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We won’t be able to change what grew inside the brains and hearts  of the children of War.

Damn The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell 

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ALJ: Battle for Yemen’s Hodeidah: ‘Shells raining down on us’

UN warns the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is worsening as tens of thousands of families are displaced by the Saudi-UAE coalition offensive to retake the strategic port city.

The battle for the port city of Hodeidah is intensifying as the Saudi-UAE coalition forces step up their offensive to take the strategic area from Houthi rebels.

Military analysts say that the Saudi-led coalition is not making much progress, but the relentless air raids and lack of aid are making an already dire humanitarian crisis even worse for the civilians who live in the region.

The United Nations says additional tens of thousands of families have been displaced from Hodeidah as a result of the fierce fighting.

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AP: Officials: 30 civilians dead in recent clashes in Yemen city

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Heavy fighting over the last two weeks along Yemen’s western coast between pro-government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Shiite rebels has killed at least 30 civilians, including women and children, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

Government forces have been trying to seize rebel-held areas along the western coast, including the port city of Hodeida, while the Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the rebels, known as Houthis, with airstrikes.

The fighting has been concentrated over the past two weeks in al-Tuhyta district, south of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for Yemen’s aid-dependent population. The coalition launched an offensive to retake the city in June.

Along with over 30 killed, fighting and airstrikes — as well as land mines — have wounded 57 civilians since the beginning of July, health and security officials said.

Last Tuesday, an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition killed the eight-member family of Abdallah Kassem. They were driving south of al-Tuhyta when the strike hit their car, the officials said.

Separately, a 65-year woman who made her living selling flowers was killed when she stepped on a land mine, witnesses said.

The Houthis have laid land mines south of al-Tuhyta and along a road that links it with Zabid district, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Witnesses spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals……………Impoverished Yemen has been devastated and pushed to the brink of famine by the stalemated three-year civil war that has left around two-thirds of its population of 27 million relying on aid, and over 8 million at risk of starving.

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REU: Syrian rebels, Iran reach deal to evacuate villages: sources

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian rebels and Iranian-backed negotiators have reached a deal to evacuate thousands of people from two rebel-besieged Shi’ite villages in northwestern Syria in return for the release of hundreds of detainees in state prisons, opposition sources said.

FILE PHOTO – People that were evacuated from the two villages of Kefraya and al-Foua walk near buses, after a stall in an agreement between rebels and Syria’s army, at insurgent-held al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

They said the negotiators from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel coalition spearheaded by Syria’s former al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had agreed all residents would be evacuated from the mostly Shi’ite villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province.

A commander in the regional alliance that backs President Bashar al-Assad said 100 buses were heading to the two towns to evacuate around 6,000 alongside 300 Alawite civilians held by rebels.

“We now are working on the logistical arrangements,” said an Islamist rebel source familiar with the secret negotiations that Turkey was also involved in and which builds on a deal reached last year that was never fully implemented…………….Iran, which backs Assad against the mainly Sunni insurgents and has expanded its military role in Syria, has long taken an interest in the fate of its co-religionists in the two towns.

It has arranged dozens of air lifts of food and equipment to circumvent the rebel siege of the two towns.

Past deals have mostly affected Sunni Muslims living in former rebel-held areas surrounded by government forces and their allies after years of sieges that have in some cases led to starvation.

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REU: Buses arrive to evacuate two besieged pro-Assad Syrian villages

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of buses reached two Syrian government loyalist villages under siege from insurgents in the northwest, as part of a deal to evacuate residents on Wednesday, state media said.

Some 6,000 people will leave, emptying out the mostly Shi’ite villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, a commander in the regional alliance that backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters.

Rebels and Iran-backed forces agreed a deal to evacuate the two mostly Shi’ite villages in return for the release of hundreds of detainees in state prisons, sources said on Tuesday…………“Buses and ambulances enter the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya to bring out the besieged people,” state news agency SANA said.

In April last year, thousands of people in the two villages were shuttled out to government territory in a swap deal.

In return, hundreds of residents left two towns at the border with Lebanon which were in the hands of Sunni rebels at the time and besieged by pro-government forces. They were evacuated to insurgent territory in northern Syria.

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REU: Syrian army pounds southern city of Nawa, reports of casualties: residents

AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian army late on Tuesday launched intensive aerial strikes on the city of Nawa in southern Deraa province with reports of dozens of civilian casualties as the army pressed a Russian-backed offensive in the area.

A resident said dozens of missiles were also fired on the heavily populated city that lies near Quneitra province adjoining the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights where the army moved earlier this week to control the remaining parts of the country’s southwest in rebel hands.

“It’s like doomsday,” said Malek al Ghawi in a text message sent to Reuters, adding there were “many corpses in the streets and everyone is unable to pull them.”……………“We don’t know where to take the injured, the town has been burnt,” Abu Hashem, another resident said.

The city of Nawa, in which at least 100,000 people still live, is the largest urban centre left in rebel hands in Deraa province, where a Russian-backed offensive begun last month defeated rebels across a swathe of territory near Jordan and Israel.

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NYT: Health System in Mosul Remains Broken One Year After Defeat of Islamic State

MOSUL — A year after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from Islamic State the city’s healthcare system remains broken, its hospitals lie in ruins and even basic services are lacking, according to aid groups.

The government retook Mosul with help from a U.S.-led coalition and Kurdish forces a year ago but 380,000 people were displaced from the northern city, which had a population of 2 million prior to its capture by the militant group in June 2014.

The fighting caused 8 million tons of debris, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement. It is one of many international organizations and governments helping with relief and rehabilitation.

Nine of the city’s 13 hospitals are damaged and that means there are 1,000 hospital beds available rather than 3,000, said Heman Nagarathm, Iraq Head of Mission for MSF, Doctors Without Borders.

“There are not enough facilities or bed capacity available,” he said, adding that the current numbers were half the internationally accepted minimum standard.

MSF said that in May it received 3,557 cases at the emergency room of its west Mosul hospital of which 95 percent were caused by unsafe living conditions, such as people falling from damaged buildings or walls or buildings collapsing.

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REU: Iraqi police disperse protesters outside Zubair oilfield as unrest grows

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi police wielded batons and rubber hoses to disperse about 250 protesters gathered at the main entrance to the Zubair oilfield near Basra on Tuesday as unrest across southern cities over poor basic services gathered pace.

Since demonstrations began nine days ago, protesters have attacked government buildings, branches of political parties and powerful Shi’ite militias and stormed the international airport in the holy city of Najaf.

Tensions focused attention on the performance of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is seeking a second term after May 12 parliamentary elections tainted by allegations of fraud that prompted a recount.

In his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Abadi promised to work with protesters to fight corruption and said the government would improve services.

AP: Afghan officials: IS bomber kills 20, Taliban kill 9 police

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Islamic State suicide bomber killed 20 people in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, including a Taliban commander, while in southern Helmand province, a government commando unit freed 54 people from a Taliban-run jail, officials said.

In southern Kandahar province, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Arghistan district late on Monday night, killing nine policemen and wounding seven, according to Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

Zia Durrani, the provincial police spokesman, said 25 Taliban fighters were killed and 15 were wounded in the ensuing battle in Arghistan, a violate districts close to the Pakistani border.

Afghanistan has faced intense attacks by both the Taliban and the country’s Islamic State affiliate recently, even as Washington considers a Taliban demand for direct talks in hopes of jump-starting a negotiated end to what is now the longest military engagement by U.S. forces.

A Taliban official in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain an unofficial office, told The Associated Press the insurgents want direct talks and are ready to put troop withdrawal as well as any outstanding concerns the United States might have on the table — but that so far, no official request to open negotiations has come from Washington.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, the Taliban official said de-listing Taliban leaders from U.S and U.N. watch lists and recognizing their office in Doha, Qatar’s capital, would aid progress in talks, should they begin.

Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan’s Sar-i-Pul province, provincial police chief Abdul Qayuom Baqizoi said Tuesday’s attack by IS took place as village elders met with Taliban officials. He said 15 of the 20 killed were local elders and five were Taliban members, including a Taliban commander.

The Taliban and the Islamic State group have been waging bitter battles in recent days in northern Afghanistan. As many as 100 insurgents from both the Taliban and IS have died in the fighting, said Baqizoi.

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NYT: Islamic State Fighters in Afghanistan Kill at Least 15 Taliban

Iraq A Deadly Deception – War Documentary 2018

WAR DOCUMENTARY: IRAQ A DEADLY DECEPTION ALJAZEERA DOCUMENTARIES 2018 On the evening of 9/11, George W Bush made a vow to the American public – that he would defeat terrorism.
Unknown to those listening in shock to the presidential address, the president and his advisers had already begun planning their trajectory into an invasion of Iraq. It was packaged as “holding responsible the states who support terrorism” by Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser between 2001 and 2003.
“I believe it represented a recognition that we would never succeed against the terrorists if we went after them one at a time and as long as governments were facilitating the organisation, training, equipping of, financing of terrorist organisations, we were never going to get it under control,” says Perle.
After 100 days spent fighting those who had become publicly accepted as the culprits – Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan – the US set the ball rolling for war against Iraq.
On the evening of 9/11 the president is saying: well, maybe we’ll be going after Iraq now and somebody said, well, that would be against international law. The president responded: I don’t care, we’re going to kick some ass.

The War Criminals

The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell  

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.

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