[alloysteel]

Business as usual in Iraq. Nothing personal against the Americans, you understand. Too many young men with too much time on their hands, and easy access to deadly weapons.

The fact is, that the coalition forces have done an excellent job of rounding up the fedayeen Saddam and elite Republican Guard pockets, and as this repressive force has become less of a factor throughout Iraq, the Shi'ites who claim this young imam Sadr as their inspiration, become more bold. This is being fed from Iran, as another branch of terrorism against the US, and probably has much stronger ties with al-Qaeda than were even apparent with the Saddam Hussein Ba'athist regime. These youngsters do not come with clean hands, or with the interests of the nation of Iraq at heart. They would probably dearly love to form a small Balkan nation of their own, and ally openly with Iran.

[arete]

The commander of coalition troops in Iraq said Saturday his forces were studying each attack carefully.

That's good.

Richard W.

[Satadru]

Bring it on!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

This is the same cleric that refused to participate in the opening talks as members of different ideological factions met to forge a council representing the many voices in Iraq. As Amb. Bremer said, you don't participate - you don't have a say. It's the cleric's choice. He didn't have those choices under Saddam Hussein. As Gen Abizaid said, "No one has killed more Muslims than Saddam Hussein."

AP is once more giving the disruptors and enemies their mighty pen to attack America to the world. Haven't seen many articles about all the councils already set up and flourishing across Iraq, or the good work our troops do daily.

Credibility of the press past tipping point?

[Texas_Dawg]

"We're a bit shaken. Everybody is a bit shocked," said Mekki. "But when we were recruited and we came to Iraq, we knew there were risks. An incident like this is not unexpected."

I think the media and a lot of people jumping on the President right now (from the Left and paleo Right) would be smart to consider this statement.

[DCPatriot]

It's time to end this "death by a thousand cuts"...having us lose (on average) an American soldier every day.

Level an entire god-damned city, and then let's see how many show up for demonstrations against the liberators.

[joesnuffy]

The Christian West cannot "occupy"-"liberate"
The Arab-Muslim Middle East

All we can do in the end is to try to fill the country with moderate muslims
yet these kinds come from and live in the west

The heart & wellspring of Arab Islam is Saudi Arabia

And as long as the Middle East and mosques and islamic centers are allowed to teach
"Pure" Islam and Western Christians try to "occupy" ...what they consider their "Holy Land"
There is gonna be a fight...and you cant fight their ideology by killing them...unless you kill every last one..

Which is against our beliefs...and would earn us even more contempt...

Turn Iraq over to the UN and cut our losses? NATO comprised of troops from those more favorable to us...how to keep out Russia Germany France or other Muslim nations?

Of course if we piece meal Iraq out to foreign troops ...some will be commies other opportunists...the Iraqis will suffer under others...and if we occupy only the oil producing areas...it will make it appear that this was our intent from the beginning...and this was all about oil for us (The Bush-Cheney oil interests)

Or we simply suck it up take our losses and preceed with our programs....and hope the morale of the troops and those back home doesnt fall apart before the next election..?

A tough row to hoe...

[TheDon]

Hmmmm....I wonder how Saddam would have handled an anti-Saddam rally?

[boris]

"An angry confrontation developed to the south of Baghdad, meanwhile. In the holy city of Najaf, 10,000 Shiite Muslim demonstrators were blocked by U.S. troops from entering the American headquarters. Some clerics urged demonstrators to turn back. Soldiers used Humvees to barricade the building. There were no reports of shooting or other violence."

Where are those big "suck your lungs out" bombs when you need one? I suppose a daisy-cutter would have done fine too.

--Boris

[A. Pole]

Earlier, al-Sadr said in a statement read inside the shrine that he wanted coalition forces to leave the town and allow Iraqis to handle security for themselves. In his Friday sermon, the cleric said he was recruiting for a private army but fell short of calling for armed struggle against the U.S. occupation.

Polish TV news reported today that Najaf Shiites gave Americans three days to leave the city or face upprising. Najaf and Karbala are two main cities to be occupied by Polish troops in the near future.