9 U.S. Troops Die In Iraq

[Bronco_Beerslug]

This after some general and the PM proclaimed they were reeling in Baghdad.

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Dozens killed in Iraq; 8 U.S. troops die
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bombing and clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces left at least 50 people dead Monday in a brutal contradiction of the prime minister's claim that bloodshed was decreasing.

The deaths followed bombings and shootings Sunday that killed more than 60 people across the country, from the northern city of Kirkuk to Baghdad and Basra in the south. The dead included eight American soldiers, one of the U.S. military's deadliest weekends in months.

In the city of Diwaniyah, gunbattles between Iraqi forces and militiamen of the Mahdi Army loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr left at least 34 people dead and about 70 wounded, Iraqi officials said.

The fighting broke out late Sunday night when Iraqi soldiers conducted raids in three neighborhoods to flush out the militiamen and seize weapons, said army Capt. Fatik Aied.

He said the fighting continued Monday.

The al-Sadr representative in Diwaniyah, Sheik Abdul-Razaq al-Nidawi, told The Associated Press that "the Iraqi army pulled out of Diwaniya and the Mahdi army is in state of high alert."

Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Muhsen of the city's general hospital said 34 bodies were brought in — 25 Iraqi soldiers, seven civilians and two militiamen. He said at least 70 people were injured.

Fatik said the militiamen were using rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. At least 10 militiamen had been arrested, he said.

Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, is a Shiite-dominated city where the influence of the Mahdi Army has been gradually increasing. It already runs a virtual parallel government in Sadr City, a slum in eastern Baghdad.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has found it difficult to rein in al-Sadr, whose movement holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament and five Cabinet posts.

Al-Sadr's backing helped al-Maliki win the top job during painstaking negotiations within the Shiite alliance that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Al-Sadr mounted two major uprisings against the American-led coalition in 2004 after U.S. authorities closed his newspaper and pushed an Iraqi judge into issuing an arrest warrant against him.

American forces have been wary of confronting the Mahdi Army because of al-Sadr's clout and his large following among
Iraq's Shiite majority.

Some 10,000 Iraqis have been killed in the last four months in unrelenting attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists on each other's communities, as well as bombings and shootings by Sunni Arab insurgents.

CONT. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060828151617)

[The Lone Bolt]

Although I support the move to oust Saddam, I'm really beginning to think that once the thug is hanging from a rope we should just leave and let the Iraqis settle their differences however they see fit.

[bendog]

We went into nation build. And, surprisingly, the violence in Bagdahd seems to be lessening.

[SteveTensi13]

Holy cow, you mean there's a war and some soldiers actually DIED? who would've thunk it?

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Holy cow, you mean there's an illegal, unnecessary, fraudulent war and some soldiers DIED for lies, greed, and imperial ambition?

Fixed it for you, Miss Annie.

[Spider]

Holy cow, you mean there's a war and some soldiers actually DIED? who would've thunk it?

I am sure you have the same attitude when a Cop gets the bullit between the eyes making a bust ........ After all it is the cops job to take one if needed ......

[TailgateNut]

I am sure you have the same attitude when a Cop gets the bullit between the eyes making a bust ........ After all it is the cops job to take one if needed ......


He wouldn't care, after all a Wal-Mart security guard has no direct ties to the men in Blue.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

He wouldn't care, after all a Wal-Mart security guard has no direct ties to the men in Blue.

:laugh:

http://www.bartcop.com/albu-sign02.jpg
Albuquerque, NM.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Paul Craig Roberts: 'The Five Morons revisited'

When the neocons launched the Bush administration's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and announced plans for invading Syria and Iran, I labeled Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rice "the Five Morons." With the passage of time, I see that I overestimated their mental capabilities.

The "cakewalk" war has now lasted longer than World War II with Nazi Germany, and no end is in sight. It has cost the U.S. taxpayers $310 billion in out-of-pocket costs, with many additional hundreds of billions coming due in veterans' medical bills and other expenses yet to be paid.

To carry on this pointless war, which has achieved nothing but death, destruction, and hatred of America, Bush has had to call up inactive reserves who long ago completed their active-duty service to their country and have managed to get on with their lives. It is well known that the older one gets the harder it is to find employment or the energy to restart a mothballed business. But Bush is too busy saving us from terrorism to care about people's lives.

Despite the lack of U.S. troops and Bush's inability to prevail in Afghanistan and Iraq, neocons in Bush's government are working around the clock to instigate war with Iran and Syria.

I thought that I had Rumsfeld pegged as the complete dolt, but I was stunned when I read Associated Press reporter Robert Burns' account of what Rumsfeld told 200 Navy aviators in a question and answer session at Fallon Naval Air Station on Aug. 28. "The thing that keeps me up at night," said Rumsfeld, is the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media."

Rumsfeld told the pilots that terrorists "are actively manipulating the media in this country" by falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. All that "collateral damage" we hear about, the tens of thousands of dead and maimed civilians, is just terrorist propaganda. "The enemy lies constantly … and with impunity…. The enemy is so much better at communicating." Rumsfeld made similar remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada, where he was presented the Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award. Eisenhower must be rolling over in his grave.

Now I get it. When Fox News' Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly assured us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that would be used against us if we didn't strike first, they were being manipulated by Osama bin Laden, who used America to get rid of the secular Saddam Hussein and to create a new training and recruitment ground for al-Qaeda and fundamentalist fanatics.

When the New York Times let Judith Miller serve as a propagandist for war with Iraq, the Times was being manipulated by Muslim terrorists, not by neocons.

When CNN and columnists like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin reassure us that we will win the war unless we pull out prematurely, they are being manipulated by terrorists. Finally I understand what the Weekly Standard, National Review, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the American Enterprise Institute, and the online site FrontPageMag are all about.

The terrorists are so clever at manipulation that Americans cannot perceive that we have been sucked deep into a war that is creating the Islamic fundamentalism we so desperately fear.

Obviously, I misjudged Rumsfeld's intelligence. Anyone who can figure out the Muslim conspiracy is off the charts. What I can't figure is why Rumsfeld is willing for America to continue to be sucked in. Don't tell me that terrorists are manipulating Rumsfeld, too!

I keep waiting for the money appeal from AIPAC. I already know what it is going to say: "Although AIPAC is undisputedly the most powerful lobby in America and can determine with impunity the fate of every elected official, we cannot match the terrorists' ability to manipulate the media. Polls show that terrorists' manipulation of the U.S. media is causing American support for the war to dwindle away. Please send more millions to counter the terrorists' control of the American media. We are winning in the Middle East but losing at home."

One of the lessons one learns in life is that things are not always what they seem to be. Before I watched Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's National Press Club broadcast on C-SPAN (Aug. 28), I regarded AIPAC as Israel's friend and promoter. Now I realize that I was wrong. As the two distinguished professors made perfectly clear, anyone who cares about the survival of Israel should scorn the bribes, threats, and blandishments of AIPAC.

AIPAC led the Israeli government onto a path where diplomacy is no longer a tool that Israel can use. Instead, Israel relies on Mao's dictum that "power comes out of the barrel of a gun," or from a bulldozer that knocks down Palestinians' homes, uproots their olive groves, and enrages Muslims at Israel's inhumanity. Backed into a corner with no tool but violence, Israel faces hundreds of millions of increasingly angry Muslims.

If Bush were a true friend of Israel, he would never have let Israel again destroy Lebanon, this time under the pretext of striking at Hezbollah.

AIPAC and Bush have allowed, or caused, Israel to do itself so much damage in the eyes of Muslims and the wider world that a peaceful resolution in the Middle East is no longer in people's thoughts. With the mighty U.S. military checked in Iraq by a handful of Sunnis, and the mighty Israeli army checked in Lebanon by a handful of Hezbollah, violence is unlikely to settle the matter in a way that neocons in the U.S. and hardliners in Israel would like.

The only hope is that Bush and Olmert miraculously turn into grown men, admit their mistakes, apologize, send reparations, and commit to winning acceptance of Israel and America based on their good behavior. It would be nice to see in operation some of the superior morality that the two claim.

Considering their extraordinary hubris and self-righteousness, nothing like this can possibly happen. Israel, the U.S., and the Muslim world will continue to bleed.

Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the Reagan administration. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.