Posted on 11/14/2006 4:02:43 PM PST by dogbyte12
BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 -- Armed men in Iraqi police uniforms and driving police vehicles kidnapped as many as 150 people from a government agency on Tuesday, and several senior police commanders were arrested in connection with the abductions, Iraqi officials said today.
The abductions were a well-orchestrated reminder of how challenging basic security remains in Iraq at a time when U.S. officials are pressing the local government to assert more control
Precise figures on how many people were kidnapped and how many were later released were hard to come by. The prime minister's office said more than 50 people were kidnapped and 20 later released. The Interior Ministry said 30 people were kidnapped and the Ministry of Higher Education said it was as many as 150 employees and visitors who were abducted.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think we should help the Kurds as much as possable and just leave.
Are you talking to me? Because, I think the idea of breaking up Iraq is as moronic as they come.
Good, they need to purge the police force of the SCIRI and Mahadi types. They need to be either jailed or killed outright.
no it is not....but despite the fact I supported the war, the place IS getting worse....not better...and saying so does not make one a traitor or whatever.....Pres Bush 41 was right not to go into Iraq in the first place....and while the Dems are clueless most of the time....my opinion on this war as a loyal Repub has changed quite a bit....
US troops are mainly dying in Anbar in the heart of the Sunni insurgency not in Baghdad. The sectarian violence in Baghdad is not what is killing US troops.
There are three wars going on in Iraq. One in Western Iraq between al-Qaeda and allied groups vs the US and allied groups. One in Baghdad that Zarqawi set off of Sunni vs Shia. And, one in Southern Iraq with Badr vs the Madhi Army.
It was under Saddam.
They are perfectly willing to let millions die to be right.
The government is going to last about a week after we leave.
Plenty of conservatives said the same thing, but they were shouted down as being "paleo-cons" and RINOs.
Cassandras all, AFAIAC.
And with a democratically elected 30% stake in the government, who is going to stop him?
Well, the government in Kurdistan seems pretty stable. It's the Sunni and Shia that are the problem. The Kurds might piss off Turkey and Iran, but they have their acts together. They are actually doing what we expected Iraqis to do.
No, sorry, Iraq cannot be divided into three parts. It has many parts. As in dissolution the old Hapsburg Empire, sects and factions are so mixed up that boundaries are impossible to draw. Like the old Yugoslavia, any attemption at partition will lead to war and war far less manageable than what we have now.
These problems were mostly caused by the US. Iraq had an Army and a police force after the war and we disbanded them both and decided on a Japan like model of building a very weak Iraqi Army no more then 60,000 strong to replace Saddam's half a million man Army.
The vast majority of deaths both Iraqi and American didn't have to happen if better decisions were made in 2003, and that is why Rumsfeld, Wolfawitz, and Bremer will be looked upon quite poorly by history, but we have to concentrate on today as there is no going back.
Yeah, partition will work; just like it did in 1848, in California. You want our guys policing the border for the next 160 years?
Maybe the 38th Parallel is more apropos.
The Kurds are only tenatively allied, I guess because the different factions see--at the moment--that it is them against the world.
Quagmire.
I can't even argue against that. He was doing a better job vis a vis US security than Ahmedinejad.
The real problem is Baghdad, how to divide it. Impossible. That's where the war would be.
No one voted for Sadr.
You don't understand the idiotic PR system of government the UN recommended for Iraq.
Sadr became part of the UIA which meant he was part of the Sistani blessed block of candidates. As part of the UIA block his candidates were provided a certain percentage of seats that the UIA block won.
Sadr's candidates as part of the UIA block overall make up about 12% of all members of parliment
who is badr?
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