"Here in Baghdad We are Facing a Serious Sustained Terrorist Offensive"

Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog ^ | Sunday, June 27, 2004 | Specialist Joe Roche

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Read more about SPC Roche here.

[ambrose]

bump!

[GeorgeBerryman]

Thanks for sharing this. I always like hearing the opinions of our fellas over there. And the link is appreciated! Thanks again!

[kimmie7]

bttt

One of my co-worker's daughter is in that group of MPs.
God bless them all.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

ping

[ScaniaBoy]

WOW!

Thanks for the post!

ScaniaBoy

[Elkiejg]

Thanks for posting this inspiring article. The following bothered me though:

Sadr's Mahdi Army was backed by extensive foreign fighters and a huge amount support. Iran's formidable Al-Quds Army (named for the conquest of Jerusalem, Israel) directly assisted their attacks against us. They trained some 1,200 of Sadr's fighters at three camps they ran along the Iran-Iraq border at Qasr Shireen, 'Ilam, and Hamid. This was backed by what one Iranian defector to us has said was $70 million dollars a month given by Iranian agents to our enemies -- from which Sadr's forces were directly funded in just the past few months by up to $80 million more. The Iranian Embassy distributed some 400 satellite phones in Baghdad to Sadr's forces, while 2,700 apartments and rooms were rented in Karbala and Najaf as safe houses. Sadr's ability to influence the Iraqi people was further enhanced by 300 "reporters" and "technicians" working for his newspaper, radio and television networks -- persons who are actually members of the Al-Quds Army and Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

If they know where these training camps are, why don't they blow them up? Why isn't the Administration and/or State doing more to bring pressure on Iran for their support? Or if they are - and it's not working - why not do more in relation to Iran?

[exnavy]

Praying for our troops.

[MEG33]

I am so grateful for those who serve our country....Thank you for this great post...

[datura]

I think you know the answers to your own questions, but here's my opinion on what you asked:

1. Politically it is impossible right now to do to Iran what needs to be done. Just look to your left, and thank them for stopping us in the WOT. Better to finish what we started in Iraq completely and then move to Iran.

2. State hasn't actually accomplished anything at all since its' inception. It's called Foggy Bottom for a reason.

3. Lastly, about Iran again - the administration is doing many things in international circles in an attempt to avoid the huge loss of civilians that a military response would entail. Preferably, we'd just arm the students and let them take care of the mullahs. The pressure being used right now on Iran is through the UN. (Like they are effective?)

4. Those training camps are inside Iran, making them a less than easy set of targets to hit. See #1 above.

[BigSkyFreeper]

[carl in alaska]

Bump for one incredible post.

(Hey 60 Minutes, I remember your rediculous show about the Bradley vehicle. You were wrong....the Bradley turned out to be a great fighting vehicle. Now admit it.)

[Elkiejg]

Your points are well stated and sensible.....it's frustration you hear in my questions. I'm tired of our military getting killed by this vermin - I just want to smash something thoroughly and a training camp sounds like a good start --- wherever it may be.

[hershey]

It's hard waging a PC war when you really can't kill anyone because the enemy and the UN and most of Europe wouldn't like it.

[Jumper]

Good points on Iran and State. In the final analysis, one would have to say the engagement has been the only constant. Iran, since its takeover by French interests, has posed a constant threat to American interests. I personally think the USA should bankrupt France and then finish putting the political screws to Iran, and then the French as well. This would have positive effects in both the Middle East and Europe.

[zarf]

My only regret about the invasion of Iraq is that the real culprit, Iran, may escape the reckoning due them.

We may have blown our wad; politically and militarily.

It's up to the American electorate to decide where we go from here.

[meenie]

One of the first requirements in any war is to visualize the enemy. Any neighboring area is in danger of furnishing safe haven and support for its neighbor. WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, all had this characteristic. There is no border security confining the conflict to a specific area. Even now we see a tendency to pull out via sovereignty for Iraq and shift the remaining problems to the Iraqis themselves. This is not a good omen for the continuance of the will to follow through for a victory.

[GBA]

Imagine a world where JOURNALISTS would actually REPORT the news from the front. Imagine...b/c it's certainly not the world we live in today.

Thanks for posting this. I learned more from reading it than I have from a month of news from Media, Inc.

But, but...what about the prison scandal??? Isn't that what's important???

[Happy2BMe]

"You saw the most recent bombings that targeted Iraqis trying to join the new police and military services. There is no denying that it is the Iraqi people who are under attack by evil terrorism. Some people get confused when they hear that other Iraqis are participating in these attacks, as if that means all Iraqis are against us. But wasn't Timothy McVeigh an American, and in fact a combat engineer in the Army just like me? His terrorist attack in Oklahoma City never meant that Americans supported him, so why should the terrorism of a few demented Iraqis working with foreign terrorists mean more?"

___________________________________

Interesting analogy coming from an American soldier while serving in Iraq. He compares Timothy McVeigh and his counterparts sabotaging the transition of power for the new Iraqi government.

[GBA]

"The challenges are huge, and the prospects for failure are great, but we are doing the right thing and are on the right track. Every day we are making progress, and these changes are influencing the entire Arab world. This is no small matter."

This is why George W. Bush is a leader and why history will remember him well, as history has remembered Reagan, FDR and Lincoln. Like the great presidents of the past, Bush has taken on the enormous challenge the times have presented him and is doing the right thing.

In contrast, Clinton looked for a legacy, found Monica and ran away from the same challenge that Bush now must deal with. May history remember them both.