micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Some war notes I see that the U.S. military has relieved six more Afghan children of their lives. This was a kind and very humane act. (You don't see gorillas doing this shit now do you?) *** In a story from yesterday, the AP writes: Iraq's Health Ministry has ordered a halt to a count of civilians killed during the war and told its statistics department not to release figures compiled so far, the official who oversaw the count told The Associated Press on Wednesday.How sad. We will never know how many people Uncle Sam helped when Uncle Sam killed them. *** The previous two segments will make more sense if you've read Tuesday's entry. *** "The Pentagon will bar France, Germany and other countries that opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq from competing for $18.6 billion worth of contracts in the Mideast nation's reconstruction efforts," CNN writes today. The title of the article is "U.S. blocks foes to war from Iraq contracts." While it is a fact that the members of the coalition of the willing only are members because of their love of freedom, as Josh Marshall has pointed out, the recent Pentagon directive saying that only companies from countries that are "Coalition partners and force contributing nations" be allowed to get contracts related to U.S. spending in Iraq includes specific language about why this will encourage other countries to support U.S. military efforts. Sphere of influence? *** One area the U.S. influence doesn't seem too great is in retaining Iraqi troops that the U.S. has trained. In a December 10 story the AP writes: Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq's new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the U.S.-led occupation authority have quit, defense officials said Wednesday.That's over a third, but at least unions are getting the appropriate treatment, Iran and Syria are looking nice and cluster bombs are still killing in Iraq. Paul Wiseman of USA TODAY writes: ... the world's most modern military, one determined to minimize civilian casualties, went to war with stockpiles of weapons known to endanger civilians and its own soldiers. The weapons claimed victims in the initial explosions and continued to kill afterward, as Iraqis and U.S. forces accidentally detonated bomblets lying around like small land mines.There's lots more. UPDATE: Seth Porges of Editor & Publisher writes, "USA Today's front-page story Thursday about how the Pentagon "painted a misleading picture" about the use of cluster bombs in Iraq was born when reporter Paul Wiseman encountered Iraqis personally affected by these controversial weapons." *** In a press release put out yesterday Human Rights Watch writes: Hundreds of civilian deaths in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could have been prevented by abandoning two misguided military tactics, Human Rights Watch said in a comprehensive new report released today.While I haven't read the whole report, these "highlights" from it are not comforting. Human Rights Watch also issued a press release on the findings of the report as they relate to British conduct: British forces´ use of cluster munitions in Iraq and their failure to secure abandoned Iraqi weapons contributed to scores of civilian deaths both during and after major hostilities in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a comprehensive new report released today.6:39 p.m. 12/13/03 |