Coast Guard Cutter Adak Bound for Al Basra Oil Terminal
by Chris Demarest (ID# 200701)
Each ship in the coalition force is assigned to three out of twelve sections surrounding oil platforms. Any ship approaching an oil platform must be boarded before entering the strict security zone around it (click here)
Al Basra Oil Terminal
A guided missile cruiser. Whom is the USA expecting any minute now? The Russians? New York Harbor should get this kind of protection. Oh, wait, I forgot, according to Darrell Issa, the soon to be former House Member (click here) there was no attack on the USA, but, ONLY New York. It wasn't like there were dirty bombs or WMD, since the Republicans stopped all that with their invasion into Iraq. I guess that cruiser is to stop any of those 'Old Bathhist' missiles still left in Saddam's old silos. Right? I mean a missile cruiser?
The guided missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) (click here) patrols near the Iraqi Al Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT) in the Northern Arabian Gulf, in this Sept. 28, 2004 photo. Despite President Bush's optimism on Iraq's reconstruction, Iraq appears set to pump less crude in 2005 than last year's disappointing showing and far less than under Saddam Hussein. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy,Samuel W. Shavers)
In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, engineman 2nd Class Robert Looney, left, and Engineman 2nd Class Joe Pearson stand watch on the North end of Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT), in this June 13, 2004 photo, in Iraq. Despite President Bush's optimism on Iraq's reconstruction, Iraq appears set to pump less crude in 2005 than last year's disappointing showing and far less than under Saddam Hussein. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Wes Eplen)
When Bush/Cheney/Maliki think of Basra, it's for the oil and the port. When the people that have lived in that region of Islam thinks of Basra, its as a city and not a oil terminal. Al Basra has a long and glorious history which seemed to always include a strategic port for the region. Its populous ranked in the hundreds of thousands in the Middle Ages, long before there was any need or discovery for oil. The city has been depersonalized by the Bush/Cheney administration as a place where oil flows, but, it hasn't by the people of Southern Iraq. The name Basra means Black Pebbles (click here).
Oil In a Week (The Battle of Basra and its Oil Dimension)
Walid Khadduri Al-Hayat - 31/03/08//
No Arab oil industry has witnessed the difficulties and challenges facing the oil sector in Iraq over the past 25 years, especially during the past five years of occupation. Currently, a battle is raging for political control over Basra, Iraq's only marine gateway, its second largest city, and the source of almost 90% of its oil reserves which currently account for two million barrels a day. This is not to mention three huge oil fields with production capacity of over two million barrels a day that have been explored but not developed yet. These are the Majnoun field, the Gharb al-Qurna field, and Nahr bin Omar field. This battle will represent decisive turning point in the modern history of Basra and in the history and future of Iraq's oil industry.
Basra suffered its share of destruction in comparison to other Iraqi cities during the war with Iran throughout the 1980s. It also suffered the weakness that hit the southern provinces and other Iraqi areas in the 1990s as a result of the international blockade on Iraq. Given Basra's proximity to heated battlefields, the development of its oil industry came to a halt during that decade, not to mention the devastation that took a toll on numerous oil plants. The destruction inflicted upon al-Khor al-'Ameeq Port is only an illustration of the massive devastation suffered by oil constructions in that strategic area.
http://english.daralhayat.com/business/03-2008/Article-20080331-04eb2134-c0a8-10ed-017c-432453bc65dc/story.html
This article from Reuters was in The Moscow Times.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008. Issue 3874. Page 10.
Civilian Death Rate Up in Iraq
Reuters
BAGHDAD -- Fighting between security forces and Shiite militiamen last month has driven civilian deaths in Iraq to their highest level in more than six months, government figures showed on Tuesday.
A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters.
The figures are a blow to the Iraqi government and the United States, which have pointed to reduced overall levels of violence in recent months as evidence that a major security offensive has made significant progress.
Hundreds of people were killed and many more wounded in last week's fighting after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra. Many of the dead were civilians caught in the crossfire.
Basra was relatively calm for a second straight day Tuesday after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called his fighters off the streets on Sunday. A Reuters reporter in the city said more shops were open and people were out on the streets although many schools and government offices were still shut.
In Baghdad's Sadr City, the slum of 2 million people that forms the cleric's main stronghold in the capital and location of much of last week's combat, the situation was tense but there were no reports of major clashes.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/04/02/251.html
This article was published a year ago February. It would seem little has changed in Basra since 2003. Attacks within neighborhoods were frequent if not daily for the British to defend their presence and hence the Americans as well. The history of Basra and the region does not dictate a 'settlement' or 'conquest' by ANY government, not even Saddam could break the loyalty these people have 'first' to Allah and then to themselves.
The Basra video should lay to rest a scurrilous lie (click here)
The smug superiority of the British over their peacekeeping efforts in Iraq is an insult to those of us who live there
The smug superiority of the British over their peacekeeping efforts in Iraq is an insult to those of us who live there
...The truth is that ever since the fall of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, abuses and atrocities committed against Iraqi civilians have been a regular, at times daily, occurrence throughout the country, including in Basra. These have been committed by American, British and Iraqi official forces. Hearing the British prime minister describe this latest incident as an isolated case fills me and fellow Iraqis with anger....
While Americans are distracted by 'The American Idol' and the lust of million dollar contracts at the end of amateur hours, there is a conscience in the rest of the world that something is very "W"rong in Iraq, including Basra. Back in the day when the USA first "W"rongfully invaded Iraq, it was stated that Bush was practicing Imperialism. Indeed, he continues in that mode and as a result 'the hopes of a fool' determined to increase the military strength of a puppet government in the Green Zone has become his obsession and the hopes of the Republican political machine.
The rise of imperialism lite is prolonging the Iraqi horror (click here)
A nation was alienated and nation-building turned from mission improbable to mission impossible
A nation was alienated and nation-building turned from mission improbable to mission impossible
The joint American-British occupation of Iraq is five years old this week and shows no sign of ending. There has been a fall in civilian deaths due to the intensive American policing of Baghdad, the legitimising of a 60,000 Sunni militia to fight Al-Qaeda and sheer exhaustion at the horror. But these are entry rather than exit tactics. They make departing more rather than less hazardous.
Nowhere in non-Kurdish Iraq is there a stable political or security regime. There are even indications that the anarchy of the Baghdad area has shifted north, witness the terrible killing of a Christian bishop in Mosul and a surge in deaths over the past month. The relationship between Kurds and Arabs, for instance over oil and the status of Kirkuk, is unresolved....
Nowhere in non-Kurdish Iraq is there a stable political or security regime. There are even indications that the anarchy of the Baghdad area has shifted north, witness the terrible killing of a Christian bishop in Mosul and a surge in deaths over the past month. The relationship between Kurds and Arabs, for instance over oil and the status of Kirkuk, is unresolved....
So, being the fools they are and hoping still the American public has lost its memory from the last time the Iraqi/British/American forces attempted to assassinate all those in the way in Basra, they are still making excuses.
THIS IS THE SIXTH YEAR, the Bush/Cheney administration is attempting to quell skeptism about their illegal war in hopes of passing on their blunderous legacy to the presidential hopeful, John McCain.
...But the Iraqi operation was not what the United States expected....
So much it was not expected (Which is a flat out lie by a bunch of smart asses in Special Forces) that the USA military simply 'hit the road' with all kinds of guns and weapons and bombs to 'end it' with jet fighters so it would not grow into a huge battle that would destroy the Green Zone Iraqis. So much it was not expected that ANYONE, any man, woman or child was the enemy since they lived in Basra. THIS is urban warfare? No. This is a USA military completely out of control of the circumstances in Iraq because there is no more enemy EXCEPT for those that cast their votes the "W"rong way.
...Instead of methodically building up their combat power and gradually stepping up operations against renegade militias, Mr. Maliki’s forces lunged into the city, attacking before all of the Iraqi reinforcements had even arrived. By the following Tuesday, a major fight was on....
This is the SIXTH "F.....king" year of mistakes, miscalculations, and REDRESS and STILL the Neocons think this is JUST GREAT !!! A playground to conduct war games that accomplish nothing but more of the same. Six years of 'gaming' the Iraqis and seeking to destroy their culture in 'hopes' that someday, anyday the people of that country will be the mirror images of Americans allowed to be Muslims. Amazing.
The Day Every Iraqi lays down their weapons, INCLUDING, the private militias of the Green Zone Iraqis is the day I'll expect the Sistani Shi'ites to do the same thing, BUT, not a day before !!!!
The American military is being used to conduct 'private' wars of 'the ruling class' in Iraq and that is all they are doing !
