The Dogs of the Shia

People who know me know that I am secular and that I would hate to see Baghdad become like Tehran, where women are forced to wear hijab. Iranian women who rebel are imprisoned, but after realizing that forcing the issue of hijab has not worked very well, the Iranian police have tried a different tactic: hold fashion shows in an effort to teach Iranian women how to dress fashionably without disobeying the Islamic Revolution's strict dress code. Shia militias in Iraq have used more direct methods to impose their version of Islamic dress on Iraqi women who refuse: they simply murder them. The Iraqi militia tactic infuriates me and reminds me of how the Ba'ath party enforced their "laws". In fact many of these militiamen are former Ba'thists. I know that the word "Ba'thist" has become synonymous with "Sunni Arab", but in Saddam's Iraq, in order to work for the government in any capacity, one had to be a member of the Ba'ath party. Many poor Shia men joined Jaish al Quds or Fedayeen Saddam, and some of them had no problem harassing, turning in, and even murdering fellow Shia who defied the Ba'ath. One of my second cousins, who as a child spent four years in a prison near Baghdad because his older brother defected (I wrote about what happened to his family in my first post), told me recently that when Saddam's regime had a problem with a group of Shia, the regime would unleash their Shia dogs on the Shia who disobeyed. Those dogs are still in Iraq, and they still have no problem murdering Iraqis who break “the rules”.

I wish a powerful Iraqi would at least speak out against the murder of women who only want the freedom to wear whatever they want, a freedom they always had in Baghdad and Basra before 2003. One would expect the Iraqi government to take a stand, but sadly, Maliki has no balls, and apparently neither do the Basra police, who seem scared to take on the militias. Furthermore, it seems that the Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard are still infiltrated by murderous militiamen, who also have no problem murdering fellow Shia. We can't expect Sistani to speak out, since he is an ayatollah and Najef has always been a holy city where women must where ibayas, not just hijabs. Nor should we expect Muqtada al Sadr to speak out, since he seeks to become an ayatollah himself, and since many of his followers are thugs who might be responsible for some of these murders. One Mehdi Army member has denied targeting women in Basra, so maybe the murderers are of the Badr Brigade, which is funded and influenced by the Iranian regime. I don't know exactly who has been murdering Iraqi women for dressing "inappropriately", but one thing is for sure: the murderers are Shia dogs.

Humans are not causing climate change?

Just when I thought that everybody - scientists and politicians - agree that humans are contributing to global warming, along comes somebody who believes that global warming is not caused by humans.  Today Al Gore urged the US and China, the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, to do something about global warming, while a group of skeptical scientists, led by Lord Christopher Monckton, a UK climate researcher, urged the world to do NOTHING.

 

"Climate change is a non problem. The right answer to a non problem is to have the courage to do nothing," Monckton told participants of the UN Global Warming Conference in Bali. 

 

Apparently Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma agrees that we should do nothing.  The Senate is putting together a bill that aims to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases in the US, but Inhofe has voted to fight it.  Inhofe has argued before that "much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science." How embarrassing for Infhofe and people who agree with him.  As the world's climate changes before our eyes, I cannot believe there are people who are still denying that humans are causing global warming and suggesting that we do nothing about it. 

 

There is a group on facebook called "Actually, global warming is a bigger problem than Iraq."  As much as I care about Iraq, I agree that global warming is more important to the long term health of our planet than Iraq. 

Gates says Arab world must support progress in Iraq

I like Robert Gates.  It's kind of sad that an American official has to urge the Arabs to support Iraq in ways that will alleviate sectarian strife. 

 

Arab World Must Support Iraqi Progress, Gates Says

 

Monday, 10 December 2007

By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates gives an opening speech during the Manama Dialogue security conference sponsored by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in Manama, Bahrain, Dec. 8, 2007. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Jerry Morrison, USAF. MANAMA, Bahrain — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on Iraq's Arab neighbors Saturday to help the Iraqis build on progress being made to ensure it succeeds as a peaceful, stabilizing force in the region. "Whether the positive trends of recent months continue will be determined largely by where we go from here," Gates told about 200 delegates from 23 countries here at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' annual Manama Dialogue. "And by 'we,' I mean not only the United States and the Iraqi government, but also the governments of every nation represented at this dialogue." Gates urged the Arab world to "exercise your influence with the Iraqis and encourage them to meet their own goals and expectations, to live up to their own promises." "I also urge you to help them in every way that you can – by dampening homegrown insurgencies, by alleviating sectarian strife, by providing economic and diplomatic support," he said.

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Is reform in Iran inevitable?

Good news. Young Iranians seem to be getting tired of not being able to freely criticize their government and not being able to do simple things like holding hands in public without being flogged or imprisoned. Given that half of Iranians are under the age of 25 and a large percentage of those young Iranians consider themselves to be agnostic, I think that reform in Iran is inevitable, and given that so many of Iraq's politicians spent many years in Iran and are still influenced by Iran, reform in Iran will certainly result in reform in Iraq.

Who knows? Maybe even Mahmoud Ahmedinejad can change. It turns out that he's a blogger who allows comments on his blog, although comments are screened.

Students stone police in Iran riot
Last updated at 20:33pm on 9th December 2007

Students defied a clampdown on protests in Iran yesterday by tearing down the gates of Tehran university.

They chanted slogans against President Ahmadinejad and carried placards saying "Live free or die", "No war, no fascism" and "Women must decide their fate, not the state."

They wrecked the iron-barred gates and threw stones at police, according to Iranian state radio, which said the protest ended peacefully.

Tehran University is the largest and one of the oldest universities in Iran.

Student protests have been rare in recent years. Western rights groups have accused Iran of banning dissent.

But there was a demonstration in Tehran last month against the detention of three students who were picked up during a protest at another Iranian university a week earlier.

Some of the placards yesterday named the arrested students.

Professors have joined them in criticising Ahmadinejad for clamping down on dissent on campuses.

The president and his government say they "support free speech and welcome constructive opposition".

If you can't beat them, attack their children!

More barabarism by the Wahhabi cult:

 

Pakistan Suicide Blast Wounds 5 Children

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 10, 2007

KAMRA, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomber struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistani air force employees to school at a northern army base Monday, the military said. At least five children were wounded.

The bomber sped toward the bus and detonated his explosive yards away from it, said Tariq Hanif, the police chief in Kamra, where the army base is located.

''The bus driver has told us that he tried his best to avoid a crash on seeing the suspected speeding car approaching toward him,'' Hanif said.

Police said the children were all under 12. They were in stable condition, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. The bus driver and a guard were also injured.

''This barbaric attack shows how cruel the terrorists are,'' Arshad said.  continued

Iraq moving toward a failed state

As Iraq moves closer to a failed state, the Iraqi Parliament takes another vacation.  This Iraqi government is a joke, but I believe that a few MPs have the potential to become real leaders.  I hope they step up before it's too late.

 

Iraq calmer, but more divided

The U.S. troop buildup has brought down violence, but that has failed to spark cooperation among politicians. If anything, the country appears more balkanized into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.

By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 10, 2007

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. troop buildup in Iraq was meant to freeze the country's civil war so political leaders could rebuild their fractured nation. Ten months later, the country's bloodshed has dropped, but the military strategy has failed to reverse Iraq's disintegration into areas dominated by militias, tribes and parties, with a weak central government struggling to assert its influence.

In the south, Shiite Muslim militias are at war over the lucrative oil resources in the Basra region. To the west, in Anbar province, Sunni Arab tribes that once fought U.S. forces now help police the streets and control the highways to Jordan and Syria. In the north, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens are locked in a battle for the regions around Kirkuk and Mosul. In Baghdad, blast walls partition neighborhoods policed by Sunni paramilitary groups and Shiite militias.
 

"Iraq is moving in the direction of a failed state, a highly decentralized situation -- totally unplanned, of course -- with competing centers of power run by warlords and militias," said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group. "The central government has no political control whatsoever beyond Baghdad, maybe not even beyond the Green Zone."

The capital's Green Zone mirrors the chaos outside. Once the base of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial regime, it is now the seat of Iraq's fractured and dysfunctional representative government. The U.S. troop buildup was intended to help Iraq's national leaders overcome differences and give them space to pass compromise measures to end the country's sectarian war, but lawmakers remain divided and continue to harbor suspicions about each other's motives.
 

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40 Iraqi women killed this year for not dressing to "Islamic" standards

'Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.'

 

This infuriating news is reported as Britain plans to hand over control of Basra to Iraqi provincial authorities within two weeks.  Not that it really matters.  I wonder how much control British troops had in Basra if 40 women were killed by Shia Taliban for not dressing to Khomeini standards.  The sad reality of the new Iraq is that it has become more like Iran, and in that respect we cannot call it liberation.