Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shi'ite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-December
The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shi'ites raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007
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10 comments:
They may blame whomever they want, but the real issue is Iraqis not working together. Everyone has a responsibility to their country, and their children, to try to build a better life for all. You can't rely on the US or anyone else to do it for you.
And when they start doing that, I will stop nagging. Until then...
Lynnette In Minnesota ate my hamster!
Freddie Le Faux a mangé mon hamster!
Freddie Falsum manducavit criceta!
Lynnette, I don't think you can blame Iraqis for not working together because of the actions of a few crazies. Are Americans not working together because of Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, and John Allen Williams? I would think the vast majority of Iraqis, like the vast majority of Americans, want to live and work together harmoniously. Actually, scratch that, after seeing your political shenanigans I'm not wholly convinced about the vast majority of Americans.
I just watched a moving documentary about Iraqi Christian refugees -- Chaldean and Syriac Catholics and Syriac and Armenian Orthodox. It focused mainly on Iraqi Christians in Damascus, Aleppo, Amman, and Rome. (It was an Italian-made documentary). Most of those interviewed were from Baghdad, Mosul, and Kirkuk. Many in Amman and Damascus were middle class people who had lost most of what they had, and had sold or bartered the little they had left. They were now trapped in poverty, unable to go anywhere, and in some cases unable to join relatives in Sweden, Australia and elsewhere. Some husbands and fathers had gone back to Iraq in desperation to look for work, and some of these had never been heard of again. A UNHCR spokesman -- an Iraqi with a curious Irish accent -- said that the international community had not followed through with promises of help, leaving Iraqi refugees without income or education, and dependent on the Red Cross/Red Crescent and Church organisations. The documentary was over three years old, so not up to date.
(Trivial aside: I learned a smidgeon of the Ave Maria in Arabic from the programme. Seems obvious now but it never occurred to me that it refers to Mary/Maryam as the mother of Allah. That can't go down well with Muslims!)
(Ave Maria in Arabic)
[Lynnette, from previous thread]: "And it is not only the Bakken area they are talking about. They have found another area below that and one below that. As I am no expert I can't theorize on how deep they could actually drill successfully."
There's a limit to how deep oil can exist. Below 10,000 feet the oil starts being cracked into lighter fractions and natural gas. At 15,000 feet it's all gas (unless the overburden is less dense, e.g. oil under 15,000 feet of salt in the GoM). The Bakken varies from several thousand to more than 10,000 feet deep, but is generally only 150 feet thick. Its future productivity is essentially impossible to predict, because of a host of complicating factors. Here's quite a decent article about its geology ...
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868
... but note that the article is from 2008 and is already wildly wrong (on the low side) in its prediction of maximum rate and longevity of production.
[Lynnette]: "But the oil companies wouldn't be so interested if they didn't think this area was workable."
Don't bank on that. It's well known that oil companies have bought leases and drilled exploratory wells with little chance of success to prop up their share prices. I don't think that's the case with the Bakken, but you also have to remember that extremely low flow rates can be profitable for an operator, while not being significant sources of supply for the country.
The US, being a mature oil region has extremely low average productivity per well (which is often shocking to people who haven't seen the numbers). Over one third of US wells produce less than one barrel per day! More than 75% produce less than 10 barrels, and more than 85% less than 15. Almost 99.9% produce less than 1,000 barrels per day, leaving a little over 0.1% of wells to produce one third of US domestic oil. Interestingly, the 85% of wells producing from under $100 to $1,500 worth of oil per day cumulatively produce about the same amount of oil as the Bakken currently does.
Hilarious but serious at the same time:
"A neo-Gothic church rises like a mirage. It is surrounded by the spotless wooden roofs of well-tended chalets, scores of them, a picture-postcard village set beside an artificial lake. Welcome to Hallstatt, the UNESCO-listed Austrian resort. Welcome to Hallstatt, China. News of the plans for a fake version of the idyllic lakeside village generated a mixture of astonishment, amusement and even a little outrage last summer when it was revealed that ‘spies’ from a Chinese developer had been secretly preparing detailed blueprints on furtive European trips, posing as tourists."
"No expense has been spared. The original buildings have been copied and reproduced with startling precision. Horse-drawn carriages and flocks of white doves will be imported to lend authenticity. The prices are amazing, too: a new villa here built in the style of a 300-year-old lakeside home is being offered at between £200,000 and £500,000, higher than the real thing in Austria."
"There is, however, a flaw in this otherwise impressive feat of construction: no one is buying. China’s real-estate market, booming as recently as last summer, has gone into freefall."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093067/How-Chinese-building-exact-replicas-Austrian-village--houses-sold.html
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