Month: April 2003

There’s wide-spread looting in Iraq today. Not very surprisingly, the social structure of the country is in chaos. Hospitals are being looted; suspected looters are being killed in the street. On the BBC this morning, a reporter talked about seeing a man beat to death in front of him. The killers said “He wasn’t from this neighborhood.” Was he a looter? Maybe, maybe not. But man, it’s getting rough out there.

This is about as indicative of the future of Iraq as the cheering was yesterday. The fact that Iraqis cheered Americans yesterday does not mean that they will be cheering six months from now. The fact that there is widespread looting today does not mean that there will be looting six months from now.

And that’s why I feel we while we should not be saying “Sure, but…” (an excellent post by Philippe de Croy, btw), I feel we should all be saying “Let’s wait till things have stabilized.”

Philippe de Croy of the Volokh Conspiracy provides guidelines for conservative commentators who want to talk about Iraq’s chemical weapons. It’s a nice public service, really.

(Or anyhow, I assume that’s what he means when he says “Talk a lot about things that ‘aren’t clear’ or that ‘remain to be seen.’ These sorts of assertions are good because they are hard to falsify.”)

Sauce for the goose…

Kurdish forces have occupied Kirkuk; according to NPR this morning, there are about 20,000 Kurdish soldiers in the city along with a fairly token US presence. This is supposedly a trigger point for a Turkish invasion, so we’ll soon see if Turkey and/or the US are bluffing or not. Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said Colin Powell agreed to allow Turkish military observers to go to Kirkuk, and that US forces would arrive “within a few hours” to take control of the situation.

Popular right-wing comment of the week: “look what the left has been defending.”

Well… OK. If we’re responsible for the horrors of Saddam’s rule, I’d like the reasonable sensible right wing bloggers to stand up and take responsibility for this:

Osama is a pathetic little bitch. I swear, if I run into his sorry little ass in an alley somewhere, I’m gonna turn that turd into my own personal sex toy.

And I’m not even gay. I’ll still get an orgasm just thinking about the humiliation I’m laying down on his murderous stinking ass.

I’ll come the second time while I murder that prissy little buttfuck.

And this:

I’m not religious though I do remember some of the tales from the book of Revelations. I have to say that I believe if there is an end of time as described in that book, if this is it, then Mohammed is the false prophet spoken of and Muslims are the evil followers who have to be defeated.

Just words? Sure. But words that lead to actions — so how’s about you take responsibility for this:

Several male students, one wielding a wooden plank, broke into the suite of an anti-war activist in Calhoun College March 27 and wrote a hateful note on her bedroom message board, said the victim, Katherine Lo ‘05. Lo said the incident occurred a day after she hung an American flag upside-down from her bedroom window to protest the war in Iraq.

Tut tuts after the fact don’t do much for me on this, frankly. The left has been pointing out that the kind of virulent racist sentiment we see in Little Green Footballs leads to violent action for well over a year now. How’s about a simple admission that the left was right?

It is essential that outlets such as LGF exist. I mean that very sincerely. Everyone, no matter how vicious and vile their views, should have a platform. One of the reasons why is so that they can see how others react to those views. Free speech is pretty meaningless if nobody is listening; ideally, free speech creates a climate in which ideas can be discussed, criticized, analyzed, and otherwise dissected.

Failure to engage something like LGF in a critical fashion, however, is gonna be perceived as approval. Even if you don’t think Charles Johnson is a racist (and honestly, I wouldn’t say he is based on his posts), he has built a site that supports and encourages racism. If he doesn’t take a hose to the stables, he deserves criticism for his failure to act.

That CBS Baghdad webcam is currently showing footage of a tank and a slew of Iraqi citizens trying to tear down a big statue of Saddam. Just in case anyone wants to watch. (Addendum: here’s a rough screenshot.)

Still no chemical weapons. Maybe some will turn up tomorrow.

On February 5^th, Colin Powell talked about Iraqi chemical weapons.

And we have sources who tell us that he recently has authorized his field commanders to use them. He wouldn’t be passing out the orders if he didn’t have the weapons or the intent to use them.

Iraqi field commanders have been willing to commit war crimes. We’ve seen suicide bombers. We’ve seen Iraqi troops dressed in civilian clothing. We’ve seen false surrenders. The US has made no secret of its intent to prosecute these as war crimes. Yet… none of these field commanders, who Powell said were authorized to use chemical weapons, have done so. Why not? Why would they commit the crimes they committed, but no others?

Iraq has not used its drones, which Powell claimed had a 500 kilometer range. It has not used the sprayers which Powell warned against. It has not launched chemical warfare strikes on the US bases in Kuwait, or against Israel. A government on the verge of collapse, with nothing to lose, has not used these dire weapons.

Further, there have been no terrorist attacks using chemical weapons. One common claim was that Saddam would give his chemical weapons to terrorists. The US defeated al-Ansar in Northern Iraq, and found no chemical weapons there. There is no evidence that Saddam exported chemical weapons capabilities to terrorists.

I can’t honestly say I think Saddam has absolutely no chemical weapons. I won’t be surprised if we turn up a couple of caches. However, I can say that his failure to use them demonstrates conclusively that any chemical weapons Saddam possessed were no threat to the world. He’s at the end of his rope. American tanks are in the streets of Baghdad. He has to know that the US would just as soon kill him as capture him.

Where are Iraq’s chemical weapons? Nowhere threatening, if they’re anywhere at all. That leg of the invasion justification is teetering on the verge of collapse.

So, what’s up in Iraq?

I’m not even pretending to keep track of the reputed chemical weapon finds, but MSNBC is. As of now the only recent discovery confirmed by the military turned out to be pesticides. There are two or three other rumored finds out there, but the key word there is “rumored.”

We may or may not have killed Saddam in a recent bombing run.

Stratfor claims that there’s still fighting going on in Umm Qasr. The British are holding down that entire area, which I mention mostly for the sake of noting yet again that Rumsfeld said we wouldn’t need the Brits. Ahem. Anyhow, this is a problem because it hampers naval access to Iraq.

The Kurds are pushing towards Mosul and Kirkuk alongside US troops. Turkey continues to threaten to intervene if those cities come under Kurdish control. I’d been thinking that Powell’s visit to Turkey patched up those problems, but evidently not. So, that continues to be something worth watching.

The US is continuing to have all kinds of friendly fire problems. One has to expect some of this in a war, but the Brits don’t seem to make these mistakes as often, and the British friendly fire incidents to date have been in the heat of ground battle. Conversely, it’s the US planes hitting the wrong targets. Well, and most recently a US tank fired into a hotel. Two journalists dead so far from that one.

The 4^th Infantry Division finally landed in Kuwait. Obviously, the 3^rd wasn’t waiting for them before taking on Baghdad, contrary to some reports. (My guesses included.) Will they be more occupying forces? Will they go for Tikrut in case Saddam makes a last stand there? Are they just insurance? Damned if I know.

And, finally, the invasion itself is probably just about complete. Which does not mean they’re done fighting — just that the organized opposition is very close to wrapped up. What we’ll see from here on in is unorganized opposition. Welcome to the occupation.