BRITISH forces were on standby last night to re-enter the southern Iraqi town of al-Amarah after Shia militiamen loyal to the fundamentalist cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr stormed several police stations.
Hundreds of Iraqi Army and police reinforcements have been rushed to the volatile town of feuding tribes and smugglers on the Iranian border. British troops withdrew from al-Amarah two months ago, after a daily bombardment of mortar fire. Commanders in Basra were assembling a force to rejoin the fray if the Iraqis could not secure the town.
"We're putting together a forces package here," said Major Charlie Burbridge, the British Army spokesman in Basra. He added that at least one police station in al-Amarah had been torched and another abandoned by its occupants. The British reinforcement contingent could include as many as 500 troops.
The town's descent into anarchy is a blow to British policy in the south. After the Army's withdrawal in August, troops patrolled the Iranian border in an effort to intercept weapons smugglers. The town was deemed stable enough to be transferred to Iraqi forces, but looters stripped the camp as soon as the British left.
that's from james hider's 'Forces ready to take back town' (times of london) and it's the story of the day and the story of tomorrow. there are some reports that a truce has been worked out but i also see stories that say it's still ongoing. whether it's resolved (or what passes for 'resolved') doesn't matter. this is the reality of iraq. it's the point c.i. was making last night in 'And the war drags on.'
it's the same battle over and over because there's no objective that's 'winnable.' the whole point is to continue the war, continue the occupation and america needs to grasp that real quick. as the american fatality count for the military nears 2800 and as an estimated 655,000 iraqis have died due to the illegal war, we need to face the fact that those numbers will never go down, they will only increase. the 4th year anniversary of the war is this march and we need to figure out how many years we're going to tolerate, how many deaths?
it's a war built on lies. a war of choice.
bully boy made the decision to start this illegal war but only we can make the decision to end it. as john lennon and yoko ono pointed out in 'happy x-mas' - 'war is over if you want it.'
i was looking for something to highlight and it's not that easy tonight. for instance, there's a writer i enjoy who has a new column. i liked most of the points made in it but i'm not a 'dude.'
do they not get, men, how insulting that is? they're writing their columns and you're nodding along and then they speak to the reader with 'dudes!' and i have to wonder do they think only men read them?
men like that won't get highlighted here. to me it's a sign of low self-respect for yourself to post something like that if you're a woman.
i had to save to draft because the discussion group was starting. we're on a break, i'm on a cigarette break, so while i smoke 1, i'm logging back in and attempting to finish this and get it posted.
so quickly, this is from autralia's herald-sun's 'Operation Backward Step:'
Operation Forward Together was considered a last-ditch effort to tame Baghdad, where violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims had reached unprecedented levels.
The plan involved pulling 12,000 American soldiers from elsewhere in Iraq and teaming them with Iraqi troops to go door to door in the most troubled suburbs and root out armed groups.
The suburbs were then to be the focus of campaigns promoting economic development.
The number of US soldiers and Marines killed in Baghdad has skyrocketed, and October may become the third-deadliest month for American service members since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in 2003.
US officials announced the deaths of two more soldiers and a Marine yesterday, bringing the month's toll to 73.
Maj-Gen Caldwell sounded despondent as he acknowledged the toll.
if you've forgotten, the crackdown (which c.i. has rightly pointed out began in june) was supposed to be 'the answer.' turned corner and all that b.s. but it didn't do that. it only made things worse. so the question is, those still believing the hype, what are they? are they battered spouses who think, 'next time, we'll talk, i won't be hit' over and over and over?
you get burned how many times before you learn? most americans have woken up to the reality that the war is going badly but i do wonder how many get that it's over? which reminds me of something i can pad this out with.
from 'Truest statement of the week' (the third estate sunday review):
The war is lost. The 'plan' is a joke. Maybe after Gordo comes down from his sexual high, he'll grasp that and also grasp that Tal Afar doesn't make for a good example?
-- C.I. from Thursday's "NYT: The war is lost but Gordie's hot for 'doggie style'," responding to Michael Gordon's laughable "Military Hones A New Strategy On Insurgency" (New York Times) of the same day. Reality checked war pornographer Gordo on Saturday with "Bomber attacks 'model' Iraqi city."
now here's c.i.'s "Iraq Snapshot:"
Friday, October 20, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq; an area the British abandoned heats up; Rumsfeld's 'big fellow' vouches for his honor; Max Boot demonstrates he was cursed with not only porcine features but analytical challenges as well; Bully Boy's Iraq to Vietnam comparison continues to be discussed (and will continue); another US soldier dies today in Iraq bringing the total for the month to 75; Ramadi's parade/independence statement is echoed elsewhere in Iraq today.
Starting in Amara. On August 24th, came news that too much violence, too many attacks, led British troops to exit Amara quickly. Spinning would continue August 25th and then it was largely forgotten. Today, actions in Amara have reminded why British troops left and left so quickly. Al Jazeera reports that "overnight clashes left 15 dead" and that the fighting continued today "after police arrested a member of cleric Maqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army on suspicion of killing a local intelligence officer in a bomb attack". Christopher Bodeen (AP) reports that the town has been "seized" and that it's "one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said." CNN reports that 16 people have died and 90 wounded. They also speak with British military flack Charlie Burbridge who stated that between 200 and 300 people attacked two police stations in Amara Thursday. Christine Hauser (New York Times) reports: "The nearest British troops are now stationed more than 20 miles from the city" and that other police stations and "state facilities in Amara were attacked." On the subject of British troops, AFP reports: "A British battle group of 600 troops backed by attack jets and armoured vehicles is standing by to intervene if Iraqi forces need support" according to Charlie Burbridge (so take it for what it is worth).
Kirk Semple (New York Times) reports that the militia have gain "control of entire neighborhoods" and notes theories that that a split between Maktada al-Sadr (whom some are linking the militias too) and puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki could impact the "stability" of the puppet government. Meanwhile, James Hider (Times of London) notes: "As in Balad, militiamen set up roadblocks around the town and warned residents to stay indoors."
In some of the other violence today, Reuters notes that one person died and three were wounded in Baghdad from a roadside bomb (Dora district). Also Reuters reports that one person was shot dead near Baiji and three others wounded. AFP reports that three people are dead and three wounded from an attack in Khalis.
It's Friday. News of violence trickles out slowly on a normal day. Events in Amara meant today wouldn't be a normal Friday.
In other news, Frank Jordans (AP) reports that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that "914,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003". This at the same time as Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) reports on the increased dangers in Iraqi hospitals both from the fact that the medical "system is breaking down" and also because of claims that "hospitals are now being used by al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia as its headquarters and hospital basements are used as prisons."
But no need to be concerned about any of the above. For one thing, Peter Pace is standing by his man. AFP reports the US general said of Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, "He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country." God responds, "Don't blame that ___ on me!"
While Pace tells the world he's fond of his fella' Rumsfeld, Tony Blair warns the world that he's the house guest from hell. Philip Webster (Times of London) reports that is bandying around the term "progressive withdrawal" and insisting that Iraqis won't be put out by foreign forces 'staying too long.' At three years and eight months, Blair's stayed too long at the fair and then some.
Meanwhile, AP reports that Bully Boy's poodle-in-waiting, John Howard, declares there "is no reason to for international forces to quite Iraq". Pooh-pahhing Little Willie Caldwell's use of the term "disheartening" yesterday, Howard declared, "In any military operation, you have heartening and disheartening things". Backing him was Australia's former chief of the Defence Force, Peter Cosgrove, who doesn't believe that Vietnam and Iraq are anything alike. It helps his self-serving refusal to focus on the conflict in Indochine and the Indochina War which, for the record, wasn't the question put to Bully Boy on Wednesday. Possibly Cosgrove misunderstood the question?
For those confused, the Khaleej Times brings you up to speed: "At last, President Bush has come to acknowledge what many in and outside US have been arguing for some time. That Iraq is increasingly looking like Vietnam. In a rare confession during his interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulus, the president admitted that as in Vietnam, America faces 'a stepped-up level of violence' in Iraq. Stepped-up level of violence, Mr. President? This is an all-out and free-for-all bloody civil war, which has already claimed 655,000 Iraqi lives, as medical journal Lancet disclosed last week."
For anyone who may still be confused, from yesterday's snapshot:
Starting with the Bully Boy. As Demetri Sevastopulo (Financial Times) noted, Bully Boy "drew a comparison between Iraq and the Vietnam war for the first time on Wednesday when he said Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columinst, 'could be right' in writing that the violent situation in Iraq was the 'jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive." Summarizing the interview, Ed O'Keefe (ABC) notes, "Bush said he could not imagine any circumstances under which all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq before the end of his presidency." Bully Boy doesn't seem to register of what his comparison would result in. Mark Tran (Guardian of London) walks readers through:
"Mr Bush has strongly resisted comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq. Vietnam remains a touchy subject for America; the war deeply divided the country, ended in an ignominious retreat for the US after the loss of more than 57,000 American lives, and has become synonymous with political and military debacle. The 1968 Tet offensive was a military failure for the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese, but it turned American public opinion against the war and fatally damaged President Lyndon Johnson, who abandoned his re-election campaign two months later."
The 'crackdown' cracked . . . down. Up? The measure began in mid-June was supposed to secure the capital but violence not only continued in Baghdad, it increased. As John F. Burns (New York Times) reported, Bully Boy "is now left with only a handful of tough and politically unattractive options" as a result of the cracked-up 'crackdown.' Michael Abramowitz and Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post) reported, "Senior figures in both parties are coming to the conclusion that the Bush administration will be unable to achieve its goal of a stable, democratic Iraq within a politically feasible time frame." Despite that, CNN reports that White House flack Tony Snow has stated, "There will be no change in strategy." Bully Boy would publicly agree later in the day. Steve Holland (Reuters) reports that Bully Boy, deluded or in denial, insists there will be no changes while Democratic House Representative John Murtha notes: "We've lost the hearts and minds of the people and we've become caught in a civil war." CBS and AP report that Bully Boy's pushing a teleconference tomorrow "with U.S. generals" to determine what to do next. (Those who remember the infamous Hurricane Katrina teleconference will rightly shudder.)
Though Max Boot hasn't lost his heart (can't lose what you don't have), he appears to be losing his grip on reality. Speaking to Michelle Nichols (Reuters), the balding gas bag offered that American troops dying in Iraq has a less of an impact than Americans dying in the Vietnam conflict due to the fact that today "the impact here is more isolated because so many soldiers come from military communities which are clustered in a handful of states." Oh really?
American troop fatalties? Alabama: 47; Alaska: 10; Arizona: 66; Arkansas: 35; California: 284; Colorado: 34; Connecticut: 22; Delaware: 12; Florida: 117; Georgia: 83; Hawaii: 13; Idaho: 16; Illinois: 107; Indiana: 56; Iowa: 33; Kansas: 31; Kentucky: 46; Louisiana: 63; Maine: 12; Maryland: 52; Massachusetts: 45; Michigan: 97; Minnesota: 39; Mississippi: 35; Missouri: 48; Montana: 12; Nebraska: 29; Nevada: 24; New Hampshire: 14; New Jersey: 47; New Mexico: 21; New York: 132; North Carolina: 63; North Dakota: 13; Ohio: 125; Oklahoma: 47; Oregon: 46; Pennsylvania: 135; Rhode Island: 10; South Carolina: 39; South Dakota: 17; Tennessee: 58; Texas: 245; Utah: 14; Vermont: 18; Virginia: 83; Washington: 53; West Virginia: 18; Wisconsin: 60; Wyoming: 7.
A "handful of states"? Can we get some talcum powder for Max Boot? His desk jockeys have apparently left his brain chafed.
The Booty's foolish remarks come as the US military announces another death: a US soldier died in Baghad today from an IED. This death brings the total US fatalities in Iraq for the month of October to 75 and the total of US troop fatalities since the start of the illegal war now stands at 2788.
The news of the death comes as Hamza Hendwai (AP) reports that the parade/declaration of independence earlier this week in Ramadi have now been echoed today "in a string of towns west of Baghdad . . . . the latest parades -- including two less than a mile from U.S. military bases -- were staged in support of an announcement this week by a militant Sunni Arab group that it had created an Islamic state in six of Iraq's 18 provinces, including the capital, Baghdad."
