Haditha is a source of help to Iran.

However, the democratic electing of the Islamic fundamentalist Al dawa party is a GIGANTIC source of help to Iran.

Al Dawa, the party of PM al-Malliki, is a terrorist group with direct and long standing ties with Iran.

A `suicider' from the Al-Dawa party bombed the US embassy in Kuwait in 1983.

In 1984, four men from Al Dawa highjacked a Kuwait airbus travelling from Kuwait to Pakistan.

They held the plane for six days.

During this time, these four men from Al Dawa shot and killed two Americans: Mr Charles Hegna and Mr William Stanford.

JM: In Iraq, the tragedy appears to be alienating the very government that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad has been struggling for months to bring together.

Alienating?

Is that really the case?

Haditha is the perfect excuse for al Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq to start building a case of expulsion.

I doubt the democratically elected al Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI) actually interested in working with the USA.

Why?

During the twenty years prior to the deposing of SH, al Dawa and the SCIRI have been fighting to make Iraq a fundamentalist Islamic republic under the auspices of Iran.

Since this is true, by all accounts, why would they not alienate the USA?

I think Iraq is alienating the USA.

Americans should realize that their army is one of the most brutal organized western armies in the modern world.

Most of these wars were not even fought on US soil against some invasion. Most of this brutality and disregard of foreign human life, was committed in foreign lands far away from US borders and mostly for political reasons.

The time has come to reform the US army and to humanize it.

Hoplite:

Whether it is a Dawa or not, why should they work with the US government, the illegal occupying force?

The only hope for Iraqis to have a legitimate government accepted by all fractions is to remove any US stamp from it.

To believe that Iran is going to be able to run Iraq as they wish is no more naive than believing that the US government can do the same in Iraq.

When will Arabs realize that fundamentalist Iran is a much better alternative than imperialist US.

Just look how the US government is starving Palestinians simply because they voted for the wrong people.

Karim,

I am not saying they should. Working with the USA is totally against the grain of the history and the facts on the ground.

Perhaps the `legitimate government' will arise when the US is kicked out and the Badr Corp is unleashed.

Unfortunately, for the Sunnis, this is going to be ugly.

Why is it naive to think Iran is going to have a strong hand in Iraq given the deep deep connections between Iran and al Dawa and the SCIRI?

"Al-Hashimi said such incidents make it vital to rethink "setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.""

Haditha is a national embarrasment and a tragedy, but if there is any good to come of it this will be it. A foreign-requested expulsion from a democratically elected government is a reasonable excuse to "cut and run" for America.

This will have consequences especially for the Suunis. But enough Suunis have busied themselves digging holes for IEDs where I don't feel any great moral pains in casting them to the wolves (Shiites).

The consequence for us is that Iraq will go from a fully Secular country under Saddam to an entirely Sectarian one, which is unfortunate. But better to accept that as a foregone conclusion and pull out then stay there, wait for the next Haditha, rip to shreds our already destroyed credibility in the region, just so a Sectarian regime can take over in the future (which will happen either way).

Karim-

I thought this was clever:

"To believe that Iran is going to be able to run Iraq as they wish is no more naive than believing that the US government can do the same in Iraq."

Immediately followed by...

"When will Arabs realize that fundamentalist Iran is a much better alternative than imperialist US."

If it is naive to think that Iran will have control over Iraq then why must the Iraqis realize that it would be better to be controlled by Iran than by the US?

There seems to be a consensus of opinion in that the Hiditha shootings and elevation of Dawa and SCIRI are bad for the US efforts in Iraq. The rise of these two groups also spell more problems for Sunni Iraqis.

So a question that my wife asked me this morning (in response to some caustic comment directed at the newspaper): if You were in charge, is there anything positive that can be pulled from Iraq?

I answered that I would not myself want to assume the authority and responsibility for Iraq today.

What on earth is going on in Iraq? Heads found in boxes on highways--pregnant women shot to death on the way to the hospital to deliver a baby--a man dragged out of house and executed by US troops--children and babies murdered--

it is mass chaos--civil war--anarchy.

How anyone can support the incompetent idiot and white house resident who is currently spending his energies pushing for an anti-gay marriage amendment to the constitution?

In my lifetime I have never seen such utter inability to deal with a situation as I have seen with the self-proclaimed "decider". What a loser-- what an idiot.

"The time has come to reform the US army and to humanize it.
"

I actually want more of an explination on this little snippit.

Humanize it?

How do you propose to do that?

So, does this mean the July air bombing of Iran is off - or have Bush/Cheney just moved it to after the Primaries?

Is what Haditha means and stands for, these days, helping Iran?

That much is clear and worrisome, Haditha and the like do not help the United States, with friends and foes alike, and all over the world. It will be so for as long as 1. the US administration will continue doing everything to cover things up, 2. the US media in general will minimize and do everything possible to justify the unjustifiable, and 3. most Americans will be all too happy to remain in denial.

How can any of this help?

1. first-hand witnesses have testified that towns where massacres occurred were then sealed off for more than a month by US troops, giving them enough time to tamper with the evidence and to intimidate witnesses;

2. it was reported that sums of money in excess of $30K were offered by the American authorities to relatives of the victims (with no acknowledgement of any responsibility, of course -- the usual clause, put in by attorneys representing irresponsible people!), many of which flatly refused the shameful hand-outs;

3. I saw a fine young British soldier from the elite forces testify on television, in London, that like hundreds like him in Britain, he had "resigned" from the military because he had been misled into waging a war in which "murdering civilians was a daily occurrence".

This is nothing out of the ordinary. For years on end, in Vietnam, American perverts were used to ensure operation Phoenix (a systematic carnage) would be "a success". After Guantanamo and Abou Ghraib, it has been suggested that it was Operation Phoenix all over again, this time in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Under American "supervision", perverts were also used year in year out, in Latin America, to preserve "stability".

Fallujah, Samara, Haditha, etc., it is My Lai many times over. For outside consumption, low-level people will be tried, convicted, condemned, a few to long sentences, possibly. But soon afterwards, Americans will learn those people have been released, and that will be the end of that.

Investors, be advised, while every day oil prices rise, non-American lives remain cheap.

One of the most famous quotes of the Vietnam War was a statement attributed to an anonymous American major by AP correspondent Peter Arnett. Writing about the provincial capital, Ben Tre, on February 7, 1968, Arnett said: "'it became necessary to destroy the town to save it,' a U.S. major says." In the eyes of the enlightened, in order to save Iraq and the Iraqi it has, in all likelihood, simply become necessary to destroy Iraq and the Iraqi. What did you say was new, unbelievable and unamerican?

Let me first say that there is nothing in the Constitution, Federal Law, or the Uniform Code Of Military Justice that allows such atrocities. However, we have seen the Bush Administration, repeatly, violate the Constitution, Federal Law, and the UCMJ. The famous Torture Memo created a climate of uncertainty about the law, that encouraged activities which would end in Haiditha. There is no doubt in my mind that President Bush should hve been impeached long ago, but Congress, both, Republicans and Democrats, are too gutless to do it. Being good careerists, they are too busy worrying about the next election to actually govern. Remembering Mylai, I wrote my elected representative at the beginning of this fiasco called a war warning them of such idiocy. I also opposed this brainless conflict.
As to Iran, we are indulging in the same idiocy in Iraq. However, we don't live there, it is the the Sunnnis and Shia, running around blowing each other up and cutting each others heads off, that will probably drive Shia ARABS into the arms of Iran. So much for Iraqi or Arab nationalism.
As for America and Israel, which are seen as joined at the hip in the Near East,we will face increased terrorists attacks by additional recruits to al-Qaida like clones, these wars have produced.
We need to get out of Iraq, because we do not have a clue about what we are doing,we don't have enough troops on the ground to help with security, and finally, the people who live there have to figure out how to live together. It is called SELF DETERMINATION.

A daily occurrence?

"Editor and Publisher", published by Greg Mitchell, June 06, 2006 10:30 AM ET

"NEW YORK While the mass killing of about two dozen villagers at Haditha continues to draw headlines, the more troubling killing of individual civilians by U.S. troops remains a more common occurence. These incidents often are never explained, and rarely witnessed by American reporters, who are growing fewer in number in Iraq and not often on patrol with soldiers due to the dangerous conditions.

However, one of the most intrepid of all the U.S. reporters over the past few years, Tom Lasseter of Knight Ridder, has filed a new report based on a mission he went on last Thursday just south of Baghdad where he monitored the killing of three civilians, a woman and two men... The raid, led by a unit of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, was aimed at a compound of houses, purportedly holding about 17 people and the one man they sought... "The radio crackled with a report of one shot fired, then a second, third and finally a fourth. Soldiers called in as they cleared rooms of the seven houses. They'd come in expecting about 17 people; there were 27. Time passed... The radio squawked: Two men and a woman were dead...."

... The following day, the captain who led the Army unit said he would have to return to the compound to give the family compensation payments for the woman and probably for the two men as well (if it could be determined they were not insurgents). The captain said he wasn't looking forward to the trip."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002613991

Complete story, "U.S. Troops Raid, 3 Civilians Die", by Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder Newspapers.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14746733.htm

AMERICA IS A LOSER. IRAN IS A WINNER

P. J. Casey: drive Shia ARABS into the arms of Iran.

Huh?

Iraq *is* in the arms of Iran.

Al Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, which are both based in Iran, have been trying to make Iraq a fundamentalist Islamic republic for over twenty years.

Keywords: Al Dawa, Islamic Fundamentalism, Sharia, Iran and Iraq, terrorism, US Embassy attack

The party in power (Al Dawa) in Iraq has a long history with Iran and with terrorism.

[snip]

1) Large Turnout Reported For 1st Iraqi Vote Since '58 The Washington Post, June 21, 1980

In another development today, Al Dawa, a clandestine Iraqi fundamentalist Moslem organization, claimed responsibility for yesterday's grenade attack on the British Embassy here in which three gunmen reportedly were killed.

An Al Dawa spokesman told Agence France-Presse by phone that the attack was a "punitive operation against a center of British and American plotters."

2) Iraq Keeps a Tight Rein on Shiites While Bidding to Win Their Loyalty The Washington Post, November 30, 1982

[snip]

Membership in Dawa, which means "the call," is punishable by execution. Dawa guerrillas were known for hurling grenades into crowds during religious ceremonies, and attacks claimed by the party were frequent until the middle of 1980.

3) U.S. HAS LIST OF BOMB SUSPECTS, LEBANESE SAYS Detroit Free Press, October 29, 1983

[snip]

The source said the drivers of the two bomb-laden trucks were blessed before their mission by Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Dawa Party, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim splinter group.

4) SHULTZ SEES LINK BETWEEN BEIRUT, KUWAIT ATTACKS OFFICIALS IDENTIFY MAN WHO DROVE TRUCK BOMB, The Miami Herald, December 14, 1983

Secretary of State George Shultz said Tuesday that there "quite likely" was a link between the U.S. Embassy bombing in Kuwait and attacks on American facilities in Lebanon. He warned of possible retaliation.

[snip]

The sources said the investigators matched the prints on the fingers with those on file with Kuwaiti authorities and tentatively identified the assailant as Raed Mukbil, an Iraqi automobile mechanic who lived in Kuwait and was a member of Hezb Al Dawa, a fundamentalist Iraqi Shiite Moslem group based in Iran.

5) KUWAIT NABS 10 SHIITES IN BOMBINGS 7 IRAQIS, 3 LEBANESE 'ADMIT' TERROR ATTACKS
The Miami Herald, December 19, 1983

Kuwait Sunday announced the arrests of 10 Shiite Moslems with ties to Iran in the terrorist bombings that killed four people and wounded 66 last week at the U.S. Embassy and other targets.

[snip]

Hussein said fingerprints from the driver who died in the blast at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait identified him as Raad Akeel al Badran, an Iraqi mechanic who lived in Kuwait and belonged to the Dawa party.

6) 10 Pro-Iranian Shiites Held in Kuwait Bombings, The Washington Post December 19, 1983

Kuwait announced yesterday the arrest of 10 Shiite Moslems with ties to Iran in terrorist bombings that killed four people and wounded 66 last Monday at the U.S. Embassy and other targets.

"All 10 have admitted involvement in the incidents as well as participating in planning the blasts," Abdul Aziz Hussein, minister of state for Cabinet affairs, told reporters after a Cabinet session, United Press International reported.

Hussein said the seven Iraqis and three Lebanese were members of the Al Dawa party, a radical Iraqi Shiite Moslem group with close ties to Iran.

7) Beirut Bombers Seen Front for Iranian-Supported Shiite Faction, The Washington Post, January 4, 1984

The terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the bombing of the U.S. Marine compound and the French military headquarters here may be a front for an exiled Iraqi Shiite opposition party based in Iran, in the view of a number of Arab and western diplomatic sources.

Authorities in Kuwait say their questioning of suspects in the recent bombing there of the U.S. and French embassies indicates a clear link between Islamic Jihad, a shadowy group that says it carried out the Beirut attacks, and Al Dawa Islamiyah, the main source of resistance to the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Al Dawa (The Call) has been outlawed in Iraq, where it wants to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state to replace the secular Baath Socialist government of Saddam Hussein, who is a Sunni Moslem.

It draws its strength from the large Shiite population in southern Iraq. Thousands of its most militant members were expelled to Iran in 1980 before the outbreak of the Iranian-Iraqi war and joined Al Dawa there. But it also has a large following in Lebanon among Iraqi exiles and sympathetic Lebanese Shiites.

While Al Dawa operates out of Tehran, it is not clear whether its activities abroad are under direct Iranian control or merely have Iran's tacit acceptance.

8)Baalbek Seen As Staging Area For Terrorism, The Washington Post, January 9, 1984

Al Dawa, according to Arab and western sources, is believed to have had a role in the Oct. 23 suicide bomb attacks on the U.S. Marine and French military compounds in Beirut.

Tom: The rise of these two groups also spell more problems for Sunni Iraqis.

The rise of these two groups also spell more problems for Americans.

Al Dawa has the blood of Americans on its hands already.

Al Dawa, the party of PM al-Malliki, is a terrorist group with direct and long standing ties with Iran.

A `suicider' from the Al-Dawa party bombed the US embassy in Kuwait in 1983.

In 1984, four men from Al Dawa highjacked a Kuwait airbus travelling from Kuwait to Pakistan.

They held the plane for six days.

During this time, these four men from Al Dawa shot and killed two Americans: Mr Charles Hegna and Mr William Stanford.

These are the facts.

Just about all of the comments from the Sunni Arabs take pot shots at the Iraqi government and Iran.

Just a quick note to you pathetic Wahabi Camel Jockeys, that the new Iraqi government is democratically elected, whether you like it or not.

In fact they should have had enough majority votes to rule without a "coalition" partner. But the US forced them to rig the election in favour of
the Sunnis and the Kurds, to make it look like a "multicultural" government.

As for Iran, you pathetic Sunni scumbags just have to get over it. Iranians are not Arabs, therefore, they are a lot smarter than you "imitation" Muslims

Sunni party makes new allegations against US forces in Iraq

Baghdad, June 06: The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab political party, today accused US forces of unlawfully killing over two dozen Iraqis last month in a series of incidents across the country.

"The US forces have violated human rights many times across Iraq," said Omar al-Juburi, spokesman for the human rights department of the party, led by vice president Tareq al-Hashemi.

In the latest in a string of allegations against US forces, Juburi said 29 people were killed in may in separate incidents involving the US forces in the towns of Latifiyah and Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad and in Baghdad itself.

"On May 13, US forces launched an air assault on a civilian car in Latifiyah and killed six people inside the car," Juburi told reporters.

"On the same day the US forces attacked with aircraft the house of a civilian, Saadun Mohsen Hassan, and killed seven of his family members."

Juburi said US forces carried out another air strike the next day on the house of Sheikh Yassin Saleh Shallal in the town of Yusifiyah "killing 13 people, including women and children."

The towns southwest of Baghdad have recently been the scene of increased insurgent activity and several US operations.

"Also on the same day in Baghdad's Yarmuk district US forces raided the home of Esam Arrawi and killed him and his son. They also took away their bodies."

He said also in May a civilian, Abbas Hamudi al-Juburi, was killed by us soldiers in Baghdad.

The ultimate, hoped for outcome of the Haditha atrocity should be that it opens the door for more Americans and for more branches of MSM to come to grips with the fact that the US invasion of Iraq (on false pretenses) is a war crime.

We may be getting closer to being able to acknowledge that bit of truth.

I don't see evidence of US military training. I don't see a winning strategy by the White House or the Pentagon. I have seen no change in strategy or tactics by the US since the first day of the war. I must assume that the goal of the occupation in Iraq is simply the occupation of Iraq. I think the Decider in Chief looked at Israel's occupation of Palestine, got envious and wanted one of his own. The brutality of the US military is shameful and disappointing. Their leadership is appalling. Their rules of engagement are criminal and counter-productive to a peaceful resolution. Is American neo-democracy really worth dieing for? Hardly. The US gov ernment is one of the most corrupt in history. There is no democracy here, only two corrupt politcal parties who are willing murder millions for their own power and perversion.