speech and had wanted concrete results from the meeting.

A French diplomatic source said the meeting would now be at “international expert level” to prepare a future conference.

“The offensive on Hodeidah made this conference even more untenable, especially if you don’t have all the players on board,” said a second French diplomat.

The Western-backed Arab alliance that intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 captured Hodeidah airport earlier this week but now face fierce urban combat with Iran-aligned Houthi forces dug into Hodeidah’s residential districts.

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REU: Yemen’s Houthis indicate willingness to hand over port to U.N.: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have indicated they would be willing to hand over management of Hodeidah port to the United Nations, a potential breakthrough in a conflict that has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, sources familiar with the efforts said.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged a swift military operation to take over the airport and seaport without entering the city center, to minimize civilian casualties and maintain the flow of essential goods.

The Saudis and Emiratis, who intervened in Yemen in 2015, say they must recapture Hodeidah to deprive the Houthis of their main source of income and prevent them from bringing in missiles.

Hodeidah port is a principal entry point for relief supplies for Yemen. U.N. officials have warned that large-scale fighting in the city could threaten tens of thousands.

U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has been in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week to try to negotiate a solution.

A U.S. official said the United States was urging the Saudis and Emiratis to accept the deal. A diplomatic source at the United Nations said the coalition had informed Griffiths it would study the proposal.

The source said the Houthis indicated they would accept overall U.N. rule for port management and inspections.

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BBC: Is Sara a ‘refugee’ or a ‘would-be surgeon’?

Sara’s home has been a tent for the past three years, since being forced from Syria by war Paddy Dowling

At the age of just 11, Sara’s plans for the future are already clear.

“I will become a surgeon,” she says firmly.

It’s a noble ambition, shared by youngsters the world over.

But unlike many of her peers, Sara has more hurdles to overcome to achieve her goal.

Because Sara, along with her parents and three little brothers, Ali, Deeb and Hadi, currently lives in a two-room tent in an informal settlement in the Zahle District in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.

‘Lost generation’

They are refugees from Syria.

The youngster is one of millions of children around the world who are currently displaced due to conflict, violence and war – and whose plight is highlighted on World Refugee Day.

Homework in a tent

Outside of school, she helps at home, and plays with her brothers.

While adulthood is still some years away, Sara’s eye is on her future career.

“I will become a surgeon, a doctor, in the future,” she says, her reason simply “because they take care of people.”

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Syria’s refugees are making a new kind of family in camps scattered across the region

The youngster says she knows she will have to study hard, and believes her school is helping her on the path to success – science is a “good subject” for her, she says.

Her homework is done in the main room of the family’s tent, built by her father Ghassan, for $1,000 at $100 a month.

It has been the family’s home for the last three years.

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REU: U.S. bombs Syrian army position near Tanf: pro-Assad commander

AMMAN (Reuters) – A Syrian army officer was killed in a U.S strike on a Syrian army outpost near a U.S. base close to the Iraqi-Syrian border, a commander in the regional alliance supporting President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters.

The Pentagon, said, however, that a U.S.-backed Syrian rebel group stationed in the Tanf garrison had engaged on Thursday evening an “unidentified hostile force” outside a “deconfliction zone” around the garrison, forcing it to retreat. It said there were no casualties on either side.

Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias who have gained control of the desert border area since last year have on several occasions come under fire from coalition air power to stop any advances on the base.

Tanf is part of a region known as the Badia, which consists of vast, sparsely populated desert territory that stretches to the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

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REU: Syrian Observatory: Syrian army drops barrel bombs in southwest

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Friday that the Syrian military had dropped more than a dozen barrel bombs on rebel-held territory in the southwest, its first use of the munition there in about a year.

It represents an escalation in the army’s days-old assault in the area northeast of Deraa that has so far included artillery bombardment but only limited use of airpower.

AP: Turkey says 35 Kurd leaders killed in airstrikes in Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again asserted that Turkish jets have dealt a heavy blow on the outlawed Kurdish rebels’ leadership in Iraq, saying some 35 high-level militants were killed.

Addressing crowds during a campaign rally on Thursday, Erdogan said Turkish warplanes recently struck Iraq’s Qandil mountain while a group of 35 senior militants were holding a meeting. He did not provide details.

Qandil, near Iraq’s border with Iran, is where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, maintains its headquarters.

Erdogan said: “We caught them during their leaders’ meeting. During this leaders’ meeting, we finished off 35 important names.”

In Iraq, a PKK spokesman, Serhet Varto, confirmed heavy Turkish airstrikes in the area but denied they had caused any casualties.

The claims could not be in verified independently.

AP: Iraq set for election recount to salvage tainted result

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a disputed law ordering a hand recount of the ballots from last month’s national elections after widespread allegations of fraud embarrassed political leaders and marred the initial result.

What was supposed to mark the start of a new era for Iraq has turned into a political crisis as the charges of vote tampering grew too loud for Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s government to ignore.

The May 12 election was the first since Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group, which was in control of one-third of Iraqi territory just three years ago. But the euphoria over that milestone was quickly overshadowed by the charges of voter irregularities that surfaced on the day of the election and grew louder in the weeks that followed.

Adding to the outcry was a suspicious fire days after Parliament ordered the recount that burned down a warehouse believed to contain some of the ballots cast by Baghdad voters.

The Interior Ministry said the June 10 blaze was confined to a storage unit holding the electronic machinery introduced in the election to speed up the vote count and protect against ballot stuffing, and insisted the ballots were secure. But eyewitness reports said some ballots were charred and others soaked as firefighters battled the blaze.

A hand recount of all 11 million ballots could take weeks, if not longer, and promises to delay the already sluggish process of forming a new government.

Still, the populist preacher Muqtada al-Sadr, who came in a surprise first place in the vote, called on his supporters to respect the recount ruling.

“I call on everyone to show restraint and deference to the law, even if they are not convinced by it,” al-Sadr said in a statement.

Thursday’s Supreme Court decision upheld a law ordering a recount passed by Parliament after the initial results showed that two-thirds of current lawmakers would lose their seats. The timing of the law’s passage led President Fuad Masum and the national elections commission to charge lawmakers with political interference.

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REU: Taliban kill 16 Afghan soldiers, kidnap engineers after ceasefire ends

KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban militants killed at least 16 Afghan police and two civilians in western Badghis province after their three-day ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday ended at the weekend, officials said on Friday.

The Taliban, fighting to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, resumed their campaign on Thursday after rejecting President Ashraf Ghani’s request to extend their ceasefire beyond Sunday.

On Wednesday, they killed at least 30 soldiers and captured a military base in Badghis.

A senior security official in Kabul said the Taliban were fighting to capture eight checkpoints in Badghis. On Thursday, they gained control over two checkpoints and ambushed arriving reinforcements.

Haji Saleh Bek, governor of the Abkamari district, said 16 police were killed.

Another government official, Mohammad Naser Nazari, said the Taliban had planted a bomb on the body of a soldier that exploded when people attempted to retrieve the bodies. Two civilians were killed.

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REU: Film tracks first Afghan woman to seek justice over incest

NEW DELHI, June 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Beaten up, raped and repeatedly impregnated by her father for more than a decade – a young woman’s fight for justice in the face of threats, oppression and sexism in war-torn Afghanistan was a story filmmaker Sahra Mani had to tell.

Her documentary, “A Thousand Girls Like Me”, tells the story of Khatera and her mission to put her father on trial for raping and assaulting her for 13 years, during which she aborted a series of pregnancies.

Khatera finally gave birth to two of her father’s children – to use as proof in court.

“She stood against all odds. Everybody blamed her, everybody called her names, everybody told her she was bringing shame to the family, to the country,” Mani said of Khatera, now 26, who goes by one name in the film.

“I had to do this, to give an example to women … it does not matter who breaks the rules – father, brother, neighbour, husband, loved one – they have to speak up.”

Khatera, who now lives in France with her fiance and two children, became the first Afghan woman to bring a case of incest to court despite threats from her uncles and brothers and judges who labelled her a liar…………..Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries to be a woman or girl.

Research indicates more than eight in 10 women have been sexually, physically or psychologically abused, but only a few thousand cases are reported each year.

Campaigners say women’s complaints are rarely handled properly, and in some cases police assault or even rape women who come for help.

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