Friday, April 16, 2004
Violence in Iraq has reached a new level recently
A year after the invasion the resistance groups are fighting harder than ever and Falluja, where many fighters are based, is under siege by the Americans. Both Sunni (loyal to Saddam) and Shiite (anti-Saddam) groups are fed up with the American regime and want the soldiers to leave now, even though the Americans plan to hand over power to an Iraqi government in June.
A radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has holed up in the holy city of Najaf after setting up a militia and inciting violence. The Americans want him dead or alive.
Civilian hostages from about twelve countries have been taken by various groups. Some hostages have been released after persuasion by moderate religious clerics, but only civilians from countries that have played no part in the invasion or the occupation. An Italian hostage has been killed after the Italian government said it had no intention of withdrawing troops.
Several countries, notably Russia, are airlifting out all their civilian workers, so the reconstruction process will be severely interrupted. The violence is counter-productive as the Americans want to spend their money on setting up a new regime and handing over power but these resistance groups don’t want any help from western countries.
Tony Blair has flown over to talk to Kofi Annan of the UN and President Bush today. He seems to want the UN to have more influence but George Bush so far has wanted to keep the UN at arm’s length.
The UN has been remarkable for its lack of effort or instigation of any policy. It has just waited for various countries to put up resolutions for debate. This approach has pros and cons I suppose. It means that as an organisation it has not antagonised the muslim countries or the Iraqi resistance groups and so any UN action now might be acceptable to them.
The Americans only have one solution to any problem which is to go in with guns blazing. The British who are controlling the south of Iraq around Basra have been more diplomatic and have had less trouble, but have also been lucky that it was an area largely hostile to Saddam.
England won the cricket series against the West Indies
The fourth test finished yesterday as a draw, but England won the first three tests convincingly thanks to their bowlers. Stephen Harmison was player of the series as he was our most successful bowler though he only got one wicket in the fourth test. Matthew Hoggard got a hat trick in one test.
In the fourth test Brian Lara got 400 not out and Ridley Jacobs got a century in their total of 751 for 5 wickets, leaving England an impossible task. Lara had failed to get many runs up to that point. Michael Vaughan, England’s captain, had also failed with the bat but he got 140 in the second innings of the fourth test, better late than never.
Lara ended up with a test average of 83.33, Jacobs 46.17, Smith 43.00, Sarwan 27.43, Gayle 26.00 and Hinds 25.60.
Our batsmen also had high averages: Graham Thorpe had a return to form with a series average of 91.33 thanks to three not-outs, Mark Butcher 59.20, Flintoff 50.00, Jones 48.00, Hussain 32.83, Vaughan 35.00, Giles 25.00 although Trescothick with 23.57 was a disappointment.
