Bush didn't care about Iraqis when he started out the war killing them

[bigtree]

He doesn't care now as they're killing each other.


Baghdad rocked by kidnappings and mass killings

Jonathan Steele
Thursday March 9, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1726553,00.html

Armed men in camouflage uniforms similar to those of police commandos abducted up to 50 employees of a private security firm in eastern Baghdad yesterday, less than 24 hours after 18 blindfolded bodies were found in an abandoned lorry in a western suburb. The slaughter was the latest in a series of killings, apparently by death squads, which has sent fear through the city.

Last month UN officials quoted morgue sources as saying they had received a monthly average of at least 700 bodies since April last year, many showing signs of torture. In its annual report outlining human rights abuses worldwide, the US state department said yesterday that killings by the Iraqi government or its agents had increased in 2005, and that members of sectarian militias dominated many police units.

Sectarian turbulence has escalated after a massive explosion destroyed a shrine in Samarra a fortnight ago. At least 500 people have died since then.

Reports of death squads linked to the Shia-run interior ministry have been widespread for months. Two secret detention centres which it runs were uncovered in December. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, has mounted a campaign to have the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, replaced when Iraq's new government is formed. Mr Jabr is linked to the Badr brigade, a powerful militia loyal to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the main Shia parties. Badr brigade members have been recruited into the police.

full report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1726553,00.html




At the beginning of the occupation, the Bush regime was at war with the entire country. They couldn't have cared less who they killed or maimed in their rush to occupy. They isolated and drove from away the very same sects they now claim they want to share power with the Shiite dominated authority. They engaged in search and destroy, 'anti-insurgent' raids to suppress these groups before, during, and after the 'elections'.

The example Americans provided for those who fell outside of the protective cabal they cobbled together and installed was one of violent overthrow, military dominance, and bloody suppression to achieve power:




Divide and Conquer - The U.S. role in Iraq’s sectarian violence

Wed, 08 Mar 2006
By Stephen Zunes
http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/2155/Divide_and_Conquer

{snips}

Much of Iraq’s current divisions can be traced to the decision of U.S. occupation authorities immediately following the conquest to abolish the Iraqi army and purge the government bureaucracy—both bastions of secularism—thereby creating a vacuum which was soon filled by sectarian parties and militias. In addition, the U.S. occupation authorities—in an apparent effort of divide-and-rule—encouraged sectarianism by dividing up authority based not on technical skills or ideological affiliation but ethnic and religious identity. As with Lebanon, however, such efforts have actually exacerbated divisions, with virtually every political question debated not on its merits, but on which group it potentially benefits or harms. This has led to great instability, with political parties, parliamentary blocs, and government ministries breaking down along sectarian lines.
*

The United States initially insisted on indefinite rule by Iraqis picked directly or indirectly by Washington. However, when hundreds of thousands of Shiites took to the streets in January 2004 demanding the right to choose their country’s leaders, the Bush administration reluctantly agreed to hold direct elections. Having been dominated by Sunnis under the Baathists, the Hashemites, and the Ottomans, the Shiite majority was eager to rule. Not surprisingly, elections have brought Shiite religious parties to power which have since marginalized other groups and imposed their repressive and misogynist version of Islamic law in parts of Iraq where they dominate, particularly in the south of the country.
*

The Shiite government of Iran, long cited for its human rights abuses by both the Bush administration and reputable human rights organizations, has actively supported Shiite militias within the Iraqi government and security forces. (Despite this, the Bush administration and its supporters—including many prominent Democrats—have been putting forth the ludicrous theory that Iran is actually supporting the anti-Shiite and anti-American Sunni insurgency.) Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was trained by Iran’s infamous Revolutionary Guards and later served as a leader of the Badr Brigade, the militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
*

Americans have also trained Interior Ministry police and commandoes, though—unlike some notorious cases in recent Latin American history—there is little evidence to suggest that U.S. trainers have actively encouraged death squad activity. Still, there is little question that actions by U.S. occupation troops over the past three years—such as the torture of detainees, the hair-trigger response at checkpoints, the liberal use of force in heavily-populated civilian neighborhoods, and the targeted assassinations of suspected insurgent leaders—have contributed to the climate of impunity exhibited by forces of the Iraqi government.



Even Bush's own handpicked ambassador to Iraq agrees that the sectarian violence is the fault of the invasion:



US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box'

Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill
Wednesday March 8, 2006
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1725996,00.html

The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday that the Iraq invasion had opened a Pandora's box of sectarian conflicts which could lead to a regional war and the rise of religious extremists who "would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play".

Zalmay Khalilzad broke with the Bush administration's generally upbeat orthodoxy to present a stark profile of a volatile situation in danger of sliding into chaos.

Mr Khalilzad told the Los Angeles Times Iraq had been pulled back from the brink of civil war after the February 22 bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra. However, another similar incident would leave Iraq "really vulnerable" to that happening, he said. "We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way forward?"


why forward?

[skylarmae]

1. strife - naw...civil war - naw....chaos and destruction everywhere - naw..

nothing but media distortions and lies cause they hate us for our freedoms!

[IsItJustMe]

2. He likes them when they suit his purpose.