Today in Iraq

War News for June 23, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed by roadside bomb near Baghdad hospital. Bring ‘em on: South Korean hostage beheaded near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, six wounded in air strike near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers killed, one wounded in ambush near Balad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed in insurgent attack in Khaldiyah. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi translators assassinated near Basra. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline sabotaged near Beiji. Bring ‘em on: Bulgarian troops ambushed near Karbala. Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Two Iraqis killed. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi policeman killed by roadside bomb near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi policemen killed in Ramadi drive-by shooting. AQ threatens to assassinate Iraqi interim prime minister. List of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq. Wolfie watch. “Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, said Tuesday that the Pentagon had underestimated the violent tenacity of an insurgency that formed after Baghdad fell, and he acknowledged that the United States may be forced to keep a significant number of troops in Iraq for years to come.” More troops. “The U.S. Central Command has informally asked Army planners for up to five more brigades - about 25,000 troops - to augment the American force of 138,000 soldiers and Marines now in Iraq, military officers and Pentagon officials said.” Mission accomplished. “Of the 842 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the invasion 15 months ago, 622 were killed by hostile fire, according to a Pentagon tally. The largest part of that combat death toll, 513, has come since President Bush's declaration on May 1 last year that major combat was over. These troops died at the hands of Iraqis and a sprinkling of foreign Arabs fighting the U.S. occupation and seeking to derail the Bush administration's plan to transform the country.” The full article is entitled, "A Soldier's Last Battle" and is well worth reading. AWOL update on Lieutenant AWOL. “The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access to all records of George W. Bush's military service during the Vietnam War. Filed in federal court in New York, where The AP is headquartered, the lawsuit seeks access to a copy of Bush's microfilmed personnel file from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin.” Commentary Analysis: “But just nine days before Iraq takes its biggest legal stride since the invasion, the transfer of what is officially called full sovereignty on June 30 draws deep skepticism on Baghdad's streets. In bookshops and offices, mosques and teahouses, ordinary Iraqis say they eagerly await the end of the U.S.-led occupation, but they dispute that an unelected interim Iraqi government, backed by about 140,000 U.S. troops, constitutes the fully sovereign state that President Bush and Iraqi politicians have touted. These doubts pose a fundamental challenge to Iraq's fragile new government as it embarks on the high-stakes foray into autonomy.” Opinion: “Cheney and Bush are squealing so much because the unmasking of their fiction about Iraq is one more shot into the solar plexus of their diminishing credibility -- and in the president's reelection campaign, credibility is a major route to the independent-minded voters who will probably decide the election. Cheney and Bush, in short, have been caught in a lie, and that is why they are squealing.” Analysis: “To put it succinctly, very little of what the White House told Congress to persuade it to pass the war resolution has turned out to be true or come to pass. Poor planning by the civilian chiefs at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his two top aides, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, has contributed to needless casualties. Washington didn't have a contingency plan for a serious insurgency after cities were taken and ‘major combat’ was over. U.S. occupation casualties continue to rise even as newly trained Iraqi forces begin taking over security duties. The prisoner torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib jail has also stained the Defense Department and the CIA.” Casualty Reports Local story: Georgia Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Kentucky Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Virginia soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Florida and Georgia contractors killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.