The Bush Romance with Cordite did not take a holiday for reasons sectarian, or humanitarian. Twenty four Allawi militias were killed or executed as collaborators after capture in Tikrit, Ishaki, Ralad and Samarra by anti-occupation forces this morning. The militias were costumed variously as "police" and "national guard". Another seven Allawi militias were wounded in these attacks. In addition to the Allawi militia casualties, four Iraqi civilians were killed and more wounded. The anti-occupation forces conducted coordinated attacks on the Allawi militias holding former police stations, and simultaniously on Allawi militias at four "checkpoints" in Tikrit. The former police station in Tikrit was dynamited by the anti-occupation forces as they withdrew back into the civil population.
Update: Six more Allawi militias were killed and eightteen wounded in Rakouba in a IED ambush followed by a car bomb. Two more Allawi militias were killed with an IED in Samarra. The body of Mouayad Marouane al-Ithaoui, who was styled as "vice-governor of al-Anbar province", was dumped in Ramadi a few hours after his capture this morning.
Our local paper, the Portland Press Herald, has a writer and a photographer in Camp Marez, doing feature stories on Mainers who are taking part in the Occupation. So far, no feature stories on WMDs or pre-9/11 OBL ties or exit strategies or funny little schemes to partition Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines. As I read about a mother of several who's partner is in Iraq, costumed as an RNC asset, a typical "sacrifices and worries on the homefront" story, I remembered the Portlander who left his partner and their child to go looking for WMDs in downtown Baghdad for the RNC. His return to Portland was via transit tube. No feature story on koolaide-resistant or non-imbibing Mainers who are now FTA or who's dependents are now on, or heading towards, GA, due to the trade-in of a civilian income for a military income. There are no stories about press censorship either.
Speaking of funny little schemes to partition a heterogenious polity along lines sectarian and ethnic, former senator Robert Kasten R-WI), defeated in 1992 by Russ Feingold, had this to say to at the Prince al-Walid bin Talal Abd al-Aziz al-Saud Centre for American Studies and Research in Cairo, Egypt.
A new type of community is emerging in the US, one that lies between the urban, suburban and the rural, and which became the focus of the 2004 elections."It's an area where people move with their children because they believe in a better future. They are concerned about their kids and schools, they go to church regularly, and participate in the community process,"
"That part of America is where this campaign was focused."
On the up-side at least party hacks can't talk openly, even in Cairo, about voter suppression and machine irregularities in Ohio and Florida, or Florida in the last cycle. They don't feel secure enough in power to state the obious, that technique, not message, delivered the margin of error, hence the electoral votes, hence the election. It is a small comfort that Kasten could openly point to the minority that rules the US, and ascribe the election to message, rather than as another proudly stolen election. Its not as if elections in Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Republic for that matter, are free and fair, or that his audience would be uncomfortable with the truth about foreigners.
Posted by EBW at December 28, 2004 09:05 AM | TrackBack