Talk:Iraq/Archive 2

Inappropriately shortened

I significantly developed this article last year, and since then much of what I wrote has been removed. I do not criticise its changing, but it has been significantly shortened to the detriment of much of the information it provided. There is no information on the complexities of the handover process... there is no information on the 20th Century period prior to Saddam Hussein. There is a highly subjective section entitled "judging the success of the Iraq occupation". The "Loss of life" section is long-winded, out of date, and fails to mention the insurgency! The Economy section is also poor and out of date. I do not know whether other lead-off articles are better written, but perhaps they could be better summarised into a better written overview.??

Iraq's name in Kurdish

the transliteration of the arabic script should be Komarî `Êraq . Komara `Îraqê is english writing. Ybgursey 06:24, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Also, the modern name "Iraqi" derives from the Old Persiean name Eriaka (middle persian eriak) and it means lowlanders, it did not derive from the capital of Uruch as mentioned in the article.

General Information

The kurdish romanization doesn't correspond exactly to the arabic script kurdish. I thinkthey represent different dialects. please check. Also Iraqi Turkmen are using standard Turkish for official bussiness. please check. Ybgursey 05:44, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Some of the citations misleading

Consider the paragraph:

"The US established a Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq. Government authority was transferred to an Iraqi Interim Government in 2004, but over 140,000 Coalition troops remain in Iraq and they continue to exert significant influence over the country. Insurgencies, frequent terrorist attacks, and sectarian violence have plagued the country since then which has claimed the lives of up to 400,000 Iraqi civilians. 200,000 Iraqis died directly from the fire of the coalition forces. [5] In 2006, Foreign Policy Magazine named Iraq as the fourth most unstabilized nation in the world."

Adding some info to the introduction

Hello,

the following is a translation from the german Wikipedia article and would make a good addition to the introduction, since right now, it contains no information to the current situation at all, .

Since the Iraq-war of 2003, Iraq is in the state of military occupation by an international force lead by the USA and can only be regarded as a partial sovereign nation. A return to stable governmental structures has yet to be realized.

user:Narjuko

Accuracy of Religious Adherents

I don't care either way and was always under the assumption that Iraq was ~66% Shi'ite and ~33% Sunni making up anywhere from 97-99% of Muslim Population with the other generally defined as Christianity and "others"...but I noticed that recently it was edited up to 75% Shi'ite! Is this a politically motivated edit, or is there actual proof to back this up?

Response:

Perhaps the new figure is due to the Sectarian cleansing campaign carried out by the American armed Shi'ite Death Squads?

News from Iraq

British troops are mobilizing on the Iranian border http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060830&articleId=3097

Appears the numbers have been changed since the previous posting. Current numbers appear to be inline with past expectations (1979 numbers: 93-95% Muslim, 50-55% Shiite, ~25% Sunni; Source: Nyrop, Richard F., ed. Iraq: A Country Study, 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: The American University, 1979.) Unless anyone feels the need to question the current citation (CIA's The World Factbook, 2006), appears this issue is closed. -- Matt

Iraq's Official Name in Arabic

Iraq's official name in Arabic is not Aj-Jumhuriyah Al-'Iraqiyah. This translates to English as The Iraqi Republic.

It was changed in the late 80's or early 90's to Jumhuriat Al-Iraq. This translates to The Republic of Iraq.

Rightly so, the change was to make an emphasis on Iraq and not Republic.

Can you please rectify.

Hello!

In concordance with the information above I today corrected Iraq's official name in arabic letters to جمهورية العراق (Republic of Iraq). (Previosly it was الجمهورية العراقية - which transscribed is Al-Jumhuriya(t) al-Iraqiya(t) = The Iraqi Republic). / -- NM 194.47.110.98 15:38, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

What happened it's back to the incorrect name, Aj-Jumhuriyah Al-'Iraqiyah???

the CIA World Factbook is in error. see the arabic text of the constitution of Iraq (Article 1) in http://www.iraqfoundation.org/projects/constitution/constitutionindex.htm Ybgursey 20:50, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

If tehre are no objections to the above I will edit the footnote soon Ybgursey 04:47, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

2000 U.S. Presidential Election

This page has some vandalism everywhere especially in the history section. I'm to change some if any one sees anything tell me.

I've actually got a bone to pick here....a few days ago I wrote a section saying 'since the appointment of George W. Bush as US President by the Supreme Court in 2000, etc. etc.' and someone keeps coming along rewriting it as 'elected'. Now, from current US contitutional jurisprudence, Bush was official appointed, and it is in fact a pure lie to say he was elected. I've tried changing it back a few times, then I was blocked for vandalism! We have to be accurate here, from a normative viewpoint, he was appointed. - so much for honesty! Martin Edwards

---> Please abandon this political tone. It is what is turning wikipedia into a non-resource. You are emphatically asserting viewpoints which are simply not as ubiquitous as you apparently think they are. --Thomas G. Marshall <---

Sounds like this argument for the George W. Bush entry. - Kavanagh

Pursuant to the actual SCOTUS opinion or Wikipedia's review of it, the Supreme Court found that the Florida Supreme Court violated state election law in ordering further recounts in the contested counties, and ordered such recounts cease and desist - the court made no mention of choosing a candidate. The Supreme Court does not have the power to appoint the President of the United States, nor did it assert such power in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000). -- Matt

Not to put to fine a point on it, but no US president was ever elected by the popular vote. They are all elected by what Homer Simpson calls the "electrical college". :^/

It's also curious that no elector is required to vote as his/her state votes. They vote their conscious, and sometimes they do vote against their state. I don't know how electors are selected, but they are not voted in, so they owe nothing to the state's populace.

So I really don't see what difference the SC decision made in fact.

I guess most electors do vote as their state. But there are several exceptions that illustrate the nature of the presidential election. 64.172.115.2Rich

Kav I know who you are and well, lets just say this "sometimes peoples families get raped and murdered" Im not suggesting anything and anyone who thinks that is a conspiracy theorists.. Im just saying...

Death Tolls

Well no, because it is in the context of the 2003 invasion. It's all academic now, someone has put a far-right wing slant on the modern history section. The most sickening thing that was written refers to a 'kill-rate'.....I hope the statistics, and the kill ratios are good enough for you! Whoever you are, I must say that any person who excuses the killing of fellow human beings lacks moral values. Martin Edwards.

If you find 'kill-rate' to be sickening then the word can be changed, as you did. That does not discount the importance of measuring the change in mortality rates over time. A decrease in the mortality rate is a fundamental improvement in the human condition. Kavanagh 20 June 2006 11:01 (EST)

I hope that you are comparing apples with apples and not oranges. For example, does Saddam's total of people killed include troops who died during the Iran-Iraq war? I suspect that it does, especially as Iranian casualties are mentioned. The number of Kuwaitis killed seems suspiciously high, there was a good deal of inaccurate propaganda information floating around at the time of the first Gulf War. Does the total include Iraqi soldiers killed by Coalition forces during the first or second Gulf Wars? Does it include the people who are supposed to have died as a result of the UN sanctions? The source is not clear from what I read. I am not trying to whitewash Saddam, but it should be clear what is being compared and the figures should be verifiable from more than the one source (which reads as having a strongly anti-Saddam pro-American POV.Dabbler 17:14, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Dabbler, good point on the scope of the mortality definition. The source isn't clear enough to differentiate causes of death. I agree the distinctions are important. Regarding deaths as a result of sanctions, the U.N. should have designed and operated a more effective sanctions program - audited it for internal corruption.

However, the sanctions would have been immediately removed had Saddam Hussein complied with outstanding resolutions. Furthermore, Saddam Hussein siphoned of $10 billion (16%) of Oil-for-Food revenues and used kick-backs on oil contracts with complicit arms-dealing nations to acquire weapons. In short, Saddam's actions deprived Iraqi civilians of the funds necessary to purchase food and medicines through the program. Kavanagh 21 June 2006 13:45 (EST)

--RF80 12:50, 5 July 2006 (UTC)== Modern History ==

In the modern history section, can we fix the sentence that reads in part "...continued to remain in the country...", it's very redundant. I suggest "...remained in the country..."

Iraq was invaded and occupied in March 2003 by the United States and allies

I believe occupied is too much of a biased word to be used. I do believe that liberated is much more of a proper word since it reflects the true intentions of the US-UK alliance and has been used in most reputable sources.

Liberation is a very POV word to the many other people who believe that the invasion was based on political lies and false premises and consider that the current condition of the Iraqi people is not much improved in many areas and worse in some areas than it was before the invasion. Dabbler 11:32, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but the take over of one nation by another nation through force is an 'invasion'. Liberated connotes a sense of 'freed', thus automatically implying the US was correct. 'Invasion' is a better word, it is neutral. (Martin, user)

I think a better, more neutral term would be along the lines of "Overthrowing of old government and Reconstruction"ColdRedRain 19:53, 17 May 2006 (UTC) Better describes the true intent, which was to simply overthrow the government and reconstruct Iraq.

ColdRedRain 19:53, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I can agree on that ColdRedRain. That's a very neutral term that describes the action without infering any bias or position in the matter. Nice work on your neutrality stating! Props... From Citybug

I think even that is oversimplifying what actually occured. The word "cccupation" isn't biased if it is also correct in it's use and is precisely what is occuring there: a coalition force of substantial strength is in place in Iraq to keep peace and to assist in the reconstruction of a suitable government for the Iraqi people. That's an occupation in all the classical senses of the term. Is it favorable? Hell no. No country likes to be essentially under the control of another, there's no sense in glossing over what is actually occuring. Shadowrun 21:34, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

It was an occupation, pure and simple, in objective terms. In that opening paragraph we are not to imply the intentions of the parties, merely to set a premise for discussion. 'Liberation' is a subliminal word, used to promote the 'virtues' of the invasion. We are occupying Iraq, as we have our troops there, simple as that.

Some right wing nut changed the modern history of Iraq so it conformed with Republican views. As a returned Marine, I find his/her interpretation extremely offensive. Iraq is a freaking mess.

Whoever the Republican is who is changing the modern history/post-Saddam iraq section, you are a cold-blooded killer. How dare you trivialise the displacement that has taken place in Iraq. It's all about politics and money for you, isn't it? Compare Saddam's 'kill rate' (as you so eloquently put it), with Bush's kill rate.!

Your labeling of my motivation, metabolism, criminal record and U.S. political party registration is incorrect. If one defines George W. Bush's 'kill rate' as deaths that the U.S. military is directly responsible for, then that is about 3.8% of fatalities reported.[1] - Kavanagh 10:28, 20 June 2006 (EST)

Kavanagh, your commentary is so right wing its not funny. I'm a returned soldier from Baghdad and what you have written is offensive not only to US troops, but to the American people. We are killing as well, however you continually remove any reference to this. So much for democracy. Additionally, don't mention George Galloway without refering to Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Iraq to meet Saddam. Plus, it is not a liberation in neutral terms (this is what the administration is saying...not the basis of a passage in an encyclopedia). Keep it neutral, not pro war. Lewis Douglass

Lewis, thank you for your service in Baghdad. Your experience may suggest otherwise, but I sincerely believe that U.S. servicemen aren't working to harm the Iraqi people. Rather, they are risking their lives to try to help the Iraqi people build a better life. This after decades of tyranny in a region of the world where the west accommodated dictators for far too long. I don't believe that I've removed reference to any U.S. missteps in this Iraq article. In contrast, I strive to find the hard numbers and chronological order to put each item in to context.

Rumsfeld's visit with Saddam was a bad move. It was a zero sum game to find common cause with Iraq against the American hostage-takers in Tehran. Important for the comparison with Galloway, Rumsfeld visited before Saddam committed acts of genocide against the Kurds and other crimes against humanity. In contrast, George Galloway aided Saddam after these crimes were well known and throughout the period of U.N. sanctions.

I'm not pro-war. Labeling my position as right wing is funny because the objectives I support are most clearly explained by one of Senator John Kerry's foreign policy advisors, Thomas P. Barnett[2]. I'm pro-supporting and protecting free society in the Middle East. The sooner that the Iraqi National Guard can handle internal security and protect the fledgling democracy the sooner the mission of the U.S. in Iraq will successfully conclude. - Kavanagh 10:22, 21 June 2006 (EST)

I'm sorry Kavanagh, I don't agree. You're sources are very pro-war. What's more, you continually remove any content critical of the war. Please replace the word 'liberation' with occupation....liberation is a word that contains an intrinsic pro-US slant. It is up to the reader to determine whether these people are 'liberated', not you. However, the occupation of one country by another country's troops is just that...an occupation. Additionally, you need to do some more research...Sadddam carried out massacres in 1982 (noted in US media in November 1982), yet Rumsfeld visited in 1983. It was up to a human rights activist called Galbraith to lobby the US senate; it was not until 1988 that a strong policy change was made. Rumsfeld, Reagan, Bush Snr et al. knew about the atrocities throughout the eighties, yet it was up to extinsic powers to lobby for change. We were supplying Iraq with funds etc. when we had actual knowledge of their activities.

You mention that Rumsfeld's visit was a 'bad idea'...you admit it privately, now admit it publically.

Finally, and with all due respect, I am tired of quasi-academics going around claiming how they 'want a better life for these people'. I've been over there, and I can tell you that's the last thing we are doing. Your comment 'I believe the US servicemen aren't working to harm the Iraqi people' is offensive to those of us who have seen the reality. The absolute truth doesn't lie in your books and your academic papers, or what you see in the news, it lies in the reality on the ground. Please climb off the ivory tower, as people are dying. If you think this is so moral, then go over and fight yourself. Acknowledge the deaths caused by the US, because at the end of the day, it doesnt matter whether it is Bush or Saddam killing, these are still God's children. The entire region is destabilised, and it has resulted in the exponential rise of terrorist groups. So much for a 'war on terror' - Lewis Douglass

Mr. Douglas, I'll ignore the political, academic or warmongering labels and instead discuss the substance of the matter.

Some two days ago I identified the Iraqi deaths that the U.S. military is directly responsible for: about 3.8% of fatalities reported. Then someone whitewashed that information from the article a few hours later. Those fatalities are a small fraction of the lion's share of deaths that result from insurgent and terrorist attack. In fact, killing civilians, primarily Shi'ite, is al Qaeda's prime objective in Iraq and most elsewhere. Massive civilian carnage motivates al Qaeda. In the U.S. it couldn't be more different, a soldier accused of murder, even a single count, is tried in court - as Camp Pendleton witnessed today. It is al-Qaeda in Iraq that wants to destabilize Iraq - and even Iran - as outlined in documents recovered from Zarqawi safe house.

Many dozens of foreign dignitaries visited Iraq during the course of the Iran-Iraq war. They came because Iraq was a arms sales jackpot: Saddam was pulling in 10% of all global arms sales. Rumsfeld's 1983 visit garnered a lot of attention today because of his role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the 1980s he was part of limited relationship that resulted in the U.S. selling Iraq about 0.5% ($200 million) of the arms it procured. As I said before, bad move.

But it's significance in the context of the other 99.5% of arms sold to Iraq by world powers? If Rumsfeld's 0.5% arms sales relationship is considered significant, then the Iraq Modern History section would be bulging with all of the defense ministers and heads of state that visited Iraq from China, France and the USSR to execute their arms deals.

I guess everyone has their own reality. In your experience, coalition soldiers helping Iraqi civilians is 'last thing we are doing'. I've spoken with a handful of soldiers who had tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been inspired by their determination and pleasantly surprised by how well they articulate the objectives that the

Mr Kavanaugh, this is my final post. Whenever I add even something to the discussion board, I'm now blocked for 24 hours. (I purposely stopped writing on the article for this reason...I don't even have a right under the first amendment to write on the discussion board).

Democracy is a wonderful thing Mr Kavanauh, but I can tell you we have not freed these people. I have seen the direct effects of US bombs. We've destroyed sewerage, electrical, hospital systems over there. US bombs have done this. The children of Baghdad literally play in the sewers and emerge covered with faeces. This wasn't the case before the war. We have not fixed the damage caused by the initial invasion. I've seen a little girl choke as the hospital had been bombed by US weapons, and there was no ventolin left. She died. I've personally transported the bullet ridden bodies of Iraqis to the morgue...the bullets were American. How can you say 'thanks for being part of that?'. We've given them democracy, but we have given them chaos. Does the imposition of democracy override the chaos we have given them, especially when the new Government is not that much better? There is no freedom from fear, Mr Kavanaugh. These people are frightened. Of us, and of the terrorist groups that our policy has helped create. I've heard civilians tell me 'things were better under Saddam...at least we had water'. And that's saying something. Saddam was a butcher, but we have created a worse situation. Think of the 50000 that have died....Saddam was a murderer, but he wasnt killing that many in the years before the war.

Why is it that democracy is the lowest common denominator? These people are voting in clerics who wish to impose sharia law...it's a repeat of the democratic system in Iran. Palestine, Algeria, Iran are democracies...does that make them free? And you should know, the new Government's human rights record so far isnt that much better than Saddam's. Alreadly, the 'new' police and army have committed some gross atrocities. What is freedom? Is it what the US says at the barrel of a gun? These people hate us, because of what we have done to them. They wish for a Government the complete opposite of what the US wants...so much for the imposition of a representative democracy! The reason Iran voted in their Government was very much due to the Iraq situation. This government is now looking to WMD. It seems the war has actually CREATED WMD.

It's all relative, I suppose. You say the terrorists are hiding in the shadows, but isn't Bush hiding in the shadows by pulling the trigger 20,000 miles away? The people who have lost legs and arms sure don't see Bush as the liberator! That's postmodernism for you, I suppose. In 2002, many reports suggested the removal of the secular Hussein was just what Al Qaeda wanted...and we gave them what they wanted. We are responsible for the 50000 that have died due to the situation we have created. We have completely destabilised that country, and it is starting to spill over. The world is watching...they cannot believe the US thinks Iraq in 2006 is the same as America in 1776. We have literally opened a can of worms, because we are so short-sighted that we can't understand the cultural and religious dynamics of the region. The Iraqis are further from freedom than ever. I fought in the war, and am sick of seeing children killed for an 'experiment'. With all due respect, I am tired of hearing people sit in their Western countries speak of the 'progress', and other political catchphrases. I am tired of hearing people think Iraq's problems can be solved by imposing a Western style system. These people are dying, Mr Kavanaugh, and I cannot believe you don't understand that we created this situation. It's not just the fault of the situation we created.

One last point, you have totally contradicted yourself. You said Rumsfeld shouldn't be noted, as there were many people at that time (high turnover) etc. I agree. Why is it that you make sure George Galloway et al. are mentioned, but not AWB? Why not the American interests? Keep in neutral.

With all my heart, I hope the Iraqi people will one day be free from the nightmare we have given them.

- Douglass.

Mr Douglass: A final reply to your final post.

I do not doubt the existence of the devastation, gore and carnage that Iraqis experienced. It is real and needs to be put in to both current and historical context.

Coalition planners went to great lengths to spare Iraqi infrastructure during the invasion precisely because they intended to immediately support the development of a new Iraq from the wreckage of Saddam’s tyranny.

While war involves the ‘management of violence’ with destructive consequences, the assault on Saddam’s forces was the most precise in the history of warfare. Today, the rules of engagement that vulnerably restrict the tactics of coalition soldiers are intended to protect the lives of innocents. Giving many threatening persons the benefit of the doubt. Those that violate are prosecuted.

Insurgent tactics couldn’t be more reverse: the bombing of marketplaces, killing of faithful in mosques and assaulting law enforcement recruits in line for training. Sabotage of infrastructure by Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda operatives has stymied the pace of reconstruction – not wanton damage by coalition forces.

Saddam’s wars cost well over half-million lives in the Middle East and his internal assaults on non-Sunnis resulted in hundreds of thousands more dead. Many like yourself who yearn for Saddam underestimate the degree to which he destroyed Iraqi society.

Today the percentage of Iraqi youth enrolled in school greatly exceeds enrollment during Saddam’s government and Iraqi oil revenues are now funding projects of public benefit instead of building Saddam’s palaces and fattening his arsenal.

Do you detest the new Iraq so much that the only alternative futures you prefer are either Iraq under the boot of dictatorship or Iraq terrorized by Sunni overlords and al-Qaeda militants?

While the main stream media and you cultivate the perception of chaos across Iraq today, the growing prosperity of Iraqis is ignored. The inflation rate of 70% in 2002 has fallen to 25.4% in 2006. The Iraqi unemployment rate of 60% in 2002 has been reduced to 30% in 2006. Iraq’s economic output in 2004 was $90 billion, more than double the output of Saddam's last year in power. That type of performance doesn’t happen in a quagmire.

Among Iraqis, an ABC poll from December found broad optimism.[3] They must not be watching American television news channels.

It seems that you share the opinion that the people in the Islamic world are unfit to chose their own leaders. That they require dictators to keep them in line. The soft bigotry of low expectations.

Democracy wasn’t imposed on Iraq. Elected Iraqi delegates drafted a constitution that was approved by a popular vote. While some Iraqis may wax nostalgic about life under the Ba’ath party, the electorate has clearly supported the new republic.

This is a unprecedented achievement in a region where most suffer under tyrants and terrorists. Kavanagh 28 June 2006 11:40 (EST)

Do you have any idea how easy it is to rapé (thats not rape, thats rapé - be tolerant you nazis) your children and mürder (thats mürder, thats NOT murder) your family.

Kavanaugh- Id like to see you say all of that to an Iraqi civilian.....look them in the eye and say it. What you see in theory is different from practice. tell the iraqi dead that dying at the hands of US weapons is different from dying under the hands of the insurgents, and that it should be 'put into context'. How disgusting. Additionally, there was no 'detesting' of the new Iraqi government any more than a detesting of the insurgent groups and Hussein.

1) 'Saddam's War's cost a half a million lives in the middle east'....and vietnam cost how many? 2) 'Many of you who yearn for Saddam'....it has been made very clear throughout all postings that Saddam was a murderer. That statement by you is basically an admission that you have lost the argument...you are starting to sound desperate. 3)To be a patriot, Mr Kavanaugh, is to have the balls to stand up and say something when your country has gone off course. Not to stick with the status quo, and taking part in a mind-control experiment. Maybe George Orwell was right. 4) To say I have the same opinions as many extremists in the Islamic world is an incredibly unsophisticated argument, lacking any depth. You sound increasingly paranoid. 5) Thanks for the economic figures, your supposition will take you far. Have you ever heard of the UN 'Happiness' Index? The Iraqis are very pleased at their inflation figures, and I've heard them often say it refer to it....some of the most unstable nations in the world have strong economic figures. 6) Your comment about education...hate to say it buddy, but there are very few functioning schools over there....most kids play in the gutters. Literacy has dropped dramatically, and in many of the regions that have voted in Sharia law, the girls are now denied education. the schools have been bombed both by us and the insurgents. Would like to know the origin of that dodgy information of yours. How can you say these things when you haven't seen it yourself? Stop using second hand knowledge.

Mr Kavanaugh, I said that was my final post, however many of the things you have said are unconscionable and un-American. Get over to Iraq yourself, and stop sitting around posting on discussion board information about a topic you know only from theory. You are an insult to the US military, and to humanity to use your political leanings in order to condone killing.

Don't you dare question my patriotism. I've fought for my country, and I'm proud to be an American. I want freedom for all, but I disagree with killing. I've seen past the politics since my time in Iraq. It's about blood and bone, not about economics and politics. We are literally replacing one dictatorship with another (don't think for a second that all democracies stay that way) . This is coming about due to the brutality we have shown in this country; these people hate us for what we have done and a secular system is the last thing they are thinking of here! All we are doing is allowing Sharia law to thrive (even some of the provinces have Sharia as their criminal code now). I think you need to understand the dynamics of the situation, and until people like you do, they will keep on dying, and so will we. Your arguments (mostly your final one) sounds paranoid and unsophisticated. When in doubt, just call somebody a Saddam-lover and anti democracy advocate! I am neither of those things (and you know it) and to call me that is to disrespect the three years I spent in that country. How dare you.

From a humorist viewpoint, you sound like the members of the Soviet Govt. who claimed they could bring about Communism in Afghanistan....just keep believing it comrade!

Wake up to yourself. How would you feel if something awful happened to a member of your family, and you were told to 'put it into a historical context?'. Yet, you are saying the deaths of 50,000 will be treated in such a nice way. You sound like such a nice person.....

It was Pilate who said 'what is truth?'. No offense, but you appear to be stuck within the parameters of your own realm. I will not be called 'pro-Saddam' merely because I despise the human cost of this bloody war and I wish to see beyond the set categories.

- Douglass

You really think liberated is right? Its not pal! Iraqi people didn't invited them so liberated is not correct!

• • I think uve spent 2 much time in the books Kavanaugh. This is sheer blooded murder not economics so much 4 humanity maybe u should start arguing professionaly rather than slinging insults - the sign of a poor debater**

A vote of confidence for the sane and measured position of Kavanagh, who ironically cites John Kerry as a source for his "right-wing" views. -- Matt

-Will tell the kids playing in the sewers and who have lost their parents that they are now free!

Kavanagh & Douglass, you both make reasonable points from differing perspectives but have veered a touch from the point. An invasion would be if a force went into an area with the intention of remaining there (as the Germans did in Poland 1939), however there have always been timescales discussed and admissions that the US will not be in Iraq indefinately thus this can only be an occupation. Liberation is a biased term and should not be used in a factually based article. RF80

Mr Douglass- I have also been to Iraq. While it is definately far from a good situation, I disagree with your assertations. My experiences over there (Aug 2005-Feb 2006, 3rd Bn 6th Marines) are a complete 180 from yours. What time frame and unit were you with?

Regarding the point that "An invasion would be if a force went into an area with the intention of remaining there," the definition of "invade" is "entering by force." It doesn't include the intent to remain. Regardless, the U.S. clearly does intend to remain, as it has built a dozen permanent military bases in the country and a fortress embassy the size of Vatican City in the capital. --Mr. Billion 16:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

dont worry, mr douglass is blocked. he can no longer come out with anti-american nonsense his msgs show how much he hates america

In response to the definition of invasion. The following is taken from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for the term invade. Invasion, invaders, etc all have similar definitions.

Main Entry: in·vade

Pronunciation: in-'vAd

Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): in·vad·ed; in·vad·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Latin invadere, from in- + vadere to go -- more at WADE

1 : to enter for conquest or plunder

2 : to encroach upon : INFRINGE

3 a : to spread over or into as if invading : PERMEATE <doubts invade mind>  : to affect injuriously and progressively <gangrene invades healthy tissue>

Now who out there thinks we "entered for conquest or plunder". The situation is bad out there, but if you think this, you have serious problems.

Given that many people believe that the whole endeavour was principally to gain secure access to Iraq's oil reserves, plunder may be appropriate. Definition 2. is manifestly true and Definition 3 "to affect injuriously and progressively are arguably true given that Iraq id moving from a united if oppressed secular country to one riven by open strife between religious and ethnic groups which may end up breaking along its ethnic and religious divides. 192.75.48.150 14:38, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Regardless, the invading forces clearly did conquer (defeat or subdue by force, especially by force of arms; gain or secure control of by or as if by force of arms) the defending forces and their territory, so it's specious to claim otherwise. Mr. Billion 20:00, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

The following quote is longer than any I've seen on Wikipedia as a casual browser:

Contrarily, in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on October 18, 2006, Steven E. Moore, of Gorton Moore International, wrote "What happens when you don't use enough cluster points in a survey? You get crazy results when compared to a known quantity, or a survey with more cluster points. There was a perfect example of this two years ago. The UNDP's survey, in April and May 2004, estimated between 18,000 and 29,000 Iraqi civilian deaths due to the war. This survey was conducted four months prior to another, earlier study by the Johns Hopkins team, which used 33 cluster points and estimated between 69,000 and 155,000 civilian deaths--four to five times as high as the UNDP survey, which used 66 times the cluster points." [14]

Wikipedia is not an editorial column. Can we please shorten that to an appropriate citation of the relevant information in that quote? As it stands, the length of that quote is pushing the POV of the WSJ. 66.220.237.102 19:31, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

NPOV

This dosen't have a neutral point of view, it's is very right wing and pro-bush.

Tell me about it, all you have to do is change the word 'liberation' to occupation (as it really is), and you're blocked for vandalism. I checked the guy who blocked me....he was from North Carolina (surprise, surprise)! Everything is from such a US relative perspective.

I'll start by saying that I am a conservative American living in the South, though I opposed the war when it started, and continue to do so. I think that the best word is occupied - it merely means that there are troops there. There are troops there. 'Liberation' is POV, in that it assumes that the current persons there are freeing the citizens, whether admins want to admit it or not, whereas 'invasion' has the opposite POV, in that it implies military conquest for its own sake. Occupied, and occupation, though, are merely the state of having troops in the country, which is true (though I'll admit that when I hear the word occupation, the first thing I think of is Bajor). --Milton 16:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it looks like propadanda. What can we do about it? Blocks abound here, but I suppose I'll try one method to combat writer's block: just share ideas that come to mind. I don't want to waste your time, and I do also want to mention that Saddam pardoned many and commuted many death sentences before the illegal and immoral invasion. This article even makes it sound like Iraq colluded with Al Quida, something that has never been proven and is a big lie which attacks rather than protects the truth because it sets poor examples about cheap victories for one. --John Wallace Rich 00:58, 3 January 2007 (GMT)

"Non-POV" doesn't mean it has to conform to how you view the world. It means that it does not suffer from anyone's world-view. What you may view as pro-war/pro-bush, may well be entirely fair and balanced. This is a highly contested topic, and the english language is not perfectly precise. As such we do the best we can. "Liberation" is not POV. The iraqi people were liberated. That is to say: given freedoms greater than those they previously enjoyed. I'm not going to presume anything about your political affiliation, but to say that freeing a people from a murderous tyrant is not Liberation is blatant POV. Of course people are going to be banned from editing if they start to enforce their views on the article, whether they grasp what they're doing or not.

From the Merriam Webster dictionary: Main Entry: lib·er·ate Pronunciation: 'li-b&-"rAt Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): -at·ed; -at·ing Etymology: Latin liberatus, past participle of liberare, from liber 1 : to set at liberty : FREE; specifically : to free (as a country) from domination by a foreign power 2 : to free from combination <liberate the gas by adding acid> 3 : to take or take over illegally or unjustly <material liberated from a nearby construction site -- Thorne Dreyer>

As per definition number one the Iraqi people have been liberated from the rule of Saddam Hussein and his Baath party. I don't think that the word should be used outside of this context, nor that such an addition to the article should preclude mention of the fact that the Iraqi people no longer enjoy the stability they once had. That's NPOV.

If we're looking for some real bias, the word "Invasion" clearly has pejorative connotations, and should ideally be removed in favour of something more precise. Occupation is fine, since it describes the act of occupying, which is neither disparging, nor carries negative connotations that may colour the article.

Improved location mapping for Iraq

I've adapted a graphic template devised by our Croatian friends to create what will hopefully be an improved method of providing locator maps for Iraqi places. It's no longer necessary to create a separate locator map for each location. Instead, all you need to do is to specify a set of coordinates for the location in question and add them to the following template:

{{location map|Iraq|label=<place>|position=<left/right>|width=<number of pixels>|lat=<latitude>|long=<longitude>|caption=<whatever, leave blank if you don't want one>|float=<left/right/none>}}

Al-Qa'im

Here's a practical example. Al-Qa'im is at coordinates 34.366944, 41.138889. We want a small 150px wide locator map without a caption, and with the placename right-aligned to avoid it sticking out of the side of the map. The map on the right is produced using this code:

{{location map|Iraq|label=Al-Qa'im|position=right|width=150|lat=34.366944|long=41.138889|caption=|float=right}}

See Template:Location map for more information and further instructions on syntax.

To obtain the coordinates for any given place, you will need to look it up on the NGA geonames database and look for the coordinates in the "Map Information" box. You'll then need to convert these values to digital coordinates, which you can do using the converter at http://www2.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~04329143d/Location.html . The template uses only digital coordinates. -- ChrisO 23:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Sanctions

I noticed that User:Kavanagh made an edit falsely claiming that abuse of the oil-for-food program had killed half a million children in the 1990s, which is not supported by the cite given. What the cited link said was that if Iraq's decline in child mortality in the '80s had continued to the late 90's, half a million deaths would have been prevented. The link says that the sanctions were the likely cause, not the program set up to alleviate the sanctions' consequences. The link makes no mention of the oil-for-food scandal.
The article now says that "Over four thousand firms were implicated in the UN Oil for Food Scandal for allegedly receiving bribes and payments from Iraq." This is also not supported by the cite given (it says 4 thousand were involved in the program, and 2 thousand were accused of abusing it), but more importantly the number of firms around the world that abused the program isn't relevant to an overview of Iraq. I'm changing the article to include information that fits in with the sentence preceding it. --Mr. Billion 23:40, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

NPOV Continued

This passage in modern history struck me as highly biased:

Taking advantage of perceived Iranian disorder in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, Iraq invaded Iran launching the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted from 1980 to 1988. During this long conventional war, Iraq attacked Iran with chemical weapons and deliberately killed many Iranian civilians with such weapons.

any thoughts?

raptor 14:33, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

The second sentence was produced by kavanagh, whose edits sometimes seem to be somewhat short of neutrality. The first sentence, I think, is more or less what actually happened, though it could stand to be reworded. --Mr. Billion 16:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, the article on the Iran-Iraq War does talk about 100,000 Iranian civilian deaths by WMD's. I think that almost has to be deliberate - look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the tone of the above excerpt is a little POV. --Milton 16:47, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

This page is so biased it's not funny....easily one of the worst Wikipedia pages. It's very right-wing, and pro-war.

What's up with this sentence here?

"Liberal, misinformed critics of these sanctions estimate that between 400,000 and 800,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the sanctions.[2] "

It's hardly NPOV. If these critics are indeed "misinformed" then the proper response would be to give some explanation about why these estimates are deemed to be inaccurate and cite a more accurate estimate.

Without that the sentence should be changed to read:

"Critics of these sanctions estimate that between 400,000 and 800,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the sanctions.[2] " —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.53.131.212 (talk • contribs) 08:33 30 October 2006 (UTC)

It was a piece of vandalism added to the article right before you logged on, and was immediately removed. -Patstuart^{(talk)(contribs)} 17:45, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Civilian Casualties

I included a link a website explaining how the 100,000 deaths was deduced [4]. It was from a poll. Iraqbodycount.com lists specific incidents and from that places the casualties around 40,000 or so. I think both these are worth mentioning, but that the article should mention both of them in their context. --Milton 00:42, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

The points made about the Lancet study have been raised by many commentators in the media, but (as pointed out in this [5] MediaLens article) were addressed by the authors; both in the standard review process and publicly after publication in an open question-and-answer session mediated by the BBC.

I'm unable to say from firsthand knowledge exactly how widely the methodology was 'denounced... within the statistical analysis community'; as a statistical bioinformatician, does that include me, for example? Because I know nothing whatsoever about warzone mortality surveys, nor, I suspect do the majority of statisticians.. So who exactly comprises the "statistical analysis community" mentioned? And who was asked? As for the Moore op-ed piece mentioned, the co-author (Roberts) convinces me in the above MediaLens investigation that Moore's objections are irrelevant.

I think we need a pro here! --Comrade jo 13:43, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

While parusing this section, I ran into this passage

This survey was conducted four months prior to another, earlier study by the Johns

Four months prior to an earlier study? Could someone sort out which came first?

As a further comment, the point/counterpoint of these studies seems a bit tangential to the base topic of Iraq. You might want to abbreviate it by stating the range of casualties that the studies represent, and then maybe linking to an archive that describes the evidence for and against. Robert Rapplean 17:43, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Arab Iraq

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't "Arab Iraq", "Arabian Iraq", and "Iraq Arabi" all the same thing? The current Name section makes it sound like "Iraq Arabi" was a distinct region different from "Arab Iraq". Kaldari 09:08, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Image of the Toppled Statue of Hussein

I seem to remember hearing on the news that U.S. troops were not involved in any way except as spectators in the toppling of Saddam's statue. I remember this only because someone made a point of the significance of it, as if to say that the American troops were not behaving as conquerors, but rather "allowing" the people of Iraq to remove the "symbols of their oppression," as Americans like to believe our army always functions. I also recall hearing by word-of-mouth that Al-Jazeera was supposedly appalled at American journalism for glorifying the toppling of the statue, when according to them much of the Arab world viewed the act as the work of a minority group of extremists from within Iraq. I could be wrong, but would the author of the caption which says, "American troops toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein," please cite their source, or could someone please clarify? It may seem like a small detail but I think that being clear about who exactly toppled the statue is important to understanding the significance of that picture's place in history. --Techgeist 04:11, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

The statue scene was largely staged as a photo-op. The huge crowd of Iraqis wasn't actually that huge, but most U.S. media avoided the larger context in favor the ratings-getting magic of the iconic moment. The Iraqis tried to pull the statue down themselves, but were unable. So the Americans looped a chain around the top and pulled it down with a truck. Here is a very good article on the subject. Here is a short BBC photo set of the event. A longer Boston Globe photoset. Sourcewatch article on the event with a small collection of links, some better than others. --Mr. Billion 06:30, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Excellent links. --Techgeist 13:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

They used an armoured recovery vehicle to pull down the statue. Dudtz 9/22/06 6:15 PM EST

Article Adminstrator, Help!

Chaldean again reverted my fully cited contributions: Revision as of 20:19, 18 July 2006, based on the allegation that it was "horrible" because I have citations next to the contributions and not in footnotes. The remedy for this "problem" would be to put the citations in footnotes. Deleting my contributions is vandalism in the guise of some sort of tidyness. This is not the first time. Please see talk page a couple of sections up. Then it was some other excuse. Please stop this!! What am I supposed to do with this guy? This is supposed to be a collaborative efforst. --NYCJosh 22:06, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Revision of history section

It seems there are some revisionists here who would prefer to avoid any mention of Iraq's use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war and are trying to cover it up. These war-crimes are historical fact and further attempts to cover it up will be fixed. Anyone care to explain the attempted cover-up? Tashtastic 12:48, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy. --Mr. Billion 23:07, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

OH and the fact that theese weapons WERE GIVEN TO THE IRAQI FROM THE US. THE US GAVE IRAQ ALL THEIR WEAPONS. IRAQ = WEAPONS FROM THE US. MURDER = US. (bet the nazi moderators wont like this one either)

I noticed it too. Why are some people trying to delete any mention of Iraq's chemical weapons attacks on Iran? Because America sold many of those weapons to Iraq. Too embarrassing for the Americans on wikipedia? Dreddmoto 16:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Modern History

I'm not sure about the accuracy of the following included sentence: "Iraq was invaded in March 2003 by the United States and allies in response to an eventually discredited threat of nuclear weapon development by Hussein and established a Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq." I searched through the various sources for that paragraph and didn't find anything related to the official reason for the invasion, further I believe the conclusion regarding Hussein's weapons programs are still inconclusive. I don't know how to fix it, any ideas? GromXXVII 00:27, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Independence

The article claims that Iraq won independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1919, but wasn't it owned by Britain from 1919 to 1932? (British Mandate of Iraq)--Fox Mccloud 15:25, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Just some news on Iraq

British troops are mobilizing on the Iranian border http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060830&articleId=3097

Deterring Iran

The main article states "Recent (2006) conservative commentators have indicated that the actual reason for invasion was to create a democracy in Iraq for the sole purpose of deterring Iran."

I think it should be stated what Iran is being deterred from.

--Nat 14:48, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism of article

There's some text in there of "ẽf ФДŅÐÃḌθ". I'd try to remove it myself, but I'd want to remove any other vandalism done in the same edit. The vandalism is at least 100 edits old.

Should the article be semi-protected so that vandalism doesn't chew up the edit history? Andjam 10:29, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

There was a huge string (229 kilobutes) of the same repeating digits under NAME. I deleted all the numbers, so someone will have to reenter the information that was originally there before the numbers were placed there.

You can revert to a previous version using the History tab rather than deleting a vandalised article. This is why vandalism is more of a time-wasting nuisance than a disaster. You should also sign your comments here by typing ~~~~ after your entry. Dabbler 14:32, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Occupation of Iraq

In regard to the reasons for invading Iraq.

Article said "Iraq was invaded in March 2003 by the United States and allies with the stated reasons that Iraq had not abandoned its nuclear and chemical weapons development program according to United Nations resolutions, that it had links to Al Qaeda, and that it had known, effective Weapons of Mass Destruction. Later, it was indicated that the reason was to remove an oppressive dictator from power, and, even later, that the goal was to bring democracy to the middle east."

I corrected this, stating "Blatantly incorrect information. Bush's 2003 state of the union address clearly mentioned all these things PRIOR to the war. The article claimed that these things weren't mentioned until afterwards."

User "Dabbler" said "I read 2003 State of the Union address (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html) and it does NOT mention all these things." and reverted my change. Dabbler is wrong.

Here is a quote from the January 2003 speech: "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages -- leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained -- by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country -- your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation."

He is very clearly saying that Saddam is a cruel and oppressive dictator, and the liberation of Iraq will be better for their people. The liberation was Saddam being removed, and a new (elected) government replacing it.

Thus, it cannot be said that "Later, it was indicated that the reason was to remove an oppressive dictator from power, and, even later, that the goal was to bring democracy to the middle east."

Excuse me but you are hearing what you want to hear from President Bush's state of the union speech. YOu fail to recognize the fct that the President and his administration were asked by the media numerous times why they were invading Iraq or going to war to Iraq. There answers were in the sequence that you argue as wrong. Also you fail to acknowledge the official reason the U.S. government gave the U.N. and the internatiaonal community for entering Iraq. All these things override your assertions based on one speech. 69.196.164.190

The point of this is clearly stated by the original poster of this topic that the president said before the invasion of Iraq. This is a valuable addition as it is currently false and politically motivated. We are not putting words into the president's mouth by doing this. Simply putting on the record what he had said from the beggining regardless whether he had clearly stated each individual reason. This simply proves that the current 'later'and 'even later' inside of the current article to be false. Arcade123 19:42, 1 December 2006 (UTC) Arcade123

vandalism

as of 207.29.128.130 18:23, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

GA failed

1. Well written?: Fail

2. Factually accurate?: Fail

3. Broad in coverage?: Pass

4. Neutral point of view?: O. K.

5. Article stability? Pass

6. Images?: Fail

Additional comments :

• The article fails to give a lead section in accordance with the WP:LEAD guideline.
• Can there be a citation for the section on the name.
• Image:Saddamstatue.jpg isn't tagged; Image:Iraq 50 dinars Rewers.JPG doesn't have a valid tag.
• Please remove some weasel words and words that pertain to our present time such as recent, actual, etc.

This article may be broad in coverage but it lacks in many criteria asked by the GA process. Please read carefully the guidelines at WP:WIAGA and submit it again once they are met. Lincher 17:44, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Some related articles of interest for anyone doing investigative research on Iraq and the region

All the things the mainstream media does not tell you http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=newsHighlights&newsId=1

Lebanon and the Iraq-Iran connection http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

War with Iran? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=N20060921&articleId=3299

ALmost certain signs of war again the Middle East and renewed fighting in Iraq

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAZ20061001&articleId=3361

Stop calling it the Persian GULF!

It's the Sumerian Gulf!

No Its the persian gulf so live with it ARAB camel jockey!!!!

Nah it was called with other name for a long time before persia even existed by the mesopotamians. Plus it's not called persian worldwide, in turkia for example it's called Basra Gulf, in Arab countries Arabian Gulf, other countries prefer to just name it The Gulf.. so who know what the name will settle at my dear ? -dan

Officially, it's still known as the Persian Gulf. Despite recent Arab and lazy American attempts to re-name it. Tashtastic 17:28, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Occupation by Coalition Forces and Civilian Deaths

This section, which was only veyr short recently, is getting too long. It has its own article. Do you all think it should be trimmed down? -Patstuart^{(talk)(contribs)} 01:12, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Point taken, but I have a fear somebody is going to dilute the significance of the Lancet study (a right-winger, possibly?) I think all people who read about civilian casualties should understand the significance and viability of the Lancet study.

sorry, but currently the article contains far too much justification for the johns hopkins/lancet estimates, which diverge significantly from all other previous estimates. i'm going to trim it, and provide countering justification for previous estimates by respectable organizations (assuming we are agreed that the UN is respectable?). Anastrophe 17:01, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

official languages

The Official languages are Arabic and Kurdish. all is national level...(Constitution 2005)

That's understood but there are exceptions. Read the referrences. Why must people ignore details. Say you want Aramaic and Turkoman removed. Don't try to be coy about it and proclaim that only Arabic and Kurdish are official. Is it because Assyrians are Christian or that Turkomans don't see themselves as Arabs or Kurds?סרגון יוחנא

Iraqi Turkmen now use standard turkish (of Turkey) for official bussiness. Ybgursey 20:36, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Monotheism

I think it's a good idea to include information about the religious history of Iraq..it is the country Judeism and all monotheism was founded. (By Abraham, a Kurdish villager who later moved to Ur.) --Waldo J. Cartridge 08:00, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Abraham was not a Kurd. Don't try to "Kurdify" Abraham. Kurd wasn't even an ethnic group at the time of Abraham. Ethnic groups did not exist as we know them today. This whole "ethnic/racial" mess is a political tool to divide and conquer. Iraq is different than America Mr. Cartridge. Villages are still city-state like where everyone from a different village is almost seen as a different "race" so don't try to apply American or European characteristics of racial/ethnic division to Iraq. This Evil attribute has sparked all the recent conflict in the middle east. Why not a one-state solution to Israel/Palestine and just call it the holy land with the land divided into Jewish/Muslim/Christian counties where the goal of ultimate assimiliation into one society is put in place? Why must we divide? You can teach more than one language in school you know and still have religious freedom but with a semi-secular government that recongnizes each groups holidays.סרגון יוחנא

Abraham was of Semetic origin, whereas Kurds are of Aryan origin. But it is an interesting idea! However, Saladin was Kurdish and was born in Tikrit the same town Saddam was born. So it should be part of Kurdistan, its current residence would be so happy for that to happen!! Haideral 23:18, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Oil in Iraq

I propose that the following sentences be added to the Geography section:

While its proven oil reserves of 112 billion barrels ranks Iraq second in the work behind Saudi Arabia, EIA estimates that up to 90 percent of the county remains unexplored. Unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels. Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world. However, only about 2,000 wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared to about 1 million wells in Texas alone.

The reference is [6] (public domain)

Sincerely, Novickas 00:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Markets and bartering

Describing Iraq's economy as "Markets and bartering are the common form of trade" (Culture section) seems inappropriate. This is very probably true in remote rural areas and to a certain extent during wartime, but is in either case close to impossible to document. It's more likely that currency is used, but if it can't be documented either way, the sentence should be taken out. Comments anyone? Novickas 18:55, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

King Faisal information conflict

This article lists Faisal's death as having occurred in 1932; the separate article dedicated to Faisal I lists it as 1933.

Ethnic Cleansing and forced population migration

Massive ethnic cleansing is taking place in Iraq at all levels. Kurds are driving out non-Kurd populations and repressing their political roles rom the Assyrians, Turkomans, Yezidis, and Arabs to even their own Kurds that don't belong to their political parties. Arabs are killing each other (Sunna vs Shi'a). Non-Iraqi Islamists are destroying the country killing anyone indiscriminantly. Americans are bombming their enemies in turn also causing damage. Iran and Syria are no doubt causing all sorts of havoc. Turkey wants to invade the North. Jesus Christ, Mahdi, Buddha where are you? It's a shame the Communists didn't overthrow the government before Saddam.סרגון יוחנא 21:48, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Iraq: from the Center of the Civilized World to the Center of the Uncivilized World

What a 360. Hamurabi forgive us. We've defiled your code.סרגון יוחנא 21:50, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree completely with your sentiment, but did you mean "What a 180"?. A 360 is a full circle (360 degrees in a circle) - it takes you right back to where you started. A 180, or half circle, takes you to the opposite side from where you started, as your headline says.

Nevertheless, well put. I've often expressed the fear that civilization will end where it started.: -- Unimaginative Username 19:31, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

TfD nomination of Template:Kurds

Template:Kurds has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. Khorshid 13:40, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Sunni/Shia proportions in demographics section are wrong

see others previous comments on this

---

yes, you're right. they are completely wrong. most estimates say Sunnis are about 20%, Shiites 60%, and Kurds 20%.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20051222-1320-iraq.html

CelestialDog 20:45, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Kurds are mostly Sunnis as well. Chaldean 04:10, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, there is a blatant inconsitency within the "Demographics" section. In one paragraph, the Sunni/Shiite ratio is 55/33% and later, in the bulleted list, it is 40/60%.

As is mentioned in the article there are no official figures. But all the existing estimates (CIA, BBC, etc.) all agree that Shia is ~60% and Sunni ~40%. The closet proof for that is that in the election the Shia cooalition parties got approx. 51% of the vote, so there is at least 51% Shia in the population. Haideral 21:16, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

---

Not all existing estimates say that. If you use wikipedia population statistics and others on the population of the 10 southern Shia provinces, (see this map: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/middle_east/iraq/map2/map_flash.html), and count 3.5 million Shia in/around Baghdad (also disputed), you get a figure of around 12-13 million people, who we will assume are all 100% Shia in these provinces for the sake of argument, although those areas bordering Kuwait & Saudi are mixed populations. This leaves Sunni-Arabs as less than Shia, but if you include Kurd & Turkomen as Sunnis, then the figures actually reflect that there are an equal number Sunnis. Count the numbers in the Sunni provinces, even using wikipedia and you will get a figure of around .

Sunnis have hotly disputed the fact that they are a minority in Iraq, and not always for wrong reasons. Many reports only count the Shia/Sunni divide based on Arabs alone, actually Sunni has become a euphomism for Arab Sunni, counting Kurds as a seperate group, or not even mentioning them. Check for yourselves, look at the PBS map, then check the populations of those areas. Also it is worth adding up the populations of all the Kurdish and Sunni Arab provinces, you get a population of about 13 million too.

And have a read of the evidences in these articles: [7] and http://www.counterpunch.org/ziada12272006.html http://cytations.blogspot.com/2006/03/iraq-2003-census-sunnis-59-shiites-40.html http://www.antiwar.com/letters/?articleid=5797

The last census (2003) which the UN approved (including the US Ambassador on the 661 Embargo Committee) for the distribution of the food coupons during the embargo clearly shows the Shiites are barely 40% in Iraq (the Sunnis, who are close to 60%, are divided up along ethnic lines: Sunni Arabs 40%, Sunni Kurds 15%, and Sunni Turkomans 4%). www.faair.org

Aaliyah Stevens 16:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC) 16:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Reasons for ethnic tentions?

I know that this may be a hot-button topic, but I'm attempting to research the reasons behind the current issues in Iraq, and was hoping that this article would be helpful. Something that this article is missing is an explaination of the racial tensions in Iraq. Why do the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis feel a need to kill each other? Is this standard hate of anyone different, are they fighting over territory, have they just been doing this for so long that the reasons are lost, or is it something else? Robert Rapplean 17:53, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

The simple answer is that it is all to do with politics and religion is just used to prop-up the politics. This tradition can be traced back all the way to the begninings of Islam. There the main reason for the split between Shias and Sunnis was the kurds.

Then came Saddam Hussain who exploted this to the maximum extent. He made sure that all the people at the top were either related to him or from his town Tikrit. Furthermore, he promoted sactarianism by favoring Sunnis in senior government jobs, etc. He also allowed Wahabi preachers to come and work in Iraq from Saudia Arabia. Wahabis are an extrimist movement of the Hanbali school of Sunnis. They are the only school who have officially pronounced Shias as infidels and it is totally legal to kill them, in fact its is the Wahabi's duty to kill Shias (that is their belief.) These extremist Wahabis formed Al Qaida in the 1980's with the help of the CIA to help the Afghanis fight the Russians in Afghanistan.

What Saddam did was very smart, he turned the Baath party from being a secular party that was formed by Michel Aflaq a Christian Syrian to a party that defends Iraq and its true (Sunni) Arab identity agains the Infidel Shias (who are also called Iranians). This newly formed force (since 2003) is now called Saddamists and it has allied itself with Al Qaida.

I hope this make a little bit of sence!

Haideral 23:57, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

That is some great and essential background info. Is it in any wikipedia articles? --Timeshifter 05:37, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the history lesson, Haideral. This sheds a lot of light on the current situation. Robert Rapplean 23:32, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

This is slightly off topic, but I think that it bears mentioning. Has anyone drawn a parallel between this situation and the conditions which resulted in the Rwandan Genocide? Since there's a lot of talk going on right now about the "proper path for the US", I think that this is something that should be called to attention. Robert Rapplean 19:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Reasons for ethnic tensions are...

Most of what Haideral has said is true, but not all. Kurds are Sunni, there is no conflict between Sunnis and Kurds, that would be a contradiction. The country has 2 main ethnic groups, Arabs and Kurds, nothing to do with religion. Now the ethnic arabs are divided into 2 religious groups: Sunni and Shia, whereas the Kurds are mainly Sunni. Wahabis do not believe in killing Shia, they simply believe they are deviated Muslims, similar to Protestant views of Catholics. Saddam was an athiest, until it suited him, he believd in Ba'athism, which is effectively communism, with nationalism.

The 2 main reasons for tensions are:

1) Takfiri insurgent groups (possibly backed by Saudi Arabia due to the wahabi link) fighting the occupation, trying to prevent Iranian dominance of Iraqi politics, and blaming certain Shias of being collaborators with the enemy occupiers, hence targetting them (we see this everyday in the news with suicide bombings against Shia)

2) Ironically and more significantly, the cause of Sunni frustration is rooted in the US backed government containing (Iranian backed) Shia "Death squads", wiping Sunni's out physically, or through intimidation, making all the Sunni intelligensia leave their posts, and neighbourhoods. Remember although Shia are 60%, and Sunni 40%, the educated elites were mainly Sunni, Shia were from the poorer south, the death squads have targetted educated Sunni's, to replace the posts they hold with Shias. See the following ground breaking report by Deborah Davies: "Over the last eighteen months these commandos - who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims - have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians": http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=301 and: http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000477.php

It must also be noted in this article that Shia obey their Imams or Ayatullahs, and are obliged to obey them, so they block vote in unison based on this, unlike sunnis who don't belive in the Imam system of the Shia, so freely vote based on political preference, so their vote is split. Sunni's feel this Shia concept of Imams and Ayatullahs has subverted democracy. User:Aaliyah_Stevens 13:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Doctors are reportedly fleeing Iraq

Wed Nov 22, 12:27 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iraq's top doctors are under threat and are fleeing the country, leaving hospitals in the hands of medical students or junior physicians, an Iraqi lawmaker said Wednesday.

Doctors have been kidnapped and killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Dr. Rajaa al-Khuzai, an obstetrician who is an elected member of the Iraqi National Council.

"They have been targeted since the fall of the regime," she told The Associated Press during a visit to Austria. "Some of them have been kidnapped and found dead in the streets, some have been released after paying a ransom."

She also told reporters earlier Wednesday that Iraqi hospitals face a shortage of medicines and are in dire need of new equipment.

"We were promised, or we believed, that we would have many new hospitals being built, and many health centers ... but none of this has been done," she said. "No hospitals have been built so far; only some of the hospitals have been serviced."

"So if you want to see a good ophthalmologist in Baghdad, you'll never find one. If you want a good gynecologist ... you'll never find one," she said. "The health services are very bad."

Al-Khuzai also estimated that cancer cases have increased fivefold since the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, and said there is a shortage of medicines to treat patients.

"We believe that allied forces at that time used depleted uranium because most of these cancer cases (are) found in the southern part of Iraq, which was close to Kuwait," she said....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_s_doctors

75.18.207.177 09:04, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

It has been reported by Channel 4 that Shia "Death squads", are wiping Sunni's out physically, or through intimidation, making all the Sunni intelligensia leave their posts, and neighbourhoods. Remember although Shia are 60%, and Sunni 40%, the educated elites were mainly Sunni, Shia were from the poorer south, the death squads have targetted educated Sunni's, to replace the posts they hold with Shias. See the following ground breaking report by Deborah Davies: "Over the last eighteen months these commandos - who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims - have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians": http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=301 and: http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000477.php User:Aaliyah_Stevens 13:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Isn't Iraq in civil war?

According to the definition of civil war in Wikipedia, I think it's pretty clear that the country it's not on the verge of civil war, but right in the middle of one. Yet the arcticle doesn't mention it as such. An impartial, unbiased article should define it that way.

[Deleted Nonsense]

Yes as an Iraqi-Assyrian living in America, it has clearly been at civil war for some time now. "Insurgency" and "Sectarian Violence" are media "cover-ups" to make light of the situation so as to comply with someone's political agenda. I would like to see something completely unexpected be the outcome of this bloodbath. Perhaps we will see the emergence of the Iraqi Soviet Socialist Republic with the rebirth of the Soviet Union with Babylon as the capital... Though it's completely unlikely that would change the world.סרגון יוחנא 18:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

If we're going to mention it, I have two things to say: first, we need to be careful to not include everything about the Iraq war in the Iraq article. Already, material has been creeping in that should have gone in Iraq War. Second, if we mention, we should mention it artfully, as it's a very polemic matter, and might violate WP:NPOV. A few sentences of description might do the work (we don't want to drone on, but we want to be precise). Patstuart^{(talk)(contribs)} 02:19, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Might be worth reading this: Iraq: not civil war, occupation: Sami Ramadani was a political refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime. He is a senior lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University: http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-iraq/worse_4161.jsp User:Aaliyah_Stevens 13:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

It also might be worth reading this: [8] and this on government death squads killing more people than insurgent bombs: [9] Aaliyah Stevens 12:52, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Loss of life... section

This section is far too long for a general article on Iraq. Spending 6 paragraphs debating the methodology of a single report on the casualties of a single war in a country with a 6000 year history is inappropriate. The Lancet report demands 2 sentences at most. The ins and outs of the debate should be sent to Lancet_surveys_of_mortality_before_and_after_the_2003_invasion_of_Iraq. I'm going to wait for some feedback before making a change. Ashmoo 03:27, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Agreed 1000%. I've been saying for a while that we need to check the tendency for information on this war to creep into the article. Move it into Iraq War. Patstuart^{(talk)(contribs)} 03:48, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

All that info, and the reference links, are both already in the pages for the various studies, counts, and estimates. So there is no need to worry about deleting any of it. I suggest linking to Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 using this wiki code: {{main|Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003}}. I suggest also possibly using this template, too: Template:Summary of casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It covers the main estimates, links to the wiki pages for them, and is regularly updated. The wiki code to insert it is: {{Summary of casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq}} - --Timeshifter 05:33, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks for your input. I ended up including it as an inline link, as I think the dispute is not even notable enough for a 'see this article' style link. Ashmoo 02:10, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I think this problem is indicitive of a general problem in the History section, which is to focus too heavily on the history of Iraq as it relates to the US. This includes references to US newspaper columnists opinions on various situations, the US's involvement in previous Iraq wars (however minimal) etc. I'm going to go through and make the article about Iraq itself. Ashmoo 02:10, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Suggested External Link

Please consider a link to the following page...

• Constitution for Iraq by Paul Niquette

...for a proposed constitution for Iraq.Paul Niquette 21:11, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Please excuse me (a new wikipedian) for putting this request in the wrong place. I shall appreciate guidance for putting it in the right place. Paul Niquette 21:00, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Iraqi diaspora

Iraqi diaspora is up for deletion. Does anyone have any comments? --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 04:35, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Western Asia at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Western Asia whose scope would include Iraq. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:47, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Could someone add this source

Hey, the article says that Foreign Policy Magazine ranked Iraq as the 4th most unstable country in the world. Here's a link to the rankings: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3420&page=1

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.132.11.78 (talk • contribs)

economic facts

economic facts about per capita gdp and gdp are wrong according to cia world fact. per capita should be 1,800 and gdp 94.1 bill. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html

Question

What was the GDP of each province of Iraq in 1980? thanks