How does a joint-exercise only leave US troops injured? And Gaza and the West Bank remain under attack
AP notes, "The United States military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected Islamic State group militants in the country's western desert that killed at least 15 people and saw seven American troops hurt, officials said Saturday." , and CNN) add:
Five of the personnel were wounded during the operation, with one evacuated for further treatment. Two other US personnel were injured “from falls during the operation,” the officials said, with one having to be evacuated “out of theater for follow on care.”
All of the injured personnel are stable.
NBC News was first to report on the injured US troops.
The early morning raid came after months of intelligence-gathering, the Iraqi military said Saturday. It said that the ISIS militants were found in four locations in western Iraq and that following the raid, an airborne unit was dropped into the locations.
A few things. US troops withdrawing? Dropping back to August 14th:
Over the weekend, APA noted, "The foreign minister of Iraq will travel to Washington next month to make a formal announcement about the withdrawal of American military forces from the Arab country, informed sources said, APA reports citing TASNIM." Officially, 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq. The number is actually much higher. Last month, someone at the US Embassy in Baghdad shot a woman in an apartment across the way leaving her hospitalized which has increased the calls for US troops to leave Iraq. As noted in this snapshot, the wife of Dr Abdul Amir al-Hazali was praying in her apartment when she was shot. As we noted then, the shooting resulted in another push to expel US troops from Iraq:
Abdul Amir Al-Ghazali spoke with ALSUMARIA and explained to them that the shooting took place on Friday while his wife was praying. The Badr Organization accuses the US government of converting the US Embassy in Baghdad into a "military base," condemns the action citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, and, citing the Iraqi Constitution (Articles 1, 15, 50 and 109) calls for Iraq's legislative and executive branches to expel the US military from Iraq.
The Badr Organization is part of the alliance that controls the Parliament. Over the weekend, another group began echoing the call. SABA reports, "State of Law Coalition member Ahmed Al-Sudani on Sunday said that Washington is procrastinating in determining the withdrawal paragraph from Iraq, stressing that the withdrawal of US forces is necessary to achieve national security. State of Law is former prime minster and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki's coalition. Arabic social media is showing some excitement about the upcoming September trip to DC with the hope that an announcement will be made that US troops are leaving.
Love to see that happen but don't see it happening.
And, as we noted in the August 16th snapshot, CNN's longterm Iraq correspondent Mohammed Tawfeeq reported:
Iraq has postponed announcing an end-date for the US-led military coalition’s presence in the country due to “recent developments,” raising questions about the future of US military presence in the Gulf state amid heightened tension in the region.
Iraq’s Higher Military Commission had aimed to propose an end date for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military operation combatting terror group ISIS.
“We were very close to announcing this agreement, but due to recent developments, the announcement of the end of the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq was postponed,” a statement by Iraq’s foreign ministry said Thursday, without giving further details on what the “recent developments.”
It's not happening. And one reason may be found in Friday's incident. Where are the Iraqi casualties? Even the Iraqi media isn't reporting any. So a supposed joint-exercise carried out by Iraqi forces and US forces resulted in no Iraqi injuries? But seven US troops were wounded.
Are you getting it because what it looks like is the US didn't provide 'support,' the US military carried out the action. Maybe the Iraqis were part of it from a distance, maybe they weren't. What appears obvious is that, 21 years after the start of the illegal war, US forces remain on the ground in Iraq to do the work that the Iraqi military still can't or won't.
Is this still about 'training'? US forces were clear when Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House that Iraqi troops were not showing up for training exercises. By the time Barack Obama became president, it was left to the US State Dept's Brooke Darby to explain to Congress why the training facility that US taxpayers built in Iraq was not being used but was, instead, being boycotted by the Iraqi military.
This has happened repeatedly over the years and we've documented it here repeatedly. There's no reason for US forces to still be in Iraq. And if the Iraqi military isn't up to defending Iraq, that's really their problem.
From the December 1, 2011 snapshot:
That
was Ackerman's important question yesterday afternoon at the House
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia hearing
on Iraq. US House Rep Steve Chabot is the Chair of the Subcommittee, US
House Rep Gary Ackerman is the Ranking Member. The first panel was the
State Dept's Brooke Darby. The second panel was the Inspector General
for the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
Stuart W. Bowen and SIGIR's Assistant Inspector General for Iraq Glenn
D. Furbish. [. . .]
Gary said that in a 2012 Congressional hearing. And it's still true today.
US forces need to leave Iraq. US taxpayers need to stop footing the bill for wasted training of Iraqi forces.
And it's really past time that supposed 'joint exercises' are leaving US troops injured but not Iraqi troops.
Is there still no buy-in on the part of Iraqi forces into the future of their own country? I have no idea. If there isn't, one reason might by that US forces refuse to leave.
But 21 years after the US invasion of Iraq, US forces do not belong on the ground in Iraq and they should have left long ago. No, they should have never been sent there to begin with. But I do remember a lot of Americans insisting US forces would leave Iraq -- a number of those Americans were in the US Congress and a few still are.
But they dropped the ball. They got distracted. They act as though the Iraq War never happened.
And not just members of Congress but people who ran for president. Jill Stein is on her third run. On her previous two she couldn't (wouldn't) address the Iraq War. But a lot of people think the useless fool is going to be there ticket to ending the assault on Gaza. Some people are born stupid but, yes, some people have to work very hard to remain stupid. All their life.
Speaking of useless trash. NPR had an article on Gaza. We're not noting it. Jane Arraf was The Whore of Baghdad. She never broke a story in her years in Iraq. That's under Saddam, that's throughout. A useless piece of garbage who refused to report because that might mean her getting kicked out of Iraq (see Eason Jordan's infamous 2003 NYT column "The News We Kept To Ourselves" which described the trade CNN made to stay on the ground in Iraq. That's how Jane 'learned' reporting. And when CNN dumped her (finally), it didn't matter where she ended up -- THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONISTOR, ALJAZEERA, NPR, THE NEW YORK TIMES, PBS' THE NEWSHOUR . . .
Since 1991, she's reported badly on Iraq. We used to give her the benefit of the doubt. Then Twitter came along. And Jane, on Twitter, had actual news. It never made it into her reports. That included the Iraqi military attacking protesters. Shooting them dead. But that never made it into her reporting, did it. And when they attacked protesters in Tahrir Square in Baghdad -- one of the most ghastly attacks, Jane could be found on air on NPR stating that it was just tear gas and blah blah blah.
Reality, they fired on the protesters with live ammunition. Did they also use tear gas? Yes, they did and they fired a tear gas cannister into an Iraqi protester's head. That was all over Twitter but there was Jane Arraf on NPR insisting the response from the Iraqi military was careful and controlled.
The Whore of Baghdad.
She earned the title.
She never reported anything bad until every other outlet was reporting it. Why? That's what she learned at CNN (in fairness, some of her colleagues have told me that she did that at REUTERS as well before she joined CNN0.
How do you cover Iraq for decades and never once lead on a story? How do you never once have a scoop?
You do it by being a suck up to the government in Iraq and being too cowardly to report news.
I'm sitting here and thinking of how long the Iraq War has been. And there are some people in the US who can be forgiven because they were too young. So let's note how ghastly the attack on Iraqi protesters was -- this is what Jane Arraf ignored in her supposed 'reporting' on it for NPR. Dropping back to the October 25, 2018 snapshot:
In addition, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "Iraqi police fired live shots into the air as well as rubber bullets and
dozens of tear gas canisters on Friday to disperse thousands of
protesters on the streets of Baghdad, sending young demonstrators
running for cover and enveloping a main bridge in the capital with thick
white smoke. One protester was killed and dozens were injured in the
first hours of the protest, security officials said."
The first one killed is said to have been hit with a tear canister. The
video above is supposed to be of that protester after he was hit.
So, no, we're not interested in Jane Arraf. Her entire career is whitewashing -- it's one journalistic crime after another. And when she does finally cover a story, you can be sure at least five other outlets have already covered it.
We'll instead note this from NPR's WEEKEND EDITION (Saturday):
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Polio, which has been gone from the Gaza Strip for decades, is back as the war there continues. But there is the possibility of good news. Tomorrow, the United Nations will begin to vaccinate children in Gaza against that preventable and highly contagious virus. It'll be an enormous effort, one that NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy will follow from her base in Dubai. And she joins us now. Aya, thanks for being with us.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: Tell us about how this vaccination campaign's being rolled out.
BATRAWY: Well, the U.N. has really big aims here. They want to reach more than 640,000 children across Gaza to give them two courses of the polio vaccine. It will be given orally in droplets, but it needs refrigeration at every step, and pretty much Gaza has no electricity. They're just running on generators and fuel that's in short supply. Another logistical challenge here is that the whole population is displaced, and so it's not easy for them to reach U.N.-run clinics. But the U.N. groups leading this vaccination effort, which is UNICEF and the World Health Organization, they say the most critical factor is a pause in airstrikes so that the vaccines can reach all these children. Now, Israel says it's agreed to short pauses. Basically, it won't attack for about eight hours a day in specific parts of Gaza for the few days that this campaign is being rolled out, and Hames says they'll also cooperate.
SIMON: How did the polio spread there in the first place?
BATRAWY: Doctors tell me this was a combination of factors. You know, you have children, Scott, that haven't had access to vaccines, but also most of Gaza's hospitals have been destroyed or closed. You also have wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants that have been bombed, so people have been drinking dirty water to survive. And we know from the Gaza Health Ministry that more than 40,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire in this war, but we don't have a tally for people who've died from illness. However, we know there's been a huge spike in kids with infections and diarrhea. Children are hungry. They are malnourished. They're living in these overcrowded shelters or in the open in tents and with weak immune systems.
SIMON: And do we know how widespread polio could now be in Gaza?
BATRAWY: Well, there's already been a case confirmed in a 10-month-old baby boy who was active and crawling, and he's now paralyzed in one leg after contracting polio. And he is the first case of polio in a quarter-century in Gaza. Now, it comes after the Gaza Health Ministry and the World Health Organization - they sounded the alarm on this in July when they announced that the polio virus had been found in sewage water flowing in the streets around the tents of displaced people. And there are now at least two other suspected cases as well. Now, the symptoms for polio show in one out of every 100 to 1,000 people. So the doctors I spoke with say this means thousands of people in Gaza likely already have contracted polio. It is spreading, and one doctor called it a powder keg.
Yolande Knell (BBC NEWS) notes, "To be effective, the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 90% of children under 10 must be immunised in a short time frame. It follows the discovery of the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in Gaza, with a UN expert saying more children are likely to be infected and that there could be a wider regional outbreak if the virus is not dealt with." Amr Mostafa (THE NATIONAL) reports, "Teams will be based at the health centres affiliated with the ministry and international organisations, including the UNRWA, in addition to mobile teams that will tour the enclave including the camps of the displaced people, Mr Dahir said. Another round will start on September 17 and will revisit the same areas. Yousef Abu Al Reesh, Gaza's deputy minister of health, said vaccination teams would try to get to as many areas as possible to ensure wide coverage but he said only a comprehensive ceasefire could guarantee enough children are reached." The roll out depends on a level of safety and it's a level that the Israeli government is unwilling to ensure. ALJAZEERA notes that a few children got the vaccine today and that, "On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Defence agency in Gaza said at least three people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli attack in the vicinity of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital)."
In other news, Lawahez Jabari, Rebecca Cohen, Hayley Walker and Sarah Dean (NBC NEWS) report:
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American taken hostage in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, is among six hostages whose bodies were recovered Saturday.
"With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time," a family representative said.
President Joe Biden said the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages held by Hamas were recovered in a tunnel under Rafah.
The other five discovered today are Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Eden Yerushalmi, Oren Danino and Almog Sarusi. Would the six be dead if War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu had worked on an actual cease-fire instead of prolonging the assault on Gaza? It's a question more and more Israelis are asking themselves. , and (CNN) report:
A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza has called for the public to mobilize after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported finding “a number of bodies” in the war-torn territory.
The demands by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came as thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The IDF said in a statement Saturday that it had “located a number of bodies during combat in the Gaza Strip,” but it has not confirmed whether any of the bodies are those of hostages and asked the public to “refrain from spreading rumors.”
However, many Israelis have taken the statement to mean that more Israeli hostages have been found dead and it has amplified calls for the government to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The Hostages Families Forum, which has confirmed their deaths, has organised nationwide rallies and hit out at Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to secure a ceasefire deal.
"Today, the entire nation will stand alongside the hostages' families to protest the cabinet's ongoing neglect if the hostages," it said, calling on the public to join a demonstration "demanding a complete halt of the country and the immediate implementation of a deal to release the hostages."
"If it weren’t for the saboteurs, the excuses, and the spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably be alive,” the forum said on X.
The Israeli government's assault on Gaza continues and they've also upped the assault on the West Bank. No, they aren't the same (as we noted earlier this week). ALJAZEERA explains:
The occupied West Bank is part of historical Palestine on the west bank of the Jordan River.
It measures 5,650sq km (2,180sq miles) of landlocked territory surrounded by Israel, Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Approximately 3 million Palestinians live there, alongside an increasing number of Israelis who built illegal settlements and outposts on land taken by force from Palestinian families.
The West Bank has some 871,000 registered refugees, a quarter of whom live in 19 refugee camps, descendants of the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands to make way for the creation of Israel in the Nakba of 1948.
You can read more here.
Charlie Kimber (UK SOCIALIST WORKER) notes,:
Israel has launched the largest scale assault of the occupied West Bank for more than 20 years.
Some ministers are demanding that Israel spreads the same tactics it used in Gaza in the West Bank assaults. This includes forcing people out of their homes to clear certain areas.
Israel began its fourth day of assaults in the West Bank on Saturday. Troops fired live bullets and tear gas and rampaged through parts of the territory backed by helicopters and drones.
Bulldozers followed, destroying homes and roads. Israeli forces have killed at least 22 Palestinians. Called “Operation Summer Camps,” the Israeli army has deployed three separate brigades to invade the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.
And the same publication's Arthur Townend observes:
Israel has injured thousands of people, and now they want more revenge on the civilian societies in the West Bank.
The Israeli government decided to annex the West Bank. It wants to go on taking over our land, so they sectioned 60 percent of the West Bank right away and put it under their direct control. And they continue to attack other areas with complete silence from the Palestinian Authority.
Now they are focusing on the refugee camps—their existence means Palestinian people still have an opportunity to return.
Israel is preparing to delete a generation’s memory of the Nakba. By destroying and evacuating the refugee camps, they destroy the symbol of the people, of their right to return back.
Site note, I don't usually delete what goes up here. An hour or so ago, "Diana Ross - Say We Can Live @ Workin' Overtime Tour [1989]" went up. When it did, the video was visible. The 'owner' (ha ha, l they don't own s**t, they pirated the video from TV but want to pretend like it's their video) restricted it ten minutes later. While working on this entry, I put up "Diana Ross - Say We Can Live @ Workin' Overtime Tour [1989]" and we'll leave that up. "Say We Can" is from Diana's WORKIN' OVERTIME album and was written by Nile Rogers and Cathy Block.
While we're noting videos, Friday, we posted Stevie Wonder's new video. Stevie's an old friend and I cried hugging him in Chicago last week. It was so good to catch up. Let's note his new video that he released Friday.
The following sites updated:
