Reply With Quote
iraqi govt? they'll be nothing but spectators, unless they try to get in the game. power will be the goal. you wait and see. nobody's hoping for sectarian strife. it just hasn't started yet. you're dreaming if you think they're a democracy.
iraqi govt? they'll be nothing but spectators, unless they try to get in the game. power will be the goal. you wait and see. nobody's hoping for sectarian strife. it just hasn't started yet. you're dreaming if you think they're a democracy.
historic pony show meetings. you wait.
So, Yoni, assuming your peaceful, normal Iraq fantasy pans out before dubya leaves office, will dubya start a signinficant withdrawal, Mission Accomplished? or will dubya leave office with 170K troops in Iraq, following his original, pre-war intention to occupy, Korea-like, for decades to grab that oil.
Last edited by boutons_; 11-06-2007 at 12:55 PM.
Japan will never believe the Emporer isn't a diety.
The German Nazi's will die to the last man before giving up der Fuhrer.
Sunni and Shia will never get along.
All three statements are full of crap.
The vast majority of people -- Sunni and Shia, as well -- just want to live and raise families in peace.
'live and raise families in peace"
yawn. Same is true in Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, the Horn of Africa, or anywhere.
There are 100s of $Bs of oil at stake in Iraq that will fuel the Sunnis trying to get their share or more, and fuel the Shiites wanting to get more than their share, while punishing the Sunnis/Baathists for their oppression under Saddam.
why wasn't this spread all over the internets?!
----------------------------------------------------
Violence in Iraq drops sharply: Ministry
Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:01pm EDT
By Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violence in Iraq has dropped by 70 percent since the end of June, when U.S. forces completed their build-up of 30,000 extra troops to stabilize the war-torn country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry released the new figures as bomb blasts in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killed five people and six gunmen died in clashes with police in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of the Iraqi capital.
Washington began dispatching reinforcements to Iraq in February to try to buy Iraq's feuding political leaders time to reach a political accommodation to end violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs that has killed tens of thousands and forced millions from their homes.
While the leaders have failed to agree on key laws aimed at reconciling the country's warring sects, the troop buildup has succeeded in quelling violence.
Under the plan, U.S. troops left their large bases and set up combat outposts in neighborhoods while launching a series of summer offensives against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, other Sunni Arab militants and Shi'ite militias in the Baghdad beltway.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf told reporters that there had been a 70 percent decrease in violence countrywide in the three months from July to September over the previous quarter.
GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT
In Baghdad, considered the epicenter of the violence because of its mix of Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs, car bombs had decreased by 67 percent and roadside bombs by 40 percent, he said. There had also been a 28 percent decline in the number of bodies found dumped in the capital's streets.
In Anbar, a former insurgent hotbed where Sunni Arab tribes have joined U.S. forces against al Qaeda, there has been an 82 percent drop in violent deaths.
"These figures show a gradual improvement in controlling the security situation," Khalaf said.
However, in the northern province of Nineveh, where many al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab militants fled to escape the crackdown in Baghdad and surrounding region, there had been a 129 percent rise in car bombings and a corresponding 114 percent increase in the number of people killed in violence.
While the figures confirm U.S. data showing a positive trend in combating al Qaeda bombers, there is growing instability in southern Iraq, where rival Shi'ite factions are fighting for political dominance.
Police said six gunmen were killed in police raids in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
Some 50 people were killed in Kerbala in August in fierce clashes between fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and local police, who are seen as aligned to the rival Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council's armed wing, the Badr Organization.
After the clashes, Sadr said he was imposing a six-month freeze on the activities of the Mehdi Army, increasingly seen as beyond his control, so that he could reorganize it.
In Baghdad, three roadside bombs killed four people, including three policemen, while in Mosul one policeman was killed when a blast hit a police patrol.
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...rpc=22&sp=true
There will be good news from Iraq ONLY after a Democrat is elected president.
In fact, a few minutes after swearing in we will be deluged with 18 months of pent up good news.
Hey, I hope Yoni is right -- it will be a first for this war.
I suspect, however, that the main players are simply waiting out the American occupation since our hand has already been shown. Once we start leaving, it will be on.
It was. I'm pleased the US finally got around to using actual counterinsurgency tactics. It was about time. Kudos to Petraeus.why wasn't this spread all over the internets?!
not as much as the "violent 2007" news was.
It was a violent year. That was by design. Deal with it.
Gates, too.
This is why so many have been against timetables, including Hillary (which is why, if we have to have a Dem in the WH, she would be my choice)
Yes, it's amazing what can happen when competent people are in charge.
Rumsfeld, from what I've read, was anything but incompetent.
I think he wanted it going the direction it was going; non-stabilizing. Oil prices? Loki?
Or I could, like you, give him the benefit of the doubt and just call him an idiot.
, the original plan was to draw down to 40,000 troops six months after the invasion was complete. We were always planning on bugging out, the big players just realize that they are wasting time killing us now when they could just kill their domestic enemies later when we are gone.
No, he fought for control of the occupation then did nothing about it. There was no appreciable planning, and whatever planning was done he undid by installing Viceroy Bremer. He was incompetent. If you want to say he was incompetent like a fox, it doesn't change anything.
it'll be on, alright. the first thing to disappear will be coverage of the events as they unfold. it's gonna be bugout time for anyone dumb enough to report what they see. the players are coming home.
Or, it could be the current strategy would not have worked in an immediate post-invasion Iraq without many more casualties than we've already experienced.
Or it could be the current strategy wouldn't even be necessary because the whole insurgency could have been avoided by following the original invasion plan before Rummy ed it up and discarding the disastrous policies of disbanding the army and total de-Baathification ordered by Rummy's Viceroy Bremer.
Notice how many glass half empty people seem to dominate this board in quan y, but not quality...
Things are better. Isn't that enough?
They DO NOT want things to be better in Iraq, and will never admit they are. Reid, Pelosi, and the whole Democratic field are terrified things could look significantly rosie by this time next year.
It could even sway the elections back to republican control because of those maintaining the course, and not being quitters, like the demoncraps prove to be.
Things are better in Iraq.
Too bad they could have been better four years ago.
I will never forgive Bush for ing this war up -- nor will I let you idiots try to give him a pass on it.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
