Thread: Iraq News

Well I just read the link provided, and it seems he was captured in Afghanistan, rather than Iraq.

Meanwhile, in Iraq-

Two blasts in Iraq kill eight U.S. troops

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two bombings in separate Iraq provinces on Monday killed eight U.S. troops, the U.S. military said.

A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Diyala province, which has been a major front in the war during the "surge" of U.S. troops fighting insurgents near the capital.

Earlier in the day, at least five U.S. soldiers on foot patrol were killed and three others wounded in a suicide bombing in Baghdad.

In addition, suicide bombers killed five Iraqis in two bombings in Diyala province Monday morning, including a sheik who helped battle Sunni extremists and his 5-year-old niece.

Two blasts in Iraq kill eight U.S. troops - CNN.com

And another 16 iraqi's killed in a bus bombing-

Roadside blast kills 16 Iraqis

Bomb hits bus traveling from Basra to Nasiriyah


Blast kills 16 Iraqis - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

Every couple of days you read about some latest bombing, but short term at least, the last week seems to have been worse than usual.

Originally Posted by sabang

Well I just read the link provided, and it seems he was captured in Afghanistan, rather than Iraq.

5555555555555

Originally Posted by sabang

Well I just read the link provided, and it seems he was captured in Afghanistan, rather than Iraq.

Well, them al Quadas are everywhere and the point is this POS is out of action for the duration...

No worries Boon, latest AQ lad was held by CIA for sometime before hitting Gitmo. I'm sure heaps of good intel was gained while using effective H2O board techniques.

Originally Posted by britmaveric

No worries Boon, latest AQ lad was held by CIA for sometime before hitting Gitmo. I'm sure heaps of good intel was gained while using effective H2O board techniques.

That's the spirit, brit!

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

them al Quadas are everywhere

yep. even under your bed and hiding in your closet....just like those "reds" were 30 years ago.

rube.

A Crude Case For War?

It's hard to miss the point of the "Blood for Oil" Web site. It features one poster of an American flag with "Blood for oil?" in white block letters where the stars should be and two dripping red handprints across the stripes. Another shows a photo of President Bush with a thin black line on his upper lip. "Got oil?" the headline asks wryly.

Five years after the United States invaded Iraq, plenty of people believe that the war was waged chiefly to secure U.S. petroleum supplies and to make Iraq safe -- and lucrative -- for the U.S. oil industry.

Instead of making Iraq an open economy fueled by a thriving oil sector, the war has failed to boost the flow of oil from Iraq's giant well-mapped reservoirs, which oil experts say could rival Saudi Arabia's and produce 6 million barrels a day, if not more. ...

"If we went to war for oil, we did it as clumsily as anyone could do. And we spent more on the war than we could ever conceivably have gotten out of Iraq's oil fields even if we had particular control over them," says Anthony Cordesman, an expert on U.S. strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who rejects the idea that the war was designed on behalf of oil companies.

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

Originally Posted by chinthee

Instead of making Iraq an open economy fueled by a thriving oil sector, the war has failed to boost the flow of oil from Iraq's giant well-mapped reservoirs...
"If we went to war for oil, we did it as clumsily as anyone could do. And we spent more on the war than we could ever conceivably have gotten out of Iraq's oil fields even if we had particular control over them," says Anthony Cordesman, an expert on U.S. strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who rejects the idea that the war was designed on behalf of oil companies.

The cost of the 'war' and the resulting instability have been a miscalculation on an epic scale - curious that this failure is now used as 'evidence' that control of oil and economics were not a prime motivation.
The oil industry and gov have a long-term perspective, shipping enough oil out to finance the war within a few years was not part of the plan - this argument is a red herring.

Also, it is the taxpayers who finance the ongoing occupation, not the oil companies and associated industries which are in for longterm financial gain. What's the US decision makers' background and financial portfolio?

Of course oil was not the only reason, but it doesn't take much to add the pieces together...

While I have to say that article does not infer that AQ is about to be cleaned out soon (rather, on the defensive), it was fascinating reading- thanks.

For Iraq to return to any semblance of stability, AQ has to be cleaned out. We can agree on that.

Fifty-five percent of Iraqis say things in their own lives are going well, well up from 39 percent as recently as August. More, 62 percent, rate local security positively, up 19 points. And the number who expect conditions nationally to improve in the year ahead has doubled, to 46 percent in this new national poll by ABC News, the BBC, ARD German TV and the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Without directly crediting the surge in U.S. forces, fewer report security as the main problem in their own lives – 25 percent, nearly half its peak last spring. Forty-six percent say local security has improved in the past six months, nearly double last summer’s level.

The number of Iraqis who feel entirely unsafe in their own area has dropped by two-thirds, to 10 percent. And with Sunni Arab buy-in, U.S.-funded Awakening Councils, created to provide local security, are more popular than the Iraqi government itself.

Even more striking is the halt in worsening views. In August, Iraqis by 61-11 percent said security in the country had gotten worse, not better, in the previous six months. Today, by 36-26 percent, more say security has improved. The new positive margin is not large. But the 35-point drop in views that security is worsening is the single largest change in this poll.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Poll suggests Iraqis 'optimistic'

Source: the BBC???

Can that state-controlled Euro-socialist rag be trusted?

Originally Posted by stroller

Source: the BBC???

Can that state-controlled Euro-socialist rag be trusted?

These are strange times for sure...

Originally Posted by Eliminator

Only when we get rid of you and your ilk, hell, I'll be happy to get rid of YOU.

Why dont you both go and hide under a rock.

Some revelent facts:

In February 2007 antiwar Democrat John Murtha said:

"This is the most intensive combat I've seen since maybe some of the combat in Iwo Jima or some of those places in World War II."

Not so fast, slick:
...
Iraq War (5 years)-- 3,990
...
Battle of Iwo Jima (39 days)-- 6,821
...


Gateway Pundit: Sizing Up Sacrifice- Iraq War vs. Major Battles Since WWII

a relevant fact.....the sixth year of this fiasco just got under way


and the regime at 1600 PA avenue has no idea when or how the US will be able to extract itself.

In a parade carrying the Stars and Stripes proudly down Baghdad's main thoroughfare is my guess. And sooner rather than later...

Originally Posted by raycarey

a relevant fact.....the sixth year of this fiasco just got under way


and the regime at 1600 PA avenue has no idea when or how the US will be able to extract itself.

Have we extracted ourselves from: Bosnia. N. Korea. Germany. Japan?

Get a grip or, better yet, take off those rose-colored glasses and turn down the kumbaya music, eh?

Originally Posted by raycarey

and the regime at 1600 PA avenue has no idea when or how the US will be able to extract itself.

Originally Posted by Texpat

In a parade carrying the Stars and Stripes proudly down Baghdad's main thoroughfare is my guess. And sooner rather than later.

If you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade?

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Have we extracted ourselves from: Bosnia. N. Korea. Germany. Japan?

absurd comparisons.

N. Korea?

It's colder outside than at night.

^
I had a bowl of kick-ass somtom the other night too...

One portion of somtam has more chili than kimchee contains enzymes, and more people died in Korea than there were AIDS victims in the '90s.