link (http://www.startribune.com/722/story/318788.html)
QuoteBAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Shortly after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine in a western Iraqi town, American troops went into nearby houses and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old-girl, residents say.
The military is investigating possible misconduct by the Marines and confirms there is a video, which Time Magazine says shows the aftermath of the Marines' assault.
Residents contacted by The Associated Press described what happened after the Nov. 19 roadside bomb in the town of Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, as "a massacre.''
Khaled Ahmed Rsayef, whose brother and six other members of his family were killed in the incident, said the roadside bomb exploded at about 7:15 a.m. in the al-Subhani neighborhood. A U.S. Humvee was badly damaged.
The military acknowledged Monday it was investigating the incident after it was approached by Time with accounts from residents, officials and hospital authorities in Haditha as well as a videotape purportedly showing the aftermath of the incident.
Military officials declined further comment.
A U.S. military statement shortly after the November attack described what happened as an ambush on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, with a roadside bombing and subsequent firefight killing 15 civilians, eight insurgents and a U.S. Marine. The statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim the residents strongly denied.
Residents said there only was a roadside bombing, and all the shooting was done by American troops.
Time, in a story in this week's edition, reported that a U.S. colonel went to Haditha for a weeklong probe to interview Marines, survivors and doctors at the morgue. The magazine cited unidentified military officials close to the investigation.
The probe, Time reported, concluded that the civilians were killed by Marines and not a roadside bomb, and that no insurgents appeared to be in the first two houses raided by the Marines.
Winning their hearts and minds one bullet at a time.
Just imagine you're one of the survivors. You have no family, no money, no prospects for work. Your country is occupied AND in civil war at the same time. You just saw your family slaughtered by an enemy of overwhelming power, and you have no way to say or do anything about it. What do you do?
I'd strap some explosives to my chest and find my way into a group of Americans, and anyone who thinks I'm nuts for doing it is a crackhead.
This isn't an isolated story. In five months, when the suits are talking about "bad apples," don't believe the hype. This is war. Every time there's a war, this is what happens. People don't just die, they turn into murderers. These Marines are supposed to be upstanding men of honor bringing hope. That's the lie they tell us, anyway. In fact, they bring despair and death. I simply can't root for them.
I was right about this war from the start. It is a great, great shame on America.
yeah...a new thread was never needed more
Only slightly more needed than your mom on all fours, beggin' for more.
Oh yeah..the tally of dead U.S. soldiers is now 2318 and around 16,650 injured, many of them maimed for life.
Right now, Bush is painting cheery stories, hoping to rally his sagging polls. Dick.
I think I heard his approval rating is now around 32%, which I am forced to assume is near the lowest in our history.
Depends on the poll you look at. If the poll is from a whacko christian conservative "think" tank, those number soar into the low forties!!
Amazingly, I saw a poll of just Republicans who considered themselves born-again Christians and Bush's job approval rating from them remained at a staggering 82%.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, there are still people who buy into Bush's line of happy horseshtein.
(Disclaimer - I don't recall where I saw the poll - I don't know if it was on the internet or it was reported elsewhere (CBN maybe?) but the 82% figure is accurate. I'm positive of that.)
Well, I couldn't find the poll I saw but Rasmussen has his "strongly approve" rating at 20% right now.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Job_Approval.htm
Jesus... :-D
Diomedes is just so farging cool, isn't he? Fargin hack!
Waco, your post makes less sense than hbionic with a woman.
1) Diomedes is not a journalist nor purports to have any published articles; therefore, he can not be construed as a hack.
B) Diomedes, like you only less so, is anything but cool.
GET OFF MY SCROTE, BITCH.
Quote from: Diomedes on March 20, 2006, 04:40:33 PM
GET OFF MY SCROTE, BITCH.
Just as soon as you tell me the status of Darwin Walker's injury.
I was talking to the Wacko Kid, didn't see your post before hitting alt + s.
I tossed yo salad!
U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!!
I'm glad we agree!! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!!
This is an excellent thread!
So did anyone watch the Olympics? How did the Iraqis do?
Quote from: rjs246 on March 20, 2006, 05:33:03 PM
So did anyone watch the Olympics? How did the Iraqis do?
The took the gold in Camel Humping and finished dead last in Jumping for Cover.
Seriously though, this is getting rediculous over there. American troops are dying for nothing, Iraqi civilians are dying for nothing and Dubbya's just as comfy as can be in the oval office. Hooray!
Dio made a mom joke. Sweet! :evil :yay
Bush has to get off his ass and realize poll numbers are meaningless to him now. Hw can't be re-elected. Just completely flatten most of the mid-east. Pave it over and take the oil. Why the hell not? Who could stop us if we had the will to do it completely?
Clearly, stalker majored in International Relations at University of Phoenix.
Troops to stay in Iraq until at least 2008...Bush says, Let another Prez pull them out (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060321/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_49;_ylt=AvYtsbCW2GSwO0uQP5t.y9hqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
The thing with the Marines in this story is what happens when you take a group of generally good-hearted young men who are trained to kill and do so based on a belief that what they are doing protects their families and the families that live in their native land - and then have them realize that they have killed, maimed and destroyed people, families, and property for no other reasons than someone else's financial and political gain. They break; and become the evil that they once believed they were going to fight.
What some people don't realize when reading a story like this is that the victims aren't only the dead or injured Iraqis, but the young guys who carried out the act. I guarantee you, they were not like what they are now before being sent to that farging hellhole.
A tragic shame, and Bush and his cronies should be farging held accountable to the highest degree.
Worst goddamn president this country has ever seen. Worse than Nixon, worse than Carter... an absolute disgrace.
What's even worse is, if was impeached, an even bigger @sshole would take his place.
Bush and his chickenhawk pals are leading us down the primrose path and no one has the balls to stand up to them and say "enough!"
Where the hell is the loyal yet fervent opposition from the Democrats? Are they so afraid of this administration that they refuse to put themselves in the firing line to stop this idiocy? Or is it something even worse?? Are they eager participants because their pockets are being lined with the same kickbacks that the military industry in this country is busy jamming into Bush's post-presidency fortune?
Are all politicians nothing more than spineless cowards who're more interested in personal gain than serving the best interests of their constituencies anymore?
Argh!!!!!!! :boom
I think Rome has more questions than answers.
Quote from: Jerome99RIP on March 21, 2006, 07:49:15 PM
Are all politicians nothing more than spineless cowards who're more interested in personal gain than serving the best interests of their constituencies anymore?
Yes.
Quote from: PhillyPhaninDC on March 21, 2006, 07:52:57 PM
I think Rome has more questions than answers.
After five-plus years with that fargtard in office, I'd say that's an understatement.
abc (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2489700&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312)
Army to expand by as many as 60,000?
QuoteSept. 25, 2006 — The strain on the Army from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has become so great that top officials are now privately saying the only long-term solution may be to make the overall size of the Army bigger, adding as many as 60,000 troops, ABC News has learned.
It's not a request or a recommendation yet, but senior Army officials have discussed this for weeks and are now in agreement that the Army could meet its worldwide obligations more easily by expanding the overall size of its force.
There are currently 501,000 troops with the level expected to reach 512,000 by the end of next year. To add an additional 60,000 is a costly proposition that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has consistently opposed.
In a sign of the strain on U.S. troops, a brigade from the Army's 1st cavalry division was ordered today to return to Iraq a month earlier than planned, while another Army unit, now fighting in the violent city of Ramadi, has been ordered to extend its year-long stay in Iraq by another six weeks.
Both are examples of the trend where troops are spending more time in Iraq and Afghanistan and less time at home.
<snip>
The reason senior Army leaders want to go to a bigger Army is that they are worried about their ability to fight future threats. One official told ABC News, other than the troops now in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are only two to three combat brigades — that's 7,000 to 10,000 troops — who are fully trained and equipped to respond quickly to a crisis.
"If we keep forces in Iraq too long, we risk running into a situation where the force begins to break," said former U.S. Army officer Andrew Krepenevich.
<snip>
Increasing the size of the Army would take time and money, so to deal with the strain in the short-run, officials are also considering another costly and unpopular idea — using more National Guard troops in Iraq.
I came across Nightline last night on ABC with a special about Philadelphia murders this year. They had more people killed in Philly last month than american soldiers died in Iraq.
65 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq last month.
I heard or read that the head of the Army recently said that he didn't have the money he needed so he refused to submit his budget.
I'm glad they put so much though into this before they got neck deep.
Well then let's just release Saddam and send him back and pull out the troops...that would be cool. ::)
I don't know why they want more troops when they can't really afford to equip any of the troops that aren't deployed.
I feel bad for those First Cav guys, I am down here with them they actually had to pull a couple of guys last week from WLC so they could get back to their unit since their deployment date had been moved up. Originally there was only supposed to be only 2-3 brigades from Cav going now all four are. This has all been changed within the last couple of months.
Quote from: Jerome99RIP on March 21, 2006, 07:49:15 PM
What's even worse is, if was impeached, an even bigger @sshole would take his place.
You got that right. It could be worse. That's a scary friggen' thought.
And from what all the other presidential candidates look like, a new one won't be as big an icehole, just a little less of one.
Unless Hillary Clinton gets elected, then our President would go from being and icehole to being a bitch.
So you know Drunk, if they try to send you, I will do whatever I can to help you avoid it. I'll totally send you cigarettes in the brig. Or let you sleep on my couch. I'll even send you cigarettes while you're in the brig. You like Marlboro Reds? Kools? You name it, man.
Honestlly, I'm afraid of the "R.I.P. Drunkmasterflex" thread, and all the sickening tributes to your foolish ass. Think of all the sympathy Hoyda Little Miss Muffin Ass would get, too....that's just NOT right.
I'd rather you just didn't die in a pointless war, if that's alright with you.
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 08:31:09 PM
So you know Drunk, if they try to send you, I will do whatever I can to help you avoid it. I'll totally send you cigarettes in the brig. Or let you sleep on my couch. I'll even send you cigarettes while you're in the brig. You like Marlboro Reds? Kools? You name it, man.
Honestlly, I'm afraid of the "R.I.P. Drunkmasterflex" thread, and all the sickening tributes to your foolish ass. Think of all the sympathy Hoyda Little Miss Muffin Ass would get, too....that's just NOT right.
I'd rather you just didn't die in a pointless war, if that's alright with you.
I appreciate it man, but when I get called to go I will.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 08:34:50 PM
I appreciate it man, but when I get called to go I will.
SaaaaaaaaLUTE!!
Yay pointless death.
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 08:40:49 PM
Yay pointless death.
:-D, Honestly man I would just be doing my job.
I don't mean dying.
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 08:40:49 PM
Yay pointless death.
It's not pointless. Rich, white people who don't care about us would get richer. And probably whiter too.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 08:57:47 PM
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 08:40:49 PM
Yay pointless death.
It's not pointless. Rich, white people who don't care about us would get richer. And probably whiter too.
Aren't you a recruiter?
Shhhh.
And with lines like that, his recruiting numbers are up!
Don't worry. If any of you die we'll be sure to remember you in the most appropriate :CF fashion. :)
Quote from: General_Failure on September 26, 2006, 09:01:29 PM
Don't worry. If any of you dies we'll be sure to remember you in the most appropriate :CF fashion. :)
By bitching about not having any of us on your ghoulpool?
None of you are famous. Do yo plan on having your death make every major network news show and win you a Darwin Award?
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:01:21 PM
Shhhh.
That is awesome! We were just talking today about recruiters and a couple of guys said they would love to become one just so they could lie like their recruiters had done to them. We are combat engineers and many of the guys usually foreigners were told that it was a non-combat MOS. For me personally my recruiter never lied to me.
I'm famous. I was and extra in Prefontaine (Ed O'Neil/R. Lee Ermy) and a Will Smith video. So eat it.
You're that guy?!
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:05:17 PM
I'm famous. I was and extra in Prefontaine (Ed O'Neil/R. Lee Ermy) and a Will Smith video. So eat it.
What?
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:04:35 PM
That is awesome! We were just talking today about recruiters and a couple of guys said they would love to become one just so they could lie like their recruiters had done to them. We are combat engineers and many of the guys usually foreigners were told that it was a non-combat MOS.
I can honestly say that I've never lied, stretched the truth or painted a rosey picture for any of my applicants. My higher ups get pissed at me because my openess about things drives away a lot of kids.....usually to the Army.....because they lie to the kid. And just to clarify that.....I've never been told to lie to kids but have been told to be a little vague when it comes to answering certain questions and immediately change the subject.
I refuse to do that. If a kid wants to join or thinks he/she wants to join then I'm going to answer every question they've got and I do it in detail. It's already cost me a meritorious promotion but I don't care.
I'm putting these kids in the military which means at some point in time there's a chance they might be working for me. Or maybe working for one of my friends. And if I feed them a bunch of bs to get them in then chances are they are going to be pretty pissed off and won't take their job as seriously as they should. And that may or may not cost someone a life.
Technically, I'm only accountable for a kid until he/she is joined. But as far as I'm concerned, that kid is a walking representative of me for the entire time he/she is in the Marine Corps. So if I recruit a bunch of turds, then it's a reflection on me. And I won't have that.
Quote
For me personally my recruiter never lied to me.
Hold on to that dream. ;)
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:06:46 PM
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:05:17 PM
I'm famous. I was and extra in Prefontaine (Ed O'Neil/R. Lee Ermy) and a Will Smith video. So eat it.
What?
Incase you didn't understand it the first time.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:05:17 PM
I'm famous. I was and extra in Prefontaine (Ed O'Neil/R. Lee Ermy) and a Will Smith video. So eat it.
:P
Humping a trash can.
You have me confused with someone else. I only do recycling bins and inflatable helmets.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 08:56:34 PM
I don't mean dying.
Hitler had a great line about that. Something along the lines of one of his generals coming to him and reporting high casualties in a manner that indicated the general was afraid to be the messenger of bad news. Hitler's response was "that's their job...to die."
He was right. The war is won by the side most willing to die.
First job is to die, second job is to kill.
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 09:19:02 PM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 08:56:34 PM
I don't mean dying.
Hitler had a great line about that. Something along the lines of one of his generals coming to him and reporting high casualties in a manner that indicated the general was afraid to be the messenger of bad news. Hitler's response was "that's their job...to die."
He was right. The war is won by the side most willing to die.
First job is to die, second job is to kill.
I'll see your Hitler and raise you a MacArthur
QuoteNo one won a war by dying for their country, they won it by making the other side die for theirs.
:P
I applaud you for your honesty "Sarge".
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:24:35 PM
I applaud you for your honesty "Sarge".
You should have let me recruit you. But you didn't. So farg you. :P
Quote
"that's their job...to die."
That job is for the Marines. :P
I'd like to have a snappy comeback for that. But I don't. Cause it's true.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:27:21 PM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:24:35 PM
I applaud you for your honesty "Sarge".
You should have let me recruit you. But you didn't. So farg you. :P
I am pretty sure the Army was the only branch that would take me, because of my record. I know for a fact the Air Force and Navy wouldn't take me.
Give it another couple of months, and the military will take all kinds. They'll be getting pretty desperate.
I think it's a little late for him now.
Soon they'll take people like me. I'd make a great Marine.
The best part is I am about to apply to OCS and there is a really good chance that I will be an officer, that just goes to show how farged up the Army is now.
I'd rather you were in charge than most. Sad statement, I know. Still...
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 09:39:55 PM
Soon they'll take people like me. I'd make a great Marine.
pssssst. Call me and we'll get you set up to take a physical. Oh, and I'm gonna need you to stop doing drugs too. M'kay?
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:40:15 PM
The best part is I am about to apply to OCS and there is a really good chance that I will be an officer, that just goes to show how farged up the Army is now.
Just out of curiosity.....how does it work in the Army when enlisted go officer? Do they keep you in the same MOS once you get commissioned?......or, do you get to choose a new MOS?......or, do they put you where ever they want you?
For us non-military types, what's an MOS?
military occupational specialty aka your job.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:49:39 PM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:40:15 PM
The best part is I am about to apply to OCS and there is a really good chance that I will be an officer, that just goes to show how farged up the Army is now.
Just out of curiosity.....how does it work in the Army when enlisted go officer? Do they keep you in the same MOS once you get commissioned?......or, do you get to choose a new MOS?......or, do they put you where ever they want you?
You go to a branch not a specific MOS. You choose several different branches but more than 60% of males that apply will be put in a combat branch infantry, engineer, field artillery, etc. Personally I would like to go to the infantry branch so chances are high I will get that since most want to go to signal or military intelligence.
Nothing is even close to official yet, because I am currently going through an intrapost transfer. I will have to wait until I get a new CO and go to him. If I were to stay in my current unit I know it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately for me I have no choice in this matter, my orders already came down form the Corps level.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on September 26, 2006, 09:22:01 PM
Quote from: Diomedes on September 26, 2006, 09:19:02 PM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 08:56:34 PM
I don't mean dying.
Hitler had a great line about that. Something along the lines of one of his generals coming to him and reporting high casualties in a manner that indicated the general was afraid to be the messenger of bad news. Hitler's response was "that's their job...to die."
He was right. The war is won by the side most willing to die.
First job is to die, second job is to kill.
I'll see your Hitler and raise you a MacArthur
QuoteNo one won a war by dying for their country, they won it by making the other side die for theirs.
:P
If by MacArthur you really meant Patton then good job...
Eh, I knew it was one of those 2. If you google it with and without quotations you get a hit for each one. Oh well.
Attacks in Baghdad Kill 13 U.S. Soldiers in 3 Days
Officials Cite Troops' Increased Exposure in Capital
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A01
BAGHDAD, Oct. 4 -- Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war.
The latest losses -- four soldiers who were killed at 9 a.m. Wednesday by small-arms fire -- are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against U.S. forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday, the military said.
The number of planted bombs is "at an all-time high," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, a military spokesman, defying American efforts to stanch the vicious sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad that threatens to plunge the country into civil war.
"This has been a hard week for U.S. forces," Caldwell said. "Unfortunately, as expected, attacks have steadily increased in Baghdad during these past weeks." Independent databases showed the three-day toll for American troops to be the highest in Baghdad so far.
U.S. military officials said the surge in violence could be partly attributed to the increased exposure of American forces as they patrol the dangerous streets of Baghdad to try to quell reprisal killings between Shiites and Sunnis. The number of troops in the capital has been doubled since June to support the Iraqi government's new security plan, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, another military spokesman.
"When you go into bad neighborhoods, you'll have more attacks," said Lt. Col. James A. Gavrilis, a Special Forces officer and expert on the Iraqi insurgency. "If we have more people in one area, there will be an opportunity." He said enemy fighters "are reacting to an opportunity to attack."
Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, said another likely cause for the spike in American troop deaths was a recent call by the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, encouraging Iraqis to "eliminate the infidels and the apostates" during the current holy month of Ramadan.
Seventy-four soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq in September, representing the highest monthly toll since April, when 76 died, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.
Army Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the Multinational Division Baghdad, said two weeks ago that attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Baghdad had reached an average of 42 a day -- with about six causing casualties or equipment damage -- up from 36 or 38 attacks.
The disclosure of heavy American losses came on another day of horrific violence for Iraqis, with at least 59 people killed in separate incidents across the country, Iraqi police said. The single deadliest attack took place at 11 a.m. in Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, when a suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army base, killing at least 19 people and wounding 10, according to a police official.
Caldwell also announced yesterday that an entire Iraqi police brigade -- comprising an estimated 800 to 1,200 officers -- had been pulled out of service and placed under investigation for alleged complicity with death squads. On Sunday, gunmen burst into a food factory in Amil, a Baghdad neighborhood under the brigade's control, and kidnapped 26 workers.
"There is clear evidence that there was some complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when, in fact, they were supposed to have been impeding their movement," Caldwell said. "The government of Iraq had lost trust and confidence in the 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division's ability to serve the public due to their poor performance and alleged criminal wrongdoings."
The move appeared to represent a new effort by Iraqi officials to root out corruption in the Iraqi security forces, which are widely believed to be infiltrated by militias and death squads that do more to exacerbate sectarian tensions than protect citizens. Caldwell said the brigade will undergo "anti-militia, anti-sectarian violence and national unity training."
The brigade's commander might be charged with a crime, and the head of the unit's second regiment has already been arrested, said Brig. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman. "They are both under investigation to know how all this happened without the security forces interfering to stop it," he said.
Also on Wednesday, a top aide to Moqtada al-Sadr said the anti-American cleric has specific information that U.S.-led coalition forces plan to launch a major attack on Sadr City, a Shiite slum in Baghdad filled with his followers.
"They want to turn it into mass graves similar to the previous ones conducted by the former regime," said the aide, Sahib al-Amery. "The occupation forces want to start a sectarian crisis on the pretext that there are Shiite militias."
The United States and Sadr have clashed frequently since the 2003 invasion, and some military officials have been calling for more aggressive moves against the Sadr-controlled Mahdi Army, which is considered to be a militia by nearly everyone in Iraq.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:40:15 PM
The best part is I am about to apply to OCS and there is a really good chance that I will be an officer, that just goes to show how farged up the Army is now.
Lifer
Quote from: SD_Eagle on October 05, 2006, 08:33:31 AM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on September 26, 2006, 09:40:15 PM
The best part is I am about to apply to OCS and there is a really good chance that I will be an officer, that just goes to show how farged up the Army is now.
Lifer
We shall see.
As Han Solo once said: "Better you than me"
Can't believe I beat DIO to this one:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/10/D8KM6GL80.html
Cheney can talk all he wants about victory, no one is listening. The U.S. has failed in Iraq. Utterly failed. 750,000 refugees, thousands and thousands of dead innocent people, all that money wasted, stolen and given to massive war corporations, all those dead U.S. soldiers. All the wounded, who will no doubt be forgotten by the U.S. government, just as all veterans have (expect when a parade is on order).
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/20/iraq.sadr.ap/index.html
QuoteBAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.<snip>
"I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude and I believe most Iraqis express that." - Bush on 60 Minutes.
I caught it last night mostly because i wanted to see the parents of the Duke Case. Bush was showing 60 minutes different landmarks in DC, he was reading a book about the history of Washington, DC. I used to like Bush but he looked like a 10 year old kid who just did a class report, and telling everyone he knew about what he learned.
Quote from: stalker on March 20, 2006, 10:25:10 PM
Bush has to get off his ass and realize poll numbers are meaningless to him now. Hw can't be re-elected. Just completely flatten most of the mid-east. Pave it over and take the oil. Why the hell not? Who could stop us if we had the will to do it completely?
Yes, he can.
We don't have the will to do what's necessary now.
QuotePresident Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said today "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to the war.
Scumbag.
take it easy, she's just re-posting a quote.
weak
i felt good about it, and that's all that really matters
The coalition of the willing gets weaker and weaker. Slovakia troops out.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/27/content_5662652.htm
All 110 of them.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2855506
QuoteFeb 7, 2007 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it was checking reports that a helicopter, possibly a Chinook transport aircraft, had either crashed or made an emergency landing near Baghdad on Wednesday.
An Iraqi policeman who had been to the area northwest of Baghdad told Reuters he had seen wreckage on the ground. One witness who said he saw the helicopter come down also said he had seen wreckage.
U.S. soldiers had moved in to secure the area, witnesses said.
"We have heard about this ... but I cannot confirm anything at this stage," said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
The U.S. military said on Sunday it was adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over a two-week period.
Those helicopters were shot down in four separate incidents in which 21 U.S. servicemen and private security contractors were killed. Dozens of U.S. helicopters have come down, some hit by missiles or gunfire, in four years of fighting in Iraq.
But the high number lost in such a short time had raised questions about whether militants had changed tactics or were using more sophisticated weapons.
At least two witnesses said they saw the helicopter, which they described as a twin-rotor Chinook, come down on Wednesday amid gunfire from the ground. Some witnesses said they saw smoke before the helicopter went down, while others said they had not seen any.
The Chinook has two crew and can carry up to 55 passengers. They are used widely to transport troops and cargo around Iraq.
I bet the copters are coming down because the insurgents are getting better weapons from Saudi Arabia, but Bush will claim they're coming from Iran instead. It's his M.O., the dirty motherfarger.
edit: confirmed
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2855643
QuoteA Sea Knight helicopter went down northwest of Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said, the fifth helicopter lost in Iraq in just over two weeks.
The CH-46 helicopter went down about 20 miles northwest of the capital, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said, but he declined to comment on casualties.
what a goddamned mess
a documentary just debuted at sundance last week that get s a rack of bush officials on record as to how they got completely ignored and trivialized by the neo cons in the admin re: the invasion of iraq
armitage
jay garner
paul hughes and others all speak out
should be interesting and infuriating all at the same time
Disgrace (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17168266/)
QuoteWASHINGTON - The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted or otherwise overcharged taxpayers billions of dollars, federal investigators said Thursday.
The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee of $10 billion in spending that was wasteful or poorly tracked. They pointed to numerous instances in which Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.
That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Given "the need for continued support for deployed forces, it is essential for DOD to address these shortcomings if the department is to increase its return on its investment in Iraq," said David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, in prepared testimony.
The auditors' joint appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Congress is preparing for a showdown with President Bush next month over his budget request of nearly $100 billion to pay for more U.S. troops in Iraq.
Also testifying Thursday were Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, and William Reed, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency.
$5 billion in bad paperwork
According to their testimony, the investigators:
Found overpricing and waste in Iraq contracts amounting to $4.9 billion since the Defense Contract Audit Agency began its work in 2003, although some of that money has since been recovered. Another $5.1 billion in expenses were charged without proper documentation.
Urged the Pentagon to reconsider its growing reliance on outside contractors to run the nation's wars and reconstruction efforts. Layers of subcontractors, poor documentation and lack of strong contract management are rampant and promote waste even after the GAO first warned of problems 15 years ago.
Pointed to growing Iraqi sectarian violence as a significant factor behind wasted U.S. dollars. Iraqi officials must begin to take primary responsibility for reconstruction efforts, an uncertain goal given widespread corruption in Iraq and the local government's inability to fund projects.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the panel, has pledged scores of investigations of fraud, waste and abuse — with subpoenas if necessary — on the Bush administration's watch. He decried the overpricing identified by the DCAA, a figure that has tripled since last fall.
Halliburton cited
Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President D Cheney.
"According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said. "It's no wonder taxpayers across the country are fed up and demanding real oversight."
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the top Republican on the panel, pointed to ongoing, "systemic" problems in Iraq contracting.
"This much is clear: Poor security, an arcane, ill-suited management structure, and frequent management changes have produced a succession of troubled acquisitions," he said.
Bowen said his office had expanded an investigation of police training contracts awarded by the State Department. An audit by Bowen last month found tens of millions of dollars wasted on a DynCorp International contract to build an Olympic-size swimming pool for a police academy in Baghdad that has yet to be used. The pool as well as VIP trailers were ordered by Iraqi officials but never authorized by the State Department.
totally predictable
Bush Cheney et. al ought to be impeached, jailed, shot. They're the traitors, not people like me who called bullshtein from day one.
Especially this government, Bush lover.
As you probably know, the U.K. has announced a timetable for withdrawal. Here's a link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/21/uk.iraq.troops/index.html
Denmark will also remove their troops:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/21/denmark.iraq/index.html
worst president ever
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/forkush/cavuto-20060224-2.jpg)
Ah, no. Unless you're Bush Cheney and friends, in which case it's great because you can sell arms to both sides.
Fox Noise!!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1640389.ece
If you ask McCain, things are getting better in Iraq. If you ask the Red Cross (or anyone NOT running on a pro-war republican platform), things are getting worse in Iraq.
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00156/iraq_2_156697a.jpg)
Dude's truck was destroyed by a military vehicle (U.S. Tank or some such..there are no other military vehicles). Have a nice day, Iraqi dude trying to survive.
QuoteLife for ordinary Iraqis is getting worse as they try to live with a poor healthcare system, little electricity, a shortage of drinking water and bodies left lying on the streets in unsanitary conditions, according to a report by the Red Cross.
After some of the most intense fighting in Baghdad for two months yesterday, which saw a heavy exchange of gunfire between insurgents and the US military, the bodies of twenty insurgents were still lying in the streets of the capital today.
The report by the Red Cross, published today, said: "The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population. Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions that are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions. Every day, dozens of people are killed and many more wounded.
"Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions that are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions. The plight of Iraqi civilians is a daily reminder of the fact that there has long been a failure to respect their lives and dignity."
A mother living in Baghdad told the Red Cross that dead bodies were a constant reminder of the conflict. "The most important thing that anyone could do would be to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning. No one dares touching them," she said.
"For us it is unbearable to have to expose our children to such images every day as we try to bring them to school."
This morning a community leader from the Jihad area of west Baghdad pleaded with the Iraqi Interior Ministry to clear the bodies from the streets in the area. He said: "We have five bodies in the street and nobody dares to collect them."
Although the army does most of the fighting, it is left to the police to clear away the dead bodies.
Since the bombing of the Shia shrine of Samarra in February 2006 the increase in violence has seen more than 100,000 people displaced and an ever greater burden on the failing infrastructure in the country, according to the Red Cross report.
Food, electricity and drinking water shortages have created a situation in Iraq which adversely affects everyone in the country, whether or not they are directly impacted by the violence. Displacement, as families flee the most dangerous regions of Iraq, has increased the pressure on services in other parts of the country.
Abu Ahmed, from a displaced family said: "My family is Shiite. We live together with a Sunni family. Both families were forced to leave their homes by militias. There are 30 of us, sharing the same living space: 14 children and 14 adults, and grannies on both sides. We live on an abandoned construction site and protect ourselves from the weather with plastic sheets."
During the fighting yesterday in the Fadhil district of central Baghdad four Apache helicopters were hit, but not brought down. Sixteen US soldiers were wounded.
James Hider, The Times correspondent in Baghdad, explained that the infrastructure in Iraq was in crisis and showed little sign of improvement. "The entire healthcare system has collapsed. There are so few supplies that there are just 30 intensive care units in Baghdad and people are getting shot every day," he said. "If you get shot in Iraq, they'll patch you up, but you are going to die as there is no after care."
"There are common complaints about water supply and the electricity is off all day, it hasn't improved since the war. There was a demonstration in Sadr City over the lack of clean water and basic services."
The Red Cross report is published on the same day as reports from Oxfam and the Oxford Research Group claiming UK foreign policy in Iraq is fermenting further radical support and undermining the UK's international reputation.
Of all the issues in Iraq, one motherfarger's truck doesn't even rate. Bleeding heart nancy.
Bullshtein. It rates huge. Everyone in that country is living under U.S. gunpoint. Troops and Mercs run wild through the streets running people over, shooting at anyone who gets near them. They destroy property like this guys truck like it means nothing, and leave him to figure out how to feed his family without it.
It matters huge.
It matters huge to hippies that look at everything as microcosms and can't grasp the big picture.
Then again, you probably value machinery over lives. Hell, you probably are secretly rooting for the war to continue, so the world can work towards the pesky overpopulation issue. Marxist douche.
This IS the big picture, Nazi Moneylover. Dead bodies in the streets every day. U.S. Troops killing people for not getting out of the road fast enough. Private property, like this poor bastiches truck (which is likely is main livelihood) destroyed without reason.
The invaders are not welcome for a million microcosm reasons like these that compose the Big Picture you warmongers like to preach about.
The big picture is that the war is crime against humanity for which the U.S. and especially Bush/Cheney should be held accountable.
Nazi Moneylover.
allah forbid someone else's truck gets destroyed! What a tragedy it would be!
Hippie douche.
Do you think this guy has more, or less, reason to support the insurgents/militate against the invaders after his truck/livelihood were destroyed?
hint...go with 'more'
The point is that there shouldn't be any insurgents, because the U.S. presence there should already be next to nothing. But as long as they're there, they might as well blow up some Iraqis' trucks, right? Right.
They ran it over douchebag, they didn't blow it up. It was like, in their way or something. So they just drove over it.
Winning the hearts and minds of the average Iraqi.
I don't think they're even pretending to care about the average Iraqi anymore. They only had to do that until they'd found Saddam... or killed him at the latest. Since he's out of the picture, I don't think they can pretend to be looking out for the poor, unfortunate Iraqis. It's about witchhunting and oil. That's it. farg that guy's truck.
You don't think they're even pretending to care? You're not paying attention. Go read the last week's news..in particular find McCain on how much life for the average Iraqi is improving, and how important that progress is.
You wish they weren't claiming that. Trouble is, they are.
McCain doesn't count.
Your momface doesn't count.
Truer words have never been spoken with such utter doucheness.
The Duchess is here?!
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/050207_TheCostofWar/
what to do with 456 billion dollars?
Quote from: Diomedes on April 13, 2007, 09:11:10 AM
Bullshtein. It rates huge. Everyone in that country is living under U.S. gunpoint. Troops and Mercs run wild through the streets running people over, shooting at anyone who gets near them. They destroy property like this guys truck like it means nothing, and leave him to figure out how to feed his family without it.
It matters huge.
Everyone in Iraq is living under our gunpoint? Troops running wild in the streets? You really are clueless.
Quote from: Diomedes on April 13, 2007, 09:46:24 AM
Do you think this guy has more, or less, reason to support the insurgents/militate against the invaders after his truck/livelihood were destroyed?
hint...go with 'more'
That guy will most likely get paid for his truck.
Quote from: tnt4philly on May 15, 2007, 03:54:13 PM
Quote from: Diomedes on April 13, 2007, 09:11:10 AM
Bullshtein. It rates huge. Everyone in that country is living under U.S. gunpoint. Troops and Mercs run wild through the streets running people over, shooting at anyone who gets near them. They destroy property like this guys truck like it means nothing, and leave him to figure out how to feed his family without it.
It matters huge.
Everyone in Iraq is living under our gunpoint? Troops running wild in the streets? You really are clueless.
Dude...a friendly piece of advice. Don't waste your time with this.
The invaders are not welcome for a million microcosm reasons like these that compose the Big Picture you warmongers like to preach about.
pretty much....but theyll have you believe that the regular iraqi citizen wants us there and that its a couple thousand terrorists in from iran/syria that are causing all the trouble
even tho theres evidence that goes back centuries as to how western colonialists are treated when they try to go into the middle east
worst invasion ever
Quote from: Butchers Bill on May 15, 2007, 04:12:13 PM
Quote from: tnt4philly on May 15, 2007, 03:54:13 PM
Quote from: Diomedes on April 13, 2007, 09:11:10 AM
Bullshtein. It rates huge. Everyone in that country is living under U.S. gunpoint. Troops and Mercs run wild through the streets running people over, shooting at anyone who gets near them. They destroy property like this guys truck like it means nothing, and leave him to figure out how to feed his family without it.
It matters huge.
Everyone in Iraq is living under our gunpoint? Troops running wild in the streets? You really are clueless.
Dude...a friendly piece of advice. Don't waste your time with this.
I know dealing with people that think they know everything about Iraq because of what they see in the news is pretty futile, but sometimes it is like a train wreck.
Quote from: ice grillin you on May 15, 2007, 04:42:36 PM
The invaders are not welcome for a million microcosm reasons like these that compose the Big Picture you warmongers like to preach about.
pretty much....but theyll have you believe that the regular iraqi citizen wants us there and that its a couple thousand terrorists in from iran/syria that are causing all the trouble
even tho theres evidence that goes back centuries as to how western colonialists are treated when they try to go into the middle east
worst invasion ever
You are right, the average Iraqi citizen does not want us there, but they do realize that we are needed. It is kind of like making the statement that all the troops want to leave Iraq and come home. DUH, of course they do, but most of them know that they have a job to finish, and are willing to stick it out.
actually i believe that most of the troops want to come AND think they should go home AND think the US has no business being over there...most of the country believes that the difference is we are allowed to say it...no troops can/would ever utter such a stance....at least not on record
The old white racist party is having a debate on their propoganda channel. Should be suicideworthy.
Quote from: ice grillin you on May 15, 2007, 08:13:24 PM
actually i believe that most of the troops want to come AND think they should go home AND think the US has no business being over there...most of the country believes that the difference is we are allowed to say it...no troops can/would ever utter such a stance....at least not on record
You are right, I know very few in the military that would ever publically say anything negative, but we do talk among ourselves, and very few think the way you think they do.
bullshtein
I've got 45,000 Marines in my back yard and damn near all of them will tell you this war sucks and is pointless. And they'll say it publicly too.
Quote from: tnt4philly on May 15, 2007, 09:05:29 PMI know very few in the military
Perhaps this sums your post up best?
Quote from: Sgt PSN on May 15, 2007, 09:22:55 PM
I've got 45,000 Marines in my back yard and damn near all of them will tell you this war sucks and is pointless. And they'll say it publicly too.
I have a Marine has a roomate and he has no opinion. He does what they tell him. So there. Boo.
Quote from: MDS on May 15, 2007, 09:27:24 PMI have a Marine has a roomate and he has no opinion. He does what they tell him. So there. Boo.
You have a Marine?
In my backyard no less.
What have you made it kill so far?
The usual, some Jews, mentally retarded kids, old people, teh AIDS.
I've got 45,000 Marines in my back yard and damn near all of them will tell you this war sucks and is pointless. And they'll say it publicly too
wouldnt you agree sarge that there is a small segement of the military that are the gung ho send me anywhere for any reason no matter how wrong or right and let me kill people...the kind you often see portrayed in movies
but by and large the military is no different than the population at large in that they are capable of looking at the big picture and making a rational intelligent call on whether iraq is a place we should have gone and should be in
people too often peg them as mindless robots who cant seperate duty in carrying out a mission and the mission itself
Quote from: ice grillin you on May 15, 2007, 09:33:46 PM
I've got 45,000 Marines in my back yard and damn near all of them will tell you this war sucks and is pointless. And they'll say it publicly too
wouldnt you agree sarge that there is a small segement of the military that are the gung ho send me anywhere for any reason no matter how wrong or right and let me kill people...the kind you often see portrayed in movies
Well, yes and no. Oddly enough, I encountered more Marines in the late 90's who had the the gung ho mentality who wanted to just go anywhere and kill people than I do now. I can only imagine that's because there was very little going on in the world in the late 90's that required our attention so Marines were just itchy for action. Now that they're getting it, they don't want it.
Quote from: MDS on May 15, 2007, 09:33:08 PM
The usual, some Jews, mentally retarded kids, old people, teh AIDS.
how could you leave out the blacks or the poor (insofar as they are different?)
Should I grab my Klan hood and swing by igy's house?
No doubt he's ready and waiting with pants hanging off his ass and "an original" DVD of Stop Snitching to prove his membership.
Quote from: MDS on May 15, 2007, 09:33:08 PM
The usual, some Jews, mentally retarded kids, old people, teh AIDS.
Funny. :-D
Quote from: Diomedes on May 15, 2007, 09:24:19 PM
Quote from: tnt4philly on May 15, 2007, 09:05:29 PMI know very few in the military
Perhaps this sums your post up best?
Great job of taking my post way out of context. With over 25 years in the military, I think I know a few more than the average person.
A kid in my neighborhood was back from Iraq on leave. I've known him for about 4 years now. His Mom just died so he got leave to come home to the funeral before going back to Iraq. So I picked his brain a little bit about what is going on over there.
Described a scene where they were going to search someones house for some reason. The man of the house resisted and punched him in the face, but he had no weapons. They held the guy down and cuffed him with zippy ties. They proceded to perform their jobs uninterrupted. They cut the guy lose when they were done. The guy they tied down filed a complaint somehow and he actually lost rank over the incident. He was very bitter about it. The intensity that this kid now carried with him was very disturbing though.
From the soldiers perspective he was trying to do the job they sent him to do. The people there don't want him there and he doesn't have a lot of repect for them because of his day to day struggles with them. He's a 19 year old white kid from Missouri and he's now added quite a few prejudice's to his pshyche. I imagine this is a common problem for guys over there.
From the Man who was zippy tied, he was just trying to protect his home. He most likely resented the intrusion like any of us would. I see a lot of lose lose coming out of this situation.
Of course this is all from the soldiers perspective and there are two sides to every story. It was a glimpse for me though. Certainly different from what I experianced in Storm.
a limited action
but really
not good
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19070463/
Its not Iraq but did anyone see the National Geographic: Inside the Green Beret's special? It was really an eye opening 10 day documentary, the ending sucked though
Quote from: Butchers Bill on July 17, 2007, 05:03:31 PMThere are a lot of good things happening in Iraq...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/18/opinion/ednivat.php
Life in the 'red zone'
By Anne Nivat
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
It was hard enough to organize my trip from France to Baghdad. But once there, it proved even tougher to get to get into the "green zone," the American military and diplomatic headquarters and construction site of a new American embassy that will be the largest in the world.
I had an appointment with an aide to General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq. A press officer offered to meet me at one of the main checkpoints. I advised him by cell phone how he would recognize me: "Don't look for a Western-looking woman. I'm dressed like an Iraqi."
He met me in full combat gear. Between the first checkpoint and the parking lot of the U.S. Embassy, still based in Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace, a distance of about a mile, I was checked six times. I had come from the "red zone."
The "red zone": that is to say, all of Baghdad outside the fortified American enclave. The "no-go zone." The sprawling capital city that is home to more than 10 million people. That's where I lived for two weeks to get "the other side" of the story. To do that, I had no choice but to blend in.
Dressed in a loose black tunic with long sleeves called an abbaya, I strapped on sandals, tucked my hair under a scarf tied at the chin and blended into the crowded streets of Baghdad. Only my contacts knew that I was a foreigner and a reporter, and I didn't tell anyone where I was staying or for how long. I was careful never to speak in public.
My contact and I got around in a gray Peugeot. Ali, whom I knew from a previous trip, had traded in his BMW because it was too conspicuous - residents of Baghdad have to consider how every detail of life could impact on their very survival. They assume as low a profile as they can, then wait fatalistically for the day that "something happens."
"The only sure thing here is that we have lost our trust. Can you believe that we are terrorized in our own homes?" Ali, 32, chose to remain in Baghdad while the majority of his friends and relatives joined the hoards of refugees in Syria and Jordan (for the less fortunate) or Sweden (for the others).
"I am Shiite," Ali said. "My uncles and cousins were murdered by Saddam's regime. I wanted desperately to get rid of him. But today, if Saddam's feet appeared in front of me, I would fall to my knees and kiss them!"
The temperature outside is nearly 130 degrees, but the capital has no electricity most of the time. Those who own private generators have become the most powerful people in every district. They sell the precious energy eight hours a day.
On the eastern bank of the Tigris River, where I stayed, the government could provide electricity only between 6 and 7 a.m. All the appliances would burst into action, waking up the household. For those who can afford it, a small generator fills in the gaps in power. But a generator consumes up to 20 gallons of gasoline a day, an enormous amount in a time of shortages.
Under Saddam Hussein, 40 gallons of gasoline cost half a dollar. Today, you'd have to pay $75 for the same quantity on the black market - or you could stand in line for four to five days at a gas station and pay about $35.
"You spend all your time preoccupied with either getting gasoline or getting electricity - not to mention worrying about violence," says Ali. "If they go out, my sisters could be kidnapped or killed by a bomb.I travel by car only if it is absolutely necessary."
Day after day, morning till night, residents of Baghdad are confined in an oppressive state of waiting. Because there is nothing else to do and no one to trust, everyone hunkers down. Sometimes they race out on foot to buy food or other necessities, but mostly they sit and watch television.
Of Ali's six sisters, only two are married. Even in these troubled times, Ali's father continues to receive "applicants" for the other four. But he has decided not to consent to their marriage so long as the U.S. Army is in the country and the Iraqi militias are killing each other. Better, he feels, to keep them safe at home rather than let them move elsewhere, even if it's to a nice family with a beautiful home, but in a district that may be more dangerous.
Mustansiriya is a mixed Sunni-Shiite district which has begun to splinter under sectarian pressures. More and more Sunni families are moving to the other side of the river, where there is a Sunni majority.
One afternoon, we meet a widow of 30, mother of seven, who is about to leave. "I am going to exchange houses with a Shiite family from Adhamiya," she says. That's a stronghold of the Sunni insurrection, the last place Saddam appeared in public after the Americans took Baghdad.
Today, the Americans are building a tall, strong wall around the district, purportedly to protect the Sunnis inside from the Shiite militias around them. "I'm leaving my furniture here, and they're leaving theirs in their home. After that, we'll see. . ."
I learn that this type of housing exchange is becoming more common as the country segregates itself along sectarian lines. A new breed of real-estate agents has developed, with lists of properties available for such exchanges. Interested parties sign a contract in which they agree to live in the house of the other family "until the situation improves."
When will that be? "Even the Americans can't answer that question," says Ali.
Everyone is afraid of being kidnapped, tortured or seized. Many people have received threats on their cell phones, which are the insurgents' preferred means of communication.
Iraq was the last country in the Middle East to get cellular service. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a mobile phone has become the top status symbol in Iraq. However, since the intensification of sectarian violence, cell phones have also become the means most used to send threats (by text message) or to demand a ransom (by calling the family of the kidnapped hostage). People often change their numbers before they give up altogether and move to a safer district.
Today is Friday, the Muslim holy day. To avoid crowding at the mosques, there is a curfew from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The city practically comes to a standstill during this interval.
I must wait until mid-afternoon to return to Sadr City, the stronghold of Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who opposes the American presence in Iraq. I plan to meet a woman doctor who works in the emergency room of the Ali Ben Ali Talib Hospital, one of 14 public hospitals in Baghdad. Rana is only 26, but one doesn't need to have practiced medicine a long time in Iraq to lose one's illusions.
"In this district, the patients don't respect us. They don't even bother to disarm when they come here, despite all the notices at the entrance," she says. "Sometimes doctors are directly threatened. You get used to it."
A non-practicing Shiite, Rana does not wear a veil. In blue jeans and a white blouse, her small, elegant silhouette is easily recognizable in the corridors of the hospital, where she spends four days a week.
It is not surprising that in this ultra-conservative district of Sadr City - an enclave entirely controlled by the Mahdi army, al-Sadr's militia - many of the patients, mostly illiterate, refuse to be treated by a female doctor.
Exasperated at repeatedly having to justify herself to the patients, Rana dared to go and complain to the representatives of Moktada, with the support of her veiled female colleagues.
To her own surprise, they took her side by not asking her to veil herself. That was probably because there is so great a shortage of doctors. Since 2003, more than 200 have fled the city, and the exodus continue.
Rana makes a bitter observation: "Besides those wounded by gunshots or victims of explosions and attacks, there are more and more cases of young women who have tried to commit suicide. For the most part, they have set themselves on fire with gasoline. They are brides who, in addition to the general tension in the country, cannot cope with their new family life."
Harassed, exhausted and filled with bitterness, Rana carries on. For $250 a month.
Just before I leave Baghdad by car for Erbil, in the northern Kurdish territory, to fly from there back to Europe, there is a second bomb attack on the Shiite Askariya mosque in Samarra, north of the capital.
An exceptional curfew is declared for 3 p.m. on only two hours notice, causing general panic. Crying women descend on cars, begging for rides to get home in time. Drivers abandon their vehicles in the congestion to get wherever they were going more quickly on foot. The curfew lasted four days - dragging Iraqis even further out of the world.
Anne Nivat is a French journalist whose books include "Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya" and "The Wake of War : Encounters with the People of Iraq and Afghanistan."
farging Disneyland Middle East, right
Joel? How about you head over there to help out??
be careful or we will bring democracy to your country
Quote from: Diomedes on July 18, 2007, 12:17:14 PM
farging Disneyland Middle East, right Joel? How about you head over there to help out??
Your empty rhetoric is as predicable as an Andy Reid game plan. Just because its not all bad in Iraq its now a Disneyland? ::)
And yeah, I've done my time in the military. Have you?
I didn't have any time to do.
You like this war, sign up again. Go over there and help make things better for Iraq, like Bush would want.
Quote from: Diomedes on July 18, 2007, 05:14:39 PM
I didn't have any time to do.
You like this war, sign up again. Go over there and help make things better for Iraq, like Bush would want.
I would have if I didn't have a couple screws in my right knee. I'd never pass the physical at this point.
chickenhawk
Quote from: Diomedes on July 18, 2007, 05:34:03 PM
chickenhawk
Don't you have a link for me to re-enlist to? Or some papers you can fax for me to sign up? :-D
more good news from Iraq:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq18jul18,0,428018.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Trench proposed around Kirkuk
The plan by U.S. and Iraqi leaders is aimed at keeping out bombers. In a Diyala village, 28 Shiites are slain.
By Tina Susman
Times Staff Writer
July 18, 2007
BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi officials Tuesday announced a ban on truck traffic into Kirkuk and proposed digging a trench around the northern city, where a series of bombs killed at least 76 people a day earlier.
The idea of encircling the city with a trench underscored fears that the violence in Baghdad and neighboring Diyala province will overtake the once-peaceful north as increased U.S. troop levels drive insurgents from the capital. Police in a village in Diyala said Tuesday that they suspected that Sunni Muslim militants chased out of the provincial capital of Baqubah were to blame for the slaying of 28 Shiite Muslims.
The Shiites were killed Monday night in Duwailiya. Police Col. Raghib Radhi said he thought the attackers had come from Baqubah, where a U.S. military offensive launched last month has targeted insurgents loyal to the Sunni militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Some gunmen wore Iraqi army uniforms, which authorities say is a common ploy by insurgents.
In Baghdad, at least 24 people died Tuesday in two car bombings, including one in the parking lot of the Iranian Embassy near the well-fortified Green Zone. Four people died in that attack. The other 20 victims were killed by a bomb that went off near a police patrol in east Baghdad, authorities said.
The unidentified bodies of 24 people, believed to be victims of sectarian death squads, were found across the capital, police reported.
At a meeting in Kirkuk, officials announced the indefinite truck ban and the digging of the trench, which already had been planned on the southwestern and western edges of the city. There was no indication of when the project would be finished. Similar plans have been suggested for Baghdad but never have come to fruition.
Kurdish leaders are hoping to make Kirkuk part of the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan and could be driven to isolate the city. The Iraqi Constitution calls for a referendum this year on whether Kirkuk should join the region. Few expect it to take place as scheduled because of logistical issues, but that has not lessened the Kurds' desire to claim the city as their own.
The U.S. military announced a major offensive in Al Anbar province involving 9,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops and focusing on towns on the western side of the Euphrates River. A military statement said the operation began Saturday and was aimed at preventing insurgents from establishing new bases in the area.
During a visit to the province's capital, Ramadi, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said such operations have led to a "sea change" in Iraq in terms of better security in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Several operations targeting Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are underway in the so-called belts around Baghdad. They began last month as the last of 28,500 additional troops sent to Iraq by President Bush settled into place.
Sunni-dominated Al Anbar has seen a turnaround as its tribal sheiks, who once harbored anti-U.S. militants, have turned against them and are cooperating with U.S. forces. The leader of the effort, Sheik Abdul Sattar Rishawi, told state-run Al Arabiya TV that it was being hampered by the Iraqi government.
"There is no ammunition and no arms from the government," said Rishawi, who heads the Anbar Salvation Council.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has expressed discomfort with the idea of arming tribes, saying this could create militias that might one day turn on his Shiite-led government.
Digging ditches around cities...now that IS progress. How much you wanna bet Halliburton or KBR gets the no bid contract to dig the moat, fargs the job up royally, and profits millions on it anyway?
Quote"I am Shiite," Ali said. "My uncles and cousins were murdered by Saddam's regime. I wanted desperately to get rid of him. But today, if Saddam's feet appeared in front of me, I would fall to my knees and kiss them!"
Wow.
Civilian casualties drop 36% in June (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1639815,00.html)
So Dio...nothing good is happening there at all? No schools or hospitals have been built? People can't vote? There are a lot of bad things happening there as well, but to say nothing good is happening is dishonest.
To be sure, the fate of the oil law remains uncertain as Iraq's parliament gets set to debate the legislation. It may stall like other political initiatives pressed by Washington, such as provincial elections and sectarian reconciliation. And violence may rise again. Sadr ordered a postponement, not an abandonment, of the march on Samarra. And the possibility of some terrible carnage in Iraq is always near. A few bad days of car bombings and murders could easily raise the civilian death toll in Iraq to numbers high enough to erase the gains. But for those watching Iraq's situation closely, even small and potentially ephemeral signs of progress are worth taking note of as the September deadline for the military's situation report nears.
after five years this is the progress we should salute...tell me youre joking
QuoteA few bad days of car bombings and murders could easily raise the civilian death toll in Iraq to numbers high enough to erase the gains.
Also - schools and hospitals have been built? Whoopee! Five years into this fiasco and most of Baghdad doesn't even have electricity on the regular.
Quote from: Jerome99RIP on July 19, 2007, 09:11:08 AM
QuoteA few bad days of car bombings and murders could easily raise the civilian death toll in Iraq to numbers high enough to erase the gains.
Also - schools and hospitals have been built? Whoopee! Five years into this fiasco and most of Baghdad doesn't even have electricity on the regular.
One thing people fail to realize is that there was barely enough capacity to provide everyone electricity before the war. The infrastructure in poor shape. And because many people can now afford appliances they couldn't before, demand is up even more.
all those george foreman grills that the iraqis are cooking their big macs on are sapping the countrys power dammit
Quote from: Butchers Bill on July 19, 2007, 09:00:51 AM
Civilian casualties drop 36% in June (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1639815,00.html)
You have some pretty low standards for good news. The only way this could possibly be considered good is because it's already so bad.
You're like W touting that his Texas schools have improved, nevermind they're so farging far behind all others that they could improve for years and still be the worst in the union.
Iraq is an unqualified disaster..
Quote from: ice grillin you on July 19, 2007, 09:47:54 AM
all those george foreman grills that the iraqis are cooking their big macs on are sapping the countrys power dammit
I was about to write a lengthy rebuttal to tnt's post but yours is much more succinct and humorous.
Too funny.
Quote from: ice grillin you on July 19, 2007, 09:47:54 AM
all those george foreman grills that the iraqis are cooking their big macs on are sapping the countrys power dammit
It knocks out the power.
painful
oh, look! more good news
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2007/07/20/ware.iraq.americas.militia.cnn
with friends like these, the U.S. stands no chance in hell of being respected by any civilized people
Now Dio, arming insurgents is always a goooood idea, especially insurgents who were killing our personnel not more than six months ago.
PS: Love the summary execution too. No messy trial or adherence to the rule of law... just cap the motherfarger after you make a joke. Hell, it's the American way!
Trading one set of problems for another....
A never ending circle. :-\
Quote from: Butchers Bill on July 17, 2007, 05:03:31 PMThere are a lot of good things happening in Iraq...
Quote from: Butchers Bill on July 19, 2007, 09:00:51 AM
Civilian casualties drop 36% in June (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1639815,00.html)
Casualties may have dropped, but daily attacks have increased, according to the Pentagon's own figures:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?rpc=401&storyId=N20416437
EXCLUSIVE-Daily attacks in Iraq hit new high in June
Fri 20 Jul 2007 22:12:58 BST
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - Attacks in Iraq last month reached their highest daily average since May 2003, showing a surge in violence as President George W. Bush completed a buildup of U.S. troops, Pentagon statistics show.
The data, obtained by Reuters from the Defense Department, showed an upward trend in daily attacks over the past four months, when U.S. and Iraqi forces were ramping up operations against insurgents and militants, including al Qaeda, in Iraq.
Pentagon officials were not immediately available to comment on the statistics.
The June numbers showed 5,335 attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, civilians and infrastructure.
June's total was 2.5 percent below an October 2006 peak of 5,472 attacks and slightly lower than the 5,365 attacks in May.
But because June has only 30 days, the average daily number of attacks was 177.8, higher than the 176.5 last October and 173.1 in May.
The Pentagon statistics, which come as pressure mounts in the U.S. Congress for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, depicted the most intensive month for daily attacks since Bush declared major combat operations at an end in May 2003.
Daily attacks rose as the Bush administration moved the last combat battalions into place for a security clampdown in Baghdad, part of a controversial U.S. strategy to stabilize Iraq with an additional 28,000 troops.
Bush and other senior officials have predicted that a rise in violence from insurgents and al Qaeda in Iraq would occur this summer as the so-called "surge" strategy takes hold.
A crucial report expected in September from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, could force a change in U.S. policy if it suggests the strategy is not working.
U.S. military commanders have sought to paint a more upbeat picture of events on the ground while pleading for additional time to determine whether the Bush strategy can succeed.
The statistics showed the 177.8 attacks per day in June were above the 157.5 in March, the lowest daily average for any month in 2007. Total monthly attack figures have also climbed to well over 5,000 from a low in February of 4,561.
Attacks last month were up 46 percent from a year earlier, with the statistics showing 3,642 attacks or 121.4 per day on average in June 2006.
The June 2007 statistics confirmed a significant decline in the targeting of Iraqi civilians, with such attacks falling 18 percent to 763 from a 2007 high of 932 in May.
Attacks on Iraqi security forces fell to 889 in June from 987 in May, while attacks on coalition forces rose about 7 percent to 3,671 from 3,423.
So I guess your good news is that lethality is down a smidge even as frequency of attack is up? You call that good things happening?
Or maybe this is your idea of good things happening in Iraq?
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22109346-5001028,00.html
QuoteA US Marine convicted of plotting to murder an Iraqi civilian outside Baghdad last year escaped a jail sentence for his crimes, the military said.
Trent Thomas, who was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap and murder Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania on April 26 last year, hugged his family after receiving a reduction in rank and bad conduct discharge....
Aww...the murderer got a hug.
I have a question for the guys here in the services. Many of you joined up before this particular war was going on but when you join up you certainly know that going to war is always a possibility, and in fact would be part of your job description. Knowing this, why did you sign up initially? To serve your country in some way? To get money for school? Not sure what else to do with your free time? It seems that none of you wants to go into battle, but you've chosen to go into a line of work where that is exactly what you are trained to do So what's the motivation?
This ought to be good.
I'm not really interested in Dio's commentary and I'm not trying to be condescending. I have friends and close relations in the service and their reasons vary pretty broadly but very few of them want to go into battle which seems curious to me since they chose to go into the profession of military defense (or offense, depending on how you look at it and who's in charge).
do you have a black friend too?
You're obsession with race is adorable and all, but try to stay on topic.
Now that U.S. failure in Iraq is obvious even to American Idol citizens, Bush Co. decide that the UN should be brought in. Wouldn't it be nice to see the U.N. say, 'farg you Cowboy. This is your shteinfest, you started it, you deal with it.' But they can't afford to do that, the disaster is too large to ignore. Still, here's to hoping they rub his face in shtein before they agree to do anything the U.S. asks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2030651920070720?feedType=RSS
Under pressure on Iraq, U.S. makes overtures to U.N.
Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:27PM EDT
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Under pressure to start withdrawing U.S. troops, the Bush administration wants the United Nations to play an expanded role in Iraq as a mediator both internally and with neighboring countries.
Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq who now represents Washington at the United Nations, wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Friday that the world body could "help internationalize the effort to stabilize the country."
"While reasonable people can differ on whether the coalition should have intervened against Saddam Hussein's regime, it is clear at this point that the future of Iraq will have a profound effect on the region and, in turn, on peace and stability in the world," Khalilzad wrote.
The U.S. overtures to the United Nations come as Bush and his generals appealed for more time to allow a surge in troop levels to bring stability to Iraq. The Democratic-led Congress has been pushing for a timetable to start withdrawing troops.
The United Nations has been deeply reluctant to work in Iraq since 23 of its top people were killed by a bomb at its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003.
But new U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, met U.S. President George W. Bush this week and promised U.N. help with rebuilding Iraq.
Khalilzad said Washington endorsed Ban's call for an expanded U.N. role. "The United Nations possesses certain comparative advantages for undertaking complex internal and regional mediation efforts," he said.
His remarks were in sharp contrast to the war of words between Washington and the United Nations in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion and in the years since then. Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan said later the invasion was "illegal."
NEW ENVOY
Khalilzad noted that a new U.N. envoy for Iraq would be appointed in the coming weeks. "With the right envoy and mandate (the United Nations) is the best vehicle to address the two fundamental issues driving the crisis in Iraq," he said.
First, on the domestic side: "In the role of mediator, it has inherent legitimacy and the flexibility to talk to all parties, including elements outside the political process."
"Second, the United Nations is also uniquely suited to work out a regional framework to stabilize Iraq," he said.
"Several of Iraq's neighbors -- not only Syria and Iran but also some friends of the United States -- are pursuing destabilizing policies," he said. "The United States supports a new mandate that creates a United Nations-led multilateral diplomatic process to contain the regional competition that is adding fuel to the fire of Iraq's internal conflict."
Iraq has expressed concern about a major Turkish troop buildup on its northern border which Ankara, a NATO ally of Washington, has said comes in response to its concerns over Kurdish rebels from Turkey based over the border in Iraq.
There are also suspicions that several countries in the region, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, are funding parties in the sectarian conflict between Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites that has killed tens of thousands of people.
The United Nations is already involved in the International Compact with Iraq, a partnership with Baghdad and the international community involving debt relief and other economic support. In May, Ban held a meeting with 60 nations, including Iraq's key debtors, in Sharm al-Sheikh.
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Quote from: rjs246 on July 20, 2007, 07:21:45 PM
I have a question for the guys here in the services. Many of you joined up before this particular war was going on but when you join up you certainly know that going to war is always a possibility, and in fact would be part of your job description. Knowing this, why did you sign up initially? To serve your country in some way? To get money for school? Not sure what else to do with your free time? It seems that none of you wants to go into battle, but you've chosen to go into a line of work where that is exactly what you are trained to do So what's the motivation?
I signed up because it was something I always wanted to do. People always say they support the troops, well I was one of those people, but I figured there is no better way to support the troops than to join them. Also I was offered a very nice sign up package. Since I was a college grad, they are repaying my student loans, less the interest. I also got a $20,000 cash bonus, as well as increased rank(E-4).
As far as wanting to go to battle that is kind of another reason I signed up, I guess a self test of sorts. I know some people call it crazy but that is just who I am. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of this administrations policies, but it is my job.
I can't comment on this war as I've been out a while but I did sign up because I was pretty idealistic as a 19 year old. I bought into the fight for freedom thing. The college money was an added bonus but I also wanted a career. Even though I don't work in my rate I wouldn't be where I am now without it. I think my military on the job training thing was better then any college I could have taken as far as life experiance and working in the real world. I was caught up in jets and airplanes too and the Navy let me fly on and work on them. They sold me with a lot of different things I guess.
Also I wanted to go over and "fight" in Gulf war one and got some mission time over there. Things were so much simpler then. Now that I'm a little older I would not want my kids to join the military. Not just because they are sent into harms way because of bad policies either. Mainly I think the Pentagon is currently being run by a bunch of idiots. As a soldier your willing to be put in harms way for an ideal but I think they get really jaded by the way things are run. That is the impression I'm getting from friends I still have in the Army. Of course I've not done a full out scientific poll or anything. My opin is based on my experiance.
I joined 20 years ago, and got out 10 years ago. Back in my day, the idea of war was Grenada, with knowledge that something big could possibly happen. I was in during Gulf War I, but never went into that part of the world.
At 19, I had flunked out of college and was wasting my life in a nowhere job and no money. I'm smart, but I farged up. So, I joined the military at 21 to a) get my self straightened out, b) finish college, and c) get training. I also grew up with a pretty strong run in patriotism, so that was a bonus for me knowing I was one of the ones that doing a part for my country. Idealistic? Sure. Also, I knew war could happen, and I would go if tasked.
Joining the military was the best decision I ever made. I did straighten up, I finished not only my bachelor's degree by going to night school, but it gave me the discipline to get my MBA also through night school. I received top notch training that allows me to earn a comfortable living now. It also allowed me to see the world (well, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines anyway), and I also got my case of the crazies out of me. The second best choice I ever made was leaving the military. I got what I wanted out of it, and it got my service. Fair trade.
I'm a big believer in the military for young adults that need some focus and maturity. I think it's a great thing for learning about life. My oldest son isn't medically able to join because he's a diabetic, but I wish he would be able. Even 4 years is a great lesson in life that will last forever.
Thanks for the answers guys. I was just curious I guess.
Little late but here's my answer: I was at a dead end job rebuilding tranny's at my Uncles shop and wanted a change. Always wanted to go to college (specifically PSU) but never had the discipline to get good grades in high school and neither of my parents had the money to pay for shtein. Figured by joining the Navy I'd get college money and a chance to see the world and experience something different. Never gave going to war much thought after I joined. As far as serving my country and all that other nonsense yeah its nice to say that but I'm a selfish prick and joined to better myself. I met a lot of people that joined because of 9/11 but just considered them brainwashed.
Quote from: Father Demon on July 21, 2007, 03:11:58 PM
I'm a big believer in the military for young adults that need some focus and maturity. I think it's a great thing for learning about life. My oldest son isn't medically able to join because he's a diabetic, but I wish he would be able. Even 4 years is a great lesson in life that will last forever.
Its really a great option, join after highschool and you're done by the age of 21/22. Even if you hate it the aggrevation is worth the VA benefits you get for the rest of your life.
As a Canadian I find this well...interesting...as the amount (few in comparison to the US) of Canadian troops are killed in Afghanistan continues to grow. I've never served however I come from a family where my grandfather served in WWI and my father in WWII. I am great full and thank full to all those who do serve. No matter the cause I believe that we support and thank those who serve for us.
BPJ
King Bush revokes due process (http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5608S) for those who openly oppose the war, effectively making protest illegal.
I'm one of those guys who joined to serve the country. I wanted to keep my civilian job so I joined the Air National Guard. It didn't hurt that I went medical so there was low risk of me actually having to shoot someone. (I qualify with the 9mil but we would have to be in a world of hurt if you want my marksmenship).
Anyway, it is one of the best things I have ever done. I have met some of the best people in the military. I have also met some that are just in it for the college but they never stay long. I actually think the Guard should cut back on some of the education benefits to get rid of those people. I would rather have less people who are good than more numbers who are looking to get out of any deployment.
Video: Philly protesting the war and Bush's visit (http://www.philly.com/philly/multimedia/8729937.html)
150 protest (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20070726_About_150_protestors_chanting__quot_George_Bush__No__Peace_Now_quot__gathered_outside_the_Philadelphia_Marriott_in_Center_City_today_where_President_Bush_was_addressing_a_national_group_of_conservative_state_legislators_.html)
(http://media.philly.com/images/20070726_bushproteststaff_3.jpg)
I was turning onto Vine St Expressway around 1000 and Cops were all over there. It's like 8 blocks away and Bush had to be gone by then, in fact, probably heading South to the airport to leave for DC.
I did my part by yelling Bush is an icehole out of my window, to no one in particular. America wins.
MDS with the bold drive by profanity.
I'm that farging tough.
you go girl
I was even wearing my Wookie costume.
Current U.S. death count for July is 73, according to Yahoo. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070731/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
Still rather bad, but better than it has been.
wrong thread, and 74 by the count I follow...but whatever
...to put the figure in a bit of perspective..the last time monthly U.S. military deaths in Iraq was this low (or lower) was November of last year (70). October of last year was a high number (102) but May thru September of last year each logged fewer deaths than this month. Go back even further and you'll see most months had lower kill rates than July '07.
Of 43 different monthly death totals since U.S. soldiers have been killing and being killed in Iraq, July '07 ranks as the 18th most deadly* (tied with April '03, which was much mourned at the time as a deadly period, if your memory hole hasn't swallowed that little media blip).
Yay military industrial complex.
*In straight numbers, out of 53 months in Iraq, July '07 is 21st or 22nd highest death toll (tie with April '03).
well, it turns out that the figure for July was 81....so I guess the good news in Iraq is qualified...
July number has been corrected down to 80.
in other good news from Iraq...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=A0WTUfuA8LRG4DIAjwys0NUE
QuoteIraqi power grid nearing collapse
By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 58 minutes ago
Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday.
Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz al-Shimari said power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country are the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he said.
Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that. The water supply in the capital has also been severely curtailed by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.
Karbala province south of Baghdad has been without power for three days, causing water mains to go dry in the provincial capital, the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
"We no longer need television documentaries about the Stone Age. We are actually living in it. We are in constant danger because of the filthy water and rotten food we are having," said Hazim Obeid, who sells clothing at a stall in the Karbala market.
Electricity shortages are a perennial problem in Iraq, even though it sits atop one of the world's largest crude oil reserves. The national power grid became decrepit under Saddam Hussein because his regime was under U.N. sanctions after the Gulf War and had trouble buying spare parts or equipment to upgrade the system.
The power problems are only adding to the misery of Iraqis, already suffering from the effects of more than four years of war and sectarian violence. Outages make life almost unbearable in the summer months, when average daily temperatures reach between 110 and 120 degrees.
One of the biggest problems facing the national grid is the move by provinces to disconnect their power plants from the system, reducing the overall amount of electricity being generated for the entire country. Provinces say they have no choice because they are not getting as much electricity in return for what they produce, mainly because the capital requires so much power.
"Many southern provinces such as Basra, Diwaniyah, Nassiriyah, Babil have disconnected their power plants from the national grid. Northern provinces, including Kurdistan, are doing the same," al-Shimari said. "We have absolutely no control over some areas in the south," he added.
"The national grid will collapse if the provinces do not abide by rules regarding their share of electricity. Everybody will lose and there will be no electricity winner," al-Shimari said.
He complained that the central government was unable to do anything about provincial power stations pulling out of the national system, or the fact some provinces were failing to take themselves off the supply grid once they had consumed their daily ration of electricity.
Najaf provincial spokesman Ahmed Deibel confirmed to The Associated Press Sunday that the gas turbine generator there had been removed from the national grid. He said the plant produced 50 megawatts while the province needed at least 200 megawatts.
"What we produce is not enough even for us. We disconnected it from the national grid three days ago because the people in Baghdad were getting too much, leaving little electricity for Najaf," he said.
Compounding the problem, al-Shimari said there are 17 high-tension lines running into Baghdad but only two were operational. The rest had been sabotaged.
"What makes Baghdad the worst place in the country is that most of the lines leading into the capital have been destroyed. That is compounded by the fact that Baghdad has limited generating capacity," al-Shimari said.
"When we fix a line, the insurgents attack it the next day," he added.
Fuel shortages are also a major problem. In Karbala, provincial spokesman Ghalib al-Daami said a 50-megawatt power station had been shut down because of a lack of fuel, causing the entire province to be without water and electricity for the past three days.
He said sewage was seeping above ground in nearly half the provincial capital because pump trucks used to clean septic tanks have been unable to operate due to gasoline shortages. The sewage was causing a health threat to citizens and contaminating crops in the region.
Many people who normally would rely on small home generators for electricity can't afford to buy fuel. Gasoline prices have shot up to nearly $5 a gallon, Karbala residents say, a price that puts the fuel out of range for all but the wealthy.
"We wait for the sunset to enjoy some coolness," said Qassim Hussein, a 31-year-old day laborer in Karbala. "The people are fed-up. There is no water, no electricity, there is nothing, but death. I've even had more trouble with my wife these last three days. Everybody is on edge."
Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran. But oil production has been hampered by insurgent and saboteur attacks, ranging from bombing pipelines to siphoning off oil. The attacks have cost the country billions of dollars since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Dilapidated infrastructure has also hindered refining, forcing Iraq to import large amounts of kerosene and other oil products.
The electricity problems come as leaders are trying to deal with a political crisis that erupted when the country's largest bloc of Sunni political parties withdrew from the government.
President Bush called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Vice President Adel Abdel-Mahdi to urge them to try to preserve political unity in the country, where the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under a stiff challenge from rival political forces and insurgents.
Talabani, a Kurd, and Abdel-Mahdi, a Shiite, provided few details of the conversations in statements released by their offices. But both men have been involved in trying to solve the crisis.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced the death of a Marine during combat Thursday in Iraq's western Anbar province.
The U.S. military also issued a statement saying its forces killed four suspects and captured 33 others Saturday in raids in northern Iraq and along the Tigris River Valley.
In northern Iraq, a prison riot was brought under control two days after it broke out when Iraqi guards prepared to move inmates into an isolation unit and U.S. soldiers surrounded the facility.
The riot at Badoosh prison outside Mosul, about 220 miles northwest of Baghdad, involved nearly 65 inmates. Iraqi guards killed one inmate who was trying to escape from the prison yard and wounded two others inside the prison, the U.S. military said in a statement.
The U.S. military said American troops did not fire any rounds during the disturbance and no U.S. or Iraqi troops were wounded.
Mission Accomplished.
If we have to pay three bucks a gallon then those ungrateful farging cockroaches should endure five bucks a gallon gladly.
farg Iraq.
the dirty water story that cbs did the other night was downright disgusting....heads are begging for saadam over there....and that shtein is sad
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece)
Well duh.
Quote from: Butchers Bill on September 16, 2007, 04:54:34 PM
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece)
Well duh.
They use Oil as a WMD?
Finally got my orders for Iraq, I got them today. It wasn't a surprise or anything considering we were at work today to prep our vehicles for loading on the train. It is just kind of weird because it is finally starting to hit me. I am leaving at some point after October 25 and the middle of November.
Well that's a drag. Maybe you'll get lucky and come down with a bum foot or something and they'll keep you home. I hope you gon't get killed, or turned into a warped killer who can't deal with normal society because of the job.
We already know you're a drunk...maybe you can lean on that to get you through?
With my luck, we're gonna have an RIP thread for you and I'm telling everyone now, I ain't gonna pull punches just because we know you. farging waste of lives over there.
Which reminds me..time to update the body count thread. We're at a round number today.
:-D
I don't think your luck will play any part in it.
Quote from: Diomedes on September 25, 2007, 06:18:08 PM
We already know you're a drunk...maybe you can lean on that to get you through?
Incase you were looking for another reason to hate war, alcohol is contraband over there (military law, not Iraqi) and consumption of alcohol is punishable by non judicial punishment which could result in loss of rank and/or loss of pay.
DMF, take care over there bro. I've known more people who have come back crippled, missing limbs or in a bag than I care to count and I'd prefer not to keep adding to the list.
Most importantly, try not to get your fingers or hands blown off over there because it'll be a total bitch trying to post here if you have to type with your elbows.
I appreciate it.
Be safe, and God bless.
Good luck dmf, bang some hot Iraqi broads while you're over there. Just stay away from the ones in berka's
Quote from: SD_Eagle on September 25, 2007, 10:29:50 PM
Good luck dmf, bang some hot Iraqi broads while you're over there. Just stay away from the ones in berka's
When I was at NTC I saw some ridiculously fine Iraqi women, but we are not supposed have much contact with their women.
Every time I was in an Arab country we were told not to talk to any of the women or else you would cause a major public scene. My first time in the middle east (Dubai) we were at their world famous mall and met this fine ass group of girls. They invited us to meet them later at some bar/club and we did.
Shockingly, two provisions of the Patriot Act have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/26/patriot.act/index.html)
Bush hasn't flipped every bench
really really moving article...
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/hitchens200711
Vanity Fair does some of the best, unbiased, writing I've come across lately. I always thought it was just another girl mag, but they have some really good shtein in there.
yo dmf be safe over there, come on back home to uncle igy and cousin mds ya hear?
Vanity Fair has had great writing forever.
they just found the earth's butthole.
(http://wonkette.com/assets/resources/2007/10/anus-thumb.jpg)
I think I just got wood.
Wait, the Earth is a girl, right? RIGHT?!
My window keeps narrowing, we were informed today sometime between 5-8 November.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on October 15, 2007, 06:41:24 PM
My window keeps narrowing, we were informed today sometime between 5-8 November.
Dude, best of luck. For real. Like a lot of people, my feelings on this whole situation are far beyond disgust. I have a close friend who enlisted during the spring and he's over there now. When he told me of his decision I wanted to plead with him to reconsider, but I don't feel I have a right to do so. He's a grown man and can think for himself and as a friend, I'll always have his back. People like you amaze me. Despite whatever apprehension you may have, you don't bitch and moan or whine. You guys just step the farg up and do what you have to. Much respect.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on October 15, 2007, 06:41:24 PM
My window keeps narrowing, we were informed today sometime between 5-8 November.
Make sure to keep in touch. There's internet access galore over there for you guys so drop us a line every now and then.
Quote from: phattymatty on October 15, 2007, 01:40:01 PM
they just found the earth's butthole.
(http://wonkette.com/assets/resources/2007/10/anus-thumb.jpg)
That's Chuggie's mom bro.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on October 15, 2007, 06:41:24 PM
My window keeps narrowing, we were informed today sometime between 5-8 November.
Keep safe over there.
I leave next Monday douches, don't worry I will come here as often as I can to tell you how awesome Iraq is.
Just don't get killed, or hurt. And don't kill any innocent people, please. Just ignore your training on that bit..innocent people, even towelheads, are okay.
trust me the last thing we are trained to do is kill innocent people.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on October 30, 2007, 07:43:51 PM
trust me the last thing we are trained to do is kill innocent people.
But they DO train you to do that.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on October 30, 2007, 07:43:51 PM
trust me the last thing we are trained to do is kill innocent people.
then why do y'all kill so many of them??
it's a fair goddamned question.
next you'll tell me the US doesn't torture/insn't trained to torture?? ha
anyway...I'm hoping the best for you.
There are select few in the Army that are trained to torture. As far as why innocent people die sometimes they get caught in the crossfire. Is that a good answer? No. Other times peoples emotions get the best of them. Really there is no good answer, but I can tell you this as far as I training goes we are trained to avoid "collateral damage" at all costs. That being said soldiers can let the stress get the best of them and not follow their training doctrine.
I go over there with the mind set that I am there to do a job. However, the second part to that is that I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I come home in an upright position and see my family and friends again.
Come back in one piece man, mentally and physically. But if you're gonna get shot, make sure you take it in the ass. Also, use your ass to absorb the bullet too.
Godspeed.
Thanks
is there any eagle bars in baghdad
I am not going to Baghdad...I am going to Mosul. It doesn't really matter though the country is dry.
(http://news.mainetoday.com/war/photos/040421mosulattackmap.gif)
(http://www.pikasso.com/newsite/images/mousulMap-mod.gif)
Mosul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul) entry at wikipedia
Sunnis to the left of me, Turks to the right, here I am, stuck in the crossfire with you....
Good luck, man. Come back in one piece.
Don't forget the Turks to the north, man be safe.
dont forget blackwater
Hey Drunk, don't listen to these hippies. Do your job and farg some shtein up over there. Worry about your own neck and the neck of your partners and come back in one piece.
Do what you gotta do, dmf. Much respek.
Hey Drunk, don't listen to these hippies
yo kid....were all hippies until we get off the internet and actually go fight somewhere....you included
Exactly what is the purpose of questioning our role in Iraq to a soldier who is about to ship out? Does he set policy? Did he decide to invade Iraq and hang out there for years? No. He's doing his job. So when someone tells you they're shipping out I choose to give them some encouragement for risking their neck to do a job and you and Dio and the other hippies choose to question his purpose. farging keep it to yourself. Would you want to hear that shtein before you get sent over there? Do we really need our soldiers questioning themselves while they're busy trying to stay alive?
I didn't enlist, you're right. But I have mad respect for everyone that does. Not only is it necessary to have an army, but these guys have to do what they're told in situations like this. So don't give the man a ration of shtein about it. Keep it to yourself.
please link to where i questioned his purpose...or in any way questioned him
this should be fun
Fine, my original 'hippy' comment was directed at Dio, obviously. You felt the need to respond so I lumped you in with him. farging hippies.
you two arent as cute when your having one of your bitch fights
also, good luck dmf. stay in one piece and come back here for the cf reunion at igy's house in bodymore.
In order to have a reunion, we'd have to "unite" then be divided then unite again. That doesn't make any sense.
shut up it sounds better
God bless, DMF. Be safe, and you're in my thoughts and prayers.
Yeah remember that God is on our side, not theirs.
Quote from: Diomedes on October 31, 2007, 08:29:02 PM
Yeah remember that God is on our side, not theirs.
I figured you'd chime in with your usual worn-out diatribe. Stuff it.
So we're both tired of each other. Ah, the circle of life.
Wax abstract-philosophic all you want, when it comes to individual people, keep the shtein to yourself. No one wants to hear it and it makes you look like an even bigger clown.
rjs, relax none of this bothers me. That being said your attitude would make you a fine soldier. Like I said earlier none of this matters to me, i just want to come home alive. Thats it. If that happens maybe we can all get together at a tailgate drink some beer and punch each other in the face.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on November 01, 2007, 02:31:32 AM
That being said your attitude would make you a fine soldier.
Not if he has to answer to anyone or show respect to authority, no.
or fight
LIES!
Quote from: Diomedes on October 31, 2007, 08:29:02 PM
Yeah remember that God is on our side, not theirs.
This made me laugh
Good luck dmf
Quote from: rjs246 on October 31, 2007, 10:53:18 PMkeep the shtein to yourself.
Eat shtein and die, maggot.
Wow, excellent retort, smart stuff.
You guys should dyke it out.
And down goes Pakistan. But, hey, at least we know they have nukes.
Quote from: MadMarchHare on November 03, 2007, 05:20:02 PM
And down goes Pakistan. But, hey, at least we know they have nukes.
Look at the bright side, if Musharraf goes down the US can go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden. :sly
Quote from: Butchers Bill on November 03, 2007, 05:33:05 PM
Quote from: MadMarchHare on November 03, 2007, 05:20:02 PM
And down goes Pakistan. But, hey, at least we know they have nukes.
Look at the bright side, if Musharraf goes down the US can go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden. :sly
Thanks, Barack.
So I am in Kuwait now, got here at a great time the weather is really nice. Other than that not much else to say, just wanted to say whats up to my CF brethren.
Current Conditions
Updated: 11 min 26 sec ago
Observed at: Kuwait, KW
Elevation: 180 ft / 55 m
64 °F / 18 °C
Clear
Humidity: 34%
Dew Point: 36 °F / 2 °C
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 29.92 in / 1013 hPa (Falling)
Visibility: 5.0 miles / 8.0 kilometers
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)
Friday
Clear. High: 89° F. / 32° C. Wind NNW 6 mph. / 10 km/h.
Friday Night
Clear. Low: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind NNE 2 mph. / 3 km/h.
Saturday
Clear. High: 89° F. / 32° C. Wind light.
Saturday Night
Clear. Low: 60° F. / 16° C. Wind light.
Sunday
Clear. High: 87° F. / 31° C. Wind NNW 8 mph. / 14 km/h.
Sunday Night
Partly Cloudy. Low: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind North 4 mph. / 7 km/h.
Monday
Scattered Clouds. High: 86° F. / 30° C. Wind NNE 11 mph. / 18 km/h.
Monday Night
Scattered Clouds. Low: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind NNW 11 mph. / 18 km/h.
Tuesday
Overcast. High: 82° F. / 28° C. Wind NNW 8 mph. / 14 km/h.
Tuesday Night
Overcast. Low: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind North 6 mph. / 10 km/h.
Wednesday
Clear. High: 86° F. / 30° C. Wind light.
Wednesday Night
Scattered Clouds. Low: 57° F. / 14° C. Wind light.
Thursday
Clear. High: 87° F. / 31° C. Wind light.
Thursday Night
Clear. Low: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind light.
I've heard that Kuwait city is farging awesome. There's so much money there and it's supposed to be gorgeous. Enjoy it while you can dude.
How do they say Quam in Kuwaiti?
No.
i may be late on this but i just got it from a friend today....
This is easy to do and no signing up for anything! What a wonderful idea! Something cool that Xerox is doing. If you go to this web site, http://www.letssaythanks.com, you can pick out a
thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.
How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!
This is a great site.
Please send a card.
It is FREE and it only takes a second
:yay :yay
I'll save my thanks for when I actually mean it...like you know, when they are actually defending us
After the elections here, Australia has a new Prime Minister. He's pulling troops out of Iraq, except for a small amount left for actual police action. It appears that he's going to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified within the next two months, leaving the US as the only first world nation to have not done so.
Who cares if they pull out Australian troops, they are in a part that is relatively quiet. Being here has really opened up my eyes, it is no suprise but things you see on the news and what it is actually like are totally different. This place is pretty insane, it makes Camden, NJ look like Disney World.
People can say what they want about the US, but they really have no idea how lucky we are.
Hope all's well buddy :yay :yay
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on November 29, 2007, 05:11:01 AM
Who cares if they pull out Australian troops, they are in a part that is relatively quiet. Being here has really opened up my eyes, it is no suprise but things you see on the news and what it is actually like are totally different. This place is pretty insane, it makes Camden, NJ look like Disney World.
People can say what they want about the US, but they really have no idea how lucky we are.
well ppl say what they say about the US and how lucky we are because the US and much of the "West" has fed off the other parts of the world to reach this point.
and especially so since the end of WWII
Flex, stay vigilant and wear clean underwear.
Hope all is well.
I am really shocked that no one in the media has put this together yet, but is there really any doubt that the sudden and massive reduction of violence in Iraq is directly related to this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22094067/
We provide Iran with a de-facto security guarantee and they stop fighting us in Iraq. Everybody wins.
Sort of...
Does that have to do with this "surge" buzzword I keep hearing? Apparently, even anti-war legislators like John Murtha are in agreement that this "surge" is working.
I don't even know what it means... but if they're finally farging up less over there, that's a good thing.
Quote from: Butchers Bill on December 04, 2007, 09:33:39 AM
I am really shocked that no one in the media has put this together yet, but is there really any doubt that the sudden and massive reduction of violence in Iraq is directly related to this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22094067/
We provide Iran with a de-facto security guarantee and they stop fighting us in Iraq. Everybody wins.
Sort of...
dont believe the admins propaganda that iran was fighting us in iraq....did some fighters come over sure but it wasnt government sanctioned and it was a miniscule amount of the insurgency....there were just as many saudis coming over as iranians...this is natural when a country invades another country...youre gonna have in this case muslim freedome fighters from all over trying to beat back the imperialistic inavders
what do you think would happen if russia went into canada....i bet a few americans would cross the border to help out
the surge has worked simply because we have more soldiers concentrated in high volence areas...its not rocket science...also al sadr called a cease fire a while back so his people arent stirring shtein up right now...
Quote from: ice grillin you on December 04, 2007, 10:17:42 AM
what do you think would happen if russia went into canada....i bet a few americans would cross the border to help out
More Canadians would run away.
Quote from: ice grillin you on December 04, 2007, 10:17:42 AM
dont believe the admins propaganda that iran was fighting us in iraq....did some fighters come over sure but it wasnt government sanctioned and it was a miniscule amount of the insurgency...
That cannot be more incorrect. It was completely government sanctioned, as arms, explosives, and training were provided from the Iranian army directly to the Saudis, Syrians, and other groups in Iraq.
The size and complexity of IED's increased exponentially from the start of the war, and many of the exposives were of such a high grade that they could only come from a military source.
ive heard the admin say this...i dont believe it...
until proven otherwise it was white house rhetoric put forth to try and get a groundswell of support to attack iran...or even more simply an excuse to attack them
http://www.blackanthem.com/News/U_S_Military_19/Engineers-open-road-in-Mosul12713.shtml (http://www.blackanthem.com/News/U_S_Military_19/Engineers-open-road-in-Mosul12713.shtml)
Here is a little of what I have been doing in Iraq, this is actually my platoon. I hate those missions.
Good news for you, big guy:
QuoteJohansson To Entertain U.S. Troops
Actress Scarlett Johansson will travel to the Persian Gulf to entertain members of the U.S. armed forces. The Lost In Translation star plans to tour the region for five days, during which time she'll visit military installations, greet fans, sign autographs and meet the troops. Johansson's visit is part of the United Service Organizations' Army Welfare Recreation entertainment tour. The 23-year-old says, "This USO tour to the Gulf region truly means a lot. I've wanted to go over and visit for some time, and now my moment has arrived. It's one thing to reply to a letter or extend your thanks to service members in a speech, but it's another thing to visit them and spend time with those that do so much for us back home." The actress is next set to be seen onscreen in period piece The Other Boleyn Girl.
(http://www.blackanthem.com/artman2/uploads/3/militarynews2007121608b.jpg)
I will not ask American boys (and girls) to do the jobs that Iraqi boys (and girls) should be doing themselves!
(Apologies to LBJ...)
Quote from: FastFreddie on January 18, 2008, 02:44:14 PM
Good news for you, big guy:
QuoteJohansson To Entertain U.S. Troops
Actress Scarlett Johansson will travel to the Persian Gulf to entertain members of the U.S. armed forces. The Lost In Translation star plans to tour the region for five days, during which time she'll visit military installations, greet fans, sign autographs and meet the troops. Johansson's visit is part of the United Service Organizations' Army Welfare Recreation entertainment tour. The 23-year-old says, "This USO tour to the Gulf region truly means a lot. I've wanted to go over and visit for some time, and now my moment has arrived. It's one thing to reply to a letter or extend your thanks to service members in a speech, but it's another thing to visit them and spend time with those that do so much for us back home." The actress is next set to be seen onscreen in period piece The Other Boleyn Girl.
I read that in stars and stripes yesterday, it made me happy in my pants. Hopefully she shows up at our FOB.
(http://www.blackanthem.com/artman2/uploads/3/militarynews2007121608b.jpg)
Nice water pipe.
From last week's "News of the Weird"
QuoteIn November, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA reported that soldier Jordan Fox had recently been ordered to return $3,000 of his $10,000 enlistment bonus because his blindness and back injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq prevented him from fulfilling the final three months of his one-year Army "commitment." Fox was surprised to learn that the give-back is standard, but U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to change that. [KDKA, 11-19-07]
Quote from: Geowhizzer on January 20, 2008, 09:21:09 AM
From last week's "News of the Weird"
QuoteIn November, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA reported that soldier Jordan Fox had recently been ordered to return $3,000 of his $10,000 enlistment bonus because his blindness and back injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq prevented him from fulfilling the final three months of his one-year Army "commitment." Fox was surprised to learn that the give-back is standard, but U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to change that. [KDKA, 11-19-07]
All bonuses are pro-rated eventhough you may recieve them in a lump sum payment. It's set up like that so if you are unable to fullfill the obligated length of the extension or reenlistment, you still get to keep the portion of that bonus that you earned.
I'm not sure about the Army but I know that for the Marines, if you are physically unable to fullfill your obligation due to injury then you do not have to pay any of your bonus back. I would think that the Army and the other branches of the service have the same policy because that just seems like something that would be a DoD policy rather than an individual service thing.
It doesn't make any sense at all that this kid has to give any of that bonus money back.
Yeah, I too would assume the best of the DoD.
(http://www.blackanthem.com/artman2/uploads/3/militarynews2007121608b.jpg)
looks like philly. over weight and unemployed shtein bags smokin outside while everyone else is working
Quote from: Diomedes on January 23, 2008, 09:51:59 AM
Yeah, I too would assume the best of the DoD.
You almost got me to bite.
935 false statements made about Iraq...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study)
935 lies about Iraq? Is that it? I figured there'd be a lot more than that.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on January 23, 2008, 09:47:58 AM
Quote from: Geowhizzer on January 20, 2008, 09:21:09 AM
From last week's "News of the Weird"
QuoteIn November, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA reported that soldier Jordan Fox had recently been ordered to return $3,000 of his $10,000 enlistment bonus because his blindness and back injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq prevented him from fulfilling the final three months of his one-year Army "commitment." Fox was surprised to learn that the give-back is standard, but U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to change that. [KDKA, 11-19-07]
All bonuses are pro-rated eventhough you may recieve them in a lump sum payment. It's set up like that so if you are unable to fullfill the obligated length of the extension or reenlistment, you still get to keep the portion of that bonus that you earned.
I'm not sure about the Army but I know that for the Marines, if you are physically unable to fullfill your obligation due to injury then you do not have to pay any of your bonus back. I would think that the Army and the other branches of the service have the same policy because that just seems like something that would be a DoD policy rather than an individual service thing.
It doesn't make any sense at all that this kid has to give any of that bonus money back.
There could be more to this story or it could just be a paper work mishap. Then again the Army is known to screw over soldiers.
Muss I can assure you it looks nothing like Philly, the worst places there would be the best here. I don't know about other cities in this country because this is the only one I have been to, but it is unreal. Of course Mosul is the most unstable area in the country right now so I am sure that has something to do with it.
i was just comparing the fat guys outside smoking in the middle of the day, i didn't mean philly is anything compared to mosul
Yesterday there was a huge blast here, it killed a bunch of local nationals. It was so big it took out 8 city blocks, it was also about 2-3 kilometers from where I am at. It felt like it was only a few hundred meters away.
8 city blocks?! Jesus christ.
Jesus farging Christ dude, that's nuts.. Stay the hell safe.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on January 24, 2008, 02:15:46 PM
Yesterday there was a huge blast here, it killed a bunch of local nationals. It was so big it took out 8 city blocks, it was also about 2-3 kilometers from where I am at. It felt like it was only a few hundred meters away.
Could you take some pictures
Quote from: rjs246 on January 24, 2008, 06:06:43 PM
8 city blocks?! Jesus christ.
please
cloverfield destroyed all of manhatten
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on January 24, 2008, 02:15:46 PM
Yesterday there was a huge blast here, it killed a bunch of local nationals. It was so big it took out 8 city blocks, it was also about 2-3 kilometers from where I am at. It felt like it was only a few hundred meters away.
What kinda munitions take out 8 city blocks ???...did they string artillery shells together or what?
Tomahawk demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19XXTArAGaM)
Depending on what they're equipped with a single tomahawk can take out a city block with ease
you don't need a tomahawk, American terrorists have known that forever
(http://www.apfn.org/apfn/murrah.jpg)
Quote from: SD_Eagle on January 25, 2008, 12:16:28 PM
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on January 24, 2008, 02:15:46 PM
Yesterday there was a huge blast here, it killed a bunch of local nationals. It was so big it took out 8 city blocks, it was also about 2-3 kilometers from where I am at. It felt like it was only a few hundred meters away.
Could you take some pictures
Probably not any time soon. That area is pretty unsecure and needless to say the people are pretty pissed in that area. I have heard that it was any where from 15-20 thousand lbs of explosives. It was an accidental blast triggered by an IED.
A big FU to Putin? (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UHMHO81&show_article=1)
Finally some proof of WMDs in Iraq (http://www.break.com/index/maybe-we-did-overestimate-the-threat.html)
I can't believe this fell to the 3rd page.
Bush will help Poland beef up (http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWBT00856520080310?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true)
This smells really bad. We're one Russia/Middle East alliance away from WWIII.
$12B per month (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_costs;_ylt=ApGg20eC4zcjyEaIxwc8CC6s0NUE) to wage war in Iraq
I said something about it elsewhere, but it bears repeating here...the U.S. cannot afford this war, even if you evaluate it solely in monetary terms. Nevermind whether it's moral, ethical, or legal, nevermind whether it can be afforded in terms of world politics or domestic politics. Nevermind how many people die on either side. Neverminding all that stuff, we can't afford the cost.
It also occurs to me that the mortgage crisis is giving nice cover to an even greater financial problem. As long as the pro war people keep us focused on those irresponsible borrowers, and the huge trouble they've caused, we aren't talking about the cost of this Iraq bullshtein.
Let's put that in perspective:
$12B / month, with 300 million Americans. $40 million/month PER AMERICAN.
Canada spends ~$5000/year on health care, or ~$400/month. We could spend 10 times that and not make a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the war.
Quote from: Cerevant on March 12, 2008, 09:52:09 PM
Let's put that in perspective:
$12B / month, with 300 million Americans. $40 million/month PER AMERICAN.
Canada spends ~$5000/year on health care, or ~$400/month. We could spend 10 times that and not make a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the war.
Ummm... 12,0
00,000,000 / 3
00,000,000 = $40/American/month
well of course...but we aren't actually paying for it...we're borrowing for it....it's a disaster
Debt is the American way. farg fiscal responsibility! Bomb some more brown people! Create some more entitlement programs! Ignore the bankrupt Social Security problem!
Seriously, if anyone gave a shtein about spending less than we made, you would have voted for Ron Paul. Clearly, that didn't farging work out, now did it? Shut your yappers about the dead presidents and go back to bitching about dead people.
you're cranky...like, stuck-in-an-airport-with-an-itchy-vadge cranky
Omg my plane is here!
Quote from: Geowhizzer on March 12, 2008, 10:02:06 PM
Quote from: Cerevant on March 12, 2008, 09:52:09 PM
Let's put that in perspective:
$12B / month, with 300 million Americans. $40 million/month PER AMERICAN.
Canada spends ~$5000/year on health care, or ~$400/month. We could spend 10 times that and not make a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the war.
Ummm... 12,0 00,000,000 / 3 00,000,000 = $40/American/month
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No, I say!
Quote from: Cerevant on March 13, 2008, 09:03:58 AM
Quote from: Geowhizzer on March 12, 2008, 10:02:06 PM
Quote from: Cerevant on March 12, 2008, 09:52:09 PM
Let's put that in perspective:
$12B / month, with 300 million Americans. $40 million/month PER AMERICAN.
Canada spends ~$5000/year on health care, or ~$400/month. We could spend 10 times that and not make a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the war.
Ummm... 12,0 00,000,000 / 3 00,000,000 = $40/American/month
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No, I say!
Point is still the same, though - this war is just too darn expensive and unnecessary.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/30172.html
QuoteMcClatchy Washington Bureau
Print This Article Print This Article
Posted on Thu, Mar. 13, 2008
Pentagon cancels release of controversial Iraq report
Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: March 13, 2008 07:35:16 PM
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network.
Rather than posting the report online and making officials available to discuss it, as had been planned, the U.S. Joint Forces Command said it would mail copies of the document to reporters — if they asked for it. The report won't be posted on the Internet
The reversal highlighted the politically sensitive nature of its conclusions, which were first reported Monday by McClatchy.
In making their case for invading Iraq in 2002 and 2003, President Bush and his top national security aides claimed that Saddam's regime had ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.
But the study, based on more than 600,000 captured documents, including audio and video files, found that while Saddam sponsored terrorism, particularly against opponents of his regime and against Israel, there was no evidence of an al Qaida link.
The study comes at a difficult time for the Bush administration. The fifth anniversary of the Iraq war is approaching on March 19, and Bush is attempting to hold support for a continued large U.S. troop presence there following a report from his on-the-ground commander, Army Gen. David Petraeus, in early April.
Navy Capt. Dennis Moynihan, a spokesman for the Norfolk, Va.-based Joint Forces Command, said, "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."
Moynihan declined further comment.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, referred questions to Joint Forces Command.
An executive summary of the study says that Saddam's regime had interaction with terrorist groups, including Palestinian terror organizations and some pan-Islamic groups.
But "the predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," says the summary, posted online by ABC News.
That confirms what many experts on Saddam's Iraq have long argued: that his security services were dedicated mainly to fighting threats to his rule.
The summary says that Saddam's secular regime increased cooperation with — and attempts to manipulate — Islamic fundamentalists after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, despite being leery of the Islamists. Iraqi leaders "concluded that in some cases, the benefits of associations outweighed the risks," it says.
(Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this report.)
I think everyone should have known there was no Al Qaeda link at the time. Al Qaeda's principles rail against the likes of Hussein and want only staunch closed Muslim societies where they can oppress everyone in the name of Allah. Hussein wanted to oppress everyone in his own name 'cause he liked his palaces.
The Iraq war was for oil we all know that on some level. Here's a great article from the post.
A Crude Case For War?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403677.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403677.html)
Just a little bit of what we have done so far. We have found as a Company over 300 IEDs so far cleared something like over 3000 kms. The most significant thing about that is, not one US soldier has died on a route we have cleared so far. If it stays that way, we certainly will have a lot to be proud of. My platoon alone has found over 100 IEDs. Not the safest job in the world, but there is a least a small bit of satisfaction gained by doing it.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on March 16, 2008, 04:18:00 PM
Just a little bit of what we have done so far. We have found as a Company over 300 IEDs so far cleared something like over 3000 kms. The most significant thing about that is, not one US soldier has died on a route we have cleared so far. If it stays that way, we certainly will have a lot to be proud of. My platoon alone has found over 100 IEDs. Not the safest job in the world, but there is a least a small bit of satisfaction gained by doing it.
Stay safe man...
Another Canadian dies in Afghanistan :( http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/03/17/soldier-canadian.html
While the Canadians are cranky about being at war, at least they are fighting where the terrorists are, not where the oil is. (Plenty of oil up here)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/19/bush.iraq/index.html
time for a "edit thread title"
QuoteNo one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure
:sly
you have no idea how much mithril we've poured into Iraq
Iraq must be doing its blacksmithing quest.
Frodo Baggins is in Iraq?
That's the problem, we've been using the wrong damn dice!
this shtein is hilarious....
start at 4:15 mark
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=164644&title=iraq-the-first-5-years
his gag with the middle finger was pretty funny too
Quote from: ice grillin you on March 19, 2008, 10:44:45 AM
time for a "edit thread title"
I don't know where you guys get 6th year, we just marked the 5th year.
five full years of war have passed, hence we are into the sixth
(http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2008-05/38808447.jpg)
Hey baybuh.
He has absolutely no idea how many penises her lips were wrapped around while he was gone.
Neither does she.
Quote from: Sgt PSN on May 17, 2008, 07:47:03 PM
He has absolutely no idea how many penises her lips were wrapped around while he was gone.
The poor bastich.
So, how are the Iraqi whores? On a scale of 1-10.
I wish I knew. The thing with Iraqi women is that they are very hot or as ugly as you have ever seen. Also they don't tend to age well, it is very rare to see an older Iraqi women that is good looking. My evaluation of females is a little skewed though my exposure to women over the last 6 months has been minimal.
Quote from: Drunkmasterflex on May 18, 2008, 05:14:47 PM
I wish I knew. The thing with Iraqi women is that they are very hot or as ugly as you have ever seen. Also they don't tend to age well, it is very rare to see an older Iraqi women that is good looking. My evaluation of females is a little skewed though my exposure to women over the last 6 months has been minimal.
With the life most of them have to live, not many would age too well.
That goes without saying.
One of the greatest swindles of this war was the idea that it could/should be waged with a volunteer only army. No draft. Outside contractors providing all the services that in decades past the armed services would have provided for themselves. It made the war possible for Bush Cheney, as there is no way they could have pulled it off if suddenly everyone in the country had a stake in it. It also allowed them to funnel amazing amounts of money into the private sector, into quite proveably, their friends' companies.
One story that comes out of this was addressed recently by the NYTimes. Turns out that KBR, famously stealing our money while overseeing themselves in no-bid billions dollar contracts, can't find a good electrician even while offering hazard pay. U.S. Soldiers are getting electrocuted daily, fires are common, 13 soldiers have been killed as a result. Now, thanks to the evil media, Congress is interested in asking some questions about KBR's electrical work.
Here are a couple links to get you started, because you care so much:
NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/world/middleeast/18contractors.html?scp=1&sq=iraq%20electrocution&st=cse
QuoteJuly 18, 2008
Electrical Risks at Iraq Bases Are Worse Than Said
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.
During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military's largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.
And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, many more have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to the documents. A log compiled earlier this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters on an almost daily basis.
Electrical problems were the most urgent noncombat safety hazard for soldiers in Iraq, according to an Army survey issued in February 2007. It noted "a safety threat theaterwide created by the poor-quality electrical fixtures procured and installed, sometimes incorrectly, thus resulting in a significant number of fires."
The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for American troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a "systemic problem" with electrical work.
But the Pentagon did little to address the issue until a Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, was electrocuted in January while showering. His death, caused by poor electrical grounding, drew the attention of lawmakers and Pentagon leaders after his family pushed for answers. Congress and the Pentagon's inspector general have begun investigations, and this month senior Army officials ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR.
more at link
WashPost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802636.html
QuoteSenators seek review of wiring at Iraq bases
Reuters
Friday, July 18, 2008; 7:40 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Democratic senators called on Friday for an independent review of electrical work at U.S. bases in Iraq where more than a dozen soldiers have been electrocuted and others injured.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the senators objected to KBR Inc, the Pentagon's largest private contractor in Iraq, reviewing its own performance. The Houston company previously has faced accusations of overbilling, providing unsafe water to soldiers and other lapses.
The lawmakers said inspections should be conducted independently by someone "both well-qualified and objective."
A Pentagon spokesman said KBR was inspecting its own work but that the Army Corps of Engineers and other military agencies were also conducting reviews.
Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who chaired a hearing last week on electrocution of troops in Iraq, urged the Pentagon to suspend KBR's contract in Iraq and replace the company with "people who know what they are doing."
(a little) more at link
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/18/world/18contractor_600.jpg)
Scene of electrical fire on base near Falluja last month