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-- The Oh So Successful Surge
The Oh So Successful Surge
5 years after this disastrous expensive war of aggression was started, the total failure of regime change and "THE SURGE" can not make itself any more clear.
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| Bombs kill more than 50 in Baghdad By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago BAGHDAD - Two bombs went off within minutes of each other in a crowded shopping district in the capital Thursday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 130 � a reminder that deadly attacks are a daily threat even though violence is down. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. But back-to-back bombings � designed to maximize carnage � became the hallmark of attacks on civilians by al-Qaida in Iraq during the worst of the violence in Baghdad in 2006. Like in previous such attacks, the tactic seeks to draw in the people with the first blast � especially security and medical workers � before a second bomb detonates. Iraqis were enjoying a pleasant spring evening when a roadside bomb hidden under a vendor stall detonated in the primarily Shiite, middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah. Five minutes later, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonated, Mohammed al-Rubaie, the head of the Karradah municipality, told the state-run Al-Iraqiya TV. He said more than 50 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured. Many of the victims were teens or young adults, and four were women, police and officials at three hospitals said. |
I wouldn't even use relative use of violence as an argument in this case. Just look at the political process. The surge was supposed to create an opening for real political reform and progress to be made - and absolutely none has occurred.
Just one point. Baghdad is supposed to be safer. It clearly is not. I wish this country had the resolve to impeach so obviously a failure as this executive administration.
But Latinlover told me everything was fine?? 
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| Originally posted by Capitalizt But Latinlover told me everything was fine?? |
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| Originally posted by Capitalizt But Latinlover told me everything was fine?? |
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| Originally posted by Krypton LOL. 9/11 9/11 9/11! Iraq has a 9/11 like every week! |
The fact that a street dog gets thrown off a cliff by some GI shows the continuous failures there, we have to be out when the next Administration takes over. This is a festering problem and the only true answer is to amputate it. END THE WAR NOW!
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| Originally posted by Chryz707 END THE WAR NOW! |
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| Originally posted by LazFX Buried a cousin a few weeks ago due to this so called war.... |
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| Militants target Green Zone in Baghdad updated 2 hours, 56 minutes ago BAGHDAD - Rockets and mortars pounded Baghdad's U.S.-protected Green Zone Sunday and a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army post in the northern city of Mosul in a surge of attacks that killed at least 57 people nationwide. The latest violence underscored the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups as the war enters its sixth year and the U.S. death toll in the conflict approaches 4,000. |
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| Originally posted by Krypton So how long has the Iraqi government had "breathing space'?.. |
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| Originally posted by Q5echo >LINK< |
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| Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-director of the Office of Management and Budget Mitchell Daniels (now governor of Indiana) put the likely costs at between $50 billion and $60 billion. Former undersecretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz (now president of the World Bank Group) claimed that increased Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the war. When President Bush�s economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey suggested that the actual costs might be closer to $100 billion or even $200 billion, the White House called those figures grossly exaggerated and swiftly fired him. |
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| The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) currently projects past and future Iraq-related expenditures to surpass $500 billion, and even that figure severely underestimates the full outlay, according to Bilmes and Stiglitz, whose paper indicates that the war will eventually cost Americans in excess of $2 trillion. (A trillion is a thousand billions.) |
"One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.' " G. Bush
Huh, what? Peace? What peace? The destruction of Iraq? That's the foundations of peace!? Wow, just, wow. Destruction leads to peace. That's got to be the STUPIDEST thing I've ever heard. I would have Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Bush stand trial for war crimes.
This Iraqi puppet regime is currupt and will collapse as soon as the Americans decide to pull out. How stupid to think that Shiites more loyal to Iran than Baghdad will simply allow Sunnis to have equal representation in the central government. In addition to that, who thinks the separatist Kurds want anything to do with Baghdad.
The Bush regime is delaying the inevitable defeat of their war of aggression until after the presidential elections, just so the right wing war cheerleaders can say, "Oh no, we Republicans didn't lose, it was those Democrats who withdrew! They are the losers!" Incompetant fools!
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| Critical cease-fire in Iraq unravels as U.S. death toll mounts By Leila Fadel and Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers 2 hours, 41 minutes ago BAGHDAD � A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands of the central government. Simultaneously, in the strategic southern port city of Basra, where Sadr's Mahdi militia is in control, the Iraqi government launched a crackdown in the face of warnings by Sadr's followers that they'll fight government forces if any Sadrists are detained. By 1 a.m. Arab satellite news channels reported clashes between the Mahdi Army and police in Basra. The freeze on offensive activity by Sadr's Mahdi Army has been a major factor behind the recent drop in violence in Iraq , and there were fears that the confrontation that's erupted in Baghdad and Basra could end the lull in attacks, assassinations, kidnappings and bombings. As the U.S. military recorded its 4,000th death in Iraq , U.S. officials in Baghdad warned again Monday that drawing down troops too quickly could collapse Iraq's fragile security situation. Pentagon officials said that military leaders are watching for any signs of backsliding as they consider whether to keep drawing down troops below pre-surge levels. President Bush spoke about the death toll, saying, "One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.' " Even as he spoke, the situation on the ground was rapidly worsening. On Sunday, a barrage of at least 17 rockets hit the heavily fortified Green Zone and surrounding neighborhoods, where both the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters are housed, according to police. Most of them were launched from the outskirts of Sadr City and Bayaa, both Mahdi Army-controlled neighborhoods. On Monday, the Sadrists all but shut down the neighborhoods they control on the west bank of Baghdad . Gunmen went to stores and ordered them to close as militiamen stood in the streets. Mosques used their loudspeakers to urge people to come forward and join the protest. Fliers were distributed with the Sadrists' three demands of the Iraqi government: to release detainees, stop targeting Sadrist members and apologize to the families and the tribal sheiks of the men. The Iraqi security forces issued a statement promising to deal with those who terrorized shopkeepers and students. "It's an open sit-in until the government responds to our demands. If the government doesn't respond, we will have our own procedures," said Hamdallah al Rikabi, the head of the Sadr offices in Karkh, in western Baghdad . In the southern port city of Basra, where Shiite groups are battling for power, the Mahdi Army is the most feared force. The British military pulled out of the city late last year, leaving the city in the militia's hands. The Iraqi government announced a three-day security plan, beginning 5 p.m. Tuesday , to seal Basra off from other governorates and countries, shut down schools and all institutes of education and ban vehicles from entering the province. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki , as well as the ministers of defense and interior, were in Basra on Monday. Since Sadr froze his militia on Aug. 29 and renewed the freeze in February, militia members and Sadrists have railed against the government for targeting and detaining their members. In Basra, Sadr's office rejected the security plan and warned that it'll react if attacked or if Iraqi forces detain more Sadrists. As Shiite violence rises, U.S. troop deaths also appear to be rising in places such as Baghdad , where the American military is thinning out its presence as part of its drawdown of five brigades. Attacks against civilians in the capital are rising, according to statistics compiled by McClatchy . Next week, the U.S. will finish pulling out the second of five surge brigades. As part of the drawdown, the military has moved battalions out of Baghdad toward more violent areas such as the northern city of Mosul and Iraq's northeastern Diyala province. As the troop presence has shifted, so has the violence. For the first time since January, a majority of U.S. troops were killed in Baghdad , not in outlying northern provinces. Indeed, the U.S. military reached the death of its 4,000th soldier in Iraq on Sunday, when four U.S. soldiers were killed in southern Baghdad . So far, this month, 27 soldiers have been killed in Iraq . Of those, 16, or 59 percent, died in Baghdad . In January, 25 percent of U.S. deaths happened in Baghdad , or 10 of 40. Civilian casualties in Baghdad are also on the rise, according to a McClatchy count. After a record low through November, when at least 76 people were killed and 306 were injured, the deaths began to rise. In December, it crept up to 88 people killed, in January 100 and in February 172. As of March 24 , at least 149 people were killed and 448 were injured. |
It's funny, I remember a few years ago when US casualties were at 2,000 and anti-war sentiment was starting to strengthen, bunch of the talk show conservatives were dismissing the death toll. "It's only 2,000 dead, that's still a fraction of the number of deaths in Vietnam and World War II. These people should stop complaining over such a small death rate." Now that it's been doubled, not a single one has tried to downplay it anymore, realizing that if they did, they'd probably get fired now. Now it's all that talk about the "progress," we've made. Great, with our current rate of progress, we should be able to leave Iraq in 2015. Wonder what the death toll will be then.
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| Report: US no closer to Iraq goals By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 10 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States is no closer to achieving its goals in Iraq than it was a year ago but a quick military withdrawal could lead to massive chaos and even genocide, according to a report released Sunday by a U.S. think tank. The U.S. Institute of Peace report was written by experts who advised the Iraq Study Group, a panel mandated by Congress to offer recommendations on U.S. policy in Iraq in 2006. The report was released two days before top commander Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker brief Congress on the situation in Iraq and prospects for American troop reductions. Their recommendations, which President Bush has signaled he will accept, could largely determine the course of action in Iraq for the coming year. The report cited security improvements in Iraq since the buildup of U.S. forces in 2007, but credited factors outside U.S. control, such as help from mostly Sunni fighters who turned against al-Qaida and a truce by a Shiite militia. "The U.S. is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago," it concluded. "Lasting political development could take five to 10 years of full, unconditional U.S. commitment to Iraq." The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But U.S. officials have repeatedly said that some political goals have been achieved in Iraq thanks in part to the buildup of forces, though they acknowledge that much remains to be done. The institute's report warned that a substantial reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq risks "a complete failure of the Iraqi state, massive chaos and even genocide." If the Americans opt for a reduced commitment, the report said, they should focus on improving political and economic development. But an unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq must be coupled with an increased American military presence in neighboring countries, ready to intervene in case of a major crisis in Iraq, the report said. The U.S. should also redouble efforts to build regional political alliances, it added. In the past year, Iraq's parliament has passed legislation the U.S. considers key to the country's future stability, including relaxing a ban on former Saddam Hussein supporters in government, an amnesty for some prisoners, increased powers at the provincial level and approval of a national budget. But implementation of those policies has been uneven, the report said. "Without political progress, the U.S. risks getting bogged down in Iraq for a long time to come," it concluded. |
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