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Baqouba, Iraq, 25 March 2017 The United Nations took its Iraq: Youth and Coexistence Forum to Diyala Governorate, hoping to enrich the discussions aimed at gauging the opinions of the young generation on reconciliation with experiences from an area that symbolizes diversity but one which has paid a heavy price from conflict and violence.

It is the fourth of a series of cross-country youth forums intended to give a voice to youth for their crucial role in charting the road to peaceful coexistence in a future Iraq. With these kind of fora, the young generation of Iraqis across different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds has the opportunity to deliberate post-conflict issues, engage on national reconciliation and voice their opinion.

A total of 68 youth in the age group of 18-35 from Diyala Governorate participated in the Iraq: Youth and Coexistence forum, which the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) organized in collaboration with the Iraqi Al-Amal Association.

The opening session was attended by Mr. Khidr Muslim Hafez, secretarygeneral of the Diyala Governorate Council representing the governor, some members of the Diyala Governorate Council, Mr. Jaafar al-Zarkoush, director-general the Education Directorate in Diyala, Ms. Hana Edwar, head of the Al-Amal Association, and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Iraq for Political and Electoral Affairs, Mr. Gyrgy Busztin.

Mr. Busztin noted in his address that the Diyala Governorates mix of various ethnic, sectarian and religious groups and the conflict it endured makes this stop all too important. He recalled that the UN has lost a staff member as a result of the violence in Diyala.

This governorate has suffered immensely and has offered great and painful sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. Diyala knew how to vanquish terrorism, rivalry and hate. The role of the young in peaceful coexistence and national reconciliation gives this stop in the series of forums great importance because of the diversity of this governorate and its suffering as a result of terrorism and rivalry, as well as triumphing over it, Mr. Busztin said.

The Diyala forum is the fourth of the cross-country forums. The first was launched in Basra on 28 January 2017 and brought together about 120 participants from the four southern governorates of Basra, Missan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna. The second followed in Erbil on 19 February with 135 participants from Ninewa Governorate. The third was held in Najaf on 18 March, with 115 participants from the Najaf, Karbala, Babel and Qadissiyah Governorates taking part. Other conferences are to follow in the Governorates of Suleimaniyah, Baghdad, Kirkuk and Salaheddin, culminating in an overarching national conference in Baghdad in May to be attended by representatives of the youth to incorporate recommendations from these forums in the decisions that support the process of reconciliation and coexistence.

As with the format for all the conferences, the participants in the Diyala forum broke up into working groups to deliberate and respond to questions about what they would like to see in a future Iraq and how they can contribute. At the end of the meeting, the participants debated their responses and adopted a set of recommendations.

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Iraq: Youth and Coexistence Forum Diyala Stop Underscores Iraqi Diversity's Role in Building Future [EN/AR] - Reliefweb

On Monday, President Donald J. Trump welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to the Oval Office to reaffirm Americas support for Iraq and the Iraqi people in our shared fight against the terrorist group ISIS/Daesh.

President Donald Trump greets Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday, March 20, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Ben Applebaum)

President Trump was particularly honored that Prime Minister al-Abadi was one of the first foreign leaders he has hosted at the White House, a testament to the close bonds between the American and Iraqi people and the importance of the relationship between our governments.

President Donald Trump meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the Oval Office, Monday, March, 20, 2017. (Official White House photo by Benjamin Applebaum)

The President held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister al-Abadi of Iraq in the Cabinet room of the White House where he commended the Prime Minister on the work being done in Iraq. I want to thank you very much for being here, great respect for you. I know you're working very hard, and General Mattis and General McMaster and Rex Tillerson have all been telling me that you're doing a job -- its not an easy job, its a very tough job.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence pose for photos with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and the Iraqi delegation in the Oval Office, Monday, March, 20, 2017. (Official White House photo by Benjamin Applebaum)

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President Trump's Meeting With the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al ... - The White House (blog)

Foreign Policy (blog)

Tillerson's Push for Safe Zones in Iraq and Syria Faces Questions, Obstacles Foreign Policy (blog) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced a plan to establish safe zones in war-torn countries to allow refugees to return home, setting the stage for a dramatic shift in refugee policy and a greater U.S. and Western military footprint in Iraq and ... Pentagon: After defeat of ISIS in Iraq, our troops will remain to protect our 'interests'AMN Al-Masdar News (registration) US troops to stay in Iraq after fight against ISIS ends Defense Dept. officialsRT Mattis: Expect US troops in Iraq even after ISIS fallsMilitary Times Center for Research on Globalization -Newsweek -Breitbart News all 363 news articles »

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Tillerson's Push for Safe Zones in Iraq and Syria Faces Questions, Obstacles - Foreign Policy (blog)

Dan Zimmerman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in the first Gulf War and Iraq, is the new state secretary of veterans affairs.(Photo: Meg Jones/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

MADISON- The new secretary of veterans affairs takes over a department facingcontroversy over care at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King and contentious relations with county veterans service officers.

Dan Zimmerman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, 51, is being praised for his transparency, improving communications with veterans organizations and county veterans service officers and for moving swiftly to reassign the commandant of the King home. Thedepartment has a $143 million budget and 1,300 employees, most of whom work at the state's three veterans homes in Chippewa Falls, King and Union Grove.

Under Zimmerman's predecessor John Scocos, who left in January, the Legislature launched an audit of the King home because of concerns over the quality of care and spending. Last year county veterans service officers and county administrators sharply criticized efforts to change the way block grants are doled out by the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

He said the biggest challenge is ensuring veterans living in Wisconsin take advantage of the benefits and programs available to them.

"One of the things with veterans is they tend not to self-identify. We know we have over 400,000 in the state, but we don't know where they're all at and they don't always come in" to seek services and benefits, Zimmerman said in an interview last weekin Madison.

Rick Patton, Fond du Lac County's veterans service officer, is encouraged by the change in leadership.

"There was a lot of friction with the last secretary and our state association. I am looking forward to a new slate," said Patton, an Army veteran. "I've already seen some of the ice melt in Madison, which is a good sign."

On Zimmerman's first day he visited the home at King and drove to Oshkosh to meet withJoe Aulik, president of the state veterans service officer association.

"We felt like we weren't looked at like stakeholders in the delivery of benefits. We didn't have good communication and collaboration with the previous administration. Dan wants to open that up," said Aulik.

Zimmerman faces an evolving cohort of veterans that includesrapidly dwindling World War II and Korean War populations as the ranks of post-9/11 veterans swell. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are coping with traumatic brain injuries, amputated limbs and spinal injuries, PTSDand other health issuesas well as difficulties reintegrating into society, homelessness, suicide and addictions to drugs and alcohol. And they'll be in the veterans care system for many decades.

Programs for homeless veterans are located at each of the homes, but Zimmerman said an effort is underway to boost the number of beds for homeless female veterans at King. He has launched a strategic plan to identify the future needs of veterans.

Zimmerman joined the Army shortly after graduating from New Berlin West High School in 1983, choosingcombat engineers because of the short two-year enlistment. After his Army stint, he went to the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse andearned a geography degree. He joined ROTC where he was encouraged to return to active duty and pickedmilitary intelligence.

He deployed to Honduras in 1987, the Gulf War in 1990-'91, Bosnia in the mid-'90s and Kosovo, 2000-'01. During the first Gulf War Zimmermanwas an assistant brigade intelligence officer in the 3rd Armored Division, moving through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. He volunteered to return to Iraq in 2006-'07 and was the chief of staff for a 1,000-member team training Iraqi police.

"I really honestly hoped I didn't have to go back there," Zimmerman said of returning to a country he left 15 years earlier. "But you do what you have to do."

Afterretiringfrom the Army in 2008, Zimmerman, who lives in Ripon, worked as a training consultant for the U.S. National Guard Bureau and a threat planner at Wisconsin Emergency Management. He was hired in the early 2000s to directthe ROTC programs at Marian University and Ripon College by Tony Blando, then commander of the Fox Valley Army ROTC Battalion.

Blando, who is now chief of staff forU.S. Sen.Ron Johnson, praised Zimmerman for his moral character and intelligence.

"Dan is one of the smartest people I've ever met in my entire life," said Blando. "He's going to do the right thing. He's tough. He has the ability to look at a complex problem, and he can focus in on the root cause and solve the problem."

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New state veterans secretary is Iraq War vet - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sentiment in Washington may not reflect that the U.S. is at war, but two war correspondents described the astonishing extent and toll of recent U.S. military strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen on Intercepted, the weekly podcast by The Intercepts Jeremy Scahill.

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In Iraq, U.S. forces are helping Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers in their months-long battle to drive ISIS out of western Mosul. As many as 600,000 civilians are trapped there, amid widespread hunger and destruction, and more than 1,000 civilians were killed or injured last month in Iraq.

There are American special forces on the ground but much more important than that is U.S. airpower, without which the Iraqi forces would not be able to get very far, explained author and journalist Anand Gopal.

And theyve been hitting pretty much everything in sight and theres been an extraordinary number of civilian casualties just kind of gone through the roof in the last couple of months especially coming into Mosul.

Gopal explained that the western half of the city, where the fighting is now, is the older part, with densely packed neighborhoods.

The houses are really close together and so you can have a case where an ISIS sniper is on a house and the Americans are dropping bombs on the house and killing everybody inside including families that are cowering in the basement, people who are being shot on the street in sight. Its a real humanitarian disaster thats unfolding as we speak.

The United States is also building up its own troop strength in Syria. There the U.S. is allying with Kurdish forces with the YPG in the push towards Raqqa, and then if you look at the pattern of where the U.S. is deploying where its airstrikes are hitting in Syria what you see is the entire U.S. effort in Syria is to attack the enemies of [President] Bashar al-Assad, Gopal said.

In Palmyra, for instance, U.S. warplanes in February carried out 45 strikes to help the Syrian government forces the only forces on the ground recapture the city from ISIS.

You know, we tend to think that the U.S. is supporting regime change in Syria but on the ground its not the case, Gopal said. In fact, the U.S. has been avoiding doing anything to antagonize the Syrian regime and instead has been really focusing its fire on ISIS or on other enemies of the Assad regime.

To complicate matters further, the United States has been also fueling a Saudi Arabian campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and is now attacking alleged al Qaeda targets there directly. This month, independent war reporter Iona Craig covered a tragically botched Navy SEAL raidin Yemen for The Intercept. Craig interviewed survivors of the raid, which Trump called a success despite the death of one Navy SEAL, at least six women, and 10 children under the age of 13.

Craig said that a spate of airstrikes followed the raid. In the space of 36 hours [the U.S.] carried as many strikes as they had done in the whole of last year [across] three provinces, she said. One of the targets was the same village, Ghayil, where the raid had taken place.

Craig said the U.S. strikes killed two more children and three more adults, some of whom she had met while reporting her story. They saw it as revenge a revenge for killing a Navy SEAL basically that the Americans were coming back to destroy their village entirely and to make sure that everybody was gone.

Both Craig and Gopal said that the U.S. risks getting sucked into domestic and geopolitical dramas in the region in a way that could be disastrous.

Craig said the U.S. is already being seen as very much taking one side in Yemen. That could get even worse if now the Trump administration decides to conflate the Houthis with Iran.

Gopal said that the United States harbors a fantasy of creating a Sunni force to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, while reducing reliance on Iranian-backed forces in the region.

Theres this idea in some quarters that you can raise this almost like a second-awakening and this would be your proxy force. How realistic that is, is another question, said Gopal, referencing the Iraq war based Iraqi awakening councils that fought al Qaeda.Already its a bloodbath in the Middle East and already there [are] hundreds of different forces fighting, he said. Any attempt to try to either create Sunni proxy force or push onto Iran would be just an even greater disaster, and there were talking world war three level of disaster.

Craig said the only winner is the defense industry. Well, its good business, she said. In the first year of the war [in Yemen], the U.S. sold $20 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia has been buying more and more weapons as a result of this war, and the same goes for the British government as well, she said. Really it all boils down to financial gain and thats the greatest win really for the U.S., but its an extremely costly one obviously for the civilian population of Yemen.

Top photo: Smoke rises from ISIS positions after U.S.-led coalitions airstrike over east of Bashiqa town in Mosul, Iraq on Nov. 7, 2016.

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War Correspondents Describe Recent US Airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen - The Intercept