150 hostages and 19 deaths leave US claims of Iraqi 'peace' in tatters

[seemslikeadream]

By Patrick Cockburn in Mosul

...


Ironically, one reason why Washington can persuade the outside world that its venture in Iraq is finally coming right is that it is too dangerous for reporters to travel outside Baghdad or stray far from their hotels in the capital. The threat to all foreigners was underlined last week when an American contractor was snatched by kidnappers.

When I was travelling in the northern city of Mosul this week, my guards ­ Kurdish members of the Iraqi National Guard ­ said it was too dangerous for them to travel with me in uniform in official vehicles. They donned Arab gowns, hid their weapons and drove through the city in a civilian car.

Most violent incidents in Iraq go unreported. We saw one suicide bomb explosion, clouds of smoke and dust erupting into the air, and heard another in the space of an hour. Neither was mentioned in official reports. Last year US soldiers told the IoS that they do not tell their superiors about attacks on them unless they suffer casualties. This avoids bureaucratic hassle and "our generals want to hear about the number of attacks going down not up". This makes the official Pentagon claim that the number of insurgent attacks is down from 140 a day in January to 40 a day this month dubious.

US casualties have fallen to about one dead a day in March compared with four a day in January and five a day in November. But this is the result of a switch in American strategy rather than a sign of a collapse in the insurgency. US military spokesmen make plain that America's military priority has changed from offensive operations to training Iraqi troops and police. More than 2,000 US military advisers are working with Iraqi forces.
more
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=630712

[cry baby]

1. Once again, we get the truth from a foreign source. nt

[yorkiemommie1]

13. ah yes....

...but some folks doubt the foreign sources because ' they make us look bad '.

The U.S. is building 14 permanent bases in Iraq, and we have been told that we will be there for years.... but let's keep the happytalk coming from the corporate media, shall we?

< sarcasm off >

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bemildred]

3. We hope to bring the troops home.

What do you hope for?

[Goldeneye]

10. hmmmm...

sodak99 (22 posts) Mon Apr-18-05 08:14 AM
Response to Original message
1. GAS. CNN was talking about how Americans have a love/hate
relationship with the price of gas. They want use cut, but then go ballistic when the price rises and blame Bush.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3497011#3497022

[Cooley Hurd]

11. ...and that's just ONE stinky post.

There's more...;)

[Goldeneye]

12. You're right about that

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3496995&mesg_id=3497004&page=

I like you're sigline by the way.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

17. LOL, found that post on a search...

laughed when I saw it...poor boosh. MKJ

[seemslikeadream]

4. Are you referring to me?

C-Span to Cover 9/11 Truth Talk at UW-Madison Monday!

C-Span will challenge the official version of the 9/11 "terrorist attacks" with a nationwide delayed broadcast of a talk by David Ray Griffin at U.W.-Madison Monday 4/18/05, 7:30 p.m., in 272 Bascom Hall. The public is invited to attend, and admission is free.

http://milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/203182.shtml

[TheFarseer]

5. I don't want to be lied to

just so I can feel good about myself. thanks That's the bush approach: to solve the problem by saying there isn't a problem.

[Shadder]

7. The "best"?

And what exactly would the "best" be in your opinion?

[bear425]

8. I don't believe ANY of us wish to see American soldiers killed

Or Iraqis, for that matter. Where do see that in this post? We just want our troops home with their families safely and quickly.

And frankly, they never should have been there in the first place.

P.S. I'm just as interested to read this type of article as I am to read an article with more hopeful news (as long as it's true and not spin propaganda)

Thinking people don't put their heads in the sand.

[stellanoir]

9. Hoping for the best is fine

but a situation will never improve without scrutiny and examination of the reality of the situation. No one would "love to see another few thousand American soldiers killed."

Many of us would love to see the truth and know what's really being done to ameliorate the dire and dangerous conditions for both the soldiers and the Iraqi people.

[Doctor_J]

14. Being pissed about being told lies is not the same as

"love to see more Americans killed".

Sodak, you're not going to last very long here posting Hannity/WH talking points.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

15. Speaking as an Army vet, married to an Army vet and with

two friends in Iraq....hoping for the best is all well and good, however, our soldiers are LIVING with the reality of daily attacks and recognizing how our illegal war has put the Iraqis in a lose/lose situation.

The Iraqis don't want to be occupied by Americans, and are essentially living under martial law. However, if we leave the country has great potential to descend into civil war fueled by centuries of tribal warfare.

The situation today is the result of gwb's lying, greed, poor planning, arrogance and, again, greed. Our soldiers are being used as pawns, and it sickens me. MKJ

[Lerkfish]

16. Seems you would want to know the true situation, then, right?

Or would you rather be lied to about the relative risk/safety of your friends and relatives?

The odd thing is, Bushites pretend to care about the troops, but want them to continue being blown up for no reason. While the rest of us want the troops home to keep them safe, and we're accused of wanting them killed?

a logical republican is an oxymoron.

[cry baby]

18. What the hell? I've NEVER seen a post that anyone hoped for

more american soldiers being killed. There are lots of military families here. Show some respect, please.

Getting "tired"? Take a rest.

edited to say: BUH-BYE

[Bridget Burke]

19. We'd hoped to see NO American soldiers killed.

Aren't you proud that YOUR president has caused all this useless death & destruction?

[Doctor_J]

6. Shhh!

The WH/MSM axis don't want anyone to hear this! Why do you hate America? Put down the seditious crap and read the love letter to Andy Coulter in TIME.

:puke:

[CoffeeCat]

20. We need some damn cameras in there...

I have no idea who or how--but the violence, destruction and failures in Iraq need to be documented. American's need the truth. Obviously, we're being spoon-fed pie-in-the-sky crap spun into pretty stories about Iraqis voting.

Oh yeah, and the violence is dying down. I heard that at least five times last week, from the MSM.

I'm so tired of the lies. I'm so tired of our government perpetrating violence in my name--using my hard-earned dollars.

I'm just so fucking fed up with all of this.

The only way out of this is for the Iraqis to start blogging and telling the truth. They're the ones inside the country, and somewhat immune from being kidnapped. They've got to start filming, taking pictures, blogging and telling anyone who will listen.

[gratuitous]

21. Oh sure! Iraq is safe and getting safer

Reminds me of that scene from "The Jerk" where Steve Martin is working the carnival and telling about the prizes available if you Fool The Guesser. "Any of these great prizes! Okay, nothing on the top shelf. And nothing on the right side of this thing . . ." He keeps excluding prize shelving until he's down to a pencil eraser or some such tchotchke.

"Iraq is sooooo safe! Okay, except for this top part of the country. And everything to the west of this city. Okay, it's not too safe down around here. And I wouldn't go to this part of the country without a large, armed escort." The "safe" parts keep getting trimmed down and down until you're talking about the walk from a reporter's bed to the honor bar in his Green Zone hotel room. And even then you might not want to linger in front of the window for too long.

[cliss]

22. OK, let's do some math.

We were in VietNam for 10 years. We lost 55,000 soldiers. If we divide by 10, we get 5,500 casualties per year. On an average, this works out to 15 soldiers dead per day.

Now let's look at Iraq. We've been there 2 years. We've lost 1,576 soldiers. This works out to 788 per year, or 2.15 deaths per day on average.

What's wrong with the picture here? We're involved in a guerrilla war (VietNam was too). This is a war of attrition: it will slowly drain the US of money & troops. There are a lot of similarities which have already been pointed out.

If my math is correct, we should in fact have had over 10,000 dead by now. Lying by the Pentagon?

[Massachusetts]

23. Support OUR Troops!