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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, March 04, 2010 11:46 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Iraq: St. Valentine's Day Massacres: Still
Ongoing</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial color=black size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></FONT><BR><BR>
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<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt" size=5><B>Iraq: St. Valentine's Day Massacres: Still
Ongoing</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 15pt" size=4>by Felicity
Arbuthnot</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>Nineteen years ago, on the night
of 13th/14th February 1991, the Ameriya Shelter, on Baghdad's outskirts, was
deliberately targeted by US missiles, in a war crime which near excelled the
litany of criminal acts in the onslaught which then Secretary of State, James
Baker, promised would: "reduce Baghdad to a pre-industrial age."</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>My memories of Ameriya have been
left in their immediacy, rather than again updated. (See below.)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>On 13th/14th February this year,
the US is still extinguishing Iraqis, detaining without trial (and almost
certainly worse) in the name of "nation building" (read: nation erasing) after
near seven years of murderous occupation. In the other country the US and UK are
systematically destroying, Afghanistan, on precisely the anniversary of the
Shelter bombing, they have launched another St Valentine's Eve and Day massacre.
It is also another equally infamous anniversary: that of the fire bombing of
Dresden.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>"Operation Moshtarak", in Helmand
Province, the biggest "surge" since the numerous other biggest surges since
2001, in this graveyard of Empires and Afghans, is set to create Ameriya's
incendiary tragedy throughout the towns and villages of the region. </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>The US military is to "clear"
(read kill) "suspected Taliban" (their trained and paid allies when the USSR
invaded) from the region. Rule of law shredded, "suspects" are no longer tried,
simply summarily executed. Over the years, a surprising number of "suspects"
have still been in diapers. Quite a few have also been in wedding dresses.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>The US military, of course,
reverted to their old habit to "avoid civilian casualties." They dropped
leaflets telling the locals to leave to avoid casualties. According to UNICEF,
just 28% of the population is literate, far less in rural areas. In the
frozen wastes of a February Afghan winter, where are they to go? (In 1991,
the US dropped several tonnes of leaflets with the same warning to the Marsh
Arabs in Iraq. Illiterate but not stupid, they sold this bounty to the
government, unable to import paper under the embargo.)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>In 1750, Ahmad Shah's army, is
said to have lost eighteen thousand men in Afghanistan from cold, in a single
night in February, the most Siberian month, where the temperature falls to an
average low of -8 C., and the eastern reaches of the Hari river can freeze so
hard that people travel it as a road.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>"This is not going to be a
Falluja" said Major General Nick Carter, "that's not the model." Oh good.
"Moshtarak" means "together", in the Dari language. At least it's not the Wild
West "Panther's Claw" mark two, title of the last absolutely "final
surge."</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>In more quaint army-speak,
General Carter refers to "inserting" the fifteen thousand testosterone-driven
troops, backed by bombs, bullets, possibly the odd bit of white phosphorous and
other aids to "pacification" and "bringing the government in behind us." One
could almost think it was a raunchy Friday night on the town, rather than a
killing spree.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>The troops refer to this
"insertion" as: "lawn mowing." What is it about blood baths and gardening
euphemisms? Remember those military human shredding machines,"daisy
cutters"?</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>So as Ameriyah is commemorated in
the hearts of Iraqis, a day which is as yesterday for all Baghdadis, keep the
Afghan people also in your hearts, in their terror, this Dresden replicating
Valentine's Day.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>In her new book, to be launched
on Wednesday 17th February, Iraqi writer and activist Haifa Zangana comments
of Iraq:</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.39in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in"
align=justify>“We wanted to put an end to this but we failed. The war and
occupation in 2003, apart from shattering Iraq as a country and a people, has
brought about many more imprisonments, many more deaths. Abu Ghraib is only one
of many symbols. In occupied Iraq, torture became an instrument of humiliation
and of a way to force a nation into submission. As we resist occupation now, our
message is clear: We did not struggle for decades to replace one torturer with
another.”(1)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>An eloquent encapsulation for
those in both occupied, invaded, terrorised, defiled lands.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify>A last word on the Ameriya
Shelter comes from Dahr Jamail:</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.39in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in"
align=justify>"I learned that the Amiriyah Bomb Shelter has been closed by the
Americans, due to the fact that an Islamic Fundamentalist group was keeping it
open. I am glad I went when I did a couple of weeks ago, for when
monuments/schools/buildings are closed and/or occupied by the Americans here,
they have a tendency not to reopen." (2)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><BR>This uniquely poignant
shrine, marking an unimaginable end, is now designated: an "Islamic
Fundamentalist" site, by Iraq's liberators, the new Crusaders.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in"
align=justify><BR><STRONG>Notes</STRONG><BR><BR><FONT size=2>(1)Haifa Zangana:
"Dreaming of Baghdad."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><A
href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreaming-Baghdad-Women-Writing-Middle/dp/1558616055"
target=_blank><FONT
size=2>http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreaming-Baghdad-Women-Writing-Middle/dp/1558616055</FONT></A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify><FONT size=2>(2) <A
href="http://www.esterrepublic.com/Archives/djamail1.html"
target=_blank>http://www.esterrepublic.com/Archives/djamail1.html</A></FONT>
</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.1in" align=justify> <FONT size=2>http://<A
href="http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=30603"
target=_blank>www.uruknet.info?p=30603</A></FONT> <FONT
size=2>Ameriya 14th Feb 2007.</FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_2_b7220cd7-2b99-4614-89da-49e072e85776 -->
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