While New York Times writer and Pentagon marionette Michael Gordon describes the case for a "pause" in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, a mutedly-reported major offensive is underway in Mosul.
Gordon writes he's being told the "momentum" the military thinks it has in Iraq demands a "pause" in any thought of withdrawals--that for now "securing Iraq" has won over the "stretched and stressed" effect of "constant deployments."
What winning seems to mean is not just the relentless churning of U.S. troops, as is all that is important to Gordon, but devastation of the the lives of the Iraqis. Gordon has nothing to say on their account.
The U.S. offensives, most recently in the major ethnically-mixed city of Mosul, ostensibly are for rooting out "al-Qaeda strongholds." It's almost throw-away reporting in this country. Even though an article in USA Today a few days ago suggested "challenges" for the US during the Mosul operation, it is running into trouble with leaks that "had come from within the ranks of the 300 Iraqi soldiers working with the Army on almost every mission." The collaborating Iraqis seem not to be so happy to see fellow Iraqis destroyed. The neighborhood under the cross hairs evidently was warned and emptied before it could be properly smashed.
How does all this pitched raiding look from the other side? I'll just run the AMSI press release:
The Raids Campaign in Mosul
Thursday, 14 February 2008
AMSI published a press release condemning the campaign of raids and searches carried out by the occupation and puppet government forces in Mosul City.Obviously, the translation is rough. I get the gist of it. You can judge for yourself what it means.
AMSI carried those forces joined this campaign fully responsible for the consequences of such violations reflecting negative impact on the lives of Iraqi citizens.
Press Release
12 February 2007, Tuesday, Mosul City witness raids and searches campaign carried out by the occupation and puppet government forces in al Wahdah and al Mithak regions imposing curfew to prevent entrance. Eyewitnesses said the residents of the city witnessed during the raids and searches campaign the barbarism and brutality where American occupation forces deliberately removed them from their homes into the streets and entered homes alone destroying everything while the government forces, a Peshmarga forces surrounded the area for protection.
This campaign comes after the initial operations carried out by these forces in each of the areas of Dumez, Palestine and Sumer.
These campaigns come at a time when the city took relief aid after disaster that befell the city by the incident of Zanjeli and others. The occupation and the government apparently moving to destruct which is intended to eliminate areas that rejected occupation and suspicious projects.
The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) condemns the military campaign on the city of Mosul and carries the occupation and the current government fully responsible for the consequences of such violations reflecting negatively on the lives of Iraqi citizens.
AMSI Press Department
6 Safer 1428 / 12 February 2008
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