Re-reporting, compilation, editing by Carolyn Bennett
The only transition underway in Iraq is from U.S. Pentagon deployment to U.S. State Department deployment, says author and foreign affairs analyst Phyllis Bennis — not from United States control to Iraqi control. “Thousands of new military contractors, armored transport, planes, ‘rapid response’ forces and other military resources will all be shifted from Pentagon to State Department control, thus remaining within the terms of the U.S.-Iraqi Status of forces Agreement that calls for all U.S. troops and Pentagon-controlled mercenaries to leave by the end of 2011.…
“The U.S. occupation of Iraq continues on a somewhat smaller scale, with 50,000 troops. These are combat troops ‘re-missioned’ by the Pentagon with new tasks but even Secretary of Defense [Robert] Gates admits they will have continuing combat capability and will continue counter-terrorism operations. The 4,500 Special Forces among them will continue their ‘capture or kill’ raids while building up the Iraqi Special Operations Forces as an El Salvador-style death squad.”
Bennis restated news accounts: that in Iraq violence is up, sectarianism is rampant, government is paralyzed, corruption is high and rising, and oil contracts instead of creating national wealth are creating more violence.
News Sunday from IRAQ
Twelve people died Sunday. Twenty-nine people suffered wounds after being caught in rifle fire and five suicide and car-bomb explosions. Soldiers were among the dead. This attack comes less than a week after the Obama administration declared the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq [rewording of the same ole ‘Mission Accomplished’ lie]
The area in Sunday’s incident “became an al-Qaeda stronghold at the height of the sectarian warfare unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and remained dangerous until mid-2009.”
How many (est.) in two-theater
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting
September 6, 2010 (accurate totals unknown)
• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 189]
Wounded 31,929-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides [estimated] 18 a day
Latest update on this site August 31
• Iraq Body Count figures
97,667 – 106,571
• ICasualties AFGHANISTAN: 1,275 U.S., 2,069 Coalition
IRAQ: 4,416 U.S., 4,734 Coalition
Sources and notes
Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. She directs IPS’s New Internationalism Project and specializes in U.S. foreign policy issues, particularly involving the Middle East and United Nations. Bennis worked as a journalist at the UN for ten years and currently serves as a special adviser to several top-level UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. She is a frequent contributor to U.S. and global media. She has authored many articles and books— particularly on Palestine, Iraq, the UN, and U.S. foreign policy.
“‘The End of the War in Iraq’” (Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies), September 2010, http://www.tni.org/article/end-war-iraq; http://www.tni.org/featured-articles/rss.xml
On CounterSpin: “Phyllis Bennis on Obama Iraq policy, Dean Baker on Social Security” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) (9/3/10-9/9/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4151
“On August 31, 2010, President Obama announced the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq in a speech from the Oval office. While in a palace in Baghdad the commander of those combat operations, Gen. Ray Odierno, announced that his job was over, proclaiming that in Iraq, ‘hope has replaced despair.’ This was all noted with little challenge by corporate media.” [CounterSpin] spoke Friday with Phyllis Bennis about the changing U.S. role in Iraq.
The Transnational Institute (TNI) founded in 1974 as the international program of the Washington D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies has been for more than 30 years entwined with the history of global social movements and their struggle for economic, social and environmental justice. The Institute of Policy Studies carries out radical informed analysis on critical global issues; builds alliances with social movements; develops proposals for a more sustainable, just and democratic world. http://www.tni.org/abouttni
“Mini-bus packed with explosives targets former defense ministry building in Baghdad where security has been high,” September 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/201095125812914312.html
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