Surge in Violence Across Iraq

[steven]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents carried out two dramatic ambushes Wednesday, killing 11 people including two American civilians in a roadside bombing in Basra and an attack on an Iraqi convoy in Baghdad.

In the most gruesome development, police said militants used this week's downing of a U.S. helicopter to carve out a killing field north of Baghdad, slaying more than 40 people on remote roads that Iraqis were forced to use after American troops cordoned off the crash zone.

Thirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday at crude checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.

Since Monday's crash of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter that killed its two pilots near Mishahda, 25 miles north of Baghdad, American and Iraqi forces cordoned off a large section of the main road near Dujail, police and eyewitnesses said

More than a dozen other Iraqis died Wednesday in attacks linked to the insurgency.

Also Wednesday, Iraqi officials confirmed that 35 men rejected for membership in the Iraqi police were abducted Monday by masked gunmen who stopped their bus en route from Baghdad to Samarra north of the capital.

A U.S. soldier based in Baghdad died of non-combat-related wounds Tuesday, the military said. At least 2,221 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an AP count

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...E&SECTION=HOME

[biker]

I had this weird thought before I even saw your post, Steven.

I've posted on another thread that the world is a better and safer placer when the US is--- and is perceived to be---strong and confident.

Even knowing knowing this statement fairly begs to be ridiculed, I really mean it.

"Yeah. 30,000 dead in Iraq since we got there. Sure bet they feel safer." I can just hear it.

But you know what? They are. Safer, that is.

Think about it. We keep finding these mass graves. Estimates are that he hundreds of thousands. The numbers are staggering. They are mind-numbing.

They are so large, our mind fails to analysze them, to put them in perspective.

Think about it: 30,000 over three years is only ten thousand a year. A lot fewer Iraqis being killed each year than was a "normal" year under Saddam. And very few of those 30,000 have been killed by Americans.

Yes, Iraq is a much safer place since the Americans took over.

Like I said, I had a weird thought the other day.

[avet]

I've had weird thoughts too.

It's weird that those who were born with a silver spoon, and live in utter comfort, financial security, and drive lexus suv's, are the ones sweating huge freekin' bullits, about "beheadings", loosing all they got, yet......they & their son's\daughters won't fight for it.

These same people seem to know what this country "really" needs, yet ........they won't fight for it.

They talk the MOST & the LOUDEST about the NEED FOR WAR,....yet ........they won't fight for it.

It's weird that those who NEVER SHED A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD, or SACRIFICE "ANYTHING" .....make all the HUGE PROFITS.

It's very weird that the government would put GAG ORDERS on the troops, use the Patriot Act against any protestors,..."if"...all they say is nothing but... lies, irrational, & wrong. The need to "shut them up" .....MUST PROVE SOMETHING.

It's weird that no-bid military contractors are TOTALLY EXEMPT from ANY investigation..."if"...their perfectly legal.

It's weird that people who are looking for SOME REAL GOOD, SOUND, ADVICE to.....lets say, oh,... buy a car,...would ask, & BELIEVE ....an Amish farmer!
_________________________________________________
Iraqis Glad 2005 Over, Dim Hopes for 2006
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_n...ews/000338.php

BAGHDAD, Dec 20 (IPS) - Despite the parliamentary elections last week and temporary ease in violence, Iraqis remain bitter about the outgoing year, and sceptical of 2006.
"As a doctor I usually travel daily from home to college," said Um Feras, a doctor of physics at Baghdad University who asked that her last name be changed for her protection. "2005 was a terrible year, and now it has become unacceptable for me to leave my house to go teach due to the troops, who always where sunglasses even on gloomy days, aiming their rifles at everyone like they are gangsters."
"Nothing is good in Iraq now," said the doctor. "Torture, detained friends, pillaging of houses, seeing neighbors suffering from poverty, no electricity, no water and gun fights everywhere. We have no relief from this suffering now."
Asked about her hopes and expectations for 2006, the doctor says: "I only want a normal life far away from the interests of those bastards who invaded our country. I don't care about the elections and politics and the new political parties because these are just a small part of the strategy of the invaders."
The doctor began to cry then added: "My dream for the coming year is that the invaders pull out, we have Iraqis who love one another to govern Iraq, we build something related to civilization and have emotions towards our land and lives in order to get back to the situation where each of us loves the other and we feel the good will of God."
_________________________________________________
Gag order leaves troops, reporters speechless
http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/I...ves_troops.htm
_________________________________________________
COST OF WAR
http://www.newsparkproductions.org/c...wargunn01.html
There is some kind of a gag order going on that they’re not doing a lot of reporting on what’s happening to soldiers. When our local newspaper did a story it was basically, “Local Soldier Injured,” that was it. You know, there was no talk about his injuries, him going back, his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, that type of thing. It has been very quiet.
_________________________________________________
Three U.S. Soldiers Refusing to Fight Speak Out Against the Iraq War
http://www.democracynow.org/article..../03/15/1454208

AMY GOODMAN: September 11 attacks. Why did you join?

CARL WEBB: I was broke. I overspent my budget and behind on bills and heading towards an eviction notice, and I needed some quick cash, more than I could earn just by working immediately.

AMY GOODMAN: And so you joined, and what happened?

CARL WEBB: Well, I joined. I signed a contract for three years, which would have ended in August of 2004. So, by July, I was very, very happy. I was saying good-bye to everyone in my unit. On several occasions throughout the three years, I had been approached about reenlisting and I always had turned them down. So, in July, I was really happy, until I got a phone call from my sergeant.

AMY GOODMAN: This is, what, a month before?

CARL WEBB: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You were going to be done.

CARL WEBB: Yes. I had one more drill to complete. And my sergeant called and said she had bad news. And she said that you're going to Iraq. And immediately I was confused. I said, well, did the unit get activated all of a sudden? She said no. The unit hasn't been activated, we're staying, but you are not going to be allowed to finish your contract. You're being extended and loaned to a different unit, which is going to Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what did you do?

CARL WEBB: Well, first of all, I went into panic and denial. And I said maybe there's been some mistake, because my whole unit, my whole chain of command, knew all along that I had no intentions of reenlisting, and so I just went to the next drill thinking maybe it was some, you know, paperwork that had gotten misplaced or some clerk hit the wrong stroke on the keyboard or something, and that it would be all solved, you know, when I got there.

But, no, when I got there, they told me, no, you are being held under what is called “stop-loss policy,” which is a policy that pretty much makes null and void any enlistment contract you have signed with the government. Typically when soldiers enlist in a military, for a specific amount of time – three years, four years, five years – and when that is complete, you are allowed to get out or reenlist if you choose. What stop-loss orders do is involuntarily extends everyone's enlistment in the service. It's been referred to as the “back-door draft” by somebody. It's actually conscription, except in this case instead of recruiting or conscripting young soldiers, they keep -- they keep the old soldiers in. They won't let them out. So, I got orders saying that I was to report to Fort Hood one week prior to the date that I was supposed to get out of the service.
_____________________________________________
Some U.S. soldiers speak
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/ar..._images_1.html

Zechariah: The only thing that we had really heard was that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction and we were going to go and oust him and find them.

I knew about the gassing of the Kurdish population in northern Iraq and was scared of being attacked while on the ground there with chemical and biological weapons. I highly doubted that they had any type of nuclear weaponry though, so I wasn't worried about that. I think if Saddam had that stuff, he would have shown it off with either a test or public display. He was a pretty arrogant person, in my opinion.

Celina: Did your beliefs change once you were participating in the war?

Zechariah: I think my beliefs had changed once we were on the ground. Within days we had seized all of the oil fields in northern Iraq and our primary mission was to protect them.

Bush had said this war wasn't about oil, but there I was defending oil fields at all costs in the middle of Iraq.

A lot of the piping and workings of the fields had been destroyed by the fleeing army and before we even started to help the people by fixing the power or water supplies, they had construction crews trying to get everything up and running on the oil fields.

They say this war isn't about oil. How about they go and trade places with one of the soldiers that would love to come home, and see what's going on around the oil refineries and see how much work is being put into them and how little is being put into restoring power and water. My brother just got back [from Iraq] and said they still only have power and water for maybe five to six hours out of the day.

I almost emptied my aid bag so they could have sterile catheters

I also worked with a lot of the local hospitals. The whole time we were there, the hospitals kept getting worse and worse. They never had any supplies or new machines installed. Even some of the more simple machinery, like X-ray machines, were never replaced. Every time I went into one of the hospitals I almost emptied my aid bag so they could have sterile catheters and needles. I couldn't believe my eyes to see that they were having to reuse these supplies because they couldn't get replacement equipment. They didn't even have soap.

All of this helped me to see where the priorities in this war were. Obviously, not in the people.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"After six months of being there, I knew that we were fighting a people that would never give up and we could never beat. I didn't blame them either. One of the Turks put it into perspective for me. What if one day, here in Seattle, I looked up and there were Iraqis falling out of the sky in chutes invading the U.S. He asked what I'd do. I thought about it and I'd be doing exactly what they were doing to us over there."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Zechariah: I still feel just as strong about the need for an exit strategy as before. We are not going to win this war. The longer we are there, the more people are going to join the fight against us. We asked detainees why? Most said because they had lost a family member. So, if we figure that most families are three to four people and every time we kill one insurgent, they recruit two to three new members that may have not hated the U.S. until they lost a family member by their hands. It's the same as if they invaded here. Most households have a weapon in the house. That's millions and millions of weapons and people that are willing to protect their family and country from foreign invaders. They won't give up until we are all gone off of their soil.

Celina: What do you think about Secretary Rumsfeld's projection that we could be in Iraq for another 12 years?

Zechariah: I think he needs to spend some time over there and see how out of control it has gotten in just two to three years. If he thinks that we are going to somehow magically regain control of that country, he really has no idea as to the severity of the situation over there.

Also, within two to fours years they won't have a large enough army to fight anything with the enlistment and re-enlistment rates that I'm hearing. I got out and I will never go back there. My brother is getting out also because of the mess over there. I took an oath to defend my country when I enlisted. Iraq has nothing to do with defending my country. I didn't sign up to defend someone's personal interests, whatever it may be.

I've had two other times where someone saw my old unit sticker in my car and yelled at me for signing up and supporting the Army. I want these people to know it's not a soldier's choice to go to war and I wouldn't have signed up if that person would have been willing to pay my tuition. I didn't want anything to do with this war. Afghanistan, I can understand trying to get Bin Laden, if that's what we were doing there. But, Iraq, all of the soldiers I went with felt pretty good about going there at first. Six months into it, almost all of us thought this was a bunch of crap.

When people yell at me about the war, I tell them, 'I am right there with you but you're yelling at the wrong person.' If a soldier says he doesn't want to fight in the time of war, desertion or disobeying a direct order from an officer are punishable by death by firing squad or by the officer that made the order. I doubt that this would happen in this day and age, but it's there [in the books] and it's scary. Either that or you just go to jail, no questions asked.

School has been the most interesting place. People will argue Iraq in certain classes. Most of the time I keep my mouth shut, but every now and then I hear a comment that gets me fired up so I say something to defend the troops. They aren't the ones who make the decisions. They just follow orders and do what they can to make sure they get home in one piece. I think I have opened some people's eyes as to what is going on. I try to explain it impartially and let them make up their own minds as to whether it's bad or good. I just want to make sure they know what really goes on.

Zechariah: I keep hearing that the troops' morale is high over there. When you have a high-ranking officer standing next to you prepping your answers, it's hard to speak your mind. We weren't allowed to talk to media unless a Major or above was with us to prep our answers and screen certain questions.

I couldn't tell you of a single soldier that was excited to be in Iraq having rockets shot at them and IEDs blowing up their friends on a daily basis. Some of these guys are on their third or fourth tours over there. Do you really think they are excited to be in the 130 degree desert, living off of MREs, missing their children being born, watching friends die, praying they aren't next.

President Bush, like Cheney, obviously has no idea as to what is going on over there and doesn't care. This whole thing about taking the fight to the terrorists has got me mad. He already proved to us and himself that Iraq wasn't a threat and that they had no WMDs and he is still trying to say they were terrorists and we need to stop them. They weren't terrorists until we killed off parts of their family. Now they are terrorists because they have lost something that the U.S. took from them, parts of their families.