It is long past the time for sobering assessments

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a cofounder of the House Out of Iraq Caucus, went on one of those dog-and-pony juggernauts to Iraq over the August recess. The outspoken anti-war liberal pledged to "listen and learn," and keep her own opinions to herself while there.

That proved a challenge at times. Like when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her "There's not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there's not going to be political reconciliation by next September." Or when General Petraeus told her that for a stable Iraq to emerge, it would require another decade of occupation.

But the military presentations left her stunned. Schakowsky said she jotted down Petraeus's words in a small white notebook she had brought along to record her impressions. Her neat, looping handwriting filled page after page, and she flipped through to find the Petraeus section. " 'We will be in Iraq in some way for nine to 10 years,' " Schakowsky read carefully. She had added her own translation: "Keep the train running for a few months, and then stretch it out. Just enough progress to justify more time."

"I felt that was a stretch and really part of a PR strategy -- just like the PR strategy that initially led up to the war in the first place," Schakowsky said. Petraeus, she said, "acknowledged that if the policymakers decide that we need to withdraw, that, you know, that's what he would have to do. But he felt that in order to win, we'd have to be there nine or 10 years."

Schakowsky got an advance screening of the sales pitch that will be hard-peddled in about three weeks time when Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus come to Washington to present the White House-written report on *progress* in Iraq.

Of course, by any metric you choose, the troop buildup is a failure. The express purpose of the exercise in futility and human sacrifice was to give the Iraqi government "breathing space" to achieve political progress. Instead, the government went ahead and stepped up it's disintegration, and calls for Maliki to be replaced are practically commonplace.

The humanitarian crisis is staggering. The number of internally displaced refugees, Iraqis forced from their homes but lacking the resources to flee the war-torn nation, is soaring. Syria and Jordan are overwhelmed. The only beneficiary of the refugee crisis is the Syrian sex trade.

Speaking of the humanitarian crisis created by aWol's vanity war, Petraeus was ready with the spin. "If you don't like the humanitarian crisis, the refugees and the internally displaced people, you can't draw down. If you are concerned about these people, the humanitarian crisis, you should be for our staying here." Schakowsky did not respond to Petraeus; instead she let it pass. "I was not arguing," she said. "I wanted to see what his take was."

Of course he is going to say that. But it's bullshit. The fact is, if the US were out of the way, the neighboring states that are directly affected by the refugees that strain their housing supply, schools and healthcare systems could be involved in helping what is left of Iraq achieve something resembling stability. But seriously - why the hell would Syria get involved when the troublemaker on the block refuses to talk to them, and has even made hostile threatening gestures in their direction?

Why in the name of all that is sacred and holy would we even consider a decade-long occupation of a hostile land when even those who support it admit that the solution is going to be political, not military? It is not at all like Germany, Japan or Korea. We are not occupiers in those nations, we are allies, and we are there at the invitation of the functioning, elected governments of those nations, and the citizens of those nations aren't trying to kill our G.I.'s.

It is time to bring on the diplomats. I don't care if it takes six months to decide on the style of chairs that will surround the peace table. Start fucking talking because this blowing shit up and having our Soldiers and Marines treating the residents of neighborhoods like common criminals is not cutting it, and can not be a successful strategy.

It is long past time to start dealing with reality, because reality certainly has no qualms or reservations about dealing with the young men and women who are thrown into the mix.

The unseen tragedy in Iraq

The humanitarian crisis (.pdf) that many of us cautioned against before the American led invasion in March 2003 has come to pass.

It is to be expected, really, when two million people are internally displaced. Shanty towns are springing up in Iraq, now numbering in the scores.

Many displaced Iraqi’s, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, are finding their way to various makeshift tent cities that are springing up from Ninevah in the north to Najaf in the south. These shanty towns lack even the basics – potable water, sanitation, proper shelter. Food is scarce and medial care is non-existent. In the Iraqi summer, these displaced people are dealing with 120 degree temperatures, in addition to the scorpions, snakes, mosquitoes and leishmaniasis-carrying sand flies. People with literally only the clothes on their backs are experiencing skin rashes and lesions in addition to the typhoid and diarrhea that are always endemic in such situations.

History tells us that such environs foster disease, crime, and militant demeanor.

Andrew Harper, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Iraq Support unit is concerned. “What we do know is that Iraqis hate living in camps and the fact that we are now seeing these types of camps being established is a very bad sign that other options are no longer available.”

From Gulfnews.com

On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it has launched an $85 million appeal for internally displaced Iraqis and those enduring food shortages.

"If people cannot get help with shelter, food, water, health care or even ways of earning a living to pay for these things because everyone is in a desperate struggle to survive, people will feel they have no choice but to flee Iraq. The situation cannot continue like this. We can and must help them," says Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's chief of mission in Iraq.

The Congress needs to address this burgeoning humanitarian crisis – the largest displacement in the Middle East since 1948. It is simply not possible to underestimate this catastrophe and the impact it will have on the internal security of neighboring countries, nor is it possible to underestimate the human suffering that is a direct result of George Bush’s splendid Iraqi adventure.

The ICRC explains it all

The International Committee of the Red Cross released a report on the humanitarian situation in Iraq yesterday.

Eight of the most heartbreakingly depressing pages I have ever endured - and I read the entire Lancet study. It isn’t even that it tells us anything we didn’t already know. It’s that it puts it all in a common box and stamps it with an unimpeachable seal of damning veracity. You doubt the findings of the ICRC like you doubt the witness account of a stationwagon full of nuns.

So what is confirmed by the report? (Besides pretty much everything, I mean.)

That virtually every Iraqi has been adversely affected by the violence that has gripped the country. This violence has ratcheted up in the wake of the Sammara mosque bombing in February 2006. Civilians comprise the bulk of the victims and the poor security conditions have disrupted the livelihoods, and the live, of millions of Iraqis.

Dozens die daily, and scores more are wounded as seemingly random bombings and sniper attacks in marketplaces, targeted abductions, sectarian attacks, assassinations and murders, and all form of violence sweep the country. Then there are the victims caught in the crossfire of warring factions.

Approximately two million Iraqi’s have been internally displaced, scattered throughout the countryside and taking shelter with friends and relatives who are ill equipped to take in those who have fled, but do anyway. Those who have no one to take shelter with, and who lack the resources to flee the country make up a growing population of squatters who move into abandoned buildings and the homes abandoned by those who have fled.

Food shortages are becoming more prevalent. Hunger is on the increase and the incidence of malnutrition among the population has spiked upward. Infrastructure is in shambles, and the lack of potable water is nearly at crisis levels in some areas. Untreated sewage and the lack of fresh water is a bellwether for a coming epidemic of communicable disease that, if it were to happen, could be the straw the breaks the camels back, so to speak, and just finishes off the remaining vestiges of a former near-first-world society.

As violence has increased steadily, the healthcare system has been stretched to the limit. Mass casualties occur daily. Sick and injured Iraqis avoid seeking healthcare because the facilities, those who utilize them and the professional medical staff are often targets of violence designed to spread terror. Medical supplies are a precious commodity, especially in a lawless state and a bandit culture. A hospital director in Baghdad told the ICRC that poor security conditions were preventing staff from providing medical services. Checkpoints and roadblocks keep doctors and patients from reaching one another in time

Fully half of the nation’s healthcare providers have fled the country in the wake of kidnappings and murders of their colleagues. Those who remain and are still practicing are the bravest patriots in Iraq, without a doubt. I’m don’t think I am worthy of calling them my professional colleagues. I have never sacrificed like that to work a trauma, and I have never dealt with a mass casualty that wasn’t a drill.

The failure to observe the sanctity of medical personnel in this conflict is especially heinous and troubling. Attacking the helping professionals belies a pathological and depraved desire to rend the very fabric of society itself to tatters.

It’s a hell of a mess that they made, isn’t it? Sucked the ‘civil’ right out of the cradle of civilization, they did.

Heckuva job…