Thread: War.

Iraq?

What is Iraq now?

The country has been divided into Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites with further divisions amonst these groups.

What ever the outcome the US will get the oil and that means they won!

Originally Posted by Aljazeera

US authorities in Iraq have reported the deaths of nine Americans - five soldiers, a diplomatic security agent and three private security guards.

A soldier from the 18th Military Police Brigade was killed in a roadside bombing on Tuesday 121km north of the capital, the military said on Tuesday, shortly after announcing the deaths a day earlier of four US soldiers attached to the Marines.



The soldiers were killed in two separate roadside bombings near Ramadi, 115km west of Baghdad.



The four soldiers killed in Ramadi were attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

A car bomber also killed four people in an attack on a US diplomatic convoy in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, a US official said.

The full report from Aljazeera

The BBC Report

OK, the war in Iraq is now a sham, a murderous sham but we all know the reasons why it's happening. strategic control and more importantly the access that that control gives to the resources within. We all know this, the people who pretend differently know we know but where does this leave us? Nowhere, it will proceed regardless of what we think. It would take an 80% disapproval rating to change its course and even then the change would be purely cosmetic. It is and has been, to our eyes, an unsuccessful military mission but let's not feel so superiour. Trained military strategists laid out the map for this and surely this must have been in their contingency plans, they really aint that stupid. Callous and arrogant yes, but stupid, not at all.

On the back of that let me chuck out a theory. This may be considered a conspiracy theory of sorts and that it is; a theory. Imagine a country, a country that ploughs its own furrow, and has done so for years. Allegations of "sponsorship" of various armies proven, a rather suspect internal scene, and a CNN friendly type of rogue state, we can see and believe in the press on this one. It's there, you can see it and its politicians back it up. Cool, we know where we stand on this one. A lack of redeeming features if you will. In the last few months this nation has been in strife. Not exactly crumbling, but shaky at the very least. It’s lost its outpost, one of its generals "killed himself" the leader is under extreme pressure. The next few weeks and months are critical. Not a soldier used to invade, no bad press but yet a mission achieved

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Syria.

Originally Posted by The Australian Newspaper

Rice won't rule out Syria military option


From correspondents in Washington
October 20, 2005

THE United States has refused to rule out possible military action against Syria but says it has not exhausted diplomatic moves to get Damascus to change its ways over Iraq and Lebanon.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said both Syria and Iran were allowing fighters and military assistance to reach insurgents in Iraq.

"Syria and Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Ms Rice told a hearing called to discuss US strategy in Iraq, where more than 150,000 US troops are struggling to end an insurgency.

Pressed by senators over whether the Bush administration was planning military action against Syria in particular, Ms Rice said the United States was still on a "diplomatic course" with Damascus but the military option remained open.

"The president never takes any option off the table and he shouldn't," said Ms Rice when asked about a military option.

Scary stuff.

Linky

Grieving Iraq family sees no end to “rivers of blood”
(Reuters)

23 October 2005


BAGHDAD - Adel Abed Hammed was a skinny 31-year-old so withdrawn he sometimes went days without talking to anybody and would let only his mother touch him.

Mentally ill since childhood, he used to wander the streets of Baghdad alone. One day he chanced on some American soldiers who shot him dead after he took fright at a bullet fired over his head.

“I wouldn’t feel such misery if he wasn’t so sick but that makes it double for me,” said his mother. “He was like a child.”

The 62-year-old Baghdad housewife is one of many thousands of Iraqis who are mourning sons and daughters killed in a conflict that has also claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 US troops. Many Iraqis, like Adel, have been killed by American soldiers.

Iraq Body Count, a peace group which counts casualties based on media reports, says on average 38 Iraqis a day die violently. It says at least 26,600 have died since the invasion but the true figure may be higher because many deaths go unreported.

The US military says it does not target civilians or count their deaths. Rebels often attack US checkpoints and patrols. Soldiers are authorised to use lethal force in self-defence.

A report by Iraq Body Count in July said nearly 37 percent of the Iraqi deaths it had recorded were caused by US-led forces, with the rest caused by insurgents and criminal gangs.

According to icasualties.org, a website run by a non-governmental group that tallies US and Iraqi casualties, more than 3,400 Iraqi police and soldiers have been killed in postwar Iraq, including more than 2,100 this year alone.

Behind every statistic is a grieving family.

“He always used to go walking for hours,” Adel’s mother said, sitting with her husband and two more sons in the living room of the family house in an upscale Baghdad neighbourhood.

“When he came home he used to tell me about what he saw on the road. I used to take him to the bathroom and wash him.”

Adel’s father, Abed Hammed Abbas, 73, says his son left the house mid-morning, wearing jeans and a shirt, and when he did not come back by nightfall, they began to fear for him.

“I stayed up all night crying, waiting for him outside the house,” Adel’s mother said, speaking through tears. “I pictured him dead, with blood coming from his face.”

The following day a neighbour told them he had seen Adel shot on a highway near their home.

The neighbour, who did not want to be identified, said he was walking home when he saw the US patrol in Humvee armoured vehicles and tanks, stationed on both sides of the road.

“I saw Adel coming walking slowly towards the Americans from the other side. They fired a warning shot over his head. Adel panicked and ran to the other side of the highway.

“He’d just started running when they shot him with a couple of bullets. Then he fell to the ground. Four soldiers approached his body and checked him, then they carried his body to a Humvee and put him inside and took him away.”

Adel’s father Abed went to the police, who directed him to a hospital. “They told us the Americans brought a person there that was killed and we could find the body in the morgue. We checked it and it was my son, Adel,” Abed said.

’Shot from behind’

“We found he was shot from behind, right through the kidneys. The other bullet wound was near the hip,” he said.

The Americans had left a “claims card” with details of the incident and how the family could seek compensation. Adel’s family has not decided whether to press a claim.

Adel met his death as the eyes of the world were focused on a constitutional referendum and on the trial of Saddam Hussein.

As these events unfolded, Adel’s mother received condolence visits from friends and relatives in a mourning ritual that has been repeated day after day in countless homes around Iraq.

Adel’s cousin Abdullah Hussain, a doctor, said it should have been clear that Adel was mentally ill. “He was very innocent. Anyone could tell he was ill from the first moment.”

“The Americans are spreading terror in Iraq because they are terrified,” he added. “These are not the qualities of liberators but criminals.”

Adel’s older brother Ali said the Americans should leave Iraq. “These rivers of blood should be stopped,” he said.

Yep....an illegal and unlawful invasion of another foreign country that had been basically minding it's own business since the US invasion of 1991.

Good old fashioned imperialism....the acquisition of another's natural resources for it's self.....oil and gas.....

Without doubt, Israel and this current US administration (or at least factions within it) are the number one terrorist threats in the world today!

Ya know, i spent almost 1 year of me life in Iraq. But most of it was...Nevermind, it was shit!

God Bless America !

Hello Storekeeper! Do you want to play with my balls?

Good Thread, Captain.

As a Yank, I'd like to add another related angle that is relevant to the Americans recent protests.

I was visiting in the U.S. at the time of the U.S. invasion and attack, and over 6 (or more) out of ten supported attacking Iraq.

Americans were putting flags on the antenaes of their cars, putting on bumber stickers of red-white-and blue. T-shirts, hats, you name it.

Patriotism? Hell no. Jingoistic, arrogant, and ignorant.

Absolutely.

The American public overwhelmingly thought that attacking Iraq and replacing the Hussein regime would be easy and quick.

They thought it would be a walk in the park.

Now that it isn't - they are switching sides.

Complaining of casualties. Which ones. American ones.

The pathetic jerk-offs don't even recognize their own hypocrisy.

I still haven't met a Yank over here that disagrees with all that Sir Snaff.
Where's all the ****ly ones?

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

I still haven't met a Yank over here that disagrees with all that Sir Snaff.
Where's all the ****ly ones?

I have unfortunately.

Originally Posted by dirtydog

I believe Iraq will win this war, everyday they are killing more Americans, America will have to pull out but still pay for the rebuilding, Hell Iraq gets a shiney new country paid for by those baby eaters

It won't be the first time we've paid for the rebuilding. Hell we even pay the British tabs when they welch on their commitments.

Bored today, SK?

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

Bored today, SK?

Nah, I just miss Captain Sensible ... I remember back when he was Senseless. This is his thread ya know ...