"Operation Iraqi Chaos"
Printed on Saturday, April 12, 2003 {at} 01:19:47 CST 

By Firas Al-Atraqchi
YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada) 

(YellowTimes.org) - For two days running, mainstream media has 
bombarded the viewing public with the same images of Saddam 
Hussein's toppling statue, filmed from numerous angles. Cheering 
Iraqis stomping on, ripping, or burning pictures of Saddam seemed 
to portray that the war in Iraq had come to an end; victory, freedom, 
liberty -- all at arm's reach.  

However, the real war, the true test of U.S. President George Bush's 
and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair's resolve is yet to come.  

Ominously, the past two days of toppled statues showed nothing of the 
carnage in Baghdad hospitals. The International Committee of the Red 
Cross revealed that Iraqi hospitals were so overwhelmed that the injured 
were lying bleeding in hallway floors awaiting treatment and care. This 
is where the real war begins.  

Unfortunately, the BBC reported early Thursday that looting had become 
so rampant in Baghdad that Iraqi doctors were begging U.S. Marines to 
stand guard outside local district hospitals and prevent armed brigands 
from stealing vital medical equipment. The Marines failed to comply.  

"When the al-Kindi hospital, one of Baghdad's key medical facilities, 
was attacked by armed looters, U.S. troops failed to intervene, saying 
they had no orders to do so," said the BBC's Rageh Omar in Baghdad.  

The Red Cross and other humanitarian agencies have called the 
collapse of the Iraqi health sector a "scandal."  

Germany joined a growing number of voices calling on U.S. troops to 
protect world embassies in Baghdad after looters ransacked and tore 
down fixtures, window frames, door knobs, chairs, lamps, etc.  

Al Jazeera TV showed looters fighting one another to stake a claim 
on Uday Hussein's prized horses. The Al Jazeera cameraman managed to 
capture scenes of one horse being run over by a pickup truck. It is 
likely the horses will be slaughtered for their meat, a commodity 
hardly savored by the downtrodden Iraqis of Saddam City.  

In Basra, looters broke into a local bank. In the recently "liberated" 
northern city of Kirkuk, looters broke into two local banks and made 
off with anything they could find.  

On Friday, Reuters reported that U.K. forces were fired upon after 
trying to detain a number of armed looters robbing a bank. U.K. 
forces engaged the looters and killed five.  

Back in Baghdad, five government ministries and several commercial 
buildings continued to burn well into their third night. No local 
fire brigades were called in. The Ministry of Sport and Youth, 
formerly headed by Uday Hussein, has been burning for two days.  

In the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad, Iraqis began to grasp 
the calamity of their situation. While they did make idle chatter 
with U.S. Marines who are hoping to befriend the Iraqis, many Iraqi 
citizens expressed concern that there was a complete breakdown in 
civil order with no visible civil administration in control.  

The Marines for their part admit they are not there to play a political 
role.  

A cook at the hotel said, "we have no electricity; we have no bread; we 
have nothing."  

On Friday, Agence France Presse reported that mobs in Baghdad have 
looted Iraq's largest archaeological museum. AFP also reported that 
there were dozens of bodies strewn alongside roads in the city, some 
of paramilitary units, others of women and children: "The putrid, 
fly-covered corpses were being buried in a mass grave along the side 
of the road by volunteers whose noses were covered with scarves against 
the stench, according to the photographer."  

"If the price of freedom is this, we don't want it," one Iraqi helping 
at the scene told the AFP.  

BBC's Omar reports that "the Iraqi capital is prey to gangs of armed 
looters who have raided government buildings, shops, private homes and 
even hospitals."  

By Friday night, the situation in Mosul was no different. However, Mosul 
residents have banded together and formed street patrols preventing any 
looters from escaping with their cache. All retrieved items are being 
stored in local mosques.  

On Thursday night, ABC Australia filmed a U.S. Marine unit pummel a 
pickup truck with hundreds of machine gun rounds. Apparently, the 
truck had come too close to the convoy carrying the Marines. ABC 
Australia later reported that the pickup truck was carrying three 
civilians, all dead.  

However, chaos in Iraq was not limited to looting and vandalism. 
In the holy city of Najaf, a reconciliation meeting went horribly 
wrong as a crowd rushed and hacked to death two Shiite Muslim clerics 
-- one a Saddam Hussein supporter, the other a returning exile who 
had urged support for U.S. troops. Iraqi exiles claim this underscores 
the inner upheaval within the Shiite community in Iraq.  

Amidst the looting and lawlessness, Iraqis are beginning to fear 
the specter of revenge killings and the settling of scores.  

In a Friday Pentagon press briefing, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald 
Rumsfeld blamed the international media for the looting in Baghdad, 
claiming that it was not as widespread as cameras were showing.  

"Stuff happens," he said, apparently irked by some of the questions 
regarding White House planning to restore civil order in Iraq.  

[Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and 
Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of 
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and 
the telecom industry.]  

Firas Al-Atraqchi encourages your comments: 
fatraqchi{at}YellowTimes.org  

YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication. 
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Source: Yellow Times ...
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1237&mode=thread&order=0


Cheers, Steve..

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