Today in Iraq

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, September 26, 2006 Needlenose's "Caption contest, 9/25": The New York Times caption for this photo is, "In Baghdad, 'generator men' keep electricity flowing in the absence of a reliable Iraqi power system." Hereby submitted for your corrections and improvements. A spokesman for the political movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Wasit province said seven of its Mehdi Army militiamen were killed and 18 posted as missing, along with nine wounded, after an airstrike on the village of Sayafiya, west of Suwayra and 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad early on Tuesday. The spokesman, Hameed al-Zargani, said the Mehdi Army was engaged in a gunbattle with unidentified gunmen when bombs fell on the village. The U.S. military, the only force with such air power in Iraq, had no immediate comment. Two Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers died in a non-combat incident southwest of Baghdad at approximately 1:45 a.m. today. (MNF - Iraq) OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Two civilians were killed and 12 others wounded in two explosions near a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, a well-informed source said. "A car parked in the al-Rubaie Street in Zaiyouna neighborhood detonated near a passing police patrol at about 10:30 a.m. (0630 GMT)," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. "Minutes later, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S.-Iraqi unit which rushed to the scene after the first blast," the source said.

Three civilians were killed and 21 wounded, including 12 policemen, when a car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded in quick succession in eastern Zayouna district of Baghdad.

A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol while it was traveling on the Jamhouriyah Bridge in central Baghdad. The blast wounded one soldier. Two police officers trying to defuse a roadside bomb died in eastern Baghdad's Zayouna neighborhood. The explosion wounded nine police officers and six Iraqi soldiers. Five people were killed and 15 wounded when a suicide bomber riding a bicycle blew himself up in front of the Iraqi Communist Party headquarters in al-Andalus square in central Baghdad. Heart surgeon Razzaq Umran Ali was killed as he drove to Baghdad's Ibn al-Bitar hospital where he worked. He was shot by gunmen in Baghdad's Mansour district, police said. Nineteen bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in parts of eastern Baghdad. Police said Shi'ite militiamen had attacked a Sunni neighbourhood in southern Baghdad. Clashes ensued in which three people were killed and 10 wounded, and the withdrawing gunmen set three shops ablaze, police said.

In a rampage by suspected members of a Shiite militia, gunmen opened fire on civilians, killing three and wounding 10, in western Baghdad's predominately Sunni neighborhood of Amel, police said. The gunmen then set Sunni shops on fire in Bayaa, a nearby mixed area, police said.

Gunmen attacked the al-Kheyr Sunni mosque at the Khadra neighborhood in west Baghdad and three of the attackers were killed. Minister of Agriculture Ya'rob Nazem al-Abboudy survived an attempt on his life when two explosive devices targeting his convoy were detonated in the al-Doura district, resulting in no casualties. Diyala Prv: A roadside bomb blew up an ambulance rushing to the hospital killing the driver and the medic inside on the way to the provincial capital of Baquba. Gunmen attacked the convoy of a Baghdad district mayor traveling from the capital to Diyala, killing three bodyguards. Baqubah: Gunmen killed four men in two districts of Baquba.> A roadside bomb wounded two policemen in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. Muqdadiyah: A civilian died of wounds received in a bomb attack while six Iraqis, including two policemen, were injured in a gunfight with insurgents in Muqdadiyah. Mahmoudiya: Bombs struck an apartment building in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, killing at least seven civilians and wounding 11. Jorf al-Sakhr: Iraqi fighters destroyed a police station in a bold attack with mortars and a car bomb, the prime minister's office said. The assault was launched with the detonation of a booby-trapped car near the police post in Jorf al-Sakhr, 60 kilometers south of Baghdad. The explosion and a subsequent mortar barrage killed three officers and injured several more, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement. Latifiyah: A roadside bomb went off next to a truck belonging to the finance ministry and killed one man and wounded five others in Latifiyah. Suwayra: Police found the decapitated heads of five people in the town of Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad. Mosul: Clashes erupted between gunmen and police, killing a civilian and wounding three policemen in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Kirkuk: A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding three others. A car bomb near a fuel station killed a man and wounded six others in Kirkuk. The target of the explosion was not clear. A car bomb near a church targeting a police patrol wounded a policeman in Kirkuk. Dinwaniya: The body of an Iraqi soldier was found riddled with bullets in the city of Diwaniya, 180 km (115 miles) south of Baghdad. Kut: Police found the corpses of 12 people, bound and shot dead, during the last 24 hours in Mahmudiya. >> NEWS The strain on the Army from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has become so great that top officials are now privately saying the only long-term solution may be to make the overall size of the Army bigger, adding as many as 60,000 troops, ABC News has learned. Bush charged that it was "naive" and "a mistake" to think that the Iraq war fueled global terrorism, rejecting the reported conclusions of US spy agencies. "My judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse," he said during a joint public appearance with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai after talks at the White House. terattack, Bush said he would make public parts of a secret US intelligence report tying Iraq and terrorism and blasted weekend news accounts of the assessment as politically motivated leaks. "Once again there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign in order to create confusion in the minds of the American people," he fumed, referring to November legislative elections. Sunday, major US newspapers said that the secret report -- a summary of the consensus view of the 16 US intelligence agencies -- was that the war in Iraq was stoking extremism in the Muslim world. The accounts, citing US officials familiar with the National Intelligence Estimate, appeared to contradict Bush's campaign refrain that the US-led March 2003 invasion of Iraq has made the United States safer from terrorism. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS THE CIVIL WAR I was one of few Iraqi journalists who had the chance to cover the war of 2003, with tens of foreign journalists who came from all over the world to do the same thing and report about " The Shock And Awe" as it was used to be called,then turned to be " The Liberation War." Part of the conversations, I used to have with some of the foreign journalists about the future of Iraq after the war, they used to tell me that soon the US forces would sweep to Baghdad and occupied it, for me, my mind had always denied the idea of Iraq would be defeated though the showdown was very tough, I love Iraq, it is my country, I have always wanted it to be the best in the world, so, I was always in quarrel with one of the foreign journalists who used to listen to BBC Radio and came to me, " The US forces are 500 Km far of Baghdad and they are progressing." I answered him, " These are your dreams so that you can write more stories, we will keep fighting till the last drop of blood we have for the sake of our dear Baghdad." The journalist told me, "look, I will tell you what will happen and it is up to you to believe or not, the US forces will occupy Iraq soon, than you will have a governmental council, followed by elections, constitution in which Iraq will be divided to federalisms, death squads will be formed by Iraqi opponents militias who were outside of Iraq and trained by special US teams to kill Iraqis who resist the occupation, doctors, professors, senior officers, the elite of the Iraqis, then the country will slip to a civil a war between Sunni and Shiite which will last for years." "This is the scenario that is drawn to Iraq, if you do not know." I asked him how did he know that, he said "Some CIA leaked reports ." read in full... BILLMON: JUST LIKE A COMMA BLITZER: Let's move on and talk a little bit about Iraq . . . We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating. BUSH: Yes, you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people . . . I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy. (via the Carpetbagger Report)

Hey, you, get off of my cloud Hey, you, get off of my cloud Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd On my cloud, baby. The Rolling Stones Get Off of My Cloud 1965

link REPORT'S STARTLING CONCLUSION: BOMBING PEOPLE REALLY PISSES THEM OFF Whew! I'm glad that's been cleared up. I'm talking about the "consensus view of the 16 disparate [American] spy services" as provided in the recently-disclosed National Intelligence Estimate [NIE], a classified U.S. government assessment compiled in April "that concluded the [Iraq] war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks" (per Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler, 09/24/06). (...) But, believe it or not -- and I'm not saying I possess some sort of prophetic powers here, you unnerstand; I'm just sayin' -- I'd actually kind of guessed that the attack-Iraq, get-more-violence thing just might turn out to be the case. A while back, too, it was, around late 2002 and early 2003, at a time when I and several million of my closest friends around the globe took to the streets repeatedly to loudly proclaim, among other things, that an illegal, immoral and unprovoked attack on a pipsqueak nation like Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11 -- after all, you'd need to look inside for the perpetrators of that heinous crime and I ain't talkin' about navel gazing -- would, indeed, foment at least slight resentment against the United States and possibly prompt otherwise peace-loving individuals to want to exact revenge on those who killed their families, destroyed their homes, occupied their country and looted their resources for no good reason. read in full... THE DIMINISHED DIVIDENDS OF WAR With the US intelligence community agreed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made the United States less safe from terrorist threats, President George W Bush appears to be facing a growing revolt among top military commanders who say their ground forces are stretched close to breaking point. According to Monday's Los Angeles Times, the US Army's top officer, General Peter Schoomaker, has called for a nearly 50% increase in spending, to nearly US$140 billion, in 2008 to cope with the situation in Iraq and maintain minimal readiness for emergencies. To convey his seriousness, Schoomaker reportedly withheld the army's scheduled budget request last month in what the Times called an "unprecedented ... protest" against previous rejections by the White House of funding increases. And this week, several retired senior military leaders told Senate Democrats that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should go, arguing that he had mishandled the war in Iraq. The former soldiers claimed that Rumsfeld had ignored advice for more troops, failed to make a post-invasion plan or equip troops properly, and hid information from the public. The news of Schoomaker's action, which is almost certain to intensify the debate over what to do in Iraq just seven weeks before the November 7 mid-term congressional elections, comes just days after the New York Times reported that the army was considering activating substantially more National Guard troops or reservists. Such a decision, which would run counter to previous Bush administration pledges to limit overseas deployments for the Guard, would pose serious political risks for the Republicans if it were made before the elections. read in full... THANK A MARINE? I saw this on a bumper sticker this morning: "If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can read in English, thank a Marine." A greater piece of military propaganda has never been written. It is those in Iraq who have a Marine to thank. They can thank a Marine that their leg was blown off. They can thank a Marine that their family was killed. They can thank a Marine for destroying their country. They can thank a Marine for making life more dangerous than it was under Saddam Hussein. link >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: An Italian soldier was killed along with a young Afghan child in a roadside bomb attack near Kabul. Five other Italian soldiers were injured - two seriously - in the remote-control blast which took place at 8.00 a.m. local time some 10 kilometres to the south of Kabul. Military sources said the soldiers were part of a three-vehicle convoy which was on patrol duty. The child who was killed was reported to have been in a car travelling behind the convoy. A suicide blast has ripped through a crowded southern Afghan town, killing 18 people. The suicide attacker blew himself up at a security post near a mosque in Lashkar Gah, capital of troubled Helmand province, where hundreds of people had gathered to decide who would go on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca later this year. A convoy of US-led coalition troops narrowly escaped a suicide blast near the eastern town of Khost when the would-be bomber exploded before reaching his target, the US-led coalition said. A US military base in Khust province was targeted by rockets, Al jazeera said. WHY BUSH WILL NUKE IRAN The neoconservative Bush administration will attack Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, because it is the only way the neocons believe they can rescue their goal of US (and Israeli) hegemony in the Middle East. The US has lost the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Generals in both war theaters are stating their need for more troops. But there are no troops to send. Bush has tried to pawn Afghanistan off on NATO, but Europe does not see any point in sacrificing its blood and money for the sake of American hegemony. The NATO troops in Afghanistan are experiencing substantial casualties from a revived Taliban, and European governments are not enthralled over providing cannon fodder for US hegemony. The "coalition of the willing" has evaporated. Indeed, it never existed. Bush's "coalition" was assembled with bribes, threats, and intimidation. Pervez Musharraf, the American puppet ruler of Pakistan, let the cat out of the bag when he told CBS "60 Minutes" on September 24, 2006, that Pakistan had no choice about joining the "coalition." Brute coercion was applied. Musharraf said Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Pakistani intelligence director that "you are with us" or "be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age." (...) Bush's defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel's defeat by Hezbollah in Lebanon have shown that the military firepower of the US and Israeli armies, though effective against massed Arab armies, cannot defeat guerillas and insurgencies. The US has battled in Iraq longer than it fought against Nazi Germany, and the situation in Iraq is out of control. The Taliban have regained half of Afghanistan. The King of Saudi Arabia has told Bush that the ground is shaking under his feet as unrest over the American/Israeli violence against Muslims builds to dangerous levels. Our Egyptian puppet sits atop 100 million Muslims who do not think that Egypt should be a lackey of US hegemony. The King of Jordan understands that Israeli policy is to drive every Palestinian into Jordan. Bush is incapable of recognizing his mistake. He can only escalate. Plans have long been made to attack Iran. The problem is that Iran can respond in effective ways to a conventional attack. Moreover, an American attack on another Muslim country could result in turmoil and rebellion throughout the Middle East. This is why the neocons have changed US war doctrine to permit a nuclear strike on Iran. Neocons believe that a nuclear attack on Iran would have intimidating force throughout the Middle East and beyond. Iran would not dare retaliate, neocons believe, against US ships, US troops in Iraq, or use their missiles against oil facilities in the Middle East. Neocons have also concluded that a US nuclear strike on Iran would show the entire Muslim world that it is useless to resist America's will. Neocons say that even the most fanatical terrorists would realize the hopelessness of resisting US hegemony. The vast multitude of Muslims would realize that they have no recourse but to accept their fate. Revised US war doctrine concludes that tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons cause relatively little "collateral damage" or civilian deaths, while achieving a powerful intimidating effect on the enemy. The "fear factor" disheartens the enemy and shortens the conflict. read in full... THERE ARE NO "ISLAMIC TERRORISTS" IN THE MIDDLE EAST Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist. The IRA were terrorists. Baader-Meinhoff were terrorists. (...) What the USA and its Western democratic counterparts actually fight today are religiously devout men and women, righteous ten-commandment-keeping people according to our own moral and religious codes - from Osama bin Laden down to the last innocent Palestinian killed simply for living in Gaza. It is not, in the least, hyperbole to say that the Fundamentalist Muslims fighting us today are sacrificing their lives for their brothers and sisters; they are heroically defending their homelands, their cultures, and their religion, from the corruption, crime, and decadence intrinsic to Western capitalism as we know it. They are people just like you and I. They are fighting the international tyranny of "We the People" who did not bother to follow what our governments and corporations have done to "third-world" nations in order to turn a profit. Those of us who are supposed to run our government and corporations, but who, in fact, were too lazy to care what government did on behalf of the corporate mentality. Our Politicians and media personalities can call Fundamentalist Muslims "terrorists" or "Islamic fascists" until their faces turn blue... But that does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims are defending their homelands, culture, and religion, using strategies already employed and legitimized by Western Civilization itself over Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hanoi, and many other "battlefields", where the homes and businesses of innocent civilians were also considered military targets. It does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims do not fear death because, unlike most of "Western Civilization", they don't just mouth the words, but really believe they are rightfully fighting for God and the survival of their culture and religion. It does not change the fact that Western Civilization's continuing worldwide oppression of Muslims will result in the collapse of democracy everywhere, because democracy is a system based on government by the people, not the wealthy elite... A system, in the USA at least, founded on the fundamental truth of the equality of all before God. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "What makes Bush original is that he is the first purely synthetic president we've ever had. There's not a trace of the real man left. He is a mixture of mythic cowboy legend and the Old Testament "fire-n-brimstone" preacher-man, a John Brown-Ronald Reagan hybrid. The draft-dodging, hard-guzzling, cheerleading, business-flop has been transformed into a sanctimonious, war-mongering American Samurai resolving the world's problems with just two 'common sense' solutions; war and tax cuts. In Republican parlance, that makes him a 'man of vision'." -- from "President Hologram and the Triumph of Public Relations" by Mike Whitney