[Dean's World] Dave Schuler: The Carnival of the Liberated: Third Anniversary Edition

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Posted by Dave Schuler:
The Carnival of the Liberated:  Third Anniversary Edition
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1190750581.shtml


   Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the
   best posts of the week from Iraqi and Afghan bloggers. Today marks the
   third anniversary of the CotL under my editorship. I still think it's
   a great opportunity and I'm grateful to Dean for giving that
   opportunity to me. It's a hard beat to cover. Every week I check
   hundreds of blogs, frequently seeing images and reading things that
   are very hard to stomach. I also search for new blogs regularly and
   welcome suggestions for blogs that may not be known to me yet. Working
   this beat enables me keep my ear to the ground in a way that I think
   is helpful and distinctive and I plan on doing it as long as Dean
   gives me a platform for it. Maybe longer.

   In recognition of the anniversary I'm going to dispense a bit from the
   usual format and conventions I've adhered to. I'm going to talk more
   and link less so if you're not interested in that come back in a week
   or so when I'll return to my regular style and content.

   The Iraqi blogosphere has become very, very quiet over the last couple
   of months. I've gone from a weekly carnival to a biweekly one, largely
   because there just isn't much to link to. Lots of Iraqi bloggers have
   left Iraq and, according to my custom, I no longer include them in the
   carnival (although I continue to read their work). Electricity is
   irregular and better used for air conditioning during the hot summer
   months than blogging. And it's quite clear that lots of Iraqi bloggers
   are very, very discouraged.

   Over the last two weeks there have been two topics that have come up
   repeatedly and I plan to link to one post on each topic that
   exemplifies what's being written. The topic most mentioned these days
   is the Blackwater private security forces. Take a look at [1]Treasure
   of Baghdad's post on the subject.

     Blackwater and the many other security contracting companies are
     part of the problems that are happening in Iraq. People there hate
     them. They do. I recall many Iraqis wishing their death because
     they shoot randomly and kill. Some people there link these
     criminals to the US army and to the US itself. Thatâs how
     sentiments against American troops themselves increased. Of course,
     I differentiate whoâs who, but there are uneducated people who
     think that these mercenaries are basically the same as any soldier
     or marine who âcame to kill, take oil, and then leave.â

   Don't underestimate how greatly the Iraqis detest the private security
   companies. I've read posts that are simply smoky blue with scathing
   invective. I've read posts in which Blackwater people are quoted as
   claiming that they run the country.

   John Burgess of [2]Crossroads Arabia, a career diplomat now retired
   who spent a substantial portion of his career in the Middle East, has
   argued convincingly that the private security companies need to be
   retained in order to provide security for State Department workers.
   His argument is that arming State Department people themselves won't
   do the trick and there just aren't enough U. S. soldiers to do the job
   and I'm in no position to argue the point with him. I do believe that
   armed private contractors need to be in the military chain of command
   in some fashion and be governed by the Uniform Code of Military
   Justice.

   The situation as it stands is extremely damaging to U. S. interests.
   We can't argue credibly that we're turning the responsibility for
   governing Iraq over to the Iraqi government and undermine the
   government of Iraq (as the private security companies do) at the same
   time. The Iraqis view them as simply another militia and,
   unfortunately, they may be right.

   The other topic is cholera. Consider the post (including linked photo
   and video) from [3]Last of Iraqis:

     that's when I decided to do something , something should be done to
     stope the cholera in Baghdad.

     I decided to use the donation money to buy cholera vaccine
     (Dukoral) , water filters and clean drinking water for me , my wife
     , my friends in the clinic and my neighbors , of course that
     depends on the amount of donations , I'll start with us and then to
     the friends and neighbours because the vaccine isn't cheap it costs
     about 95$ without the shipment fees from the site of abc online
     pharmacy , I will look if I it's available in Jordan then I'll ask
     my relatives there to buy it and send it to me.

     Now I buy mineral water for my wife because she had an infection in
     her stomach few months ago because of the water as the doctor said
     , she has a weak stomach , but for me I still drink from the tap
     water. I don't want to see any of the people I know suffering from
     cholera or any other disease because of the water they drink , as I
     have mentioned in earlier posts that 5 000 cases of cholera has
     been reported in northern Iraq. When I hear about people die
     because of the violence and explosions I can't stop the violence ,
     but I can try to stop the cholera infections , at least I want to
     try.

   Cholera is a sign of poverty and of government failure. Whatever you
   think of government involvement in healthcare, public health in the
   form of clean water and sewers is a government responsbility. There's
   a simple reason for this: when poor people get sick with cholera,
   well-to-do people do, too. I don't think there's any better metric for
   the failure of the government in Iraq than the reemergence of cholera.
   It's not just in Baghdad. It's in the north in the Kurdish area and
   the south around Basra, too.

   Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, [4]The Glittering Eye.
   The Carnival was originally conceived by Ryan Boots.

References

   1. http://baghdadtreasure.blogspot.com/2007/09/criminals-kick-out.html
   2. http://xrdarabia.org/
   3. http://last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com/2007/09/choleras-phobia.html
   4. http://www.theglitteringeye.com/