07 Jun
United States Wars, News and Casualties June 7
United States Wars, News and Casualties
The War Criminals
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.)
The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.
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
BBC: Scores of Ethiopian migrants drown off Yemen’s coast
Image copyright IOM Image caption Survivors say at least 100 people were on the boat
At least 46 migrants trying to cross from Somalia to Yemen have drowned when their boat capsized, UN officials say.
Another 16 people are missing after the vessel overturned in rough seas off Yemen’s coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.
Survivors say the smuggler’s boat was carrying at least 100 people who had left the port of Bosaso to find work in Yemen and other Gulf countries.
All the migrants were Ethiopian nationals, reports say.
The IOM says the boat capsized in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday morning. Among the victims were 37 men and nine women.
A number of passengers on board the crammed vessel were without life jackets, survivors say.
“Over 7,000 poor migrants take this perilous journey every month; some 100,000 took it just last year,” said IOM official Mohammed Abdiker.
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REU: Yemen peace plan sees ceasefire, Houthis abandoning missiles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.N. peace plan for Yemen calls on the Houthi movement to give up its ballistic missiles in return for an end to a bombing campaign against it by a Saudi-led coalition and a transitional governance agreement, according to a draft of the document and sources.
The plan, which has not been made public and could be modified, is the latest effort to end Yemen’s three-year-old civil war, which has spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The conflict pits the Iran-aligned Houthis, who took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014, against other Yemeni forces backed by a coalition loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and led by U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The coalition fears the Houthis are part of a regional power grab by Tehran.
Previous efforts to end the conflict, which according to the United Nations has killed more than 10,000 people, have failed. It is unclear whether the new plan will fare any better given the divergent interests of fighters on the ground and international backers.
A draft document seen by Reuters and confirmed by two sources familiar with it says that as a step toward new security arrangements, “heavy and medium weapons including ballistic missiles shall be handed over by non-state military actors in an orderly and planned fashion.”
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REU: Iraq launches air strike against Islamic State in Syria
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq launched an air strike against an Islamic State target inside neighboring Syria on Thursday, the military said.
The F-16 fighter plane destroyed an area where members of the ultra-hardline Sunni group were operating, it said in a statement.
Islamic State, which once occupied a third of Iraq’s territory, has been largely defeated in the country but still poses a threat along its border with Syria.
The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes against Islamic State in Syria since last year, with the approval of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
Iraq has good relations with Iran and Russia, Assad’s main backers in the Syrian civil war, while also enjoying strong support from the U.S.-led coalition.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over Islamic State in December but it still operates from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq.
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GUARD: ‘Too many strange faces’: Kurds fear forced demographic shift in Afrin
Many who fled after Turkish assault say their homes have been given to Arabs
When Areen and her clan fled the Turkish assault on Afrin in January, they feared they may never return.
Six months later, the Kurdish family remain in nearby villages with other Afrin locals who left as the conquering Turks and their Arab proxies swept in, exiling nearly all its residents.
Recently, strangers from the opposite end of Syria have moved into Areen’s home and those of her family. The few relatives who have made it back for fleeting visits say the numbers of new arrivals – all Arabs – are rising each week. So too is a resentment towards the newcomers, and a fear that the steady, attritional changes may herald yet another flashpoint in the seven-year conflict.
Unscathed through much of the Syrian war, and a sanctuary for refugees, Afrin has become a focal point of a new and pivotal phase, where the ambitions of regional powers are being laid bare and a coexistence between Arabs and Kurds – delicately poised over decades – is increasingly being threatened.
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REU: At least 18 killed in Baghdad explosion: source
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 18 people were killed and over 90 wounded in an explosion in Baghdad’s Sadr City district on Wednesday, an Iraqi police source said.
