Sunday, January 08, 2006
War News for Sunday, January 08, 2006
Bring ‘em on: Three US Marines killed today by small arms attacks in Fallujah. Two US Marines killed yesterday by roadside bombs in separate incidents. One blast occurred about 50 miles west of
Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi soldiers and two civilians wounded in southeast
Bring ‘em on: Two security officials killed and five wounded in suicide car bombing in southern
Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman was killed and 13 wounded during clashes with gunmen in the Adil district of the capital.
Bring ‘em on: A gunman died after he crashed his car following an exchange of fire with
Bring ‘em on: Two suspects were detained for questioning in connection with bomb attacks against the Iraqi army and U.S. forces on Saturday southwest of Baiji.
Bring ‘em on: Two civilians were killed and two wounded when gunmen opened fire from their car at a crowd in
Bring ‘em on: Gunmen shot dead a former senior Baath party member who was also a colonel in the dissolved Iraqi army in Hilla.
Helicopter crash: Twelve people killed in crash of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter about seven miles east of Tal Afar. Cause of crash not reported.
The rare bit of good news: Kidnapped French engineer freed near
Sarcasm fails me: A
"Desperate people are dangerous people", said Lt-Col Barry Johnson. "The common people of
These Shiites don’t seem to appreciate their freshly embedded democratic process: Thousands of angry Shiites today rallied in
In the meantime, we’re winning Sunni hearts and minds too: U.S. troops, some in helicopters, launched a pre-dawn raid on Sunday on the headquarters of the influential Sunni Arab Muslim Clerics' Association and detained six people in what they said was an anti-terrorist operation.
An association spokesman slammed the raid as a "crime" to punish his group for its stand towards the U.S.-led occupation.
Witnesses said American soldiers slid down ropes from helicopters as troops on the ground simultaneously burst into the Umm al-Qora mosque complex in western
Reuters Television footage showed spent shotgun shells and special explosive charges used to blow out door locks lying on the ground. Many office doors showed signs of forced entry.
In one room, cupboards used to store the shoes of those attending prayers had what appeared to be Christian crosses scrawled on them. Other footage showed papers strewn on office floors and windows smashed.
Pampered terrorists: Iraqis buried their dead on Friday following a day of bloodshed that left some Shiites calling for a backlash against the Sunni Arab militants they blame for a suicide bombing in holy city, Kerbala.
Senior Shiite religious and political leaders urged restraint, telling followers to place their faith in the next government, slowly emerging from the December 15 election and set to be dominated by Shiite Islamists.
But some clerics used the Muslim holy day to condemn the killers from the pulpit. In
Fortunately a solution is just around the corner:
The Brits aren’t waiting to see how it all works out: Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, has reiterated the British prime minister's promise of troop withdrawal from
Return of the
When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said "we really didn't see the insurgency coming," the network said in a news release.
Asked if he believes he did everything he could do in
This whole ‘take the war to the terrorists’ thing doesn’t seem to be working out too well, does it?: Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the nerve centre of global terrorism by militant groups whose ability to regenerate, despite setbacks, means that suicide bombings and other mass-casualty attacks remain a serious danger in 2006, analysts say.
Three major developments are likely to define the security landscape this year, Singapore-based terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna told a forum organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) last week.
Commentary
Frank Rich: If the Bush administration did indeed eavesdrop on American journalists and political opponents (Ms. Amanpour's husband, Jamie Rubin, was a foreign policy adviser to the Kerry campaign), it's déjà Watergate all over again. But even now we can see that there's another, simpler - and distinctlyBushian - motive at play here, hiding in plain sight.
That motive is not, as many liberals would have it, a simple ideological crusade to gut the Bill of Rights. Real conservatives, after all, are opposed to Big Brother; even the staunch Bush ally Grover Norquist has criticized the N.S.A.'s overreaching. The highest priority for the Karl Rove-driven presidency is instead to preserve its own power at all costs. With this gang, political victory and the propaganda needed to secure it always trump principles, even conservative principles, let alone the truth. Whenever the White House most vociferously attacks the press, you can be sure its No. 1 motive is to deflect attention from embarrassing revelationsabout its incompetence and failures.
That's why Paul Wolfowitz, in a 2004 remark for which he later apologized, dismissed reporting on the raging insurgency in
Such is the blame-shifting game Mr. Cheney was up to last week. By dragging 9/11 into his defense of possibly unconstitutional bugging, he was hoping to rewrite history to absolve the White House of its bungling. And no wonder. He knows all too well that the timing of Mr. Bush's signing of the secret executive order to initiate the desperate tactic of warrant-free N.S.A. eavesdropping - early 2002, according to Mr. Risen's new book, "State of War" - is nothing if not a giant arrow pointing to one of the administration's most catastrophic failures. It was only weeks earlier, in December 2001, that we had our best crack at nailing Osama bin Laden in ToraBora and blew it.
Mike Hendricks: It has always been a mystery to me that those who so vehemently oppose abortion are often the same people who support sending our young people into harm's way to fight and die in wars we ought not be involved in.
I'm not a peacenik nor a pacifist. I've been in a few fights of my own. After 9/11, I wrote a column urging that we do whatever was necessary to fight and win the war on terrorism. When our interests are directly threatened or when we are attacked, as in World War II and on 9/11, we must defend ourselves and if we're going to defend ourselves, the objective should always be to win.
But
He's absolutely right.
Casualty Reports
Wounded: Sgt. Matt Gibson
Wounded: Spc. Adam Brown
Killed: Lt. Col. Michael McLaughlin
Killed: Marine Cpl. Albert P. Gettings
Killed: Sgt. Johnny J. Peralez Jr.
Killed: Capt. Christopher P. Petty
Killed: Maj. William F. Hecker III
Killed: Sgt. 1st Class Stephen J. White
Killed: Pvt. Robbie M. Mariano
Killed: Sgt. Cheyenne Willey
Killed: Sgt. Regina Reali
Wounded: Spc. Rick J. McClary
Wounded: Spc. Braxton B. McCoy
Killed: Marine Sgt. Adam Cann
Wounded: Marine Cpl. Travis Greene