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Dedicated to the Memory of L.A.S.
by Riverbend

So Happy Valentine's Day… although it's the 15th. It still feels like the 14th here because I'm not asleep… it's the extension of yesterday. Do you know what yesterday marked? It marked the 13th anniversary of the Amiriyah Shelter massacre- February 13, 1991. Can you really call it an 'anniversary'? Anniversary brings to mind such happy things and yet is there any other word? Please send it along if you know it. February 12, 1991, marked one of the days of the small Eid or 'Eid Al-Fitr'. Of course it also marked one of the heaviest days of bombing during the Gulf War. No one was in the mood for celebration. Most families remained at home because there wasn't even gasoline to travel from one area to the next. The more fortunate areas had bomb shelters and people from all over the neighborhood would get together inside of the shelter during the bombing. That year, they also got together inside of the shelters to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr with their neighbors and friends.

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Bloomberg Fails to Ask Why
Jimmy Breslin

The soldier's girlfriend, who was weeping quietly in the cold rain, had more sense than all her purported betters in this city. Informed that the mayor of New York had just made a huge and bold move on the White House and asked for citizenship for her dead soldier, who was a Dominican, she said at the wake, "What good is it now? He can't use it." He sure can't. He was Private Luis Moreno. He was 19 years old. They were loading him in his box into a hearse for the ride to a cemetery forever. She also had a question: "Why is he dead?"

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  thanks to Eschaton

Fallujah: Phase II, Guerrilla War?
by Juan Cole

Reuters reports on the impressive coordinated tactical strike by guerrillas at Fallujah on Saturday. Some forty masked, armed men were involved, and the attack was brazenly launched in broad daylight. Late reports put the number of dead at at least 27, with dozens wounded. The London daily al-Hayat reports that four of the attackers were killed, two of them of Lebanese nationality. (There are a number of small radical Sunni Lebanese Islamist and nationalist movements, often based in Tripoli in the north, including al-Jama`ah al-Islamiyyah, Harakat al-Tawhid al-Islami and Usbat al-Ansar. One of the freed prisoners was a Lebanese captured early last week, according to al-Hayat. My colleague, military historian and former Green Beret Tom Collier referred to it as "Phase II, Guerrilla War." This kind of operation is beyond the ambushes, sniping and grenade and bomb attacks we have been seeing, he says.

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Family Crisis...
by Riverbend

I haven't been blogging for several reasons. The main reason is that since the fourth day of Eid of we've been coping with a family crisis. [...] We spent the night making conjectures and trying to find logical reasons for A.'s disappearance. In the end, we agreed that if he wasn't back by 10 a.m., we'd go to the police and the family would start a separate search. At 8 a.m., I was putting the kettle on in preparation for morning tea. The house was silent but no one was asleep. No one had slept all night. E. was still pacing; my father and uncle were closed up in the living room, trying to decide on a course of action and L. was trying not to cry. Suddenly, just as I lit the stove, the phone rang. It never sounded so shrill. I ran to the living room and found that my uncle had already jumped to answer it and was barking, "Elloo?" L. ran into the room and stood wringing her hands nervously. It was A.'s best friend and business partner, S. He had heard from A. just a few minutes before… he had been abducted and was being held for a ransom of $15,000. A. and S. are partners and share a small shop in a mercantile neighborhood in Baghdad. They sell everything from Korean electrical ovens to fluorescent light bulbs and make just enough money to support their respective families. We'd be given 3 days to get the money- a place would be agreed upon where we'd give them the money and they'd release A. later on.

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Secret report warns of Iraq 'Balkanisation'

A confidential report prepared by the US-led administration in Iraq says that the attacks by insurgents in the country have escalated sharply, prompting fears of what it terms Iraq's "Balkanisation". The findings emerged after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the top US general in Iraq, John Abizaid, on Thursday.

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  thanks to Cursor

American plan for Iraq needs complete overhaul, United Nations envoy warns
Too little time left for credible elections, compounded by 'very serious danger' of civil war

Arab, Kurdish Chieftains Visit Sistani
by Juan Cole

Speaking of Sistani, I received by email a fascinating account by a participant of a recent joint visit to Sistani of Kurdish and Sunni Arab clan leaders. I was given permission to quote from it by the person who sent it to me, on condition that I guard the confidentiality of the persons involved. I thought that as an educated Sunni Arab impression of Sistani, the account has historical significance.

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The bloody price of occupation
How far will the US go to maintain its illegitimate primacy in Iraq?