U.S. killings of civilians in Iraq have pushed the Iraqis in power to look to the U.N. -- which gave its approval to the bloody U.S. occupation of their country even after its leader Annan had labeled the invasion "illegal," -- to
limit the mission of their American benefactors as a condition of the reauthorization of the Security Council resolution later this year which the Bush administration uses to justify keeping troops bogged down there.
On Tuesday, it was reported that a U.S. military helicopter gunship in Iraq had opened fire and chased a group of men, who they say were planting roadside bomb, into a house which turned out to be full of civilians and continued their attack; killing as many as 15 Iraqis, all civilians, according to Iraqi officials, including as many as five women and one child.
That attack followed another tragedy a few weeks earlier where at least 15 civilians were killed by coalition forces in Iraq in a raid on a building where the U.S. military claimed al-Qaeda terrorists were gathered.
The LATimes reported today that the Iraqi parliament speaker's office issued a statement Monday saying: "The Iraqi parliament condemns these violations that are against the basics of military work and human rights. ... The Iraqi parliament is taking these negative violations seriously as it touches the life and dignity of Iraqis."
The killings are the product of the primary justification the Bush administration is using to keep our soldiers engaged in battle against Iraqis. Bush and his generals pressing forward in Iraq, against the clear will of the American people that they withdrawal. They insist in their new 'National Strategy for Homeland Security Report' issued earlier this month, that the 'Iraqi al-Qaeda' is the "group's most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack us here." The revised report concludes that al-Qaeda will "likely will continue to enhance its ability to attack America through greater cooperation with regional terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda in Iraq. “
The 'Iraqi al-Qaeda' has never been a threat to the U.S. outside of the opportunity they have to attack our troops Bush has placed there as targets in his cynical, circular protection scheme. In fact, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the Joint Special Operations Command's operations in Iraq, reportedly, believes the Iraqi al-Qaeda
"has been all but eliminated." Yet, these U.S. assaults against Iraqis have been allowed to continue as if our occupying forces risked some U.S. national emergency by exercising restraint.
The actual al-Qaeda instigator (and suspected orchestrator of the 9-11 attacks) is not in Iraq, although Bush and his national security focus is clearly centered in Baghdad, where he's positioned the bulk of our nation's ready-defenders. It was no surprise to hear the latest taunting and instigating from yet another 'bin-laden' tape, urging his imitators in Iraq to unite against their American occupiers.
The occupation's the hook which Bush allows him to actually engage our nation on the same level of our commander-in-chief's own assumed authority. Bush says he's fighting bin-Laden 'there', in Iraq, and bin-Laden obliges him with an inspirational pep talk across the airwaves; followed, no doubt by the extra elevation of Bush or his minions repeating his propaganda, word-for-word.
There was republican presidential candidate
McCain, on the campaign trail yesterday, who decided that bin-Laden's call for Iraqis to unite in violent resistance against the American occupiers was a sign of desperation, rather than any concern about the effect on the troops in the way of those reprisals; or to have the obvious wonder of why the terror Svengali still has the ability and capacity to inspire anyone at all; issuing threats and making taunts from his safe haven, six years after his president's promise to capture him "dead or alive."
"Basically he encouraged the extreme elements -- al Qaeda in Iraq particularly in the Sunni areas -- to join together and be more effective in bringing terrorism and murder and suicide bombings to Iraq and to Anbar province," McCain said Monday.
"It's a clear sign that we are succeeding in Iraq," McCain claimed.
One thing is certain, the continuing and escalated occupation of Iraq has played right into the hands of everyone who has an interest in keeping our military forces bogged down in Iraq. The occupation has clearly become a military mission against the Iraqis themselves, with millions having fled their homes -- and those remaining, in the way of whatever mission Bush and his generals contrive -- well apart from any need or concern of the Iraqi people. Under the guise of preserving the Iraqi regime Bush has installed behind the sacrifices and deadly power of our military forces -- reduced to staging contrived assaults against Iraqi civilians -- Bush is now, unilaterally, pressing our forces to open a new offensive against the threat he's conjured out of whole cloth against Iraq's neighbor, Iran.
The Iraqis are correct to look for ways to limit the military ambitions of the U.S. in their country, but it goes without saying that it's probably too late to expect the U.N. to have any more influence on the U.S. in Iraq than they've already demonstrated in their surrender to Bush's invasion and overthrow. The Iraqis would be better served by cutting ties with the U.S. carpetbaggers altogether and voting in their parliament for our military forces to leave. Expecting the U.S. and the Bush administration to recognize or respect the toady exiles they've enabled into power in Iraq as the Iraqi parliament begs the U.N. to stand in the way of Bush's swaggering advance is doomed to disappoint.
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