Today in Iraq

War News for November 5 and 6, 2004 Note to Readers Today's update consists of seperate entries for November 5 and November 6. November 5 Bring ‘em on: Three British troops, Iraqi translator killed, eight soldiers wounded by car bomb, mortar fire near Iskandariyah. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, one wounded by roadside bomb near Balad. Bring ‘em on: Two US Marines killed, four wounded in fighting in al Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: American contractor killed near Abu Ghraib. Bring ‘em on: Nepalese security contractor killed in ambush in Iraq. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, 18 wounded by car bomb in Dujail. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi government official assassinated near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi Kurdish contractor assassinated near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Air and artillery bombardments continue in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier wounded in car bomb ambush near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two US Marines, embedded news photographer wounded by roadside bomb near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi children killed in mortar attack on police station near Muqdadiyah. November 6 Bring ‘em on: Twenty US Marines wounded in convoy ambush near Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Twelve Iraqi policemen killed as insurgents storm police station in Samarra. Bring ‘em on: US convoy ambushed by car bomb on Baghdad airport road. Bring ‘em on: Twenty four Iraqis killed in multiple coordinated car bombings, mortar attacks in Samarra. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, five wounded by mortar fire near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: British security contractor, Iraqi civilian killed by car bomb. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents attack two US Marine checkpoints near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Former Iraqi army colonel assassinated in Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Gas pipeline sabotaged near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Seventeen Iraqis killed in mortar attack on US positions near Tikrit. Bring ‘em on: Polish troops under mortar fire at Camp Babylon. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi security official wounded by car bomb ambush in Kufa. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis working for US forces assassinated in Samarra. Mosul may be the next Fallujah. Iraqi security forces. “Thanks to a U.S. Army captain from Mundelein, Iraqi police officers will be receiving bullet-resistant vests courtesy of his hometown police department. Stationed in Baghdad and working for the 127th Military Police Company, Army Capt. Erik S. Archer contacted the Mundelein police department in hopes of getting a donation of used vests. The protection will be worn by Iraqi police officers and the interpreters who work with them.” What happened to all the money Congress appropriated to equip Iraqi security forces? Fallujah offensive. “The U.S. military sealed off Falluja on Friday and launched a night of air strikes on the rebel city ahead of an assault seen as critical to the interim government's attempt to pacify Iraq before January elections.” Fallujah. “The number of dead and wounded from the expected battle to retake insurgent-controlled Al-Fallujah probably will reach levels not seen since Vietnam, a senior surgeon at the Marine camp outside Al-Fallujah said Thursday. Navy Cmdr. Lach Noyes said the hospital here is preparing to handle 25 severely injured soldiers a day, not counting walking wounded and the dead. The hospital has added two operating rooms, doubled its supplies, added a mortuary and stocked up on blood reserves. Doctors have set up a system of ambulances that will rush to the camp's gate to receive the dead and wounded so units can return to battle quickly. The plans underscore the ferocity of the fight the U.S. military expects in Al-Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim city about 35 miles west of Baghdad that has been under insurgent control since April. More than 1,120 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since the war began, more than 860 of those from hostile fire.” Miserable failure. “American intelligence agencies have tripled their formal estimate of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile systems believed to be at large worldwide, since determining that at least 4,000 of the weapons in Iraq's prewar arsenals cannot be accounted for, government officials said Friday. A new government estimate says a total of 6,000 of the weapons may be outside the control of any government, up from a previous estimate of 2,000, American officials said… Shoulder-fired missiles - which are small, lethal and easy to use - are attractive weapons for terrorists. In recent months, Western intelligence and law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned that Al Qaeda intends to use them to shoot down planes. In 2002, attackers who launched two small Russian-made SA-7 missiles almost hit a commercial aircraft taking off from Mombasa, Kenya. The new estimate of a larger number of the missile systems was discussed at a classified Defense Intelligence Agency conference in Alabama this week, the officials said. They declined to discuss the methods by which the new estimate had been reached, saying that it was classified.” Commentary Editorial: “Mr. Bush had a chance to explain at his news conference Thursday why a battle in Fallujah was necessary, but merely choked out a few words to the effect that ‘some of these people have to, must be, defeated.’ He and Mr. Allawi must do better. There should be an aggressive effort to make clear to Iraqis and their Arab neighbors -- not to mention Americans -- why a Fallujah operation is necessary, and what it is meant to achieve. There must be a quick, massive and highly visible effort to provide humanitarian support to noncombatants in Fallujah and to launch reconstruction once government forces regain control.” Opinion: “Now that the election is over, let's hope the president doesn't really believe his own slogans. They show little comprehension of the actual terrorist threat. The first slogan to scrap is the one about fighting the terrorists in Iraq so they won't come here. That bromide implies that there is a fixed number of terrorists. If we can just corral them in Iraq, we don't have to worry about another attack on New York. This is nonsense. There is no fixed number of jihadis. If anything, our presence in Iraq is inspiring an increase in the global number of terrorists. Since Saddam's fall, Iraq has become an ad for recruiting a new pool of alienated Muslim youths. New prospects are being solicited in Europe and the Middle East to head off for Fallujah or Baghdad. Instead of inspiring Arab youths to try democracy, our Iraq venture is inspiring them to sign up with radical clerics.” Opinion: “Every Sunday, the veterans come together to build ‘Arlington West’ — this one on the beach by the pier in Santa Barbara. There have been others, in Santa Monica, for instance. The veterans place a cross in the sand for every GI who's been killed in Iraq. Laid out with military precision, the memorial is visually striking, a stark message left on the doorstep of an otherwise picture- perfect reality. And each weekend the memorial is larger than the week before.” Analysis: “America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed ‘a candid world,’ as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of ‘a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.’ Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11. The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.” Casualty Reports Local story: North Dakota Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Two California Marines killed in Iraq. Local story: Alabama soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Wisconsin Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Arkansas Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Virginia contractor killed in Iraq. Buck Fush. No compromise, no surrender.