Carnival of the Liberated
Dave Schuler
Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the best posts from Iraqi and Afghani bloggers. This week we've got breakfast food, Saudis, a sharecropper, the new Constitution, and much more.
Afghan Warrior has some details of the operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Truth Teller of A Family from Mosul has a report of what amounts to collective punishment in Buhrez. This would be disturbing if true. I've tracked the source of the story to a single anonymous source reported on antiwar.com in an article by Dahr Jamail. Does anyone have more information about this?
Abu Khaleel of A Glimpse of Iraq has an interesting character study of one of his sharecroppers. The profile includes interesting sidelights on the hazards of polygamy, the management of sharecroppers, and Iraqi politics.
Hassan of An Average Iraqi posts about the Iraqi National Guard. I found this interesting:
One other thing, did you know that the uniforms of the National Guards and Police forces in Iraq are being sold in certain areas of Baghdad, especially Bab Al-Sharjy, which is almost a market of everything, anything can be found there. For example right after the war there, a friend of mine tells that he did see a commercial written by hand on a wall saying (Solve your problems for just 1500 Dinars) which is a little less than a dollar, guess what you will by that, a HAND GRENADE. Anyway I guess I drifted off point, back to the National Guards, anyone can get their uniforms, Imagine the chaos that could create, it has been known for some terrorist groups to mimic national guards units and do whatever they please in their name, which isn't exactly what we can call popular in Baghdad.
I think the best posts of the Iraqi bloggers are the ones that are just about everyday life. Ali of Free Iraqi answers a number of reader questions about just such questions. What does he eat for breakfast? What's a typical home like?
There's a post on Friends of Democracy on the new Constitution and the pitfalls of making Islam the sole source of legislation.
How popular are the Saudis with Iraqis? Not particularly if Hammorabi is at all typical:
The announcement of the killing of Abdalla El-Rashood today is another indication of how big is the involvement of the Saudis in the terrorism all over the world and not only in the US, Iraq, Afghanistan but everywhere.
What is needed is not operations on the tail of the snake but it is suffice to direct quiet few big blows on the head to finish the poisonous snake once and forever. What are happening now are few hits on the tails yet sending friendship to the heads! Head spit oil and it is needed but this is proved wrong and the best way to deal with it is to make the head to put itself away from the source of the oil or it will be pushed away. On the same time this rooted head should and other small heads should not suppress the minorities and either leave or introduce real democracy which have to push them away.
Mohammed of Iraq the Model has a post summarizing the losses of the insurgency over the weekend. He concludes:
I'm positive that Iraqis have no intention of giving up and so do their allies and friends while those who think that our position is weak are actually allowing lies and illusions to control their thinking and were driven away from the larger image by the narrow image provided by the media. The future is ours, there's no doubt about that and we shall win.
Raed Jarrar passes along a report (with photographs) of atrocities against Iraqi civilians by American forces. Warning: even edited these images are graphic. I'd read this report and seen the photographs on the blog of an Iraqi ex-pat a week or so ago. As with the story above this is disturbing if true but we only seem to have a single source and unprovenanced photos with other possible explanations. Whether true or not these stories have significance because they're making the rounds and are no doubt accepted uncritically by many in the Middle East and in the West.
Dr. Hanoudi of The Hanoudi Letter summarizes the Iraqi situation six months after the election. Here's his conclusion:
The Americans are in a real quandary in Iraq, the administration has already paid a very high price in blood and treasure for its policies and is still doing so, but this cannot go on indefinitely there is already a very serious opposition to their adventure in Iraq from inside and outside the United States. On the other hand they just cannot leave in a hurry like the Clinton administration did in Somalia, America has major interests in the area, a hasty departure will make a it a laugh and leave a huge vacuum which will be filled by extremist and fanatic elements and turn the whole area into an inferno. America is in trouble; there is not a very easy solution to it, they need a miracle.He may be right or he just may not be able to see the whole elephant from where he's standing.
Life goes on in Iraq. Sunshine of Days of My Life posts about the summer wedding parties she's attended.
Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, The Glittering Eye. The Carnival was originally conceived by Ryan Boots.
The last two of those photos show an obvious U.S. battle dressing on the leg of the wounded person. He didn't put it there himself, if the soldiers were busy stripping him. SOP for U.S. forces once they have enemy wounded no longer a threat, is to treat them and save their lives. Looks like they were following SOP here.