As our representatives in congress are preparing to approve more funding for the occupation of Iraq, the people of Sadr City are being warned to leave their homes. The BBC reported this morning that:

The government has warned of an imminent push to clear the areas of members of the Mehdi Army, loyal to the anti-American cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

In the last seven weeks around 1,000 people have died, and more than 2,500 others have been injured, most of them civilians.

The fighting so far in Sadr City has been fierce – street to street, and house to house.
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The government has distributed leaflets in two key districts of Sadr City, warning people to leave.

The speculation is that government forces are preparing for a big push into eastern Baghdad to end the current fighting once and for all.

Shortages of water and medical supplies have already made life inside Sadr City extremely difficult.

Given the devastation of attacks of the past few weeks, it is frightening to imagine what may be coming next. Just how "difficult" – a word that does not come close to describing current conditions – it already is can be seen even in some MSM reports. McClatchy’s reporter Shashank Bengalish writes of a visit this week to Sadr City:

The only apparent sign of the war was a hand-painted sign on a black sheet that hung from one concrete wall. My colleague translated it to me as a death notice for a local man, Ali Ateya, whose family we had come to visit. Later I would notice those stark signs – white Arabic characters on a black background – were all over the neighborhood.

Next we toured Sadr City’s general hospital, which a day earlier had been damaged by a U.S. military strike. It had been hard to gauge the extent of the damage in phone interviews, and the U.S. military said it had not struck the building directly. But it looked to us that day like the hospital was in trouble.

The first thing you saw was a series of craters outside the hospital and a big pool of water, which resulted when the U.S. missile struck the building’s main water supply. Here’s how we reported it:

"Sadr Hospital, one of two main hospitals serving the massive Shiite Muslim slum, is operating on a backup water supply that wasn’t expected to last longer than 48 hours. On Sunday afternoon, a main street outside the hospital was flooded as workmen tried to repair a series of underground pipes that ruptured when the missiles targeted what U.S. military officials described as a militia outpost a few yards from the hospital.

"’If there are no more attacks, we might be able to fix it. We don’t know,’ said a hospital security official who gave his name as Abu Sajjad. `Otherwise, in two days we will run out of water and the hospital can’t go on."’

Yesterday, another hospital – this time in the Al Shula district just west of Sadr City was attacked. Firepups may remember Fatima who recently chatted with us here at the Lake. Fatima lives in Al Shula where she and her husband run two orphanages full of terrified children in the middle of these attacks.

The soldiers also raided the Mohammed-Bakr Hakim hospital, arresting 35 workers, including orderlies and cleaners, and forced its closure, said hospital head Dr. Yassin al-Rikabi.

Reuters Television footage showed empty corridors and beds in the hospital, which workers was suspected of treating wounded Mehdi Army fighters.

"We don’t have any staff to receive patients," Rikabi told Reuters. Patients had been transferred to another hospital.

"At 9 a.m., around 40 soldiers and their officers stormed the hospital … They beat some people, including me," he added.

With the destruction of hospitals, makeshift clinics are the only resource residents have for essential care. This photo shows one such clinic – h/t to GorillasGuides.

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And the air strikes continue:

U.S. forces used airstrikes and tank fire against suspected militia positions following a rocket attack late Monday in Sadr City, the military said. At least six people were killed.

An attack aircraft later fired two Hellfire missiles and killed three militants who were planting a roadside bomb in the Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad on Tuesday, the military added.

At least four civilians were killed in the clashes, hospital officials said.

But back at home, our Congress prepares another Supplemental, giving BushCo not only all the funding he wanted for this year but adding more for the beginning of next. As the AP reported:

On Iraq, the bill contains $66 billion requested by Bush to fund the war into the next administration.

"Whoever becomes president has a few months to get his or her act together," Obey said.

The move also lets them avoid a second war vote during the presidential elections.

And while the Out of Iraq Caucus tries to put limits on the funding, asking for example that the money be “fenced off” to only pay for redeployment, the House and Senate both broadly support requiring the Iraqis to pay 50% of all reconstruction costs.

Other conditions have been added which are supposed to place contractors under the legal oversight of military justice – but this condition only applies to DoD contractors – yet the majority of contractors, including the Blackwater thugs who carried out the shootings last fall work for the State Department.

This sort of kabuki legislation while we commit daily war crimes against the people of Iraq is unconscionable – and while it appears that there is no way to stop this legislation, we can let our representative know that we are watching – and that we back the Out of Iraq caucus as they try to live up to the mandate of the ’06 election.

Update: Please consider a donation to the Red Crescent for their work in Iraq – as conditions grow ever worse, they are on the front lines, trying to help. Donations can be made here - select Iraq from the menu.

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