President Says Progress Being Made in Iraq

[mom cat]

President Says Progress Being Made in Iraq

By Deb Riechmann Associated Press Writer


Published: Aug 23, 2004

By Deb Riechmann Associated Press Writer


CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush, who faces a tough re-election ballot in just 10 weeks, portrayed the ongoing occupation of Iraq in optimistic terms Monday even as the U.S. death toll nears 1,000.
"We're making progress on the ground," Bush said about Iraq, where Marines are engaged in fierce battles with followers of a radical cleric holed up in the holy city of Najaf.

Bush spoke at his Texas ranch after spending more than three hours mapping defense strategy with his top national security advisers.

"We talked about Iraq - the way forward in Iraq, the way to help the Iraqis get to elections" by January, Bush said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB7GPO39YD.html

[Ghetto_Boy]

1. Oh YES the now have parking meters in Bagdad!! Now that is progress!

[renegade000]

20. lol

fifty cents an hour to park your burned out shell of a car here.

[JuniperLea]

2. oh sure

he also said 'mission accomplished'.

keep saying it until they believe it. i think the iraqi olympian atheletes said it best... paraphrasing here...

these are the worst of times.

[Dancing_Dave]

3. Oh yeah, there's lots of progress

Read all about it:

http://www.iht.com/articles/534962.html

[actappan]

4. Only If Progress means . . .

. . . more stuff has been "blowed up"
. . . more terrorists to scare the old folks with.
. . . more military spending to help his friends.
. . . higher oil prices to, again, help his friends.

[bookman]

5. Peace is just around the corner. n/t

[CrispyQ]

6. Then he's not reading what I'm reading . . .

Fables of the Reconstruction:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040830&s=parenti



Opps, I forgot, his reading level is about 1st grade. Too many big words in this article for Dimson.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. This from Salon - Al-Sadr Winning Battle of Najaf

Al-Sadr Winning Battle of Najaf

Iraqi government claims that police had arrested hundreds of the radical cleric's fighters and taken over his headquarters in Najaf could have come from Saddam's Comical Ali.

Editor's note: The Observer, the Sunday newspaper associated with The Guardian, published this story.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Luke Harding



Aug. 23, 2004 | Najaf -- Asked how the battle was going, Commander Abu Mohammad Hilu showed off his latest trophy - a blood-drenched American boot. There was a large bullet hole in the middle. "We found it after last night's battle," the commander explained. His colleague, Abu Ali, added: "Originally there was an American foot inside it and a bit of the leg. But we took it out and threw it to the dogs." But the most tangible evidence of the Mahdi army's extraordinary self-confidence yesterday, however, came too close for comfort half an hour earlier. We had been driving through the high street in Kufa, another stronghold of the Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr, some three kilometres from the shrine where he and his supporters are still holed up.

We stopped to inspect a building - this was a mistake. Mahdi army soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs spotted us, then targeted us. In a convoy of two cars, with guns pointing and pushing at us, we were taken to Kufa's mosque.

Ten minutes later The Observer's Iraqi fixer got us released after phoning a high-ranking Sadr aide.

The aggression disappeared, the fighters turned profusely apologetic. More than two weeks after launching their uprising in Najaf, the Mahdi army was - despite reports to the contrary - still in control of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine - and much of the rest of Iraq. Yesterday fighting carried on.

In pre-dawn darkness, American tanks and Humvees also staged a raid on Kufa, trundling down the high street and past the library. Commander Hilu and his men were waiting.

"The Americans went as far as the mosque then got out," the commander said, having escorted me back to the scene of what, he suggested, was a heroic victory.

"It was an ambush. All of a sudden we started shooting them. They were surprised. We destroyed two of their tanks."

Hilu showed off the newly incinerated Kufa court building just across the road. Here, he said, US troops had taken refuge under fire. Crunching over the melted remains of ceiling fans, he pointed to a small annexe room soaked in blood.

"They treated their wounded in here. They were firing in the air at the same time. That's a piece of American brain," he added helpfully. "We found the boot nearby."

Over the past 17 days the standoff between Sadr's Shia militia and Iraq's US-backed interim government has been portrayed as a conflict that the renegade cleric will eventually lose. In fact, he is winning.

More

http://www.salon.com

[acmavm]

8. I think he meant to say 'progressively worse'. But that was two too many

syllables for his brain to retain.

[ixion]

9. yes, how is that 'calkwalk' coming... you know, the 3 month

in and out that we started over a year ago. :eyes:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Cut him some slack.

Due to the incredible volume of tossed flowers clogging up the transportation corridors, it's remarkable that we're making the progress that we are.


Edited to make sense.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. "Light at the end of the tunnel"

Deja vu all over again. Happy talk (and lies galore) from the pols, body counts (spurious) from the generals\colonels. Meanwhile, the working class (Iraqi Mahdi brigade and U.S. enlisted) is getting reamed.

Ask yourself this: why aren't we hearing of any U.S. casualties in Najaf? The U.S. Military claims to kill 100s of Mahdi Army fighters, but not a single reported U.S. casualty??? Give me a break.

[dweller]

11. yeah that's progress

one slain soldier at a time.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x771803

:grr:

dp

[Disturbed]

12. "Light at the end of the tunnel"

The "Light at the end of the tunnel" is a match held by an Iraqi, ready to light the fuse on a pile of dynamite.

[fsbooks]

13. One can tell by the increasing slope of this graph in recent days

From pollkatz, of course:

[nolabels]

14. Heres another daily progress report

Tuesday August 24, 2:52 AM
US planes bomb Najaf, peace hopes fade

US planes pounded Najaf's cemetery and historic centre near the Imam Ali shrine, dimming hopes of a peaceful end to a near three-week stand-off between US-led Iraqi forces and Shiite militia.

While American journalist Micah Garen was recuperating after an eight-day hostage ordeal in southern Iraq, fears were growing for one Italian and two French journalists, who have been missing for three days.

Dense black smoke spewed into the sky above the vast Valley of Peace burial ground after a deafening explosion. A second blast was heard in the early afternoon as a US plane flew overhead.

Another two raids targeted the Old City, as heavy gun and mortar fire crashed through the ravaged streets around the city's revered shrine after nightfall and planes continued to hover overhead, an AFP correspondent
(snip)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040823/1/3mmf5.html
http://www.antiwar.com/

Looks like progress to me too :crazy:

[MichiganVote]

16. Wow. How stupid is this guy?

[gratuitous]

17. Well, it was two deaths a day, now it's three KIA daily

Although I'd hardly call that "progress," it is certainly a larger number.

[struggle4progress]

18. Govt urges citizens to leave Iraq

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government urged Indonesian citizens in Iraq on Tuesday to leave the war-torn country, following the killing of Fahmi Akhmad Wani in an ambush by Iraqi resistance fighters in Mosul, Northern Iraq last Sunday.

Currently, there are seven Indonesian students studying in Iraq, who refused to leave the war-torn country despite the increasing security threats.

The government underlined that the incident confirmed that the situation in Iraq remained dangerous.

"Given the current security conditions, we once again urge Indonesians to avoid traveling to Iraq, including accepting work contracts in Iraq," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.
<snip>

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20040825.C07&irec=6


Philippines defends ban on worker deployment to Iraq

MANILA, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine presidential palace Tuesday appealed for understanding and cooperation on the government's stand to ban the deployment of Oversea Filipino Workers (OFW) to Iraq, saying it is "in the best public interest."
<snip>

"The tragedy that befell a Filipino engineer is clear proof of the threat that still lurks in danger zones," he added.

Filipino Engineer Danilo Pacia was wounded when Iraqi rebels opened fire with automatic rifles Sunday on a car transporting himand three others to their work site in Mosul City in northern Iraqto install a mobile telephone network, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday. The two Iraqis and an Indonesian were killed in the ambush.
<snip>

The German conglomerate had pulled out its German employees on May 26 owing to the increasing violence, but left foreign workers including Filipino engineers to continue the rebuilding projects in northern Iraq.
<snip>
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-08/24/content_1873168.htm


13 Nepalese Workers Kidnapped In Iraq

Kathmandu, August 24 (NNN): Nepal has confirmed that 13 Nepalese workers have been taken hostage in the troubled Gulf nation of Iraq.

The minister of state for foreign affairs, Prakash Sharan Mahat, said that the government was trying to secure their release. Nepal's mission in Saudi Arabia had confirmed the abductions, he said.

Pictures of the men have appeared on the website of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna militant group. It says they were captured on August 19 or 20.

Mahat said the government had appealed to the kidnappers through the Al-Jazeera television network in the Middle East.
<snip>

http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=082304095428


Iraq Aid Convoy Attacked on Way to Najaf, Two Dead
Tue Aug 24, 2004 03:59 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents attacked a truck and an ambulance taking aid to the besieged Iraqi city of Najaf on Tuesday, killing two people and setting the vehicles on fire, a Reuters witness said.
Cameraman Alaa Saad said from the scene that the vehicles were attacked near Latifiya south of Baghdad. He saw two bodies inside the ambulance.

A religious official coordinating aid for Najaf said a truck and an ambulance taking supplies from Baghdad to the southern city had been attacked but had no further details.

Fighting between U.S. forces and Shi'ite militiamen has raged in Najaf for three weeks, killing hundreds, putting a severe strain on hospitals and medical services.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6052470


Group abducts Italian in Iraq-TV
Tue 24 August, 2004 15:30

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Islamist group said it has abducted an Italian in Iraq and gave Rome 48 hours to announce it was pulling its troops out of the country, saying otherwise the hostage would be in danger, Al Jazeera television has reported.

The Arab satellite television said on Tuesday it had received a statement from the group and a videotape of the hostage identifying himself and saying he was a 56-year-old Italian journalist. The tape also showed the man's passport.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=570726§ion=news


Published on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 by the Lincoln Journal Star (Nebraska)
Bereuter: War in Iraq Not Justified
by Don Walton

In a dramatic departure from the Bush administration, Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter says he now believes the U.S. military assault on Iraq was unjustified.

"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," Bereuter
<snip>
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0818-04.htm


<edit:format>

[David Zephyr]

19. Turned the Corner.

n/t

[Geo55]

24. Nooo...not THAT corner .....THIS corner n/t

[truth2power]

21. Progress??

Where is the video, you lying sack of shit????

If I believed in such things....Bush is surely the Anti-Christ!!

[NastyRiffraff]

22. "We're making progress on the ground,"

Just who is "we"? Not the pretend flyboy sitting in the office eating pretzels.

But Dear Leader says progress is being made. All must agree. ::snort::

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

23. Some additional brilliant observations from our CIC...

>snip
Bush has been watching the Olympics on television. He split his favorite parts of the Summer Games into two parts: foreign and domestic.

"I liked the - let's see - Iraqi soccer," Bush said. "I liked seeing the Afghan woman carrying the flag coming in.

"I loved our gymnasts. I have been watching the swimming. I have seen a lot."

>snip

Pure inspiration...MKJ