Today in Iraq

War News for Thursday, October 20, 2005 Bring 'em on: Three Iraqi police were killed and two injured when their patrol was ambushed in the Al-Adil district of western Baghdad the Interior Ministry said. Bring 'em on: Two mortar rounds hit the Green Zone but it was not clear whether there were any casualties or damages. Bring 'em on: Insurgents opened fire on a police checkpoint near the Hai Al-Adil highway in a western Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding 11, said police Capt. Qassim Hassan. The fighting continued for several hours. Bring 'em on: Iraq has repaired its vital northern pipeline and resumed exports to Turkey at pre-war rates after a sabotage attack forced more than a month-long halt in exports. Bring 'em on: In Kirkuk a vehicle carrying Kurdish tribal leader Sheik Anwar Khalifa was hit by a car bomb, police said. He escaped unhurt, but a relative riding with him was injured, and one passer-by killed and three wounded. Bring 'em on: Gunmen killed a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army. Bring 'em on: A U.S. soldier was pronounced dead after being discovered in an apartment pool in the Salwa district, south of Kuwait City, at approximately 11:00 p.m. Monday. Bring 'em on: A lawyer named Malik Shaya'a, who used to work for the intelligence service under Saddam's rule, was assassinated by gunmen in Kerbala. Bring 'em on: A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy has killed three American soldiers in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Bring 'em on: A suicide car bomber has attacked a US military convoy north of Baghdad, killing at least four Iraqi civilians and injuring 14. Bring 'em on: A Soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died from a non-hostile gunshot wound on Oct. 18 at a forward operating base near Mosul, Iraq. Bring 'em on: Three Iraqis, including a child, were killed Thursday morning when a mortar shell fell inside an elementary school in western Baghdad, said the Iraqi police. Bring 'em on: Suspected insurgents using explosives set fire to the main oil pipeline in northern Iraq on Thursday, officials said. Bring 'em on: Four civilians were killed and 18 seriously wounded when mortar rounds landed on the city of Tikrit. Bring 'em on: One Iraqi soldier was killed by gunmen in Baija, local authorities said. Bring 'em on: A child and two guards were killed and four children wounded when a mortar round landed on a school in the southern Mansour district of the capital. Bring 'em on: Three people were killed when gunmen wearing army uniforms attacked a house in Iskandariya killing the father of the family and his sons, police said. Bring 'em on: Five bodies were found in the small town of Kamishli, 65 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad. Police said they were shot dead. Support the Troops Please support your troops: The government has sent our military to war and continues to ignore the fact that the people in the Arm Services are coming back not only in boxes but with permanent injuries and mental problems which the scars will remain with them for the rest of their lives. I don't support this war and believe that war is an evil which should only be used as the last resort to an emanate treat to the people of our country. This war is morally repugnant, illegally waged, ineptly run by people who should be considered criminals. However the soldiers in the field are doing their honor bound job to the best of their ability. Support them! This is not the time to fragment the country into us and them. Moonbats and neo-cons, the only way to stop this insanity is to stand together and demand that it's time to bring them home. The government ignores their pain: The Veterans Affairs Department is currently reviewing approximately one-third of the cases of U.S. veterans who are receiving disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After conducting an internal study, the VA believes that they were too lenient in deciding which soldiers were eligible for PTSD benefits. Although the number of soldiers suffering from PTSD is high, Hoge's study found that a majority of veterans are not seeking treatment. Only 40 percent of returning soldiers acknowledged that they need mental health care, and only 26 percent were actually receiving care. As such, the number of veterans approved for PTSD compensation by the VA is relatively small. Yet the VA believes that too many soldiers were approved for PTSD disability compensation and is now seeking to deny soldiers this benefit. They hide their injuries: The current combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have involved U.S. military personnel in major ground combat and hazardous security duty. Studies are needed to systematically assess the mental health of members of the armed services who have participated in these operations and to inform policy with regard to the optimal delivery of mental health care to returning veterans. They are blind to the facts of war: The Rev. Pat Robertson said President Bush dismissed his warning that the United States would suffer heavy casualties in Iraq and told the television evangelist just before the beginning of the war that "we're not going to have any casualties." Why support them you might ask? They could be your Brother: Two local brothers are now in a Georgia military hospital, recovering from wounds suffered while serving with Pennsylvania National Guard in Iraq, according to their father. Spc. David VanLoon II, 21, and his brother, Sgt. Samuel VanLoon, 22, were wounded in separate incidents just over a week apart, said their father, also named David. He could be your Husband: When Sgt. Christopher Lee Middleton unit got back to the base, another soldier noticed swelling around his neck and took him to medics. His injuries left him blind in his left eye, deaf in his left ear and without half his hearing in the other ear. Nerves were damaged in his left arm; three disks in his lower back are herniated, and one of the bones in his neck was damaged. Lacy Middleton said. "According to him, he was just doing his job." Or she could be your wife: On Oct. 6 more than 225 airmen, soldiers, sailors, and multinational partners crowded the new base chapel at a deployed location in Iraq to pay their final respects to their comrade in arms — Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson. Perhaps your son: I never knew Army Cpl. Kevin McCray, but from speaking to his mother, Rebecca Jones of Little Washington, and grandmother, Eugenia "Gene" Parson of Maysville, I missed a fine young man. Kevin, 21, was killed Sept. 22 in Iraq when an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) exploded in the convoy he was riding. You might call him Ray: As a medic, Ray M. Fuhrmann II probably saved more lives in Iraq over the past three years than most emergency room doctors. Fuhrmann, 28, of Novato, Calif., was killed by a roadside bomb Aug. 18 in Samarra. He was assigned to Fort Stewart and was on his second tour of Iraq. Or you might call him gay: Members of a radical anti-gay group say they plan to protest today at a funeral and a visitation for area soldiers killed in Iraq. The group, Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., issued a press release this week saying its members will protest during the 11 a.m. funeral for Spc. Michael Wendling, 20, in the Town of Theresa and the 3 p.m. visitation in Ripon for Sgt. Andrew Wallace, 25. Perhaps he's your priest: On May 29, Father Tim was in a Humvee in Mosul when a terrorist bomb exploded nearby. Thanks to an enemy with no sense of honor, Major Vakoc suffered brain damage and broken bones in his face. He also lost his left eye. Since then, Father Tim has been in Washington 's Walter Reed Army Medical Center . There, on July 14, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman presented Father Tim with the Purple Heart. The wounded chaplain, who has been slipping in and out of a coma, awoke during the brief ceremony and grasped Coleman's hand. Or he could be from across the pond: Army investigator Captain Ken Masters hanged himself in his quarters in Iraq, it was revealed last night. Some Thoughts

Hillary Clinton once said that it takes a village to raise a child, metaphorically this is the basis on what society has evolved from. Everyone supporting each other even though we disagree upon the focal issue of the war being right or wrong. My own thoughts are that it took an Idiot to follow through with such an insane plan as to invade Mesopotamia from the start. It's equally blind to continue believing that freedom's on the march in Iraq and publicly stating time after time that we are winning and that the Iraqi people will embrace us as benevolent conquer as if he's Cesar leading his victorious legions through streets lined with rose petals. Personally I don't think that he's even qualified to be dog catcher. Support for the war is at an all time low with 55% saying that we should have stayed out and 64% saying that the war isn't worth the costs. 59% saying that we should leave as soon as possible according to this CBS poll taken on October 10th. And speaking of polls President George W. Bush's job approval rating has fallen to a new low of 39 percent in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday. In addition, with 13 months until the 2006 congressional elections, 48 percent say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 39 percent who want the Republicans to control Capitol Hill. In fact, that nine-point difference is the largest margin between the parties in the 11 years the NBC/Journal poll has been tracking this question. Is the Republican revolution losing momentum? That contrast encapsulates the uneven advance of Republican Party efforts to build a lasting conservative majority in U.S. politics. After a 2004 election that consolidated their hold on the White House and Congress, Republicans have suffered through a year of missteps and bad news -- such as this week's indictment of DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas -- that have stirred Democratic hopes of a revival. In some respects, the GOP appears close to establishing a lasting political edge -- not seen since the days of President McKinley more than a century ago -- with interlocking advantages that create formidable barriers to a Democratic resurgence. But approval ratings in polls for the GOP-controlled Congress and President Bush are similar to those for the Democratic-controlled Congress and President Clinton prior to the 1994 electoral landslide that put the GOP in charge of the House and Senate. "Clearly, the majority doesn't seem to be as stable as (Republicans) thought, but whether this is a blip and doesn't rearrange the fundamental structural foundations for a Republican edge is still to be answered," said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist at North Carolina State University and author of the new book "Elephant's Edge: The Republicans as a Ruling Party." Or do the long term trends favor the GOP? And regardless of which side of the isle who's going to win by these trends? and who's going to lose? Who's going to pay for it? And is it just going to effect the U.S.?

Posted by Whisker and formated by me.