On Friday, the US command (Multinational Force Iraq MNF-I) issued the following statement:

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
PRESS DESK
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.343.8790

Press Release A080502a
May 2, 2008

MNF-I condemns attacks near hospital

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Multi-National Force—Iraq strongly condemns today’s attacks near a hospital in Balad Ruz, located 50 km east of Baqubah, which killed 31 Iraqis and wounded 52, including children.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq continues their malicious tactics against the people of Iraq and their way of life. They have no respect for the rule of law and Iraqi values, and seek violence and chaos in Iraq for their own corrupt agenda.

Multi-National Force-Iraq is working closely with Iraqi authorities to ensure adequate medical supplies and humanitarian assistance for the victims and their families. We are also working closely with Iraqi Security Forces to help find those who planned and directed this attack, to bring them to justice.

On Saturday, the same MNF-I launched an attack on the main hospital in Sadr City, wounding at least 20 and destroying a fleet of ambulances.

Who will bring them to justice?

The MNF-I followed this action with an airstrike which killed 3 young boys and injured others who were searching for cans in the Jamila market to sell and buy food for their families:

About an hour later, at the front line between the southern part of the neighborhood that is held by the American and Iraqi military and the northern section that is held by Shiite militias, the group of children was hit, according to a child and one adult who was injured there and brought to the Sadr hospital.

Haider Abbas, 10, was brought to the hospital with what appeared to be a gaping hole in his back and shrapnel injuries across his stomach. The boy screamed and whimpered in pain, barely able to answer a doctor’s questions.

“My friend brought me to the hospital, but we had to leave the other wounded kids behind,” he said. “The Iraqi Army refused to allow them to be evacuated, but my friend took me anyway.”

The doctor, Abdul Rahman Hadi, said the boy was bleeding internally. “He needs surgery quickly,” Dr. Hadi said. “The irony is that not one of his relatives has come because he is an orphan.”

Another victim of that attack, Ahmad Yahya, 31, whose leg was broken, said the Iraqi Army had blocked evacuation from the area of the attack. “I was with a group of about 15 children who were collecting the empty cans or the trash in Jamila,” he said. “I don’t know why this happened.”

Who will bring them to justice?

On the same day the MNF-I was chastising AQI for attacking “near a hospital” the MNF-I launched an air strike killing two Red Crescent humanitarian aid workers – civilians –in Sadr City.

Who will bring them to justice?

And when Iraqi Parliament members – Sunni, Shia and Kurds - visited Sadr City to evaluate the damage done by the continuing siege and daily air strikes, the Kurdish members of the delegation issued a shocking statement on the MNF-I attacks on the community:

“The aerial bombardment and military operations the U.S. is carrying out in Sadr city are similar to what happened in Halabja,” Iraqi member of parliament Falah Hassan said.

Kurdish legislators who were on the visit also made parallels between what Saddam did in Halabja and what the U.S. is currently doing in Saddam City. The Kurdish deputies spoke on the strict condition of anonymity.

“The current situation in Saddam City is no less tragic than when Halabja was gassed as those that are being targeted and killed (by U.S. fire) are innocent people,” said Hassan who had arranged for the deputies to visit the city.*

Who will bring them to justice?

Not our congressional leadership. Despite the continuing war crimes, Congress moved forward on their plans to sign another blank check for the Iraq occupation – and this week the Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously voted to make Iraq pay for reconstuction and more. As Carl Levin said:

"The American taxpayers are paying for too many things . . . that the Iraqis ought to pay for out of their surplus,

Nancy Pelosi chimed in, saying the House would add similar language to it’s appropriations:

“We've spent a fortune on infrastructure in Iraq when we have deficits in infrastructure in our country."

While Iraqis will get to pay to rebuild their hospitals after we bomb them, the Pentagon is making plans for a $5 Billion "five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future" complete with luxury hotels.

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Amidst the horrors of last week , there were a few hopeful signs of activism.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union held an eight-hour strike closing down 29 ports along the West Coast and as Peter Cole noted, “demonstrating the collective power of workers willing to use it.”

The ILWU is demanding "an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East." Although the majority of Americans repeatedly have expressed their desire to end the war, President Bush has not obliged us, so it drags on. Because our leaders refuse to listen, ILWU members are taking the next logical step for workers: Strike.

Iraqi port workers struck as well and wrote to thank the ILWU and other workers who acted here today. They went on to mention the conditions union workers face in Iraq:

The pro-occupation government has been attempting to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to use the occupation against the interests of the workers.

We the port workers view that our interests are inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined to continue our struggle to improve the living conditions of the workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its economic and political projects.

In a call for “an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from our country,” a coalition of Iraqi Union leaders have written:

We call upon the governments, corporations and institutions behind the ongoing occupation of Iraq to respond to our demands for real democracy, true sovereignty and self-determination free of all foreign interference.

Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. In the name of our “liberation,” the invaders have destroyed our nation’s infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national treasures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into refugees.

On Tuesday, Members of the Iraq Campaign joined with CorpWatch and several other organizations to challenge the board of defense contractor L3 at their annual meeting. Despite participation by an L3 shareholder and a former L3 employee, they were not allowed to attend the annual meeting. CorpWatch also issued an alternative annual report for L3.

US Labor Against the War has issued a call for everyone to contact congress and includes in their message a point that is so often ignored:

• The decision by the U.S. and the British to employ air power against civilian neighborhoods to support the government's forces constitutes yet one more in a growing list of war crimes that began with the invasion itself - an unprovoked act of aggression based on lies, in defiance of the international community without a declaration of war by Congress.

It’s time for us to bring them to justice.

*For those who don’t remember Halabja, here is the US State Department description - and the more complete discussion here.