Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Clashes fuel debate over US plan to leave Iraq

From The New York Times by Tim Arango Published March 28, 2011
Writes Arango from Kirkuk, Iraq: "Many in this divided city want American troops to stay longer than the Obama administration has said they will..." A Kurdish peshmerga troop presence on the outskirts of Kirkuk has worried Arab lawmakers and Iraqi government officials, and prompted the deployment of American troops to the area.
Kurdish leaders say the peshmerga deployment was necessary to protect peaceful demonstrators from Sunni Arab insurgents.
Sheik Burhan Mizher, an Arab member of the provincial government expressed worry about the prospect of civil war after the Americans leave. Many among the diplomatic and military ranks of both countries argue for a continued American military presence beyond this year, citing Kirkuk as the centerpiece of their case, according to Arango's article.
As Arango writes, "Perhaps the greatest unfinished chapter of America's war in Iraq will be the status of Kirkuk, an ancient city that today is fought over by its three main ethnic groups, Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens, each making historical claims to the land and the oil that flows beneath."
The Kurds are the modern-day manifestation of the ancient Medes, the invaders from the north prophesied by Jeremiah in his two chapters of doom upon the land of Babylon, modern-day Iraq -- "For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it... The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it... Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz... the kings of the Medes..." (Jer 50:3; 51:11, 27-28).
This defeat of Babylon by the Medes includes the plundering of her treasures -- "Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have enough... A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered... " (Jer 50:10, 37).
It seems from this article in The New York Times that the American presence is a deterrent to all out war between Iraq and the Kurds. But Jeremiah prophesies that the occupiers will abandon Chaldea, opening the way for further conflict -- "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers up to the very skies..." (Jer 51:9).
And what seems to precipitate this abandonment is the burning of the cities -- "so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire" (Jer 51:58).
The fires, the abandonment, the defeat in civil war, the plundering... and then it gets really bad.

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Friday, March 04, 2011

Thousands of Iraqis demonstrate

Excerpts from an Associated Press article March 4, 2011
Baghdad (AP) -- Thousands rallied across Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq on Friday in anti-government demonstrations that defied security checkpoints and a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the capital.
It was the second Friday in a row of Iraqi demonstrations -- a show of force that has unnerved officials worried that the turmoil in the rest of the region is spreading here. [...]
Iraqi security forces around the country clashed last Friday with protesters in the most widespread and violent demonstrations the country has seen since a wave of unrest began spreading across the Middle East. [...]
Protesters chant anti-government slogans during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, March 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraqi security forces close a bridge leading to the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, March 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

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Wednesday, March 02, 2011

UN worried over violence reports in Iraq rallies

From The Washington Post online

The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 7:13 AM

BAGHDAD -- The United Nations says it's concerned about reports of human rights violations during nationwide protests in Iraq.

U.N.'s Special Representative to Iraq Ad Melkert said in a statement on Wednesday that reported violations included "disproportionate" use of force by security forces against protesters.

Melkert has also voiced concern over restrictions on the media and arrests of journalists across the country.

Thousands of Iraqis have been taking to the streets in protests fueled by anger over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy public services.

At least 14 people were killed during protests last Friday billed as the "Day of Rage."

Many protesters clashed with authorities, set fire to government buildings and toppled concrete barriers.

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