Posted on 04/04/2004 2:06:10 PM PDT by Gringo1
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:39:26 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The reason is that our war planners did not believe that a heavy occupation with 60-70 divisions would be necessary, or at least, the ones who Rummy listened to did not believe it.
Whether they did not believe it because they were afraid our people would not support an Army of ten million will have to wait for the historians.
President Bush, IMO, could have had such an Army if he asked for it when he addressed Congress on 9/16/01.
He didn't, and we're fighting the only war our light and small forces will allow.
My God, I hope we win. The consequences of defeat are unthinkable.
Especially for those of ours that are in Iraq in harms way.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes....
I'll go you one better. If we don't start fighting this war to WIN, I'm gonna start siding with the 'conscienceous objectors".
END this BS. Open fu&^%ng FIRE.
I'm pretty sure you are right, but we still have to try. Unlike them, WE are civilized.
Things will have to get a LOT worse before the nation will have the political will to really fight. Unlike the French and their vassal states, however, the U.S. WILL fight when we have to.
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Open warfare between U.S.-led forces and radical Shi'ite militiamen left at least nine coalition troops and 21 Iraqis dead, officials said on Monday, raising the specter of a new front in the Iraq conflict.
Ferocious gun battles killed seven American soldiers in Baghdad and more than 20 people near the city of Najaf, posing an unprecedented challenge to occupation forces ignited by their attempts to crack down on a radical Shi'ite faction.
Most previous attacks on coalition troops since they occupied Iraq a year ago have been by fighters drawn from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority rather than majority Shi'ites.
In Baghdad's Sadr City slum, Shi'ite militiamen tried to take over police stations and government buildings on Sunday using small arms and grenade launchers, the U.S. military said.
"Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces prevented this and reestablished security in Baghdad at the cost of seven U.S. soldiers killed and more than two dozen wounded," a military statement said. At least one Iraqi was reported killed.
Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police meanwhile fought a battle with militiamen in Kufa near Najaf that officials said left 20 Iraqis, one American and one Salvadoran soldier dead and 200 Iraqis wounded, after protesting militiamen marched on a Spanish-run military base.
As well as in Baghdad, Shi'ite supporters of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with troops in several other cities to denounce the arrest of an aide to the cleric and the closure by U.S. officials of a militant newspaper.
A senior U.S. military official said the Kufa incident began when Iraqi security forces came under fire. Apache helicopters and fighter planes were called in but did not fire, he said.
Witnesses said the demonstrators, many of them armed, had thrown stones at a military vehicle arriving at the base and shortly afterwards Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police at the base had opened fire on the crowd from several directions.
Black-clad members of the Mehdi Army, a banned militia loyal to Sadr, returned fire at the garrison for around three hours. A Reuters correspondent said most of the dead wore Mehdi uniforms.
Militiamen, some of them teenagers, darted out from an area of workshops and junkyards to fire at the base before running for cover.
Sadr, 30, said he would stage a sit-in at a Kufa mosque until his demands were met.
"Terrorise your enemy, God will reward you well for what pleases him. It is not possible to remain silent in front of their abuse," his statement said.
Sadr had faded from the tumultuous scene of Shi'ite politics in recent months while the spotlight was on leading moderate cleric Ayatollah al-Sistani.
But the Mehdi Army has said for months it is ready for holy war against the Americans if the order comes.
SUICIDE BOMB
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber wounded two U.S. soldiers and five Iraqis at another pro-Sadr protest.
British officials said British troops had injured a number of people during related protests in the southern town of Amara. It was not clear whether anyone was killed.
There were also demonstrations in Basra and Nassiriya by Sadr's supporters, who have marched in the past week against the closure of al-Hawza newspaper, a mouthpiece for Sadr that U.S.-led authorities accused of inciting anti-American violence.
They also protested against the detention of Sadr's aide Mustapha Yacoubi. A senior U.S. official said he was seized by U.S.-led forces on Saturday in connection with the killing of Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei last year.
Khoei was hacked to death at a Najaf mosque by a mob which also killed one of his aides. Senior clerics at the time blamed the killings on a group linked to Sadr, who denied involvement.
"Sheikh Moqtada Sadr is our leader. He's going to lead Iraq. Today we fought the occupation troops and we will keep fighting them until we take over," said protester Mohammad Hanoun, 23.
Oppressed under former President Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Shi'ites have grown increasingly vocal in the year since U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam and want their clear majority of the population to be reflected in a future Iraqi government.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana and the panel's ranking Democrat, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, said on Sunday more troops might be needed to stabilize Iraq and Washington might have to consider extending its June 30 deadline to hand power to Iraqis.
The White House responded by saying it stood by its timetable.
If you think I'm "going wobbly," then you are deluding yourself about the future of the U.S. in Iraq. Most of those troops are coming home no matter how chaotic the situation remains in Iraq. If George Bush doesn't bring them home by mid-summer, then John Kerry will bring them home in January.
You can take that one to the bank.
Some of us were opposed to this war from Day One precisely because we knew that this government would fight the war like Jacques Chirac long before it ever fought the war like Patton and Pershing.
There are some times in life when I hate being right. This is one of them.
For the life of me I do not understand how, why this unfinished war is considered a victory. The war is still ongoing and will be for some time. Sorry not directed to you personally, but I cannot jump on that bandwagon.
Thats like asking me if I feel safer that saddam has been captured. Honestly no, people are still being blown up by suicide bombers. Our transportation department was just put on a yellow plus alert for the summer. And I read on a daily basis an islamic idiot wants to kill me. Not that I am afraid, but please don't ask me if I feel safer, you make me feel as if I'm no more intelligent than the idiots that will blow themselves up and everyone else around them for the reward of 72 virgins.
Okay sorry, rant off.
We already abandoned "the principles that make the U.S. a great nation" when we invaded Iraq in the first place. Let's just incinerate 25 million Iraqis and call it the sad reality of "preemptive warfare."
Nobody likes a "Monday morning quarterback," but when a "Friday morning quarterback" tells you something, you ought to sit up and listen.
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