Before I raise the issue of the Mosul Dam collapse, for the third time this month, I’d like to thank Mr Engdahl for linking to my post of March 10/2016. E William Engdahl: Will Obama Murder One Million Iraqis Simply to Steal their Oil?
“In the event of a breach, there is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 14 meters high (45 feet) that could sweep up everything in its path, including people, cars, unexploded ordinance, waste and other hazardous materials,” (yours truly)
I appreciate the nod to the blog and my work :)In an initial Mosul Dam post, from March 2/2016: I wrote an expansive article on the numerous issues with Mosul Dam. Mosul Dam Set to Fail- Intentional Take Down? Disaster Capitalism to the Extreme? At that time I wrote that no matter how the dam failed, if it failed it was the fault of the US. Period!Launching airstrikes near the dam?
Could the US have damaged the Mosul dam, accidentally, on purpose?The statement added that since Aug. 8, Central Command has carried out 68 airstrikes in Iraq, including 35 near the Mosul Dam.
Or?
However, the maintenance work was badly affected by the crippling UN sanctions imposed on Iraq following Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
After reading this one could also say thanks to the US and it's multiple invasions, it's sanctions regime, it's incessant war making and bombing they virtually guaranteed the destruction of this vital dam anyway
Then of course we have the dam being controlled by US, Italian Troops and PKK Peshmerga for sure.I followed up the March 2 article with the one Mr. Engdahl included in his article. Linked above.Mosul Dam- The latest. Let's call this warning about the dam and pushing the incompetence, negligence angle against the Iraqi government- "Iraqis Kept in the Dark About Mosul Dam"The US is definitely creating a specific narrative regarding the situation with this dam
Despite intense U.S. pressure to act to keep Iraq's largest dam from collapsing, Baghdad has done little to prepare Iraqis for the possibility of a burst that could unleash a flood reaching the capital and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
See the US "cares" They are intensely pressuring Iraq to act to keep the dam from bursting- What a joke!
The government signed a $296-million contract with Italy's Trevi Group last month to reinforce northern Iraq's fragile Mosul Dam, but it has not announced any specific plans to try to rescue people in the event of a breach or instructed them in detail how to react safely.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's most significant public statement on the dam, which was not widely distributed, advised millions of people living in the path of a potential flood that they should move to higher ground, but provided few specifics
U.S. officials have said Washington feels Baghdad has failed to take the threat seriously enough.A U.S. government briefing paper released in late February said the 500,000 to 1.47 million Iraqis living in the highest-risk areas along the Tigris River "probably would not survive" the impact of a flood's impact unless they evacuated. Swept hundreds of miles along in the waters would be unexploded ordnance, chemicals, bodies and buildings.
A senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said the most lives could be saved by advising people in advance of what to do in the event of a breach of the structure, once known as Saddam Dam and opened in the mid 1980s.
On Jan. 21, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Abadi in Davos, Switzerland, and handed him a confidential note from President Barack Obama pleading for urgent action.
Cause the US cares so very deeply...
The president's personal intervention indicated how the dam's fragility has moved to the forefront of U.S. concerns over Iraq, reflecting fears its failure would also undermine U.S. efforts to stabilise Abadi's government and complicate the war against Islamic State.
Iraqi forces launched a new offensive last week in Makhmour, 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul, as the beginning of a broader campaign to clear areas around the city but so far progress has been slow.
Mosul is a highly, highly contested city- The Kurds want it. Both competing groups.The Iraqis want it.
And it turns out there are also internal rivalries when it comes to the Kurdish fighting for Mosul. The most recent involve a dispute between Iraqi Kurdistan’s most powerful political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK
Despite the claim of Baghdad being unconcerned
"Baghdad updated a 2006 evacuation plan last year that calls for moving people to the southern provinces, a government source briefed on Mosul Dam planning said last month"
So why does the US keep pushing the Mosul disaster theme, alongside the Iraqi government negligence story- This has everything to do with the fight for Mosul! BLAME GAME
USAID and the U.N. development agency UNDP began working with the Iraqi government weeks ago to set up an early alert system using sirens and other mechanisms, but it is not yet ready and little else has been done to prepare residents.
Gee with the help of the UN and USAID, and President Obama's concern I simply can't imagine why this early alert system isn't up and running? Can you?Don't Miss
NATO Op: Destroy Culture, People & History via Chaos- Moved to Italy
If the dam goes, it's intentional.