Moslawi News
During the last week, there was instruction in Nineveh TV to the Taxi drivers.
This instructions include:
1-For every taxicab working inside the town, the driver MUST remove the cover of the rear luggage box. That means the cover should be removed completely, and the cars move in the streets without rear covers.
2-For every taxicab working outside the town, at the external and highway roads, the drivers should open the rear luggage box when he reach the check point near the city, and keep it open as long as his car is inside the town. He can shut the rear luggage box only when he leave the town at the check point out side the city.
These instructions were only to the Governorate of Nineveh and the city of Mosul, in order to make searching the cars (specially the taxicab) more easily.
Today in the TV, there was American patrol in the Downtown, stopping the taxicabs which doesn't remove the rear luggage box, and make them remove that rear luggage box in front of the TV camera.
Yesterday the Governor deputy of Mosul announce that they are going to dig a trench around the city of Mosul leaving 9 openning or Gates seriously guarded to prevent the entry of bombed cars and the terrorist to the city. The trench will be ready in a couple of weeks.
posted by Truth teller at 10:57 AM
22 Comments:
Hmmm... I'm not going to touch Styrkerdad's comment, it looks radioactive :)
Those measures all look like good ideas to me, Truthteller. How do you feel about them?
6/07/2005 03:58:00 PM
The idea of digging a ditch around Mosul seems to ignore the possibility of disturbing or destroying archeological sites! This is particularly true if the ditch is deep enough to actually stop cars. Obviously a ditch will not stop pedestrian traffic. Also, a ditch would tend to disrupt irrigation systems!
It seems the act of desperate people, and poorly advised!
Truthteller, did the TV say how deep and wide this ditch might be?
6/08/2005 02:38:00 AM
Having a bad day, Waldshrat?
6/08/2005 10:36:00 AM
strykerdad
I answered all your question honstly and frankly. But when I read your comment.
i.e. "The Mosul authorities should consult TT before embarking on any such efforts as he could save them the time--don't they know American forces are planting many of the IEDs and murdering all those women and children? Foolish people are those who would seek to achieve anything positive."
I delete every thing because I feel you don't deserve the time I spend in responding to your request.
6/08/2005 10:48:00 AM
waldschrat
"did the TV say how deep and wide this ditch might be?"
No, They only said it is deep and wide enough to prevent any car from passing it.
6/08/2005 11:59:00 AM
John, your opinions are irrelevant. Why do you keep posting them? You are not Iraqi and you are not American, yet you insist on lecturing people who are directly involved with what's going on in Iraq. I don't really much like some of the comments Strykerdad makes, but people like you make me so mad that I automatically take his side. Is that what you are trying to do? Be *so* offensive to Americans that they oppose your positions on general principals? Because that's exactly what you are doing.
Strykerdad, I believe the hope for the Iraqi constitution is that Iraq will be divided into at least 3 semi-autonomous regions - Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia - with a loos federal government. Much like the United States, with our 50 state governments and 1 national government. There are many factions that oppose this - I suspect truthteller may oppose it - but I think it's the only real way for Iraq to emerge with a stable and secure government. I don't really know why anybody would oppose a federal republic for Iraq, it's a very good and fair system of government. I guess maybe the people who oppose it don't want "good and fair" - or democracy either, for that matter.
6/08/2005 11:59:00 PM
strykerdad -
For somebody operating under a blind pseudonym you have a lot of gall suggesting that I am "hiding". If you want to address me via comments in somebody elses blog, do it in my blog, not Truth Teller's. Better yet, start your own legitimate blog rather than creating a blind user ID at blogspot for the sole purpose of littering other people's blogs with your opinions.
6/09/2005 03:20:00 AM
strykerdad -
Truth Teller has made it perfectly clear along the way that he considers Mosul to be multicultural. You seem to be hounding him to deed the city over to the Kurds or something. However, Kurdistan is multicultural too. You seem to be beating a dead horse.
6/09/2005 03:33:00 AM
Iraq
I like your name, it reflects how patriot you are.
Honstly I was hesitated to answer your questions. But for the knowledge of the readers and to cut the way infront of those who want to implant a conflict between the Kurd an darab in Moaul as they did between the Sunni and Sheei, I will respond to.
"is Mosul a Kurdish city? was it a Kurdish city at any time in history?"
No and never was. At least for the last 5000 years.
"when the Kurdish start living in Mosul?"
I dont know the date exactly, but lately when there were a conflict between the Kurds them selfes, some with the Iraqi government and others with the rebellion.
"where is the nearst Kudrish city from Mosul?"
As you say the nearest Kurdish city is Shaikhan which is about 50km not 20 north of Mosul.
For those who believe in the western media or writing about the substantial Kurdish presecene in mosul, I have to add that, in the past there was a (Governorate of Mosul) which is differ from the present (Governorate of Ninevah).
The Governorate of Mosul involved Duhook, Zakho, Aqra, Shaikhan and some other Kurdish city within its border.
When the Governorate of Ninevah is created, Duhook become a Governorate and its border include the other Kurdish cities.
Simko
"Also the fact that one side of the city (Northern Side) is homogenously Kurdish indicates that this part of the city is still kurdish and kurdistani"
There is no such fact in Mosul. It is better for you to tell the truth of your own. In fact there is a small proportion of Kurd in the north - east part of Mosul. But there number is small and they have a very good relation with the Arab. BTW there wasn't a single event of killing of Kurd in Mosul in the time of Saddam for ethnic reason, simply because all the Kurds in Mosul were faithfull to Iraq as a country.
6/09/2005 11:51:00 AM
strykerdad -
"Would 'gall' more accurately describe when one critisizes and second guesses the actions of people who step forward at great personal risk to try to secure the city of Mosul?"
When I got drafted once upon a time they had a "zero defects" suggeston program and each battalion had a quota - they needed a certain number of improvement suggestions every month. I was assigned to fill that requirement and cheerfully wrote the required number of suggestions for an entire freakin battalion. Now you say I shouldn't do that any more?
6/09/2005 12:43:00 PM
strykerdad -
Mosul/Ninevah is one giant archeological site. Iraq invented irrigation, and Mosul is surrounded by farms that seem to depend on it if I read the satelite photos right. The environmental impact report on a trench in that environment would run something like a thousand pages if it were done in the USA. In Iraq it can be done by somebody driving a tank and disinclined to take no for an answer. The alternatives to a ditch would be an elacronic surveilance network, a fence with tamperproof sensors, and a zillion other things.
I have no real idea what these terse reports of plans to build a ditch that will stop cars really translate into on the ground in the real world. The US forest service blocks logging roads in the sierra with a ditch and a berm no more than 3 feet deep or so, and that will stop hunters and campers if they can't go around it, but the walls of Ninevah were like you see in Truth Teller's photos were penetrated by Iraqis more than 2 thousand years ago and the whole city was killed off. It takes a LOT to stop determined Iraqis, and a ditch that might do it would have to be pretty darn deep and wide.
Beyond these obvious objections, a ditch would be a static defense with all the legendary disadvantages of things like the Maginot Line.
We shall see what we shall see. I just have to say that talk of massive excavations in the area of Mosul without a really concientious review by archeologists is a nightmare on the face of it, and I've heard nothing of archeologists approving the project.
6/09/2005 09:01:00 PM
strykerdad -
"...Wouldn't take that big of a ditch to slow them down."
Yeah, maybe, but did you ever hear of a guy named Evel Knievel? And what are the airborne TV drones going to do to differentiate between people hunting for antiquities in the trench and others mingling with them carrying backbacks full of C4, as the jihadi version of Eval Knievel leaps over all of em, his used car painted in gaudy colors and adorned with slogans like "Buy More Saudi Oil!"?
We shall see what we shall see.
6/10/2005 02:43:00 AM
simko
don't understand me wrong. what I meant is that the Kurd in Mosul are with the line of the Iraqi government during Saddam time and befor that.
"does that mean that you consider the death of the other 182,000 kurds (mainly women and children) to have been because of unfaithfullness."
I don't mean that, but they were in a war time taking the side of the enemy!! That is a fact isn't it ?
6/10/2005 10:25:00 AM
strykerdad
" TT, a final attempt to see if you are a reasonable honest man as I want to believe you are:"
I am not so interesting in your opinion about me. But I will answer you.
At the time of Saddam many Iraqis fled from Iraq as a result of the tyranny of Saddam, and the socio-economic condition of the whole people during the sanction.
Those people who fled and asked residency as political refugees. In order to be regarded as such the have to show them selfes as being threatened, maltreated and their land stolen. All the world, including most Iraqis are willing to believe them. I thing the media, found a rich source of news from those refugees and fabricated a lot of stories about them.
This ducument you refer to, is propably one of those fabricated facts to show how the Kurds were suffer from Saddam. I have to say they really suffer, but the cause of their suffering is not the cleansing against the Kurd. But as the result of the war against a raising militias during a war time. and before the Iraq-Iran war, they were regarded as revolutionists.
"The Iran-Iraq war provided the crucial element with which Baghdad could cover-up its opportunity to bring to a climax its long-standing efforts to bring the Kurds to heel. The Iraqi regime's anti-Kurdish drive dates back to more than fifteen years, well before the outbreak of that war"
Again and again, it is not agaist the Kurd, it was against part of the Kurd who chose the revolution against Bagdad. The other Kurds live in peace and even joined the the army as volunteers to extinguish thet revolt.
The problem is too old, not 15 years before the war but dated from the time Iraq got its freedom, after the WW1.
6/10/2005 12:22:00 PM
strykerdad - it might help if you consider the history of Kurds in Turkey and compare that to events in Iraq. Kurdish nationalism has provoked the Turks as well as the Iraqis from time to time, sort of like the secession of the C.S.A. (and various indian uprisings) provoked them there Yankees. I have the impression that Kurds are nice folks and sweet as can be except when they get a little off their feed and start feeling cranky about all the hard times "Kurdistan" (whatever/wherever that is) has suffered and decide to do something about it. Certainy everything I've read suggests it's much safer to be an American in Kurdish territory than most of the rest of Iraq. I suspect that that has a lot to do with U.S. enforcement of the northern "no fly zone" and removal of Saddam, and the fact that local government and authority on Kurdish territory did not break down or get removed like it did in the rest of the country when Iraq was de-Saddamized.
6/11/2005 01:43:00 AM
strykerdad -
I have a hard time understanding a lot of it too. I think America is the exception in the world in having a single country of hundreds of millions of people who all speak the same language. By the law, if you were born here you belong here. America has been called the "great melting pot", and these things make the American experience of citizenship and national loyalty a bit different from other places, I think. My limited experience with Europeans suggests that language differences and other cultural "tags" make it more common for folks living and born in one country to consider themselves of a different nationality. The same thing seems to go everyplace outside the U.S.
I think as time goes along and travel and communication become even quicker and easier the world will tend to become one giant "melting pot" where people understand and respect each other more. At least I hope so.
6/11/2005 01:54:00 PM
"Typical Arab mentality" is a dangerous oversimplification, just as saying "Typical Jewish mentality" in a german accent is a dangerous oversimplification. It ignores the differences between people of a race, implies that the term "Arab" may be applied to millions of very different people, and allows one to condemn one "race" as less worthy or more worthy. If a person thinks in terms of racial charactics long enough and often enough he forgets the essential fact that groups are not homogeneous. It's bad, dangerous logic, a form of prejudicial thinking promoted by tyrants and dictators in their rhetoric. I do it myself sometimes when someone angers me, but I try not to believe myself when I do, I try to remind myself that race is a fiction.
End of sermon.
6/11/2005 09:55:00 PM
strykerdad (and others) - I agree that Michael Yon's blog (http://www.michaelyon.blogspot.com/) is good. He writes well, he provides a valuable perspective, and he seems to like Iraqis and want the best for the country.
Recently he featured a post from free writer (http://afreewriter.blogspot.com/), another Mosul blogger. Freewriter has some interesting ideas for projects including a proposal for providing computer training for some kids in Mosul for which he is trying to attract donations. I tried donating but discovered that the money went to a fellow in Michigan (Tom Villars, http://iraqiblogtechsupport.blogspot.com/) who collects money for Iraqi bloggers and forwards it to Iraq. This indirect method of moving money is apparently necessary due to restrictions on sending money to Iraq ( more on this at http://www.export.gov/iraq/pdf/payments_in_iraq.pdf and at http://www.ups.com/ga/CountryRegs?loc=en_US ), presumably inended to foil terrorist support from overseas. These restrictions on moving money are a major inconvenience to anybody interested in supporting Iraqi reconstruction projects or investing in Iraq's "rebirth" (some of the very best overseas investments are made when things look darkest!).
Clearly it would be better for Iraq if there was some way to ensure that overseas money could be easily applied for positive purposes in Iraq. This would require allowing some sort of approved channels through which money could transmitted (presumably through banks, which are very good at knowing where money comes from and goes to) and some sort of organized mechanism for verifying that Iraqi recipients of funds were honest folk to ensure the money didn't go for buying bombs and bullets. One possible agency in Mosul which might serve that latter purpose is the "Nineveh Business Center" ( http://www.ninevehbusinesscenter.org/ ) which seems to be some sort of fledgling government-sanctioned operation in Mosul.
Perhaps Truth Teller can call up the number of the Nineveveh Business Center in Mosul ( 813-973 according to their web page) and ask them whether they really exist and why they have not answered my email.
BTW, freewiter told me via email that he had at least some luck in attracting assistance for the Mosul Tallasemia Society via his blog. I commend him for using his blog for positive purposes to try to help Iraq!
Wouldn't it be nifty if all the bloggers from Mosul could sit down for tea and talk about how to use their blogs to help facilitate charitable grants and investments for Iraq!?
6/14/2005 02:37:00 AM
John - how do you know strykerdad doesn't have dreadlocks? A Ponca indian I knew in the Army once upon a time (1970) stood a head taller than any other man in the unit and would show up for morning formations with bloodshot eyes and a feather in his hair instead of the required helmet. He told stories of shooting tracer bullets into the sky at night in Viet Nam just to watch the pretty lights and stockpiling aluminum arrows in a shed behind the house back in Ponca City for use when the indians took back the country. Underneath his laid-back, nonconformist exterior he was smart as a whip and he taught me to respect indians and not assume I knew what they would do next. His name was Pascal LeClair and I've often wondered what became of him.
Michael Yon is indeed imbedded, but he has also reported on excursions in the Dohuk area north of Mosul where he went without military escort, and his reports provide a very valuable insight into the differences between insurgent beset areas and areas living largely in peace. His description of the newsfeed process by which real events are reported and consolidared into the mindless, soulless "who killed who how where" reports that the main stream media continually spews was terrific. Don't oversimplify and don't assume.
6/14/2005 03:16:00 AM
More info on the great Mosul moat: link
6/16/2005 03:15:00 AM
Truth Tller -
Can you tell us if there is any indication that the "great moat of Mosul" was ever actually dug? I am curious what effect it might have on traffic and whether it will truly help Mosul. Th trench was supposed to be ready in "a couple of weeks" and this amount of time has now passed. Have you seen this ditch?
6/23/2005 03:30:00 PM
waldschrat
I have no Idea if it is actually dug or not. But the whole idea looked to be very difficult, 55km long, 3m width and 3m depth, is not an easy thing by the present facilities. (A small hole in a main street from an explosion takes several weaks to be repaired.)
I think they don't have the ability to do it in the specified time.
6/25/2005 06:47:00 AM
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