Analysis: Iraq not ready to face al Qaeda (Lame Stream Media adjusting their template)

CNN ^ | 10/29/2009 | Michael (broke-nose) Ware

[tobyhill]

The bombs that ripped through Baghdad on Sunday immediately brought more bloodshed -- and bode only of the promise of more to come.

The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq -- a group affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq -- and there's nothing to suggest the attacks will come to an end.

It's part of a long-running campaign to destabilize the U.S. mission, the Iraqi government and to reignite sectarian civil war.

The slaughter is not new but the extent of the killings in these bombings -- 160 dead and more than 500 injured -- do punctuate a seemingly never ending campaign.

While al Qaeda in Iraq has been gutted from within, principally by Sunni insurgents turning on them and assassinating them over recent years, the network still exists.

Al Qaeda, an organization built with the expectation of loss, has endured and will continue to do so until Iraq's slated January election and beyond.

[LibLieSlayer]

If hussein had continued to follow the Bush doctrine in Iraq, we would have been far ahead of where we are today... he was handed a VICTORY... he has created a defeat... in Iraq... Afghanistan and at home. Freedom and liberty are under attack and losing here.

LLS

[Ben Ficklin]

"follow the Bush doctrine in Iraq"

Do you mean follow the Iraq Security Agreement that the US(Bush) and Iraq signed? The legal basis for the US being in Iraq?

[LibLieSlayer]

I meant the Petraeus plan.

LLS

[Ben Ficklin]

Are you talking about the Petraeus troop reduction plan for Iraq? In 2007?

The US was able to invade and occupy Iraq because of the UN Mandate. That mandate expired Dec 31, 2008. Which meant that all US troops had to be out of Iraq by that date.

Instead, Iraq and the US(Bush) signed the Status of Forces Agreement(SOFA) aka Iraq Security Agreement that allowed US troops to remain under certain conditions and a certain time.

Candidate Obama implied that he would draw down forces ahead of the SOFA, but he hasn't, which has made the left wingers mad at him.

The Bush doctrine and the Petreaus Plan that you have mentioned have little meaning, at best some transient meaning, compared to SOFA.

[LibLieSlayer]

Bush ordered our heroes to fight and kill al qaeda... hussein ordered all of our people into bases and out of the cities. He changed the ROE. Bush and Petraeus always altered the plan according to the situation on the ground... hussein protects his muzzie brethren... and I AM correct.

LLS

[Ben Ficklin]

Bush even made a trip to Iraq for a ceremonial signing of SOFA.