posted on April 20, 2006 05:08:40 PM
One business is booming in Iraq.
NEWSWEEK FOREIGN EDITIONS
By Michael Hastings
Newsweek
Updated: 8:41 a.m. ET April 20, 2006
April 20, 2006 - The outlook for Iraq's economy is grim. Oil production has fallen to prewar levels. With foreign investors scared off by political instability and a climate of violence that produces about 70 attacks a day, private investment has stagnated. Local businesses keep shorter hours, while wealthy businessmen are regularly targeted for kidnapping.
Electricity levels have dropped to the same as they were three years ago, frustrating ordinary Iraqis and hampering new development projects. The main reason for these troubles: insurgents and unchecked militias have done a good job of driving Iraq's economy to a near halt.
Well, almost. One sector of the economy has been quietly expanding since the March 2003 invasion - the so-called death industry. Cemeteries are growing from Najaf to Fallujah, while projects to expand morgues are underway in Baghdad. An entire class of low-wage workers now relies solely on the bloody violence to make their living - from men who shuttle bodies to cemeteries to caterers who provide coffee and tea for funerals. There's more money in the business than ever before, too, as costs for funerals have multiplied. The prices for coffins, plots, tombstones and other funeral services have skyrocketed.
posted on April 20, 2006 07:24:19 PM
Just as appropriate today as it was in the 1970's:
Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord, yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.
Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.
Now in darkness world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, God is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!
--Black Sabbath, War Pigs
posted on April 22, 2006 10:18:06 AM
More good news from Iraq
Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s briefing by MNF-Iraq spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch in which he discusses foreign fighters, suicide attacks, border security, defeating IEDs, weapons caches discovered & Iraqis providing the coalition solid intel. For the rest of the briefing, go here.
I want to talk about four specific indicators on operations here in Iraq, and I don’t want to talk about what happened yesterday. I want to talk over a period of time to give you a sense of the trend lines that we see.
And these are four that I’ve talked to you about before, but allow me to give you an update.
We believe that 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are conducted by foreign fighters—al Qaeda, Zarqawi commissioning foreign fighters to conduct these suicide attacks.
Last year this time, across Iraq, we were averaging about 75 suicide attacks a day. Now we’re averaging about 24 a day.
One of the reasons for that drawdown is not that Zarqawi and al Qaeda doesn’t want to do it anymore, but effective border operations have been capturing foreign nationals at the border.
And I talked you through last week in great detail what’s happened on the Iraqi border. Last November the Iraqi government declared initial control of the borders, and over time they’ve placed Department of Border Enforcement personnel—20,000 people, on the borders, 258 border camps—to stop this flow of foreign nationals into Iraq, some of which are coming in to be used as suicide bombers.
So if you look closely at what’s happened, just before the first of the year, we were averaging about 44 captured foreign nationals per month, and now we’re down to less than half of that.
The effect of that is reduction in the number of suicide attacks in Iraq: over 70 a year ago, 24 now.
I talked about IEDs and IEDs that are found and cleared. We have reached the point where almost 50 percent of the IEDs are found and cleared before they detonate. And people say, “Well, why is that?” A reason why that is, is the number of sophisticated bomb-makers we’ve been able to take off the battlefield here in Iraq.
There are indeed with—people with talent and capability that can build a reliable IED, one that will function as designed. What we’ve been doing is a conscious effort with the Iraqi security forces to take those guys off the battlefield and either kill or capture them. And you can see that we took over—took out 115 in the year 2005. And since the first of the year, we’ve taken out an additional 26.
The effect of that is, IEDs are produced that are less effective. And in many cases, we’re finding the people that are emplacing the IEDs are killed by their own IEDs, or the IEDs that are emplaced don’t go off as detonated. And that’s because of the conscious decision to kill or capture bomb-makers.
I talk every Thursday about the weapons caches and weapons finds. And if you looked over the years 2005, we came across 2,880 weapons caches and since the first of the year almost 900 weapons caches.
Again, this goes to the effectiveness of the insurgents. In order to be able to create effective IEDs, he’s got to have technical expertise, and he’s got to have the proper munitions. A lot of these weapons caches we found had old munitions, but a lot of them had relatively new munitions that could build an effective bomb.
So as we look for bomb-makers and as we look for weapons caches to this level of effect, we are reducing the effectiveness of IEDs, VBIEDs and suicide car bombs, suicide vest packs, and also by taking out foreign nationals as they come across.
But I believe that the most important indicator on these charts, on this quad chart, is this one. And that’s the number of tips, actionable tips, that we are receiving from the people of Iraq. They have indeed reached the point where they’re tired of the insurgency, and they realize that they are indeed the target of attacks by the insurgency. The numbers of attacks against civilians, as I told you before, has doubled in the last four months, is up by 86 percent just in the last nine weeks.
So the people of Iraq are tired of the insurgency.
And what they’re doing is calling in actionable tips or providing tips to the 250,000 members of the Iraqi security force that are patrolling the streets of Iraq. They’re providing the information just like they did the IED on the mosque—and I showed you that operation with the 6th Iraqi Army Division.
posted on April 22, 2006 07:46:27 PM
Iraq War update 4/22/2006
Total 2386 Dead American Troops.
17469 wounded American Troops.
04/22/06 AP: 5 U.S. soldiers killed
A fifth soldier died of injuries suffered in a roadside bomb attack south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a separate statement. It was unclear whether the soldier was fatally wounded in the same attack that killed the four others.
04/22/06 UPI: Iraqi actors killed for entertaining kids
Faud Radi and Haidar Jawad, Iraqi children's entertainers, were executed by armed militias -- the new moral guardians of Baghdad...The troupe's building was burned down and, on the eve of the festival, Radi and Jawad were shot.
posted on April 23, 2006 05:13:49 AM
Iraq War update 4/23/2006
A total of 2389 dead American Troops in Iraq.
04/23/06 AP: 3 American Soldiers Killed in Baghdad
Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. That brought the number of American troops killed in the Iraqi capital area over the weekend to eight
04/23/06 KUNA: Six unidentified bodies found Northern Baghdad
Six unidentified bodies were found in a northern Baghdad suburb, Iraqi Police announced Sunday. According to the police, the bodies were found in Al-Athamiya blindfolded and handcuffed. They also found gunshots wounds on their heads.
JOIN THE GREAT AMERICAN PROTEST ON NOVEMBER 7th 2006
posted on April 24, 2006 05:03:26 AM
US deaths since July 2, 2003: 2182
(Pres. Bush announces, "Bring Them On"
04/24/06 AP: Bodies of 17 other Iraqis are found
Police discovered the bodies of 17 Iraqis - apparent victims of sectarian slayings the United States hopes the country's new government can put to an end.
[ edited by bigpeepa on Apr 24, 2006 05:07 AM ]
Speaking of moral depravity and craven villainy, the other morning on National Public Radio (a "liberal" media outlet, as the ideologically deluded in America say) a reporter explained calmly that President Bush was "keeping all options on the table" with respect to Iran, including "a tactical nuclear strike." This latter "option" was mentioned without further comment, without pause, without any hint that the President of the United States had just been accused of contemplating a war crime of such extraordinary proportions that, if the world were not annihilated in the ensuing international conflagration, Bush would go down in history not simply as the worst President in American history, but as one of the great moral monsters in the history of humanity. One imagines being in Germany circa 1938, listening to some stately radio newscaster reporting that "Hitler is keeping all options on the table" with respect to the Lebensraum problem, "including invading all neighboring nations" and "genocide of the Jews."
posted on April 24, 2006 06:55:24 AM
"The President of the US has just been accused".....
Well...I'm sure he's used to that by now.
The wacko lefties have been doing just that for 5 years now. BUT they have yet to actually PROVE anything...make anything actually STICK.
They just like throwing their garbage at him. This time will be no different. They'll end up once again with egg all over their yellow faces. They must just LOVE eggs...because they sure look forward each and everytime to wearing them.
posted on April 24, 2006 07:45:39 AM
I see and hear traitor Kerry is hot on the trail again, probably hoping that he will get the democratic nomination. Still crying but with no new ideas just like the head of the DNC. Maybe the tide will turn but remember the USSC is now conservative....
Kiara is Kerry a True American?
_________________
posted on April 24, 2006 08:06:14 AM
There is a feeling that Bush has not paid enough attention to Afghanistan and those that comment on it agree that the US does not have the ability to fight two wars at one time and there is a general feeling of regret that Bush has not used enough resources to search for Bin Laden and the terrorists. So rumblings of him perhaps taking on Iran after so much ineptness and failure make the whole world nervous.
posted on April 24, 2006 02:13:22 PM
Bear, I want to make sure neocons and others get the message about the failed CON-servative political movement and its failed crooked leaders loud and clear.
Its good for all to remember that not only is DUMBO BUSH a liar about Iraq but Cheney is also a big time liar about Iraq.
SEE YOU AT THE GREAT AMERICAN PROTEST ON NOVEMBER 7th 2006.
posted on April 25, 2006 05:23:06 AM
IRAQ WAR UPDATE 4/25/2006
04/25/06 LATimes: U.S. ambassador warns of long stay in Iraq
The U.S. ambassador in Iraq on Monday urged war-weary Americans to dig in for the long haul: a yearslong effort to transform Iraq and the surrounding region, now one of the world's major trouble spots.
posted on April 27, 2006 12:53:44 PM
Iraq War update 4/27/2006
Total 2395 Dead American Troops
Total 17469 Wounded American Troops
04/27/06 AP: After Year of Gov't, Killings Up in Iraq
One year ago Friday, when Iraq formed its first freely elected government, Americans and Iraqis hoped it would lead to a drop in violence. But Iraqis have continued to die in the thousands, and this year the trend is up.
posted on April 27, 2006 12:59:44 PM
Is this the best you can do for support for our troops peepa?
Is this what you even deem as support? You know I pegged you once as liar and now we can add loser to that tag.
You're scum peepa plain and simple feeding off the misery of others. You don't care about the middle class in America you're just jealous because you were too stupid to grab a piece of the pie and now are pissing and moaning about it.
posted on April 28, 2006 07:06:33 AM
Iraq War update 4/28/2006
Total 2396 American Troops Killed.
04/28/06 CNN: Report says Iraq becoming terrorist safe haven
The State Department's annual terrorism report finds that Iraq is becoming a safe haven for terrorists and has attracted a "foreign fighter pipeline" linked to terrorist plots, cells and attacks throughout the world.
posted on April 28, 2006 11:47:57 AM
And THEN there's the other side of the Iraq war updates....that the liberal MSM WON'T report. That's don't meet with the requirements of THEIR agenda...which is to make voters believe it's all just so terrible....and nothing good is being accomplished in Iraq.
How SAD they're NOT on America's SIDE.....hoping we win...make a difference...and appreciating that close to 50 MILLION more people are FREE.
Nope....what USED to mean a lot to the dem party....now is being used as a partisan issue to try and WIN elections.....screw what's in America's best interests.
------------
I researched the Associated Press articles in January and February 2006 and contrasted the reports with ***the facts*** from the Department of Defense and the soldiers. There were literally no reports of any positives in Iraq from the AP. There were plenty of articles citing the death and destruction in Iraq.
AGAIN, biased, one sided reporting by the old MSM
The AP even has a daily article that reports on the deaths in Iraq. If you only read reports from the AP, you would envision an Iraq that was in utter turmoil, with bombs and IEDs exploding on every corner and carnage flowing down every street in Iraq.
While things are certainly not rosy in Iraq, there is a great deal of positive news and accomplishments thanks to our soldiers.
Here's a few of the positives that occurred in Iraq during the first two months of 2006. (All information is available on the Iraq Reconstruction section of the War on Terror pages of the Department of Defense website) See if you have read any of these in the print media or viewed a news report about these events…
The GDP in Iraq grew by 2.6 percent in 2005.
The first class of cadets for the new Iraqi army graduated from the Iraqi Military Academy Al Rustamiyah under the year long Sandhurst-modeled curriculum on Jan. 19.
The Al Basrah Oil Terminal had been protected by coalition forces since operations in Iraq began in 2003 but the Iraqi Navy's marine unit took over protecting the platform on Feb. 7.
The Iraqi Navy consists of two squadrons – a patrol boat squadron and an assault boat squadron. The patrol boat squadron uses Predator class patrol boats to conduct 24-hour security operations and sector patrols around the oil terminals and in Iraqi territorial waters. The assault boat squadron has 24 fast assault boats that routinely patrol the inland waters and approaches of the Kwar Abd Allah up to the port of Umm Qasr, which is Iraq's largest and only deep water port.
In the Al Muhawil muhallah a new water treatment plant opened on Feb. 6. One million cubic liters of water will pump through the Al Muhawil station on a daily basis. A similar project on the other side of town in 2006 will bring clean drinking water to more than 20,000 residents for the first time in many years.
About 250 reconstruction contracts worth more than $250 million have been awarded to women-owned businesses in Iraq over the past eight months.
As of Jan. 30, there were approximately 6,000 actual projects started with a program value of $2.5 billion.
Currently there are 2,200 projects ongoing with a program value of $3.2 billion. About 3,700 projects have been completed with a program value of approximately $2.5 billion.
Iraqi firms are doing the majority of the work in Iraq including school renovations, health clinics and hospitals, border forts, police and fire stations, public buildings, water treatment units and plants, water supply facilities, sewer networks and more.
The Baqubah General Hospital renovations are complete. The hospital has a new incinerator and reverse osmosis water treatment system, plumbing and sewer system upgrade, architectural renovation, emergency backup generator and repair of existing elevators. The hospital is a 331 bed hospital with surgery and consultation clinics that see 400-500 patients daily.
The Northwest Regional Control Center is under construction in Northern Iraq. The NRCC is a $4.9 million system developed to improve the reliability of the country-wide automatic monitoring and control system for the National Electric Network.
There are 434 electricity (generation, transmission, distribution and monitoring and control) projects planned in Iraq. 132 power related projects are ongoing and 123 have been completed.
On January 29, 2006 the Iraqi Air Force made history when it flew its first C-130 flight with an all Iraqi crew outside of Iraq.
The Iraqi Army's 5th Brigade, 6th Division, assumed control of a base in central Baghdad from the US 4th Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team on January 31, 2006.
More than 15 new well projects have been completed in villages within the Ninawa Province.
These wells provide pure drinking water for more than 12,600 Iraqis. The water these wells deliver does not require additional treatment.
The Kovak Primary School in the Dahuk District was completed in January 2006. The 12-classroom school was built from the ground up. It will house 36 teachers and about 825 students.
Tal Afar's police department opened the new Al Salam Police Station in January. The new police station building features a holding cell, an arms room, investigation and intelligence cells, an interrogation room and an information desk.
Currently 180 Iraqi Police Officers are assigned to the station with an additional 60 officers scheduled to be added.
A water pipe system was completed in small communities southeast of Baghdad. The system brings water to families that have never had running water in their villages, much less in their homes.
Baquba Maternity Hospital in Mosul is open and delivering babies. The facility houses 229 beds and serves a local population of approximately 350,000.
More Iraqis have access to sewage collection and treatment now than in 2003. More than 4.5 million people have access to a standard level of service.
In 2003, less than one million Iraqis had access to sewage collection.
Thirty-five government sites in Baghdad, the Central Bank of Iraq and two state-owned banks are now connected via the Wireless Broadband Network.
So how many did you already know about?
nope....we don't hear about ANY good news coming....any progress....nope they don't WANT to publish that info.....ONLY the negative.
But that's the dems for you....only negatitivity coming from THEIR corner.
Probably less than 5 would be my guess.
The media does demonstrate a bias in their reporting, especially the war in Iraq coverage. The focus of the coverage is on the negative, not positive as claimed by UFPJ.
The media has been derelict in its duty to report the whole story to the public.
The Media Day of War Coverage scheduled for March 20 is simply another attempt to twist the truth to justify the Liberals incessant complaints. The far left has used everything but the kitchen sink in an attempt to discredit the Bush Administration.
This bogus complaint about media being slanted toward the positive is another sign of Liberals' complete disconnect with reality and the truth.
While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation:
What would a Democrat president have done at that point? Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack.
Ann Coulter
[ edited by Linda_K on Apr 28, 2006 11:56 AM ]
posted on April 28, 2006 12:21:01 PM
Iraq War news update 4/28/2006
LIAR_K, nearly 7 out of 10 Americans believe DUMBO BUSH along with his crooked CON-servative lawmakers has failed in both Iraq and here in America. Maybe its time you get yourself updated.
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - With oil prices above $70 a barrel fouling the world economy, dismay is focusing on Iraq, whose exports have slipped to their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion.
"Iraq could be making a tremendous difference," said Dalton Garis, an economist at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. Instead, its shortfall is "a significant contributing factor to the high price of oil," he said.
Iraq, a founding member of OPEC, sits atop the world's third-highest proven reserves. Its estimated 115 billion barrels is more than any other OPEC member except for Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But contrary to optimistic expectations, Iraq's oil production has slipped further and further since the U.S.-led invasion, to an average of 2 million barrels a day. It has never regained even the reduced production levels that prevailed in the 1990s, when Iraq was under tough U.N. sanctions.
Iraq's oil could be providing relief to world markets, strained by high demand from China, the nuclear-related showdown with Iran and unrest near Nigeria's oil fields. Instead, it's not even covering its own needs.
The rickety Iraqi oil system has been damaged repeatedly by insurgent sabotage and attacks on maintenance crews. Corruption, theft of oil, and widespread mismanagement compound the problems, analysts say.
Iraq also lacks laws that would protect foreign investment, and its government is still sorting out whether oil will be controlled by the central government or the provinces.
The result: Iraq is importing refined oil products at record high prices at a time that it should be boosting exports to take advantage of those prices to earn money for reconstruction.
In 2005, Iraq's exports averaged just 1.4 million barrels a day, which earned the country about $26 billion. This winter proved disastrous, with January exports failing to reach even 1 million barrels a day, said George Orwel, an analyst with Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in New York.
"It's a mess," he said. "At some point Iraq is going to be back in the picture, but it's been a very bad couple of years. They're missing out."
In 1990, probably its peak production year, Iraq extracted about 3.5 million barrels a day. Restoring production to that level would require years and a $30 billion investment, Orwel said, even in the "best case scenario."
Those figures suggest misplaced optimism by Iraq's oil ministry, which in 2005 predicted crude production would reach 2.5 million or even 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2006. Analysts have called that prediction a pipe dream.
The outlook for this year looks about the same as 2005, Orwel said, casting doubt even on the ministry's revised plans to raise exports to 1.8 million barrels a day by year's end.
Orwel, author of a forthcoming book on Iraq's oil sector, said many of the problems thwarting Iraq's exports have no simple solution — but some do.
For instance, exports from Iraq's southern oil fields have been hampered by the decrepit tugboats needed to pilot tankers to Persian Gulf terminals. The tugs, so old that spare parts can't be bought, frequently broke down or weren't seaworthy enough to handle rough winter seas.
As a result, charges from tankers forced to delay loading cost Iraq $50 million over the past year, which the oil ministry paid by giving away oil, Orwel said.
Insurgents have been so deft at shutting down the pipelines from the giant fields around the northern city of Kirkuk that Iraqi authorities tried to move crude by truck to its refineries and crude-burning power plants. But after insurgents attacked the trucks, drivers became difficult to recruit and the oil ministry was forced to cut production, Orwel said.
Corruption has worsened the situation, according to a report release Tuesday by the oil ministry's inspector general. The loss of oil revenue to corruption and theft has become the biggest threat to Iraq's economy, costing Baghdad's beleaguered treasury billions of dollars, it said.
"For example, about 20 percent of the oil products that Iraq imported last year, worth $4.2 billion, were smuggled to neighboring countries," the report said.
Iraq's sputtering oil sector has defied optimists led by Vice President Dick Cheney and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who hoped booming exports from Iraq could pay for its reconstruction and help satisfy world demand.
Instead, repercussions from the U.S.-led invasion are now slowing the global economy, said Saadallah al-Fathi, a former OPEC official who advised Iraq's oil ministry under Saddam Hussein.
"The invasion of Iraq hasn't only been devastating to the Iraqi people, but it has been detrimental to the rest of the world," al-Fathi said from his home in Sharjah, in the UAE. "Iraq has lost a third of its production due to the American invasion."
"Now that Iraq has to import many petroleum products, it's a double whammy," he said.
Oil production was more successful under Saddam, he said. "There were technical problems. But they were contained. Things were improving slowly. We didn't have sabotage. We had full security in the oil fields."
posted on April 28, 2006 12:34:37 PM
While some post opinion pieces laced with smilies from undetermined sources the reality of the situation is that April has been the deadliest month in Iraq this year for US forces.
A U.S. Marine pays respect to Lance Cpl. Stephen J. Perez, of San Antonio, Texas, who was killed in a mortar attack on April 13, 2006, at Camp Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 28, 2006. At least 2,397 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
posted on April 28, 2006 06:14:44 PM
Enjoy your polls....and I'll enjoy the FACT that this President has just under another THREE years to be our CIC. And the FACT that HE will make the decision, along with our Congress approving continued funds for our soldiers to COMPLETE their mission....and not let those whose lives have been lost....have died in vain.
Thank God the liberals aren't in control now.
While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation:
What would a Democrat president have done at that point? Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack.
Ann Coulter
Each and every lost soldiers life is for a good reason. Not like normal deaths that happen everyday in America.....and certainly NOT to free almost 50 MILLION people in the ME.
Their deaths are not in vain....no matter what the anti-war jokers say.
They only USE their deaths....to promote their own anti-war, anti-Bush agendas.
THEY are the PITIFUL ones....not our brave soldiers who CHOOSE to serve....knowing quite well they might lose their lives.....but whom believed their cause was very worthwhile. And it was/is.
SO unlike the cowards that would NEVER put their lives on the line for much of anything.
While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation:
What would a Democrat president have done at that point? Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack.
Ann Coulter
[ edited by Linda_K on Apr 28, 2006 06:42 PM ]
posted on April 28, 2006 07:03:11 PMSO unlike the cowards that would NEVER put their lives on the line for much of anything.
So when did you serve and put YOUR life on the line for anything, lindak?
Just the thought of more injured and killed soldiers or the picture of one suffering a loss gets you hyped for more war and you continue cheering on your inept leader because you know as long as he is in power you will be able to thrill yourself with more bloodshed.
You don't care an iota about anyone in Iraq being free and you know it. Thankfully not everyone is as anti-American as you are. You are a true disgrace to your country.
