Meanwhile Back in Iraq….
U.S. Casualties in Iraq this month
The State Department has offered the Blackwater security guards involved in the September 16th shooting immunity. I don’t think this will do anything but strain relationships with Iraq. But hey, Bush loves immunity. Iraq doesn’t. Iraq’s cabinet approved a law on Tuesday to remove private security firms’ immunity from prosecution in Iraq.
Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen released another report today. The Mosul Dam project, a $27 million U.S.-led effort to prevent catastrophic flooding by reinforcing Iraq’s largest dam has been mismanaged. Worse case scenario, the dam’s failure could send a 65′ flood wave into Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city.
Iraq’s Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said in an interview published Tuesday that he would not take orders from Turkey to crack down on Turkish Kurd rebels based in his autonomous region. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will ask President George W. Bush to take immediate and “concrete steps” against Kurdish militants sheltering in northern Iraq. He states the PKK must be treated like any other terrorist organization.
John Ware has a two part report at the BBC regarding the totally inadequate (how about total lack of) post-war recovery planning on the part of the U.S. and Britain.
U.S. troops in Iraq, facing the stress of multiple, extended combat tours, are increasingly willing to seek mental health counseling while they’re in the field, according to military medical experts.
Security developments 10/30/07
