Baghdad a city in "Civil War"
Posted on 10/27/2006 8:33:46 PM PDT by jmc1969
For the people of Baghdad, death took something of a holiday this week. By Thursday, U.S. and Iraqi military commanders were staring at murder rates that had fallen by half since Monday. On Thursday, Baghdad logged only one man killed by one bomb, the government said. It made for marveling.
"Quietest day in months," said Brig. Abdul-Karim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. "Still quiet," Khalaf said Friday.
On Monday, as the week-long holiday began, Ali Rahad and his co-workers pushed open the rusty gates of the Tofaha amusement park, gingerly, as an experiment.
Tofaha has only aged swings, slides with the shine long worn off and heavy merry-go-rounds, on a city lot with the grass worn to dirt by children's feet. But it's one of the few places where families might conceivably go.
"Because nothing happened today, I brought them here, to have fun," Hussein said. A solemn Nour, in a new dress with a ruffled heart spread across the bodice, held his hand.
Older children like Maisa helped younger ones climb ladders to slides and taught them to pump their legs on swings. "I was dreaming to come here, to play," Maisa said. Except for school, she said, she hadn't been out since last Eid.
At Tofaha, younger children started smiling, yelling, shouting one another's names across the playground as the afternoon wore on. Rahad oversaw a line of boys at his shooting gallery, clustering for a shot at the bull's-eye with wooden-stock rifles, real military weapons stripped of their ammunition clips.
"We are having fun!" shouted Mariam and Batool, two next-door neighbors, answering questions as they soared on swings, their hair flying. "We are not afraid!"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Baghdad a city in "Civil War"
Encouraging.
I'm sure it was better under Saddam.
Ping
In 2005 the number of "murders" in the US was 16,900....that's about 46.9 per day.....wonder what the numbers are for Iraq this year?
My point is, the MSM continues to focus on the WRONG things.
Tell them in Iraq to fight to protect their own children!
Absolutely, that little girl would be in the Children' prison for wearing that outfit....
The "Holy Month of Ramadan" must be over, they stop killing as the religious fervor recedes. (How do I mark a comment "sarcastic but weirdly truthful"?)
For every American soldier that dies in Iraq ten Iraqi police or Iraqi Army soldiers die. If you want the Iraqi army to take over you have to arm them and equip them something the US has simply not done.
Under Saddam Iraq had 7000 tanks today they have 70s. Iraqi police have to share AK 47s. The Iraqi Army has nothing for heavy machine guns or rockets.
The Madhi Army is better equipped then the Iraqi Army or police.
Finally, some respite from the violence of late. I pray that it continues and that the Iraqi people can be allowed to get their country back from these thugs.
More like the terrorists are blowing their wad in Western Iraq trying to kill Americans before the election. And, the Madhi Army is busy fighting with the Badr.
The terrorists have an ability to surge attacks, but they wear themselves out after several weeks and it takes time to rearm, regroup, and plan the next surge.
Stay safe.
L
Sorry, we have 300 million, Iraq has less than 30, so the equivalent would be 5 a day for the whole country. Sadly, it's more like 5 many hours. There are many arguments for what we're doing, and good ones, but trying to play down the murder rate there won't wash.
Yeah.....I know.....but, they are in a WAR zone....and we are not.
"More like the terrorists are blowing their wad in Western Iraq trying to kill Americans before the election. And, the Madhi Army is busy fighting with the Badr.
The terrorists have an ability to surge attacks, but they wear themselves out after several weeks and it takes time to rearm, regroup, and plan the next surge."
Time to press the advantage ... McCain (pains me to say it) is right... If we want to win here, we would be getting another 50,000-100,000 Iraqi troops armed and trained and put 20,000 more troops into baghdad, and lock it down *tight*.
I'm not worried about Anbar, that can be the wild west, but we have to make Baghdad safe, where 1/4 of Iraqis live, for their country to function.
I was hopeful about Operation Together Forward in August, when it seemed to make headway... then the Mahdi army started acting up and causing all manner of trouble.
Yep, more troops and go on offense. We also better start (if we are not) picking off as many Iranians as we can. We need to let Amadinejad know that they will pay in spades for meddling in Iraq.
Good news. Thanks for posting.
Odd how the islamic holy time of ramadan always means more violence and killing.
They show that pic on Al Jazzera everyday, and a lot of things could change.
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