Today in Iraq

War News for Friday, December 31, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi border guards assassinated in Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Thirty insurgents attack police checkpoint in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Four Baghdad police stations attacked with small arms, RPG fire. Bring ‘em on: Gas pipeline destroyed near Basra. Bring ‘em on: ING soldier killed by insurgents near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Mortar attack ignites blaze at Baghdad refinery. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi civilians killed in ambush near Shorgat. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, 15 wounded in yesterday’s fighting in Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One ING soldier killed, four wounded in Samarra ambush. Bring ‘em on: British troops ambushed by roadside bomb near Amarah. Bring ‘em on: US patrol ambushed near ad Duluiyah. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents destroy Mosul telephone exchange. All 700 election workers in Mosul resign after insurgent threats. Bush’ Folly. “Key measures of the level of insurgent violence against American forces in Iraq, numbers of dead, wounded and insurgent attacks, show the situation has gotten worse since the summer. While those numbers don't tell the full story of the conflict in Iraq, they suggest insurgents are growing more proficient, even as the size of the U.S. force increases and U.S. commanders succeed in soliciting more help from ordinary Iraqis.” All sorts of interesting indicators in this article. Graphic display of failure. Rummy’s Army. “More than 100 members of the 571st Medical Company left Fort Carson Thursday morning as their unit headed back to Iraq for a second one-year tour of duty. The helicopter medical evacuation unit suffered the most casualties of any Fort Carson company in Iraq last year, losing seven soldiers in two crashes of its helicopters.” Dickhead can’t take a joke. “A Lake Elsinore man allegedly chased down and shot a soldier home on leave from Iraq early Thursday, after catching him with a group toilet-papering his yard and other homes in the neighborhood. Aubrey Weldon, 34, a construction worker, was so angry about his Riverside County neighborhood being festooned with toilet paper that he chased down the group in his truck on the 29000 block of 3rd Street, started fighting with them and then pulled out a handgun and opened fire at 12:30 a.m., said Sgt. Earl Quinata of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.” Casualty Reports Local story: Virginia soldier dies in Iraq. Local story: California soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Oklahoma soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Alabama soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Illinois Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Three Maine Guardsmen wounded in Iraq. Awards and Decorations Local story: Arkansas soldier decorated for valor in Iraq. Note to Readers I intended to post a rant about Lieutenant AWOL’s reaction to the tsunami disaster in Asia, but Helena and Rude Pundit both expressed the outrage I feel better than I could. Instead, I want to thank matt for picking up my slack and running this blog on days when I can’t post. I like the Discussion Topic threads matt posted, and judging from reader responses I think most readers liked them, too. In fact, I should have the comments thread from the last Discussion Topic bronzed and mounted on a plaque due to all the thoughtful and well-reasoned posts from readers. As matt once observed in an email to me, a world-wide community of thoughtful, informed and intelligent readers has developed around this blog. The site gets an average of about 1,500 visitors every day, with a little over a half-million visits since I started. Last month I created a new blog called Reader Contributions. I suspect most of you have noticed it already. My original intention was to solicit original material from readers in order to tap into the pool of talent that reads this blog every day and give you a forum to express your opinions and observations to a wider audience. I’m not sure how I’ll manage the Reader Contribution page, but if you want to send in material or suggestions for Discussion Topics, email me. I’ve only got two editorial rules: 1. Don’t be an asshole, and 2. Spell check your material before you send it. (I work for a living.) I started a new Discussion Topic on the RC page this morning: Where are you from? YD