U.S. will reinforce troops in west Iraq

[BBond]

I'm just curious as to how king george will explain this and whether the American people are still dumb enough to accept his ridiculous explanations.

Whatever happened to drawing down troop levels in the Spring? :roll:

You know, after the elections.

Psst, America, king george has been telling you we're drawing down troops after every one of his "political milestones" in Iraq. Yet it never happens. Why do you still believe him?

U.S. will reinforce troops in west Iraq

Sunni sheiks in area says Zarqawi has upper hand

By Ellen Knickmeyer
The Washington Post

BAGHDAD, May 29 - The U.S. military said Monday it was deploying the main reserve fighting force for Iraq, a full 3,500-member armored brigade, as emergency reinforcements for the embattled western province of Anbar, where a surge of violence linked to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has severely damaged efforts to turn Sunni Arab tribal leaders against the insurgency.

The insurgents have assassinated 11 tribal leaders in the Ramadi area since the end of last year, when Sunni sheiks in the city began open cooperation with the U.S. military. That alliance was heralded by U.S. commanders as a sign of a major split between Sunni insurgents and the larger Sunni community of western Iraq.

The insurgent attacks since then have all but frozen the cooperation between Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces in Ramadi, local leaders say.

Disclosure of the plan came on a day when insurgent bombings and other attacks killed more than 40 people around the country, including two members of a CBS News team. The team's correspondent, Iraq veteran Kimberly Dozier, was wounded and listed in critical condition.

Last week, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad conceded, in answer to a question about Ramadi in an interview with CNN, that parts of Anbar were under insurgent control. Ramadi is the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni province. The difficulties facing stretched-thin U.S. Marines in Ramadi suggest the continuing obstacles to a reduction of American forces in Iraq anytime soon.

"We hope to get rid of al-Qaeda, which is a huge burden on the city. Unfortunately, Zarqawi's fist is stronger than the Americans'," said one Sunni sheik, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of insurgent retaliation. He was referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, an umbrella group for many of the foreign and local resistance fighters in Iraq. Local Sunni leaders often insist that the most violent insurgent attacks are by foreign fighters, not Iraqi Sunnis.

Zarqawi ?in control?
In Ramadi, "Zarqawi is the one who is in control," the sheik said, speaking to a Washington Post special correspondent in Ramadi. "He kills anyone who goes in and out of the U.S. base. We have stopped meetings with the Americans, because, frankly speaking, we have lost confidence in the U.S. side, as they can't protect us."

Another sheik, Bashir Abdul Qadir al-Kubaisi of the Kubaisat tribe in Ramadi, expressed similar views. "Today, there is no tribal sheik or a citizen who dares to go to the city hall or the U.S. base, because Zarqawi issued a statement ordering his men to kill anyone seen leaving the base or city hall," he said.

"We are very upset. But being upset is better than mourning the death of a sheik or tribal leader," Kubaisi said. "Zarqawi has imposed himself on us. We started thinking of appeasing Zarqawi and his group, because rejecting them means death."

Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has called up the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, the main standby reserve force for the roughly 130,000 American troops in Iraq, Maj. Todd Breasseale, a Marine spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed.

The call-up leaves a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which typically includes one combat infantry battalion and air and logistical support, in Kuwait as the only American reserve in the Iraqi theater, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.

CNN reported last week that as many as two of the brigade's three battalions were headed to Ramadi. U.S. military officials would not comment then, citing security of any ongoing troop movements.

Breasseale confirmed Monday that the full armored brigade is headed to Anbar, where both U.S. Marines and many local tribal leaders -- particularly in Ramadi -- have appealed for more U.S. troops.

"Enough is never enough" when it comes to commanders on the ground wanting more troops, Breasseale said. "It might be when these guys get into position they might be in a better position to provide the force structure on the ground that would reenergize the sheiks to begin their work."

Although Anbar province is heavily Sunni, many local residents have grown weary of the presence of the foreign fighters who joined the Sunni insurgents. They have tired of the violent control the fighter groups wield over cities and towns, and of the U.S. attacks the insurgents draw.

Scores of local Sunni tribal leaders turned out for a groundbreaking meeting with U.S. Marine officers in Ramadi in November. Robed sheiks and Marine officers in camouflage faced each other in a town hall, ignoring mortar rounds that insurgents lobbed at the meeting, to start talking about the first major, open cooperation between Ramadi's sheiks and U.S. forces.

But when U.S. and Iraqi forces held the first local recruiting drive for local Sunni young men in January, bombs killed more than 60 of the Sunni tribal enlistees and others. The local residents said the bombs were set by Zarqawi's group.

The assassinations of the tribal leaders then mounted, in what was seen as a clear warning to them not to cooperate with U.S. forces. Violence surged in Ramadi in April and May. In many weeks, Marines in Ramadi have accounted for one-third to half of all American combat deaths in Iraq. U.S. forces say scores of insurgents have been killed in the same period; no full tally of the civilian toll is known.

Sniper?s alley
U.S. forces have called in repeated strikes by air and by artillery on the heart of Ramadi. Marines defend a five-block area of downtown that holds the local government, now a sniper's alley where U.S. forces move at a run to elude insurgent guns.

Marines have temporarily suspended new embedding of journalists in Ramadi. Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the Associated Press, all with embedded reporters already in Ramadi last week, quoted both officers and the enlisted Marines at sandbag firing positions as saying that Ramadi had to have reinforcements to do more than fight insurgents to a draw around the town hall. Time quoted officers as estimating it would take three brigades, up from one.

Marine officers on the ground have been open for more than a year now about needing more troops in Anbar, whose Sunni population, remoteness and comparative lawlessness have made it a stronghold for the insurgency. Anbar borders Syria, a conduit for some of the weapons, money and fighters.

In Ramadi, people describe themselves as under siege. The fighters are moving to enforce the strictest form of Islam on the city, requiring head scarves for women and banning shorts and jeans for men, residents said.

Insurgent groups, calling themselves "Promoting Virtue and Banning Vice" regiments, have threatened households that have Internet service and warned that they will monitor rooftops for satellite dishes turned toward European satellites, said Imad Mohammed, a resident.

"Is it possible that the U.S. Marines are able to control only the government buildings, while al-Qaeda is walking freely in the streets and in the buildings with no one to deter it?" Mohammed asked. "Until the Arab fighters start to interfere with the daily, smallest and personal details of our lives?"

Residents say basic services have fallen, with electricity, water and schooling interrupted and the university closed for long periods. The imported Shiite police force, they say, has collapsed, and many doctors, professors and other professionals are fleeing.

?Back to the 14th century?
"The city has gone back to the 14th century, if not further," said Akram Fadhil, a 40-year-old man with seven children and no job.

Rumors routinely circulate of a Fallujah-style clearing operation in Ramadi. Residents say they both hope for it and fear it. The November 2004 operation in Fallujah, a largely Sunni Arab city about 35 miles west of Baghdad, involved a major deployment of troops and sometimes intense fighting with insurgents.

"The city has become an unburnable hell," said Abdul Salam Ahmed al-Rawi, owner of a now-shuttered ice cream shop in Ramadi.

"We hope this will end soon, and that Americans will clean the city," Rawi said early last week. "But first they have to change the troops here now, and bring in more, better troops, just like a year and a half ago in Fallujah."

"For I expect if these troops were given the orders to launch a military campaign, many civilians will fall," Rawi said. "The Marines in Ramadi now are considering the whole situation as a matter of a challenge, or revenge, because of the daily strikes they get. It makes them put civilians and the al-Qaeda men all in one category."

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: BBond
I'm just curious as to how king george will explain this and whether the American people are still dumb enough to accept his ridiculous explanations.

Whatever happened to drawing down troop levels in the Spring? :roll:

You know, after the elections.

Psst, America, king george has been telling you we're drawing down troops after every one of his "political milestones" in Iraq. Yet it never happens. Why do you still believe him?

U.S. will reinforce troops in west Iraq

Sunni sheiks in area says Zarqawi has upper hand

By Ellen Knickmeyer
The Washington Post

BAGHDAD, May 29 - The U.S. military said Monday it was deploying the main reserve fighting force for Iraq, a full 3,500-member armored brigade, as emergency reinforcements for the embattled western province of Anbar, where a surge of violence linked to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has severely damaged efforts to turn Sunni Arab tribal leaders against the insurgency.

The insurgents have assassinated 11 tribal leaders in the Ramadi area since the end of last year, when Sunni sheiks in the city began open cooperation with the U.S. military. That alliance was heralded by U.S. commanders as a sign of a major split between Sunni insurgents and the larger Sunni community of western Iraq.

The insurgent attacks since then have all but frozen the cooperation between Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces in Ramadi, local leaders say.

Disclosure of the plan came on a day when insurgent bombings and other attacks killed more than 40 people around the country, including two members of a CBS News team. The team's correspondent, Iraq veteran Kimberly Dozier, was wounded and listed in critical condition.

Last week, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad conceded, in answer to a question about Ramadi in an interview with CNN, that parts of Anbar were under insurgent control. Ramadi is the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni province. The difficulties facing stretched-thin U.S. Marines in Ramadi suggest the continuing obstacles to a reduction of American forces in Iraq anytime soon.

"We hope to get rid of al-Qaeda, which is a huge burden on the city. Unfortunately, Zarqawi's fist is stronger than the Americans'," said one Sunni sheik, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of insurgent retaliation. He was referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, an umbrella group for many of the foreign and local resistance fighters in Iraq. Local Sunni leaders often insist that the most violent insurgent attacks are by foreign fighters, not Iraqi Sunnis.

Zarqawi ?in control?
In Ramadi, "Zarqawi is the one who is in control," the sheik said, speaking to a Washington Post special correspondent in Ramadi. "He kills anyone who goes in and out of the U.S. base. We have stopped meetings with the Americans, because, frankly speaking, we have lost confidence in the U.S. side, as they can't protect us."Another sheik, Bashir Abdul Qadir al-Kubaisi of the Kubaisat tribe in Ramadi, expressed similar views. "Today, there is no tribal sheik or a citizen who dares to go to the city hall or the U.S. base, because Zarqawi issued a statement ordering his men to kill anyone seen leaving the base or city hall," he said.

"We are very upset. But being upset is better than mourning the death of a sheik or tribal leader," Kubaisi said. "Zarqawi has imposed himself on us. We started thinking of appeasing Zarqawi and his group, because rejecting them means death."

Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has called up the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, the main standby reserve force for the roughly 130,000 American troops in Iraq, Maj. Todd Breasseale, a Marine spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed.

The call-up leaves a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which typically includes one combat infantry battalion and air and logistical support, in Kuwait as the only American reserve in the Iraqi theater, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.

CNN reported last week that as many as two of the brigade's three battalions were headed to Ramadi. U.S. military officials would not comment then, citing security of any ongoing troop movements.

Breasseale confirmed Monday that the full armored brigade is headed to Anbar, where both U.S. Marines and many local tribal leaders -- particularly in Ramadi -- have appealed for more U.S. troops.

"Enough is never enough" when it comes to commanders on the ground wanting more troops, Breasseale said. "It might be when these guys get into position they might be in a better position to provide the force structure on the ground that would reenergize the sheiks to begin their work."

Although Anbar province is heavily Sunni, many local residents have grown weary of the presence of the foreign fighters who joined the Sunni insurgents. They have tired of the violent control the fighter groups wield over cities and towns, and of the U.S. attacks the insurgents draw.

Scores of local Sunni tribal leaders turned out for a groundbreaking meeting with U.S. Marine officers in Ramadi in November. Robed sheiks and Marine officers in camouflage faced each other in a town hall, ignoring mortar rounds that insurgents lobbed at the meeting, to start talking about the first major, open cooperation between Ramadi's sheiks and U.S. forces.

But when U.S. and Iraqi forces held the first local recruiting drive for local Sunni young men in January, bombs killed more than 60 of the Sunni tribal enlistees and others. The local residents said the bombs were set by Zarqawi's group.

The assassinations of the tribal leaders then mounted, in what was seen as a clear warning to them not to cooperate with U.S. forces. Violence surged in Ramadi in April and May. In many weeks, Marines in Ramadi have accounted for one-third to half of all American combat deaths in Iraq. U.S. forces say scores of insurgents have been killed in the same period; no full tally of the civilian toll is known.

Sniper?s alley
U.S. forces have called in repeated strikes by air and by artillery on the heart of Ramadi. Marines defend a five-block area of downtown that holds the local government, now a sniper's alley where U.S. forces move at a run to elude insurgent guns.

Marines have temporarily suspended new embedding of journalists in Ramadi. Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the Associated Press, all with embedded reporters already in Ramadi last week, quoted both officers and the enlisted Marines at sandbag firing positions as saying that Ramadi had to have reinforcements to do more than fight insurgents to a draw around the town hall. Time quoted officers as estimating it would take three brigades, up from one.

Marine officers on the ground have been open for more than a year now about needing more troops in Anbar, whose Sunni population, remoteness and comparative lawlessness have made it a stronghold for the insurgency. Anbar borders Syria, a conduit for some of the weapons, money and fighters.

In Ramadi, people describe themselves as under siege. The fighters are moving to enforce the strictest form of Islam on the city, requiring head scarves for women and banning shorts and jeans for men, residents said.

Insurgent groups, calling themselves "Promoting Virtue and Banning Vice" regiments, have threatened households that have Internet service and warned that they will monitor rooftops for satellite dishes turned toward European satellites, said Imad Mohammed, a resident.

"Is it possible that the U.S. Marines are able to control only the government buildings, while al-Qaeda is walking freely in the streets and in the buildings with no one to deter it?" Mohammed asked. "Until the Arab fighters start to interfere with the daily, smallest and personal details of our lives?"

Residents say basic services have fallen, with electricity, water and schooling interrupted and the university closed for long periods. The imported Shiite police force, they say, has collapsed, and many doctors, professors and other professionals are fleeing.

?Back to the 14th century?
"The city has gone back to the 14th century, if not further," said Akram Fadhil, a 40-year-old man with seven children and no job.

Rumors routinely circulate of a Fallujah-style clearing operation in Ramadi. Residents say they both hope for it and fear it. The November 2004 operation in Fallujah, a largely Sunni Arab city about 35 miles west of Baghdad, involved a major deployment of troops and sometimes intense fighting with insurgents.

"The city has become an unburnable hell," said Abdul Salam Ahmed al-Rawi, owner of a now-shuttered ice cream shop in Ramadi.

"We hope this will end soon, and that Americans will clean the city," Rawi said early last week. "But first they have to change the troops here now, and bring in more, better troops, just like a year and a half ago in Fallujah.""For I expect if these troops were given the orders to launch a military campaign, many civilians will fall," Rawi said. "The Marines in Ramadi now are considering the whole situation as a matter of a challenge, or revenge, because of the daily strikes they get. It makes them put civilians and the al-Qaeda men all in one category."

I find it hard to believe in these tight knit sunni communities that no one seems to know who the insurgents are.
If they want thier town cleaned up they need to start pointing them out, ratting them out, and passing information on them.
It seems this town has a large collection of them, which would provide an excellent opportunity for them to purge some trash from thier country.
Or they can just sit there and play dumb and hope we can tell the good guys from the bad:frown:

 

[techs]

This proves what I posted previously, that the US ambassador to Iraq said that western Iraq is controlled by the insurgents and that the situation was getting worse there.
With Aghanistan becoming increasingly anti-US (see the anti-US riot this weekend) and Iraq either getting worse or staying the same, it is clear we need new leadership.

 

[tommywishbone]

They had better take some extra shovels & colfins; they are most likely almost out in Iraq. Madness.

At least 37 dead in 2 Iraq car bombings 8 minutes ago, Tuesday, May 30.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A parked car bomb hit a popular market in a Shiite area north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 65, the Interior Ministry said. Another car bomb went off at a dealership in southern Iraq, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32.

Meanwhile, a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds of beheadings has been captured, Iraqi officials said.

The market blast occurred about 7:30 p.m. in the market in Husseiyniyah, some 20 miles north of the capital, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Colonel Falah Al-Mohamedawi said. Five people were killed and 28 wounded, some seriously, he said.

In Baghdad, mortar rounds hit the heavily guarded Interior Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government employees. Police also said three members of al-Qaida in Iraq had been killed during clashes south of Baghdad last week.

The military said another U.S. soldier died Monday during combat in northern Iraq, and the bodies of two Marines missing after a helicopter crash in western Iraq over the weekend were recovered.

The AH-1 Cobra helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was on a maintenance test flight when it went down Saturday in the volatile Anbar region. The military said hostile fire was not suspected as the cause, but the crash was under investigation.

Amid the deteriorating security, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held meetings aimed at finding new defense and interior ministers more than a week after his national unity government took office. Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular parties are struggling to agree on who should run the two crucial ministries, which oversee the army and the police.

Top Shiite officials said the U.S. Embassy had invited government representatives and the leaders of all the political blocs to a meeting, and they expected the names of new candidates to be discussed.

In the meantime, U.S. military commanders have moved about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into Anbar province to help local authorities establish order there. The province is an insurgent hotbed stretching from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

The military command in Iraq described the new deployment as short-term. The plan is to keep the latest troops in Anbar no longer than four months, said one military official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the move.

The government identified the suspected terrorist captured Monday as Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi and said he had confessed to hundreds of beheadings. He was arrested by a terrorist combat unit, which also seized documents, cell phones and computers that contained information on other wanted terrorists and Islamic extremist groups, the prime minister's office said.

The government released a mug shot of the suspect, who is balding, has a mustache and was wearing a white T-shirt with an identifying placard dangling from his neck.

In the mortar attack, rounds were fired by remote control from a car near the Interior Ministry compound in central Baghdad, police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said.

One hit the ministry's third floor, killing two female employees and wounding a policeman and two janitors. The other landed in a park, wounding two city workers, Abdul-Ghani said. The Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry also was attacked in April.

Also in the capital, a roadside bomb killed one police officer and wounded four others, and police found the bodies of three blindfolded and handcuffed men who apparently had been tortured and shot in the head. A decapitated body was discovered floating in the river about 35 miles south of the capital.

CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier, a 39-year-old American, was listed in critical but stable condition at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in southern Germany following Monday's car bomb attack that killed her cameraman, Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, both Britons, as well as a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi contractor.

Dozens of journalists have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Parliament on Monday debated the violence in the capital and outlying provinces but failed to set up a commission to deal with the problem because of al-Maliki's inability to appoint ministers of defense and interior.

The Interior Ministry, which controls the police, has been promised to the Shiites. Sunni Arabs are to get the Defense Ministry, overseeing the army.

It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take over all security duties in the next 18 months. He wants to attract army recruits from the Sunni Arab minority, which provides the core of the insurgency.

The U.S. Embassy said al-Maliki, Cabinet members and political leaders were to meet at a social gathering organized by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Some legislators said the matter of the unfilled Cabinet positions would be discussed.

The remote possibility of a female candidate for interior minister was raised. Former Shiite Deputy Mariam al-Rays said she had been approached by the nomination committee of al-Maliki's Shiite party.

"There is no problem if an Iraqi woman runs this ministry according to a national program to combat terrorism and corruption and to restore security. Women from inside Iraq are well informed about the situation inside Iraq and know how to deal with it," she said.

The insurgents slain last week were well-known aides of the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in an area south of Baghdad, police Maj. Gen. Hussein Abdul-Hadi said.

They were killed in clashes Friday in the nearby city of Latifiyah, he said, adding that police had been following the suspects for two months.

Police declined to release the names of the insurgents or give more information, pending an announcement by the Interior Ministry.

Separately, 249 prisoners who had been suspected of ties to the insurgency were released from three U.S. detention centers Tuesday, deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said.

Many of the detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Fort Suse prisons, kissed the ground and touched their foreheads to express thanks to God.

The freed prisoners were part of a group of 2,000 cleared for release by a joint committee from the Justice, Interior and Human Rights ministries, as well as Americans, Ali said.

There are still 14,000 detainees, including five women, in prisons nationwide, Busho said.

End story___

 

[trenchfoot]

you can't control a chunk of land unless you sit on it. the moment you stand up and leave it you have effectively handed it back to it's former occupants.

it's one of the most frustrating situations that we had to endure back in 'nam. we go in, get some of our guys kia'd and wounded fighting charlie to occupy a vil. we hand out propaganda and leave. charlie comes back, teaches the pitiful villagers to ignore our propaganda by executing a few of them. then we come back and start the whole mess all over again.

i know the brass learned their lesson over there, and they promised the troops it would never happen again. little did we know that it was those fricken stink'in politicians that created that mess and not the uniforms executing their orders.

here we go again. why?

 

[jimkyser]

Originally posted by: tweaker2
you can't control a chunk of land unless you sit on it. the moment you stand up and leave it you have effectively handed it back to it's former occupants.

it's one of the most frustrating situations that we had to endure back in 'nam. we go in, get some of our guys kia'd and wounded fighting charlie to occupy a vil. we hand out propaganda and leave. charlie comes back, teaches the pitiful villagers to ignore our propaganda by executing a few of them. then we come back and start the whole mess all over again.

i know the brass learned their lesson over there, and they promised the troops it would never happen again. little did we know that it was those fricken stink'in politicians that created that mess and not the uniforms executing their orders.

here we go again. why?

Because very few in the leadership of the Bush administration actually saw what you describe. Bush was TANG, though he left early to help in a political campaign, Cheney had multiple deferments and never served, Rummy was a flight instructor and reservist (this is as good as it gets!), Wolfy has no military experience, etc, etc , etc.

 

[strummer]

Originally posted by: tweaker2

here we go again. why?

We have always been at war with Eurasia.

No really its because we have an idiot with a messiah complex sitting in the Whitehouse.

The entire Iraq situation was always a political problem, but we have said idiot in charge who would rather "kick ass" then find a way to what may be a complex diplomatic solution.

Bush is an idiot and puppet for the military idustrial complex.

JFK said that America would never start a war. Bush and Cheney flushed that noble American principle down the f'in toilet.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: BBond


I find it hard to believe in these tight knit sunni communities that no one seems to know who the insurgents are.
If they want thier town cleaned up they need to start pointing them out, ratting them out, and passing information on them.
It seems this town has a large collection of them, which would provide an excellent opportunity for them to purge some trash from thier country.
Or they can just sit there and play dumb and hope we can tell the good guys from the bad:frown:

You don't rat out your neighbour to a foreign occupier. It's as simple as that.

 

[TRUMPHENT]

The first sentence of the OP's quoted article refers to deploying the main combat reserve, an armored brigade. This is the beginning of the end to the US involvement of war in Iraq.

Further on, Ramadi is rumored to be the next Fallujah. Well, Ramadi is much larger than Fallujah and the available reserves have been deployed. Before Fallujah could be invested, the British had to reinforce US troops in Baghdad to free them for the Fallujah operation. I call this the last gasp. The light is at the end of the tunnel and it ain't pretty white light.

 

[maddogchen]

From all the news articles i've read recently, they've been asking for more troops but no one was listening. They've only got 1 brigade in Ramadi where local commanders say they need at least 3.

 

[TRUMPHENT]

My college math tells me that three brigades is one division.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: BBond


I find it hard to believe in these tight knit sunni communities that no one seems to know who the insurgents are.
If they want thier town cleaned up they need to start pointing them out, ratting them out, and passing information on them.
It seems this town has a large collection of them, which would provide an excellent opportunity for them to purge some trash from thier country.
Or they can just sit there and play dumb and hope we can tell the good guys from the bad:frown:

You don't rat out your neighbour to a foreign occupier. It's as simple as that.

If you had bothered to read the bolded print in my quote they are not neighbors they are foriegn fighters.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: BBond


I find it hard to believe in these tight knit sunni communities that no one seems to know who the insurgents are.
If they want thier town cleaned up they need to start pointing them out, ratting them out, and passing information on them.
It seems this town has a large collection of them, which would provide an excellent opportunity for them to purge some trash from thier country.
Or they can just sit there and play dumb and hope we can tell the good guys from the bad:frown:

You don't rat out your neighbour to a foreign occupier. It's as simple as that.

If you had bothered to read the bolded print in my quote they are not neighbors they are foriegn fighters.

Not much difference really.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: techs
This proves what I posted previously, that the US ambassador to Iraq said that western Iraq is controlled by the insurgents and that the situation was getting worse there.
With Aghanistan becoming increasingly anti-US (see the anti-US riot this weekend) and Iraq either getting worse or staying the same, it is clear we need new leadership.

What are you talking about?

We have the best president the U.S. has ever had now.

 

[Skanderberg]

Originally posted by: TRUMPHENT
The first sentence of the OP's quoted article refers to deploying the main combat reserve, an armored brigade. This is the beginning of the end to the US involvement of war in Iraq.

Further on, Ramadi is rumored to be the next Fallujah. Well, Ramadi is much larger than Fallujah and the available reserves have been deployed. Before Fallujah could be invested, the British had to reinforce US troops in Baghdad to free them for the Fallujah operation. I call this the last gasp. The light is at the end of the tunnel and it ain't pretty white light.

That light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Skanderberg

Originally posted by: TRUMPHENT
The first sentence of the OP's quoted article refers to deploying the main combat reserve, an armored brigade. This is the beginning of the end to the US involvement of war in Iraq.

Further on, Ramadi is rumored to be the next Fallujah. Well, Ramadi is much larger than Fallujah and the available reserves have been deployed. Before Fallujah could be invested, the British had to reinforce US troops in Baghdad to free them for the Fallujah operation. I call this the last gasp. The light is at the end of the tunnel and it ain't pretty white light.

That light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

And it's approaching at full speed.

Bombs kill scores across Iraq

U.S. sends in more troops to combat Anbar violence

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
BY KIM GAMEL
Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- Car bombs targeting Shi'a areas devastated a bustling outdoor market and an auto dealership yesterday, part of a relentless onslaught that killed 54 people and prompted the United States to deploy more troops to combat insurgents in western Iraq.

The bombs also wounded 120 people, officials said. The death toll made yesterday one of the bloodiest days in Iraq this month, and lawmakers still had not agreed on who should lead the nation's army and police forces.

Authorities also captured a suspected terrorist who allegedly confessed to beheading hundreds of people. The operation by Iraqi forces also netted documents, cell phones and computers containing information on other wanted terrorists and Islamic extremist groups.

The worst bombing hit the outdoor market as Iraqis were doing their evening shopping in Husseiniyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. At least 25 people were killed and 65 wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Falah Al-Mohamedawi said.

Hours earlier, a car packed with explosives blew up at a dealership in the largely Shi'a city of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32, Capt. Muthana Khalid said.

A bomb hidden in a plastic bag also detonated outside a bakery in a religiously mixed neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 10, the police's Mohamedawi said.

Separately, mortar rounds fired by remote control from a car hit the third floor of the heavily guarded Interior Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government employees and wounding three other people.

A day earlier, 40 people were killed in various attacks, including a car bombing in Baghdad that killed two CBS News crewmen and seriously wounded network correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

Before yesterday, at least 4,066 Iraqis had been killed in war-related violence this year, and at least 4,469 had been wounded, based on Associated Press reports. Those may not be complete, however.

During May, at least 871 Iraqis have been killed, surpassing the 801 killed in April. The deadliest month this year for Iraqis was March, when 1,038 were killed and 1,155 were wounded.

The deadliest day for Iraqis this month was May 7, when at least 67 civilians were killed.

Amid the surge in violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held another day of meetings aimed at getting Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular factions to agree on new interior and defense ministers.

But the key security posts remained vacant 10 days after Maliki's national unity government took office.

The Interior Ministry, which controls the police forces, has been promised to the Shi'as. Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry, overseeing the army. It is hoped the balance will enable Maliki to move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take over all security duties over the next 18 months so U.S.-led troops can begin withdrawing.

In the meantime, U.S. military commanders have moved about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into the volatile Anbar province to help authorities establish order in the insurgent hotbed stretching from Baghdad west to Syria.

The military command in Iraq described the new deployment as short-term. The plan is to keep the newest troops in Anbar no longer than four months, said one military official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the move.

The prime minister's office said suspected terrorist Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi was captured Monday and confessed to hundreds of beheadings around the country. They released a mugshot of the balding al-Batawi wearing a white T-shirt with a nametag hanging around his neck.

Beheadings are a common tactic used by Islamic extremist groups or sectarian death squads. Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for beheading several foreign hostages, including American Nicholas Berg.

Police also said three unidentified insurgents described as well-known aides of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were killed last week during clashes in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.

 

[BBond]

bush refuses to see the train coming but look! More and more of his "coalition members" see it coming and they are getting off the tracks...

More U.S. allies pulling troops out of Iraq

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
BY WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria -- It's a coalition of the dwindling.

The U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq is losing troops from two of its most important allies -- Italy and South Korea -- and up to a half-dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by year's end.

The withdrawals are complicating America's effort to begin extracting itself from the country, where a fresh onslaught of deadly attacks on coalition forces is testing the resolve of key partners such as Britain and Poland.

Some observers say Iraq's deteriorating security situation is an argument for coalition forces to stay -- not leave -- and perhaps even deploy additional forces to tamp down violence as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki works to shift security duties to Iraqis over the next 18 months.

Underscoring the reality, the Pentagon said yesterday it was shifting about 1,500 U.S. troops from Kuwait to western Iraq's volatile Anbar province to help the Iraqis establish order there.

Increased instability, violence and Islamic extremism in Iraq could require "a larger role for overt, coordinated, multilateral intervention, involving the key regional powers, to stabilize the situation," defense analyst Christopher Langton of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies warns in a new report.

Defense Secretary Des Browne of Britain, the No. 2 military presence in Iraq with about 8,000 troops, conceded yesterday that the latest attacks were "a major concern."

Despite the bloodshed, public opposition to Britain's involvement and reports that more than 1,000 British troops may have deserted since 2003, Browne insisted there were no plans to pull British troops from Iraq.

"We will continue to remain in Iraq until the Iraqi government is confident that the Iraqi security forces are capable of providing security without assistance from the coalition forces," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

"That will, of course, be in consultation with us and our allies. But the decision on withdrawal will be based on achieving the right conditions but not on a particular timetable."

The United States still provides most of the muscle for the mission, with about 132,000 troops in Iraq.

In the months after the March 2003 invasion, the multinational force peaked at about 300,000 soldiers from 38 nations, including 250,000 U.S. troops. But the coalition has shrunk steadily ever since, with Spain and Ukraine among the larger contributors to pull out.

The latest blow to the current 26-nation coalition is Italy's decision to pull its remaining 2,600 troops out by the end of the year.

Italy's new defense minister, Arturo Parisi, was quoted by Italian media yesterday as saying "Italy won't turn its back on Iraq" and would offer unspecified political, civil and humanitarian support.

South Korea, the third-largest contributor of forces, began bringing troops home this week as part of a plan to withdraw about 1,000 of its 3,200 soldiers from northern Iraq by year's end.

This doesn't seem to bode well for a U.S. troop withdrawal, does it?

Haven't we been hearing the same tired story from king george, prince of darkness dick, and the rest of their lying crew for OVER THREE YEARS NOW?

People, just in case you haven't noticed, things aren't improving in Iraq. There were NO WMDs. We aren't spreading "freedom and democracy". We're over there killing and maiming innocent people by the thousands, we've fostered an insurgency and brought terrorists to Iraq who NEVER would have DARED to come to Iraq while that maniac Saddam was in power, and we're only replacing Saddam with more maniacs.

Iraq is the worst mistake ever made by an American president. Not only because of the scope of the mistake but also because the unprovoked invasion of Iraq was completely and totally unnecessary. Look at the freakin' mess we're left with. And in the meantime we're failing in the "war on terror" because king george is wasting these massive resources in a nation that had nothing to do with terrorism. Nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing to do with al Qaeda. All the while, the people who planned and executed the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history roam this Earth free because these idiots in the White House took their eyes off the ball and ran off on their fool's errand in Iraq.

What a disgrace. And you, America, refuse to demand accountability from these lying fools.