Posted on 03/24/2005 9:34:26 AM PST by Dog
March 24, 2005: More Iraqis are losing their fear of terrorists. In the last three days, tips from Iraqis have led Iraqi police and troops to several terrorist hideouts. This has resulted in some spectacular gun battles, and the deaths of over 130 terrorists (and about a dozen police and soldiers.) The Iraqis have been using their growing force of SWAT teams to carry out the raids, with American forces providing backup and air cover. One raid, north of Baghdad, left 85 terrorists dead, and revealed a suicide car bomb workshop, as well as documents and weapons. The dead terrorists included men from many foreign countries (Persian Gulf states, Algeria, Morocco, Afghanistan, and the Philippines.) The government was quick to let the local media film the crime scenes and interview people. The police and army commandos have become national heroes, with their fame increasing after each successful raid. The traditional Iraqi style for such work was heavy handed, time consuming and clumsy. The SWAT teams are quick, efficient, and cause little collateral damage. This is in sharp contrast to the terrorists, who continue to set off bombs in crowded civilian areas, killing women and children in the process. The terrorists have also been hitting schools, and killing children, with mortar shells. This is probably a matter of an unskilled terrorist aiming the mortar, but the damage to the terrorists reputation is done. However, there have been deliberate killings of women and children by terrorists recently, apparently in an attempt to terrorize Iraqis into not supporting the government. This tactic isn't working, and the government is jumping all over this barbaric behavior to encourage Iraqis to stand up and turn in terrorists.
There appear to be no more than 3-4,000 terrorists and anti-government fighters out there. This was deduced when American intelligence paid close attention to terrorist operations last January, in an attempt to get a better idea of just how many terrorists, and anti-government gunmen, there actually were in the country. It was believed that the terrorists would make a maximum effort in January to derail the election, and would get all of their people out for this. Since January, there appear to have been substantial defections from anti-government groups, and the terrorists can no longer depend on Sunni Arabs to keep mum about where terrorist safe houses and workshops are set up.
American casualties continue to decline. U.S. combat deaths are down some 40 percent from February, and are only about a third of what they were in January. Casualties haven't been this low since the Spring of 2003, right after Saddam was toppled. The hard core Sunni Arabs who continued to support Saddam and the Baath Party are a broken force, with most of their leaders either captured, or negotiating deals with the government. Al Qaeda continues to see Iraq as their most important battleground. But the terrorists coming to Iraq find themselves fighting Iraqis, not Americans. The Iraqis, not happy about being the target for al Qaeda bombs, has gone after the terrorists with a vengeance. Al Qaeda is also being hammered in countries throughout the Middle East. This is not quite the sort of war Osama bin Laden had in mind, but it's what he's got, and it doesn't play well for bin Laden in the Arab media.
So much for the 40,000 terrorists in Iraq theory.
They can start treating the Michael Moore Minuteman in the same manner drug gangs are brought down using aggressive policing tactics.
Wow, that is saisfying news isn't it?
Ahhh. Finally, some good news. Thanks.
Things are looking up.
Wonder if the MSM will show us this tape....nawww to busy covering court cases.
That sums up the NYTimes up quite nicely.
things are looking up especially when the terror-scum cadavers are looking up. Good stuff.
Tsunami to follow.
Yes, but we'll just keep it between us. The MSM would have no interest in this.
Agreed. Now if only we could just get Bush to take seriously the threat of illegal Mexican immigration.
How a guy could have such breathtaking vision when looking at the middle east, and be so totally blind to the disaster on our southern border is a total mystery.
His 20/20 vision is obvious. He just needs to turn around and look behind him once in a while.
Michael Jackson is more important.
If he could answer you, he would undoubtedly say yes. He cost us maybe a trillion dollars by spending $500,000, disrupted our economy and lives, and got the war that he wanted. That he is losing the war is not yet apparent to him. He is counting on atomic weapons, Iran, Syria, revolution in Pakistan and Southeast Asia, and a long, protracted war. He is loving it.
A more thoughtful enemy might not be so sanguine. Had bin Laden waited a little bit, hidden in the shadows, and actually acquired nuclear weapons and biological weapons, and used our naivete to implant the weapons and agents within the US, he could have inflicted immense damage and constituted an ongoing threat. But he got eager, and jumped the gun.
Not true, I could have sworn that somewhere buried in the news there was something about an uprising in some nation. Don't recall the name, except that it has more constanants in it's name than people. Oh sure, it's gone now but I could swear it was there, I think ... could have been a mirage, though. Anyway back to Terri and Michael and that Baretta guy.
I forgot the sarcasm tag. Hell a giant UFO could be over Washington and yet the media will still cover the Michael Jackson case.
Excellent news. Seems to me we're cleaning up rather nicely in Iraq these days. So long as we don't get some stupid Iranian-styel Mullahs in power there, I'd say the mission is about accomplished. Funny how the liberals continuously make wrong doomsday predictions.
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