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Iraq War: 2003-2011

U.S. Marks End to a Long War for an Uncertain Iraq

By TIM ARANGO; Reporting was contributed by Jack Healy, Michael S. Schmidt, Andrew E. Kramer, Duraid Adnan, Omar al-Jawoshy and an employee of  The New York Times.
2103 words
16 December 2011
NYTF
Late Edition – Final
1
English
Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

BAGHDAD — At a crowded market in the city center here, the flotsam of the war is for sale. Ripped Fuel workout supplement. Ready-to-eat meals, macaroni and cheese ”Mexican style.” Pistol holsters. Nothing seems off limits to the merchants out for a quick dinar, not even a bottle of prescription pills from a pharmacy in Waco, Tex., probably tossed out by a departing soldier.

The concrete blast walls that shielded the shopping stalls have lately come down. Since then, three explosions have struck the market, killing several people.

”This will be an easy target for car bombs,” said Muhammad Ali, a merchant who lost two brothers during the cruelest times of the conflict. ”People will die here.”

After nearly nine years, about 4,500 American fatalities and $1 trillion, America’s war in Iraq is about to end. Officials marked the finish on Thursday with a modest ceremony at the airport days before the last troops take the southern highway to Kuwait, going out as they came in, to conclude the United States’ most ambitious and bloodiest military campaign since Vietnam.

For the United States, the war leaves an uncertain legacy as Americans weigh what may have been accomplished against the price paid, with so many dead and wounded. The Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was vanquished, but the failure to find illicit weapons undermined the original rationale, leaving a bitter taste as casualties mounted. The lengthy conflict and repeated deployments strained the country and its resources, raising questions about America’s willingness to undertake future wars on such a grand scale.

Iraqis will be left with a country that is not exactly at war, and not exactly at peace. It has improved in many ways since the 2007 troop ”surge,” but it is still a shattered country marred by violence and political dysfunction, a land defined on sectarian lines whose future, for better or worse, is now in the hands of its people. …

—[MORE] Leaving Iraq / The New York Times

SEE ALSO:

Multilateral and bilateral SOFAs — Provisions of Status of Forces Agreements — Security arrangements and SOFAs — Bilateral SOFAs : historical practice — Prospective SOFA with Iraq — Survey of the current Status of Forces Agreements.

The United States has been party to multilateral and bilateral agreements addressing the status of U.S. armed forces while present in a foreign country. These agreements, commonly referred to as Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs), generally establish the framework under which U.S. military personnel operate in a foreign country, addressing how the domestic laws of the foreign jurisdiction shall be applied toward U.S. personnel while in that country. In light of the Declaration of Principles, signed by U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel Al-Maliki on November 26, 2007, and the possibility that the United States will enter into a SOFA with the Government of Iraq, there is considerable interest in Congress in SOFAs, what they may cover, and how they have been concluded in the past. Formal requirements concerning form, content, length, or title of a SOFA do not exist. A SOFA may be written for a specific purpose or activity, or it may anticipate a longer-term relationship and provide for maximum flexibility and applicability. It is generally a stand-alone document concluded as an executive agreement. A SOFA may include many provisions, but the most common issue addressed is which country may exercise criminal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel. Other provisions that may be found in a SOFA include, but are not limited to, the wearing of uniforms, taxes and fees, carrying of weapons, use of radio frequencies, licenses, and customs regulations. SOFAs are often included, along with other types of military agreements, as part of a comprehensive security arrangement with a particular country. A SOFA itself does not constitute a security arrangement; rather, it establishes the rights and privileges of U.S. personnel present in a country in support of the larger security arrangement. SOFAs may be entered based on authority found in previous treaties and congressional actions or as sole executive agreements.

On November 26, 2007, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki co-signed the Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America, which set out a number of issues concerning, among other things, a security agreement between the United States and Iraq. Since the announcement, the Administration has announced that there will be two agreements negotiated, a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) providing the legal basis between the two countries for the continued presence and operation of U.S. armed forces in Iraq once the U.N. Security Council mandate expires on December 31, 2008, and a Strategic Framework agreement (together with the SOFA, the Iraq Agreements or Agreements) to cover the overall bilateral relationship between the two countries. Several Members of Congress responded with demands that Congress be involved in creating the planned Agreements, from negotiation to implementation, and took action to ensure such involvement. Congress has proposed numerous pieces of legislation that would increase its role in creating these Agreements, from calling for executive-branch consultation and reporting to requiring formal congressional approval. It has also conducted multiple hearings that have concerned the proposed Agreements, receiving clarification on many important issues from Administration officials and experts. This has also equipped Congress with information pertinent to deciding what further action can be taken to involve Congress more in the agreement-making process. Several options remain available to Congress regarding the Iraq Agreements.

 

Tunisia Elects New Interim President

On Monday December 12, 2011, Tunisia’s new assembly elected a leading human rights activist as the country’s first democratically elected president. Moncef Marzouki became the country’s first interim president in the country that sparked the “Arab Spring” nearly one-year ago this week.

(Former doctor and human rights campaigner Moncef Marzouki waves to the media at the constituent assembly in Tunis December 12, 2011)

Marzouki, of the Congress for the Republic Party, won 153 out of 217 votes in the country’s new parliament, with three votes against, two abstentions and 44 blank ballots in protest.

The election of the interim president follows the weekend approval of temporary bylaws to guide the nation until the assembly finishes a constitution.

It also comes less than two months since elections and nearly one-year after Tunisians overthrew their longtime dictator Ben Ali – an uprising that sparked similar movements in other Arab states.

كلمة المرزوقي عقب أدائه اليمين

 

Tunisia’s ‘Second Republic’ تونس الجمهورية الثانية

 Inaugural Session of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly

الجلسة الافتتاحية للمجلس الوطني التأسيسي

The newly elected Constituent Assembly held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, 22 November, 2011 and began the yearlong process of shaping the constitution and the democratic future of the country that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Hundreds of people protested outside Parliament, demanding everything from women’s rights and reforms to limits on foreign influence over Tunisia’s affairs.  Within the body’s chambers the new opposition attempted to flex its wings and challenge the majority coalition.

The assembly elected Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Ettakatol party president, as its speaker and in future sessions he will nominate a president who will appoint a prime minister to form a new government. Maya Jribi, leader of the left of center Progressive Democratic Party, ran against him, but was beaten 145 votes to 67.

Tunisia’s new assembly holds “historic” first session

Tue, Nov 22 2011

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s constitutional assembly, elected after a revolution that inspired the “Arab Spring” uprisings, held its opening session on Tuesday, described by officials as an historic step toward democracy.

The assembly, which will sit for a year to draft a new constitution, is dominated by a moderate Islamist party whose election win last month resonated in other countries in the region where Islamists are gaining ground after the popular protests which swept three Arab heads of state from power.

Members of the assembly, senior officials in the incoming coalition government, and ministers in the outgoing cabinet stood for the Tunisian national anthem in a ceremony to open the 217-seat assembly.

“This is an historic moment .. for the transition to democracy,” Fouad Mebazza, the outgoing interim president, said at the ceremony, in the same building where the previous rubber-stamp parliament sat before the revolution.

There was a reminder of the challenges facing Tunisia’s new rulers, when about 1,000 protesters gathered outside the building.

Among them were relatives of people killed in the revolt that ousted veteran president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who are now demanding compensation from the state.

The protesters included the mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young vegetable seller who set himself on fire last December in an act of protest that triggered the revolution.

Demonstrators held up placards saying “We want justice!” and “The people want a new revolution.”

A man called Slim Hamdi, 28, said he and the other protesters were there to send a message to the new authorities. “We are not going to leave you in peace if you do not take the right path,” he said.

Tunisia’s government will be dominated by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which emerged from the election with the biggest contingent in the assembly, but short of a majority.

Its victory was the first for Islamists in the Arab world since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories in 2006.

Tunisian secularists say their liberal values are under threat, but Ennahda has assured them it is not planning any radical changes.

Ennahda has shared out the top three state posts with two smaller, secularist parties. Hamadi Jbeli, Ennahda’s secretary general, will be prime minister, the most powerful role.

Moncef Marzouki, head of coalition partner the Congress for the Republic, will have the largely ceremonial post of Tunisian president. Mustafa Ben Jaafar, leader of the Ettakatol party, was nominated as speaker of the new assembly.

A new cabinet line-up, with posts shared out between the three coalition partners, is to be announced soon.

In its first act, the assembly voted to confirm Ben Jaafar as speaker.

He received 145 votes, four members abstained, and 68 voted for the rival candidacy of Maya Jribi, of the secularist PDP party. Her party warned Islamist rule will undermine Tunisia but performed poorly in the election.

Mohamed Abbou, an official with Marzouki’s party, said the new government was aware of the weight of expectation from Tunisians who want to see their new democratic freedoms matched by more jobs and higher wages.

“This moment is the dream of all Tunisians,” he said. “We say to the protesters: ‘Do not worry, we are not going to neglect your demands’.”

Libya declares liberty with Gaddafi dead & Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’ [al wasiyyah]

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[Gaddafi’s Death Certificate, issued in Misurata]

‘Sic transit gloria mundi’

BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Libya’s new rulers declared the country freed from Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 years of one-man rule, saying the “Pharaoh of the times” was in history’s garbage bin and a future of democracy and reconciliation beckoned… [Graphic!]

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Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’

Three days after his death, a website published Sunday, October 23, what it said the last will written by slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

English transcript of Gaddafi’s last will as published by the BBC.

“This is my will. I, Muammar bin Mohammad bin Abdussalam bi Humayd bin Abu Manyar bin Humayd bin Nayil al Fuhsi Gaddafi, do swear that there is no other God but Allah and that Mohammad is God’s Prophet, peace be upon him. I pledge that I will die as Muslim.

Should I be killed, I would like to be buried, according to Muslim rituals, in the clothes I was wearing at the time of my death and my body unwashed, in the cemetery of Sirte, next to my family and relatives.

I would like that my family, especially women and children, be treated well after my death. The Libyan people should protect its identity, achievements, history and the honorable image of its ancestors and heroes. The Libyan people should not relinquish the sacrifices of the free and best people.

I call on my supporters to continue the resistance, and fight any foreign aggressor against Libya, today, tomorrow and always.

Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life. We received many offers to this effect but we chose to be at the vanguard of the confrontation as a badge of duty and honor.

Even if we do not win immediately, we will give a lesson to future generations that choosing to protect the nation is an honor and selling it out is the greatest betrayal that history will remember forever despite the attempts of the others to tell you otherwise.”

Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’ in Arabic

الوصية

أوصى العقيد الليبي الراحل معمر القذافي في وصية نسبت إليه بدفن جثمانه في مقبرة سرت بجوار عائلته، كما حث على استمرار المقاومة من بعده

وقال موقع « سيفن دايز نيوز » الإخباري، الموالي للقذافي في صفحته على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي « الفيسبوك »، إنه انفرد بوصية القذافي التي كتبها بتاريخ 17 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول في آخر أيامه في سرت احتياطا لمقتله وسلمها لثلاثة أشخاص توفي أحدهم ووقع آخر في الأسر ونجا الثالث.

:وجاء في نص الوصية

» كل نفس ذائقة الموت وإنما توفون أجوركم يوم القيامة »

هذه وصيتي أنا معمر بن محمد بن عبد السلام بن حُميد بن أبو منيار بن حُميد بن نايل القُحصي القذافي.

أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدا رسول الله عليه الصلاة والسلام وأموت على .عقيدة أهل السنة والجماعة

:وأوصي بما يأتي

أن لا أُغسّل، وأن أدفن وفق تعاليم الشريعة الإسلامية وفي ثيابي التي أموت فيها.

أن أُدفن في مقبرة سرت إلى جوار قومي وأهلي.

أن تُعامل عائلتي وخاصة نساءها وأطفالها معاملة حسنة.

أن يحافظ الشعب الليبي على هويته وعلى منجزاته وتاريخه وصورة أجداده وأبطاله المشرفة وأن لا يسلّم في تضحيات أحراره وأخياره.

أن تستمر مقاومة أي عدوان أجنبي تتعرض له الجماهيرية الآن أو غدا وعلى الدوام.

أن يثق الأحرار في الجماهيرية والعالم أننا كنا نستطيع المتاجرة بقضيتنا والحصول على حياة شخصية آمنة ومستقرة وجاءتنا عروش كثيرة، ولكننا اخترنا أن نكون في المواجهة واجبا وشرفا، وحتى إذا لم ننتصر عاجلا فإننا سنعطي درسا تنتصر به الأجيال التي ستأتي، لأن اختيار الوطن هو البطولة وبيع الوطن هو الخيانة التي لن يستطيع التاريخ أن يكتب غيرها مهما حاولوا تزويره.

أن يبلّغ سلامي إلى عائلتي فردا فردا وإلى أوفياء الجماهيرية وإلى كل أوفياء العالم الذين ساندونا ولو بقلوبهم

والسلام عليكم جميعا

معمر بن محمد القذافي

سرت الوفاء الاثنين 17 التمور 2011 مسيحي

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gadTelegaddQudsبعد لحظات من إعلان مقتل القذافي انهى المطرب الشعبي شعبان عبد الرحيم تسجيل أغنية جديدة عن مقتل الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي، من كلمات والحان إسلام خليل، توزيع سيد شعبان وتقول كلماتها

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لا الشماتة من طبعي .. ولا حتى من أهدافيأهي

لفّت الأيام .. وجات على القذافي

واخدينا بيع وشرا .. مفيش رحمة في قلوب

ده آخرة اللي افترى .. واللعب بالشعوب

مبروك على شعب ليبيا .. حمد لله على السلامة

لكن خدوا بالكو برضه .. من الخطة بتاع أوباما

الغرب عينه على النفط .. وعنيه في كل بير

مش حرية وعدالة .. دول ناس ملهاش كبير

بعد العراق ما وقعت .. الدور على السودان

عايزين الكل يضعف .. عشان يفضوا لإيران

 

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Farewell Poem by Gaddafi

(Shortly  before his death Gaddafi wrote a poem saying goodby to Libya and accusing the Arabs …) –Updated Dec. 2012

في قصيدة نظمها قبيل مقتله: القذافي يودع ليبيا… ويتّهم العرب

الخميس 13 ديسمبر 2012 الساعة 09:53:27 بتوقيت تونس العاصمة

طرابلس ـ (وكالات)

تنتشر بين الشباب الليبي  قصيدة يعتقد انها من نظم العقيد الراحل معمر القذافي، وانه قد نظمها  قبل يومين من مقتلة في مسقط رأسه في مدينة سرت الليبية وقدم العقيد الراحل ما اعتبر تحية الوداع لبلاده. وقال موقع «السوسنة» على الانترنت ان القصيدة انتشرت بشكل كبير عبر الهواتف النقالة والرسائل النصية وصفحات التواصل الاجتماعي واعتبرت اكثر العبارات استعمالا في ليبيا.

 

وبدأ مواطنون ليبيون  بنشر جزء من القصيدة على بعض المباني الحكومية والطرقات العامة  في العاصمة الليبية طرابلس ، وفي ما يلي جزء من القصيدة.

 

 هيا بالسلامة يا بلادي تهني ….. توا تعمري كانه خرابك مني
 هيا بالسلامة وروقي …… عليك بالنفس انبدل معاه بشوقي…
 ومدام باعوني اقراب اعروقي ….. وفيهم اقراب الدم خايب ظني…
 عطيت حقكم ياشعب وين احقوقي …… وياريت واحد من العرب طمني…
 هيا بالسلامة يا بلاد تهني …… توا تعمري كانه خرابك مني …

 

ويذكر أن  نظام القذافي سقط بفعل ثورة السابع عشر من فيفري وبمساعدة كبيرة من حلف الناتو الذي قتل القذافي بطريقة غير مباشرة يوم الخميس 20 أكتوبر 2011 عندما قصف رتل سيارات القذافي بمدينة سرت بواسطة طائرة «بريديتور» أمريكية بدون طيار وطائرة «الميراج» الفرنسية مما مكن قوات الثوار من الإمساك بالقذافي وكان قد بلغ من العمر 69 عاما وقتل بالرصاص ومثلت بجثته ودفن هو ورفاقه في مكان مجهول وفق ما نشره موقع «السوسنة» على الانترنت.


Tunisian Elections, 2011

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TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisians queued in their hundreds to vote in their first free elections on Sunday, basking in their status as democratic trail-blazers nine months after their revolution sparked the Arab Spring. “The turnout of Tunisians exceeded all expectations,” elections chief Kamel Jendoubi told journalists five hours into voting, adding the final rate “may exceed 60 percent”… The European Union hailed Tunisia’s elections and vowed support for the new authorities, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “As the first country in the region to put democracy to the test at the polling booth, Tunisia is once again leading the way.”…

Tunisian Elections – Live Updates – Tunisia Live

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Tunisia’s Elections for A Constitutional Assembly

The campaign for the first elections born of the revolts that swept the Middle East began in Tunisia on Saturday, 1 October. It features 81 political parties (out of more than 115 recognized parties) which will be competing in the election to make up 785 electoral lists; another 676 lists are composed of independent candidates. They’re competing for 217 seats. It is expected that those elected will then have a year to write a constitution to dictate how Tunisians will govern themselves before elections for a parliament will be held.

Voters Online Guides  (about Candidates and Parties)

votunis

TuniVoteAims to Help Voters Understand Parties, Tunisia’s best fixers” A new interactive platform for voters to better know the political parties running for the elections. The web site is designed to address the questions of whom to vote for, why, and how to tell the difference between Tunisia’s numerous political parties.

Elections 2011 Ajidoo.com

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Nchoof.org | عينك على بلادك

Nchoof.org, launched on Sunday (October 2nd), enables Tunisians to present their complaints of malpractice during the electoral campaign and vote counting. The Citizenship Alliance for Elections Monitoring, which comprises associations “My Voice”, “Political Awareness” and Internet Society Tunisie (ISOC), developed the initiative.

ikhtiyo_enIkhtiarTounes New Tool for Undecided Voters

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The Curator’s Blog about the collections, updates, and comments on issues of interest / A. Houissa

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