Today in Iraq

War News for January 17, 2004 Bring 'em on: Three US soldiers and two Iraqi CDC soldiers killed, two wounded in bomb ambush near Taji. Bring 'em on: Rockets fired at US base near Kirkuk. Bring 'em on: Three Iraqi civilians killed by mine near Tikrit. Bring 'em on: Two Iraqi insurgents killed after attack on US troops at frontier post in Al-Anbar province. Bring 'em on: Aircraft carrying Georgia's defense minister receives ground fire at Baghdad airport. Bring 'em on: One Iraqi killed, five wounded by bomb in Baghdad. Bring 'em on: Three Iraqi civilians wounded in RPG attack on US troops in Fallujah. Bring 'em on: US patrol under fire in Samarra. (Last paragraph). Bring 'em on: Power lines destroyed by sabotage; Kirkuk without electricity. Bring 'em on: Two Iraqi policemen wounded in attack in Mosul. Tens of thousands demonstrate against US transition plan in Basra. Fashion maven L. Paul Bremer plays down Iraqi resistance to transition plan; Sistani threatens general strike over issue. Aide to Iraq cleric says new transition plan is a "'hasty agreement' aimed at boosting President George W. Bush's re-election campaign." Former UN envoy says return to Iraq would be a "terrible mistake." "'The U.N. should not be in Iraq lest it would give legal respectability to the invasion and occupation of the oil-rich Arab country, or further promote the impression that it has collaborated against the Iraqi people,' Halliday told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview." News Analysis: "When The Ayatollah Speaks, Bush Listens." (Actually, Lieutenant AWOL craps his britches.) "'The problem with the June 30 plan is that Bush and his advisers set in train a plan designed above all to get them through the U.S. election campaign but without a coherent set of processes for what happens after that,'' said political scientist Robert Pape at the University of Chicago." And that, folks, is the most succinct analysis of Operation Cut and Run anybody has offered yet. Turkish general says ethnic-based federation in Iraq would be "bloody." US Army establishes "oil police." Analysis: What went wrong in Iraq. (More appropriately titled, "How Lieutenant AWOL and his Gang of Bungling Ideologues Screwed the Pooch After the Army Won the War.") Insightful article by Wesley Clark originally published in September 2003 explaining how a military victory so quickly turned all soft and warm and brown and smelly. In PDF format. US Army reduces patrols, closes garrisons during troop rotation. Halliburton bags another deal. Ethnic tensions remain a problem in Iraq. "'Whatever Iraqi government emerges before the U.S. leaves, is almost certain to be inherently unstable,' wrote Anthony Cordesman, a security strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a recent assessment. 'It will not have solved the religious sectarian and ethnic tensions in Iraq - which are growing as the conflicts and power struggles between Sunni and Shiite become more serious.'" General Clark says Congress should investigate Lieutenant AWOL's rush to war. "Asked if misleading the nation in going to war would be criminal, Clark told reporters, 'I think that's a question Congress needs to ask. I think this Congress needs to investigate precisely' how the United States wound up in a war 'that wasn't connected to the threat of al-Qaida.'" Fat chance with a Congress that won't even investigate Halliburton. Commentary Editorial: In Search of Rescue. "With its strategy for Iraq on the verge of unraveling, the Bush administration has belatedly embraced an idea it should have accepted long ago: that a political transition conducted by the United Nations is more likely to be accepted by Iraqis than one imposed unilaterally by the United States. On Monday U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and the head of the Iraqi Governing Council will meet with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to ask for stronger U.N. backing for the U.S. plan to turn over sovereignty in June to an Iraqi government chosen through regional caucuses…But it may be too late for the U.N. bailout the Bush administration now appears to seek. Mr. Annan is reluctant to put his organization at the service of a predetermined U.S. strategy, and one letter from the secretary general has already failed to change the mind of Mr. Sistani." Casualty Reports Local story: California soldier dies in Iraq. Note to Readers I didn't post for the last two days. Frankly, I just needed a break from the news in Iraq. When I started this project I didn't realize how damn depressing this would be. In the future, I may have to post some kind of schedule.