The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people; they've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause, and a great strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve it; the security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest, and open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq.
This is Iraq today:
UN News Centre:
Nearly 6,400 Iraqi civilians were killed in the November-December period, slightly less than in the preceding two months, as rampant and indiscriminate killings, sectarian violence, extra-judicial executions – and impunity for the perpetrators – continued virtually unchecked, according to the latest United Nations rights report released today.It puts the total civilian casualty figure for the year 2006 at 34,452 dead and 36,685 injured. Asked why the UN death toll for the year was about three times higher than that reported by the Iraqi Government, a spokesman in New York said the UN figures were based on those provided by the Baghdad Medico-Legal Institute and the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
“An unprecedented number of execution-style killings have taken place in Baghdad and other parts of the country, whereby bodies were routinely found dumped in the streets, in rivers and in mass graves – most bearing signs of torture with their hands and feet bound, and some were beheaded,” the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) human rights report for the period says of “the modus operandi” of both Sunni and Shiite groups.
So much for that. According to the UN, iraqi law enforcement doesn't provide protection, 417,000 people have been 'forcibly displaced' (i.e., driven out by ethnic cleansing), and "No religious and ethnic groups, including women and children, have been spared from the widespread cycle of violence which creates panic and disrupts the daily life of many Iraqi families..." Women are especially bad off.
[The UN report] notes a rapid erosion of women's rights in the central and southern regions. "Women are reportedly living with heightened levels of threats to their lives and physical integrity, and forced to conform to strict, arbitrarily imposed morality codes," it says, with cases of young women abducted by armed militia and found days later sexually abused, tortured and murdered.
"Female corpses are usually abandoned at the morgue and remain unclaimed for fear of damaging the family honour," it adds. "More than 140 bodies were unclaimed and buried in Najaf by the morgue during the reporting period." In a suspected honour crime case, a secondary school student was publicly hanged in east Baghdad by armed militia and her brother shot dead when he tried to rescue her.
In the north it cites "honour killings" with 239 reportedly women burning themselves in accidents or suicide attempts the first eight months of 2006. "Most victims of suspected honour crimes suffer horrific injuries which are unlikely to have been accidentally caused whilst cooking or refuelling oil heaters," it says.
Is it just me or is this war not going as it was advertised?
Tags: news | politics | Iraq | war | disaster | crime | terrorism | Bush | United Nations
