Posted on 10/30/2006 10:47:42 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The American death toll for October climbed past 100, a grim milestone reached as a top White House envoy turned up unexpectedly in Baghdad on Monday to smooth over a rough patch in U.S.-Iraqi ties. At least 80 people were killed across Iraq, 33 in a Sadr City bombing targeting workers.
A member of the 89th Military Police Brigade was killed in east Baghdad Monday, and a Marine died in fighting in insurgent infested Anbar province the day before, raising to 101 the number of U.S. service members killed in a bloody October, the fourth deadliest month of the war. At least 2,814 American forces have died since the war began.
Upon arriving on an unannounced visit, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley went straight into meetings with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his security chief, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, telling them he "wanted to reinforce some of the things you have heard from our president."
The White House said Hadley was not on a mission to repair ragged relations, accounts of which it said had been "overblown" by the news media.
"Absolutely not," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council in Washington. "This is a long planned trip to get a first hand report of the situation on the ground from the political, economic and security fronts."
But the timing of the visit argued otherwise.
Last week Al-Maliki issued a string of bitter complaints — at one point saying he wasn't "America's man in Iraq" — after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad unveiled adjustments in America's Iraq strategy.
The ambassador said the prime minister was in agreement. Al-Maliki angrily charged the White House with infringing on his government's sovereignty and said that he was not consulted.
By week's end, al-Maliki and President George W. Bush held a hastily convened video conference call and agreed to speed the training of Iraqi forces and the return of control over all territory to the Iraqi army.
With American voter support for the war at a low point and the midterm vote just days away, a top aide to al-Maliki said the Iraqi leader was using Bush and Republican vulnerability on the issue to leverage concessions from the White House — particularly the speedy withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi cities to U.S. bases in the country.
The case of a kidnapped American soldier, meanwhile, took a curious turn when a woman claiming to be his mother-in-law said that the soldier was married to her daughter, a Baghdad college student, and was with the young woman and her family when hooded gunmen handcuffed and threw him in the back seat of a white Mercedes early last week. The marriage would violate military regulations.
The soldier's disappearance prompted a massive and continuing manhunt in Baghdad, with much of it focused on Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite slum in extreme northeastern Baghdad.
The military still had checkpoints surrounding the district Monday when a suspected Sunni insurgent bomber slipped in and set off a bomb among laborers assembled to find a day's work. The blast tore through food stalls and kiosks shortly after 6 a.m., killing at least 33 and wounding 59.
Sadr City, is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and has been the scene of repeated bomb attacks by suspected al-Qaida fighters in what were seen as attempts to incite Shiite revenge attacks and drag the country into full-blown civil war.
Al-Sadr, in a statement addressed to supporters in Sadr City Monday night, warned of unspecified action if the "siege" of the neighborhood continued and criticized what he called the silence of politicians over actions by the U.S. military in the district.
"If this siege continues for long, we will resort to actions which I will have no choice but to take, God willing, and when the time is right," he said in the statement, a text of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Ali Abdul-Ridha, injured in the head and shoulders, said he was waiting for a job with his brother and about 100 others when he heard the massive explosion and "lost sight of everything."
He said the area had been exposed to attack because U.S. and Iraqi forces had driven into hiding Mahdi Army fighters who police the district.
"That forced Mahdi Army members, who were patrolling the streets, to vanish," the 41-year-old Abdul-Ridha said from his bed in al-Sadr Hospital, his brother lying beside him asleep.
However, Falih Jabar, a 37-year old father of two boys, blamed the militia forces for provoking extremists to attack civilians in the neighborhood of 2.5 million people.
"We are poor people just looking to make a living. We have nothing to do with any conflict," said Jabar, who suffered back wounds. "If (the extremists) have problems with the Mahdi Army, they must fight them, not us," he added.
The last major bombing in Sadr City occurred on Sept. 23 when a bomb hidden in a barrel blew up a kerosene tanker and killed at least 35 people waiting to stock up on fuel for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Elsewhere in the capital, gunmen killed hard-line Sunni academic Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professors Union, as he was leaving home. At least 156 university professors have been killed since the war began. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, more are believed to have fled to neighboring countries, although Education Ministry spokesman Basil al-Khatib al-Khatib said he had no specific numbers on those who had fled.
Police and security officials throughout Iraq reported that at least 45 other people, many of them police, were killed in sectarian violence Monday or found dead, many of them dumped in the Tigris River and a tributary south of the capital.
The bad guys are the ones murdering 14yo Christian boys just because they're Christian.
Yeah, you're right. To hell with 'em. They signed up for it, so please don't interrupt my football game for so-called "news" when they get killed.
Iraq asks troops to stay as U.S. death toll spikes
By Ibon Villelabeitia
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The killings of two Americans took the monthly U.S. death toll in Iraq on Monday to over 100 for the first time in nearly two years, just a week before elections that could cost President George W. Bush's Republicans control of Congress.
Pressure has mounted ahead of the November 7 congressional poll to extract U.S. troops from the bloody turmoil afflicting Iraq since Bush ordered the invasion three and a half years ago. But the Iraqi government, despite open friction with Washington this past week, said it wanted their U.N. mandate extended by a year.
Speaking shortly after a bomb killed 28 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite slum on a day that saw at least 70 Iraqis killed across the country, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters: "The presence of the Multi-National Force is indispensable for the security and stability of Iraq and of the region at the moment."
Iraq has become central to the congressional election campaign and Bush is rallying his Republic supporters, defending his policy and accusing opposition Democrats of lacking a plan:
"The Democratic goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq," he told a rally in the state of Georgia. "This election is far from over."
A marine killed on Sunday in western Anbar province, where troops are fighting Sunni insurgents, and an unidentified member of the military police shot dead by a sniper in east Baghdad took the U.S. military death toll to 101 so far in October.
It was 71 last month, and last passed 100 in January 2005. In all, 2,814 Americans have died in the Iraq conflict.
Commanders say October's increase is partly due to attacks in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Since militants released a video during last week's festival for the end of Ramadan showing U.S. soldiers being shot, apparently by snipers, the military has also been looking more closely at shooting incidents.
Following strains between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition government and U.S. officials over timetables for steps intended to bring peace, Bush sent National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley for talks with Iraqi officials.
On Monday, he met Maliki, as well as U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. Bush and Maliki spoke on Saturday and agreed to beef up cooperation.
TROOPS TO STAY
Maliki had complained vocally last week that his forces were short of weapons and training but could be on top in just six months, faster than U.S. expectations, if Americans cooperated.
The White House said Hadley's visit had long been planned and called media reporting of the sensitivities in relations between Baghdad and Washington "overblown." Privately, however, top Iraqi officials are expressing profound irritation.
Despite mounting suspicion among the dominant Shi'ite Islamists about Washington's rapprochement with the minority Sunnis dominant under Saddam Hussein, Maliki has set no deadline for U.S. troops to leave. When he took office six months ago, he spoke of reviewing the terms on which they were in Iraq.
But his foreign minister, Zebari, made clear Baghdad was now about to ask the U.N. Security Council to extend by a year the mandate, which runs out on December 31: "At the same time, the Iraqi government is ... willing to take more security responsibilities from these forces to do its part."
He also said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem had agreed to visit Baghdad, possibly in November. Washington accuses Syria of fomenting rebellion in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington warned the United States against leaving Iraq abruptly.
"Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited," Prince Turki al-Faisal said after a Washington speech.
He added that any nothing of dividing Iraq would result in "ethnic cleansing on a massive scale."
LABOURERS HIT
In the bloodiest attack on Monday, a bomb killed 28 people and wounded 60 in a square in the Shi'ite Sadr City slum in eastern Baghdad where laborers were gathering in the hope of being hired for casual work, Interior Ministry sources said. Five car bombs in different parts of Baghdad killed 13 people.
Sadr City is a stronghold of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who heads the Mehdi Army militia blamed by Sunnis for sectarian many killings. The blast tore through food stalls. Scattered clothes and twisted metal lay amid debris and pools of blood.
"They were poor laborers bringing a daily living to their family. Let's have Maliki hear that," one witness said.
While U.S. officials press Maliki to disband Shi'ite militias like the Mehdi Army, he portrays them as followers of the government and says the main threat is Sunni insurgency.
Saddam was in court again on Monday, facing a charge of genocide against the Kurds in the 1980s. On Sunday, he is due to hear the verdict and a possible death sentence in a separate trial, for crimes against humanity involving Shi'ites.
The chief prosecutor has said Sunday's session may be delayed, pushing it till after the U.S. elections. But Zebari said the year-old trial had already "gone on too long."
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny, Paul Holmes, Ahmed Rasheed and Alastair Macdonald, and Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061030/ts_nm/iraq1_dc_5
Meanwhile at home in the USA about 65,000 died in October due to abortion.
That's the deal. If not for the US elections and the Democrats a lot less o our folks would be alive.
The f*** up thing is that if the Pentagon tells the public that we have killed two thousands terrorist insurgents this month, liberals and their media will be screaming “Pentagon playing the numbers games”. But if they report the number of dead US soldiers and the all different statistics regarding our casualties in each article they write it is not the numbers game they are just reporting the news. Fifty years liberals and their media will be executed for treason and for aiding the enemy.
Monkey sees, monkey does.
Perhaps you can explain how "our survival" depends on the presence of US soldiers in the middle of an Iraqi civil war.
Insurgents scorn Bush claim
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Insurgent and terror groups in Iraq have poured scorn on President Bush's statement that the United States is winning the war there.
A statement signed by the Information Ministry of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq called Bush "the dog of the Romans" and pledged to "butcher those Jews, Christians, their collaborators and dogs."
"Our swords will drip with their blood," the statement said, according to a translation provided by the SITE Institute. "We have broken the sheaths, so our swords can always be drawn on the infidels. Our swords will only dull against their chests and necks."
The so-called Islamic State of Iraq was declared earlier this month by a number of jihadist insurgent groups, including the shadowy umbrella organization the Mujahedin Shura Council, thought by some to be a front for al-Qaida in Iraq.
The statement was posted on a Web site frequently used by jihadists.
It portrayed Bush's remarks last Wednesday as a desperate appeal for assistance. "Here is America, appealing to other countries for assistance in fighting Muslims and Islam."
"The Crusaders have failed, their plot has been shamefully revealed," said the statement, concluding with a plea for support for the insurgents' leader or emir, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, "for the weakening has spread among the infidel countries and the first indications of victory have appeared on the horizon."
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061027-120833-1485r
Demoncrats already have.
Me thinks they ought to add a white flag to their donkey symbol.
Exactly. Their side can play the numbers game but if Americans are given a progress report on the war to let them know that yes, we are wiping out terrorists in Iraq and thus your world is safer the Pentagon will be raked over the coals for "insensitivity" and "needlessly inflaming passions among Muslims" and Rumsfeld will be compared to Westmoreland and Vietnam. The media is shameless. Frankly, the practice of embedding reporters was THE biggest mistake of the war, the one that did the most to undermine our efforts. Yes, we've made mistakes in this war. But the biggest was embedding reporters. We should have done like World War 2 and used reporter pools only and deeply sanitized the coverage. Obviously the media and the opposition party were not prepared to deal with the real face of war in a mature or non-divisive way, but set out to use the privilege they were given to achieve their political ends. Screw them. After this election I say boot them the hell out of Iraq.
It's really hard to get THEIR mindset.
If I really try, I get a splitting headache.
Most people I talk to are really buying this MSM stuff. I believe that Iraq is really the most hated thing in people's live right now. I wish that we could get some positive stories out there. Even Fox News is depressing with there 24 hour coverage of the blasts, statistics of American troops dying, etc. There is absolutely NO good news going on in Iraq according to ANY newspaper or media both conservative or liberal.
Mideast Governments Watch U.S. Elections
Arab governments are looking for change in U.S. policy in the Middle East after the midterm elections, hoping a politically weakened President Bush will talk with Iran and Syria, show greater interest in the Palestinians and find a way out of the crisis in Iraq.
Israel too is watching for any sign of change in U.S. strategy _ especially toward the Palestinians, Syria and Iran.
"The whole region is volatile and it cannot face more problems and challenges," Arab League official Hesham Youssef said in a recent interview. "They cannot leave it like this, neither in Iraq nor in Gaza nor in Lebanon. More conflicts could be ahead."
The Bush administration came into office in 2001 committed to reshaping the political map of the Middle East, which was suffering from authoritarian regimes, Islamic extremism, the conflict with Israel and sluggish economies.
Bush has spoken repeatedly of his dream of creating a new Middle East. But five years later, most analysts believe few things have improved. And, U.S. influence in the region is at a low point, in part because despite Saddam Hussein's overthrow, Iraq has never stabilized.
A June poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that less than one-third of the people in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey had a favorable view of the United States.
"Virtually everything is worse than it was five years ago," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Iraq is worse, the Palestinian issue is worse, Iran is worse."
Many Arabs blame on the Bush administration, citing the war in Iraq especially, but also unqualified support for Israel in the battle against Hezbollah in Lebanon and inattention to the Palestinians.
Democracy efforts have stalled. Non-democratic but pro-U.S. governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan now largely shrug off the administration's campaign for strong steps toward democracy.
The victory by the Islamic militant Hamas group in Palestinian elections last January gave a boost to arguments that stability was more important than democracy. And the biggest democratic experiment of all _ Iraq _ has degenerated into a vicious sectarian war.
Many Arab officials question, however, whether the Democrats have better answers to the region's problems. They consider the Democrats traditionally more supportive of Israel than the GOP is. Even as they eye the possible political upheaval in the United States, Arab countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia are maintaining close ties to the Bush administration.
"At the level of those who follow politics closely, there is fear that if the Democrats win, there will be an imbalance in foreign policy," said Kuwaiti analyst Ayed al-Mannah. "Support for moderate forces and governments ... will be weakened."
Still, the belief is that heavy Republican losses in the House and Senate will force the administration into a major re-evaluation of policy, especially over Iraq. To that end, Arab governments are looking to the forthcoming recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group as a catalyst.
After the elections, the group headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, plans to announce recommendations on Iraq.
It's unclear what the group will recommend, but Baker has publicly questioned the administration's policy of not talking to Iran or Syria. Both countries have influence with Iraqi armed groups.
Contacts with Syria would have to be done carefully to avoid undercutting the fragile government in neighboring Lebanon, which fears Syrian influence, or Saudi Arabia, with whom Damascus' relations are frosty.
Saudi Arabia "has no problem with contact if it's going to lead somewhere" an Arab diplomat familiar with the kingdom said. But indications at the moment are that contacts with Damascus would not produce results, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the kingdom.
It remains unclear if the Bush administration would be willing to engage in talks on a range of issues with Iran and Syria. And contacts alone are unlikely to produce quick results. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, which turned down U.S. offers for talks on Iraq this year.
The Iranians would doubtless seek U.S. acceptance of their nuclear program, which they say is for peaceful purposes _ something the United States is highly unlikely to do because it suspects Iran wants an atomic bomb.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alluded to this in a speech Monday, telling the Americans "you need someone to save you from the sadness of the Iraqi quagmire and then you threaten us" with sanctions.
Syria would likely press for an end to the investigation into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister and a tacit U.S. acceptance of Syrian influence in Lebanon _ a move that could undermine pro-democracy forces in Lebanon.
Syria and Iran also hold the key to the Palestinian issue _ more so even than in the past. Both countries are believed to be blocking efforts to replace the Hamas-led government in Gaza with technocrats _ a step many feel is necessary before any peace moves could happen.
Traditionally, the Americans have worked with their moderate Arab allies, Egypt and Jordan, to influence the Palestinians. But Jordan never had influence with Hamas and some fear Egypt's influence with the militant group is now low _ creating the push to talk directly with Syria and Iran.
"No quick or easy fixes exist to solve the problems of this critical region," Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in The Financial Times. "The Middle East will remain a troubled and troubling part of the world for decades to come."
http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?contentGUID=f485fc81-1d5c-4fb6-aa38-ad0f5b2daa95&page=full&comments=true
Imagine if during WW II we had this type of traitors in the media reporting about the casualties we suffered during the Normandy Invasion or Iwo Jima. I would think that half of the US would be now speaking German and the other half would be speaking Japanese.
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