Posted on 11/26/2006 9:07:54 AM PST by Lunatic Fringe
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Angry fellow Shi'ites stoned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's motorcade in a Shi'ite stronghold of Baghdad on Sunday in a display of fury over a devastating car bomb that tore through their area.
Maliki was visiting the Sadr City slum to pay respects to some of the 202 victims of last week's devastating bombing.
"It's all your fault!" one man shouted as, in unprecedented scenes, a hostile crowd began to surge around the premier and then jeered as his armored convoy edged through the throng away from a mourning ceremony.
The area is a base for the Mehdi Army militia led by Maliki's fellow Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Though the violence was limited, it was a dramatic demonstration of the popular passions Maliki and his national unity government are trying to calm following Thursday's multiple car bombs in Sadr City -- the worst since the U.S. invasion -- and later revenge attacks.
On Sunday, a car bomb killed at least 6 people and wounded more than 20 in a market just south of Baghdad, police said.
On the third full day of a curfew on the capital, mortar bombs crashed down in various parts of Baghdad and residents reported isolated and mostly unexplained clashes.
The government has said traffic can circulate again from Monday morning but, after a series of high-level meetings, it again appealed for calm.
Hey you! I see some kids can't be left home alone.
We need an attitude check.
How you doon?
Then you might start by not ignoring that Islam is the driving force behind all this, the special view of Islam that came with Khomeini, and despite differences in theology, has been taken up by Al kayda and others. It provides a content that defines the narrower politics of the region.
Suicide bombers becomes more than an expedient when they become martyrs--witnesses to religious truth. The old saying that martyrs' blood is the seed of Christians takes on new resonance when the martyrs witbess to the truth of a very worldy religion. As to our using suicide, well, the sacrifices made by the torpedo squadron that threw itself against the Japanese fleet at Midway was not much different. As to poison gas, you are forgetting that we do have the stuff in our arsenal.
I have my doubts if they are really Freepers.
Keep it up Allegra. You make much more than a small contribution. If nothing else, it helps those of us who support you KNOW we are doing the right thing.
Rove anticipating a possible 2006 Dem win? The Dem's "Withdrawl Plan" won't take place by 2008, so we'll still be at war.
For example, Clinton needed an issue on which to run to keep his base—so Clinton was happy to have gun control lose!
Same thing happened to the British after the Boer wars in 1898. The British press villified their troops for creating concentration camps of Boer women and children.
The British empire went downhill not long after.
BUMP
The President himself may have to bite his tongue and take a lot of crap because things are moving more slowly than HE would like. It would surely help his approval ratings to wrest control and act like he has the answers. Instead he made a promise—a promise he is keeping—the folks on the ground would tell him what they need, and he will move heaven and earth to the best of his ability to comply. (Which recently got even more difficult, btw)
I'd ask you if you've considered all the angles, but I already know the answer. It's no, because that's what happens when you cloak yourself in the elitist, if I was president, there would be world peace and Christopher Reeves would stand up and walk mantle of Kerryhood. And with all due respect, I can practically hear his lofty tones when I read your post.
Enjoy the pretentious party. There is a certain comfort in "I'd rather be right, than President." It affords you the luxury of never actually having to accomplish a thing.
So Abizaid, Vallely and a host of others who have commanded divisions and brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan are "absurd" when they state such things and your's is the voice that Americans should heed?
You'll understand if I disagree with you of course.
Right, destroying the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan has had nothing to do with their ability to command and control. Likewise maintaining offensive tactics is not sa dterrent to their ability to command, control and execute missions in continental America.
The Patriot Act and the Terrorist Surveillance Program are 100x more valuable to counterterrorism efforts than occupying Iraq. This summer's foiled airliner attack (remember that?) was by Pakistani extremists who've never set foot in Iraq.
Abandoning Iraq now makes Iraq the new pre 9/11 Afghanistan where terrorists and those withan animus toward America can plot at their leisure using oil money to command, control and execute offensive operations in the United States and Europe.
There's nothing real hard about this. That's what will happen and if you think the Patriot Act and the TSP are going to be 100% effective once they have a secure base and funding you're a glass full kind of a guy when there is a hole in the bottom of it.
Yes, I think offensive operations against islamofascists diminishes their ability to command, control and execute operations against American interests. I am amazed that some disagree with me on that.
Hell man, they're already here, by the thousands. Just look what 19 men did on 9/11.
You go back in the archives to a 9/11 thread and you'll find that I knew bin Laden did it before it most folks even knew who the hell he was. Islamofascism is nothing new. Jimmy Carter ushered it in with exactly the same attitude that is abundantly found in America in 2006. It didn't work then and it won't work now. They aren't gonna love us, they aren't gonna stop trying to kill as many of us as they can and you and the rest of this country are in for a big wake up call the next time they come to visit. And they will come to visit unless we continue to pursue them aggressively wherever and whenever we can.
With our troops in Iraq, the southern border open, these murderous Muslims can operate at will "behind the lines". We'd be a lot safer with those 150,000 troops on our borders than being in Iraq!!!
All for closing down the border and all against the notion that closing the southern border and pulling the covers over our heads makes us safe from islamonuts.
Anything else I can help you with? :-}
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Gen. James T. Conway held a roundtable discussion with the Pentagon press corps. Training Iraqi security forces “is a long, slow process,” Conway said.
Really? So you mean to say that either Iraqi's are a bunch of stupid idiots that don't want to fight... or that the US military doesn't know how to train people? Lest we forget, we trained and equipped the South Korean military to fight the Korean War pretty dang-gum quick. And the South Korean government, prior to the war, had very little training or equipment. Yet, in record time, they became a competent fighting force. But we having problems doing the same with the Iraqi forces?
Counterinsurgency campaigns are long processes, he said. Historically, successful counterinsurgency efforts take nine to 12 years.
Bullsh*t! Let's look at history here. Did the Mongols have a hard time pacifying Central Asia or China? NO! They killed anyone that made the slightest squeek of opposition. Did the Ottoman's have a problem with Armenia? NO! Becaused they killed anyone that opposed them... and many who didn't. Counterinsurgency operations can be quick. You just have to up the body count.
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It's political correctness like this that does the most damage to the support of the Iraq mission. Americans don't really care how we win, we just care THAT we win.
And anything that gives off the slightest whiff of not winning... tends to 'bother' Americans.
Disagree. We started with a revolution, then had two more small revolts that were quickly suppressed, then had one gigantic one. We're doing okay. I was talking to a USMC sargent today. He noted that the shortest insurgency we were ever invloved with lasted 13 years. Iraq will not stabilize overnight, but it will stabilize. He wanted to go back, too, but his bosses wanted him here to train the young guys.
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So? Deport all the journalists. Ban the ownership of anything that can be used to publish news. Outlaw private newspapers and other forms of media. Control the Internet a la China.
Then you can do whatever is necessary in Iraq and not worry about the bad press, for you'd control all forms of information flow.
Free press in the midst of warzone? Surest way to guarantee failure! (did we learn nothing from Vietnam?)
Are you actually advocating that our forces carry out genocide in Iraq along the sames lines that was carried with respect to the Armenians? And to correct you on your history, it was Ataturk that carried out the genocide and not the Ottomans.
Now that you mention it, the "Newsmax girls" have been beguiling me for some time: I think I like the broad=smiling one even more than the hair-twirling one. The other one shown is a distant 3rd. But I hate ranking things like that. Funny thing was, also, until you showed the link I wasn't even aware of what the girls were supposed to be illustrating.
Remember the stoning in "life of Brian"?
We need to do whatever it takes.
If our current level of force projection doesn't impress the Iraqi's enough to make them stop...
...then up the amount of force.
Repeat as necessary.
Eventually, the problem is solved. One way or the other.
This politically correct cr@p about making the Iraqi's like us is the biggest load of bullcr@p I've seen in quite a long time. They'll like us if we ensure peace and prosperity. How we go about it only really concerns the left-wing ivory-tower liberals.
Barf.
I really wish FR had an "ignore poster" feature.
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