The surge is working!

[swake]

Updated: 4:20 p.m. CT April 22, 2007

BAGHDAD - Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and members of a tiny Kurdish religious sect, police said, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot.

The attack came on a violent day in Baghdad, with at least 20 people killed in car bombings, most in a double suicide strike against a police station in a religiously mixed neighborhood.

[shadows]

Yep, we are using the strategy the prez has implied they would in the end have the only democracy on the face of the earth.

China is sending representatives to Cuba?

We are recycling our home guard.

More incidents as unexplainable corruption among our elected leaders.

51% of the females that produce the soldiers of tomorrow chose to be single

The Third Reich scientifically bred their scientist.

We abort ours but we will prevail unless we run out of natives over there.

We have won lets get out of there and concentrate on our ills.      

[Cubs]

Just because bad things happen doesn't mean we should give up. If that were the case, this city would have been burned down years ago.

[rwarn17588]

Gee, Cubs, I didn't know that all of Tulsa's buildings were constructed from kindling.

[swake]

Apr 23, 10:04 AM EDT

Suicide bombings around Iraq kill 46
BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide car bomb struck a restaurant in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35, police said.

The attack occurred on a highway near Ramadi, a city that is 70 miles west of Baghdad, a policeman said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own safety.

Three suicide bombers launched attacks in different parts of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 60 on Monday, police and politicians said.

A parked car bomb also exploded outside the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one civilian, and a drive-by shooting wounded two guards at Tunisia's Embassy in the capital, police said.

Monday's first suicide car bomb attack occurred near the northern city of Mosul at 10:10 a.m. when a suicide attacker detonated his car in front of an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, an official with the group said. At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack in Tal Uskuf, a town 9 miles north of Mosul, said Abdul-Ghani Ali, a KDP official.

[Hawkins]

Its a very tough order to secure oil infrastructure and keep the population under control when the people over there are so backward.

This would be like a group of armed gunmen pulling over a bus, separating all the Assembly of God attendees from the Baptists, and executing one side. [!]

The people over in Iraq doing this are still living in the 12th century. I say we just call it, and bring our guys home.

The only other option would be to kill 85% of their population, but the age of empire is over, so that is not an option.

[iplaw]

I'm curious to hear from all the "let's just bring em home" crew.  

What do you think will happen if we immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the region?  I'm betting most of you haven't even bothered to consider the ramifications of that decision.

Or does it even matter to you?

[swake]

What difference are we making? We aren't stopping them from killing. 30,000 more troops is a joke in a nation of 25,000,000 in a civil war. We are supporting a government filled with our enemies that is heavily influenced by our enemy Iran and training police that often become death squads.

I say we pull back to the north creating a new nation there for the Kurds. We leave some troop presence to protect the Kurds (and keep them from hitting Turkey) and call it a day. When both sides hate you in a civil war you have no business standing in the middle. The Iraqi people overwhelmingly want us to leave, we should do as they ask. Hold a vote if you must on our going so we can save face.


We started the war, and we should not have, but it's not our war anymore.

[iplaw]

quote:
I say we pull back to the north creating a new nation there for the Kurds. We leave some troop presence to protect the Kurds (and keep them from hitting Turkey) and call it a day. When both sides hate you in a civil war you have no business standing in the middle. The Iraqi people overwhelmingly want us to leave, we should do as they ask. Hold a vote if you must on our going so we can save face.

The Kurds aren't interested in that; they've stated as much already.  The current president of Iraq is Talabani, a Kurd, said he's not interested in an independent Kurdistan any longer.

So, the question is, are you prepared to have another Taliban type regime in charge of a major ME country?  More oil resources than they could ever have imagined in Afghanistan...and the only way to keep that oil away from the militant freaks is to have a secularized democracy in that country.

Do you mind a Taliban-like power taking over Iraq?

[swake]

quote:Originally posted by iplaw

quote:
I say we pull back to the north creating a new nation there for the Kurds. We leave some troop presence to protect the Kurds (and keep them from hitting Turkey) and call it a day. When both sides hate you in a civil war you have no business standing in the middle. The Iraqi people overwhelmingly want us to leave, we should do as they ask. Hold a vote if you must on our going so we can save face.

The Kurds aren't interested in that; they've stated as much already.  The current president of Iraq is Talabani, a Kurd, said he's not interested in an independent Kurdistan any longer.

So, the question is, are you prepared to have another Taliban type regime in charge of a major ME country?  More oil resources than they could ever have imagined in Afghanistan...and the only way to keep that oil away from the militant freaks is to have a secularized democracy in that country.

Do you mind a Taliban-like power taking over Iraq?

The Taliban's style of Islam has no pull in Iraq, and the Sunnis (which is what the Taliban are a sect of) are NOT in control anyway.

Iran is far scarier than the Taliban and we already have served Iraq up on a platter to them. The government of Iraq might as well have been chosen by the Ayatollahs, in some ways they were.

Better Iran has to fight the Sunni insurgents than us doing it for them.

[Rico]

quote:Originally posted by iplaw


What do you think will happen if we immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the region?  I'm betting most of you haven't even bothered to consider the ramifications of that decision.

^

Oh more of the same....!


A parked car bomb also exploded outside the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one civilian, and a drive-by shooting wounded two guards at Tunisia’s Embassy, the A.P. said, citing police.

On Sunday, Sunni Arabs in Mosul executed 23 members of a small religious sect, known as Yezidis.

The Yezidis, who are most numerous in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, practice an offshoot of Islam that combines some Muslim teachings with those of ancient Persian religion.

At least 60 people died Sunday in Iraq, with 18 killed by car bombs in Baghdad. Eleven bodies were found in the capital and five in the city of Kut, to the south.

But the most chilling attack was the one in Mosul. It followed the marriage in early April of a Sunni Arab man and a woman from the Yezidi faith, the police said.

The police said that when the woman married, she converted to Islam, which angered some of the Yezidis. She was kidnapped and as she was being brought back to her tribe, a crowd gathered and stoned her to death, said Brig. Gen. Muhammad al-Waqa of the Mosul police.

[guido911]

The Surge is [Not] Working?

Tell that to this soldier:

http://drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

Let's not take his word for it though. I think we need more opinions from back seat drivers on foreign policy and military affairs.

[iplaw]

quote:The Taliban's style of Islam has no pull in Iraq, and the Sunnis (which is what the Taliban are a sect of) are NOT in control anyway.

Thanks for the primer on islamic sectarianism.  Maybe I should have underlined the word Taliban-like.  Personally I don't care for either flavor.  What makes you think the Sunni brand of islam, which by the way is what has been in power for the last 40 years, is somehow unpopular in Iraq?  I think Saudi Arabia would disagree with you...

The Shia majority ran by Sadr would be as friendly, if not more so, to terrorist elements in the region as Saddam was.  A balance of power is the only viable solution for long-term stability.

The only way to guarantee a balance of power NEVER exists is to withdraw.

quote:
Iran is far scarier than the Taliban and we already have served Iraq up on a platter to them. The government of Iraq might as well have been chosen by the Ayatollahs, in some ways they were.

So since you've acknowledged that, are you're willing to let them take it?  I can assure you that any regime ran by Iran will be as equally detestable as any Taliban regime ever was...

[iplaw]

quote:yeah and i got a qoute for that dude harry reid. these families need us here.

Beautiful!

[swake]

In an recent ABC poll of Iraqis, 78% want us out. Over half support attacks on US troops.

The American people want us out, the Iraqi people want us out. We've already installed a government this is at least very friendly to Iran and at worst is just a puppet of Iran.

The damage is already done. We broke the egg and can't put it back together again. Saddam was valuable to us as a counter weight to Iran even as he was our enemy. And being in Iraq only serves to make the shaky Iranian government stronger by scaring the Iranian population and playing into the conservatives hands there. If we had not invaded Iraq it is likely that the hardliners would no longer be in control in Iran.