Remember those missing arms shipments..I think we have found them..

Back as far as 2004, plenty of stories came out about the millions of weapons that went missing in Iraq. Check out the crazy bastard in the photo..I think his boys are well-armed at this point in time.

So, I do believe those weapons have been found. They are in the hands of the…cough..militia in Basra and of course that batshit crazy sumbitch Al-Sadr and his wingnuts known as the Mahdi Army. Although we were told that nothing big was missing back then..that appears to be bullshit my dear reader as the Green Zone is currently under siege. Rockets are blasting away at American zones like the Embassy there. From the Salon link:

Reuters reported that a giant column of black smoke could be seen near the U.S. Embassy after what was believed to be a mortar strike on a former palace of Saddam that is being used as a headquarters for American civilian and military personnel. However, an embassy spokeswoman said there had been no serious injuries or deaths as a result of the attack. Four people, including two U.S. civilians, were wounded by mortar attacks in the Green Zone Wednesday.

Then of course, there is the mini-war taking place in Basra. Al-Sadr has told Maliki to fuck off and refuses to disarm his militia as noted in the picture above.
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1184614595
A Channel 4 news report out of England. At the Five minute point..the British dude admits that the city of Basra has always been controlled by the militias. Isn’t that just fucking grand? From one of the damn links in this post:

In an interview on Al Jazeera TV, Sadr said Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s U.S.-backed government was worse than the regime of Saddam Hussein, who is believed to have ordered the assassination of Sadr’s father, Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, in 1999.

Sadr did not renounce a cease-fire he called for his Mahdi Army militia in August, but he said anyone facing foreign occupation had the right to armed resistance.

The bat guano is hitting the fan in Iraq. How is that hand-over to Iraqi’s going for ya Bush? Are they standing up so we can stand down? If King George tells us one more time how great it’s going in Iraq, I will throw something at my tv. When it’s Shiite vs Shiite..it ain’t good.

In Basra, where masked, heavily armed militiamen ruled most streets, residents remained afraid to venture out, even though a curfew was eased during the day. One said they risked being caught in cross-fire, or shot by Iraqi army snipers who could mistake them for militiamen or shot by gunmen guarding the areas they controlled.

Send Lawyers Guns and Money..the shit has hit the fan…again.

Update: Al-Sadr sees the writing on the wall apparently and has issued a statement that he wants all his batshit crazy compadres released..then he will call an end to the fighting..yeah right. I think we have heard this one before..

A lesson in self-government, Iraq-style

If, as the NYT article says, its all going to hell in the proverbial handbasket..then when will we be able to leave Iraq with a strong government?

Because supposedly, that is all we are waiting for now right? Our soldiers get to stand down when the Iraqi’s stand up. From the opening paragraph in the NYT article linked above:

This southern port city has been, in effect, on its own since September, when British forces here moved to the outskirts, yielding authority to local leaders. British and American officials say Basra’s experiment in self-rule could serve as a model for Iraq’s future, but if so — many locals and outside advisers say — that future remains dark.

For five months Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, has been under self-rule. Its not going well..to put it bluntly, its quite the nightmare. Even under optimal conditions such as the best economy, the least amount of ethnic in-fighting and no Westerners running the show Basra is still a horror. How much daily horror you might ask..well the NYT article will enlighten you:

Disappearances of doctors, teachers and other professionals are common, as are some clashes among competing militias, most of which are linked to political parties. Murder victims include judicial investigators, politicians and tribal sheiks. One especially disturbing trend is the slaying of at least 100 women in the last year, according to the police. The Iraqi authorities have blamed Shiite militiamen for many of those killing, saying the militants had probably deemed the women to be impious.

Well, pardon me for pointing out the obvious..but this is the same shit just a different city. Once left to their own device’s, the Iraqi’s still can’t figure out how to get along with each other and ..not only that but everyone their father wants to be the party in charge. Murder and mayhem still rule the day and Basra has taken another giant step backward into the days of tents and warlords gunning down rival leaders in order to assert their brand of power and religion over the entire region.

Its a long, exhausting writeup..but an important piece of information in how the war in Iraq is really going. And its not going well my dear reader..not by a long-friggin-shot. I don’t care what the Idiot-in-Chief tells you.

Telling us there are less dead people today than yesterday, or last month or last year doesn’t cut it. Its all bs and bravado dressed up to represent whatever will sell best to the American public in order to continue the insane amount of our money and soldiers being poured into this country.

Well..I ain’t buying. Nope..

Crossposted at UnCapitalist Journal