US Sends In Extra Troops To Quell Unrest (20K, Iraq)

Independent (UK) ^ | 5-27-2003 | Andrew Buncombe

[blam]

US sends in extra troops to quell unrest

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
27 May 2003

A further 20,000 US troops are to be deployed in Iraq amid growing concerns that there are insufficient forces to bring law and order to the country after the American-led invasion.

Over the next few weeks, troops from the 1st Armoured Division will start to arrive in the country, bringing the total number of US forces to about 163,000. Whether forces from other countries will be deployed is unclear, though there are certainly no plans to add more American troops to the so-called stabilisation force.

General Peter Pace, deputy chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "The number is being increased as we speak by about 18,000 with the arrival of the 1st Armoured Division."

News of the deployment was given amid increasing concern that there were not enough soldiers within Iraq, which has been rife with looting since Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted six weeks ago.

Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator, says progress has been made, but he admits there are problems that have not been addressed.

"We certainly have a law and order problem in Baghdad we're trying to deal with," he said last week. "We're trying to deliver security to the people." But criticism of the situation in Iraq has come from America's closest allies, including Britain and Australia.

At the weekend, Major-General Tim Cross, the British head of the international section of Iraq's civil administration, said that with no effective police force there were insufficient soldiers to enforce law and order. "There is no doubt that bringing back to life a nation is not easy, and we have had lots of difficulties. And we will have more in the days ahead," he said.

Alexander Downer, Australia's Foreign Minister, who visited Iraq last week, said much more needed to be done. Restoring order ought to take precedence over efforts to forge an interim authority.

[meenie]

Too little, too late.

[yoe]

It seems to me that knowing who these fractious and deadly groups are, it is time to stop pussy footing around, round them up and shoot all members regardless of nationality or loose affiliation with terrorists groups and shoot them!

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka and in India.
Hizbullah and pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon, Kuwait and Argentina
Hamas in Israel
The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Turkey
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Israel
Al Quaida in East Africa
The Islamic Group (IG) in Pakistan
The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) in Croatia
Barbar Khalsa International (BKI) in India
The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria

The same groups keep emerging: Al-Qaida, Hamas, Hizbulla, and Egypt's Islamic Jihad and and Islamic Group.

Since Spain capitulated to the terrorists they are being further threatened if they don't remove all Spanish military from Afghanistan and Iraq, terrorism will prevail. This is what happens when appeasement is used in place of force. Find the perpetrations and annihilate them. Those who scream innocence will be known by the company they keep...this is an all out war against Terrorism...fight it with fire or loose it, you can’t appease it.