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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Battle for Baghdad begins |
| 2005-05-31 |
| May 30, 2005: The government's promised "ring of steel" around Baghdad began on Sunday, and, as expected, the terrorist groups began trying to get out of town before that. Help! Help! We are being repressed! Thus the weekend saw much violence, with some fifty people, mostly civilians, killed in attacks and fighting concentrated in and around Baghdad. There were several gun battles between gangs of terrorists and the police. Operation Thunder began with loud noises, and Iraqi police and soldiers appearing everywhere in town. Surprise Akmar! The terrorists are cornered and, increasingly, having their hideouts and workshops discovered and destroyed. While May has seen, so far, over 700 Iraqis (mostly civilians) killed by terrorist attacks, over three hundred terrorist suspects have been killed in May, and over a thousand arrested. This past weekend, over 500 terrorists suspects were taken into custody, and over a dozen terrorist locations raided. Hundreds of weapons, and much bomb making material was seized. A lot of cash is being found. Last week, one raid grabbed six million dollars in American currency. HOLY CRAP! And we will see this in the MSM when? Oh right. Never. The cash is considered as important as the weapons and explosives. Most of the terrorists do it because they are paid. Even the suicide bombers themselves, who are nearly all foreign volunteers, require cash to keep them fed, hidden and attended by paid "minders" who make sure the "martyrs" don't change their minds. Sounds like the political officers of the Soviet Union The number of tips from civilians is increasing, partly as a result of more Iraqi police and soldiers on the streets. But even American troops are getting more tips, because after two years of operating in Sunni areas, the Americans have built personal relationships with locals, and that has led to information about where roadside bombs are hidden, and who put them there. All that candy I sent over last year put to good use. Excellent. Iraqi cops are getting tips on where the foreign terrorists are hanging out, but these guys often get away before a raid can be conducted. This is because of cops, bribed by the terrorists, to warn of raids. This is one reason for the ring around Baghdad. This gives the terrorists no place to run. The dirty cop tipping off the terrorists will be less effective, and the police SWAT teams are just roaming around, ready to move immediately when a tip comes in, making it more difficult for terrorist spies to compromise the raid. Sounds like what the Feds did to the mob in the 1920s The government expects the terrorists to be much less capable in June, and for the death rate among Iraqi civilians to be a lot lower. The death rate in May was about three times what it had been for most of the past year. Most of the dead are in central Iraq, where Sunni Arabs working for the government, and Shia Arabs in general, have been attacked. But over a million Sunni Arabs live in northern and southern Iraq, in areas where Shia Arabs or Kurds are the majority. A general uprising against the Sunni Arabs would result in great slaughter among the Sunni Arabs. Most Sunni Arab leaders, aware of this danger, have been offering to cooperate with the government, but there are dozens of Sunni Arab religious leaders who continue to preach support of the terrorism. Some of these preachers are getting assassinated, and the majority of Sunni Arab leaders are not too upset about it. It's suspected that some of these hits were ordered, and carried out by, Sunni Arabs. Cleaning their own house. Gotta love it! By the end of the June, look at the number of people the terrorists have killed and compare it to the nearly 800 killed in May. That will tell you how successful the battle for Baghdad was. Go Iraq! |
| Posted by:mmurray821 |
| #11 .com I think you hit the nail right on the head. It may take a couple more 9/11's before the idea sinks into some peoples minds that they are all out to kill us or make us their slaves. Some will simply never get it and will continue crying 'Impeach Bush' and 'Can't we all just get along' until the very end. Its been spelled out in the Koran for over a thousand years -- written there by an insane pedophile murderer and rapist every bit as bad - even worse - then Hitler ever was. The only difference is that nobody stopped deranged Mo before his special kind of sickness grew to what it is today. I think we will have to try to treat this particular cancer for a while more before we go get the knife. Some cancers have to be cut out. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-05-31 22:41 |
| #10 "So, whether I believe it will work or not, we'll go along with [Bush] for awhile and see. I fear we'll end up with something else, however. They're not proving to be worth warm spit in the effort to save them from themselves." I think that's a fair assessment; I've seen little to encourage me so far. I think most people will reserve judgement on the results of this "Middle East Democracy" experiment until Bush leaves office-- but then the clock will have run out: a solid consensus will emerge that either Islamic/Arab culture can be reformed and de-toxified, or it cannot. And if we end up deciding that they are incorrigible, God have mercy on them if they pull off another mass-casualty attack on American soil. Because we won't. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-05-31 22:17 |
| #9 I understand, tt - I don't want to go there, either -and sorta said so in #7. But there is a core problem with Islam and no amount of maneuvering and massaging of the facts gets us around the problem: if they are unwilling to quit trying, what do we do? That was my point in the rant. I believe they won't give us the choice - and I am anticipating the eventualities. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-31 22:00 |
| #8 We've got to try, .com. Because if it comes to slaughter, we need to know that we tried first. |
| Posted by: too true 2005-05-31 21:51 |
| #7 Well, Brother Dave D. defined it rather clearly. I recognize that Bush wants to find an alternative, i.e. #4, that will allow for cohabitation. So, whether I believe it will work or not, we'll go along with him for awhile and see. I fear we'll end up with something else, however. They're not proving to be worth warm spit in the effort to save them from themselves. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-31 21:34 |
| #6 Next time, please don't sugar coat it. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-05-31 21:17 |
| #5 I believe that the money is the key. From my interaction with Saudis and the other Arab states I visited (Bahrain, Qatar, UAE), I see three aspects to it: Jihadi romanticism, the cost of doing bidness - Arab-style, and imam indoctrination. Uh oh. I'm getting that funny feeling that AllahPundit used to get, methinks... [ranty-rant-rant] First, there is a great deal of what we would probably characterize as romanticism in the appeals for jihadis. Arabic is a visual language, as you folks may recall in the early days when analysis of Saddam's speeches was offered. This ties in with their Bedu folklore and qu'uranic teachings, too. Additionally, the demographics add to the appeal - a life of brave derring-do vs. hanging out at Starbucks with the other unemployed young men. Second, and this may be more powerful, money talks even moreso than in the US. Great status is conferred on those who can afford to take in large chunks of their immediate family. For example, in '92 I lived across the street from a guy who owned and filled an entire 6 story apartment building with relatives and had 2 Suburbans to haul them all around. That he could support 4 wives - about 20 kids (that I saw come out of the place), brothers and their families, and who knows how many others, made him the big guy on the block. If you have few or no prospects to achieve such status, you opt for the alternative status-generators, and there are only 2 I was personally told about: superior piousness (attracting the imam-wannabees and muttawa types) and Arab Hero - jihadi. Without the cash to get around, buy weapons and goodies, etc, much of the shine wears off - and fast. Trundling off to jihad by camel or beat-up Toyota pickup isn't exactly romantic - and they know it. The global jihadi jetset is what the Arab Hero aspires to - their shiny new Lion of Islam Legend. Mohammed Atta's Frequent Flyer miles. And it takes cash. Oodles of cash, to get the people and matériel smuggled in - or to buy matériel locally once in Iraq. Arabs are nothing, if not hardcore haggling hardballers of commerce. Almost every one of these guys is a mix of True Believer, Mercenary, and Romantic Fool - just varying in degree. Take the money away and the whole thing begins to dry up. This is another aspect to why taking the source of funds, the oil, would work. If you know you will never get another new dime, even if you have millions, will you keep giving it to jihadis who are being ground up in the Big Green Machine to little effect? Unless the terrorists are obviously on the cusp of victory, the answer is NO. Cut off the flow of money, and they tighten up faster than anyone I've ever seen. Third is the fire in which these Fools are forged - the Imams and their indoctrination. If the Saudis or Paleos or Yemenis were even remotely serious, this is where they'd crack down. Money and power drives these guys, too, but the money sources are either directly or indirectly controlled by the Govts. You'd have to threaten, believably, to make it very painful financially if the support doesn't stop to get any cooperation. We see this in Saudi. Lots of Govt pronouncements and the occasional nabbing of an imam, but the translated screeds keep coming out to prove it's a joke. The indoctrination and exportation of the product, jihadi fodder, continues because none of the Govts are serious about helping in the WoT. They are behind and supporting Terror. Find a way to cut of the money (oil) and it will break the cycle in 2 places. The imams are also a mix of True Believer and Mercenary, surprise, surprise. Cut off the cash, and the number peddling jihad, which they are paid to promote, drops to the fraction who are the pure True Believer. There's no getting around it: as long as they have the oil money, the jihad game does not stop. Two obvious ways to affect it have been bandied about: reduce dependence and take away the oil sands. China and others will fill the gap in the first instance for a long time to come. the only thing left is to take away the source. There's this 40km-wide strip of land running along the Eastern coast of the Persian Gulf... Of course, lacking the stones to do that, we'll have to acquire the stones to wreak great vengeance when it become obvious, after more strikes on the US, that they aren't going to quit. The sad fact is that they can't. Everything they are, everything they believe, and everything that drives them demands our submission or ruin or both. It's all in the qu'uran. It's as clear as glass. Even the once uber-compassionate are talking some tough talk, these days. Why, those who once counseled Bush to make alliances and demonstrate our open-mindedness have come to realize it won't work. They've come along way, but they still have a long way to go, having started to the Left of PCism. Now? Well now it takes a special kind of person not to see it, and an even bigger special kind of person not to do more about it than to continue to offer group hugs and lame let's be buds, dood. It's sad, but they can't hear you if they're the activated variety, and they're too gutless to help you if they're the dormant variety. In the end, they are one and the same. Those who say otherwise are dangerous. The myth has to die. But, sigh, it won't - until we have paid another heavy penalty or two. It just feels too good to the dogmatic do-gooders to give up their fix. Mebbe it's the remnant of a good feeling they had once - like getting laid during a Peace March or something. Who knows - and who cares. It's fucking idiocy. They're going to get more of us killed. Note that even the shock of limited vengeance, as it has been applied so far (read: Exit Taliban and Exit Saddam), isn't really working other than to distract and occupy them with flypaper. Not very bright are they? And not dissuaded by"message" vengeance - where you try to reason with them by demonstrating that they can't win. Message Foreign Policy ("Let's send them a message!") has been, if you take a good look, favored by those Presidents who FAILED when dealing with idiots. The message doesn't mean much if your opponent is a radicalized Communist (i.e. Johnson - Vietnam) or jihadi (i.e. Clinton - Islam and Norkies), now does it? No. It works only on intelligent people, such as the Japanese. Two shots and they got it. They're anything BUT stupid. What about the Islamists? Two shots and they still haven't a clue, do they? No. They don't. The "message" gig won't work here. Gonna have to slog it out. So the vengeance I have in mind does more than just disrupt the game and distract them with flypaper - it destroys their ability to wage jihad. It's a mean vicious motherfucker that makes no excuses, doesn't apologize for defending our way of life, doesn't apologize to insane people for imaginary slights, doesn't give a rat-fuck what the timid gutless PC-driven mice have to say, and doesn't compromise. It gives fair warning and then follows up by decapping the terrorist-enabling Govts - and taking the oil away to prevent the follow-on from continuing to be terrorist-enablers. If the calculation that this will dry up jihad enough for us to live with, to cohabitate on this planet, is wrong, then it accepts the horrible news -- and destroys all traces of the pathogen. We won't even save a sample for Ft Detrick's freezer. It sanitizes and cauterizes the wound. It doesn't say another word, it just fries 'em up. To the horrified because I'm so bad: Gosharoonies! Can I say that out loud? Oh me. Oh my. How evil of me! How horrid! I must be eviiil incarnate! That they can preach this same thing every Friday, yeah, that's okie-dokie. For me to say it is evil. Right. Grasp the handrail before you float away on the pixie dust, wanker. No, wait - just Fuck Off. I believe we are the good guys, even if forced to wipe out the bad guys. Ain't that just a bitch? Lol! Bite me. But then that's just me. Must be a bad-hair day, I guess. [/ranty-rant-rant] Just my observations. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-31 20:59 |
| #4 There are many positive signals here. Seeing terrorists swing will be another very positive factor. Of course it will get the Euro-panties into a bunch, but who cares. As the Iraqis beging to really take over and take it to the terrorists, the good guys will win more and more. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2005-05-31 17:28 |
| #3 I see one of the biggest deterrents beginning shortly, with the hanging of the three terrorists. It was suggested that a lot of the idiots think that if they are arrested on terrorism charges, that they are looking at 3 to 5 in the jug. But when they start to see their fellows dangling from the gibbet at frequent intervals, there is going to be a run on Greyhound Bus tickets back home. In the first year alone, several hundred of these mongrels could productively swing, and that will have a strong effect of the remainder. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-05-31 17:18 |
| #2 It would also be nice to see fewer US troops killed (we will lose over 70 in May 2005 which is not as many as some of the peak months but still a lot). Another thing to remember is that Op Lightening is the first really big Iraqi coordinated sweep. They are bound to have some screw ups, some holes, some blunders. However, hopefully, they will also learn somethings also. Also, hopefully, there will be some more hometown heros come out of this. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-05-31 16:24 |
| #1 And we will see this in the MSM when In all fairness to the MSM, we've been hearing reports of cash captured, weapons caches captured, jihadis killed or detained, etc for two years. We still dont really know which resource is the constraining one for the jihadis, or when we'll have gotten enough to effect OUTPUTS like the number of Iraqi civilians killed. Not that Im not hopeful. We ARE seeing some new things - esp. the increasing effectiveness of Iraqi forces, more tips, etc. And political gains, as Sunni Arab leaders start to accept the inevitability of the Iraqi political process. But whether thats going to turn the tide any time soon is impossible to say. Fewer civilian deaths in June? "Inshallah". But Im not counting on it. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-05-31 15:47 |