2 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq rocket attack

[Nebor]

BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers were killed in a rocket attack that struck their unit in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.

Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, confirmed that rockets hit the troops’ unit but declined to give their names or say where in southern Iraq, pending notification of next of kin.

About 47,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, down from 166,000 in October 2007 at the peak of the military surge that kept the country from dissolving into civil war.

But Shiite militias in Iraq’s south that are linked to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have vowed to continue targeting U.S. troops until all have left.

Under a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, all U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year. In an Associated Press interview Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he sees no need to change the agreement but said he would leave that decision to parliament if lawmakers vote to keep them.

Saturday’s deaths raises to at least 4,443 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. That’s according to an Associated Press count.

The last attack to leave more than one U.S. service member dead was Jan. 15, when an Iraqi army solider opened fire on U.S. troops and killed two during a training exercise in Mosul, located 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

Sigh. This is sad. Admittedly more soldiers are dying in garrison in the US than in Iraq now, but it's hard to say that if we had to it to do all over again that liberating Iraq would be worth 4,443 American service members' lives.

 

[101mpg]

Yawn, that war is so last decade, we've got a bright shiny new war now.

 

[Zebo]

Hard? Nothing hard about it. Retarded war from the get go and made worse with "hearts and minds" campaign/rebuilding. War, street fighting, whatever is about destruction until enemy complies not fail we have done post Korea.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Sigh. This is sad. Admittedly more soldiers are dying in garrison in the US than in Iraq now, but it's hard to say that if we had to it to do all over again that liberating Iraq would be worth 4,443 American service members' lives.

It wouldn't be worth one life, not American or any others, it was a shit fucked mission to begin with, started on false premise to do something that no one STILL knows what it was but whatever it was, it failed greatly.

Not only did that fail, the removal of troops and air support removed any hope of winning in Afghanistan and conveniently provided a spread of Al Qaeda into Iraq that is still stronger than ever before, especially since there were no terrorists in Iraq before the invasion.

I figure it's one of two things, either they needed the war to be prolonged, that is why we were cut off in the final strikes, or they needed them to spread to Iraq so they could say "look we found terrorists in Iraq". Whatever it was it failed horribly and whenever we leave Iraq and Afghanistan now, both will be considered NATO defeats.

They drove us out, we didn't drive them out.

It's fucking pathetic because we cold have won in Afghanistan and Iraq was just GW smelling his old mans farts too much. Fucking disgrace, no one had to die.

 

[Infohawk]

This story must be false because the Iraq war ended. Oh right that was bullshit.

 

[jonks]

This story must be false because the Iraq war ended. Oh right that was bullshit.

Why do you say that, because we still have soldiers stationed there?

 

[DesiPower]

Yawn, that war is so last decade, we've got a bright shiny new war now.

This. We have already opened up two safe heavens for terrorists, Iraq and Afghanistan. Now we should concentrate on the new ones we are creating...