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WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
them up.CounterPunch
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Iraq's "Rag
Tag" Army Units Start Fighting Against Themselves
By PATRICK COCKBURN
Arbil, Iraq.
A gun battle between two units of the
Iraqi army has left one soldier and a civilian dead, underlining
how ethnic and sectarian divisions are crippling the US-trained
force.
The shooting, which took place
between Kurdish and Shia soldiers on Friday near Duluiyah, 45
miles north of Baghdad, is a bad omen for US plans to hand over
security to the Iraqi army by the end of the year.
The fighting started after
a powerful roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army convoy carrying
Kurdish troops was passing Duluiyah, a small agricultural town
that has long been a centre of armed resistance to the occupation.
Four soldiers were killed and three wounded in the explosion,
according to police, while the US military said one soldier died
and 12 were wounded.
Immediately after the attack
the Kurdish soldiers rushed their wounded to the local hospital,
firing their weapons to clear the streets and killing one civilian.
At this point, going by the police account, another unit of the
Iraqi army, the 3rd battalion of the 1st Brigade, this time consisting
of Shia troops, rushed to confront the Kurds. They appear to
have thought that the Kurds were going to retaliate against the
local Arab population. Shots were exchanged, and one Shia soldier
was killed.
The Kurds decided to remove
their wounded from Duluiyah hospital, fearing it would not be
safe for them to be left there. But as they tried to leave the
town, a third unit of the Iraqi army set up a roadblock, preventing
them escaping. At this point US
troops, who have a giant military base at Balad nearby, intervened
and succeeded in ending the confrontation.
The incident shows the deepening
divisions and mistrust within the Iraqi army. Kurdish leaders
have told the IoS that in a real civil war, they believe the
national army would evaporate immediately, because its units
owe their primary allegiance to their own communities.
Peter Galbraith, the former
US diplomat and expert on Iraq, citing senior Iraqi Ministry
of Defence sources, says the Iraqi army consists of 60 Shia battalions,
45 Sunni battalions and nine Kurdish battalions. There is only
one mixed battalion. In fact the number of Kurdish troops, formerly
known as peshmerga, is understated. Apart from Kurds in the Iraqi
army, there are another 60,000 men under arms within the Kurdish
region.
Washington has repeatedly claimed
that its aim is to train Iraqi security forces loyal to the central
government and capable of fighting the armed resistance to the
occupation. This would allow the US and Britain to reduce their
forces in Iraq.
But the Iraqi army has remained
a ragtag force. In 2004-05 its entire $1.3 billion procurement
budget was stolen or spent in return for outdated or non-functioning
weapons. Its vehicles, often elderly pick-up trucks, are very
vulnerable to roadside bombs such as the one which hit the convoy
of Kurdish soldiers on Friday. Even the numbers of the army are
unclear, because it contains many "ghost" soldiers
whose salaries are still drawn by their commanders.
From the US point of view,
however, the communal divisions in the army are the most worrying
development. When Iraqi security forces tried to enter the strongly
Sunni district of al-Adhamiyah in east Baghdad last month, local
militiamen saw the incursion as an attack by Shia death squads.
They threw up barricades and militiamen raced from house to house,
calling on each family to send one man with a gun to defend their
district.
Ordinary Iraqis are extremely
frightened by the number of uniformed soldiers and police on
the streets who may in reality be death squads waging war against
one particular community. In Baquba in Diyala province last week,
US soldiers fought anti-occupation resistance forces who were
all wearing government uniforms and riding in camouflaged vehicles.
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Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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