View Full Version : Today' News from Iraq
Boogyman
08-27-2006, 08:34
Since we all talk about Iraq so much, and the "liberal" media seems to think a ten year murder mystery is more important, I thought I'd post today's news from Iraq. As a Perfect Union public service.
08/27/06 AP: Marine from Milford killed in Iraq
A Marine from Milford who was awarded a Purple Heart after an insurgent grenade exploded and pelted him with shrapnel earlier this year was killed during combat Friday in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Saturday.
08/27/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill former Sunni Deputy Prime Minister in Baghdad
Gunmen also killed four of former Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Abd Mutlaq al-Juburi's bodyguards in an ambush on their car in Baghdad's Ameriyah neighbourhood, a security official said.
08/27/06 AFP: Four Kurdish policemen killed in Kirkuk
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk four Kurdish policemen -- including a young police academy graduate on his way to meet his fiancee to arrange their wedding -- were killed by alleged Sunni extremists.
08/27/06 Reuters: 20 bodies found in various districts of Baghdad
Police said 20 bodies had been found in various districts of Baghdad on Saturday. Some bore signs of torture and most had been killed by gunshots to the head, a typical feature of the communal bloodshed between the Shi'ite and Sunni sects.
08/27/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill Iraqi lieutenant colonel in Muqdadiya
Gunmen killed Mahmoud Faisal, a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army, in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
08/27/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill two brothers in Abara
Gunmen killed two brothers and their cousin in Abara, just north of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
08/27/06 McCLATCHY: In a milestone, Abu Ghraib prison is empty
The infamous prison at Abu Ghraib, scene of an abuse scandal that tarnished the United States' reputation worldwide and helped to fuel the growth of Iraq's insurgency, is now empty, Iraqi government officials have told McClatchy Newspapers.
08/27/06 Reuters: Reuters seeks Pentagon probe on journalist's death
Reuters news agency urged the U.S. military on Sunday to investigate the killing of one of its journalists by American troops in Baghdad a year ago. An independent inquiry commissioned by Reuters concluded that the soldiers' shooting...
08/27/06 Xinhua: Three coalition soldiers wounded in accident in Iraq
A U.S. soldier and two Polish soldiers were wounded in an accident in a military base in southern Iraq...The injured received medical treatment immediately in Camp Echo 's military hospital, and one of the Polish soldiers was evacuated...
08/27/06 Xinhua: Car bomb kills two in Baghdad
A car bomb went off in the parking lot of a state-run newspaper in a northern Baghdad district on Sunday, killing two civilians and wounding 20 others, an Interior Ministry source said.
08/27/06 VOI: Car bombing in south Kirkuk kills 1, injures 3 in Kirkuk
A car bomb explosion targeted the headquarters of Kurdistan National Union in south Kirkuk on Sunday, killing one civilian and wounding three others in an initial toll, the Iraqi police said
08/27/06 Reuters: Bomb planted in Baghdad bus kills 5
A bomb planted inside a minibus killed five civilians and wounded 20 others in central Baghdad on Sunday, police and Interior Ministry sources said.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Boogyman
08-27-2006, 08:49
Military Fatalities: By Time Period
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
5 469 17 12 498 1.95 255
4 715 13 18 746 2.35 318
3 579 25 27 631 2.92 216
2 718 27 58 803 1.89 424
1 140 33 0 173 4.02 43
Total 2621 115 115 2851 2.27 1256
Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Period Total
Aug-06 817
Jul-06 1280
Jun-06 870
May-06 1119
Apr-06 1010
Mar-06 1092
Feb-06 846
Jan-06 779
U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 2621
Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 0
Total 2621
Latest Coalition Fatality: Aug 25, 2006
Military Fatalities: By Month
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
8-2006 44 1 0 45 1.67 27
7-2006 43 1 2 46 1.48 31
6-2006 61 0 2 63 2.1 30
5-2006 69 9 1 79 2.55 31
4-2006 76 1 5 82 2.73 30
3-2006 31 0 2 33 1.06 31
2-2006 55 3 0 58 2.07 28
1-2006 62 2 0 64 2.06 31
12-2005 68 0 0 68 2.19 31
11-2005 84 1 1 86 2.87 30
10-2005 96 2 1 99 3.19 31
9-2005 49 3 0 52 1.73 30
8-2005 85 0 0 85 2.74 31
7-2005 54 3 1 58 1.87 31
6-2005 78 1 4 83 2.77 30
5-2005 80 2 6 88 2.84 31
4-2005 52 0 0 52 1.73 30
3-2005 35 1 3 39 1.26 31
2-2005 58 0 2 60 2.14 28
1-2005 107 10 10 127 4.1 31
12-2004 72 1 3 76 2.45 31
11-2004 137 4 0 141 4.7 30
10-2004 63 2 2 67 2.16 31
9-2004 80 3 4 87 2.9 30
8-2004 66 4 5 75 2.42 31
7-2004 54 1 3 58 1.87 31
6-2004 42 1 7 50 1.67 30
5-2004 80 0 4 84 2.71 31
4-2004 135 0 5 140 4.67 30
3-2004 52 0 0 52 1.68 31
2-2004 20 1 2 23 0.79 29
1-2004 47 5 0 52 1.68 31
12-2003 40 0 8 48 1.55 31
11-2003 82 1 27 110 3.67 30
10-2003 44 1 2 47 1.52 31
9-2003 31 1 1 33 1.1 30
8-2003 35 6 2 43 1.39 31
7-2003 48 1 0 49 1.58 31
6-2003 30 6 0 36 1.2 30
5-2003 37 4 0 41 1.32 31
4-2003 74 6 0 80 2.67 30
3-2003 65 27 0 92 7.67 12
Total 2621 115 115 2851 2.27 1257
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Kate O'Beirne (Nat'l Review, bona fide conservative) on Meet the Press right now, says that Bush comes across as out of touch and stubborn when he claims progress continues to be made in Iraq and that there will be no withdrawl of US forces while he is president.
Joe Biden (Dem Senator and presidential candidate) said on Fox News Sunday this morning that Bush's strategy in Iraq is to not lose, and hand off the problem to the next administration in 2009 (shades of Vietnam).
We aren't winning in any meaningful sense in Iraq with Bush's and Rumsfeld's current strategy, so Biden is right.
O'Beirne is also correct.
With the Bush strategy, over one trillion dollars will have been spent on the Iraq War before it is all over, and unless Bush decides to replace Rumsfeld, there still will be no victory, and that doesn't even account for the toll in human lives. Bush will hand over a catastrophically diminished diplomatic status to the next president.
And still, little progress is made on real security at ports, and transportation other than airlines, since there is so little money available for it, and apparently the Bush administration has calculated that such mundane measures aren't priorities. And little is done about the illegal immigration problem either.
And re: the ten year old murder mystery - one would think there wasn't any news to report.<_<
Boogyman
08-27-2006, 21:46
These stories just in:
08/27/06 Reuters: Bodies of two electricity workers found in Hafriya
Iraqi police said they found the bodies of two electricity workers on a main road hours after they were kidnapped in the small town of Hafriya, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The bodies had their hands tied and had bullet wounds to the head.
08/27/06 AFP: The curtain falls on Baghdad movie theatres
There was a huge queue this week outside the Firdoos Cinema in central Baghdad, with a line of cars snaking back down Sadun Street in the relentless heat of an Iraqi summer day.
08/27/06 MCT: Iraqis swapping houses in Baghdad to avoid sectarian violence
Mohammed al-Taie's family had lived in Haswa on Baghdad's outskirts for 50 years, but then two months ago, after months of dismissing death threats, Taie's brother was kidnapped, and the Shiite Muslim family's 34 members decided it was time...
08/27/06 ninemsn: Kiwi freed in Iraq, NZ rejoices
Olaf Wiig is unlikely to now settle for the quiet life, even though the New Zealand cameraman has just endured a two-week kidnapping ordeal, his father says.
08/27/06 AP: 2 US soldiers killed in Iraq, US military says
One soldier died in western Baghdad on Sunday afternoon after a roadside bomb explosion hit the vehicle he was traveling in, while another was killed by gunfire in the eastern part of the capital, the military said in statements
08/27/06 Reuters: Car bombs and shootings kill 55 in Iraq
A spate of car bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 55 people on Sunday, but Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said violence was on the decrease and that the country would never slide into a civil war.
08/27/06 AP: Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 25 in Iraqi Market
Gunmen in three cars opened fire on a busy market in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 25 others, police said.
08/27/06 WaPo: Protector of Iraq's antiquities resigns in face of massive looting
Before he quit as head of Iraq's antiquities board, Donny George made a final desperate attempt this summer to safeguard the relics of 5,000 years of history: He ordered the doors of the National Museum plugged with concrete against...
08/27/06 Centcom: MND-B SOLDIER KILLED BY ROADSIDE BOMB
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 10:50 p.m. Saturday when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device southeast of Baghdad.
08/27/06 AFP: Iraq rebels kill 28 in bloody response to peace plan
Iraqi insurgents sent a deadly reply to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attempts to stitch his wounded country back together, killing at least 28 people in a series of gun and bomb attacks.
08/27/06 Reuters: Iraq government plans reshuffle
Iraq's prime minister plans to reshuffle his cabinet just 100 days after it was formed because of frustrations with some ministers' performance and disloyalty among others, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Reuters.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Boogyman
08-28-2006, 23:20
Latest updates:
08/28/06 NPR: Spike in Violence Shatters Calm in Iraq
In Iraq, a series of explosions, gun battles, car bombs and executions over the past 48 hours have left at least 192 dead, including eight U.S. soldiers. In one attack, a car bomb detonated at a police checkpoint near the Ministry of the Interior
08/28/06 telegraph: Iraq 'hero' held after stabbing
The 20-year-old...was given a rapturous reception when he arrived back on Friday, neighbours said. However, it was disclosed last night that the soldier had been arrested following a fatal attack at a house in Torquay
08/28/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Edgardo Zayas, 29, of Dorchester, Mass., died on Aug. 26, in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol during combat operations. Zayas was assigned to the 1st Squadron...
08/28/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. David G. Weimortz, 28, of Irmo, S.C. died Aug. 26 from injuries suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
08/28/06 DailyTelegram: Bomb claims Superiorite in Baghdad
Superior native Kenneth Cross, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb Sunday in Iraq, according to Gerald Nelson, a cousin.
08/28/06 AP: Guardsman dies of accident injuries
Staff Sergeant Jeffrey J- Hansen died yesterday at a U-S- hospital in Landstuhl, Germany...Hansen and three other members of the 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry Regiment were injured on August 21st when their Humvee turned over off a berm...
08/28/06 NYTimes: Group of Iraqi Soldiers Refuses to Go to Baghdad
A group of Iraqi soldiers refused to go to Baghdad to participate in the effort to restore order in the Iraqi capital, a senior American military officer said today.
08/28/06 KUNA: Iraqi forces to take control of security in south
British Defense Secretary Des Browne said here Monday that Iraqi security forces would soon take over the security file of southern governorates. Browne, at a joint news conference with Iraqi defense minister Abdulqader Al-Obeidi...
08/28/06 AP: Relative confirms Two Rivers soldier killed in Iraq
A 21-year-old soldier from Two Rivers has been killed in Iraq, his aunt confirmed Monday. Army Pfc. Sean Novak was killed Sunday when some sort of an explosion happened while he was riding in an armored vehicle, his aunt, Sheila Halverson, said Monday.
08/28/06 Reuters: Tough streets await Iraq's NATO-trained cadets
The proud mothers tossed candies, the passing-out band played martial music and the officer cadets swore allegiance to the national flag. But commanders at the NATO-supervised military academy in Baghdad..said nothing can prepare the...
08/28/06 VOI: Mortars hit U.S. consulate in Hilla
Four mortar shells slammed on the U.S. consulate in Iraqi town of Hilla on Monday, Babel province. The mortars hit the consulate in Babel hotel located in northern Hilla, a security source in Babel police department said.
08/28/06 Reuters: Toll from Baghdad suicide bomb hits 13
The death toll from a suicide bombing outside Iraq's Ministry of Interior on Monday climbed to 13, police sources said.
08/28/06 Centcom: 4 MND-B SOLDIERS KILLED BY ROADSIDE BOMB (confirmed)
Four Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers died at approximately 3 p.m. Sunday when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device north of Baghdad.
08/28/06 WaPo: Homicide Charges Rare in Iraq War
The majority of U.S. service members charged in the unlawful deaths of Iraqi civilians have been acquitted, found guilty of relatively minor offenses or given administrative punishments without trials, according to a Washington Post review...
08/28/06 Reuters: U.S. military - Baghdad violence cut by half
Violence in Baghdad has dropped by nearly half since July, when U.S.-led forces launched an operation to pacify the capital, a U.S. general said on Monday, while acknowledging a spike in bombings in the past 48 hours.
08/28/06 AP: Roadside bomb kills 1 barbershop worker, wounds 4
Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb in the mainly Sunni western neighborhood of Jihad struck a car transporting five barbershop workers killed one person and seriously wounded another four, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.
08/28/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb policeman in Baghdad
A policeman was killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in southern Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.
08/28/06 Reuters: Four bodies found in Baghdad
The bodies of four people with gunshot wounds were found in southern Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.
08/28/06 Reuters: 25 Iraqi soldiers killed in Diwaniya
Twenty-five Iraqi soldiers have been killed in clashes with Shi'ite militiamen in the town of Diwaniya south of Baghdad, an Iraqi army source and a hospital security official said.
08/28/06 Centcom: MND-B SOLDIER KILLED BY SMALL-ARMS FIRE (confirmed)
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 2 p.m. Sunday by small-arms fire in eastern Baghdad.
08/28/06 Reuters: Four policemen killed in Mosul
Gunmen killed a policeman in front of his house in Mosul, police said...Gunmen killed three policemen in separate attacks in Mosul, police said.
08/28/06 AFP: Southern Iraq security deteriorating despite British troops
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed has said that the security situation in the southern oil city of Basra was getting worse despite the presence of British troops.
08/28/06 WaPo: 7 Iraqi civilians killed in battle between US forces and insurgents
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed seven Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday night in what Johnson said was a street battle between American forces and insurgents in Baghdad.
08/28/06 WaPo: Violent attacks surge north of Iraq's capital
Gunmen and bombers killed at least 69 people in Iraq on Sunday, even as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki repeated the assertions of Iraqi and U.S. leaders that violence was easing from a wartime high set earlier this summer
08/28/06 Xinhua: 2 car bombs rock S Baghdad neighborhood, killing 5
Five people were killed and five others wounded in two car bombs which went off separately in Baghdad's southern neighborhood on Monday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
08/28/06 AFP: Suicide bomber hits Iraqi ministry amid insurgent blitz
A suicide car bomber struck at the nerve centre of Iraq's embattled security forces, killing 14 people and injuring 45 more in an attack on the interior ministry.
08/28/06 AP: 4 U.S. soldiers killed by bomb in Iraq
Four American soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blasted by a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad, the U.S. military command said Monday. The deaths happened Sunday, a military statement said without elaborating.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
I only mean this in the most respectful way - this looks more and more like Vietnam every month. That is not to say that there aren't situations in which we would have no option but to be willing to sustain daily casualties for years on end, but were the Defense Dept to have informed the public that we could now be in this situation before the war began, public support for it would have dropped to the single digits. Unforseen? Hardly, it's just that the war planners opted to carefully screen input into their scenarios. What actually happened turned out to be more like this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,787018,00.html
Friday September 6, 2002
The Guardian
At the height of the summer, as talk of invading Iraq built in Washington like a dark, billowing storm, the US armed forces staged a rehearsal using over 13,000 troops, countless computers and $250m. Officially, America won and a rogue state was liberated from an evil dictator.
What really happened is quite another story, one that has set alarm bells ringing throughout America's defence establishment and raised questions over the US military's readiness for an Iraqi invasion. In fact, this war game was won by Saddam Hussein, or at least by the retired marine playing the Iraqi dictator's part, Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper.
In the first few days of the exercise, using surprise and unorthodox tactics, the wily 64-year-old Vietnam veteran sank most of the US expeditionary fleet in the Persian Gulf, bringing the US assault to a halt.
What happened next will be familiar to anyone who ever played soldiers in the playground. Faced with an abrupt and embarrassing end to the most expensive and sophisticated military exercise in US history, the Pentagon top brass simply pretended the whole thing had not happened. They ordered their dead troops back to life and "refloated" the sunken fleet. Then they instructed the enemy forces to look the other way as their marines performed amphibious landings. Eventually, Van Riper got so fed up with all this cheating that he refused to play any more. Instead, he sat on the sidelines making abrasive remarks until the three-week war game - grandiosely entitled Millennium Challenge - staggered to a star-spangled conclusion on August 15, with a US "victory".
----------
Are we all becoming numb to the numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq? Some allow Ann Coulter to assure them that those civilians aren't really civilians as reported, but Al Qaeda terrorists (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=24045) - but most of us know better, don't we? A hundred a day dying, how many more wounded, or lives otherwise ruined or severely disrupted?
What will it take before enough of the American public demands the Bush administration really rethink their Iraq policy?
The one silver lining for our troops, if they are still there in two and a half years, as Bush assures us they will be, and there is another major conflict in Afghanistan or elsewhere, is that they will have to be paid something more along the lines of what the civilian contractors that are there now make. I say that because all politicians know that nothing will assure a change in foreign policy faster than the looming threat of the return of the draft. So they're going to have to really up the incentives. They can only forcibly recall troops for so long, and now that they've done that, it's just going to be that much harder to recruit new troops, because the word is out that you get recalled back far more than what they indicate up front. I'm sure the fine print basically signs one's life away, but the recruiter can say it's not really like that, except that more and more often nowadays, it is like that. So, troops must be paid a lot better. One hopes it will at least in part also apply to those already serving, on the basis of simple fairness.
I know that few sign up for the money alone. But few things indicate real gratitude for service rendered like substantially increasing the compensation for that service.
On the other hand, I have doubts as to the real wisdom of this approach. I can see the merit of universal national service, with military service being one of a number of options, one with certain benefits built-in as incentive to join. That would be an approach more fitting for a Republic, I would think, whereas the former is more characteristic of, for example, the latter stages of the Roman Empire. But we are more and more like an empire and less like a Republic, regrettably.
What makes Pres. Bush think that someone who could get it so wrong before, is getting it right now?
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4253668
Touring the Middle East a month after the U.S. military's expeditious invasion of Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was basking in the apparent miscalculations of those who had predicted U.S. forces long would be mired in a difficult war.
"Never have so many been so wrong about so much," Rumsfeld told his troops in April 2003.
That was before the insurgency. Before the first signs of civil war. Before the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere came to light.
That was before Iraq began looking, to many Americans, like another war - the one that was just ending when Rumsfeld began his first tenure as defense secretary, under President Ford in 1975.
Rumsfeld is scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City today at a time in which his leadership is being questioned by an increasing number of troops, military families, veterans and the American public - a time in which he has seen a shift in public support similar to that felt by his Vietnam-era predecessors.
...
Several high-profile former military officers have called for Rumsfeld's resignation, including a number of retired generals who led troops in Iraq. More recently, Rumsfeld was harangued by the Alaskan families of soldiers whose tours in Iraq were extended for four more months of combat duty in Baghdad.
In an interview during his flight to Fairbanks, Rumsfeld told The Associated Press he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him.
"These people are volunteers," he told reporters Saturday. "They all signed up. They all are there doing what they're doing because they want to."
...
"The experiences of the global war on terrorism have largely discredited Rumsfeld with many members of Congress," said Loren Thompson, a Georgetown University professor who runs the Lexington Institute, a public-policy think tank in Washington, D.C. "In Congress, he doesn't have much of a following left."
It's been a long fall.
At the time Rumsfeld made his Churchillian comments about his Iraq invasion detractors being "so wrong," about 58 percent of Americans supported him, according to Gallup.
USA Today then described the loquacious defense secretary as "giddy" in the wake of a "couple of weeks in which his vision of modern warfare seemed largely vindicated, his place in history assured."
Military writer and political analyst Andrew Krepinevich described Rumsfeld in a different way. He called him "an insufferable winner."
Now - more than three years and nearly 3,000 coalition deaths later - Rumsfeld's post-invasion attitude has returned to haunt him, said Pat Towell, Krepinevich's colleague at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
"The problem with not being a gracious winner is if the situation goes south on you, you may have a shortfall of friends," Towell said.
So rather than leaving a legacy of military reformation, as was Rumsfeld's intention, the oldest-ever defense secretary may be remembered in much the same way as his Vietnam-era counterpart, Robert McNamara, said John Pike, a defense expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org.
...
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The question is, does Bush really have the option of replacing Rumsfeld? Who really calls the shots? And what do they still need from Iraq?
Boogyman
08-29-2006, 12:20
08/29/06 AP: Volunteer firefighter from Pa. killed in Iraq
A volunteer firefighter inspired to join the military following 9/11 was killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq on Sunday, his family said. Army Spc. Tristan Smith, 23, of Bryn Athyn, was on patrol northwest of Baghdad...
08/29/06 Sapa-AP: Grisly discovery made at Iraqi school
Iraqi police Tuesday found the bodies of 24 people who had apparently been tortured and shot before being dumped in two separate locations in Baghdad, police said.
08/29/06 AFP: At least 74 killed in Iraq fuel pipeline fire (update)
"The latest toll for the tragedy is 74 people killed and 94 injured," said Hamid Taathi, head of Diwaniyah's health department Tuesday.
08/29/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill a bakery worker in Baiji
Gunmen killed a bakery worker and wounded another in the oil refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Body found in Balad
Police found the body of a civilian with gunshot wounds to the head and chest in the town of Balad, 80 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Clashes between Sunni tribe and Shi'ite militias wound 14
Clashes between a Sunni tribe and Shi'ite militias, wounding 14 people late on Monday in southern Baghdad, the army and an Interior Ministry source said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Mortar rounds wound 5 civilians in Baghdad
Four mortar rounds landed in two districts in northern Baghdad wounding five people, including two Iraqi soldiers, a source in the Interior Ministry said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Iraqi soldier killed near Latifiya
An Iraqi soldier was killed and four civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near his patrol in the main road between Mahmudiya and Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill 15 in Baquba, four bodies found
Fifteen people were gunned down in several attacks in different areas of Baquba, police said...Four people were found shot dead, handcuffed and blindfolded in a village near Baquba, police said.
08/29/06 AP: Two Nebraska soldiers wounded in Humvee accident
Two other Nebraska soldiers who were in the Humvee when it rolled over into a canal are undergoing treatment for injuries, the statement said.
08/29/06 AP: 2 American soldier killed in Iraq
A soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Sunday after being wounded in fighting in Anbar, the U.S. command said in a statement. Anbar province is a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold that has seen some of the worst fighting since...
08/29/06 Reuters: U.S. appoints envoy to counter Kurdish rebel thr
The United States has appointed a former NATO commander as special envoy to help Turkey and Iraq fight Kurdish rebels along their border and in northern Iraq, the State Department said on Tuesday
08/29/06 ksl.com: Utah Soldier Killed in Iraq
Dan Dolan from Roy was killed Sunday...a bomb tipped over Dolan's truck, and that Dolan was shot while trying to set the truck upright. He was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital where he died of respiratory failure.
08/29/06 AP: Army I-Ds contractor killed in Iraqi bomb blast
The U.S. Army says one of its contractors were killed in Iraq yesterday ...39-year-old Carey Robinson from Orlando, Florida, died when the vehicle he was riding in hit a roadside bomb. Robinson worked for Tampa, Florida-based Cochise Consultancy
08/29/06 VOI: Iraqi kidnapped journalist found dead
The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said on Tuesday that Iraqi journalist Iyad Nassif al-Mousawai was found killed after he was kidnapped by an armed group in Palestine Street in east Baghdad last month.
08/29/06 ICSM: In Iraq, fewer killed, more are wounded
fatality rate is markedly less than in previous conflicts. But while all wars are different, the nature of combat in Iraq, plus advances in battlefield medicine, mean that the number of wounded remains relatively high.
08/29/06 Centcom: 1/167 CALVARY SOLDEIR DIES OF INJURIES SUSTAINED IN HUMVEE
A Nebraska National Guard Soldier with the 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry, 1st Battalion, 34th Brigade Combat Team, under 3rd Corps Support Command, died on Aug. 28, from injuries he sustained when his vehicle rolled over into a canal near Camp Anaconda
08/29/06 AP: Bullet-riddled bodies of 11 people found in Baghdad
In Baghdad, Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled bodies of 11 people with their hands and legs bound, police 1st Lt. Mutaz Salahiddin said. He said they were found near a school in the Shiite-dominated southern neighborhood of Maalif...
08/29/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill former Army officer in Mosul
Gunmen killed a former Iraqi army officer on Monday in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill 2 in attack on an office of radical Shi'ite
Gunmen attacked an office of the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the religiously mixed city of Baquba on Tuesday, killing two guards and wounding five, police said.
08/29/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb kills policeman in Kirkuk
A policeman was killed and nine people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in the tense city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.
08/29/06 AFP: Iraq agree truce with militia after scores killed
Government forces agreed a truce with Shiite militia fighters after violent clashes south of Baghdad, as Iraq reeled from a three-day bout of bloodshed in cities across the country.
08/29/06 AP: Iraqi Forces Regain Control of City
Calm returned to a southern city Tuesday after Shiite militiamen loyal to an anti-U.S. cleric reached an agreement with Iraqi government forces to end a 12-hour street battle that killed 40 people.
08/29/06 AFP: At least 36 killed in Iraq oil pipeline fire
At least 36 people were killed when an old fuel pipeline caught fire near the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah. "We have six bodies in two city hospitals and more than 30 charred bodies are still at the site of the explosion,"
http://icasualties.org/oif/
So, who is in charge of the Department of Defense?
http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/480210.html
Brain injury budget faces cut
Military research, treatment at risk
Jay Price, Staff Writer
Brain injuries are so common among U.S. troops that they're called the signature injury of the Iraq war, but Congress is poised to cut military spending on researching and treating them.
House and Senate versions of the defense appropriation bill would chop funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center from $14 million to $7 million. The center runs 10 facilities across the country, including one at Fort Bragg that has performed research and treated soldiers' injuries since 1998.
...
"With the bombs, the gunshot wounds and everything else, their plate is full," he said. "They need that money."
The Pentagon asked only for $7 million and didn't respond properly when congressional staffers tried to find out whether it needed more money for the program, said Jenny Manley, a spokeswoman for the Senate appropriations committee.
"The Pentagon needs to get behind the things that they want," she said. "Otherwise, we'd just be kind of guessing about what they really need."
Pentagon budget experts did not respond Monday to a request for information on why they had not sought more money.
It's not clear what the direct effects would be at Fort Bragg. A spokesman for the U.S. Army Medical and Research Materiel Command said no one with the brain injury center was allowed to comment on the budget.
George Zitnay, director of Laurel Highlands Neuro-Rehabilitation Center in Johnstown, Pa., who helped found the head injury center and acts as a consultant for it, said he is not sure how it would handle such a large cut. It might single out an entire program for slashing or spread the effect across several programs.
Doctors say the proportion of head injuries is higher in Iraq than in past wars partly because roadside bombs and suicide car bombs are often the weapons of choice for insurgents. Also, recent advances in body armor and helmets mean that troops caught in blasts often live but can be jolted so badly by the shock wave that their brains are injured by smacking against the inside of their skulls.
As of March 31, the Pentagon reported about 1,200 traumatic brain injuries as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Experts say the real total is much higher because closed-head injuries in particular -- those where there is no obvious wound -- often go undiagnosed.
The brain injury center's headquarters are at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Its leaders had sought $19 million for the coming year, citing the growing number of patients, the cost of long-term care and the need for research to improve treatment and prevention.
Zitnay said that he and Dr. Andres M. Salazar, an Army neurologist, started the center in 1992 because of concerns about troops injured in Vietnam but never treated. Many ended up in mental hospitals or prison, and they suffered high divorce and suicide rates.
"It's one of those things that, people can't see it, they think there's nothing wrong," said Rich, speaking from Florida, where he was learning to work with a guide dog. "I know better."
His wound caused a host of ailments including loss of about half his vision, depression, mood swings and seizures. Without the center's help at Walter Reed and Fort Bragg, he couldn't imagine how he would have handled the problems.
"They have been the ones figuring out that, OK, you can go back to work in a day or two with some of these injuries, but the psychological and physical effects are going to come up down the road," Rich said.
Even in peacetime, Zitnay said, military personnel suffer about 11,000 head injuries a year. Such injuries are common at Fort Bragg, where paratroopers are frequently hurt in parachute jumps.
The center's branch at Fort Bragg is a key source of data for developing a model of normal brain function, a crucial tool for measuring the effectiveness of treatments.
Employees at the Bragg facility could not be interviewed for this story. But in an interview this spring for another story, E. Wayne Johnson, the program manager there, said it tests 200 to 300 healthy soldiers each month for such things as cognitive skill, reaction time, mood and military skills.
Its clinic, meanwhile, treats 30 to 60 soldiers a month, most with mild injuries.
The center's research at Bragg and elsewhere isn't just academic, Zitnay said. "It's developing new helmets, it's developing drugs we can use to treat memory loss, it's developing innovative rehabilitation strategies," he said.
The center's work, for example, can help battlefield commanders quickly determine whether a soldier who has received a blow to the head is fit for battle.
Zitnay testified before the Senate appropriations committee in May that the center needed $19 million this year, in part because of the number of head injuries from the wars. Thirty-three members of Congress signed the written request for that amount, he said.
The Pentagon's basic budget for the center -- $7 million this year -- has long been augmented by members of Congress with discretionary or "pork barrel" money. The Pentagon didn't request the discretionary funding this year, said Manley of the appropriations committee staff, and then didn't respond to a request about whether it actually needed more.
There is time, she said, and probably the will in Congress to add money to the budget if the Pentagon justifies it.
"I don't think it's a controversial program, and it's very legitimate and very deserving of funding."
...
Boogyman
08-30-2006, 01:49
Shall we acknowledge the continued sacrifices of America's best?
I salute them.
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Spc. Kenneth M. Cross, 21, of Superior, Wis...Pfc. Daniel G. Dolan, 19, of Roy, Utah...died during combat operations Aug 27, in Baghdad, Iraq, when their M1126 Stryker Vehicle came in contact with enemy forces using an improvised explosive device...
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Joshua D. Jones, 24, of Pomeroy, Ohio, died Aug 27, in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his HMMWV came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations. Jones was assigned to the 3rd Battalion...
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Sgt. Darry Benson, 46, of Winterville, N.C., died on Aug 27, in Camp Virginia, Kuwait, from a non-combat related cause. Benson was assigned the Army National Guard's 730th Quartermaster Battalion, Ahoskie, N.C.
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Sgt. David J. Almazan, 27, of Van Nuys, Calif., died on Aug 27, in Hit, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Almazan was assigned to the 1st Battalion...
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Donald E. Champlin, 28, of Natchitoches, La., died Aug. 28 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on Aug. 27. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion...
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Seth A. Hildreth, 26, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., died on Aug. 27, in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Hildreth was assigned to the 1st Squadron...
08/29/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Jeffrey J. Hansen, 31, of Cairo, Neb., died on Aug. 27, in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered on Aug. 21 from a vehicle accident in Balad, Iraq. Hansen was assigned to...
08/29/06 MNF: MND-B Soldier killed by roadside bomb (confirmed)
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 4:20 p.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device southwest of Baghdad.
08/29/06 MNF: Soldier Dies in Al Anbar (confirmed)
One Soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province August 27.
08/29/06 MNF: Two MNF-W deaths reported in Al Anbar
In a separate incident, one Soldier assigned to 1st Brigade 1st Armored Division died from non-hostile causes August 28.
08/29/06 MNF: Two MNF-W deaths reported in Al Anbar
One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died August 28 from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province August 27.
08/29/06 AFP: U.S. Soldier killed southwest of Baghdad
The latest casualty was killed southwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, a US military statement said.
08/29/06 newsobserver: Brain injury budget faces cut
House and Senate versions of the defense appropriation bill would chop funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center from $14 million to $7 million..."It's just ridiculous," said Sgt. Maj. Colin Rich, a Fort Bragg soldier
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Boogyman
08-30-2006, 20:55
08/30/06 AP: Five policemen killed by roadside bomb in Balad Ruz
A police patrol was hit by a roadside bomb overnight in the town of Balad Ruz, 20 miles north of Baqouba, leaving five policemen dead and one wounded
08/30/06 Xinhua: Romania to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2 months
Romanian President Traian Basescu announced on Wednesday that in two months Romania will withdraw from Iraq its battalion deployed for a peacekeeping mission.
08/30/06 Cincinnatienquirer: Hebron Marine killed in Iraq
A Hebron Marine died Tuesday while serving in Iraq’s western Anbar Province, family members said Wednesday. U.S. Marine Cpl. Tyler Warndorf, 21, gained local fame in June when Associated Press photographers took a picture of him...
08/30/06 Reuters: Body of kidnap victim found in Falluja
The body of a civilian was found three days after he was kidnapped by militants in the former insurgent stronghold of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. The body bore signs of torture.
08/30/06 Reuters: 2 bodies pulled from the river Tigris in the town of Suwayra
Iraqi police said they recovered four bodies, blindfolded and hands bound, with signs of torture from the river Tigris in the town of Suwayra, south of Baghdad.
08/30/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill a director general of the Justice Ministry
Gunmen killed Nadia Mohammed, a director general at the Justice Ministry, along with her driver and two guards in western Baghdad's Nafaq al-Shurta area, a hospital source said.
08/30/06 Reuters: Two border guards killed in Badra
Two border guards, including a captain, were killed in Badra, a town east of Baghdad near the Iranian border, after their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, border guards said.
08/30/06 Reuters: Kirkuk bomb kills 3
An explosion inside a bus killed three people and wounded 11 in the northern city of Kirkuk, including a man who had left the bomb inside the vehicle but failed to make a swift exit, police and witnesses said.
08/30/06 AFP: Iraqi minister cancels truce with Shiite militia
Iraq's defence minister has declared the army's truce with Shiite militants in the central city of Diwaniyah null and void, and demanded an inquiry into the murder of 13 soldiers.
08/30/06 Reuters/AFP: Iraqi minister says gunmen executed 13 soldiers
Gunmen "executed" 13 Iraqi soldiers after their ammunition ran out during fierce clashes in the town of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, Iraq's Defence Minister says.
08/30/06 AP: General Casey - Iraqi security needs 12-18 mos.
The top U.S. general in Iraq said Wednesday he believes Iraqi security forces can take over security with little coalition support within a year to 18 months.
08/30/06 AP: Soldier with ties to Maine dies in Iraq; cause was cardiac arrest
Spc. Matthew Schneider of Gorham, N.H., died on Monday in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, of apparent cardiac arrest, according to Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who spoke with family members in Maine.
08/30/06 Centcom: MND-B SOLDIER KILLED BY ROADSIDE BOMB
????Duplicates Release Number: 06-08-02C. Release Date: 8/29/2006.
08/30/06 NYTimes: Looters caught in Iraqi pipeline blast
One official said that the looters had taken advantage of the turmoil that engulfed the southern city on Monday when Iraqi Army soldiers clashed with members of a militia loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric. At least 28 people died...
08/30/06 Reuters: British troops detain five in Basra raid
British forces said they arrested five people in Iraq’s second city of Basra early on Wednesday during a raid on the home of a "leading terrorist"
08/30/06 koreatimes: Number of South Korean Troops in Iraq Decreases
The Army held a farewell ceremony here yesterday for hundreds of troops to be dispatched to Iraq to replace returning soldiers at the end of their duty tour.
08/30/06 VP: Navy officer awarded Bronze Star for deft handling of IEDs
For the entire year he was in Baghdad analyzing more than 1,000 roadside bomb detonators, Benito Baylosis never took a day off. No one did. And no one complained about it, he said, as they explored the electronic circuits of defused IEDs
08/30/06 AP: Home town of Ohio soldier called into question
There was no listing for a Joshua Jones in Pomeroy, an Ohio River city about 31 miles west of Parkersburg, W.Va. A Department of Defense spokesman referred questions to the Army. An Army spokesman could not immediately provide further details.
08/30/06 Centcom: MARINE KILLED IN AL ANBAR
One Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province August 29.
08/30/06 Reuters: Clashes between Iraqi police and civilians kill one
Clashes between Iraqi police and civilians turned away from an army recruitment centre killed one civilian and wounded nine, including five policemen. Iraqi police said hundreds hoping to land jobs turned violent after they were turned away
08/30/06 Reuters: Two bodies found in Quim
Police in the western Iraqi town of Qaim said they found the bodies of two civilians with gunshot wounds to the head and torture marks. It was unclear who the victims were but tribes that control Qaim regularly clash with al Qaeda militants in the region.
08/30/06 Reuters: Car bomb kills 2 civilians in Baghdad
Two civilians were killed and 21 wounded, including five policemen, when a nearby car bomb exploded after police responded to a small bomb blast near a petrol station, police said..
08/30/06 Reuters: Gunmen kill 3 brothers in Numaniya
Gunmen killed three brothers in the Iraqi town of Numaniya, 120 km (72 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The men were Shi'ites who had previously fled a Sunni region further north.
08/30/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb kills 5 in Buhriz
A roadside bomb killed five members of one family including three women and a child and seriously wounded another woman and child as they travelled in their car near the town of Buhriz
08/30/06 MENL: KUWAIT WORRIED OVER IRAQI BORDER ATTACKS
Kuwait has reported renewed border tension with Iraq. On Aug. 21, a Kuwaiti border patrol came under fire from Iraq. Officials said this was the most serious incident in months and could mark renewed tension between the two neighbors.
08/30/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Matthew E. Schneider, 23, of Gorham, N.H., died on Aug. 28, in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, from a non-combat related cause. Schneider was assigned to the 141st Signal Battalion, 1st Armored Division, Wiesbaden, Germany.
08/30/06 radioaustralia: Fiji sends more troops to Iraq
Fiji is sending 34 soldiers to Iraq on Wednesday in response to an urgent request from the United Nations. The Fiji Times reports the men will join the 134 Fiji soldiers already serving in Iraq.
08/30/06 VOA: 40 Iraqis Killed in Multiple Bomb Attacks
Iraqi authorities say at least 40 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded in multiple bomb attacks Wednesday
08/30/06 BBC: Iraq marshes' recovery 'in doubt'
The long-term recovery of the Iraq marshlands is in doubt because of uncertainties over water supplies to the wetlands, research suggests. The first study to look at the marshes' recovery warned that increased water demand from farmers...
08/30/06 AP: Bomb-Rigged Bike Kills 12 In Iraq
At least 12 people are dead in a bombing in the city of Hillah...A police spokesman said a bicycle rigged with explosives blew up near an army recruiting center in downtown Hillah where volunteers had gathered to sign up
08/30/06 AFP: Iraq bomb attacks kill 36
A bomb exploded today in a central Baghdad market, killing 24 people and wounding 35, police and interior ministry sources said.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Considering that before too long "Today's News from Iran, or ..." may have to be added to the "News from Iraq," I thought I'd post this link to another thread about that topic no one really wants to think too hard about...
http://glocktalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=584438
New York Post
A SUPERFICIAL 'SACRIFICE'
By DAVID J. DANELO
August 25, 2006 -- YOU've seen the forms at your local post office. All males age 18 to 25 must register! It's the law!
Officially, the Selective Service System is a registry of all men aged 18 to 25 that would be passed on to the military when Congress orders a draft. Theoretically, this would happen during time of war. But even since 9/11, we've chosen a different policy of selective service: You can select to serve, or not.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton said that the system is "a relatively low-cost insurance policy against our underestimating the maximum level of threat we expect our Armed Forces to face." With back-to-back rotations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and their reserve components are facing personnel shortages not seen since the years before World War II. And no help is in sight.
In the 20th century, more than 16 million Americans were inducted into the Armed Forces using Selective Service during time of war. Over a million more were conscripted and honorably served during the peacetime draft of the 1950s. But since June 30, 1973, no American has been impressed into military service.
Those draftees were much more than cannon fodder. United with military professionals, American conscripts won World War II, occupied Western Europe and Japan, and laid the groundwork for eventual victory in the Cold War.
The important variable was not military experience, but commitment, maturity and skill. When the industrial and moral might of the United States was unleashed against her enemies, the unshakable will of the American people really did conquer the world. Not so today. As pundits proclaim a third world war, America frets over Tom Cruise, Paris Hilton and Mel Gibson.
Five years ago, when the United States was attacked and 3,000 civilians murdered, Americans were ready to fight back. Instead of seizing the moral force offered to him, our president ordered us to shrug.
So we did.
In 2003, the United States pre-emptively struck Iraq without a plan to maintain postwar order. Shrug. In 2004, military generals repeatedly requested additional forces for their assigned missions. Shrug. In 2005, the Army Reserve's commanding general said that his force was broken. Shrug. In 2006, the Mexican Army started throwing its weight around on America's porous border, getting into several skirmishes with local law enforcement. Shrug.
And on Tuesday, the Marine Corps announced the recall of up to 2,500 former Marines back into active duty.
Ya think it might be time for a draft? Shrug.
Apparently, the Canadians will have to invade for the draft to ever be used again.
It's not just the civilian leaders. Much of military doesn't want the burdens of training draftees, arguing that volunteers are more motivated and professional. (They also aren't troublesome in unpopular wars, such as the current one.) The brass see a signature on the dotted line as a necessary safeguardagainst sagging morale.
To remedy personnel shortages, policymakers in the Defense Department prefer to hire seasoned rogues from Blackwater, construction workers from Kellogg, Brown & Root, and even cooks from India and Bangladesh. With the Pentagon's budget big enough to count as one of the world's 20 largest economies, any personnel shortage can, theoretically, always be solved with money. Six-figure salaries for mercenaries make it easier to fight whenever we please, rather than deal with the inconveniences of an apathetic populace.
The Pentagon's approach might be wrong, but Congress is be too cowardly to ever impose a draft against the military's will. In October 2004, the House of Representatives voted 402-2 against a bill to restore mandatory service. Ironically, one of the two dissenting votes came from Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), who acquired both fame and infamy in later months for his emotional denunciations of the war in Iraq.
The insurance policy of Selective Service has failed. Most in the military think that Americans are unwilling to accept the calling of a draft, so they accept the shortages while screaming for reinforcements. Unfortunately, surveys indicate that they are right: A 2003 USA Today poll found that 52 percent of Americans eligible for conscription would either seek a deferment or simply not serve.
So let's save ourselves some money and dissolve the Selective Service System. At least then we could deal openly with our societal aversion to sacrifice. The posters at post offices have become a dangerous façade.
Boogyman
08-31-2006, 19:21
08/30/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Christopher T. Warndorf, 21, of Burlington, Ky., died Aug. 29 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
08/31/06 Centcom: TWO SERVICEMEMBERS DIE IN AL ANBAR AUG. 30
One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and one Soldier assigned to 1st Marine Logistics Group died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province August 30.
08/31/06 Reuters: Rocket barrage kills 50
Rockets slammed into homes in Baghdad just before nightfall on Thursday, killing 50 people and wounding 200...The barrage of seven rockets was spread over neighborhoods in the mainly Shi'ite east of the city
08/31/06 AP: 3 bombs explode in Baghdad, killing 20
Three bombs, including one at a popular market, exploded in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and wounding another 75 shortly after the country's prime minister said Iraq was ready to take over responsibility for more territory...
08/31/06 StarTribune: Soldier from Minnesota-based brigade is killed in Iraq
A soldier from the Minnesota-based 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division was killed in Iraq Wednesday afternoon by an improvised explosive device, military officials said today.
08/31/06 VOI: U.S. sniper kills family of four in Ramadi – witnesses
An Iraqi family of four people was killed by U.S. sniper fire on Thursday morning in Ramadi..."A man, his wife and two children were walking home in al-Huz neighborhood when a U.S. sniper shot them dead at 11:00 a.m. in al-Ma’ared Street,"
08/31/06 AP: Gunmen kill member of the oil ministry's security service
Elsewhere in the capital, gunmen shot and killed a member of the oil ministry's security service and wounded another as the two were driving in a northeastern neighborhood, police said.
08/31/06 Reuters: Car bomb kills four police commandos in Baghdad
A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed four police commandos and wounded 11 people, including five policemen, Interior Ministry sources said. The bomb in eastern Baghdad'd Mashtal district went off by a petrol station...
08/31/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds 8 in Baghdad's Mustansiriya District
Eight people were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their minivan in the Mustansiriya District, northern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
08/31/06 Reuters: Bomb explodes at wedding party - 1 killed, 8 wounded
One man was killed and eight others wounded when a bomb exploded at a wedding party in the small town of Jbela, 65 km (39 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
08/31/06 Reuters: Car bomb kills 1, wounds 15 in Baghdad
A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed two civilians and wounded nine in the eastern New Baghdad neighbourhood on Thursday, police said. An Interior Ministry source said the blast killed one person and wounded 15.
08/31/06 Reuters: Former Iraqi Air Force commander killed
A former Iraqi Air Force commander under toppled leader Saddam Hussein was gunned down in the western city of Ramadi on Thursday, police said. Lieutenant-General Wajeeh Thirar Hneyfish was the commander of the Habbaniya Air Force base...
08/31/06 Xinhua: Body of Iraqi judge found north of Baghdad
Iraqi police found the body of a Tikrit court judge who disappeared four days ago north of the capital Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on Thursday.
08/31/06 thedenverchannel: Search Expands For Marine Who Fell While Climbing
Searchers continued their hunt Thursday for a Marine on leave from Iraq was is missing after a fall in Eldorado Canyon State Park near Boulder. Lance Hering of Boulder, 21, fell Tuesday while free-climbing on a rock face with a friend.
08/31/06 AP: Iraqi Security Taking Over 2nd Province
Iraqi forces will take over security in a southern province from coalition troops next month...According to the report, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar province in September.
08/31/06 MNF: 1/34 BCT Soldier killed by an IED
A Soldier from the 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division was killed by an improvised explosive device while conducting a routine security mission at approximately 12:05 p.m., August 30.
08/31/06 LaTimes: 2 Marines admit to abducting, killing Iraqi
Two Marines have confessed to kidnapping and killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad, a military prosecutor said Wednesday at a preliminary hearing
08/31/06 AP: No Death Penalty for Marine
The government will not seek the death penalty against a Marine Corps private who is among eight service members charged with murder and other crimes in the shooting of an Iraqi civilian, a military prosecutor said Wednesday.
08/31/06 AP: Suicide car bomb kills two in Baghdad
A suicide car bomb targeting a line of cars waiting at a Baghdad petrol station killed two people and wounded eight, while a bomb near a restaurant wounded eight people, police said.
08/31/06 Reuters: British diplomats survive Baghdad bombing
A convoy of British diplomats and guards was blasted by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Thursday but the British embassy said no one was injured.
08/31/06 ellsworthmaine: Blue Hill Soldier Wounded By Roadside Bomb
Cpl. Brian Smith....was driving a military vehicle, a Humvee, when it hit an IED (improvised explosive device) in the road. There were four men in the vehicle — all military personnel — but only Smith and one passenger, Luke Reardon, were injured.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Boogyman
09-01-2006, 22:36
09/01/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Sgt. Joshua R. Hanson, 27, of West St. Paul, Minn., died on Aug. 30, in Khaldea, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Hanson was assigned to the National Guard 2nd Battalion
09/01/06 AFP: Iraqis burn books to protest 'culture-killing' curfew
Several of Iraq's leading booksellers and writers have burnt a pyre of books to denounce a curfew which they said has turned the centre of Baghdad's intellectual life into "a street of ghosts".
09/01/06 AP: Pentagon - Conditions ripe for civil war in Iraq
Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq, reflecting the “most complex” security challenges since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the Pentagon said Friday.
09/01/06 AP: Violence uproots Shiites and Sunnis, threatening to divide the capital
But now a battle for Baghdad is well under way between the two major Muslim sects. Death squads are slaughtering people daily and an estimated 160,000 Iraqis have fled their homes mostly here in the capital.
09/01/06 RFE: Kurdish Leader Bans Iraqi Flag
the leader of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, today issued an order not to fly the Iraqi national flag.Barzani's office said that public offices in Kurdistan flying the Iraqi flag "should lower it and hoist only the Kurdistan flag."
09/01/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb kills three Iraqi policemen in Baghdad
A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi policemen in Baghdad's southern Doura district on Friday, police said
09/01/06 Reuters: 3 policemen seriously wounded by IED in Kirkuk
A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, seriously wounding three policemen, local police said.
09/01/06 Reuters: Former Iraqi intelligence officier killed
A senior Iraqi intelligence officer during Saddam Hussein's rule was found dead with gunshot wounds and hands bound near his home north of Baghdad a day after he was kidnapped, police said, the second former senior Saddam officer to be killed
09/01/06 irishexaminer: Gunmen kill policeman in Numaniyah
Gunmen shot and killed a policeman in Numaniyah, a town near Kut, after breaking into his house last night.
09/01/06 eecho: Policeman gunned down in Ramadi
A policeman was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad
09/01/06 eecho: More bodies found after Baghdad attacks
Rescue crews pulled bodies from the rubble of bombed buildings today, the day after a barrage of co-ordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad neighbourhoods killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 280 within half an hour, police said.
09/01/06 AP: Bomb hits oil pipeline south of Baghdad
A bomb targeting an oil pipeline south of Baghdad exploded Friday, sparking a fire and cutting supply to a major electricity station, but causing no casualties, police said.
09/01/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Pfc. Colin J. Wolfe, 18, of Manassas, Va., died Aug. 30 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
09/01/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Spc. Shaun A. Novak, 21, of Two Rivers, Wis.....Spc. Tristan C. Smith, 23, of Bryn Athyn, Pa.....died in Taji, Iraq, on Aug 27, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their M2A3 Bradley Vehicle during combat operations
09/01/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Sgt. Moises Jazmin, 25, of Providence, R.I....Spc. Qixing Lee, 20, of Minneapolis, Minn....died in Taji, Iraq, on Aug 27, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their M2A3 Bradley Vehicle during combat operations
08/31/06 Reuters: Anger boils in Iraq's "town of martyrs"
Near Iraq's border with Iran, Halabja became synonymous with atrocities against civilians after Saddam Hussein's forces killed 5,000 people here in a gas attack in 1988.
08/31/06 Reuters: U.S. force in Iraq at 140,000
The United States has expanded its force in Iraq to 140,000 troops, the most since January and 13,000 more than five weeks ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday, amid relentless violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.
08/31/06 StarTribune: Two soldiers with Minnesota ties killed in Iraq
Spec. Qixing Lee, 20, died Sunday afternoon, said Maj. Nathan Banks. He and his fellow soldiers were with the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, based out of Fort Hood, Texas....The other men killed were Sgt. Moises Jazmine, 25, of Providence, R.I
08/31/06 ksfy: Soldier Mourns Loss of Husband Killed in Iraq
A northwest Iowa couple joined the Army together and served at the same time in Iraq, but now a wife grieves the loss of her husband, Army Private First Class William Thorne. He was killed last Thursday in Iraq by a roadside bomb.
08/31/06 abc4: Police accuse man of starving soldier's child
A Salt Lake man is in jail after being accused of starving a five-year-old disabled child left in his care by a soldier who was deployed to Iraq.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-01-19-58-45
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report said Friday.
In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.
The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a "vocal minority" of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.
Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians are a growing problem, heightening the risk of civil war, the report said.
"Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife," the report said, adding that the Sunni-led insurgency "remains potent and viable" even as it is overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing.
"Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population has increased in recent months," the report said. It is the latest in a series of quarterly reports required by Congress to assess economic, political and security progress.
Iraqi forces were dealing with more violence Friday as officials said a mortar attack on an open-air market in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, killed three people and wounded 12. Elsewhere, two policemen were also killed and authorities said they found the body of a Saddam Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot.
The bloodshed capped a week in which hundreds of Iraqis were killed despite a security crackdown that targeted some of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods.
A growing number of members of Congress are calling for either a shift in the Bush administration's Iraq strategy or a timetable for beginning a substantial withdrawal of American forces. Although administration officials say progress is being made in Iraq, U.S. commanders have increased U.S. troop levels by about 13,000 over the past five weeks, to 140,000, mainly due to increased violence in the Baghdad area.
In response to the Pentagon's report Friday, the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said it showed the Bush administration is "increasingly disconnected from the facts on the ground in Iraq."
"It is time for a new direction to end the war in Iraq, win the war on terror, and give the American people the real security they deserve," Reid said.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who recently returned from a visit to Iraq, said the report squared with what he saw there.
"Iraq is tipping toward civil war," Reed said.
Col. Thomas Vail, commander of a 101st Airborne brigade operating in the mostly Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that an intensified effort to root out insurgents and quell sectarian violence in the capital is bearing fruit, leading to a decrease in sectarian murders in recent days.
"They understand a big stick," he said, referring to a bigger U.S. and Iraqi force confronting militias and others responsible for violence like the barrage of coordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad on Thursday. Iraqi police said they killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 286 within a half hour.
Peter Rodman, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, in a separate session with reporters, said that despite progress this summer in reviving the Iraqi economy, raising electricity production and increasing the number of trained Iraqi troops, security conditions have deteriorated.
The report covered the period since the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki was seated May 20.
From that date through Aug. 11, the average number of attacks per week against Americans and Iraqis was 792, up 24 percent from the previous period of Feb. 11 to May 19. The 792 figure was the highest for any counting period since the war began. The previous high was 641 in the Feb. 11 to May 19 period.
"The last quarter, as you know has been rough," Rodman said. "The levels of violence are up and the sectarian quality of the violence is particularly acute and disturbing."
That assessment was tempered by a degree of optimism that the Iraqi government - with support from U.S. troops - will succeed in quelling the sectarian strife.
Optimism among ordinary Iraqis, however, has declined, the 63-page report said.
When asked if they believe "things will be better" in the future, the percentage of Iraqis responding positively has dropped over the past year - whether they were asked to look ahead six months, one year or five years - according to polling data cited in the report.
"The security situation is currently at its most complex state since the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom," the report said, using the U.S. military's name for the war that was launched in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
...
cowboy117
09-02-2006, 16:04
I typed in"Move On.Org."on Google and ended up here.What went wrong?:blink:
So, what you rather see here?
Fox news has a fully functional website if it's the administration's party line you're looking for.
I prefer to look at things as they are, and the way things are is not the way Bush, Cheney et al say they are.
Boogyman
09-03-2006, 11:36
I typed in"Move On.Org."on Google and ended up here.What went wrong?:blink:
What does the news from Iraq have to do with "MoveOn.org"?
Don't you want to know what's going on over there?
Don't you acknowledge the sacrifices being made by our troops?
I have posted nothing but unfiltered and uncut news from a multitude of sources in Iraq, both good and bad.
FreeSW has posted his opinions, which everyone has the right to do, but this is my first statement in this thread.
Is there something "left-wing" or "unpatriotic" about informing the public of the truth?
Or is it that Conservatives are very uncomfortable seeing or even admitting to the incredible amount of daily violence and death that is really going on over there?
The latter is far more likely.
Pull your heads out of the sand, people. This is real.
Or is it that Conservatives are very uncomfortable seeing or even admitting to the incredible amount of daily violence and death that is really going on over there?
The latter is far more likely.
Pull your heads out of the sand, people. This is real
I think everyone who is paying attention to what is going on is uncomfortable with it, to say the least. But it is true that there is no real need for those without friends and family over there to become personally involved. The only sacrifice Bush has ever asked the American public to make is to run up our credit cards at the mall.
And sign away a few of our constitutional rights and liberties.
I'd wager more folks will pay closer attention to football games this weekend than current events in Iraq and Afghanistan. As someone that has watched a wide variety of televison news programs, and listened to many radio news reports, I'm convinced that the news is managed, probably voluntarily by the networks, but managed, with the goal of presenting it in a packaged format that won't upset viewers and listeners too much. It's sanitized and made bite-sized, so that the enormity of it all never overwhelms. We are encouraged to go on our way thinking that, yes things are bad over there, but it'll be OK.
cowboy117
09-03-2006, 13:06
I totally respect the great soldiers service.I'm a vet myself.WW2 had news blackouts so the American people wouldn't get discouraged and want to pull out.Not every thing needs to be known.On a related note,many American's didn't want to go into WW2.Sometime's we have to do the heavy lifting.Do i think we should have gone into Iraq?I'm not sure.While not a Rush Limbaugh fan,he said,before we had gone into Iraq,that going there was all about Iran.Troops in Afganistan on one side and Iraq on the other.Good position to be in when we go into Iran.[Notice i said when,not if.]I predict beore the November elections but i've been wrong before.On a totally different note:Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone.Hope your'e all having a good one!:D
Boogyman
09-03-2006, 13:37
I totally respect the great soldiers service.I'm a vet myself.WW2 had news blackouts so the American people wouldn't get discouraged and want to pull out.Not every thing needs to be known.On a related note,many American's didn't want to go into WW2.Sometime's we have to do the heavy lifting.Do i think we should have gone into Iraq?I'm not sure.While not a Rush Limbaugh fan,he said,before we had gone into Iraq,that going there was all about Iran.Troops in Afganistan on one side and Iraq on the other.Good position to be in when we go into Iran.[Notice i said when,not if.]I predict beore the November elections but i've been wrong before.On a totally different note:Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone.Hope your'e all having a good one!:D
If Rush shared any opinions with the Bushies back then, then they should have known better.
If it was about Iran, then why take out Saddam, one of the biggest roadblocks to Iran's expansion?
Removing Saddam has only upset the stability in the entire middle east, therefore making Iran the most powerful Islamic country in the region.
As long as we're quoting pre-war conservative viewpoints, here's something from Colin Powell:
"If we break it, we bought it."
Happy Labor Day to you too, Cowboy... ;)
The "global war on terror" has far more in common with the so-called "Cold War" than with WWII. For one thing, it will last much longer, at least a generation, probably several. Would you want to see "news blackouts" (AKA censorship) institutionalized? That's what would occur were it enforced for the duration. For another thing, we found out that politicians that can enforce secrecy also tend to lie, for example LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" and a whole range of things about the Nixon administration (Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Enemies List, etc etc). No, a certain amount of transparency is not only essential for liberty at home, but for sanity in foreign policy.
The Bush administration has similarly reclassified a huge number of documents, many that have nothing at all to do with national security, but which do make it possible for citizens to find out what their government is up to. They have also gutted much of the Freedom of Information Act. They are the most secretive and closed administration in US history, eclipsing even the Nixon administration. I fully expect future historians will reveal astonishingly pervasive levels of wrongdoing by Bush administration officials; because they think they're above scrutiny, they do not expect to ever be caught. But once crises are over, people do tend to talk, if for no other reason than to assuage their guilty consciences before meeting their maker.
Point is, the GWOT is not WWII. If it is similar, as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld seem to try to suggest it is when they compare Al Qaeda to Nazi Germany, then why aren't half a million troops in Iraq, why aren't we rationing gasoline in anticipation of all out war with Iran, why aren't taxes being raised to pay for it, why aren't we on a war footing on the home front? The Bush administration uses the rhetoric of war to get their way when it comes to legislation and curtailing civil liberties and outraging the entire civilized world with their unlawful Gunatanamo detentions, etc, but they aren't consistent at all. That alone should be a red flag to alert the public that something's very rotten in Crawford and DC.
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