Learn it! Speak it! Live it!
Bring Christmas to a child in need!
An 'urgency': Sensing threats to institutions of society, church leaders make declaration 
Click to Print
Include Comments
Reporting from Iraq
WORLD Editor Mindy Belz reports today from Shekhan on how things have dramatically changed in this northern Iraq town:
[T]errorists chased out of their enclaves closer to Mosul and Kirkuk showed up last year in Shekhan and other towns bordering Nineveh Plain, trying to regroup and openly operating cells inside the town. They shook up the fragile ethnic balance and tried to set religion against religion. Iraqi police and military forces took the new threat seriously, even though Shekhan is not a big city. They closed in around the area and arrested terrorists door-to-door. It’s probably true that some got away to other parts of Iraq, but Shekhan in September 2008 is a different place, and it happened, according to locals, without U.S. intervention: The checkpoints are gone, stores are busy selling outdoor furniture, even outdoor baby cribs, and new sidewalks have been laid. Even the potholes are gone.
Read her entire report here.
back to top27 Comments to “Reporting from Iraq”
So after 5 and 1/2 tears, tens of thousands of casualties and 1/2 of a trillion dollars in borrowed money things are looking up in Shekhan, Iraq?
Report comment to moderator
Nick! Please stop being such a Negativist Nelly.
The president has said over and over again the USA will stand down in Iraq just as soon as the Iraqi govt forces stand up.
Which will probably happen about the time the last Katrina evacuee has moved out of his temporary FEMA trailer and gone back to N’awlins.
Report comment to moderator
The terrorists arent dummies. I liken them to the roaches that run under your fridge when you turn on the kitchen light at 2am. Just because they run away that doesnt mean they’re gone for good.
Report comment to moderator
Sswgunner, What do you expect from Nicky? He can’t even use correct grammar. He uses tears in lieu of years.
Report comment to moderator
I have on my office wall a poster bearing the names of those from 3rd Brigade of 1st Cav Div who died in Iraq.
Trust me Nick, it was far far more than 5 and 1/2 tears.
Report comment to moderator
To Joe B.
Yes focus on my typo and then you don’t have to address how insane the Iraq War is and how despicable Bush is for starting it.
Report comment to moderator
Exactly, Nick. That is exactly how I read Joe’s lame response.
4169 and counting.
Report comment to moderator
Thanks, Sawgunner, for putiing your life on the line in Iraq and for explaining some hard truths to Nick.
Nick, America saved Europe’s bacon in the World Wars and the Cold War; we, also, liberated Iraq that now bids fair to evolve into the first true democracy in Iraq. We made some mistakes in this war, as we have done in most of our wars, though our brave troops soldiered on and Petraeus came up with a winning strategy. America, for all its faults, is a great nation that is using its strength wisely to advnce our own national interest in a stable world as well as those of other nations.
Mindy Belz has given us the fine example of Shekhan that is prospering, though the situation in Iraq remains fragile. Those roaches that Sawgunner speaks of are capable of reviving another deadly insurgency should the American people lose its political will and our political leaders force a too hasty evacuation.
Report comment to moderator
Pardon me, in the above second para. I meant to say …bids fair to to evolve into the first true democracy in the Middle East.
Report comment to moderator
Hmm, well Lumpy at least, I do not resort to personal attacks.
Report comment to moderator
I, for one, am happy for the people of Shekhan. I’m sure there are other towns embracing similar success.
Report comment to moderator
To NJ Lawyer and Peter
I don’t doubt you can find some success stories in Iraq but was is worth the cost? Not even remotely.
And Peter as I had said many times if we did such a wonderful thing by “liberating” Iraq why doesn’t Bush go there and bask in the adulation of a grateful country?
Report comment to moderator
10 is ironic because #4 is a personal attack.
Report comment to moderator
and it happened, according to locals, without U.S. intervention:
so why is the US still there?
America saved Europe’s bacon in the World Wars
Peter we’ve been through this before. America was late in WWI, the USSR was the deciding factor in the European theatre, and the Cold War was won not through military might but through domestic problems in the USSR economy and social policies.
s a great nation that is using its strength wisely to advance our own national interest
now that’s correct so stop pretending the Iraq invasion had any pretense of advancing Iraqi interests.
first true democracy in Iraq (Middle East).
you mean a Shia theocracy? Oh and you forgot Turkey, Isreal and despite its intermittent warfare Lebanon continues to be a democracy. In each of these cases, democracy was achieved by impetus the originated within the country and not imposed by outside forces.
Report comment to moderator
I hope the Iraqis can have a culture/political system similar to Israel’s: strongly shaped by the official religion of the majority but where individuals can nonetheless go secular if they wish. I recall seeing a pic of an Israeli bus stop. One gal in Daisy Dukes and a halter top standing not far from an Orthodox gal in head scarf and skirt with hem below her knees. Neither was lecturing the other. Rodney King would like the attitude of Israelis.
Report comment to moderator
You know what the problem is with leftys: they are a miserable, negative group, they have no sense of balance.
Now, Nick, I don’t put you in that group. All I can say to you is that we’ll know the answer to your question with the perspective of time. I may think Iraq lanced a boil, so to speak, you don’t. It worked with Gaddafi, and I have no doubt that the soldiers are working the usual GI magic on kids.
Report comment to moderator
Sawgunner — that’s my daily reality. And even better — they not only tolerate each other, they are best friends.
Report comment to moderator
#17 HRW, I couldnt help but think that perhaps ea gal at the bus stop was looking at the other and thinking to herself “..and to think I used to dress that way!”
Report comment to moderator
in my class its “I dress this way until I reach school and then I change back just before the last bell. My teacher is nice enough to let me out 10 minutes before the bell rings to go to “the washroom” so I can change.”
Report comment to moderator
Nick And Peter as I had said many times if we did such a wonderful thing by “liberating” Iraq why doesn’t Bush go there and bask in the adulation of a grateful country?
Nick, many people in Iraq and in our country are grateful that Pres. Bush and the troops had the courage and determination to defeat the brutal Saddam Hussein regime and to eventually through a major change of strategy substantially defeat the insurgency.
Just now it is mainly the pouty leftists including HRW and the isolationists including you and Lump who remain bitter about this war and are disappointed that Bush and the troops bid fair in the long run to have achieved a victory and earned the reputation as the liberators of Iraq. While Americans sensibly don’t like war, they know about its necessity and for the most part detest defeat; they are properly wary of the present situation in Iraq but grateful for the increasing success of our troops.
Report comment to moderator
If Democrats would stop promising a pullout, and instead would throw all their support into seeing Iraq a free nation as Republicans have done, then you would see Iraqi’s publicly embrace President Bush.
But as things stand many Iraqi’s are fearful to step forward at all knowing if the Dems take control in 2009, the foreign influences that are using what remains of the Iraqi resistance will take over and those citizens that chose to publicly stand with the Americans will be butchered.
Report comment to moderator
Regarding the first post here, I hardly doubt the poster had time to read the entire linked article before making his comment. The post came out at 1:08 p.m. and the first response 4 minutes later at 1:12 p.m. That would mean being online exactly when the article was posted, reading it, and then responding, all in under 4 minutes. Certainly possible to do, but what’s the chances.
Given this, it’s obvious that the first post here is one based on ignorance and should be ignored, but I couldn’t resist.
Report comment to moderator
Iraqui deaths due to US invasion:
1,267,401
The number is shocking and sobering.
It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.
That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The graphic above provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)
The estimate that over a million Iraqis have died received independent confirmation from a prestigious British polling agency in September 2007. Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US invasion.
This devastating human toll demands greater recognition. It eclipses the Rwandan genocide and our leaders are directly responsible. Little wonder they do not publicly cite it. Here is simple HTML code to post the counter to your website and help spread the word.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
Report comment to moderator
This is a trickle of good news. I am happy about it. But I am at least as frustrated as those on the left. The difference is that I don’t blame America first. My son is at Parris Island and I support helping oppressed people.
But so much is wrong in Iraq and has been so for millenia and I don’t see any politician who understands that. Islam is the worst blight on humanity in history. The Arab culture is no picnic either. Does anyone understand this? And on top of this the Bush administration is responsible for the deaths of many American soldiers, trying to fight a sanitary war that looks good on Al Jazeera. Makes me madder than ever.
Read the book “No True Glory” about the fight for Fallujah and count how many American body bags Paul Bremmer was responsible for.
Don’t get me wrong, I have seen both sides. I have traveled in the Middle East and support missionaries in Iraq. I saw the documentary “My Country, My Country” which is a pro-Islamic view of the elections in Iraq. But it shows that even the most respectable and seemingly pro-American people there secretly support those who oppose the so-called occupation, i.e. terrorists. If you are Muslim, then terror is a legitimate political tool. Everyone knows this, except Americans.
I hear the reports from missionaries who give some good news and say that there are good Iraqis who want to live in peace. I understand and believe that is true. But that culture of hate is so in-grained that I doubt any one can ever bring peace to a country whose Constitution institutes Islam (the Religion of War) as the political philosophy of the state.
There is no clear mission. The military has to walk around until someone gets shot before they can act. The Iraqis and insurgents are as hostile as ever. They put women and children in harms way. They are barbarians. When will we stop providing them target practice? We need to either win the war (once we define it) or get out.
Report comment to moderator
Iraqi’s have faced deaths on several fronts for decades:
1. First from Saddam and his Baathist party as they used death to take over and then control the people.
2. The Iran Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 brought anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 million Iraqi deaths depending on what source you read (but does it really matter which number is more accurate, it’s still horrific).
3. The Gulf War of 1991 brought much death and destruction to the Iraqi people (didn’t search for numbers of casualities)
4. The sanctions from 1991 to 2003 brought an estimated death to 500,000 Iraqi children according to UNICEF. And estimates of sanction related deaths over this same 12 year period are estimated to be a million or more for all ages.
5. And now the most recent war in Iraq has brought death to who knows how many more Iraqi citizens. One estimate here states 1.2 million. But even if that number is unreasonably high, which it sounds it is, it does really matter because even a number 1/4 that high is still a tragedy.
If there was ever a nation that needed outside intervention to begin to curb the rate of death, it would be Iraq. They have proven that since Saddam Hussein has been in power, death has been a part of daily life.
So what is our objective? Well I hope it is two fold, the first being to put an end to the pattern of death lived in Iraq and second to establish a democracy of the people so that they are free to live life the way they want, to choose their job, their god, their spouse, their home, etc.
This is a paradigm shift from the way of life known to the Arabic world. And it will take a generation or two to change this. But if we can secure a well received democracy in a predominantly muslim state, then citizens of other nations will see this and hopefully desire a similar prosperous lifestyle and desire it in their country. Then we will be able to curb the hatred of the west and we’ll see the begininngs of hostility towards the west crumble and we will have successfully removed terrorism as a threat to our freedoms.
Report comment to moderator
o have achieved a victory and earned the reputation as the liberators of Iraq.
victory???? please justify the use of this word
reputation as liberators???? where??
Report comment to moderator
Xion
don’t blame your frustration on Arab or Islamic culture, real or imaginary. Like the colonial powers before them, the US operated under the idea that western style democracy was the most advanced form of governance and some including the neo-cons decided that historical progress would end at liberal democracy. However, there is no permanence nor is there any progress in human institutions and to attempt to impose a particular vision upon an other country for which its not suited, the only result will be failure. In other words, the invasion and the occupation was an act of faith which did not match reality. Americans would have been better served by a leadership which was part of the reality based community as opposed to those with the hubris to attempt to impose their own reality.
Report comment to moderator
back to topJoin The Conversation
You need to be a registered user of WORLDonTheWeb.com to "join the conversation."
If you are not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Register / Login Now!