Don’t you love when Fox News parades some neo-con with the last name of Cheney or Wolfowitz on its propaganda network and they declare Iraq a huge success? I guess 30% unemployment, power outages for 20 hours per day when the temperatures are 120, bombs blowing up every day killing hundreds, and a paralyzed government constitutes success in the eyes of a neo-con. The truth is that Iraq is a failed state. George W’s invasion has proven to be disastrous for the United States – 4,500 men killed, 40,000 wounded, $1 trillion pissed own the toilet, oil moving from $23 per barrel in 2002 to $87 per barrel today, and more terrorists in Iraq today than ever existed under Hussein.
Could you imagine the panic and fear in our paradise of democracy if 234 people in the U.S. had been killed by terrorist bombs in one month? We piss our pants every time the CIA & FBI create a fake terrorist plot that they foil after luring some dimwitted dupe into their plot. What does the American public do when told about the 234 deaths of innocent Iraqis? They yawn and think – “just a bunch of ragheaded Muslims. What time is America’s Got Talent on?”
Iraq is imploding and it is our fault. The sanctions Obama and Congress have put on Iranian oil exports are reducing their income. When volume drops, you need prices to rise. How do you think Iran will achieve that needed price increase? They will threaten the Strait of Hormuz and they will send their people into Iraq and blow up a few oil installations. Book it Shaziz.
National grid grinds to a halt in Iraq
Azzaman, June 22, 2012
Lack of fuel forced a shutdown of Iraq’s national grid, plunging the country into total darkness.
The shutdown continued for nearly a day hours before Iraqi technicians could bring the grid back to life.
The Ministry of Electricity said the whole grid stopped functioning because there were no more fuel supplies available
Major power stations in the country had to be shut down for many hours before power production was resumed, said the ministry’s spokesman Musaib al-Mudarisi.
But technicians privately say the failure of the national grid was caused by an unexpected hike in demand amid rising temperatures that have surged beyond 40 degrees centigrade.
Nearly 10 years after the U.S. invasion of the country and spending of billions of dollars, Iraqis still suffer outages that may last up to 20 hours a day.
Electricity represents the real story of failure in a failed country and points to massive waste of resources.
Electricity officials keep talking of new contracts worth billions of dollars and completion of new plants but supplies are still worse than the days of former President Saddam Hussein.
Iraq’s power needs are estimated at 14,000 megawatts but the countr’sy total capacity hardly provides half the domestic demand.
Iraq imports electricity mainly from Iran at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Iraq Violence Surge Spurs New Fears
By LARA JAKES and KAY JOHNSON 06/30/12 04:06 PM ET 
BAGHDAD — A half year after the U.S. military left Iraq, dire predictions seem to be coming true: The country is mired in violence and the government is on the verge of collapsing. With no relief in sight, there’s growing talk of Iraq as a failed state as al-Qaida’s local wing staged near daily attacks that killed at least 234 people in June.
Iraq no longer suffers widespread retaliatory killings between Sunni and Shiite extremists that brought the country to the brink of civil war. But the spike in violence heightens fears that Iraq could limp along for years as an unstable and dangerous country.
June was the second-deadliest month since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in mid-December as insurgents exploited the political struggles between the country’s ethnic and sectarian factions. More significant than the numbers was the fact that insurgents appeared able to sustain the level of violence over a longer period than usual. There was a major deadly bombing or shooting rampage almost every three days, many targeting Shiite pilgrims.
The violence has brought the weakness of Iraq’s security apparatus into sharp focus even as deepening political divisions dim the prospects that the country will emerge as a stable democracy after decades of war and dictatorship.
“The state is almost paralyzed and dysfunctional due to political feuds. In such circumstances, the security forces also will be paralyzed and the insurgents groups are making use of this chaos,” Haider al-Saadi, the Shiite owner of internet cafe in eastern Baghdad, said Saturday. “I do not think that al-Qaida is getting any stronger – it is the state that is getting weaker.”
The situation deteriorated shortly after American troops left Iraq on Dec. 18, following failed negotiations to stay beyond a year-end withdrawal deadline that was cemented in a 2008 security agreement.
The next day Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government issued terror charges against Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s highest-ranking Sunnis, who fled Baghdad and remains on the lam. Sunni lawmakers briefly boycotted parliament and al-Maliki’s cabinet in protest. By spring, leaders of the self-ruled Kurdish northern region joined the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya political coalition against al-Maliki, whom they accused of refusing to share power.
And last week, in the first major defection by an influential Shiite leader, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said he would direct his followers to join efforts to oust al-Maliki if a power-sharing agreement is not reached.
Al-Maliki, who won a second term in 2010, followed with a threat to call for early elections that would dissolve parliament if government infighting does not stop.
In calling for an early election, al-Maliki is betting he would win with enough widespread support to gain undisputed power. His political coalition fell short of winning the most seats in parliament in 2010 elections and back-room dealing among political parties delayed a new government from taking over for nine months.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh agreed Saturday that the political crisis has fueled June’s violent surge.
“The insurgents are making use of the political differences in the country, and the recent attacks are the result of this political strife,” al-Dabbagh said.
Violence has been steady across Iraq so far this year, but the levels of attacks in June soared beyond the occasional, if spectacular, wave of bombings that is al- Qaida’s usual pattern. Victims mostly have been Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces – three of al-Qaida’s favorite targets.
Al-Qaida front group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a June 13 wave of nearly two dozen bombings nationwide that killed 72 Iraqis. The coordination, sophistication and targets of several other attacks also bore the hallmarks of the terror network.
Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials long have said that al-Qaida’s resources in Iraq – including money, weapons and a stable of suicide bombers – have dwindled to the point where the insurgent group can only carry off a few attacks each month.
Many experts believe the turmoil in neighboring Syria is stoking the violence, saying the success of the Sunni-led opposition against President Bashar Assad’s regime is emboldening Iraqi Sunnis to attack government targets.
“As the edifice in Syria weakens, the more space for violence is going spill over to the Sunni areas in Iraq,” said Kamran Bokhari, a Canadian-based expert on Mideast issues for the global intelligence company Statfor.
Some analysts believe Iraq is turning into a failed state. This month, the U.S.-based Fund for Peace ranked Iraq No. 9 on its annual Top Ten list of failed states worldwide. The nonpartisan research group ranked 178 nations and blamed the persistent security problems in Iraq on the inability to overcome long-standing ethnic and sectarian tensions.
Despite the continued bombings and other attacks, Iraqis have not returned to the sectarian warfare that killed tens of thousands of people as violence peaked in 2006-2007. Shiite militias have shown restraint even as a spate of bombings targeted Shiite pilgrims, shrines and government leaders.
And as al-Sadr, an anti-U.S. cleric whose militias were responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks of the war, seeks to secure his status as a major political player in Iraq, it’s doubtful he will unleash his followers in widespread violence that would undermine his credibility across the mostly-Sunni Arab world.
Even al-Maliki’s opponents speak only of ousting him in a parliamentary vote, not by force.
“People now know that violence will breed violence and sectarian killings will lead to more counter-sectarian killings,” said Omar al-Jubouri, a Sunni lawmaker from the Iraqiya bloc.
Underscoring the continued dangers, however, the month ended with a pair of bombings Saturday in the northern, Sunni-dominated Nivevah province, killing two soldiers on separate security patrols, local officials said.
Many Iraqis lament the withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying it was premature.
“The U.S. pullout was a mistake because the country is still in need for their intelligence and military capabilities,” said Mohammed Salam, a Sunni government employee in Baghdad. “The Iraqi government should have kept some several thousands of U.S. troops in order to help Iraq forces maintain a reasonable level of security.”
The international community spent billions of dollars to stabilize Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed during the war.
But the U.S. currently has limited influence in Baghdad: A June 14 statement by the top national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden that urged Iraqi officials to “alleviate current tensions in order to refocus energy on critical state-building challenges” produced few, if any, signs of progress.
Nor do most Iraqis expect any.
“I think Iraq will see worse days in the future if the politicians continue their destructive feuds and keep following their personal ambitions,” Salam said.
Goldorack says:
China is already planning joint war games with Iran, Russia and Syria. as for Egypt, wich has the biggest population in the Mediteranean area, their president just said he wants to get closer from Iran “for a better strategical balance”. people don’t understand that game is already over, and that it will take a WW3 to calm down billions of angry poors.
my next buy is a FAL
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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3rd July 2012 at 4:03 pm
platoplubius says:
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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3rd July 2012 at 4:03 pm
Zarathustra says:
Everything is proceeding according to plan. Now that Iraq has been destroyed, we will move on to Syria and then Iran. Once these countries have been destroyed as well, the arabs and christians will be wiped away and the biblical promise of Eretz Israel can be established.
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3rd July 2012 at 5:27 pm
Goldorack says:
you’re wrong.
the plan will fuck up, arabs will unify and the energy crisis that follow will trigger ww3.
1 third of the world population will be wipped away and the survivors will fight to control the remaining areas that stayed clean from radioactivity as the belligerent targeted most of the powerplants of the planet.
enjoy a good drink tonight.
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3rd July 2012 at 6:03 pm
Ron says:
Big war,expensive oil,american economy down the toilet.Resulting riots equals martial law and Obama is emperor.You didnt think he could win the next election did you?
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3rd July 2012 at 7:08 pm
DaveL says:
“National grid grinds to a halt in Iraq.”
Yeah, but they provide free healthcare.
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3rd July 2012 at 7:11 pm
Mr. Happy says:
There will be no war in the Middle East. From what I read Iran is totally armed and capable of massive destruction. The U.S. can get badly mauled with capital ships truly in hams way.
Sorry, what we are witnessing is the final stage of the complete collapse of a wrong headed and corrupt American foreign policy in the Middle East, and that is all. If we want any ME presence the only choice is no war regardless of what our ‘Eretz’ friend and it’s powerful lobby demands. There’s another powerful lobby…the oil industry, and I can’t imagine they want to see the bottom line destruction that would result from a chaotic war. They’re happy with a threat of war and its impact on oil prices. But a real war is another matter…that effects supply.
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3rd July 2012 at 4:11 am
Nonanonymous says:
Militarily rebuffed as the currency spirals out of control because of debt, it’s a good thing the feds have a plan B, subjugation of the American people.
The devil couldn’t have devised a better outcome for himself.
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3rd July 2012 at 4:26 am
SSS says:
@ Mr. Happy, who said, “There will be no war in the Middle East. From what I read Iran is totally armed and capable of massive destruction. The U.S. can get badly mauled with capital ships truly in ha(r)ms way.”
Iran is NOT capable of massive destruction, except against its own people. Iran’s military strength is almost exclusively land forces, not surprising considering the deva station of the Iran-Iraq War. You have fallen prey to Iranian propaganda and media hype.
Iran’s navy and air force are a joke, particularly the navy, which poses only a minor, imperceptable threat against the U.S. Navy, which goes in and out of the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf with impunity. Ask yourself, in one of the most easily DEFENDED bodies of water on the planet, why would the U.S. risk a multi-billion dollar fleet of ships to travel in those waters if it were not able to counter any threat to those ships and sailors? I kindly request conspiracy theorists to not attempt to answer that question.
Now then, I would agree that the U.S. does not need to get into Iran’s face like this, particularly since the so-called nuclear threat from Iran has proved to be so shaky and inconclusive. It’s provocative and non-productive.
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3rd July 2012 at 8:16 pm
Goldorack says:
SSS, you don’t get it.
nobody gives a fuck about Iran, the real threat is behind. just like in Vietnam.
without China and Russia, neither the vietmin nor the vietcong would have been able to achieve any success in this area.
just in case you forgot, America put more means on the table than during WW2, before having to pack and leave miserably.
China can supply Iran more Silkworms a day than a bakery can make baguettes.
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3rd July 2012 at 3:45 am