Iraq News

**seth106** · 05-11-2006, 08:47 AM

I Want To Hurt Somebody

By Greg Palast

11/03/06 for The Guardian (London) -- -- It was pure war-nography. The front page of the New York Times yesterday splashed a four-column-wide close-up of a blood-covered bullet in the blood-soaked hands of an army medic who’d retrieved it from the brain of Lance Cpl. Colin Smith.

There was a 40 column-inch profile of the medic. There were photos of the platoon, guns over shoulders, praying for the fallen buddy. The Times is careful not to ruin the heroic mood, so there is no photograph of pieces of corporal Smith’s shattered head. Instead, there’s an old, smiling photo of the wounded soldier.

The reporter, undoubtedly wearing the Kevlar armor of the troop in which he’s “embedded,” quotes at length the thoughts of the military medic: “I would like to say that I am a good man. But seeing this now, what happened to Smith, I want to hurt people. You know what I mean?”

The reporter does not bother — or dare — to record a single word from any Iraqi in the town of Karma where Smith’s platoon was, “performing a hard hit on a house.”

I don’t know what a “hard hit” is. But I don’t think I’d want one “performed” on my home. Maybe Iraqis feel the way I do.

We won’t know. The only Iraqi noted by the reporter was, “a woman [who] walked calmly between the sniper and the marines.”

The Times reporter informs us that Lance Cpl. Smith, “said a prayer today,” before he charged into the village. We’re told that Smith had, “the cutest little blond girlfriend” and “his dad was his hero.” Did the calm woman also say her prayers today? Is her dad her hero, too? We don’t know. No one asks.

The reporter and his photographer did visit a home in the neighborhood — but only after the “hit” force kicked in the door. I suppose that’s an improvement over the typical level of reporting we get. In dispatches home by the few US journalists who brave beyond the Green Zone, Iraqis are little more than dark shapes glimpsed through the slots of a speeding Humvee.

Last month there was a big hoo-ha over the statistical accuracy of a Johns Hopkins University study estimating that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of this war.

I doubt the Iraqi who fired that bullet into Lance Cpl. Smith read the Hopkins study. Iraqis don’t need a professor of statistics to tell them what happens in a “hard hit” on a house. Of civilians killed by the US forces the Hopkins team found 46% are younger than fifteen years old.

I grieve for Lance Cpl. Smith and I can’t know for certain what moved the sniper to pick up a gun and shoot him. However, I’ve no doubt that, like the Marines who said prayers before they invaded the homes of the terrified residents of Karma, the sniper also said a prayer before he loaded the 7.62mm shell into his carbine.

And if we asked, I’m sure the sniper would tell us, “I am a good man, but seeing what happened, I want to hurt people.”

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Armed Madhouse ” Visit his website Greg Palast.

**seth106** · 05-11-2006, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by stroller

Isn't Iraq where the terrorists come from? Weren't they building an arsenal of nucelar and biological WMDs over there?

Anyway, I thought all Muslims favour Al-Quaida, because the Koran tells them to kill all infidels? They may not volunteer as suicide bombers, but they all are terrorist sympathizers - the poll has been manipulated by liberal traitors, just another lie by the democrats to win the elections.

I really do hope that this is ironic humour that I don't get

**Eliminator** · 25-11-2006, 07:20 AM

New savage twist to violence in Baghdad

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago

Revenge-seeking Shiite militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left Friday prayers, drenched them with kerosene and burned them alive, and Iraqi soldiers did nothing to stop the attack, police and witnesses said.
The fiery slayings in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Hurriyah were a dramatic escalation of the brutality coursing through the Iraqi capital, coming a day after suspected Sunni insurgents killed 215 people in Baghdad's main Shiite district with a combination of bombs and mortars.
The attacks culminated Baghdad's deadliest week of sectarian fighting since the war began more than three years ago.
Police Capt. Jamil Hussein said Iraqi soldiers at a nearby army post failed to intervene in the burnings of Sunnis carried out by suspected members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, or in subsequent attacks that torched four Sunni mosques and killed at least 19 other Sunnis, including women and children, in the same northwest Baghdad area.
Imad al-Hasimi, a Sunni elder in Hurriyah, confirmed Hussein's account. He told Al-Arabiya television he saw people who were soaked in kerosene, then set afire, burning before his eyes.
Two workers at Kazamiyah Hospital said the bodies from the clashes and immolations had been taken to the morgue at their facility. They refused to be identified by name, saying they feared retribution.
In spite of the police and witness accounts, however, President Jamal Talabani appeared to discount the reports. He emerged from meetings with other Iraqi political leaders late Friday and said Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi told him that the Hurriyah neighborhood had been quiet throughout the day.
According to Hussein, the police official, militiamen rampaged through the district, setting fire to several homes in addition to the four mosques that were bombed and burned.
Some residents claimed that the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has begun kidnapping and holding Sunni hostages in order to slaughter them at funerals of Shiite victims of Baghdad's sectarian violence.
Such claims cannot be verified but speak to the deep fear that grips Baghdad, where retaliation has become a part of daily life.
In the past year, thousands of bodies have been found dumped across Baghdad and other cities in central Iraq, victims who were tortured, then shot to death, according to police. The suspected militia killers often have used electric drills on their captives' bodies before killing them. The bodies are frequently decapitated.
Burning victims alive, however, introduced a new method of brutality that seemed likely to be reciprocated by the other sect as the Shiites and Sunnis continue killing one another in unprecedented numbers. The attack, which came despite a curfew in Baghdad, capped a day in which at least 87 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence across Iraq.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, the most influential Sunni organization in Iraq, said even more Sunni victims were killed. It claimed a total of 18 people had died in an inferno at the al-Muhaimin mosque.
The extreme violence continued to tear at the Iraq's social fabric even after the government had banned pedestrians and cars from the streets and closed the international airport until further notice in anticipation of a storm of retaliation for the five bombings and two mortar rounds that killed 215 in Sadr City on Thursday.
The airport closure forced Talabani to delay his planned Saturday departure for Tehran for meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian leader also invited Syrian President Bashar Assad, but it now appeared he would not attend.
The chaos also cast a shadow over the Amman, Jordan, summit next week between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush.
Politicians loyal to al-Sadr threatened to boycott parliament and the Cabinet if al-Maliki went ahead with the meeting. The radical Shiite political bloc, known as Sadrists, is a mainstay of support for al-Maliki, himself a Shiite. The Mahdi Army is the organization's armed wing.
Sadrist lawmaker Qusai Abdul-Wahab blamed U.S. forces for Thursday's attack in Sadr City because they failed to provide security.
"We say occupation forces are fully responsible for these acts, and we call for the withdrawal of occupation forces or setting a timetable for their withdrawal," Abdul-Wahab said.
A U.S. helicopter patrolling above Sadr City came under intense fire from the ground and shot back, wounding two people Friday night, according to police 1st. Lt. Qassim Mohammed and witnesses.
The U.S. military said the helicopter had taken fire from six rockets launched from one site and destroyed the launcher. The military statement did not address whether there were casualties.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzil said the president's plans to meet with al-Maliki on Wednesday and Thursday were unchanged.
Al-Maliki is increasingly at odds with the Bush administration for his refusal to disband militias and associated deaths squads that are believed responsible for killing thousands of Sunnis since an al-Qaida attack blew up the golden dome of a revered Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Mortar fire rained down again on Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Baghdad, the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Azamiyah neighborhood, wounding at least five people. Several mortars crashed into the area Thursday night within hours of the attacks in Sadr City, one of them puncturing the dome of the shrine and damaging the interior, including its library.
Also, militia gunmen raided a Sunni mosque in the Amil section of west Baghdad, killing two guards, police 1st Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.
And in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Sunni insurgents blew up the dome of the important Shiite mosque of leading cleric Abdul-Karm al-Madani.
In the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, 23 people were killed and 43 wounded when explosives hidden in a parked car and in a suicide belt worn by a pedestrian detonated simultaneously outside a car dealership, said police Brig. Khalaf al-Jubouri.
Altogether, 56 people were killed across in Iraq on Friday, and police said they found 31 bodies dumped throughout Baghdad, most of them tortured before being shot.
In Sadr City, cleanup crews continued removing remains of the dead from wreckage of the car bombs, and tents were erected throughout the ramshackle district for relatives to receive condolences.
Hundreds of men, women and children beat their chests, chanted and cried as they walked beside vehicles carrying the caskets of their loved ones toward the holy Shiite city of Najaf for burial. Despite Baghdad's curfew, al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, ordered police to guard the processions.
As the funeral processions reached the edge of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad, the cars and minivans left most of the mourners behind and began the 100-mile drive south to Najaf, a treacherous journey that passes through many checkpoints and areas controlled by Sunni militants in Iraq's so-called "Triangle of Death."
___
AP correspondents Thomas Wagner, Bassem Mroue and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report.

**stroller** · 25-11-2006, 11:34 AM

^
It was, sorry.

**Boon Mee** · 30-11-2006, 05:23 AM

Iraq War:

Proxy - not civil...

**raycarey** · 30-11-2006, 06:50 AM

semantics, not news.

let's get to news---that is the thread title after all....

bush flew to the other side of the world with his hat in his hand (god damn, could US foreign policy be any more fucked up than this group has made it?) and his 2 day meeting was not only postponed, but cut back to a breakfast chat.

AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 29 — Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq and King Abdullah II of Jordan cancelled a meeting with President Bush at the last minute today, against the backdrop of a radical Shiite cleric’s boycott of the Maliki government and the disclosure of a classified White House memo that was highly critical of Mr. Maliki.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Maliki are still scheduled to have breakfast together here Thursday morning, and to hold a much-anticipated joint press conference afterward.

But after meeting earlier today, Mr. Maliki and King Abdullah decided that a joint session planned for this evening with Mr. Bush was unnecessary, according to a senior White House official.

“The Jordanians and the Iraqis jointly decided they did not feel it was the best use of time” and notified Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador to Iraq, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mr. Khalilzad then called Air Force One to tell Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who were flying to Amman from Riga, Latvia.

Bush-Maliki Talks Are Postponed - New York Times

**raycarey** · 30-11-2006, 07:32 AM

and here's the opening of the memo...

We returned from Iraq convinced we need to determine if Prime Minister Maliki is both willing and able to rise above the sectarian agendas being promoted by others. Do we and Prime Minister Maliki share the same vision for Iraq? If so, is he able to curb those who seek Shia hegemony or the reassertion of Sunni power? The answers to these questions are key in determining whether we have the right strategy in Iraq.

the entire memo is here....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/wo...ll&oref=slogin

**raycarey** · 30-11-2006, 07:36 AM

by the way, has any else noticed that the meeting is taking place in jordan and not iraq?

150,000 troops apparently aren't enough to protect GWB.

but yeah, freedom's on the march....progress is being made in iraq.....'we' will win the war in iraq.

**raycarey** · 30-11-2006, 07:40 AM

"At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.
"'How's your boy?' Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
"'I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,' Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
"'That's not what I asked you,' Bush said. 'How's your boy?'
"'That's between me and my boy, Mr. President,' Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House."
Emily Heil reports for The Hill that Webb told a confidant "that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief . . . but of course didn't."

In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits - washingtonpost.com

**raycarey** · 13-12-2006, 09:46 PM

25,000 US casualties.

how's that for iraq news?

Three years and nine months after the U.S.-led Coalition began its war against Saddam Hussein, researchers have quietly recorded another grim milestone in the cost of the conflict. American military casualties have now exceeded 25,000. Almost 3,000 U.S. soldiers are dead; 22,000 are injured. Some 245 other Coalition soldiers--mostly Brits--have also died, as well as at least 50,000 Iraqi civilians.

MSNBC - Newsweek.com - National News, World News, Health, Technology, Entertainment and more... Front Page

**Butterfly** · 22-12-2006, 12:23 PM

let me add my piece too

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US marines face Iraq murder trial

**Boon Mee** · 15-01-2007, 06:52 PM

OMAR REPORTS that insurgents in Baghdad are already running away: "the bad guys are adjusting their plans as the government and US military adjust theirs." That's how it works, generally...

**stroller** · 15-01-2007, 07:52 PM

So, it's gonna be hide and seek.

And noone could have foreseen this, of course.

**man with no head** · 15-01-2007, 08:41 PM

Nothing like another random blog to keep the discussion going

Dozens ran way. That's it! The insurgency is broken!

**Boon Mee** · 16-01-2007, 01:23 PM

Well, USA Today reports a spike in trainees signing up with the Iraqi police forces in Anbar province. This flood of new recruits are signing up in droves as they are sick of them Al Quedas...

It ain't over yet, boys!

**man with no head** · 16-01-2007, 04:29 PM

Probably because there are no other jobs available since America essentially destroyed the country.

Either become a policeman (and die in a massive bombing) or die due to starvation. What a choice we give them!

**Wallace** · 18-01-2007, 10:16 AM

Let's get ourselves a posse, boys.

**Boon Mee** · 26-01-2007, 08:44 AM

So Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror?

The left keeps claiming Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror. The liberal media, liberal politicians, and the liberal sheep that follow along with anything the big lberal machine tells them. They are either wrong, or lying to you.

Something happened this last week and the liberal media never put two & two together. The headline read, " Zawahri to Bush: Send Entire Army to Iraq to be Annihilated." Any y'all connecting the dots yet?

**Wallace** · 26-01-2007, 09:15 AM

Not quite sure where you're going with this. What on earth does this have to do with terrorism? It's purely an Iraq issue.

**Boon Mee** · 26-01-2007, 09:42 AM

Well, these are the words of Al Qaeda, and the Al Qaeda leadership. Direct quotes - not someone's analysis.

In August, 2003, a few months after the Coalition forces successfully remved the Hussein regime, al Qaeda commenced its battle for Iraq with ruthless depravity. Within the span of a few weeks, the Red Cross, the UN, and a Shi'ite mosque were attacked by sucide bombers. Since then, al Qaeda has boasted of over 850 viscious attacks, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraquis.

Bin Laden has declared Baghdad to be the "Capital of the Caliphate" which would be one mammoth Islamic state comprising over a billion people, and extending from Indonesia to Morocco.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al Qaeda, stressed the importance of Iraq to its larger goals. In 2005 he stated that al Qaeda must "Establish An Islamic Authority...Over As Much Territory As You CanTo Spread Its Power In Iraq...Extend the Jihad Wave To The Secular Countries Neighboring Iraq"

In other words, Iraq was and is central in the War on Terror.

**stroller** · 26-01-2007, 10:02 AM

No, it's just that US soldiers make easier targets in Iraq, and provide US-funded training opportunities to the A.Q. recruits, before they'll move on.

**Boon Mee** · 26-01-2007, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by stroller

...before they'll move on.

To where?

**lom** · 26-01-2007, 11:20 AM

Aah, but you seem to have missed a bit of information during the years Booners.
Al Qaeda has been minimalised and Bin Laden is of no importance anymore.
All according to GWB

And, should there be any pieces of truth in your statement, then the keyword are not "was and is central". The keywords are "became central".
Who caused that Booners ?
Oh, you already answered that one:

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

In August, 2003, a few months after the Coalition forces successfully remved the Hussein regime, al Qaeda commenced its battle for Iraq with ruthless depravity.

**Mr Earl** · 04-02-2007, 07:47 AM

this is ugly news

**Wallace** · 05-02-2007, 09:36 AM

Here are the first two paras of the article:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with a ton of explosives hidden beneath cooking oil, canned food and bags of flour obliterated a Baghdad food market on Saturday, killing at least 121 people in one of the most fearsome attacks in the capital since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

It was the fifth major bombing in less than a month targeting predominantly Shiite districts in Baghdad and one provincial city to the south. This one leveled about 30 shops and 40 houses, witnesses said."

So I guess now the US and Iraqi security forces will go on the offensive and round up some more 'insurgents'. There can be no question that what we have now is tantamount to a civil war.

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