Trina's Kitchen: Safe and Sound

What to say? Couldn't think of anything. Then started humming. Thought it fit and thought it was Carly Simon's "Misfit."

Nope.

It's "Safe and Sound" (both it and "Misfit" appear on Carly's Hotcakes album).

Key lines:

If through all the madness
We can stick together
We're safe and sound
The world's just inside out and upside down

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:

Tuesday, March 26, 2019. The tragedy of the ferry is far from the only problem facing northern Iraq (bridges, the dam issue, etc) and don't whine about 'disengagement' if you can't get honest about the fact that the US has no ambassador to Iraq currently.

Mohammed Jasim Awad. A name that should be known wider than any of the puppets the US government has put in charge of Iraq. Natash Ghoneim (AL JAZEERA) reports on him in the video below.

Last week's tragedy with the ferry found the 24-year-old Mohammed volunteering to help with the rescue efforts and managed to retrieve eight bodies. Moahmmed was one of the two volunteers who drowned.

‏ @Kirkuknow_DT

What caused the Mosul ferry to capsize?
KirkukNow reveals more about the Mosul disaster. Click on this link:
kirkuknow.com/en/news/30274

‏Verified account @MiddleEastEye

Chaos and confusion as Mosul struggles to come to terms with ferry disaster ow.ly/WLOM30obZdL

1 retweet

‏ @FilmMosul

"The governor and all corrupt officials must be put on trial ... We are fed up of being mistreated and marginalized," said protester Isra Mohammed. #Mosul 

1 like

Mosul had the ferry disaster last week. For years, they've needed to address problems with the dam. Actual leadership might have allowed that to be addressed.

‏ @IBBC_London

German Government is prepared to provide Export Credit Finance for the rehabilitation of #Mosul Dam #Iraq. Delegates at the Iraqi-German Business Forum are told that a permanent solution to the dams problems has been found and waits to be implemented.

2 likes

There's a new problem emerging in the north. RUDAW reports:

Flash flooding has further weakened a temporary bridge over the Little Zab River which separates federal Iraq from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, leading to fears it could collapse at any moment.

The steel bridge was only recently built to replace the original structure destroyed in fighting between Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga in October 2017.

Damage caused by heavy freight traffic has been further exacerbated by the torrent of water passing under the bridge as flash flooding swells the Little Zab.

Heavy rains have caused serious damage to farms, homes, and infrastructure across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

‏ @AlexAtroushi

Bridge linking Iraq to Kurdistan Region ‘may collapse at any mom rudaw.net/english/kurdis… via @RudawEnglish

That's far from the only bridge issue in Iraq these days.

@OCHAIraq continues to monitor the impacts of the heavy rains throughout #Iraq. [#Photo: Daradoien bridge between Sulaymaniah – Kalar; photo via Rast Press: rastpress.net/2019/03/%D8%A8…; #severeweather #rain #floods #flooding #planning #preparedness

1 reply2 retweets3 likes

#Ninewa:  Heavy rains cause floods, close schools. Several neighborhoods have been affected by heavy rains in Mosul,  and the DoE announced a day-off for schools. #Qayyarah Bridge has been closed for vehicular usage. Reportedly, none of the #IDP camps have been affected

1 reply1 retweet1 like

•    Alnasr Bridge is closed.
•    Alhurriyya Bridge still closed.
•    Qanatir Bridge is still closed.
•    Suwais Bridge has just been closed.
•    Qayyarah Bridge has just been closed.

1 reply1 retweet1 like

‏Verified account @OCHAIraq

#Kirkuk:  All Kirkuk districts reported heavy rains since 23 March. No flooding/ damage have been reported so far. However, there is concern that a bridge in Hawiga may collapse any time. Civil defense forces are responding.

2:39 AM - 25 Mar 2019

1 reply

#Sulaymaniyah:  Sulaymaniyah experienced heavy rains since 24 -25 March. No flooding or damages reported so far; #IDP camps have not been affected by the rain. #Kalar district concerned that #Diyala river could burst its bank any time. Civil defense forces are responding.

1 reply

#Wasit: the Governor announced alert re expected floods induced by the recent heavy downpours. In this connection, the Governor ordered evacuation of some villages to avoid civilian casualties.

1 reply1 retweet

#Basra: reportedly 20 families have been evacuated from Al-Hwaidi in Qurna  District due to floods. Other areas in Basra affected by the floods  include Al-Seeba and Al-Faw Districts, south of Basra. JCMC and Basra crisis cell are meeting today to evaluate the situation

1 reply1 retweet3 likes

#ShatAlArab: reportedly, the reopening of tributaries / feeders from Iran towards Shat al-Arab river have damaged soil dams in areas north of Basra close to Shat Al-Arab  river, leading to inundation of vast agricultural area.

1 retweet3 likes

These issues go unaddressed because Iraq has a government led by thieves more concerned with how much money they can steal than how to help the Iraqi people. The corruption is bred into the puppet system.

Over at THE GUARDIAN, selling the Iraq War continues. Yes, boys and girls, the bible of New Labour sold the Iraq War. B-b-b-but the Downing Street Memoes! They were never covered by THE GUARDIAN, to this day, they were never covered. In England, New Labour supported the Iraq War and the Conservative Party did not which is why Rupert Murdoch's TIMES OF LONDON published The Downing Street Memo and not THE GUARDIAN.

Alia Barhimi is a self-styled 'expert' and, at THE GUARDIAN, she offers what she thinks passes for 'expertise' today:

It is unlikely Iraq will turn the page on its recent history of toxic sectarianism, as the leaders of notorious Shia security forces such as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and the Badr Organisation are now embedded in the parliamentary system. Baghdad is also pushed further towards the embrace of Iran by Trump’s disengagement from the region, as symbolised by President Rouhani’s tour of Iraq this month.

Oh, look, another half-wit managed to insult Donald Trump. She has no actual knowledge -- fools usually don't.

Is Donald Trump disengaging from the region? We're talking Iraq.

Donald Trump nominated a US ambassador to Iraq back in November of last year (Matthew Tueller). At the start of this month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally held a hearing. They have still not voted on the nomination. The US has no ambassador in Iraq currently.

B-b-but Douglas Silliman!

He left. Long ago.

‏Verified account @USAmbIraq

My thoughts as I depart Baghdad.

U.S. Embassy BaghdadVerified account @USEmbBaghdad

@USAmbIraq:  "It has been my honor and privilege to serve as the American Ambassador to Iraq...I want all Iraqis to know that I see great potential for a truly democratic, sovereign, independent, and prosperous Iraq. Fi 'aman Allah"
…

13 replies24 retweets88 likes

It's about to be April and there's still no US Ambassador to Iraq.

Is that not clear enough for Alia? That's not Donald Trump dragging feet or 'disengaging.' That's the US Senate. And this has been going on for months.

Human filth like Alia Barhimi know they can whine about Trump to the equally uninformed. She doesn't have to write anything original or of value or even factual. And this is passed off as 'insight.' She argues for continued war, that is all she ever argues for. Human filth.

There's far more honesty, insight and facts in Tim Black's column for SPIKED:

So while Iraq was freed of its portion of the caliphate over a year ago, it remains under the control of a dysfunctional, corrupt state, its quasi-legitimacy derived as much from the extensive network of Shia patronage and ‘jobs for boys’ it provides, as from the painfully inconclusive elections it holds – elections, it is worth noting, in which few Iraqis now vote. It means the Iraqi state, hand in hand with its Iranian backers, benefits a section of Iraq’s Shia majority while disenfranchising the Sunni minority. So a state-linked, often state-employed, section of Iraqi society, with assorted militias protecting its interests, enjoys the benefits of Iraq’s still substantial oil revenues, while vast swathes of largely Sunni Iraq subsist amid a failing infrastructure.

Even now, over 15 years since the US-led invasion devastated the nation, water and electricity supplies, especially in southern Iraq, can be intermittent. ISIS didn’t come from nowhere; it came from here, from a fractured post-Baathist, post-2003 Iraq. And there is every reason to think that the substantial, ethnically inflected grievances that gave it a foothold in local populations, can do so again.

New content at THIRD: