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.
"Iraq is NOT like Vietnam, the NVA and Viet Cong did not follow us home. The islamofascists will."
Nope but communisim did, and in a big way. Visit most any college campus, news room, etc.
I wish someone would tell me, if this war is SO important, and I believe it is, why the constant pussy-footing around? It's becoming apparent we are not in this thing to win. Wea re too PC a country to win any more wars. We can win the hell out of some battles but our days of winning wars are pretty much over, IMO, stricly because of PC politics concerned more with image than substance.
Yes really. If 9/11 didn't wake you up, the next 9/11 won't either. So it goes.
How many domestic terrorist attacks occurred before we put troops into the Middle East in 1990?
Let me see if I have this correct. Islamofascists killing Americans on soil other than domestic prior to 1990 doesn't count. Is that your ill conceived position?
The islamofascists have expanded their capabilities and reach but their goals have not changed at all. They have attacked and killed Americans and American interests since 1979 with alarming regularity while folks like you are content as long as Podunk, America is not attacked.
Some folks are lost causes, I judge from your previous post that you are among them.
Write your congressman and ask him to put the symmetry back in warfare.
"Write your congressman and ask him to put the symmetry back in warfare."
LOL! I'd be happy putting the "war" back in warfare.
I've been reading some of your posts about this. I hope our guys are taking it to alSadr and his minions.
Post a thread if you find out anything.
Nobody wants to prolong this, but it is tougher politically than most thought it would be. We cut and run this and it will make the Vietnam slughters look like a picnic.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Ironically Bush's greatest failing might be relying too much on his generals. It's clear they are bogged down in the same old same old.
Roosevelt was never shy about his willingness to over rule his generals and tell them to get of their asses and move.
Sometimes political pressure has a positive effect on military strategy. It's time for Bush to stop hiding behind the generals, force the issue and go with his gut.
Gen. James T. Conway held a roundtable discussion with the Pentagon press corps. Training Iraqi security forces “is a long, slow process,” Conway said. “Unfortunately, I think the timeline it would take to build a fully capable, competent force – and for us to feel comfortable in stepping away – is longer than the timeline than we feel now our country will support.”
Conway said the government must ask more patience from the American people, “so when we do pull out of Iraq, we can do so and say it is successful and call it a win.”
Counterinsurgency campaigns are long processes, he said. Historically, successful counterinsurgency efforts take nine to 12 years. Developing the military is only one part of that, Conway noted, pointing out that the Iraqi government must assert political control over the nation, too.
“This doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “Your progress is incremental. You’ll have setbacks, but you keep your shoulder to the wheel and you keep pushing. That’s the attitude of the Marines out there. They are encouraged by the micro-successes they see, the relationships they build and the people they see step forward who want to fight for their own country.”
Conway said he regards the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq as the first battles of the war on terror. He said it is important to win these battles. He related a clash in Azziziyah, southeast of Baghdad, in April 2003. Conway commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during the initial push to Baghdad. He said a Marine unit ran up against a group of 300 enemy fighters who fought fanatically against the tanks of the 1st Marine Division. “The last squad of these guys died charging a couple of tanks (armed with) .50-caliber machine guns,” he said. “They were absolute fanatics. For a unit that size to die at the base of those tanks was incredible.”
Subsequent intelligence showed the enemy fighters were from all over the Middle East – Sudanese, Jordanians and Egyptians. He said the coalition has seen elements like this fighting in Iraq since then.
“We are engaged in a war on terrorism in Iraq,” Conway said. “But I don’t know that for all the president’s efforts … that we’ve been able to convince our people that these efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq are battles in the global war on terrorism.
“Somehow I don’t think our people have made that connection and feel the same way that I do, and our troops do, that because there has not been an attack in this country is directly related to the fact that they are killing these … fanatics who would otherwise be trying to work their way in to Baltimore harbor or Los Angeles airport,” he said.
Kill Sadr NOW!!!
"after a series of high-level meetings, it again appealed for calm" I'm pretty sure this will work, and it will all stop.
"It's all your fault", one man shouted". Well, at least there's one Iraqi who's not blaming everything on us.
BS.
Some of us were convinced long before 9/11.
When do we actually start fighting this "war"?
Why is Sadr still alive?
Why do we care if Muzzies slaughter each other? The more of them that die is better for the world.
Could this be what you're seeing?
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16098072.htm
I guess that makes you part of the Quitter's Caucus. . Thankfully, though, General Conway understands far better than you the consequences of quitting Iraq.
“Somehow I don’t think our people have made that connection and feel the same way that I do, and our troops do, that because there has not been an attack in this country is directly related to the fact that they are killing these … fanatics who would otherwise be trying to work their way in to Baltimore harbor or Los Angeles airport,” he said.
Too late. Any good high school teacher rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove. At the first instance of disorder, the application of massive, collective punishment sets the stage for the remainder of the term, which is orderly and peaceful.
Too many external forces have been playing games with Bush -- the Europeans, Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians, and so on. They now have their tentacles well entrenched in Iraq. If Bush had cleaned out the vermin in the first two months, the bad boys of the World would have been stunned and unable to gain a foothold. He should have used shock and awe rather than threatening it.
Really? How many domestic terrorist attacks occurred before we put troops into the Middle East in 1990?
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