Two U.S. special forces soldiers were killed and another was wounded Saturday in an ambush in southern Afghanistan. The soldiers were on a reconnaissance patrol in Helmand province when they were attacked. Three Afghan soldiers were wounded, said an intelligence chief in southern Afghanistan. The soldiers were inspecting a school and hospital being built with American funding, said Dad Mohammed Khan, the intelligence chief of Helmand. "Two U.S. Special Forces were killed and one wounded when their four vehicle-mounted reconnaissance patrol was ambushed in the vicinity of Geresk," the U.S. military said in a statement from a U.S. military base north of the capital, Kabul. Four people on two motorcycles ambushed the U.S. vehicles and escaped, Khan said, identifying the assailants as fighters of the former Taliban regime.
Two days earlier, unidentified gunmen shot to death a water engineer working for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Ricardo Munguia, 39, was killed when his car was intercepted on a dirt road while he was returning from Tarin Kot, in neighboring Uruzgan province, to Kandahar. Geresk is about 70 miles west of Kandahar.
The deaths bring to 18 the number of combat casualties suffered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The last death occurred Dec. 21, when Army Sgt. Steven Checo, 22, of New York, was killed in a gunfight during a nighttime operation in the eastern province of Paktika, near the Pakistani border.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
03/29/2003 11:40 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
When one of the world's largest jihad organizations (Jamaat-i-Islami) is caught - FOUR TIMES!!! - harboring al-Qaeda, that should be news. The State Department, which pays consultation fees to the JI's American front - ISNA - is refusing to place that group on its terror list. State is covering up the fact that they paid JI Islamofascist #1 - Qazi Hussein Ahmad - for DC consultations with Karl Indefurth (SE Asia Affairs) in July 2000. State depravity has now allowed the Musharaf government to release the harborer of Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Don't do the human doormats at State a favor by being party to their coverup.
Former foreign never to be again secretary Robin Cook today dramatically called on Tony Blair to bring Britain's troops home from Iraq. Mr Cook — whose turning tail resignation as Leader of the Commons was the most high-profile political protest against UK involvement in the war — denounced the campaign in Iraq as "bloody and unjust". And he blabbered warned that Britain and America risked stoking up a "long-term legacy of respect hatred" for the west across the Arab and Muslim world. Haven't we heard this before?
In an outspoken article for tomorrow's Sunday Mirror, Mr Cook said that the US president, George Bush, and his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, did not appear to know what to do now that their hopes that Iraq would swiftly capitulate had proved unfounded. We're 11 days in and we control just about everything outside of Baghdad that's important. Does Mr. Cook own a backbone? Can he rent one?
They appeared to be contemplating laying siege to Baghdad, which would result in massive civilian suffering and many unnecessary deaths, he said. He thinks he's a mind-reader.
Mr Cook wrote: "I have already had my fill of this bloody and unjust war. Bloody appeaser.
"I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed." We'll bring them home, Robbie, but first we'll finish the job.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 05:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I am sooo sick of listening to hand-wringing about the hate the arab street will have for us. These primitive brutal tribal hates have been there and will be there no matter what we do. I prefer that they fear us and respect our power to crush their 14th century societies. Grab em by the balls and the hearts and minds will follow. We will provide humanitarian aid whether they hate us or not and that makes us better than them
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 18:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Frank---you are right on. There is nothing that we can do to make them love us. I would not matter if not for the fact that they, by an accident of nature, are sitting atop a big black money pit. All we really want is to prevent them from making WMD, and hopefully change a few behaviors to stop the hate. We need to open up ANWR, somehow work with the Russians and others to get farther away from middle east suppliers until they get their melons on straigt. Japan is now working with Russia to make a 2300+ mile pipeline to the Russian Far East to help them get off the middle east tit. We (the nations of the willing) are going to have to clean this up while we get lambasted by the press and hand wringers like Mr. Cook. This is a nasty business that requires fortitude, sacrifice, and courage on the part of everyone.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2003 18:29 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Moslems in general and the arabs in particular respect power.
They will hate us anyway. Better to have Hate and Fear rather than Hate and Scorn.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/29/2003 18:50 Comments ||
Top||
#4
My daddy taught me, when I was a little boy, that to be loved and respected was the best thing in the world. He also told me that if I couldn't be loved and respected, the next best thing was to be feared. He said "It's better to be feared than to be treated with contempt." I've never had anybody treat me with contemt twice...
It's time for the United States to adapt the same principles: be loved and respected if possible, but if that's not possible, be feared as the meanest, orneriest, and downright unstoppable SOB in the fight.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 19:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I agree with all of the above. The Arabs are going to hate anyone who isn't arab in their territory. They are stuck in the 7th century and until they get out they should be treated like they're in the 7th century.
Posted by: George ||
03/30/2003 5:17 Comments ||
Top||
Military German experts ruled out it was impossible for the U.S.-British invasion forces to occupy and secure Baghdad as long as the current âunity and determinationâ â between the Iraqi regime and people â goes on, expecting âa bitter defeatâ should the invasion forces opted for attacking the Iraqi capital. Participants in an emergency research session to assess the current invasion, organized by the Unit of Military studies and analyses â affiliated to Hamburg University â (AKUF), noted that âthe history of world wars never recorded one case of an invading army that managed to occupy and control a heavily-populated city â such as Baghdadâ. According to German Magazine Tagesspiegel Friday, March 28, the German experts unanimously believed that the invasion forces had only two options to occupy and secure Baghdad or Basra; either to flatten them completely or besiege them until hunger played its toll on the people inside. Pioneer of German military experts, Dr. Manfred Messer Schmidt, expected the U.S.-British invasion forces would lose the war as long as the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, remained in control of the country. The idea is to throw him out of the country, preferably into jail...
Schmidt stressed that âdestroying Baghdadâ would hamper tanks and armored vehicles moving in the streets, leading to the inevitability of âstreet fightingâ. This, he added, means unimaginable losses inflicted on the invading armies. âIf they extremely lucky, they (invading forces) may manage to occupy some suburbs,â Schmidt added, citing the bitter German experience of attacking and besieging Russian Leningrad for 900 days during WW II.âEntering Leningrad led to its complete destruction and severe human casualties on both sides, due to fierce street fighting,â he stressed. Schmidt, who up till 1995, was the head of the Central German Office for Military Studies in Freeburg, likened the situation of the invasion forces in Iraq to that of the German forces that invaded Russia during WW II, seen as the beginning of the defeat. Ummm... Does one of us have his thinking confined to a tunnel here?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 06:36 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmm, thanks for the thoughts, but how long has it been since Germany won a war? 132 years?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/29/2003 18:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Of course, this idiot refuses to accept the destruction of Berlin or Warsaw, which both saw Soviet armies enter and capture.
If this were a course, he'd flunk.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 18:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
âthe history of world wars never recorded one case of an invading army that managed to occupy and control a heavily-populated city
I seem to recall that Paris fell in both 1871 and 1940. Rome fell in 1944. Berlin fell in 1945. Berlin, Dr. Schmidt, you may know where that is, sir.
the U.S.-British invasion forces would lose the war as long as the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, remained in control of the country.
This guy should get a job writing non-sequitors.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 18:59 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Maybe we can take him on a tour of the city when we capture it and give him a history lesson while we are at it. Dumbass...
#5
"likened the situation of the invasion forces in Iraq to that of the German forces that invaded Russia"
Maybe, but we got control of the vast southern Iraqi oil fields after what - two days? The Germans never got control of the Soviet Union's oil. [Not that we're only fighting for the oil.]
Another big difference is that our economy is easily 100 times bigger than "greater" Baghdad (sans oil), unlike WWII where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were roughly equal economically. Baghdad has no hope - no hope of reinforcements, no hope of supply, no hope of anything except eventual capitulation.
Finally we are soon going to be surrounding Baghdad and hunting down the regime's leaders with local intelligence and precison munitions. The Nazis never even got close to getting a shot at Stalin.
#6
I have read the (much longer) article in German. I think that the Islam-online article misses the point of the German analysis.
First of all he doesn't write about cities "falling" like Steve White assumes. He mentions that Paris 1871 did fall because the French emperor and his army already had capitulated and Paris had no provisions to resist a siege. Paris 1940 and Rome 1944 fell because they were not defended (Rome was declared an "open city" if you remember well. Berlin 1945 fell because Germany capitulated. Berlin was not conquered house by house, the Russian tanks made it to the Reichstag and the thing was over.
The real point of the study is not that a city can't be conquered house by house, but that it can't be done in a more or less "clean way" (i.e. sparing the inhabitants as much as you possibly can). The coalition forces just can't reduce the city to rubbles, they cannot fight house for house, with terrible casualties on both sides. The American public is not going to watch this silently and the idea of the Iraq war, to "liberate" Iraq, would look rather strange after a while.
There is one point which the study (actually several studies, not one) miss: The use of helicopters. If the coalition forces do need to conquer Baghdad the helicopters will be the decisive factor, not the tanks. I believe that if the helis start to take out every house with a sniper in it the resistance will end fairly soon.
The other question is what the regular Baghdad inhabitants will do. I think every city is different. It is more likely that a civil war will break out in Baghdad once the Shiites think it's safe. Not that this would be a pleasant prospect for the Allied forces.
I'm sure Baghdad can be taken. The question is what price are the allies willing to pay for it. But frankly we do not know how the situation will be in a week or two. That fierce resistance we see now may be rather short lived.
And there is still the chance the Saddams closest friends will desert and shoot him.
#7
... as long as the âunity and determinationâ â between the Iraqi regime and people â goes on ....
This is both the critical flaw and the out he's left himself in his analysis. The jihaddi, "Fight or we'll rape your daughter, castrate your son and throw you into a wood chipper" strategy is only going to work until there are enough coalition troops in a given area for the locals to feel comfortable pointing out the Ba'athists. When that happens, the dominos will begin to fall but he'll still be able to claim that he was correct because the "unity and determination" of the Iraqi people will have dissolved.
Posted by: B. ||
03/29/2003 20:06 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Another case of "if we can't do it, then nobody can".
Posted by: Ray ||
03/29/2003 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Umm.....Herr Professor......the Nazis never took Leningrad. They never destroyed it. Maybe your daddy said he did, but that's just war story bullshit.
And this guy's one of Germany's leading military experts?? Mein Gott!!!
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
03/29/2003 20:39 Comments ||
Top||
#10
He never said that. This BS article is severely misquoting and distorting the original studies.
#13
No, Prof. Manfred Messerschmidt is one of the leading military experts in Germany. And a very critical one, too. He is one of the German historians who exposed the crimes of the (regular) German Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union. He is absolutely legit. But as I said, the Islam-online article definitely distorts the German studies.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/29/2003 21:22 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Didn't the head of the German commandos predict we were heading into a massacre by going into Afghanistan?
I kind of wish these guys had been running the German military in 1939. They are gloomy enough to have persuaded Hitler that Poland would kick the tar out of the Nazis.
The Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, the third man on the international stage beside George Bush and Tony Blair in the run-up to war, was staring at political disaster yesterday as anti-war demonstrations spread and opinion polls revealed 91% of Spaniards against the war. Madrid, Barcelona and other cities resounded to the noise of people beating pots and pans out of their windows on Thursday night in the latest of a series of anti-war demonstrations that have also seen violence between police and protesters. The Alhambra Palace in Granada, symbol of Spain's Islamic past, switched off its lights during Thursday night's protest and, in Barcelona, firefighters sounded their sirens in support. The scale of opposition to war has forced the People's party government on to the defensive. Mr Aznar has not dared to back his pro-Bush stance before the war with combat troops. Even the sending of 900 troops for "humanitarian work" has provoked the fury of the anti-war camp.
The most recently published opinion poll on attitudes to war, by the state's own official pollsters, showed 91% opposition. Recent polls of voting intention show that, over two months, the People's party has gone from running neck-and-neck with the anti-war socialists to trailing them by six points. A clear majority of people now expect the socialists to win next year's election. The government has responded by saying it is thinking "not of future elections but of future generations."
Mr Aznar's one-time political mentor, Felix Pastor, a former party president who still sits on its ruling committee, yesterday broke ranks to put the shiv in his back accuse him of destroying the years of hard work put in to creating a moderate, centre-right party. "The idea of a moderate, humanitarian, Christian People's party has been blown away," he told El Mundo newspaper. "The Spanish people have the right to expect their government to keep them away from all wars ... Bush's policies are so detestable that we should keep well away." His words followed a slow drip-drip of resignations that include a former minister and several lower ranking party members. Ministers are now shadowed by groups of protesters. People's party offices up and down the country are being vandalised or plastered with anti-war graffiti. This sounds like trouble. We have to find ways to help Aznar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:13 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is insane. Completely insane. Aznar is a very honourable man, and has already announced that he will not seek re-election, so he is doing the right thing for the right reason, no matter how insane 30+ million Spaniards may be. Will these people apologize to the liberated Iraqi people when it's over?
#2
"next year's election" A year is infinity in election cycles. One good thing is that steady drip of resignations. Should opinions change after Iraq is liberated all that dead wood will be gone.
#3
Opposition to this war is all about penis envy. Those countries complaining the most tend to be those whose members have shrunk the most in recent decades. Simple as that. I defy anybody to show me an exception to the rule that: the greater the opposition to war in Iraq, the greater the sense of diminished influence in global affairs.
It seems most if not all of Western Europe was popularly against this conflict, only some countries were fortunate enough to have leaders and governments with sufficient wisdom to defy the emotional heart of their nation and rule with the head.
#4
Give the Oil for Food program to a Spanish company and out of the hands of the French company.
Posted by: Don ||
03/29/2003 8:16 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The latest poll is just the last of several going back several months indicating widespread opposition to the idea of liberating the Iraqis, fueled in large part by a concerted campaign by the media, which absolutely revels in its anti-Americanism, to portray Aznar as Bush's lackey. The media here in Spain hasn't said an honest thing about the situation in Iraq, or US justifications or intentions, since 911. They are totally depraved and only shed crocodile tears over the victims of inhumanity despite Spain's own suffering as a result of homegrown terrorism and under Franco (twos sides of the same fascist coin).
Posted by: Henry Cybulski ||
03/29/2003 16:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Anytime I see a poll that shows a public opinion on any subject where the results are greater than 75%, I am very suspect of the results. I dont think you can get 91% of human beings to agree on the color of the sky at any given time, much less complicated political issues.
"The Media" and peoples relationship to it are not the same in the rest of the world as they are here in the states.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/29/2003 17:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Somebody find an email address for some of the Spanish government offices, and let's bombard them with "thank you" notes for Spain's support. May not help, but it couldn't hurt. Also do the same for Spanish newspapers throughout the country. IF you find them, I'll post them on my website for everyone to use. Let's do that for ALL the countries involved. I don't have the language skills, but I do have the webspace.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The Spanish have forgotten their recent history. It wasn't that long ago they were ruled by a brutal fascist dictatorship. You would think they would empathize with the Iraqi people and support their liberation.
#9
Opposition to this war is all about penis envy. Those countries complaining the most tend to be those whose members have shrunk the most in recent decades. Simple as that. I defy anybody to show me an exception to the rule that: the greater the opposition to war in Iraq, the greater the sense of diminished influence in global affairs.
It seems most if not all of Western Europe was popularly against this conflict, only some countries were fortunate enough to have leaders and governments with sufficient wisdom to defy the emotional heart of their nation and rule with the head.
#10
A lot of honorable political figures are willing to hang their political futures on this war. And as a whole I really do not believe they wanted a war. If several nations had shown some resolve rather than "Diplomacy" perhaps the troops the US and Britian had in the Gulf would not be engaged right now. Most rational people in the world recongnize that Saddam has got to go along with his regime. Yet just how would of inspections etal of accomplished this?
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 19:39 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Al-guardian? Who took the poll, Fiskie?
You want to help him? Win.
#12
Perhaps the Spaniards were are waiting for the Basque Sepratists to unleash some Iraqi black market munitions before they decide to get on the band wagon? "Liberating" Iraq is not the best idea in the world - but when are these third rate European powers going to realize that shutting down Iraq's Nuke/Bio/Chem programs is more for thier benefit than ours?!?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 1:12 Comments ||
Top||
Fallout from the conflict in Iraq is creating financial turmoil in Turkey, threatening to undermine the country's economic recovery and raising the prospect of instability on Iraq's northern border. Turkish interest rates rose to around 70 percent as the war began, raising the possibility that if market turmoil grows worse the country could be forced to default on its massive debt. 70%!?! I can do better than that on Roosevelt Road on the south side of Chicago. Talk with John and Luigi.
To ensure the stability of NATO's only Muslim member President Bush has asked Congress for a $1 billion grant to help the Turkish markets recover. The request highlights Turkey's crucial role as a secular, democratic government in an unstable region where the United States is now at war. GWB is a generous man, more so than I would be right now.
But it is a far cry from the $6 billion carrot that Washington offered Turkey to allow 62,000 U.S. troops to open a northern front against Iraq, a request the Turkish parliament voted down. The war is extremely unpopular in Turkey, with polls showing that up to 94 percent of Turks oppose the fighting. The $6 billion offer had raised hopes that the economy would emerge from a two-year-old economic crisis that has claimed some two million jobs. Instead, its withdrawal shook financial markets. The Turkish lira dropped to its lowest level ever Monday, at 1,746,000 to the dollar. Analysts worry that acrimony on Capitol Hill over Turkey's refusal to grant the U.S. basing rights might diminish Washington's political and economic support. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a Congressional subcommittee Thursday that Turkey's decision ``was a big, big mistake,'' but acknowledged that ``Turkey's economy is in difficult circumstances and that is not good for us.''
"They've shot themselves in the foot, but we could be the ones slipping in the blood..."
Without Washington's backing, market turmoil could continue, making it more difficult for Turkey to maintain year-end growth and inflation targets and stick to a $16 billion economic recovery program backed by the International Monetary Fund. Washington's support was key in obtaining IMF loans. Turkey has its first one-party government in almost 15 years and some analysts say that market turmoil could destabilize the government. Then there's the war, which has stoked fears that Iraq could fragment, leading Iraqi Kurds along the Turkish border to declare a separate state and serve as an inspiration to Turkish Kurds living on the other side. Turkey battled Kurdish guerrillas within its own borders for 15 years, a fight that left 37,000 dead. Turkey has said it would send forces into northern Iraq to prevent a refugee crisis or to stop Iraqi Kurds from trying to carve out their own state. But the United States is keen to keep Turkey out of the war. Turkey backed off somewhat, earlier this week, saying that it will only intervene if there is a refugee crisis or if its security were threatened. I think they finally understand the word "no."
That announcement and news of U.S. aid have encouraged Turkish markets, which rose, and interest rates fell to around 65 percent. ``We're not in a red alert for Turkey's debt rollover yet,'' said Hakan Avci, strategy analyst at Global Securities in Istanbul. Turkey has more than $150 billion in total debt, almost evenly divided between foreign and domestic creditors. Still, analysts caution Bush's aid package requires approval from the U.S. Congress, where sentiment against Turkey has been running high because of its handling of the U.S. basing requests. Hey Murat, I know Turkey's a democracy and all, and I respect your country's decision, but as Fred says, "actions, consequences".
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 01:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As many as 94% of Turks oppose the liberation. But only 91% of Spaniards oppose the liberation. Looks like Spain hasn't quite recovered from being occupied by Moslems for several centuries.
#2
That's nothing compared to 100% of Iraqis opposing liberation, albeit somewhat indirectly of course, as inferred from the closely contended election in Iraq a while back.
(This was an actual argument I heard from an anti-war idiot in a discussion I had with her. God almighty.)
#3
Turkey needs to stand on its own merits. GWB is making a nice gesture, but my family share of that $1B in U.S. taxes is about $20, and frankly, Murat, I wouldn't give Turkey 2 cents right now. Turkey is living on borrowed money -- let the EU save them!
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 8:22 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm guessing that money was for the limited use of airspace.
In the 'national' section. Edited.
Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal got a chilly reception from business leaders [in Vancouver] Friday as he blamed the media that "construed incorrectly" comments he made about U.S. President George Bush. There's nothing there to be misconstrued, ol' buddy...
He had said last week that Bush let Americans and the world down by not acting like a statesman. The board of trade presented a letter to [US ambassador] Cellucci on Thursday saying its directors were shocked and embarrassed the federal government decided not to support the U.S. in the war with Iraq. Dhaliwal told the board of trade ... [$19 million] will go toward Westport Innovations Inc.'s research and development of high-performance, low-emission engine fuel systems. But the announcement drew no applause and there was subdued clapping when Dhaliwal finished speaking. This is just the beginning, ol' friend.
Dhaliwal said Canada's relationship with the United States is a model for the whole world. "They're our best friends, our best neighbours and we'll always be friends with them," he said. "That's why we say what we say!"
"We're with them in the war against terrorism and will be with them on the humanitarian project in Iraq. We'll be with them on the reconstruction." That's what you think, old pal... I'd like to say something uncomplimentary about my government but these guys just speak for themselves.
Posted by: RW ||
03/29/2003 07:13 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If I were a Canadian I think I would feel pretty crappy about not being part of the coalition. I know Canada has it's reputation to protect, but to see England and Australia out there pulling their weight and doing what's right regardless of world opinion would kill me. We even have the Polish and some dolphins helping, but no Canadians. It just seems odd when you actually remember it.
Posted by: g wiz ||
03/29/2003 8:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Since I don't know much about the inner workings of the Canadian electoral system, let me ask a stupid question: If the majority of Canadians don't like the way their government has been behaving (and they've been doing it for a while - this didn't just pop up in the last few months), why are they still in power?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/29/2003 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Barbara, the problem is that, when they formed their government when they went independent, they chose to model their government after Britain's, not The United State's. They have a parlimentary system where their parliament is similar to our House of Representatives. They have no House of Lords, which is an honorary, rubber stamp body in Britain.
Comparing our Senate to the House of Lords is a BIIIG mistake: The Senate was expressly designed to counteract the power of states with large populations (large states) against those with small populations (small states). This has proved to be inspired: imagine the United states dancing to the tune called by the likes of California and New York State! The House ensures legislation is backed by the majority of the citizens, while the Senate ensures legislation is backed by the majority of the CITIZENS HOLDING RESOURCES. I.e. a piece of legislation must both have wide support, BOTH geographically AND demographically before becoming law.
I've made friends of Canadians, and they continually complain about the laws that plunder their low population, resource rich western states and funnel the wealth to the high population, high malingering Eastern states. The Cash flow stops at Ontario and Quebec, and never "trickles through" to Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. Rough estimates have about a fourth of the population of British Columbia and Alberta ready to secede from Canada and Join the Union. (It'll never happen until we institute national health care.)
The parlimentary system is designed to ensure that their equivalent of the President is always of the same party as the one holding their equivalent of the House. There is no direct election of the Prime Minister: he's the leader of the majority of the Parliament.
Ontario and Quebec collude together and dominate the Government, passing laws that benefit themselves while bleeding the rest of the country.
All the people who complain about the Senate are from California or New York. If you figure out the "design problem" that the Senate was supposed to solve, you'll see why they hate it with a passion.
The Politics leading up to the Civil War was all concerned about maintaining a balance between Slave and Free States in the Senate: The Slave states wanted a majority so they could open up the west, and worked hard to avoid being a minority and risk having the free states outlaw slavery. One could say that the Senate was the firewall that kept slavery from spreading like wildfire westwards.
People think our Senate is a queer institution. It isn't. Once I figured out where Canada went wrong, I'm convinced it's the masterpiece of the Constitutional Convention. Our forefathers were GENIUSES.
Your sources are not giving you the straight information. They are right that Canadian government is not really democratic - all power is effectively vested in the Prime Minister because members of Parliament in his party do whatever he demands to keep him from calling an election in which they might lose office. But your sources are wrong about financial things. The Canadian system, regrettably, is built around a redistributionist model (as a matter of policy, not constitutionally). The three richest provinces (Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia) pay much more in taxes to the federal government than they get back in services. The other seven provinces get more services than they pay for. And Quebec is a whole different story - whatever is going, they get the lion's share.
Why do Canadians put up with this? I don't know. But I would like to see Canada adopt the US system, and have real democracy.
Posted by: Patrick ||
03/29/2003 18:14 Comments ||
Top||
#5
If I remember my geograpy,we are Canada's only neihbor.
#6
The world is changing and we might as well get used to it. Poland and the Ukraine have committed ground troops to Iraq (yeah I know a small number), but it is a whole lot more than Canada, France or Germany in so many ways!
#7
There's lots of support among ordinary Canadians for the U.S. liberation of Iraq. The crowd at the Vancouver/Phoenix hockey game I attended Thursday heartily cheered the American national anthem. A recent poll suggested 90% of Canadians want improved relations with the U.S. The appeasing, hypocritical, gutless Liberal federal government is, unfortunately, another story.
#8
Raptor - not quite, but so close it doesn't matter. The French have a very very small enclave (St. Pierre & Miquelon) off the coast of Newfoundland, and there's Greenland (formerly a province of Denmark, now autonomous) just to the east - a very BIIG island, but not very many people. A million dollars a year in trade from both of them combined would be an exaggeration, I believe.
The Canadian people are wonderful. Too bad they have such a weak, spineless, fearful government.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 11:57 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I say: 54-40 or fight!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2003 18:35 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Barbara
"If the majority of Canadians don't like the way their government has been behaving (and they've been doing it for a while - this didn't just pop up in the last few months), why are they still in power?"
The Liberal party (lead by Chretien) has no effective opposition party. Liberals are centre-left, akin to the Democrats in the US (but much more left). The right in Canada is split between two parties, - the Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance Party (they wanted to join up with the PCs, but haven't been able to). It's as if the Republican party in the US were split into two competing parties. The Liberals can win easily, continuously, by just getting 40% of the popular vote if the PCs and Alliance split the remainder among them. [There is also a far left party, the NDP, which gets 10-20% of the vote].
The real insidious part of Canadian politics is that the Liberals have positioned themselves as THE party for immigrants. No wonder then, that we have massive immigration into Canada, about double the rate per capita that the US has. As a result, the Liberals are a perpetual governing party, almost dictatorial in effect.
#11
To add, I'm getting the impression that the majority of Canadians do like the Liberal government. Except that this majority is in Ontario & Quebec. Western Canada feels quite differently (though they still may be anti-war).
This is Chretien's last term so to speak, and the new guy Paul Martin (Liberal) is quite popular. With the fractured right, and the west unable to come up with enough seats, the Liberals are very likely to form the government again.
The glimmer of hope is that the business community is starting to get annoyed with the blatant anti-Americanism coming out of Ottawa. The Ontario & Alberta premiers have already distanced themselves from Chretien. (Oddly enough the Ontario provincial gov't is Conservative, yet the federal Liberals continually manage to sweep the province)
#12
Don't worry, if you read the Daly Kos, many Kossites are planning to move to eastern Canada as they tire of the French Wing of the Democratic Party and look forward to joining the Liberal Party.
Posted by: Timmy the Wonder Dog ||
03/29/2003 22:31 Comments ||
Top||
#13
OP,
Didn't know about the French Enclave,Never considered Greenland(guess it must be that big
hunk of water that threw me).
Thanks
In a shocking incident, militants chopped off the noses of six persons, including a woman and thrashed another person at a village in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said in Jammu today. A group of about seven to eight suspected foreign mercenaries, in combat dress, descended the Panihad village of the district and thrashed one Abdul Khaliq in the intervening night of March 27 and 28, reported Press Trust of India on Saturday. Later, the militants went to the house of one Mir Waiz and in his absence abused his family members and cut the noses of his wife Fatima, his son Mohammad Razaq and a guest Nisar Hussain. After leaving Waiz's house, the militants went to the house of one Noor Hussain and chopped off his nose and also of two of his two sons. The turban and automatic weapons set regards this sort of thing as good fun...
Police and security forces have rushed to the area and launched search operations to track down the militants, the sources said, adding the identity and the outfit to which the militants belong couldnot be ascertained so far. Meanwhile, report from Poonch district said that a teenager SaleemJaffri had been missing from Palera village since March 26. Police search was on to find out his remains whereabouts.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is "shocking" only to those not familiar with Islam.
Posted by: B. ||
03/29/2003 19:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What we need to deal with these clowns( I will refrain from using vulgarities )is a GODAMN TIME MACHINE. If these people want to live in the freakin'8th century send them there
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 19:58 Comments ||
Top||
Three militants, suspected to have links with militant outfit Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT), were gunned down in a police encounter in Mumbai, India's economic hub on Saturday. According to media reports, two of them have been identified as Abul Sultan and Anwar Ali while the identity of the third one is yet to be established, police said. The trio was killed by Crime Intelligence unit (CIU) of Mumbai Police in an exchange of fire outside Mahananda Dairy on eastern Express Highway at Goregaon in northwest Mumbai around 12:00 noon (local time). On a tip-off that the ultras were to assemble at Goregaon to plan a militant attack, police laid a trap and asked them to surrender. However, they fired at the police, who retaliated, killing them. According to intelligence gathered by police, the militants were suspected to be involved in the recent massacre of Kashmiri pandits at Nadimarg in Jammu and Kashmir. "You'll never take me alive, coppers!... Ow!... Ow!...Ow!...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:22 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Sat March 29, 2003 06:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine reported.
In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale on Monday, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.
"He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. "This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground."
It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander Gen. Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance.
"They've got no resources. He was so focused on proving his point -- that the Iraqis were going to fall apart," the article, by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, cited an unnamed former high-level intelligence official as saying.
A spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the article.
Rumsfeld is known to have a difficult relationship with the Army's upper echelons while he commands strong loyalty from U.S. special operations forces, a key component in the war.
He has insisted the invasion has made good progress since it was launched 10 days ago, with some ground troops 50 miles from the capital, despite unexpected guerrilla-style attacks on long supply lines from Kuwait.
Hersh, however, quoted the former intelligence official as saying the war was now a stalemate.
Much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers were going to run out of precision guided bombs and there were serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, the article said.
"The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive," the former official said.
The article quoted the senior planner as saying Rumsfeld had wanted to "do the war on the cheap" and believed that precision bombing would bring victory.
Some 125,000 U.S. and British troops are now in Iraq. U.S. officials on Thursday said they planned to bring in another 100,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of April.
#2
This is chickenshit. "The former (unnamed) senior Pentagon planner" This is story is a classic. If the war was over in a week, it would be an unfair fight. If it takes some time, it's a quagmire.
Hersh if of course saying that we're doomed. I guess he thinks that Franks will order an infantry assualt with poorly equipped, lightly protected soldiers and send them headlong into the strongest part of Baghdad's defenses.
C'mon. So WHAT if it takes months to get the right forces in place, presuming as Hersh does, that we don't have them? We use the time to consolidate the south and suffocate the Republican Guard around Baghdad. We have supply problems? What about Saddam? He has NO outside power to resupply him.
If it takes a half-million to do the job, we'll get the half-million. There is NO way, ZERO that we are going to back off and give the Arabs a victory that will lead to the destruction of the United States. No chance.
But in a very important way, this story is useful. Let Saddam think we've been rope-a-doped. Let him think our guys are as ragtag and demoralized as his. Saddam is the master of miscalculation.
C'mon out and play.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
03/30/2003 5:41 Comments ||
Top||
Three of every four allied airstrikes are now targeting Republican Guard forces that stand between advancing columns of U.S. ground troops and Saddam Hussein, a top American air officer said in an Associated Press interview Saturday.
From his desert command post in Saudi Arabia, Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel Darnell also said U.S. and British warplanes over the past week have attacked virtually every military airfield in Iraq â believed to number roughly 100 â and have seen only a small number of planes. Intensified allied airstrikes on Saddam's best ground forces coincide with efforts by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force to consolidate their supply lines south of Baghdad before beginning a multipronged assault on the Republican Guard. The intent is to severely weaken those forces so they will fall more quickly to American ground troops, minimizing U.S. casualties. The air campaign against the Republican Guard ringing Baghdad intensified after the foul weather that had impeded air operations lifted a few days ago. Darnell said there will be no letup in airstrikes.
FoxNews is reporting 10 strikes south of Baghdad, targeted at Republican Guard positions. I think that while 3ID is getting some rest, the RG isn't.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 10:58 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. aircraft attacked and destroyed a two-story building in Basra where an estimated 200 Iraqi militiamen were meeting Friday, the U.S. Central Command said early Saturday. Two U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, using laser-guided munitions, destroyed the building, which a Central Command official described as an "emerging target." The men inside were described as "Iraqi regime terror squad members," but it was not clear to what organization they belonged. Does it matter?
A Christian church about 300 yards away was undamaged, according to CentCom. A delayed fuse allowed the bombs to penetrate the building before detonation, to minimize damage to other structures, officials said. If it was laser-guided, doesn't that mean somebody on the ground had to "paint" the place? Heh.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 10:51 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Not necessarily - targets can be painted from the air as well - in some cases, by the aircraft dropping the munition...
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 0:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
200 iragis in a two story building.What were they havin a shin dig?
U.S. Marines in this southern city launched a daybreak attack Saturday, using Cobra helicopter gunships, tanks, armored vehicles, mortars and artillery against the Iraqi resistance. Reports from the fighting indicated a number of Iraqi tanks had been destroyed. A CNN correspondent embedded with the 2nd Marines, Task Force Tarawa, reported that the operation is the latest attempt to secure the town. Nasiriya has seen sporadic fighting during the past two days. Col. Ron Johnson, operations officer for Task Force Tarawa, said Friday that the Marines were "very close to controlling Nasiriya and making it secure. "We have the town surrounded and all the main approaches," he said. "[The Marines are] now making very good progress against moderate resistance."
Johnson said the Marines had a difficult task in determining who is "friendly" and who is a "foe" to the coalition forces. He also said the Marines know that several men in Nasiriya are irregulars, who fire their weapons on coalition forces from the field and then quickly put on civilian clothes and return to town, aware that coalition forces will not fire on civilians. About 40-50 civilians who have fled Nasiriya said Iraqi paramilitary groups are forcing people to volunteer their sons to fight, according to a Marine officer with the 4th Civil Affairs Group. "If they didn't, they said they would shoot a sibling," said Marine Capt. Peter Tabash, who speaks fluent Arabic. One civilian told Tabash that a 9-year-old boy was shot because his family refused to cooperate with the paramilitary groups.
Military intelligence officials found what they described as a treasure trove of Iraqi military information, including codes and identification, in a field in the Nasiriya area.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 10:16 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
One of the most amazing stories of the war thus far. And from Agence France Presse of all places. Something to think about whenever someone says that our soldiers are being met with bullets instead of flowers - not with flowers, but with potatoes, chicken and cheese.
As the leader of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, Muhammad Hagi Mahmud, whose party controls Iraqi territory near Iran's border, revealed on Monday that Iran refused to let wounded members of the Ansar al-Islam enter its territory to receive medical services last Saturday. They were wounded after US forces reportedly launched 100 Tomahawk missiles on their base. Iran's denial to an Iraqi Kurdish group with a Taliban-style extremist Islam ideology indicated its efforts to prevent the expansion to Iran of the American war on Iraq by denying the Americans a possible excuse to attack Iran for helping a "terrorist" group, said Asian Times. And maybe by now they've gotten sick and tired of them...
Iran denied medical care to the wounded Ansar fighters despite its setting up two field hospitals close to the Iranian city of Marivan neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan. The Bashmaq and Molakhor hospitals are equipped to treat Iraqi Kurds injured in the ongoing war. Reportedly, the Iranian authorities excluded the Ansar members from the Kurds eligible to receive treatment even prior to the mentioned episode. To help the Iraqi Kurds access to the two hospitals, the Iranian government has made arrangements with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major armed Kurdish groups in control of Iraqi Kurdistan. Those hospitals have reportedly provided medical services to about 100 Kurdish civilians wounded during American air strikes over the past few days. That's nice of them...
The Iranian government has repeatedly denied any link with the Ansar al-Islam over the past few months, during which time the American government has accused the group of cooperating with al-Qaeda in its attempts to link Iraq to terrorist activities.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 08:20 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Proof that even an old dog can learn new tricks
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 20:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Iran's denial to an Iraqi Kurdish group with a Taliban-style extremist Islam ideology indicated its efforts to prevent the expansion to Iran of the American war on Iraq by denying the Americans a possible excuse to attack Iran for helping a "terrorist" group, said Asian Times.
Here are the main events on day ten of the Iraq invasion, from Islam-Online:
Baghdad came under fresh bombardment, setting off a series of explosions and prompting anti-aircraft fire, as Iraq said 62 people had died in the bombing of the Iraqi capital in 24 hours.
President George W. Bush said U.S. and British invasion forces were advancing steadily on Baghdad as they battled "desperate" units of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime, while Iraq's leaders expressed their ultimate confidence in victory.
Four U.S. soldiers died when a man driving a taxi set off a bomb at a U.S. roadblock in southern Iraq, making it the first suicide attack on invasion troops.
Baghdad later said a suicide bomber who killed U.S. troops in central Iraq was a non-commissioned officer seeking to teach the Americans a "lesson" and warned of more such attacks to come. FoxNews says Sammy's he was going to give him two medals for that. Posthumously, of course. Taha Yassin Ramadan says they're going to use this as a tactic, and threatens the same in the USA.
A group of Iraqi deserters said Iraqi soldiers had been ordered by militias loyal to President Saddam Hussein to ride motorbikes packed with explosives into invasion forces and blow themselves up.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan denied that his country has received military assistance from Syria or Iran, as the United States has alleged.
Invasion forces said they destroyed a building which was hosting a meeting of some 200 members of Iraq's ruling Baath party in the Basra region.
Iraq's chief Muslim cleric pronounced a Fatwa, or religious decree, calling on the people to fight against the U.S. and British invasion forces.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the United States that Ankara would make up its own mind on whether to send troops into northern Iraq as Kurdish groups controlling the breakaway region advanced on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Another wave of demonstrations against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq rippled around the world Saturday with protesters continuing - sometimes violently - to show their anger and frustration at the continuing conflict.
Iraq rejected the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council to renew the "oil-for-food" program, which uses Iraq's oil revenues for food and medical supplies.
French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they wanted to "work together closely" on post-war Iraq, Chirac's office said.
Pope John Paul II said he feared the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could provoke a religious catastrophe in the world and said everything should be done to prevent divisions forming between different creeds. JP, it's not like a fanatical sect of one religion declared war on everybody else, is it? Oh. It is. Was it us? Didn't think so... So. Any ideas?
A British soldier was missing and presumed dead and four others were injured in an apparent friendly fire incident outside Basra in southern Iraq, the British ministry of defense said.
The tactic of setting oil-filled trenches ablaze around the Iraqi areas since the beginning of invasion has sent all missiles, aircraft and electronically-guided military equipment of the U.S-led invasion forces into full blindness by misleading their hit targets, a Tunisian expert said.
Chief UN inspector to Iraq, Hanz Blix said the inspectors' work "irritated" the United States as Washington had sought a UN resolution legitimizing a war on Iraq.
While accusing Washington of âstate terrorism policyâ in invading Iraq, North Korea declared it would make no concessions to end the ongoing nuclear crisis and pledged instead to build up its defense and fend off the kind of "miserable fate" that has befallen Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 07:06 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The tactic of setting oil-filled trenches ablaze around the Iraqi areas since the beginning of invasion has sent all missiles, aircraft and electronically-guided military equipment of the U.S-led invasion forces into full blindness by misleading their hit targets, a Tunisian expert said."
This guy is an expert? In what, underwater basket-weaving? He must be a Columbia graduate. Only the idiots in Baghdad would think that GPS-controlled missiles would be deflected by oil smoke. Sammy boy may think it keeps the US from seeing how much damage is done, but that, too, is a farce. We use full multispectral imaging techniques that can see just as well at midnight as they can in the day, and aren't even totally blocked out by another of those "once in fifty years" sandstorms.
Idiocy, sheer idiocy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 19:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Iraq's chief Muslim cleric pronounced a Fatwa, or religious decree, calling on the people to fight against the U.S. and British invasion forces.
#5
French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they wanted to "work together closely" on post-war Iraq, Chirac's office said.
Who invited Chirac to this party? Didn't he say he wanted no part of this war? Wouldn't that include 'postwar'? Anyone else think he smells profits????
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 0:50 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Saddams next trick up his sleeve will be,painting the fake tunnel on the side of a mountain,made famous by Willie.E.Coyote.
Certain units among US forces fighting in Iraq have forbidden journalists travelling with them to use Thuraya satellite telephones for reasons of operational security, a senior US commander said. "There are times on the battlefield when you need to ensure that no communications go out in order to shield your movement and your attack," Air Force Major General Victor Renuart told incredulous reporters at the US military's forward command headquarters.
The reporters might want to take that seriously, since the punishment might be an al-Samoud dropped in the vicinity...
US signal interceptors have sought to use satellite phone transmissions to locate Iraqi army commanders, and some analysts say that civilian phone calls could be used to guide bombs. Major General Renuart said he did not consider the ban on Thuraya phones, which use global positioning technology, as restricting the ability of the media to cover events. "I really see this more as a requirement for the operational commander to ensure that his movements are appropriately secured until such time as he's completed or begun that operation." Don't worry, some 'Yurp-peon reporter will whine about censorship.
He said that in certain instances unit leaders have asked reporters "embedded" with US troops not to use the phones in order to prevent information being communicated inadvertently to Iraqi forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 05:45 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
I'm leaving the headers for the two sections of this Guardian article â notice how the missiles being discussed are one and the same, though the Guardian writer won't admit it. Iraqi commander replaced after missiles go astray
The commander of Iraqi air defence forces in Baghdad has been strung up by his gonads replaced after Iraqi missiles went astray and hit the country's capital, Baghdad, said a spokesman for the prime minister, Tony Blair on Saturday. The spokesman said the source of this information came from intelligence reports. He stopped short of saying that the missiles had been responsible for the deaths in a marketplace in Baghdad last night, but US and British officials had suggested earlier in the day that stray Iraqi missiles could be to blame.
Missile in Baghdad marketplace kills 62
Doctors at Baghdad's al-Noor hospital have said that 62 people were killed in an explosion in a busy marketplace in the city last night. Iraqi officials claimed the carnage was caused by a stray coalition cruise missile, but there was no immediate comment at US central command in Qatar. Late last night, doctors at al-Noor hospital said they had seen 52 corpses, by this morning the reported death toll had risen to 58 and the latest reports indicate that deaths have risen to 62, with many more injured. H-e-l-l-o Guardian! Same missiles!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 05:35 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
oh, you mean those "missiles"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 18:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yah the crater sounded awfully small. Just how many civilian casualties in London, Berlin etc were caused by crap that went up that came back down
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 19:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I don't understand: Didn't these Iraqi missiles go just where they were supposed to go: right into the markets?
Sucks when you just follow orders.
#4
[I'm sure one of our armaments experts will correct me if I'm wrong here...]
TGA, if I understand correctly AA missles are designed to explode at a predetermined altitude (or possibly when they begin to descend) even if they don't encounter a target. This avoids the possibility of live rounds falling back to earth, and exploding there. But for this feature to work, the rounds must reach some minimum height. There's an AFP report that the Iraquis haven't been using much radar target detection (turning on radar tends to invite unfriendly HARMs), instead using manually directed "barrage fire", in hopes of hitting something. My guess is some of the rounds were aimed at such a low angle that they never achieved the minimum height necessary to activate the safety feature. Result: Live rounds fall on the city.
(Never confuse malevolence with stupidity.)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
03/29/2003 22:19 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Of course the UK/USA is going to suggest they think it was a stray Iraqi missle. You think they are going to own up? I would think the allied
intelligence might not really know...., seems they don't even know if Sadamm is alive or injured from the first bombs they dropped.
#6
Gee, anonymous, you sure do think we're bad guys, don't you? Ever seen the crater made by an explosion before? I've probably done more Bomb Damage Assessment than the entire Iraqi military.
Tomahawks make deep craters - 6-10 feet deep, and some 25-30 feet in diameter. That's a 500-lb warhead. JDAMS range from 460 lbs of explosives to over 3000 pounds. They also PENETRATE - 10, 20, sometimes even 30 meters deep. They DON'T explode on the surface. Regular 500-lb gravity-bombs usually are equipped with a fuse extender, so they explode aboveground. NO crater, just a pattern of blast about 400 feet in diameter. Makes HUGE dents in walls - as big as 6 feet across.
On the other hand, an SA-2 missile has a 1000-lb warhead, and spews out 46,000 ball-bearing size pieces of steel, each about an inch across. BIIIIGG blast area, lots of collateral damage (that's why it knocks airplanes out of the sky, not that it gets close enough to them to hit them). Really, really old technology, and not too reliable any more. SA-3, a slightly newer missile, only has an 85-lb warhead. MUCH smaller, but it's supposed to get closer, and do as much damage. The other missile system Hussein has is the SA-6, which is a mobile missile, but again, a small warhead.
The blasts that have occurred so far are most likely from the old SA-3 missiles, or from the SA-6. The SA-3 has a nasty habit of tumbling its gyros (yeah, it uses THEM), and ending up God knows where.
I've watched several of the photos taken of Baghdad during a bombing raid. I haven't seen any SA-2s being shot off (looks kinda like a flying telephone pole, and almost as big). I have seen numerous SA-3's going up (peculiar yellow flame unique to them, almost vertical launch), and a few SA-6s (greenish-yellow flame, go out then up).
The other possibility is 85mm anti-aircraft shells with proximity fuses. They're supposed to be able to reach up to 56,000 feet, and be quite deadly. Only, if they sit too long, the powder can begin to decompose, and maybe they don't go up very high. If they don't reach 5000 feet, the proximity fuse isn't activated, neither is the destruct circuit.
Hussein isn't using radar - use it, you lose it to a HARM or something else equally as nasty. Those are being saved until the last minute, if he has any left. He is throwing up a lot of anti-aircraft fire, usually after the bogie is long gone, and there's really nothing to shoot at. What goes up, comes back down. Shoot straight up, fall straight back down. Unguided missiles can do just about anything, including looping over and coming back down just where they were launched. It's a real 'treat' to be one of Sadsack's air defense boys...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 23:59 Comments ||
Top||
#7
TGA. He probably got the chop because he didn't kill enough of them. They probably wanted triple figure fatalities for broadcast on Al-Jiz.
Welcome back, by the way.
Voice of America (VOA) Kurdish Broadcast said here Saturday that the Kurdish forces are now eight km outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The US forces began their advance from 'Chamchamal' area towards the oil-rich city following heavy bombardment of the Iraqi positions by the US air force in the past 24 hours. It said the US forces are now stationed at the areas close to Kirkuk which have been taken over by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). It said the US forces are preparing for a wide-scale onslaught on the Iraqi troops aiming to secure the city. The radio said the US forces have faced little resistance as the Iraqis have vacated the towns on the way to Kirkuk and retreated to the city. Oboy. Another siege.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:29 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Forces of Ansar al-Islam, a group operating in Iraqi Kurdistan with alleged links to Al-Qaeda, left Tovailah and Biyarah Friday night after their strongholds were bombarded by a combination of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and coalition forces. "Run away! Run away! Live to fight another day!"
According to eyewitnesses in the Kurd region of the Iranian border strip of Paveh, some 70 Ansar al-Islam forces were killed during the attack by PUK forces and US-British warplanes on Friday. A number of PUK forces have been stationed in the border point overlooking Nosoud, in Paveh city. US-led coalition forces have bombarded Ansar al-Islam strongholds in Biyarah and Tovailah regions 16 times over the past seven days.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:19 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pro-Saddam special militias have suppressed some sporadic uprisings in Baghdad. According to IRNA correspondents, several popular uprisings broke out in a number of regions of the capital, including Al-Salehiya, Al-Mansour and Shola. The special militias immediately came to the scene and dispersed the people by shooting into the air. Saddam Hussein issued an order this week prohibiting Iraqis from leaving Baghdad amid heavy bombardments by US-led coalition forces in preparation for a ground attack on this tenth day of war. The Iraqi president intends to use his nation as a human shield against US and British attacks. Sporadic popular uprisings were reported last week in the southern cities of Basra (Iraq's second biggest city) and Faw, but this is the first time such popular uprising has reportedly taken place in Baghdad. The popular uprisings are expected to fan out as civilian casualties increase in number as a result of the US-led forces' unrelenting strikes on the capital and fleeing Iraqis are fired upon. Pro-Saddam militias, who operate with their faces covered and are known as Saddam Fedayeen, have reportedly executed three Baghdad residents for acting as spies for US and British forces in recent days. Pressure... More pressure...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:15 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
And I heard the other night that the Iraqi officials had rounded up three spies. I hope he was not one of them.
Posted by: Don ||
03/29/2003 17:05 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Could be his internet connection was, er, degraded by recent air strikes. Could also be that Saddam has disconnected his citizens from the internet.
#5
UrukLink is down. Since they have a state-run ISP, I assume everything's down. I've been worried ever since I heard that NPR and I don't know who else was giving all the details they had on Salam, though.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2003 20:50 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Guardian, the BBC and others ran stories on him. Wonder if they knew what this could mean to Salam.
Iraqi forces withdrew from Qarah Anjir region to the outskirts of Kirkuk, the commander of a main Iraqi opposition group, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told IRNA on Saturday. "The Iraqi forces have retreated 25 kilometers from Qarah Anjir area towards Kirkuk," Usman Assad said. According to latest reports, Iraqi forces started withdrawing from their frontline positions in Kurdish-controlled areas Thursday. Following their withdrawal, Kurdish forces have set up frontline war bases in Bani Maqem and Qarah Anjir. Meanwhile, US special envoy to Iraqi Kurdestan, Zalmay Khalilzad, recently said that US forces will take control of the key northern oilcity of Kirkuk themselves and Kurdish forces, which have been fighting side by side with them to expel Iraqi forces, would not be allowed to enter the city. That's a sop to the Turks. As far as I'm concerned, the Kurds can have Kirkuk as their new capital.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:12 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Turkey has no right to dictate where Iraqi Kurds may or may not live.
A senior member of the Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), Mohsen Hakim, here on Saturday denied any kind of relations between his group and Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday claimed that the Badr Corps, the military wing of the Iraqi opposition SAIRI, receives training in Iran by the IRGC and is armed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. "We will hold the Iranian government responsible for their actions and will view their activity inside Iraq as unhelpful," he added. I don't think he likes them...
Rumsfeld said US forces would consider Badr members found operating in Iraq as "combatants," although he said they have as yet to find any engaged in any hostile act towards coalition forces. "The entry into Iraq by military forces, intelligence personnel or proxies not under the direct operational control of US Forces Commander General Tommy Franks will be taken as a potential threat to coalition forces," Rumsfeld said. "Piss off. We'll let you know if we want you."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:10 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Edited
If you flush a toilet in Iraq, the water flows into sewers designed and built by French companies. My, how appropriate.
If you work on a farm there, the machinery you usedwas is likely to be supplied from France. This is because France works within the United Nation's oil-for-food program. Under the program, the UN keeps the billions of dollars that Iraq made makes from oil sales in an account. Iraq decides the companies it wants and the UN was is asked to approve the contracts. Iraq has strongly preferred dealing with France in recent years. And I'm sure we'll be finding out more details about this in the coming months.
The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, suspended the oil-for-food program before the war. Although the Security Council has let the UN manage it for another 45 days (to prevent the Iraqi people starving or dying for lack of medical care) there are doubts about how the program will operate if the US, Britain and Australia win the war. Doubts by whom?
France and Russia are opposed to allowing US control of the oil money, believing the US will use it to rebuild Iraq using mostly American and British companies. Something tells me we made that pretty clear before the war started USAid, the US aid agency, began funding American firms to handle some of the business of rebuilding Iraq. Other contracts, worth several hundred million dollars, are yet to be announced. US federal law requires that USAid contracts are granted to American companies, but those firms can sub-contract to international firms. SMH managed to spew usual doom and gloom about how Australian companies feared they wouldn't be able to compete with US and EU for these contracts, while simultaneously noting that ...
Mr Vaile said some Australian firms were well placed to contribute to postwar reconstruction. He singled out the construction firm Multiplex, "almost the contractor of choice" in the Middle East. The business markets revealing their expected outcome of the war and the future of the UN.
#1
Shit flows downhill, for the most part, as we say in sanitary engineering. I'm sure that there are alot of companies that can make most everything for the new Iraq that the French used to supply. Most things conform to int'l standards and dimensions. And I am sure that the US and Britain will spread the suppliers around to the coalition of the willing members. BTW, The Aussies make a dynamite toilet that is a great water saving design. The Iraqis will need milliions of new ones. Sorry, Chiraq, you screwed up and you will lose....big time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2003 18:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
a dynamite toilet brings unpleasant visuals to mind Paul ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"dynamite toilet"=="receptacle for excretions from suicide bombers"?
(ducks, runs)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
03/29/2003 22:28 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sorry for the venacular slip during wartime. Dynamite = well engineered, easy to install, sends my young son's "sea monsters" to davy jones like a champ!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2003 0:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The last people I'd want to design my sanitaion system would be those smelly Frenchies.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the deployment of 120,000 more troops to the Iraq war battlefront, the European edition of the American military daily Stars and Stripes reported Friday. Once the soldiers arrive, more than half of the US army and Marine Corps will be stationed in Iraq. The reinforcements will not be ready for combat for at least three weeks. The new troop contingent include the first soldiers from the heavily armored Army 4th Infantry Division, parts of the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. US military leaders had to adjust their war strategy following the fierce resistance of Iraqi military forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 04:00 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
US military leaders had to adjust their war strategy following the fierce resistance of Iraqi military forces.
Yup, gotta preposition forces for dealing with other "Axis of Evil" nations. New members being added daily.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 16:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I smell two more birds with one more stone.
Lets hope that those Useful Idiots in Syria & Iran decide to lash out....we could clean the cesspool out in short order.
#3
More like lift and stationing limitations. You can only jam so much stuff up along the Kuwait border before it is one big unmissable target. Punch forward now, so the follow on isn't a sitting duck in the assembly area. These commentators and writers will never get the concept. Will have to wait, but if and when the OPLAN is made public [less the Intel & NOFOR stuff], the historians are going to have a field day ripping big ones on all the talking heads, in and out of uniform.
Posted by: Don ||
03/29/2003 17:11 Comments ||
Top||
#4
2ACR is an interesting unit. They have been built for the purpose of fighting irregulars along a long line of contact. All Humvee w/TOW, with helicopter support and integral artillery. Light to lift, easy to resupply, extremely mobile. Add to that the doctrinal emphasis on scouting, small unit engagement, mobility, infiltration, screening and counter-infiltration, and also the training in those skill sets, they are far different from "Regular Army" units. Plus there is an Elan that goes with having a continuous history that goes back farther than any other active duty unit in the US Army (continuously active since 1836). I served there in the last war - see the regimental page and read up on the history.
http://www.jrtc-polk.army.mil/2acr/index.html
This is the unit that will shock the snot out of the Feydaheen and irregulars by beating them at their own game.
Shortened for relevance and re-ordered.
Baghdad has warned suicide missions against coalition forces will become "routine military policy", following a deadly attack against US soldiers on Saturday. Not that we haven't seen suicidal missions already. Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said an army officer had carried out the "martyrdom operation" which killed four American soldiers — the first such attack against US forces since the war began. The attacker — dressed in civilian clothes — drove a taxi to a checkpoint near the central city of Najaf and, as the soldiers approached it, detonated it. Iraqi television said President Saddam Hussein had posthumously awarded two posthumous medals to the war criminal suicide bomber — junior officer Ali Hammadi al-Namani. It said the attacker wanted to "teach the invaders a lesson in the same manner as our Palestinian martyrdom fighters".
So does that mean we can kill Sheikh Yassin? Or at least blow up his house?
"This is just the beginning," the Iraqi vice-president warned at a news conference in Baghdad. "It will be routine military policy. We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land," Mr Ramadan said. The BBC's Gavin Hewitt, who is with US forces in Iraq, says it is a worrying development for the troops, who are already having to contend with sniping and other attacks. The soldiers killed were from the US Army's 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, US Captain Andrew Wallace said. He said that when the driver stopped at the checkpoint, he indicated to the soldiers that he needed some help. "As they approached the car... he set off the bomb," he said. Major-General Victor Renuart at US Central Command said they were concerned about any kind of "unconventional attack" on US forces. "These kind of actions are symbolic of an organisation that is getting a little bit desperate," he said.
They're indicative of a terrorist organization...
Prior to the military campaign, there were warnings of possible suicide attacks. In mid-March, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told an Arabic television station that tens of thousands of Iraqi men and women were ready to be martyrs for any war against the American enemies.
#1
Their rapid appearance is equally significant. I would explain at length, but instead refer you to a post on my website: How is a Suicide Bomber like a SCUD? Recommendations for answering the inevitable braying of the "Quagmire!" crowd at the end. Don't worry: no call to prayer at the end.
#2
The attacker â dressed in civilian clothes â drove a taxi to a checkpoint near the central city of Najaf and, as the soldiers approached it, detonated it.
The projected lifespan of Iraqi cabbies just went way, way down.
*This guy is one of two journalists who ticked off the Iraqis and was ejected. Here's a few paragraphs about what he saw on his trip from Baghdad to Jordan.*
...after passing Iraqi military positions on the way out of the city, we saw no Iraqi forces whatsoever. At first, we couldn't tell who was in control of the highway. But less than 50 miles on, we ran into what looked like American forces. We stopped the car and got out, waving white handkerchiefs. We walked 100 yards to a position of what turned out to be Australian special forces, armed with artillery and about a dozen Humvee-type vehicles. *Huh? Special forces with artillery? By the way, note the "50 miles". I'm speculating, but now I'm wondering if the 3rd ID stopped exactly where it was supposed to stop when they got 50 miles from Baghdad.*
Despite the fact that they surrounded us, making us get down on our hands and knees as they searched us, we were delighted to see them. Once the Australians determined we were friendly, they were happy to see us too — and interested in how little military presence we'd seen exiting Baghdad. Then they sent us on our way toward Jordan. *Yeah, I'll bet they're very interested to hear information about the western approaches to Baghdad.*
The desert road was surreal, littered with the carcasses of dozens of burnt-out vehicles, including Iraqi armored personnel carriers with incinerated bodies inside. *Dozens of kills — that sounds good. It also sounds like the reporters couldn't resist poking around inside at least one of them. That's maybe not too smart due to unexploded ordnance and possible boody traps.*
We saw ruined bridges and what looked like the skeleton of a Syrian tourist bus. *Ruined bridges, but this guy mentions no problem with traversing the road — so the damage isn't too bad. And wasn't there something about a clobbered Syrian tour bus in the news recently?* Red Crescent vehicles passed in the other direction, ferrying medical supplies toward Baghdad. *They don't seem to be scared of our âvicious bombing campaignâ.*
At one point a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter bore hovered above, but it left us alone after making out the letters "TV," which we'd applied to the roof of our truck with black duct tape. *That's obviously a guess on the journo's part. But I'm still happy they didn't make the acquaintance of something that emits explosives or a lot of high-velocity lead.*
For 350 miles, we saw no Iraqi military presence at all. But at the border, Saddam loyalists were still in control of the Iraqi side — 200 feet from our nominal allies the Jordanians. Customs officials elaborately searched our bags and stamped our passports. They checked to see that the serial numbers on our computers matched those indicated on our entry documents — as if we were leaving some normal country. *Governments come and go, but the bureaucracy is immortal.*
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/29/2003 12:30 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Reading a report like this makes you wonder just how viable the Iraqi army still is. Also considering the distance from the Syrian/Iraqi border to Baghdad, we probably have electronic sensors that monitor traffic pretty well. Fish in a barrel sounds apt.
#3
I'd assume we do, but would hope that the burned out "jihadi human shield tour" bus was too far into Iraq to change the minds (as if....) of the following fodder volunteers. Fish in a barrel
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 13:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm sure there are a few "assets" along the way, to tidy up the mess here and there. Looks like Syria is trying hard to beat out Iran or NK for that number 2 spot.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 13:58 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Lotsa Arab lunatics are making a lot of noise about volunteering to head for Baghdad and fight the Great Satan. Got a feeling the insurance rates on Syrian tour buses just went way, way up.
SMH ran virtually this same story a couple days ago. We carried it here. This has a few more details, so I'm leaving it in.
Hey, I thought there weren't any al Qaeda in Irag - you weren't lying to us were you Sammy?
Al Qaeda fighters may be in southern Iraq, coordinating grenade and gun attacks on British forces in a town near Basra, it was reported last night. "The information we have received from POWs today is that an Al Qaeda cell may be operating in Az Zubayr. There are possibly around a dozen of them," a British military source in Iraq told a reporter for The Scotsman.
I'd guess they originated in northern Iraq, from one of the orgs associated with Ansar al-Islam...
British troops were believed to be planning a military strike on the Al Qaeda hideout. If the prisonersâ reports are true, they may provide a concrete link between Saddam Husseinâs regime and the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. Several links between Al Qaeda and Iraq have been reported previously:
In northern Iraq, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group called Ansar al-Islam is allegedly plotting suicide attacks on U.S. forces and has allegedly experimented with chemical weapons. Two members of an Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda cell were killed this week in a shootout between U.S. and Ansar al-Islam forces, and the groupâs base also has been bombed.
Reports say Ansar al-Islam has about 600 members â and it may be getting reinforcements from Al Qaeda cells in Chechnya and other regions, sources told The Post earlier this week. The group also is blamed for a suicide bombing Saturday that killed an Australian TV cameraman.
Two dozen "Al Qaeda affiliates" followed terrorist Abu Mussab al Zarqawi when he sought medical treatment in Baghdad, and remained there afterward, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations last month.
Both these points are describing the same thing. Ansar's a little piece of al-Qaeda, established in the Zagros mountains. It's made up of a Qaeda core, with muscle from local Kurdish Islamist groups. One of them is al-Tawhid, a branch of which is Zarqawi's hit team. It has branches in Europe â a HQ in Britain, and cells in Germany. Tawhid's "spriritual head" is Abu Qatada, who's been described as Binny's "ambassador to Europe," and who's also affialiated with Algeria's GAI. Zarqawi and Tawhid are also involved in Chechnya, where they've been training North Africans in chem warfare techniques â like the ricin cells found in Britain and France. The Kuridish forces tie some of Ansar's funding to Sammy in Baghdad, and they're reputed to have trained 200 or so of Sammy's fedayeen.
Posted by: Spot ||
03/29/2003 10:59 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ansar iswas a little piece of al-Qaeda...
Posted by: Brian ||
03/29/2003 17:13 Comments ||
Top||
That's 'destroy' as in 'destroy', thanks BBC.
British forces say they have staged a raid into the southern city of Basra to destroy a statue of Saddam Hussein. As many as six Iraqi tanks and more heavy artillery were also hit. The tank squadrons and armed infantry of the 7th Armoured Brigade met what was described as live resistance by Iraqi forces inside the city. Their aim, according to one senior British officer, was to destroy one statue of Saddam Hussein. But the ground forces reported back the destruction of two. The main statue was located in the centre of the city. The operation required tanks to move further forward inside the city limits before returning to their positions on the outskirts. The reported destruction of the statues represents another attempt by British forces in the south to target symbols of Baathist power and disconnect the party from the people. "This is a message to the people of Basra that these guys are consigned to history," one source said.
I'm not sure this is a good idea. For one thing, it's a waste of time and resources for something that's only symbolic. Let the Iraqis do it — he's their dictator. We should concentrate on catching and killing Bad Guys. Once enough of them are dead, the Iraqis will be happy to tear down all the Sammy statues and 20-foot portraits they can lay hands on.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/29/2003 05:12 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What the hell is it with the BBC and quote marks, anyway? Do they have a certain allotment they have to use every day? Sheesh...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2003 5:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I was wondering that myself with their quotes. They make everything sound so shady when it comes to the coalition.
Posted by: g wiz ||
03/29/2003 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Islam the religion of peace and sensitivity destroyed the Buddas Statues in March 2001. Now it's all coming back to haunt them. The Saddamites images of Saddam are being destroyed in turn. Bad Karma! In the Islamic religion it is written that all things non-islamic are offensive to Islam, thus they destroyed everything non-Islam. I guess this is the payback; Iraq turned to rubble! Just like the Buddas. Don't blame America (The great Satan); Blame yourselves!
Posted by: George ||
03/29/2003 8:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The BBC uses all the quotation marks because they don't want Reuters to have a monopoly on them.
Edited for relevance.
Five American soldiers were killed Saturday when a homicide bomber in a taxi detonated explosives outside the Iraqi city of Najaf, a U.S. military officer said. A taxi stopped close to the checkpoint, and the driver waved for help. As five soldiers approached the car, it exploded, Capt. Andrew Wallace told Associated Press Television News on Saturday. Wallace said the victims were part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Divison. The attack occurred at a U.S.-manned checkpoint on Highway 9, north of Najaf. The homicide bombing Saturday was the first against U.S. and British forces since the invasion of Iraq began.
Toldja they were going to do the intifada thang...
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/29/2003 04:06 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why would five soldiers simultaneously approach that taxi near a checkpoint?
#2
Who knows? But It won't happen again. I hope we're consulting the Israelis on how to deal with this sort of thing. Brits are used to dealing with car bombs and ambushes, but the IRA seem like regulars compared to the towel-head thundermonkeys.
#6
My God the midle east is a death cult, winning this thing could be worse the losing it in the long run. These people don't run to the sound of the cannon becuase they want liberty, its becuase they like the sound. Iraq under U.S. occupation will look like Israel on a grand scale. The religion is evil, there leaders are evil and death prevails. Beat them to a pulp and start over.
#7
Afghanistan and Iraq are places where what we consider normal values are turned upside down. This is just the reality of their societies. We Merkins are beating our heads against the wall trying to find a rational explanation. We need to learn from our mistakes (as tragic as many of them are) and deal with the realities of suicide/homocide bombers, shifting alliances based upon whim/greased palm, soldiers fighting w/o uniforms or through deception. That is the reality and the bad news. The good news is that we Merkans have a steep learning curve and can adapt quite quickly to the new realities of the Islamist shithole that is the middle east. We certainly do not want a large number of these nutcases in or near our or our allies' countries.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2003 11:02 Comments ||
Top||
#8
MEGA-DEATH DOCTRINE
Rantburg posters still support limited-war against Iraq, even though this is proven to be pure folly. As US troops have taken the first suicide-massacre hit, since 9-11, the President of Syria has been emboldened to incite these atrocities against Americans everywhere. As US troops prepare to start their dainty search of 1,000,000 houses in Baghdad, will common sense finally possess you people? Is it not reasonable to believe that the Fedayen could recruit 200,000 wild animals for their defense of Baghdad?
The BUSH-DOCTRINE of both diplomatic and military exportation of democracy and liberty to places where these are anathema, while imposing suicidal rules-of-engagement on intervention troops, is untenable. All the President has delivered is: election victories for Islamo-fascists in Pakistan and Turkey. How in the hell can this piece of hearts-and-minds' junk work?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html
Project ahead. Bush sent America's best to Iraq. And that includes selfless persons who left professions in order to serve Reserve ranks. Why deliver these people to suicide bombers and explosive rigged housing?
Common sense dictates that the following must occur: the governments of Iraq and Syria must be ordered to execute every member of the jihadi organizations, and submit to occupation in order to prove compliance. And this must be done under the threat of nuclear blackmail. Faced with a life or death choice, the peoples of these entities will quickly turn against their governments.
#9
Speaking of israelis, IIRC local suicide bombers are not desperate men on the street spontaneously deciding to blow themselves, but trained volunteers with rather large logistical needs (clerics, lecturers, bombmakers, safe-houses, drivers,...). So, perhaps, either Irak is using AAI kurds or AQ types, has a homegrown structure (but it doesn't support terrorism, does it?), or has received a few palestinian "specialists". I hope the remains of this bastard might be IDed.
#10
Screw it, now is the time to tell the whole middle east that they had better get their collective heads out of their asses or if they really want to keep this shit up that two places ain't gonna be there anymore. Any quesses which two
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
More news by the time you get up Saturday morning, I hope.
Four or five British soldiers were kidnapped in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday night, a British officer said on Saturday. "They were kidnapped there last night," the officer of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment said, without giving details. No further details anywhere I could find as of 2:35 am CST.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:38 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
British spokesman denies any soldier is missing. Oh, the agony... should one stop paying attention to al-Reuters rumours?
#2
A quickie newsblurb a few minutes ago on the tube said that five U.S. soldiers were killed in a suicide attack with an explosives-laden taxi at some roadside checkpoint.
#3
Reuters is deeply connected with the entire subversive plan the left is using to destroy America. Put Reuters on ignore for content, double check all reuters sources for confirmation, its an instrument of this war, make no mistake.
#4
Reuters is deeply connected with the entire subversive plan the left is using to destroy America. Put Reuters on ignore for content, double check all reuters sources for confirmation, its an instrument of this war, make no mistake.
Special CIA and U.S. military units are operating in Iraqi cities, trying to kill members of President Saddam Hussein's inner circle, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Those targeted include Baath Party officials and Special Republican Guard commanders, the newspaper quoted U.S. and other knowledgeable officials as saying. Well duh. Of course we're trying to take these guys out. It's the whole friggin' reason we're there!
Yeah. But don't tell anybody, 'cuz it's a secret...
Snipers and experts trained to plant house and car bombs are among those on the covert teams from the CIA's paramilitary division and the special operations group of the U.S. military, the newspaper said. It quoted one source as suggesting that at least some of the explosions seen and heard in Baghdad were not the result of aerial bombs and missiles but rather caused by bombs planted by the teams. It said CIA officials declined to comment. I can't imagine what they would say.
If they said anything at all, they should be fired.
The Post also said that CIA units and special operations teams are trying to organize tribal groups to fight the Iraqi government from the north. Groups operating quietly inside Iraq are also hunting for weapons of mass destruction and missile sites, helping to find targets such as the homes of Iraq's top leaders, and trying to find Iraqi defectors, the newspaper said. A 22-year-old U.S. policy bars political killings but the newspaper notes that since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has concluded that it does not prevent the president from lawfully singling out a terrorist for death by covert action. I knew they'd cite the presidential order.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:26 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is it just me or is is a bit odd that this is a Reuters piece in the Post quoting what seems to be a different account by the Post?
Posted by: B. ||
03/29/2003 4:15 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think it's very odd. What I find even stranger is that most radio and TV, that were once mildly to moderately anti-American, have pulled out all stops. Almost overnight, they jumped from "shading" to blatant propaganda.
Yesterday, on NPR, I heard them accept the use of human shields and fake surrenders as "asymetrical warfare". And he said, "they (the fierce Iraqi fighters putting up stiff, unexpected resistance) use our weaknesses as their strengths". You'da thunk he was going to talk about our humanitarian nature, but ...no....it was our stretched supply lines. It's not just NPR, it's almost ALL the major outlets. The propaganda is sooooo obvious, it would be humorous if it didn't cost lives. It's like they are so desperate right now, that they don't CARE what the consequences down the road for them will inevitably be.
#3
As I understand it, the 22-year-old U.S. policy NEVER applied to declared war situations.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 7:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
As I understand it, the 22-year-old U.S. policy NEVER applied to declared war situations.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 7:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Sir Christopher Hogg, the current Chairman of Reuters, was a trustee of the Ford Foundation (1987 to 1999). The FF is one of the major source of funds for NPR, which may explain why they present almost identical info.
#6
"Info" is interesting euphemism for "propaganda," which is pretty much NPR's exclusive output for over a decade. NPR is a line budget item that needs "ajustment." How could it complain when its funding is reallocated to Food For Peace?
#7
Just make notes and keep track. There needs to be some accounting by these sick donkeys after this is all over. The "hate America" crowd has had free reign for too long.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 12:11 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Dave D. 'they want us to lose period" Do these idiots realize that if we lose they lose. I'm afraid this is the start of a war of civilizations. A war between middle ages Islamists and the secular world. With no delineation between capitolist or communist
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 20:04 Comments ||
Top||
#9
CIA killings? *gasp*
If violence and strong-arming are such fixtures of the Arab world, why not reestablish these 'cloak and dagger' type offices in the Middle East, and around the world... Its about time we let the CIA regrow some TEETH!... Guys in trenchcoats doing shady things - hiring shady people to do still shadier things -- all because we live in a VERY shady world... I'd feel a lot safer knowing that we hadn't tied our intelligence agencies' hands when it comes to 'taking care of business' or actually, (heaven forbid) gathering INTELLIGENCE!...
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 2:14 Comments ||
Top||
U.S. commanders have ordered a pause of between four to six days in a northwards push toward Baghdad because of supply shortages and stiff Iraqi resistance, U.S. military officers said on Saturday. They said the "operational pause," ordered on Friday, meant that advances would be put on hold while the military sorted out logistics problems with long supply lines from Kuwait. The invasion force would continue to attack Iraqi forces ahead of them with heavy air strikes during the pause, softening them up ahead of any eventual attack on Baghdad, said the officers, declining to be named. Use of gas-guzzling armored vehicles has been restricted to save fuel and food is also in short supply. In one frontline infantry unit, for instance, soldiers have had their rations cut to one meal packet a day from three. Resistance from Iraqi militias fighting in towns along the advance lines has hampered the stretched supply convoys. I'm no military person, so someone has to tell me whether this is simply prudent, or whether it's a problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:23 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Notice how al-Reuters calls the liberation forces an "invasion force"... I'd take any of their "reports" with a few tons of salt.
#2
There has been no report of attacks against the supply lines. If it is true, it means the coalition forces have met less resistance than expected and went too far, too fast. This happened to the Allied forces in France in WWII.
Does anybody think Iraq losing faster that expected is a problem?
#3
It's simply prudent. Time to rest, resupply, perform maintenance on equipment, and refine plans.
So far in this war I've seen absolutely NOTHING that alarms me in the least other than the doom-mongering in the press.
For some of the reporters this can be chalked up to gross ignorance of military matters- so gross that it could have been largely alleviated simply by watching a few hours worth of the various Gulf War One documentaries that have aired recently on the History Channel.
For others, such as those from the BBC, it's a deliberate effort to paint events in the most pessimistic light possible, and it arises from malice and hostility toward either the US, or the military, or to George W. Bush. They want us to lose, period. And they're doing their best to bring that about by the same tactic used in Vietnam: wearing down the public's confidence.
And for some others, it's just sheer laziness. War is always full of surprises, many of them unpleasant. And one way to get a news story without doing any real work or thinking is just to wait for something bad to happen and then speculate anxiously about it in front of a TV camera on the nightly news. It's a nice way to fill air time without going to any real effort.
Sorry for the long rant, Fred...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2003 5:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
An operational pause is well within sop for a military operation.Securing lines of comunication,and resupply are absolutly vital.Of course we will be hearing the Talking Heads(not the band)saying that we are bogged down but that's just bull.
#5
Agreed Dave. I think the strategy that we've seen so far is brilliant, whoever thought it up: avoid the cities and head straight for Baghdad. You want to fight? Than you have to come out of the city. If you don't, all the better, we'll take care of you later. Saddam had to spread his thugs all over and out of Baghdad, so there's less to deal with once we get there. And I mean those black-hooded bad-asses that we've seen on tv lately. From what I understand the RG isn't allowed inside Baghdad.
For the media idiots anything with a casualty figure of greater than zero is a defeat, of course.
#6
Slowing this thing down is too our advantage, the left is busily spinning the angel that its taking too long, what a joke after spinning the slow down side when diplomacy was working, now they've switched to the hurry up angle because they want mistakes, and they know their side is running out of time.
#7
"soldiers have had their rations cut to one meal packet a day from three"
Spin, spin, spin. I saw an embedded reporter comment on this. He said they had plenty of food to last 3-4 days, but the re-supply rate at that time was only enough for one meal packet a day. Of course re-supply had just barely begun. Our guys were still eating all their daily meals.
I hate this f#*king tabloid journalism. Any reporter who distorts the truth to spin like this should be fired. The fact that they aren't speaks volumes about the whole industry. Between the malicious and the idiots, journalism is in a sorry state.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"soldiers have had their rations cut to one meal packet a day from three"
Spin, spin, spin. I saw an embedded reporter comment on this. He said they had plenty of food to last 3-4 days, but the re-supply rate at that time was only enough for one meal packet a day. Of course re-supply had just barely begun. Our guys were still eating all their daily meals.
I hate this f#*king tabloid journalism. Any reporter who distorts the truth to spin like this should be fired. The fact that they aren't speaks volumes about the whole industry. Between the malicious and the idiots, journalism is in a sorry state.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The boys are dog tired. The pace can not be kept at high tempo for extended periods of time. You try it. They need the sleep, 8 hours, to get back into good condition. Without adequate sleep, you start making stupid mistakes which cost lives. The equipment need a damn good cleaning after the sand of the road and the weather. You don't want it to break down right in the middle of the next impulse in the offense.
Posted by: Don ||
03/29/2003 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Steve, just remember its a pause in forward momentum only, it allows us to get supplies readt, maintenance done, close reconnisance done.
It not a 'cease fire' as some of the left media were calling it this morning.
It also does not apply to Saddam, who will still being pounded into dust from the air. Saddam was counting on us running into cities, now that we have delayed doing that, it means he's still expending people and ammunition, niether of which can be resupplied or reconstituted.
This is a prudent move, given the amount of distance we have covered in just about a week.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/29/2003 10:25 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Most of the comments above are right on. We do need a break. That will give us time to get the 4ID on the ground, and start moving them north. That will relieve some of the 101st for offensive operations. Everybody gets a night's sleep for a change, and maybe even a few minutes outside that %#%^$#^%$#^$^%$ chemical warfare suit. Hate those things! Work on getting equipment up to 100%, allow the intel guys to pick out the best attack routes, give the choppers a chance to blast away at static positions, and so forth.
You're also giving Hussein heart failure at the same time. "What are they up to, what do they plan to do next? How can we move against them? What should we do now?" Make him (or his subordinates, since there's a good possibility he's not making decisions at the moment)sweat. Make them worry themselves into an ulcer. Also give the people - the ordinary, everyday people of Baghdad - time to stock up on non-perishables and water for the next phase of the battle.
Most of all, give the talking heads an opportunity to screw themselves into the ground. These idiots need to be held accountable for their stupidity. I hope everyday America gets so disgusted with them, they turn their televisions OFF for the duration. No watchers, no reason to pay millions for that commercial air time, no way to keep a network on the air without sponsors. Kill several birds with one stone.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 13:02 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I am amused to no end by the hand-wringing and self righteous press. They were against the war from the start, then when we start this huge show, they expect victory and it has been a little more than a week since things started. For a historical perspective, we faced 6 months plus change of steady defeat in the Pacific before we started a limited holding action at Guadalcanal in August of 1942. Then we had months and months of warfare and then we got the 'Canal. Then we began to build on success and learn, and pretty soon we were accelerating. We have made some errors in judgement, and Turkey did not help, but we adjusted and went on. Suicide bombers and Chem Weapons are tools of the desparate. Even the majority of these Iraqi nutcases want to live.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2003 19:01 Comments ||
Top||
#13
If you look at the reports from the embeddeed reporters, they and the troopies don't seem all that concerned about it. Sounds like they appreciate the chance to rest, resupply and consolidate the supply lines. The hand wringers seem to either be at Centcom in Qatar, the op/ed pages of the Times and the Post, or the anchor desks in New York.
#14
Funny - how they call such attention to the fact that the MRE rations were cut from 3 to 1. Any military person worth his salt can tell you that one MRE has enough calories (somewhere around 3000) to sustain a man in combat for a day. They have merely lost out on variety and ability to eat extra out of boredom.
Trying to convince us that we are neglecting our own troops... silly...
Other than that, it sounds non-sensical to suggest that stopping to readjust supply lines is anything but a good idea!
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 2:20 Comments ||
Top||
A 5-month-old a baby named Flower lies in a wooden medical supplies crate, wrapped in a green Army blanket, her tiny feet bandaged and bloodied by bullet wounds. Her mother and father are dead. ``She's just a super trooper,'' said Sgt. Wendy Oehlman, in a dirt-caked room that serves as a makeshift pediatrics ward for the 86th Combat Support Hospital.
Over a frantic 24-hour period, the medical unit took in more than 100 casualties — wounded American soldiers, Iraqi prisoners of war and civilian victims of crossfire between the two sides, victims like Flower, the translation of her Arabic name. Near the baby girl, a 40-year-old woman wounded by shrapnel tried to explain in fractured English how her family had fled Baghdad, fearing U.S. bombings. On the road out, she said her husband, a shopkeeper, and her 15-year-old son, were killed in the crossfire by American troops. ``I want to go out of Iraq,'' she said, pronouncing her name as Ennom, but it was unclear where she and her two surviving children would seek refuge.
Flower's mother died cradling the infant in her arms. Now an aunt, sitting stoically on a bare wooden bed, would breast-feed her. Col. Harry Warren, the unit commander and an orthopedic surgeon who operated on the child, said both her feet had been lanced by a bullet and that she suffered a third wound to the side of her chest.
Another child, whose name was not known to hospital staff, was shot through the brain when U.S. soldiers opened fire on Iraqis armed with AK-47 rifles who charged them from a bus, Warren said. The incident happened near Nasiriyah on Wednesday. Both parents of the girl, who was 3 years old, were wounded in a firefight near Nasiriyah, where U.S. Marines are battling resistance, most of it from hardline supporters of Saddam Hussein. ``The younger they are, the harder it is. Her chances of survival were practically zero,'' said Capt. Robert E. Burnett, of New Orleans, who was supervising the triage when casualties begin pouring in by road and air on Thursday. When she died, the girl was placed side by side with a Marine killed in a vehicle accident.
``We exceeded what we were supposed to be capable of doing,'' Warren, of Houston, said of the chaotic 24 hours. ``I'm just as proud of what the medics did as anything the best doctors could do in the biggest hospitals in the world.''
Without warning, two Marine Chinook helicopters flew in casualties, the first with 30 wounded. Twenty-two others arrived in ambulances, followed by still others on Army Black Hawk helicopters. At the same time, the hospital was trying to evacuate wounded but stabilized American soldiers to a hospital in Kuwait. The field hospital's 10 doctors worked around the clock. Warren performed four surgeries between directing overall operations. Nurses, many of them women, calmed down initially fearful Iraqi citizens with gentle voices and a few phrases in Arabic like ``Where does it hurt?'' read off small plastic cards they carry. ``I consider my patients to be Iraqi civilians and enemy prisoners. They get the same treatment as Americans,'' Warren said. The woman who lost her husband and son agreed. ``Very nice,'' she said of the treatment that her surviving families members had received.
Warren said the hospital, now staffed by 180 troops, would be expanding and improving its care. Medical supplies are adequate for now — provided there are no more days with mass casualties. But some things had to be improvised — babies were being fed infant formula through surgical gloves fashioned to resemble nipples. An Iraqi ambulance and stretchers found on the air base were being used and more than 100 gas masks that were discovered could be donned by patients in the event of a chemical attack, Warren said. Oehlman, a 24-year-old nurse from Long Beach, Calif., said she only got emotional once - when she held a wounded youngster in her arms and said a prayer. ``Then I heard a kind of gurgle, and a few moments later she was dead,'' the nurse said sadly. ``She went to a better place.'' Wonder if the peaceniks know about this. Wonder if they actually think the Saddamites would do anything like this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:17 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
wiping away the tears....God Bless America!
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2003 6:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
...were killed in the crossfire by American troops.
Not to seem unsympathetic, but if they were caught in crossfire, how did they know that it was American troops? Or was this detail added by al-Guardian?
#3
We've always been one of the most compassionate military forces in the world. There are literally thousands of Vietnamese adults alive today that would have died as children without our medical intervention. My dad, in Germany during WWII, told stories of GI's giving half - or more - of their limited rations to starving German children, even in the midst of combat. The same stories are told of our occupation forces in Japan, and throughout our history. It's one of the things that sets us apart from others, and makes us great. It's always good to hear that it's still a part of our military culture.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 14:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yea, we're so compasionate. Tell that to the families of the over 600 Iraqi citizens dead now, and the over 4000 injured.
Posted by: someone who didn't vote for Bush ||
04/01/2003 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
A refugee camp on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border is empty. Bored customs officials have little to do but walk around the outpost's concrete buildings and smoke cigarettes. So far, the anticipated flood of refugees from Iraq has failed to materialize. In fact, Syrians officials said, most of the traffic has been in the opposite direction. ``Most of the travelers passing through are Iraqis returning to their country,'' said Sami Ibrahim, head of the customs office at the Tanef border crossing, about 187 miles northeast of Damascus. It's a little early for the good, decent Iraqi exiles to return to build democracy, so I'm guessing these returnees have something else on their mind.
Only 10 to 30 vehicles have crossed the border both ways in the past few days, compared to the hundreds that went through every day before the war. The Syrian government arranged Friday for reporters to visit Tanef and the nearby refugee camp set up in cooperation with the ineffectual United Nations. Work was ongoing at the camp of 100 tents, although no refugees had come. ``There are more Iraqis going back, very few who are coming from Iraq,'' said Munir al-Ali, director of public relations and foreign media at the Information Ministry. ``They want to hunt elk defend their homes, their country,'' he said. No Iraqis were seen crossing into Iraq during the reporters' tour. Those who came from Iraq, however, promised to return very soon. Just as soon as Sammy's gone!
Ali Jassem crossed into Syria with his family of five squeezed into a white and orange taxi. He said they were coming for a prearranged family reunion and would be returning to Baghdad in a week. But suitcases and other belongings piled atop the cab suggested otherwise. ``Presents,'' he grinned when asked about the baggage. ``We are not escaping anything. We are Iraqis, we are not afraid. Sure, there is bombing but we are defending our country.'' "We can defend it a lot better from Damascus!"
Iraqis may not be the only ones heading to Baghdad. Al-Ali said he wasn't aware of other Arab nationals entering Iraq from Syria to support the Iraqis, but added: ``I believe authorities would allow anyone who wants to cross to do so.'' They're free to cross; we're free to bomb them. Wonder if we have any SF in the area doing a little spotting? "Eagle Four, we got a shabby white Toyota with a bunch of elk hunters, east on the main highway."
"Copy that, Blue Eyes, they gotta elk license?"
"Negative, Eagle Four, I say negative, no elk license."
"Put the red dot on 'em, Blue Eyes, I'll deliver the renewal."
Suheil Sabbah, a 50-year-old doctor from Lebanon, came to Tanef with his wife to check whether their son had crossed the border. Wael, 19, left a note at home Monday saying that he was going to Iraq to be a wayward son ``human shield'' with five of his goober friends. ``He is doing what I should have done. It is an honorable thing,'' Sabbah said. Stupid, yes, honorable?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 01:55 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Two men suspected of involvement in November's suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya have "escaped" from police custody. The escape took place about two weeks ago but has only just been revealed. The men were on their way to Mombasa airport to be transferred to Nairobi, the nation's capital, for further interrogation. Kenyan newspapers reported that several Kenyan police officers had been detained in connection with the escape. One of the officers held was so badly treated in custody that he needed hospital treatment. That sounds about right...
National security chief Chris Murungaru announced the detention of the policemen at a news conference this week, but only said they were in custody for their apparent failure to properly execute their duties. Now, was the $20 that Arab slipped you really worth it, awfulcir?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/29/2003 10:46 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
An Iraqi terror team armed with millions of dollars tried to get smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico to Crawford, Tex. — the site of President Bush's ranch, a law enforcement source said yesterday. The alarming attempt to infiltrate the country occurred this month. It is not known what the Iraqis planned to do in Crawford, but Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate Bush's father, the former President George Bush, in 1993. Duh, they wanted his autograph? They wanted to go drinking with Jenna and Barb? "It is not known". Good grief.
The unidentified Iraqis wanted to hire coyotes smugglers to sneak them into the U.S. because they "wanted to get to the Crawford ranch," according to the well-placed law enforcement source. They also asked a Mexican doctor and a lawyer named Claudio to change about $100 million in Iraqi dinars into U.S. currency — about $325 million. That's a lot of cash, even for a doctor and a lawyer! I'd be looking into those two.
Secret Service officials would not comment yesterday about the possible threat or the suspects' whereabouts. The current President has not forgotten the attempt to kill his father. A red-faced Bush recently reminded a visitor of the 1993 plot by Saddam, and said, "The SOB tried to kill my dad."
Wasn't that in October? Maybe September? Guess it depends on your definition of recently...
Iraq's attempt to infiltrate the U.S. came to light as U.S. officials announced they had thwarted Iraqi-sponsored terrorism in two foreign countries, as well as plots directed at U.S. targets. "There are two countries where operations have been compromised, and we have information on plots in other countries," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. I think that's a reference to the aborted diplo attacks in Jordan and Yemen.
Department officials declined to say whether the Mexico report had any connection to those Iraqi terrorist plots. Walks like a duck ....
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 06:49 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Time to get a few Apaches together - not the helicopter, but the Native Americans. Turn them lose, tell them they can keep anything they confiscate, but it can't be from an American citizen. That border will become so unpopular not even a sidewinder would try to cross it.
Time to stop playing by the book - especially a book written by an idiot and published by a moron.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 19:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Maybe they were just trying to speculate on the dip in value of Iraqi "Saddam" Dinars? yeahhhhh riiigghhtt
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hold on. "...change about $100 million in Iraqi dinars into U.S. currency-about $325 million." What I recall from Salam Pax is that it's about 1,200 dinars or more to the dollar. Please redo the math Mr. Writer or get a new editor.
Posted by: michael ||
03/29/2003 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I guess this explains why Mexico shifted 18,000 troops to the border region a couple of weeks ago.
Posted by: B. ||
03/29/2003 20:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
What is more... the biggest Iraqi dinar note in circulation (and not much of it) is 10000 dinars. Actually the current exchange rate is about 3000 dinars for 1$ these days. So the largest Iraqi bill is worth 3 dollars.
Ok now try to carry $100million in 3 dollar bills into Mexico (in trucks from Iraq???) and try to find an idiot willing to change dirty toilet paper into real money.
Ok that was a good laugh!!!
#8
I can see it now... "gee, thats a lot of money, but should I really help these guys? -- maybe I don't like Americans too much, but helping Iraqis carry out terrorist acts?"... lol - kinda like wondering whether or not you should put your head under an elephant's butt while he's sitting down!
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 1:29 Comments ||
Top||
For three consecutive days in recent weeks, oil stopped flowing through the pipeline from north-east China to North Korea, temporarily cutting off a vital lifeline for Pyongyang. The shutdown followed an unusually blunt message from China to its long-time ally in a high-level meeting in Beijing last month, sources said. Stop your provocation about the possible development of nuclear weapons, China warned its neighbour, or face Chinese support for economic sanctions.
Ummm... That's blunt. Guess the Chinese realize that their vaunted subtlty is lost on the NKors...
Such tough tactics show an unexpected resolve in Beijing's policy towards Pyongyang and hint at the nervousness of Chinese leaders about North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the reclusive state's tensions with the US, the Baltimore Sun reported. With the Bush administration asking China to take a more active role, the application of pressure could convince North Korea to drop its demands for talks exclusively with the US — a demand rejected by Washington. Analysts say China is increasingly concerned that a nuclear-armed North Korea would destabilise the region. "When you talk with Chinese officials, ask them, 'Are you okay with nuclear weapons in Taiwan? In Japan?'" Mr Park Syung Je, a North Korea expert at the Institute for Peace Affairs in Seoul, told the newspaper. "I don't think so."
With NKor frothing at the mouth and waving nukes, they'll be seeing both of those bad dreams come true within a relatively short time. And being genuinely industrialzed states, both Japan and Taiwan could whip them up in considerably less time than it's taking the Koreans...
Two sources — both veterans in diplomacy with North Korea — said that last month Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi met North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in Beijing and made a strikingly candid plea for Pyongyang to curtail its provocative behaviour. If Pyongyang did not, Mr Wang told the North's minister, China might drop its long-standing position against sanctions. The exact wording of that threat is unknown and it is not clear how seriously Mr Paek took the threat. But the pipeline shutdown that followed would have caught North Korea's attention.
#1
Jeebus! I think the combination of 1) Japanese spy satellite 2) speculation about Japan acquiring nukes 3) continued low-key American resolve 4) complete disinterest on the part of the UN (doing good when they do nothing!) is paying off.
Looks like that dumb cowboy has out-foxed the critics once again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
#3
That should've got their attention. Pretty soon, Rodong Singmun, in a signed KCNA article will threaten army-based retaliation against the whole world
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 21:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Kofi and the UN don't give a rats ass about NK. There is no money in it for them. They would have to start an oil-and-food-for-nothing program.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2003 0:52 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Rodung Shitbum, in a signed commentary warned the Chinese not to go reckless and run amuck. It goes on:
Just kidding.
Polling has begun in two by-elections in Zimbabwe, with voters complaining of intimidation by militants from the Zanu-PF party of BobPresident Robert Mugabe. Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have exchanged allegations of violence during campaigning which human rights groups say has left hundreds of people injured. More than 500 people stood in line at one polling booth in Harare an hour after it opened, complaining that ruling party supporters were jumping the queue. "Zanu-PF bully boys youths are milling around at the gate asking people about their party affiliations and generally being intimidating," said one man. Elections, Mugabe style.
The opposition MDC has accused Mr Mugabe's party of planning to rig elections in the two constituencies, which were won overwhelmingly by the opposition at the last general election. It alleges that up to 19,000 extra voters have been registered improperly to boost support for Zanu-PF. On Friday, the haplessEuropean Union condemned "unprecedented government-sponsored violence" against the opposition in Zimbabwe. It accused President Mugabe's government of arbitrarily detaining and torturing hundreds of opponents. It also said the Zimbabwean people had a constitutional right to protest peacefully and called on the government to respect that right. Who's going to enforce this? The EU?
The opposition has accused the authorities of trying to prevent the area's genuine residents from voting by distributing rare commodities such as sugar, maize meal and cooking oil stained with indelible ink. In order to prevent people voting more than once, voters has required to dip their finger in indelible ink when they cast their ballots. Anyone with indelible ink already on their hands is not allowed to vote. Effective, nasty trick: you can eat or you can vote.
One of the parliamentary seats at stake in the by-elections came vacant when the sitting MP died in police custody. A leader of the pro-government militants who have been occupying farms is one of the candidates for his seat. At the same time, the government is seeking the arrest of opposition leader and heroMorgan Tsvangirai on charges of causing civil unrest. He is currently on trial for plotting to assassinate President Mugabe — a charge he denies — but is free on bail. Home Affairs Chief Thug Minister Kembo Mohadi accused Mr Tsvangirai of using his freedom to incite democracy violence against the government and he urged the judiciary to detain him. Wonder if the EU will even bother to issue a condemnation this time, or whether the French will block it.
Send them some hand lotion and tell them to shut up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 06:00 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
jeebus what a hell hole. Why aren't Nelson and Desmond and Jimmy out there monitoring the vote ?
It's no fun unless they can criticize the U.S. or Jeewwwsss. Hypocritical aholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2003 18:15 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Keep it up, Bob. I can hardly wait for "Concert for Zimbawe". Might want to cut down on the Hitler quotes though if you want to draw the real big bands.
#3
What good fun!... Why don't we air drop in some small arms and ammo -- put the whole mess on satellite TV, grab some popcorn, and watch 'em blow each other up -- anything but another half-assed Clintonesque Somalia 'humanitarian' effort.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 1:00 Comments ||
Top||
Israel's Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, has told the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, that Israel is interested in restarting peace negotiations with the Palestinians for the first time in more than two years. I guess, contrary to peacenik proclamations, the Israelis aren't going to take the opportunity to gas and murder all the Paleos.
Mr Shalom's words follow intense speculation in the Israeli press about new talks. He said the appointment of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, made new talks possible. The Israeli government has been refusing to speak to Yasser "Babywipes" Arafat, who is now supposed to be incoherentwell into his dotage marginalised. But international diplomats and observers are as usual sceptical. They point to the contrast between the talk from Ariel Sharon's government and its deeds on the ground. President Bush's promise to release the "roadmap" peace plan when a new Palestinian prime minister was named has been largely forgotten in the midst of the Iraq war. Abu Mazen was appointed more than a week ago, yet the roadmap remains unreleased. "The issue is the release of the roadmap," said one international diplomat. "It is the format for any talks." If you guys really want to talk, don't wait for us. Talk.
The peace plan, drawn up by the Middle East "quartet" — the US, Russia, the hapless European Union and the more hapless UN — is based on President Bush's call for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and calls for one to be established within three years. But the Israeli government is pushing hard for more than 100 changes to the peace plan, including dropping all references to an "independent" Palestinian state. Unnamed Israeli sources have been busy briefing that Israel has drawn up an alternative plan if its changes are not accepted.
Sounds like the same negotiating tactics the Paleos have been using. I guess they've learned, huh? Oh. That's right. Peres is out...
And while all eyes have been on the war, Mr Sharon's government has been creating new "facts on the ground". It has announced plans to reroute its new "security fence" — known by lefties as "Israel's Berlin Wall" — so that it will cut deep into the West Bank in order to put Jewish settlements on the Israeli side of the fence. This was expected.
The Israeli government says the fence, a series of concrete walls, watchtowers and fences, is designed to stop Palestinian splodydopes suicide bombers and other thugs militants crossing into Israel. But Palestinians and international observers fear it is intended to become a new de facto border, vastly reducing the territory on which Palestinians want to form a state and cutting Palestinian farmers off from their best agricultural land. As one diplomat said: "Essentially, if you have the wall you can't really have the roadmap, and if you have the roadmap you can't really have the wall." Should have honored yer word in Oslo, "Babywipes."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 05:49 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Gee all these homocidal maniacs want to kill me and I try to protect myself and I'M THE FREAKIN' BAD GUY
On the other hand THE ZIONIST LANDGRABBING.....
It makes one want to put all of the idiots in a locked room with .45s
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/29/2003 19:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yasser marginalized? Try virtually vaporized. Think it's time for him to head to Paris (oh, can you imagine the reception at DeGaulle) to count the graft with Sura? Or do the Israelis keep him cooped up in his room?
Chechen rebels killed six Russian soldiers and two riot police Saturday, only days after voters approved a Moscow-backed constitution that cemented the breakaway republic to the Russian Federation. The Kremlin had advertised Sunday's referendum as the beginning of a peace process for Chechnya. But the violence continued this week. So much for the referendum.
Since Friday, Russian federal outposts came under rebel fire 16 times, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Saturday. Rebels also clashed with riot police in Vedeno on Friday, killing two police officers. Two rebels were detained, the official said. Land mines, meanwhile, killed three soldiers and wounded six others. The military bombed suspected rebel bases and federal forces rounded up at least 140 people in sweep operations, which have been sharply criticized for widespread abuses. Earlier this week, Russia's foreign minister called on international organizations to help rebuild the war-shattered region. Hello? Hello? Vlad? Sorry, can't hear you! Rebuild? Yes, we want international support for rebuilding Iraq. Where? Not Iraq? Where? Hello? President Vladimir Putin also called for a new amnesty law for rebels and an agreement outlining the clear division of power between Chechnya and the federal center. "Here's the agreement, you Chechnan dogs citizens: we have the power. You shut up or we shoot you."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 05:39 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Here's some news to cheer you up
A conservative group filed complaints Friday against French President Jacques Chirac, demanding that international police investigate his alleged role in unlawful proliferation of nuclear technology and arms trafficking. Judicial Watch's complaints, which are based on news accounts, also allege violations by French officials, politicians and corporations of United Nations trade sanctions imposed against Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and of the U.N. ''oil-for-food'' program. The complaints to the International Criminal Police Organization and the European Police Office reproduce a 1975 photo of Saddam Hussein then vice president of Iraq touring a nuclear power station in France with Chirac, France's prime minister at the time. ''French industry and business has aggressively and consistently pursued business opportunities with Saddam Hussein's Baathist Party-controlled industry and economy of Iraq, with the blessings and endorsement of the French government,'' the complaints stated. Up against the wall, Frog
Posted by: Spot ||
03/29/2003 11:16 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's not to say that we shouldn't clean our own house first. There are far too many "hate-America-first" idiots on our own soil who have been allowed to do serious damage to our nation. Need a really thorough fumigation once the attack on Iraq (and ancillary actions) quieten down a bit.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2003 14:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I was struck by how many ways the current day smacks of the 30's, with european socialism/communism, especially in France and Spain, influenced the elites of Europe. Pacifism, socialism, environmentalism and nihilism have united with anti-Americanism to produce a particularly noxious brew. The tragedy is that intelligent people here think that a complaint filed with Interpol or the IACP will do something to Chirac. Better just to boycott French products, avoid tourism that benefits them, and keep a long memory.
#3
yo Patriot: you guys seem to believe that disagreeing with the government means being "anti-American", but if you really believe in what democracy stands for, you would be able to allow citizens to actually disagree and then not be labeled unpatriotic. It's bad enough that this country is being run by an unelected president and his corporate buddies, but we can be grateful that it is not being run by the likes of Old Patriot. If it was up to you, all rights of citizens that don't agree with you would have to be "fumigated" as you say, especially the right of desent. Shame on you.
Posted by: someone who didn't vote for Bush ||
04/01/2003 19:17 Comments ||
Top||
North Korea vowed on Saturday to resist all international demands on the communist state to allow nuclear inspections or agree to disarm, saying Iraq had made this mistake and was now paying the price. "The DPRK would have already met the same miserable fate as Iraq's had it compromised its army-based? revolutionary principle and accepted the demand raised by the imperialists and its followers for "nuclear inspection" and disarmament," the ruling party daily Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary. No, we would have left you content to eat grass and twigs.
"The DPRK will increase its self-defensive capability and fully demonstrate its might under the uplifted banner of the army-based policy," Rodong Sinmun said. I knew I'd see "army-based policy sooner rather than later.
A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry declined immediate comment.
What can you say, after a classic outburst from Rodong Sinmun? I usually just take a pill and lie down...
Earlier on Saturday, South Korea's unification minister sought to calm frayed nerves on the peninsula by assuring a parliamentary committee the United States has no intention to attack North Korea. "Concerns felt by the (South Korean) public and voiced by the media of a potential U.S. attack on North Korea are not based on true facts," another Unification Ministry official quoted Minister Jeong Se-hyun as telling lawmakers. More like based on delusional rantings from up north, but I guess he couldn't say that.
"There has been no mention by U.S. government officials of an attack against North Korea," Jeong was quoted as saying. Pyongyang insists any nuclear program it has may have would not be purely defensive in face of what it perceives as a U.S. military threat to its very bleakmeager existence. The goofysadisticstarvinghare-brained impoverished Stalinist state has embarked on a campaign to force Washington to enter direct talks and negotiate a non-aggression pact. Washington prefers a multilateral approach. "Why, we can't be unilateral about this Kim, think of the trouble we'd get into at the UN!"
Meanwhile, high-ranking South Korean officials sounded out major powers for a peaceful resolution to Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. In Washington, South Korea's Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan met Secretary of State Colin Powell and suggested that the United States take the initiative toward North Korea along the lines of the Nixon administration's overtures to communist China in the 1970s. Powell told reporters after his meeting that Yoon had given him a good laugh some ideas to deal with North Korea, but Washington still thought a multilateral forum was the best idea. Time is on our side, thanks.
Seoul's Defense Minister Cho Young-kil met his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba in Seoul on Saturday and reiterated South Korea's policy of dealing with North Korea through talks. Relations between the two Koreas, locked in a tense standoff since the 1950-53 Korean War, warmed significantly in 2000 when the South's then president, Kim Dae-jung, bought and paid for held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Subsequent rapprochement efforts slowed to a trickle after President Bush took office the following year signaling a more hard-line approach to North Korea. He later bracketed the isolated Stalinist state together with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil," accused of seeking to acquire and spread weapons of mass destruction. So far he's been right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2003 02:29 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why are we feeding these guys? Or rather, as I understand it, why is the US feeding these guys? They'll be less army-based, more dead-based or farmer-based if we weren't propping up these f*ckwits.
#2
Bulldog, it's just another example of what nitwits we (the U.S.) can be after yet another unfinished U.N. war. Not only should we not be feeding them, but we should also not be allowing them to ship arms. The war isn't over. We should be sinking every ship that leaves NK carrying weapons. And SK is prosperous enough that they need to be totally defending themselves on land.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/29/2003 8:12 Comments ||
Top||
#3
the same miserable fate as Iraq's Heh! Even the NKOR's are acknowledging Iraq's fate. That's a good sign.
#4
In 1981 Israel destroyed Osiraq and the delayed Saddam's nuke program by 5 - 10 years. In 2003, Amewrica will probably have to hit Yongbyon and Taechon.
#5
Where's Jacques and Dominque on this issue? Or is NK too poor to offer them any lucrative contracts?
Posted by: Matt ||
03/29/2003 11:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Sheesh - I served in S.Korea for a year with the AF -- the people want reunification... They DON'T like Kim Jong-il. One would think they'd get a clue and try to rid themselves of that awful bastard so they could open up those new N.Korean markets and cheap labor pools! Pull your heads out of your asses S.Koreans - the Germans had decent men on both sides of the fence when they took the wall down -- Kim Jong-il MUST be told that his (and his familiy's) 15 minutes are up.......
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2003 2:33 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
