Free Republic

Iraq has started to reap the benefits of the status of forces agreement with the United States. The United Nations Security Council voted to set the ground for relieving Iraq from the restrictions of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. In fact, the remaining effects of previous resolutions will from now on serve only to protect Iraq’s assets from claims by other parties, not to impose anything on the people of Iraq. Sovereignty, which was lost two decades ago under Saddam Hussein’s capricious and belligerent reign, is being restored to the nation. The Security Council resolution 1859 states, among other...

The Iraqi minister of defense pushed the debate with the Iranians over their provision of weapons to Shia militias one more step on Monday. Minister Abdul Qadir Obeidi indirectly confronted the Iranians, without naming them, with new findings that prove their involvement in the arming of Shia militias.On Monday, state-owned al-Sabah published a statement by the minister in which he spoke of the capture of a certain type of rocket that was never found in militia-held caches until now: Defense minister Abdul Qadir Mohammed Obeidi revealed that army troops found a 200-mm ground-to-ground rocket manufactured in 2007 during a search...

The recent offensive operations taken by the Iraqi government against the Mahdi Army (Jaish al-Mahdi - JAM) of Muqtada al-Sadr have received much analysis and commentary since the onset. Each of the ensuing analysis and commentary offerings have agreed that the Maliki government’s military actions and the Mahdi Army response are revelatory in nature. But that is where the agreement seems to end, as there appears a divergence regarding precisely what has been revealed: Who has operated and enjoys the position of strength, Maliki and the Iraqi government and military forces, or the Mahdi Army forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, which...

A controversy that shouldn't exist. McCain was mocked by Democrats when he said Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda, that Iran would not as Iran is shia and Al-Qaeda sunni. That's a nonsense. Terrorist groups and states don't care about those things. They primarily gather to survive. The US used jihadists. The Sunni Syria is supporting Shia Hezbullah. Here is an excerpt of the arabic press, reported by Iraqi Omar on his blog Iraq the model, showing ties between Iran and Al-Qaeda : According to this report from Azzaman, Iran's revolutionary guard corps is supplying Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq with Russian-made anti-aircraft...

Thursday, September 06, 2007 Islam, The Solution...!? Yesterday Maliki went to visit Sistani to discuss the latest security and political developments with him. It's the kind of a move that reflects the government's persistence to let clerics make the political decisions for the country. As if they haven't done enough harm so far! Instead of reaching out to his partners in the political process from other groups he goes in the exact opposite direction and I really don't know what he thought such visit could do to improve his position, especially at a time when he's in desperate need to...

After being technically in progress for about over a week, Operation Imposing the Law officially started yesterday. Al-Maliki who's been on a tour in the mid-southern region announced the beginning of the operation from Kerbala. This choice I think delivers two messages; first it looks that Maliki was trying to show that the plan is solid enough and could go on without his immediate supervision and presence in Baghdad and that the military commanders are operating without interference from politicians. And second I think he wanted to say that even though the focus has been in Baghdad for months, the...

The past four days during which we were under siege were long and rough for Baghdadis. Anxiety and fear haunted us at our homes and a flow of horrible news made the prison feel even tighter…it was a material and psychological siege that will not be easy to forget. Thursday began differently for me, first thing in the morning I received very troubling news that one of our friends has been kidnapped. His shocked, terrified father came to us looking for any bit of information that might be possibly helpful in the search for his son who vanished a day...

Where do Iraqis stand from all the debate about Iraq's future, and how do they look at the expectations and recommendations being made these days? Iraqis are of course the most concerned and affected by the ongoing crisis but the continuous pressure and trauma made their vision so confused that they are drowned by the daily dangers and problems that compressed their dreams and thought and made seeing tomorrow's sunshine their top priority. The government stinks—that’s the overwhelming impression that is undermining the public's support for the government and its institutions. People are tired of criticizing and there's frustration about...

Hot and fresh from al-Iraqiya TV... Finally! The interior minister Jawad al-Bolani just announced that an arrest warrant has just been issued against Harith al-Dhari, head of the association of Muslim scholars. If you're not familiar with the name, al-Dhari and his organization are the only party that totally rejected the political process, never denounced Saddam's regime, explicitly praised al-Qaeda and is believed to be responsible for sponsoring a great deal of the activity of terror groups and insurgents loyal to the Ba'ath regime. Al-Bolani said the decision was made according to the 'national safety law' and anti-terrorism legislations and...

Well, well, well It's seems our friend Blair is planning to seek help from Syria and Iran to stem the violence in Iraq…I'm truly shocked to see this unprecedented level of impotent thought coming out from London and from no less than Blair. Take a look at this: Blair will argue the need for a Middle East strategy that includes making clear to Damascus and Tehran how they can help in the region while warning them of the consequences of hindering peace, a spokeswoman said . Not only that, he's going to ask Washington to do that same and it...

Baghdad is living tense hours awaiting the announcement of a verdict by the special tribunal against Saddam. First, the defense ministry announced canceling all leaves and vacations for all personnel then the government declared a curfew for tomorrow in Baghdad, Salah Addin, Diyala and Anbar. Baghdad's international airport will also be closed from Sunday morning "until further notice" according to al-Iraqiya state TV. Today, heavy presence of police forces is visible in Baghdad and a few districts like Adhamiya and Ghazaliya are, partially or completely, locked from the rest of the capital with roadblocks and checkpoint. However, the situation is...

(before the verdict) Baghdad is living tense hours awaiting the announcement of a verdict by the special tribunal against Saddam. First, the defense ministry announced canceling all leaves and vacations for all personnel then the government declared a curfew for tomorrow in Baghdad, Salah Addin, Diyala and Anbar. Baghdad's international airport will also be closed from Sunday morning "until further notice" according to al-Iraqiya state TV. Today, heavy presence of police forces is visible in Baghdad and a few districts like Adhamiya and Ghazaliya are, partially or completely, locked from the rest of the capital with roadblocks and checkpoint. However,...

I had read some arguments about how the war in Iraq and the war on terror in general are as critical as WWII or the cold war were to the western world. Of course the differences between those conflicts are numerous and obvious but they all are the same when it comes to the threats they carried/carry to the present and future of our world, and in all three wars the conflict was about eliminating the threat of extremely dangerous doctrines; fascism, Nazism, communism and now violent religious extremism and tyranny. I will try to keep this as short and...

America's sin...Hesitation. In the last post we talked about the biggest mistakes of Iraqi leaders and politicians and today I'm going to talk about America's mistakes. I chose this order for my thoughts because Iraqis with their mistakes contributed more to the current problems in Iraq than America did. America too had her share of mistakes that made things go in the wrong direction instead of helping out. Perhaps America's biggest mistake was the hesitation in keeping up the strategy of preemptive war. Yes, America used that strategy in Iraq but failed to go on, and instead of chasing terrorists,...

Among the things I cannot accept is exploiting the suffering of people to make gains that are not the least related to easing the suffering of those people. I’m talking here about those researchers who used the transparency and open doors of the new Iraq to come and count the drops of blood we shed. Human flesh is abundant and all they have to do is call this hospital or that office to get the count of casualties, even more they can knock on doors and ask us one by one and we would answer because we’ve got nothing to...

In the last post we talked about the biggest mistakes of Iraqi leaders and politicians and today I'm going to talk about America's mistakes. I chose this order for my thoughts because Iraqis with their mistakes contributed more to the current problems in Iraq than America did. America too had her share of mistakes that made things go in the wrong direction instead of helping out. Perhaps America's biggest mistake was the hesitation in keeping up the strategy of preemptive war. Yes, America used that strategy in Iraq but failed to go on, and instead of chasing terrorists, America stopped...

With every anniversary of the September attacks the Arab media reserve wide space to cover the commemoration of the terror attack with visible assertion from the media that what happened in 9/11 was a terror attack and no channel or paper would use a different description. Sounds good so far? I find myself compelled to follow the responses from Arab media and commentators in the hope that I could find a change, a review of calculations or a rereading of facts that is different from the previous. But the media is keen to disappoint me every single time because after...

Is it civil war in Iraq or is it not? And if it is, is there a way to stop it and if it's not, is there a way to avert it? Who's to blame for the sectarian violence and who's escalating it? And what role foreign terror groups like al-Qaeda is playing in this regard? Is it possible that foreign terrorists, with their numbers estimated to be between several hundreds to a few thousands, were/are capable of inflicting so much damage and taking the lead in provoking sectarian strife in a country of 28 millions? These are some of...

I'm back in Baghdad now after I spent a week in Cairo attending a seminar for bloggers and civil society activists that was sponsored by the Cato institute, American Islamic Congress and HamsaWeb. It was really an interesting and informative experience to meet and talk to people like Dr. Palmer, Johan, Zainab and Jess and the training designed and supervised by Dr. Shafeeq (head of the American University in Kuwait) were particularly excellent in exploring the potential skills of the participants. In fact what was even more fun was meeting that little crowd of active middle eastern young men and...

It's common wisdom to say that the war between Hezbollah and Israel is a regional struggle that also includes Iran and Syria, who have supported and supplied Hezbollah. What seems to be less understood is that this is the first war between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel, via Iran's proxy Hezbollah, and that its overarching purpose is to advance Iran's ambitions to export the Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East. Thus, while religion has always played an important role in prior Arab-Israeli wars, this time it has moved to center stage. It is the theological aspect of this...