The US campaign to uproot Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and Shiite militiamen in southern Iraq is carrying a heavy political cost for the US-led coalition, with some of Washington's closest Iraqi allies angry at the bloodshed and surprised at what they see as US mistakes.
The Fallujah offensive has become a rallying anti-American cry across Iraq, with mosques on Sunday urging the faithful in Baghdad to donate food, blood, medicine -- and white coffin shrouds -- for the turbulent city.
Some members of the US-appointed Governing Council blame a series of bad calls by US officials in Iraq for the situation, by far the lowest point of the one year-old occupation of Iraq.
They say the military has used excessive force and US administrators have underestimated the depth of Iraqis' suspicion of US intentions.
US handling, they say, has played into the hands of US opponents in Iraq, raising the profile of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as well as the insurgents at a time when the focus should have been on the scheduled June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis.
"Everything points to the failure of the Americans' security policy in Iraq," said Mahmoud Othman, an outspoken member of the US-backed Governing Council.
"The Americans cannot solve the problems of Iraq because of their ignorance of the language, customs and traditions," he said.
"It did not come as a big surprise to me that they are trying to settle problems with more than one party through military means," Othman, a Sunni Kurd, said Sunday.
US occupation authorities say they had no choice but to act decisively to eliminate what they say was a threat to future Iraqi democracy -- Sunni insurgents, who killed and mutilated four American civilians in Fallujah on March 31, and al-Sadr, who has repeatedly challenged the authority of the Americans and their Iraqi allies.
"What is the risk of not acting? What is the risk of turning our head and just ignoring the trouble?" said coalition spokesman Dan Senor.
"If we do not address these elements and these individuals and these organizations now, we will rue the day because these organizations, these militia will rise up again another day and it is better to deal with them now than after June 30," he said.
But some Iraqi politicians have condemned US military tactics in Fallujah in very strong language.
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
RSS