Iraq - occupied, destroyed , and divided.

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on March 5 that the war in Iraq was "going very, very well,"

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, who said on March 7th 2006 the invasion opened a "Pandora's box" and, on Friday, 7th April 2006 warned that a civil war here could engulf the entire Middle East.


Now the New York Times claims to have obtained a copy of an internal staff report by the United States Embassy and the military command in Baghdad. This is a 10 pages document of briefing points entitled "Provincial Stability Assessment,"

Naturally the report identifies the growing power of Iranian-backed religious Shiite parties, and rival militias in the south. It identifies Arab-Kurdish fault line in the north as a major concern, with the Kurds and Arabs fighting power in Mosul, where violence is rampant, and Kirkuk, whose oil fields ( where a Norwegian company is the first Western company to announce a program of drilling this week) are critical for jump-starting economic growth in Iraq.

The complete circulation of this document is not known but is part of a periodic briefing on Iraq that the State Department provides to Congress, and has been shown to officials on Capitol Hill, including those involved in budgeting for the “reconstruction” teams.

The oil-rich Basra Province, where British troops have patrolled in relative calm for most of the last 3 years, is now rated as, "serious, that is, having "a government that is not fully formed or cannot serve the needs of its residents; economic development that is stagnant with high unemployment, and a security situation marked by routine violence, assassinations and extremism."
There is a "high level of militia activity including infiltration of local security forces," the report says. "Smuggling and criminal activity continues unabated. Intimidation attacks and assassination are common."

Basra city is rapidly devolving into a mini-theocracy, with government and security officials beholden to Shiite religious leaders, enforcing bans on alcohol and mandating head scarves for women. Police cars and checkpoints are often decorated with posters or stickers of Moktadr al-Sadr , or Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a cleric whose party Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq is very close to Iran (pic footballers at half time show posters of him). Both men operate extensive, well organised and armed, formidable militias. Mr. Hakim's party controls the provincial councils of eight of the nine southern provinces, as well as the council in Baghdad.

A series of attacks were reported 9th April around Basra. Two people, were shot dead by gunmen and policemen rescued two Iraqi hostages. A police officer from Basra was gunned down by armed men, while the village leader of Qurna, 70km north of Basra, and his wife were shot dead when they were in their car waiting at a gas station. The body of a civilian kidnapped on Saturday night was also found in Basra.

Reuters reports today massive problems in Basra hospitals.

Doctors in Basra (that remain), say that the local health situation has deteriorated markedly since the US-led invasion of Iraq 2003, water supply, sewerage problems leading to diarrhoea and sickness. "The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," the report Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, saying, "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them."

The Maternity and Children's' hospital in Basra had not received any cancer drugs from the health ministry for 3 years. "In all of Basra, a city with nearly two million inhabitants, there's no radiotherapy department available."

Khalid Ala'a, spokesman for local NGO Keeping Children Alive, said that Basra hospitals lacked many essential drugs and antibiotics used to treat infections common to the area. "We've asked for help from the Ministry of Health, but they only tell us they don't have money to supply hospitals.”

You could be forgiven for thinking that the presence of UK forces is not doing much good for stability, good government, health, education and well being of the population.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Iraq's newly crowned beauty queen Miss Iraq, Tamar Goregian an Armenian Iraqi, elected at a competition in a heavily guarded Baghdad social club away from the media, has decided to step down — 4 four days after her election after receiving threats by a group of religious extremists who referred to her as "the queen of infidels" for participating in the contest. She has fled the country.

So she won't be visiting The Miss Universe Contest in Los Angeles on July 23rd, in her place will be Miss Teen Iraq, Silva Shahakian, a Christian, who has accepted the title.

Well, that's a relief.