5 soldiers killed in Baghdad blast

[Spytheweb]

March 10: NBC's Richard Engel reports on the deadly attack on the U.S. soldiers.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed five American soldiers on a foot patrol Monday after detonating his explosives vest in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

It was the deadliest attack on American forces in Iraq since a Jan. 28 roadside bombing and ambush killed five soldiers in Mosul in northern Iraq.

Military spokesman Maj. Mark Cheedle said that "it was reported to us as a suicide bomber."
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An Iraqi police officer at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two civilians were also killed and another eight wounded in the attack which occurred outside a computer store.

The military did not provide more details. The names of the soldiers were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Monday's deaths brought to 3,979 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The attack was a reminder that while violence is sharply down in the capital since thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers set up patrol bases in neighborhoods to curb sectarian violence, it is still far from safe.

Nearly 70 people were killed in a double bombing in Baghdad's central Karrada district last Thursday in attack that the U.S. military blamed on al-Qaida.

"We remain resolute in our resolve to protect the people of Iraq and kill or capture those who would bring them harm," Colonel Allen Batschelet, chief of staff of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said in a statement after Monday's attack.

So Bush adds 5 more bodies to his death toll.

 

[Spytheweb]

Add 3 more

Add 3 more

Three other American soldiers and an interpreter were killed Monday by a homemade bomb ? what the military calls an improvised explosive device ? in the town of Balad Ruz in the Diyala province northwest of Baghdad.

 

[Spytheweb]

Bush deathwatch add 3 more on Wed

Bush deathwatch add 3 more on Wed

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 34 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Three American soldiers were killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Wednesday, bringing to 12 the number of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq over the past three days.
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With the overall U.S. military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000, the latest killings mark a significant rise in deadly attacks against Americans.

At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight military civilians.

Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that three soldiers were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were wounded.

 

[THE KOD]

The passing of the 4,000th service member in Iraq is a tragic milestone and a testament to the cost of this war, but for those of us who live and fight in Iraq, we measure that cost in smaller, but much more personal numbers. For me those numbers are 8, the number of friends and classmates killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 3, the number of soldiers from my unit killed in this deployment. I'm 25, yet I've received more notifications for funerals than invitations to weddings.

The number 4,000 is too great to grasp even for us that are here in Iraq. When we soldiers read the newspaper, the latest AP casualty figures are glanced over with the same casual interest as a box score for a sport you don't follow. I am certain that I am not alone when I open up the Stars and Stripes, the military's daily paper, and immediately search for the section with the names of the fallen to see if they include anyone I know. While in a combat outpost in southwest Baghdad, it was in that distinctive bold Arial print in a two-week-old copy of the Stars and Stripes that I read that my best friend had been killed in Afghanistan. No phone call from a mutual friend or a visit to his family. All that had come and gone by the time I had learned about his death. I sometimes wonder, if I hadn't picked up that paper, how much longer I would have gone by without knowing ? perhaps another day, perhaps a week or longer until I could find the time and the means to check my e-mail to find my messages unanswered and a death notification from a West Point distro list in my inbox. The dead in Afghanistan don't seem to inspire the keeping of lists the same way that those in Iraq do, but even if they did it wouldn't matter; he could only be number 7 to me.

I'm not asking for pity, only understanding for the cost of this war. We did, after all, volunteer for the Army and that is the key distinction between this army and the army of the Vietnam War. But even as I ask for that understanding I'm almost certain that you won't be able to obtain it. Even Shakespeare, with his now overused notion of soldiers as a "band of brothers," fails to capture the bonds, the sense of responsibility to each other, among soldiers. In many ways, Iraq has become my home (by the time my deployment ends I will have spent more time here than anywhere else in the army) and the soldiers I share that home with have become my family. Between working, eating and sleeping within a few feet of the same soldiers every single day, I doubt I am away from them for more than two hours a day. I'm engaged to the love of my life, but it will take several years of marriage before I've spent as much time with her as I have with the men I serve with today.

For the vast majority of Americans who don't have a loved one overseas, the only number they have to attempt to grasp the Iraq War is 4,000. I would ask that when you see that number, try to remember that it is made up of over 1 million smaller numbers; that every one of the 1 million service members who have fought in Iraq has his or her own personal numbers. Over 1 million 8's and 3's. When you are evaluating the price of the war, weighing potential rewards versus cost in blood and treasure, I would ask you to consider what is worth the lives of three of your loved ones? Or eight? Or more? It would be a tragedy for my 8 and 3 to have died without us being able to complete our mission, but it maybe even more tragic for 8 and 3 to become anything higher.

..................................................................

 

[gardenweasel]

ashamed there aren`t any articles on the "not dead" because saddam is gone...

or any articles on the "not dead" because the bad guys are more focused on iraq and not here and possibly elsewhere.....

maybe a grim statistic but a "milestone"? ....most loyal americans hear "milestone" and we think of an accomplishment ...

the only people that should consider 4,000 dead americans a milestone are the terrorists ...and their sympathizers...


/stw...you offal eating jackal...you tick....

 

[THE KOD]

BAGHDAD - Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

Government television said the round-the-clock curfew imposed two days ago on the capital and due to expire Sunday would be extended indefinitely.

The U.S. Embassy tightened its security measures, ordering all staff to use armored vehicles for all travel in the Green Zone and to sleep in hardened buildings until further notice after six days of rocket and mortar attacks which left two Americans dead.

Despite the mounting crisis, al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, vowed to remain in Basra until government forces wrest control from militias, including al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. He called the fight for control of Basra "a decisive and final battle."

British ground troops, who controlled the city until handing it over to the Iraqis last December, also joined the battle for Basra, firing artillery Saturday for the first time in support of Iraqi forces.

Iraqi authorities have given Basra extremists until April 8 to surrender heavy and medium weapons after an initial 72-hour ultimatum to hand them over was widely ignored.

But a defiant al-Sadr called on his followers Saturday to ignore the order, saying that his Mahdi Army would turn in its weapons only to a government that can "get the occupier out of Iraq," referring to the Americans.

The order was made public by Haidar al-Jabiri, a member of the influential political commission of the Sadrist movement.

Militia, mortars and machine guns
Residents of Basra contacted by telephone said Mahdi militiamen were manning checkpoints Saturday in their neighborhood strongholds. The sound of intermittent mortar and machine gun fire rang out across the city, as the military headquarters at a downtown hotel came under repeated fire.

The fight for Basra is crucial for al-Maliki, who flew to Basra earlier this week and is staking his credibility on gaining control of Iraq's second largest city, which has essentially been held by armed groups for nearly three years.

In a speech Saturday to tribal leaders in Basra, al-Maliki promised to "stand up to these gangs" not only in the south but throughout Iraq.

Iraqi officials and their American partners have long insisted that the crackdown was not directed at al-Sadr's movement but against criminals and renegade factions ? some of whom are allegedly tied to Iran.

Al-Maliki told tribal leaders that the offensive in Basra "was only to deal with these gangs" ? some of which he said "are worse than al-Qaida."

Without mentioning the Sadrists by name, al-Maliki said he was "surprised to see that party emerge with all the weapons available to it and strike at everything ? institutions, people, departments, police stations and the army."

Al-Sadr's followers have accused rival Shiite parties in the national government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall. The young cleric's lieutenants had warned repeatedly that any move to dislodge them from Basra would provoke bloodshed.

But al-Maliki's comments appeared to reinforce suspicions that his government failed to foresee the backlash, including a sharp upsurge in violence throughout the Shiite south and shelling of the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi leadership and the U.S. mission.

U.S. steps up attacks
The upsurge in violence prompted Iraqi authorities to impose a round-the-clock curfew on the capital, which expires at sunrise Sunday.

With the Shiite militiamen defiant, a group of police in the Mahdi Army's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City abandoned their posts and handed over their weapons to al-Sadr's local office. Police forces in Baghdad are believed heavily influenced or infiltrated by Mahdi militiamen.

"We can't fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to submit our weapons," one policeman said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

He said about 40 policemen had defected to the Mahdi Army. The figure could not be confirmed, but AP Television News footage showed about a dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr's chief representative in Sadr City.

Al-Feraiji greeted each policeman and gave them a copy of the Quran and an olive branch as they handed over their guns and ammunition.

On Saturday, Iraqi officials said they had received a phone call from Tahseen Sheikhly, the high-profile civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, who was seized by gunmen two days earlier from at his home in a Shiite area of the capital.

An Iraqi-owned satellite television station, Sharqiya, broadcast what it said was a tape of the conversation, in which a man identifying himself as Sheikhly said he was being held "with a group of officers" at an unknown location.

"Our release depends on the withdrawal of al-Maliki from Basra and the easing of the military operations against the Sadrists in all provinces," he said. "We appeal to the prime minister and the Iraqi government to work with the Sadrist movement, which represents the popular base of society."

In Basra, U.S. jets dropped two precision-guided bombs at midday Saturday on a suspected militia stronghold at Qarmat Ali north of the city, British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.

"My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

Battle for Basra
Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report and it was not possible to independently verify it.

American forces launched their first airstrikes in Basra late Thursday as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance.

In Baghdad, Iraqi police said U.S. helicopters carried out airstrikes on the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City Friday night. Television footage showed destroyed buildings and the smoking wreckage of at least one car.

But the U.S. military said in an e-mail that the only air assault it carried out last night was in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killing 10 militants.

Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, on Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.

The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most of those killed were militia members
..........................................................

I cannot understand why Al Sadr is not hunted down and shot in the head. He is a terrorist.

Why do they let him continue on ? Please someone answer this for me.

Al Sadr is the one that will do the most damage if we ever leave.

Yeh Fight the Americans Al Sadr. As soon as he says that he should be brought to justice.

 

[The Sponge]

I cannot understand why Al Sadr is not hunted down and shot in the head. He is a terrorist.

Why do they let him continue on ? Please someone answer this for me.

Al Sadr is the one that will do the most damage if we ever leave.

Yeh Fight the Americans Al Sadr. As soon as he says that he should be brought to justice.

No Money in Peace

by Charley Reese

I don't see the point of further discussion of the Republican War in Iraq. The president is stubborn and only repeats himself. The war will go on. The country will bleed blood and treasure. In the end, Iraq will end up with a dictator of one sort or another, which is what it had before the war.

Hopefully, a new president will end it, though I would wait a few months before placing any bets. War, as it is being fought in Iraq, is a highly profitable operation for the war service industry, which Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld created. They called it "outsourcing." I call it "mercenaries," and there are now almost as many of them in Iraq as there are uniformed soldiers. As always in war, it is highly unprofitable to the young men and women who have to fight it on military pay.

Unlike the military-industrial complex, which likes to build weapons whether they are ever used or not, the war service industry requires an on-going war and occupation to keep the cash flowing. The biggest mouth swallowing all of this government cash belongs to Cheney's old outfit, Halliburton, and its subsidiaries. It has a lot of influence.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to have figured out how to make a dime out of peace. I easily predict that until somebody does, there will always be more war than peace.

There is a new book out that delves into this privatization of war. It's called Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War. The authors are Robert Bauman and Dina Rasor. What they uncovered is enough to make you throw up.

We should all pause from time to time to give thanks for nuclear weapons. The military-industrial complex made a big mistake when it came up with those. They are so destructive that nobody knows how to survive a nuclear war, much less profit from one. Hence, we've never had one and probably never will.

Limited wars with conventional weapons, however, hit the spot. They keep the money flowing while the profiteers and their assets remain safe and sound, far from the sound of the guns. Only the paid peons and innocent civilians die. There are always the flap jaws who will stand up, wave the flag and scream, "These boys are dying for freedom," when they are really dying for Halliburton or some other corporation.

An old Marine, Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, called it right decades ago when he said war is a racket. The racketeers get rich on war while the poor boys die in them.

If we look at war in its proper perspective, as the common defense of the country, then we can plainly see that when it becomes necessary, it becomes the common duty of all citizens. Therefore, no one should profit from it. There is no reason except corporate greed and political corruption why weapons and other materials of war should not be supplied at cost. There is no sane reason why some should become millionaires while others become corpses or mutilated wrecks.

If all we are interested in is freedom for the Iraqi people, then why are we insisting that they pass an oil law that meets our approval? It isn't our country. It isn't our oil. Why should we care how they dispose of their oil in their country? If, of course, our mission is merely freedom.

What a laugh that is. It's sad to say it, but we've become a nation that boasts some of the best liars in the world. They work full time duping the American people into supporting policies and actions that are not in the interests of this country. Maybe one day we will all wise up. It takes time. Nobody likes to admit he's been scammed.

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