Iraqis Believe Americans Bombing Them to Promote SOFA

[babylonsister]

http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/worse/

Worse?
By Anwar Ali


Adhamiya(Photo by Joao Silva)


It seems to me that things are getting worse.

This week I was at the scene of a bombing, reporting a news story about three explosions in Adhamiya. They were horrible explosions, all at the same time in a very crowded Shia neighborhood. I remember the smell of the blood, the flies all around and the injured people, the broken glass and the destruction.

snip//

Some people are saying that the Americans are making the bombings to make Iraqis believe that it is very important for them to stay in Iraq, that they are still needed. The Americans say that when they withdraw from Iraq violence will increase. Is that a threat? You can read it as a threat, or you can read it as an expectation. Some Iraqis take it as a threat.

Some people are asking: “Are the Americans punishing us with bombings because Iraq has refused to sign the SOFA?” {Status of Forces Agreement}

Here that is a reality, people think it. I can see it in people’s eyes when they say it to me. Real belief in what they are saying.

Other people say that all the latest explosions are because of the provincial elections as the different political parties are conflicting with each other to win the elections. One woman, Umm Haider, said: “The victims are always the innocent poor civilians.”


Anwar J. Ali is an Iraqi journalist who works for The New York Times in Baghdad.

[madokie]

1. And George Bush and Dick Cheney are responsible for all this carnage

I would hate to be looking at the future them war criminals are looking at

[babylonsister]

2. They surely are responsible. I hope their futures are bleak, but

I wonder.

[acmavm]

8. It's nice imagining a tribunal like Nuremburg in these guy's future. But I

just don't see it. I sincerely hope that it happens but there are just too damn many mass murderers walking this Earth today to let me really believe that it will happen.

There is no rule of law anymore. Just rule of he who has the biggest stick.

[Submariner]

4. If you or any DU'er ever happens to bump into Bush or Cheney

passing through an airport or on the street before I do (if I'm ever so lucky), would you please tell either one of them that the Submariner says "you're a yellow belly draft dodging f'ing coward", and if it's Cheney add "Go f*ck yourself" you miserable chickenhawk war criminal.

Probably the best I can hope for is to out live them so I can travel to their graves ans piss on their headstone. I've never been arrested by the police, but it would be worth it to me. I resent the fact that while standing port and starboard watches (6 on & 6 off) at sea due to a manpower shortage, Bush had a silver coke spoon jammed up his snot locker while AWOL, and 5 deferment Cheney was getting a couple DUI citations.

That is all.....I feel better now.

[madokie]

6. And if it you then please do like wise.

I really do believe we will see the boys brought up on charges. I'm not sure it will be us instigating it but its going to happen. :fistbump:

[screembloodymurder]

3. Must say, I thought the same thing.

Wonder if that's what sparked the Iraqi soldier's shooting of our troops?

[NNN0LHI]

5. Might explain why Bush appointed a former car bomber the leader of Iraq after he invaded

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0609-02.htm

Published on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 by the New York Times
Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks
by Joel Brinkley

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.

Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices... Ex-CIA officer Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed."

Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the bombing campaign varied, although the former officials interviewed agreed that it never threatened Saddam Hussein's rule.

No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. They could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995.

The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then.

[Arctic Dave]

7. They are just understanding this.

Everything that has happened to this date is an effort to subvert any type of self rule and to force US troops in to their country against the Iraqi's will.