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| 5/24 |
| 2006/3/27-29 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:42459 Activity:low |
3/27 Right, things are SOOOOO stable in Iraq right now -- it's so obviously
*all* the media's fault:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/27/iraq.main/index.html
\_ The first thing you need to understand is why this is not civil war.
The helpful editors at exile.ru have spelled out exactly why this
is not civil war. Please take note.
http://www.exile.ru/2006-March-24/the_civil_war_debate.html
\_ Unbelieveable! He's setting up the strawman and attacking it again!
\_ Riiiight, 30 dead in a suicide bomb, 16 dead execution style,
(in one weekend!) and that's just a strawman... Uh huh. Your
worldview is tweaked, man.
\_ He was refering to the comment, not the article, moron.
\_ Uhm, yes -- I thought that was pretty obvious, but thanks
for sharing Ad Hominem Troll!
\_ The levels of violence are the same pre-Shiite mosque attack and
post. Iraqi politicians have looked into the abyss and didn't like
what they saw. Nothing to see. Move along now.
\_ Wow. Unfounded claims abound!
\_ It must be true if Gen. Casey, Rummy, and Dubya say so, duh!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/07/rumsfeld.iraq
\_ So look at the rhetoric. This is getting scary. Rummy's
clearly saying that the free press is providing aid to the
terrorists. How long before we start getting laws that
restrict _all_ actions that "further the cause of terror"?
Of course no one will think that applies to the press... at
first. All it'll take is one more large attack.
\_ A thousand points of light! Not at this junct-ure ... Not gonna
do it! A thousand points of light!
\_ break up with her, man. she won't worth it. |
| 5/24 |
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| www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/27/iraq.main/index.html BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 30 people were killed and more than 30 wounded Monday by a suicide bomber outside a northern Iraq recruitment center for security forces, the US military said. However, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense said 40 people died in the blast. It's unclear who might have suffered casualties, but a US military spokesman said no Americans were injured. The bomber detonated a belt packed with explosives, according to Duraid Kashmola, governor of Nineveh province. The attacker walked up to a line of recruits at Kisik Base between Tal Afar and Mosul, a base employee said. Watch footage from the suicide blast's aftermath -- 2:31) In Baghdad, gunmen dressed like Iraqi police commandos kidnapped 16 employees of a trading company Monday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The gunmen, driving vehicles usually used by the Interior Ministry, grabbed the 16 al-Saeed Trading Co. Interior Ministry officials repeatedly have denied that police commandos have been responsible for some of the recent abductions in Iraq. The most notable incident took place March 8 when gunmen seized 50 workers at an Iraqi private security firm. Also Monday, a rocket killed seven people and wounded 29 others when it struck a building in southeastern Baghdad, an emergency police official said. The building houses offices for the Dawa and Fadhila Shiite parties, the official said. A mortar round then hit a house in the same neighborhood, killing one person and wounding two. Earlier Monday, police found nine bodies in southwestern Baghdad's Bayya neighborhood, an Iraqi police official said. All had been strangled and showed signs of torture -- some had ropes around their necks, the official said. Just before midday Monday, a bomb exploded inside a minibus in the capital's Sadr City district, killing two people and wounding six others, emergency police said. A roadside bomb also wounded two people Monday in eastern Baghdad's Zayuna neighborhood, police said. In addition, three people were wounded when a mortar round landed in central Baghdad. And four people were wounded when a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol in western Baghdad's Khahtan Square. In the last three days, officials have discovered more signs of the sectarian violence that has flared since the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Among the weekend body count were 30 corpses found along a road in Baquba, north of Baghdad. Late Sunday, Iraqi police found 18 bodies along a road near Tall al-Sakher, a mostly Shiite town northeast of the capital, a Baghdad emergency police official said. Witnesses said gunmen in three vehicles attacked a group of young men, according to the official. Accounts vary on Sadr City clash Questions also abound over clashes that left at least 16 dead Sunday night around a major Shiite mosque on the northern edge of Sadr City. Baghdad emergency police said the fighting began when the US military surrounded the Mustafa mosque. Police said 20 members of the Mehdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, were killed. Sources from al-Sadr's Baghdad office -- which is inside the mosque -- also said militia members died in the raid. Iraqi police and sources in al-Sadr's office said the US military was battling the militia. But the US military said Iraqi forces had conducted a raid in the area and that US Special Operations troops "were on scene in an advisory capacity only." Watch CNN's Nic Robertson describe the confusion over the clash -- 1:46) On Monday, Baghdad's provincial governor, Hussein al-Tahan, and the Baghdad City Council said they were suspending cooperation with US forces until the completion of an investigation into the raid. "No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," it said. Iraqi television showed a room containing bloodied corpses with identification tags that read Dawa Islamic Party, the Shiite party of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Police said American troops tried to enter the mosque, and guards on the roof started shooting; Police said militia members then rushed outside to attack the military, which again fired back and killed more of the militia forces. But the US military statement said Iraqi forces launched a raid "to disrupt a terrorist cell responsible for conducting attacks on Iraqi security and coalition forces and kidnapping Iraqi civilians in the local area." "As elements of the 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade entered their objective, they came under fire. In the ensuing exchange of fire, Iraqi Special Operations Forces killed 16 insurgents. As they secured their objective, they detained 15 more individuals," the US new release said. A man held hostage by insurgents was freed in the raid, the statement said, describing him as a non-Westerner whose identity was unknown. Iraqi forces "also discovered a cache with materials used to make improvised explosive devices and other weapons and ammunition. The materials were destroyed at the scene," the statement said. "No Iraqi or US forces were killed during this operation. One Iraqi soldier received a wound that is not life-threatening," the statement added. Later Monday, a bomb exploded inside al-Sadr's Baquba office, wounding three people, police said. Other developments Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former deputy to Saddam Hussein who has avoided capture, reportedly has called on Arab nations to support the insurgency, according to The Associated Press. The AP said Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera played an audiotape purportedly with a speech by the former Iraqi official. In the message, the speaker says the insurgency is the legitimate representative of Iraqis. The AP said it was impossible to determine the tape's authenticity. Full story) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told an audience at the US Army War College on Monday that the United States must do better in promoting itself abroad. "If I were grading, I'd say we probably deserve a D or a D-plus as a country in terms of how we're doing in the war of ideology," Rumsfeld said in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. CNN's Cal Perry and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
| www.exile.ru/2006-March-24/the_civil_war_debate.html Some question why, given the level of sectarian violence in which hundreds of Iraqis are dying every week, the President and others, including those of us in the media, still refuse to use the expression "civil war" to describe what is happening there. The reason why we at the eXile, along with our colleagues at the New York Times and Washington Post, are resisting using this term is quite simple: there is no civil war in Iraq. Instead what is happening there is what we call "sectarian violence." And that's a damn good thing, because "sectarian violence," as the name implies, is not only different, it's also a lot less serious than "civil war." In a civil war, as everyone knows, each side chooses a color, such as blue and gray. Thus far, neither Shiites nor Sunnis have chosen to wear either blue or gray uniforms. Perhaps they will at some point, and we will be the first to report it when that happens, but for now, we don't see any signs of the two sides choosing uniform colors. Instead, the Shia Mehdi Army prefers to wear black, other militias wear camouflage, still others wear Interior Ministry uniforms, and meanwhile, many Sunni insurgents wear indistinct polyester button-down shirts and either fake denims or polyester slacks. Another feature of civil wars is set battles between opposing armies. Even the most enthusiastic members of the "civil war" choir will admit that so far, there have been no set battles in Iraq between the two sects. So it's pretty clear: no set battle formations, no civil war. Until we see significant formations of Sunnis and Shiites squaring off on a large field of battle, with command structures and leaders who pen long, lyrical, heavy-hearted letters to their wives and brothers about the horrors of war, we can't call it a civil war, can we? Tactically, what makes this "sectarian violence" is the fact that the Sunni insurgents are using car bombs and suicide bombers, while the Shiites are using government cover and widespread torture, including electric drills. It is a well-known fact that true civil wars are followed in peacetime by civil war battle reenactments. But it is impossible to imagine Sunni and Shia gathering yearly for reenactments of huge car bombings and suicide bombings, or mass kidnappings, tortures and executions. Furthermore, what if the bombing of the sacred Golden Mosque in Samarra were reenacted every year by Iraqi Civil War buffs? It would mean that the real civil war would start anew every year. Which obviously cannot happen, because those are not the rules. So therefore, there will be no civil war reenactments in Iraq, and if there are no reenactments, then it follows ipso facto that there is no civil war. Here we must ask ourselves why some have been clamoring to label the sectarian violence in Iraq a "civil war." However, before killing you, we'd put on a blue uniform, blow a bugle, write long ponderous letters to our fiancees about the horrors of killing our readers while they're reading our editorials, employing an archaic language that makes us seem more noble than we really are. And we wouldn't kill you while you're reading this alone somewhere. No, we'd draw you out into battle somewhere on an open field. Bribe to Live, Live to Bribe Feature Story by Yasha Levine with Jake Rudnitsky and Mark Ames The eXile's "Out Of Your Pocket" guide to bribery in Putin's Russia... Bush League by Mark Ames Mark Ames explains why the eXile's search for an annoying pro-Bush columnist was as much of a colossal failure as the President himself... For Whom the Anal - List Tolls This week, Hermitage Capital's William Browder, the eXiled alpha queen of Putin's Western Investor harem, gets the full anal probe... Bird Flu Fever A grotesque dissection worthy of Schopenhauer of how the bird flu virus really works, and why Russia's response could mean a whole lotta coughin ahead... |
| www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/07/rumsfeld.iraq -> www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/07/rumsfeld.iraq/ WASHINGTON (CNN) -- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Tuesday the potential for civil war in Iraq but slammed the media for "exaggerated" reports about the security situation following recent violence between religious factions. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon that he thought the news coverage since the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Iraq had been filled with inaccurate information that would inflame the situation there. He based his comments on remarks made Friday by US Army Gen. George Casey, the top-ranking US military official in Iraq. "From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the US and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey," Rumsfeld said. "The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. Much of the sectarian violence that has followed the bombing of the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra has pitted Shiites vs. On Friday, Casey said the military had confirmed about 30 mosque attacks and about 350 civilian deaths. CNN and other media outlets, citing local officials, have reported more than 100 mosque attacks and at least 500 deaths during the same time. "Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side," he said. "It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq." Some Iraqi and US officials have worried about the possibility of civil war flaring in Iraq. President Bush, for example, said last week that Iraqis need to choose between "chaos" and "unity." Reporters asked Rumsfeld about a Los Angeles Times story in which US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said that "the potential is there now for sectarian violence to become a full-blown civil war." The defense secretary said, "I certainly am not going to try to disagree with it. But, he added, he does not "believe they're in a civil war today." Rumsfeld reiterated Casey's stance that the "levels of violence" are similar to the weeks before the Golden Dome mosque attack. He went on to praise Iraqi army and police units, which he said have taken the security lead and performed well during recent weeks. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that Iraqi security forces "are loyal to the central government" and have been protecting Iraqis and their religious sites. "You're seeing all of the things you would want to see to preclude the kind of things that would lead to civil war." He said Iraqis have "looked into the abyss and have said, 'This is not where we want to go. He said the terrorist group al Qaeda "has media committees" and tutors people on how to "manipulate" news organizations. "Now I can't take a string and tie it to a news report and then trace it back to an al Qaeda media committee meeting. "We do know that their goal is to try to break the will; that they consider the center of gravity of this not to be in Iraq, because they know they can't win a battle out there; they consider it to be in Washington, DC, and in London and in the capitals of the Western world." Both officials said Iran, a largely Shiite nation, is trying to exert its influence on its neighbor to the west. Rumsfeld claimed Iran was sending "Iranian Quds-force type people," or a division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, into Iraq. "They're currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," he said. And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment. " Rumsfeld said he suspected Iran was backing the military forces. Revolutionary Guard-type forces don't "go milling around willy-nilly, one would think," he said. Pace added the US military believes some of the homemade bombs used in Iraq "are traceable back to Iran." US examining troop strength Rumsfeld said the United States had fewer troops in Iraq --- 132,000 -- than during the December elections and noted that future reductions will depend on the level of violence. "We'll let this settle down and we see where we are," he said. "We're adding some people to train and equip and to embed with the police. And at the same time, we're taking other people out," he said. |