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.
Wolf Blitzer and friends are popping the champagne corks and preparing to show more terrorist "snuff films" of shooting and bombings before Nov. 7. The Demagogue propagandists would not want to miss any opportunities to maximize the terrorist propaganda onslaught ala Walter Crank-ite wilting before the TET offensive.
Nah, they're saving the good stuff for the 3000 mark. That will be breaking news...more dying in Iraq than on 9/11 and so on. Dems will have a field day.
Yup, it was precisely because Roosevelt knew the real face of war if not kept in its proper perspective, and when has the irresponsible and tabloidish media EVER portrayed anything in its proper perspective, could be used to cause an already unsure American public to turn against our involvement in an overseas war. Americans were reluctant to get involved in WW2, though yes Pearl Harbor changed a lot of minds. But Roosevelt I think discerned early on their commitment might well be expended by an irresponsible media misportrayal of the war, just like the hatched job the Clown Car Media has done on the Iraq campaign. Rumsfeld and the Administration should have forseen this coming. Granted the Clown Car Media would have gone ballistic, but who cares?
Hell, I FEEL BAD when a police officer is killed responding to a bank robbery, but I don't think we should start disbanding police departments.
Our survival depends on winning the war against Islamofascist terrorism.
I wonder what those soldiers "doing the actual dying" would think of your inability do decipher who the real bad guys are?
The enemy is well aware of our election cycle.
Which has what to do with deploying US ground troops in an Iraqi civil war zone with no identifiable enemy and no identifiable mission other than handy target?
Or perhaps you are suggesting that, in order for the US to survive, we need to have ground troops patrolling in Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc., all of which are active participants in the spread of Islamic terrorism.
So, who are they?
If the Democrats did not divide the nation and encourage the enemy, things would be going a lot better.
When Time-Life-CNN communicates directly with terrorists and pushes their propaganda without challenging the content, they are a stooge for terrorism and traitors to this nation. This is why the media is so down on wiretaps for American citizens communicating with Al Qaida members. The press is doing it and doesn't want to be taken to task for their siding with the enemy in a time of war.
2004
Dead: 848 [719 KIA]; wounded: 7,998 Total: 8,846
2005
Dead: 846 [676 KIA]; wounded: 5,943; Total: 6,789
2006 thru October 30
Dead: 634 [KIA 546]; wounded: 4,338 [thru Oct 25]; Total: 4,972
More than half of the wounded returned to duty within 72 hours.
In October 2005, we suffered 96 dead with 78 KIAs. In October 2006 thru the 30th, we have suffered 101 dead with 96 KIAs. The MSM, as usual, has blown this small uptick out of proportion and ignored the long term trend. Our casualties have been falling from year to year no doubt due to better armor, tactics, and more Iraqi involvement in taking over the burden of fighting. Barring a major change on the battlefield, 2006 will mark another decline in US casualties for the second straight year.
The Iraqis have lost, to date, 5,670 dead military/police. In October 2006, they lost 204 dead. They have lost twice the number we have since the war began. Yet, their sacrifice is ignored by the MSM and the Dems and sadly, Reps.
These facts need to get out. I don't like to use US casualties as a scorecard as to whether we are winning or not, but they have been declining from year to year.
Even if you die in a car accident you've still been killed. Nothing wrong with saying 101 servicemen were killed in Iraq. I doubt too many of them died of natural causes. They all died in the line of duty.
There are members of the left (especially those with a microphone) who have sided with the enemy. There is no doubt that Jane Fonda sided with the enemy during the Vietnam War and went on a publicity campaign for them (including posing on an antiaircraft cannon). John Kerry met with North Vietnamese officials in France, he lied to Congress in his testimony, and he was a member of an organization that plotted to assassinated Congressmen who supported the war.
Since Hanoi Jane and JFKerry were not tried for treason, we are unlikely to see Michael Moore, officials at CNN or Time ever charged, let alone tried for their crimes.
Some of those in the "Bush's fault" dead soldier list were MURDERED by jihadist Sgt. Akbar who fragged our troops.
There was a woman on the list who died crossing a highway in Kansas while on leave.
There are bogus names included in the "death list". Our government publishes all deaths but the activists on the left are the ones who decide who to include. People who die in tractor and forklift accidents in Kuwait died serving their country but so do the training pilots who die at a base in America.
The left wants higher US troop death numbers. Please don't play their game.
No one is trying to diminish the deaths of American service personnel. However, their deaths need to be placed into some perspective and context. If we, a nation of 300 million, deem the war in Iraq to be in our national security interests, then the rate of casualties, which are very low historically, is not as important as the achievement of the mission.
See my post #73. Our casualty rates have bveen declining from year to year.
As a Vietnam veteran, I don't want to see us snatch defeat once again from the jaws of victory. If we want to honor the sacrifice of these personnel, we need to win.
I don't recall the abortion activists celebrating 50million dead babies in America. That is a milestone.
What would constitute a "win"? In other words, what's the present military goal in Iraq, achievement of which would constitute definable victory?
Oh, and I meant to ask, what "context" is implied by comparing US combat casualties to drunk driving accidents or heart attack rates?
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