US in Iraq - From Bad to Worse

It looks to me that both US image and US actions in Iraq are going from bad to worse. According to a 4/14/04 Reuters report, Sadr had dropped conditions on negotiating with the US ; however (it appears that shortly thereafter the US launched a a massive attack on Falluja (AP, 4/14/04). It is hard to tell the exact sequencing of events, as the Reuters report preceded the AP report by over an hour, but that doesn't confirm the timing.

The Reuters report claims that Sadr heeded the advice of other clerics and dropped his preconditions for talks with the US. This is an interesting opening which has probably disappeared in the smoke of heavy fire and missle hits in Falluja. Sadr had three conditions that were dropped: US withdrawl from residential areas, freeing detainees, and later lifting the seige of Falluja (Reuters).

Supposedly, there has been a "truce" in Falluja since last Friday. The ongoing fighting, particularly today's firestorm, hardly qualifies as a truce in my opinion. THe AP article states:

U.S. warplanes and helicopters firing heavy machine guns, rockets and cannons hammered insurgents Wednesday in the besieged city of Fallujah, and the commander of U.S. Marines here warned that a fragile truce was near collapse.

....

The truce in Fallujah was severely shaken by fighting Tuesday and Wednesday morning — although Marines underlined their halt to offensive operations, called Friday, was still in effect.

I have to wonder what "truce" means. I thought it meant a temporary cessation of hostilites. I guess that is not the military definition.

To add further questions to US intentions in Iraq, the AP reported on 4/13/04 that Negroponte May Become Baghdad Ambassador (Schweid, AP). Negroponte is currently the US representative to the UN. Prior to being tapped for that post by GW Bush, Negroponte had been the US Ambassador to Honduras when the death squads were active there. Many were surprised when he was tapped for the UN post because of his more than questionable involvement in covert activities and support of human rights abuses (see below).

The consideration of Negroponte with his confirmed loyalty to US interests at any cost is, at best, in bad taste. Here we have a people who have lived under a despotic and violent rule for thirty years, now face what seems to be an equally despotic US occupation, and running up on turning "Iraq over to the Iraqi's" we look to Negroponte as the chief US representative. Yep, things are definitely taking a "positive" spin.

Then it what seems a bizarre twist to me, the US asks Iran for help in Iraq (Mail&Guardian, 4/14/04). Tehran received a formal request to help mediate between the US and the Iraqi opposition ["Tehran's director for Gulf affairs, Hossein Sadeghi, has gone to Iraq for talks with US-led coalition officials, Iraqi politicians and religious figures, the Irna news agency reported."] SO does this give Iraq "credit" in the dispute over their nuclear program? Does it mean that the alliance between the US and groups wishing to undermine the government of Iran is shifting? It is hard to read these things as it all seems a bit convoluted.

John Negroponte

Human Rights
John Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985. As such he supported and carried out a US-sponsored policy of violations to human rights and international law. Among other things he supervised the creation of the El Aguacate air base, where the US trained Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980's. The base was used as a secret detention and torture center, in August 2001 excavations at the base discovered the first of the corpses of the 185 people, including two Americans, who are thought to have been killed and buried at this base.

During his ambassadorship, human rights violations in Honduras became systematic. The infamous Battalion 316, trained by the CIA and Argentine military, kidnaped, tortured and killed hundreds of people. Negroponte knew about these human rights violations and yet continued to collaborate with them, while lying to Congress.

I also recommend the report from Foreign Policy in Focus Republican Rule - other Official's Profiles. It gives a much more detailed discussion of Negroponte's "service" to the US.

Posted by rowan at April 14, 2004 10:09 AM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |