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| Iraq | |
| U.S. crackdown nets more insurgents | |
| 2003-12-21 | |
| Looks like Reuters is getting a clue. A report remarkable for its factual tone - EFL U.S. troops have intensified a crackdown on anti-American insurgents across restive central Iraq after score-settling killings raised fears of more violence in the south of the country. Only one U.S. soldier is known to have been killed by hostile fire since the announcement of Saddam’s arrest. Saddam loyalists and Islamist fighters have killed 200 U.S. soldiers since Washington announced an end to major combat on May 1. You mean it looks like things are improving? Western security sources warn that the threat of attacks has not diminished. Intelligence indicates more attacks are planned against U.S. and Western targets in Iraq over the Christmas period. Of course things can’t get better. They have to get worse. A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad shortly before midnight, just missing a U.S. patrol and slightly injuring two Iraqi passers-by. Mmm! Maybe those Isreali devices really work. Witnesses said on Sunday U.S. troops were conducting a second day of house-to-house searches in the town of Rawah, close to the Syrian border. Soldiers manning checkpoints were stopping cars from entering the town. Residents said scores, some former Baath party members, had been arrested. Witnesses in the town of Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, said five people were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on a number of houses. In the defiant town of Samarra to the east, the U.S. military said on Saturday night 111 people had been arrested within 48 hours as part of "Operation Ivy Blizzard" to flush out guerrillas. It said 15 of those arrested were targeted as prominent figures in anti-U.S. activities throughout the area. Caches of weapons and ammunition were also seized.
I am really curious about the Spanish public's current attitude to the participation in Iraq. Anzar went out on far more of a limb than any of the other military participants. I respected Bush, Blair and Howard over the decision, but I admire Anzar’s stand. He had everything to loose. Any Spanish readers of Rantburg? | |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #6 If he retires soon, he could do the world a lot of good by staying involved in South America. Portugal could help as well. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-12-21 11:49:11 AM |
| #5 pulse emitters that trigger the IED bombs (supposedly) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-12-21 8:43:06 AM |
| #4 I must have missed it: What Israeli Devices???? |
| Posted by: SamIII 2003-12-21 8:12:47 AM |
| #3 Indeed. Under Anzar, Spain has been reaching out to Latin America more frequently and with greater success than his predecssors. Those south of our border have many suspicions and resentments regarding the US, some deserved and many the result of their own history. Anzar has quietly oriented Spanish foreign policy to serve as a mentor and trading partner to these countries. Combine this with the Spanish - US alliance from the Cold War and you get another reason why Spain is not in the Axis of Weasels. I think Anzar also looks at the Alhambra and other evidences of Arab conquest in Spain centuries ago and is determined that his country will not go in the direction that France and some other European nations are drifting. But I worry about what will happen when he leaves office shortly ..... |
| Posted by: rkb 2003-12-21 8:07:33 AM |
| #2 Ptah - I think there is more to it than that. I've spent time in Spain and love the country. Get off the beaten track and its a really cool place, but the dynamic is tradition versus the future. I think Anzar is looking towards the future and sees the future as a trans-atlantic European western periphery and the Americas as core around which the future of the world is made. Spain is on the border of the (arab) world of the past and I think this makes him see things with more clarity than those of us further away from the border. Aznar is a man of serious principle. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-21 6:24:57 AM |
| #1 Anzar's got a damn big pair, although you can chalk up his support to Spain's long experience fighting the Basque separatists. Terrorists tend to sit down and swap more than just notes and elegant turns of phrases to put into their Revolutionary communiques: the IRA taught the Paleos a thing or two about bomb making, and I'm waiting for the first evidences of terrorist gangs using missile technology from the Paleos. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-12-21 5:59:40 AM |