You were asking what's going on in Iraq lately. I PMed an Iraqi friend of mine on Facebook and she didn't answer me. I kind of think she might be mad at me for something but she hasn't unfriended me – and she has unfriended a number of people for objectionable things they've said.

note: "Daesh" is what Arabs call ISIS. I don't think it's a complimentary term.

Anyway I used Google Translate to see if I could find anything and I found this: [alaraby.co.uk]عاما-على-غزو-العراق-عداد-ضحايا-لا-يتوقف

Invasion of Iraq: Count of victims does not stop

Othman Al-Mukhtar
April 2019

The sixteenth anniversary of the American-British invasion this year is no different from the previous years for the Iraqis in terms of the continued increase in the number of victims and the aggravation of the social and economic crises in exchange for political changes to miss the term of liberation used by political forces for years. A major Iranian move in the Iraqi arena, accompanied by a movement to get the Americans out of the country. Perhaps the most striking picture of the Iraqi exchanges is that on the day of the collapse of the walls of the capital, Baghdad, on April 9, 2003, this year has become a soldier in the Iraqi army, or armed in one of the factions that dominate a large part of the political and security scene in the country, or Even a fighter in the organization Dahesh. The Iraqi Ministry of Defense, which launched a major renovation and development of its combat units, opened last week the door of volunteering for those born in 2001 who were breastfed on the day of the US occupation of the country.

As in general, the number of victims continues to rise at various levels. In countries like Iraq, the term victims does not mean only those killed or injured. Violence, illiteracy, drug abuse, poverty, unemployment and organized crime continue to escalate amid almost complete paralysis in the industrial and agricultural sectors , And a declared failure in the sectors of health, education and services, such as electricity and water, in a way that led to the outbreak of protests in the south of the country. In addition to the continued prevalence of the power of the factions, the alarming rise in cancer rates among the population of the south, especially Basra and Falluja in the west, is emerging as one of the new challenges faced by Iraqis. This is paralleled by unprecedented calls by the Chaldean Church for Iraqi Christians to stop their mass emigration from Iraq and criticism of European countries offering temptations to emigrate.

In the midst of an unprecedented political conflict between yesterday's allies and Iranian arrogance that has become more evident than ever before in the package of agreements signed by Baghdad last month with Tehran, this year's anniversary marks the movement of political and armed forces to drive Americans out of a law that four forces are writing, Three have entered the protection of Americans to Iraq on this day in 2003, the Dawa Party, the Badr Organization and the Islamic Supreme Council, in return for Washington's efforts to abort this movement through papers that do not seem very much or very effective.

The prospect of change comes from the street, with the sharp decline in sectarian rhetoric, the decline in Marguer's popularity, and the broadening of co-existence in Baghdad in particular, a picture that seemed clearer this year than any other year, amid calls for a civil state, To use it as a logo in the recent elections, and appeared to be tyrannical speech on most of the spectrum of Iraq. In addition, the culture of demonstrations and the efforts to rebuild destroyed cities, albeit much less than they are supposed to be, especially with the country's huge budget of more than $ 100 billion. Another bright spot in Iraq this year is a clear and significant decline in the pace of terrorist operations by about 70 per cent over last year, according to Iraqi officials, who said it was a promising sign for Iraqis.

New figures for victims

As in the last five years, Baghdad and other Iraqi cities seemed unimpressed by the anniversary. The announcement by a number of politicians on April 9 of each year was a national day, not responding to the street, especially as Bazar escalated against the US presence in Iraq above, However, thousands of Iraqi citizens, especially residents of Baghdad, commemorate the visit to the graves this day. At dawn today, Baghdad received the last air strikes, before the collapse of the last Iraqi combat units, at Baghdad airport and Alrawawanip station and Dora, presidential palaces, Al-Shaab Square, Abu Ghraib Complex, Al-Ataifiya Water Complex, Salhiya Complex, Uruzdi Al-Adl, Abu Hanifa Mosque Square and Al-Oyam Street in Kadhimiya and other areas. The shelling resulted in the deaths of a large number of Iraqi Army personnel and civilians alike.

For the tenth year in a row, the Iraqi authorities prohibit the Ministries of Health, Defense and Interior to declare the number of victims of the US invasion of Iraq, but it came to the Ministry of Municipalities, which hid the numbers of new cemeteries in different Iraqi cities. While the numbers of Iraqis displaced abroad and at home vary, which eventually opens the door to speculation and the release of estimates, usually governed by emotions or political agendas about this invasion. However, a senior official in the Iraqi Ministry of Health in Baghdad, telling the "new Arab" on condition of anonymity, the number of deaths since the US invasion in 2003 until the beginning of this year, exceeded the threshold of 650 thousand Iraqis, topped Baghdad, Ninewa, Anbar, Diyala and Basra, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Najaf and Babil, the list of the most bleak cities in the country since the invasion, and 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2016 and 2017 were the deadliest. "There is no specific body that can claim that its figures are accurate, and the discrepancy is sometimes between a census and another. At the old Defense Ministry headquarters in Bab al-Mu'amaz, in central Baghdad, there are records for two or three years. There are records Between 2006 and 2011 at the Ministry of the Interior, and other records for more years at the Department of Statistics in the Ministry of Health and there are miscellaneous departments of health in the provinces, all not listed on one electronic system and are archived through records. The Ministry of Planning had earlier confirmed the existence of one million and 357 thousand Iraqi disabled registered with the majority of young men, and that women constitute 43% of them.

On the level of the missing, the number is still rising. The recent war on the organization of Da'ash added some 23,000 missing Iraqis to the former registrants of about 60,000 missing, who are still unknown, amid demands to create a department for the affairs of the missing, Which was developed by the Iraqi governments, such as the Martyrs and the Injuries Foundation, the Widows and Orphans Service, and the Higher Committee for the Displaced and Displaced. The Ministry of Immigration complains of the lack of cooperation of Iraqi embassies abroad and the inability to know the real number of Iraqis displaced abroad since the invasion, which number between 4 million and 5 million Iraqis, distributed in several countries in the world, led by Arabs Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria, Turkey and the European Union. While the number of internally displaced persons in Iraq has declined to about 1 million and 900,000 displaced persons living in various areas of the country in camps and displacement camps, of which 800,000 are opposed to armed factions returning to their cities in Jurf al-Sakhr, Karagul, Yathrib, Chinese, Beiji, Awaisat, Aamerli and other areas.

The United Nations estimates that the number of widows exceeds 2 million orphans, which is equivalent to about one-third of the world's registered orphans. Most of whom suffer from physical destitution and lack of government attention. According to the former head of the committee, there are two million widows in Iraq, 14 years old. In another context, reports from the Ministry of Planning indicate that the illiteracy rate in the country continues to rise by 23 per cent. The villages, rural areas and remote cities of Iraq are at the forefront, the majority of them female, while unemployment rates in Iraqi cities vary between 18 and 25 per cent, Poverty has reached its peak in the cities liberated from the control of "Dahesh", the north and west of the country, as parliamentarians revealed their rise to more than 35 per cent, as in the case of Mosul, Fallujah, Hit and wet and Tal Afar.

With regard to the spread of drugs, where the Iraqi authorities finally have to develop a special force to pursue networks of smuggling and promotion of drugs, estimates about the rate of abuse vary from one official to another, but the Iraqi Human Rights Commission described the phenomenon rampant in Iraq. While suicide rates reached its peak. According to official reports issued by the Human Rights Commission itself, Iraq recorded 439 cases during the past year, most of them young, distributed in 119 in Dhi Qar, 76 in Diyala, 68 in Nineveh, 44 in Baghdad, 33 in Basra, 16 in Muthanna and 15 In Maysan and 12 in Wasit.

A new spiral of violence

Bilal is now known as Sheikh Bilal al-Afri, a prominent figure in the Daqash organization and a dangerous target for Iraqi forces. His mother, who lives in the al-Jadah camp near Mosul, says he will be 18 years old in early December and has not seen him since. Three years, and the last thing I knew about him was "fighting in the monastery" (Deir al-Zour) and do not know now where to solve it. Umm Bilal, whose husband died a few months ago and was buried near the camp by a charity, says, "We would be at home now, not in a tent, and the rain and cold would tear it away." She avoided any other talk about her son.

In contrast, Hussein al-Mawla belongs to an armed Turkoman faction known as the Turkmans' crowd. He says to the new Arab that he remembers Bilal because they were in elementary school themselves, but if he now saw him kill him because he was a terrorist. Despite the return of Hussein and his family to their home on the same street in which he was born, Bilal's family and others are no longer "duping families," a term used by Iraqi forces to punish thousands of families in which they have been involved. International organizations say it is inhuman punishment and is not based on the Iraqi law or constitution, because it punishes individuals with the offense of others. About 100,000 Iraqis remain stranded in the desert and are prevented from returning under this pretext.

The hopes of change on the street

The term liberation, which was used until close to years by blocs, parties and political forces Kurdish and Shiite Arab close to Iran, became after 16 years, on the same powers, the anniversary of the overthrow of the regime or change or the words of the events of 2003, while avoiding the words of liberalization, Every year on such a day. On the other hand, other political forces consider that talking about any positives after 2003 is like looking for a clean place in a burned room. Obeidi, an Arab national who was sentenced to death in the 1980s, told the "New Arab" that "the situation in Iraq bodes well after 16 years and should not be negative." "It is true that destruction everywhere and the smell of death is still hovering over the country. The decision is made by sources from Iran and the United States , but we rely on the street first and foremost. There is an excellent state of awareness for the last time I went to Iraq, which is what the ruling parties fear today." "With the exception of the street and the state of awareness, there is nothing to praise," he continued.

For his part, explains the Sunni leader, MP Hamed al-Mutlaq, "The words of the occupation summarizes all that can be said about the situation of Iraq, from the rupture and fragmentation and external interference and the collapse of industry, agriculture, education and health and the prevalence of negative cases and illiteracy, unemployment and poverty, all added to the loss of children Iraq in this invasion." "Iraq has been devastated for 16 years, and we can only say that the consequences of the occupation are catastrophic and painful."

Despite the escalation of assassinations and the pursuit of activists opposed to the authority of religious parties in Iraq, especially members of the civil current, but the Iraqi intellectual and political Ghaleb Shah Bandar, considers that "the Iraqi people today enjoys almost complete freedom is not enjoyed by any other Arab citizen, To insult any official and to read anything without a censor or account, and this is a good result." In an interview with the "New Arab", the disasters that hit the Iraqis after the occupation to "the immaturity of the political forces that took power after 2003, which did not take advantage of the opportunity that was available to them." "If Iraq is to suffer from Arab and Islamic national security, too," he said, "Iran should not imagine that its occupation of Iraq in this way will be in its long-term interest, And not Saudi Arabia when boycotted Iraq and caused him some security problems, and I think that Saudi Arabia has taken to understand the equation of Iraq, but Iran has not returned to its senses so far in this regard.

Project Expulsion of Americans

Meanwhile, the political center, and parliamentarians in particular, are waiting to present a draft law on the removal of foreign forces from Iraq, which is being written by several political forces, most notably the Fatah, the State of Law and the Sadrists. According to members of the alliance "Al-Fath", the most modern political formation in Iraq and was founded mid-last year of an alliance of armed factions linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard formed political wings and led by the leader of the "Badr Organization," Hadi Amiri, the draft law completed about 80 percent, These items could leak out before they are submitted to Parliament, in a move that might be intended to capture the pulse of other political forces or even the American side. Falah al-Taei, a member of the alliance, said in a telephone conversation with the new Arab that "the issue of project completion is very close to the goal of getting the Americans out." He said.