Iraqis in Tal Afar question Bush‘s optimism

[sabra]

http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00163872.html

Iraqis in Tal Afar question Bush‘s optimism


TAL AFAR, Iraq - U.S. President George W. Bush President George W. Bush held up the northern town of Tal Afar this week as an example of progress being made in Iraq but many residents find it hard to share his optimism.

Bush said this week that Tal Afar has become "a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq" after U.S.-led forces freed it from al Qaeda militants in a 2005 offensive.

Although townspeople say there has been less violence since the assault, they share many of the complaints of other Iraqis watching sectarian violence tearing their country apart.

These days it is Iraq‘s security forces, drawn heavily from the Shi‘ite majority, not Sunni Arab al Qaeda militants from nearby Syria , that make many people in Tal Afar nervous.

"When we stop at a checkpoint they ask us whether we are Sunni or Shi‘ite. That is worrying. We are one people and were never divided before," said Fatma Mohammad Ali, 38, a teacher who is a member of Tal Afar‘s ethnic Turkmen Shi‘ite minority.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Duh. Is that considered good news or bad news by this administratioin?

[buddysmellgood]

3. Imagine if in your city, the government was spending billions of dollars.

The money is helping schools and is going to some half-assed attempts to provide power and water. I'd have to agree, that is a story. But if every day 50 people in my city get murdered, I would be pretty pissed to find my paper ignoring that in favor of a story about funding for schools.
It's such a farce. I don't understand why the media doesn't stand up and point this out.

[bluedog]

2. Tal Afar; war crimes in Bush’s dystopia

The entire operation was conducted in relative secrecy because the people in the United States were more focused on the unfolding Katrina tragedy.

The siege was executed according to the normal protocols; massive destruction of personal property, leveling areas where resistance appeared, snipers picking off anything that moves on the city streets, and the routine rounding up of anyone who seems at all suspicious.

"Thousands of Tal Afar residents were trapped inside Sarai by the cordon of tanks and barbed wire that was flung up around the district to prevent resistance fighters from escaping." (James Cogan WSWS)

"Significant parts of Tal Afar are reported to be in ruin. Electricity and phone services have been cut off and hospitals are breaking down. The Iraqi human rights Center issued an urgent appeal t the Iraqi government to stop the assault and allow rescue teams to access the area to deliver food, water and medical supplies." (James Cogan WSWS)

"Islam online.net" reported that "Residents of Tal Afar have sent out an SOS to the international community to interfere with the continuing bombing of their devastated city, revealing a terrible humanitarian crisis."

"The Americans are bombing the city with chemical weapons", one unidentified man said, adding that other residents are complaining of suffocation and other health problems related to exposure to US ordinance.

more


http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m21779&hd=0&size=1&l=x

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Bush should go see for himself, and take all the RW radio shills with him.

What are they afraid of if things are going so well over there?

[UpInArms]

5. and he should walk the streets of Baghdad without his security

entourage to prove to the world how great the progress is!