Mar 21 2012
Violence Plagues Iraq on Ninth Anniversary of Start of US War
A string of bomb attacks in cities all over Iraq including Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Karbala, killed 46 people and wounded 200 within just a few hours, one week ahead of an Arab League summit. The attacks are being attributed to “insurgents,” and may be intended to derail the summit, which is taking place in Iraq for the first time in decades. The Iraqi government has warned for weeks that the summit would be threatened by “al-Qaida and Sunni sympathizers.” The Arab League summit is seen by elected officials as a “showcase” for Iraq’s post-war stability – an image shattered by the bombings this week. This week also marks the 9th anniversary of the start of the US war in Iraq. The Iraqi shiite cleric, Moqtada Al Sadr promoted a mass protest to mark that anniversary – tens of thousands of Iraqis marched, demanding in particular, an improvement of basic government services like electricity and water. Al Sadr, via his Mehdi Army was held responsible for fomenting some of the worst post-US invasion violence, against Iraq’s Sunni minority.
US troops formally withdrew from Iraq last December after the Iraqi government refused to extend the troop deadline. Over the nearly nine years of war, about 4,500 US troops died on the battlefield, while Iraqi casualties total well over 100,000. What is lamented in recent months is that the end of the Iraq war has resulted in a loss of American influence in Iraq, with Iran filling the political vacuum. Even though the war is over, the US Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, continues to be staffed with large numbers of American diplomats, eager to preserve American influence.
GUESTS: Kevin Zeese, co-chair of Come Home America, a coalition against war, and co-organizer of the National Occupation of Washington DC, Ann Wright former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel – she resigned from the State Department in protest of the Iraq invasion in March of 2003
Visit www.nowdc.org for more information about the DC National Occupation.
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