Iraq – No News is Always Bad News

The phrase goes; no news is good news. Except this does not seem to apply in Iraq. Even though the mainstream media tends not to report on the war – the war goes on nonetheless. For example, if you check AlertNet.org, the Reuters service informing humanitarian organisation what’s going on where, you’ll see how thick the shit is caked on the fan. For example this is an edited version of yesterday (8th):

TIKRIT - Two Iraqi soldiers guarding oil industry assets were killed and another nine wounded by a roadside bomb in the al-Jazeera area, west of Tikrit, a police source said.

TIKRIT - An Iraqi lawyer was killed late on Wednesday after being abducted by kidnappers dressed in military uniforms and travelling in civilian cars, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - A civilian was wounded by a car bomb that exploded in a residential area near the al-Sadeer Hotel in the central Karrada district of Baghdad, a police source said.

MOSUL - Iraqi and U.S. forces have killed seven insurgents and detained another seven since Wednesday during a cordon and search operation in the northern town of Tal Afar, near Mosul, a U.S. military statement said on Thursday.

And this is today, as of 8.15 GMT:

BAGHDAD - One policeman was killed and five wounded when unknown gunmen fired on their patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - One civilian was injured when a roadside bomb exploded targeting a Shi'ite mosque in southern Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

This is in addition to the normal news feeds from Iraq covering larger stories. This goes on and on, each morning you can see more. The Independent reporter, Robert Fisk also pointed out in an article about a year ago, that many security incidents don’t event get reported. Plus the many many civilian deaths by the collation forces – they don’t get logged.

Quagmire.

PS. In regard to the post - http://anarchist606.blogspot.com/2005/08/disarm-dsei-2005-protests-win-economic.html - It was pointed out to me that this might not be the victory I had speculated. If the police set a president that events (including protests) have to pay their own policing – it would mean that protesting would become priced-out for most people. Another expression, like freedom of speech, commodified and so given to the rich and not the poor.