Sunday, March 22, 2015

Editorial: Iraq can wait apparently yet again

Week after week, Iraq can wait.







  • The ridiculous Katrina vanden Heuvel (ringleader of The Nation magazine) Tweeted last week about Iraq and accountability.  (See C.I.'s "Katty van van wonders about accountability.")

    But, you understand, she didn't mean accountability for War Crimes of the Iraqi government going on today.


    No, she's trying to revive anti-Bully Boy Bush euphoria in an attempt to help Dems in next year's elections.


    Last week, Human Rights Watch releases a new report entitled "After Liberation Came Destruction: Iraqi Militias and the Aftermath of Amerli" and all Katrina vanden Heuvel can do is whine about Bully Boy Bush.

    Or take Law & Disorder Radio -- a program hosted by three attorneys.

    Certainly a discussion about War Crimes would be right up their alley.

    Instead, this week they throw their temper tantrum over the results of the election in Israel last week.

    Time and again, Iraq has to wait.

    Because they care about everything else before they give a damn about Iraq or the Iraqi people.


    From the Human Rights Watch report:


    Peshmerga officers told Human Rights Watch they saw 47 villages in which militias had destroyed and ransacked homes, businesses, mosques, and public buildings. Residents told Human Rights Watch that the militias included the Badr Brigades, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq, Kita’ib Hezbollah, and Saraya Tala’a al-Khorasani, and that they destroyed numerous villages between the towns of al-Khales, in southern Diyala province, and Amerli, about 50 kilometers to the north in Salah al-Din province.
    Satellite imagery corroborates witness accounts that in many cases Iraqi government forces and militias targeted the same villages and towns in which, supported by coalition air strikes, they had fought ISIS in the weeks before they lifted ISIS’s siege of Amerli. Satellite imagery showed that most of the damage they inflicted on these towns and villages after they lifted the siege resulted from arson and building demolition.
    On the basis of field visits, interviews with more than 30 witnesses, and analysis of photographs and satellite imagery, Human Rights Watch found that an area that included 35 villages and towns showed extensive destruction caused by fire, explosives and heavy earth moving equipment. The evidence showed that most of the damage occurred between early September and mid-November 2014. Using satellite imagery, Human Rights Watch identified over 3,800 destroyed buildings in 30 towns and villages, including 2,600 buildings likely destroyed by fire and a further 1,200 buildings likely demolished with heavy machinery and the uncontrolled detonation of high explosives. This destruction was distinct from damages resulting from air strikes and heavy artillery and mortar fire prior to ISIS’s retreat from Amerli, which Human Rights Watch separately identified using the satellite imagery. Human Rights Watch’s field research together with the satellite imagery analysis indicates that militias engaged in deliberate and wanton destruction of civilian property after the retreat of ISIS and the end of fighting in the area.



    At some point, these crimes may get attention . . .

    No doubt just as soon as Katrina vanden Heuvel can figure out how to blame them on Bully Boy Bush.