U.S. Command Announces Battle Of Baghdad Lost
[And Iraq War]

[When the occupation command started this, they boasted that this was the “Battle Of Baghdad,” and if Baghdad couldn’t be “taken back,” the war was lost. And now, for the results.]

“Senior officers have spoken of the campaign in “make or break” terms, saying that there would be little hope of prevailing in the wider war if the bid to retake Baghdad’s streets failed.”

Although American commanders have struck a generally sober tone in the past year, they have been careful not to hint in public at the increasingly gloomy view that some, at least, have taken in private.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 19, By JOHN F. BURNS, The New York Times

The United States military command in Iraq acknowledged on Thursday that its 12-week-old campaign to win back control of Baghdad from sectarian death squads and insurgents had failed to reduce violence across the city.

In one of the most somber assessments of the war by American commanders, a statement read by the spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said the campaign had been marked by increasing attacks on American troops and a spike in combat deaths.

Attacks soared by 22 percent, he said, during the first three weeks of Ramadan, the holy month now nearing its end.

With three new combat deaths announced on Thursday, the number of American troops who have lost their lives in October rose to 73, representing one of the sharpest surges in military casualties in the past two years.

General Caldwell said American troops were being forced to return to neighborhoods, like Dora in southwestern Baghdad, that they had sealed off and cleared as part of the security campaign because “extremists” fighting back had sent sectarian violence soaring there.

The security plan sent heavy deployments of American troops into troubled neighborhoods, reversing the previous policy, which was to allow Iraqi troops to police the capital.

“The violence is indeed disheartening,” General Caldwell said. While the sweeps have contained violence in some areas, over all, he said, the campaign to gain control of the city “has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence.”

The general’s remarks, unusual for their candor and unvarnished portrayal of bad news, appeared to mark a new setback for the American military effort.

Stark new videotape broadcast on Thursday by Al Jazeera from Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 80 miles west of Baghdad, showed heavily armed insurgents taking over a busy city street in broad daylight to celebrate the proclamation by their leaders of an Islamic state in wide areas of Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

There was no sign of any attempt to intervene by the heavy concentration of American and Iraqi troops in the city.

The American command’s statement on the faltering campaign signified a new and jarring stage in 18 months of efforts to bring peace to Baghdad, with one military plan succeeding another, and none achieving more than a temporary decline in the violence that has made Baghdad the most bloody theater of the war.

Senior officers have spoken of the campaign in “make or break” terms, saying that there would be little hope of prevailing in the wider war if the bid to retake Baghdad’s streets failed.

General Caldwell gave little hint of what changes the American command might make in the Baghdad operation.

Other senior American military officials who have discussed the Baghdad operation with reporters in recent days have suggested that they have no fundamental reworking of the plan in mind; rather, they say, they plan to continue with it for many months, adjusting as conditions dictate. [How do you know when your war is lost? When the command can’t think of anything new to do, and just keeps on doing what doesn’t work. Ask Robert E. Lee before Richmond, 1864.]

A hint that changes in the Baghdad operation were afoot came three weeks ago, when the neighborhood sweeps were halted with large areas of the city untouched, including strongholds of Sunni and Shiite militants like Mansour, in western Baghdad, and Sadr City in the east.

The American military has said that it has committed 15,600 troops to the operation, compared with 9,600 from the Iraqi Army, with 30,000 Iraqi policemen serving in support roles.

American troops have led the 95,000 house searches conducted in the campaign, and General Caldwell said that their visibility had been accompanied by a shift in the pattern of insurgent attacks, with a sharp rise in strikes against American troops and attacks on civilian targets staying more or less constant.

“We find the insurgent elements, the extremists, are in fact punching back hard,” he said. “They’re trying to get back into those areas,” the general said.

“We’re constantly going back in and doing clearing operations again.”’

Perhaps the most striking element in the news conference was General Caldwell’s candor.

Although American commanders have struck a generally sober tone in the past year, they have been careful not to hint in public at the increasingly gloomy view that some, at least, have taken in private.

In recent weeks, some senior officers have voiced growing exasperation at background briefings for reporters, particularly when discussing the ineffectiveness, dithering and corruption, as they have termed it, in the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and the prime minister’s failure to act effectively on his pledge to rein in the Shiite militias that American commanders now see as the main source of instability.

General Caldwell came to the Baghdad spokesman’s job after commanding the 82nd Airborne Division in its relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina last year, and he has struck a generally upbeat tone in his briefings since arriving here this spring.

But on Thursday, he appeared unusually subdued.

He waved off a question suggesting that the situation in Baghdad had similarities to the period of the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, saying, “We’re getting far beyond my realm to start making analogies to the Vietnam War.”

American commanders who have discussed the Baghdad operation with reporters in recent days have spoken of having limited options as they seek for ways to make the campaign more effective. One is to increase the number of Iraqi troops deployed to the sweeps.

Of six Iraqi battalions that were promised when the operation began, these commanders said, only two have been deployed.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Massachusetts Marine Killed In Haditha

U.S. Marine 2nd Lt. Joshua L. Booth, 23, of Sturbridge, Mass., was killed Oct. 17, 2006, by a single sniper shot in Haditha, Iraq. Born in Virginia Beach, Va., Booth leaves his wife, Erica, and an 18 month old daughter. (AP Photo/Booth Family via Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

Alabama Soldier Killed In Samarra

Army Pfc. Stephen D. Bicknell, of Prattville, Ala., 19, died along with fellow soldier Lester Domenico Baroncini, Oct. 15, 2006, when two land mines detonated near their humvee in Samarra, Iraq, the military said. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. (AP Photo/Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office

Soldier Killed In Anbar

19 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061019-01

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq: One Soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died Wednesday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

Soldier Killed By IED Near Ballad

19 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061019-03

BAGHDAD, Iraq: A 16th Military Police Brigade Soldier was killed at approximately 5:22 p.m. Oct.18 when the vehicle he was riding in was stuck by an improvised explosive device north of Balad.

Marine Killed In Anbar

19 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061019-06

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq: One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died today from enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.

Baghdad Soldier Killed By IED

20 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061020-08

BAGHDAD: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 2:37 a.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device in southwest Baghdad.

Fallen Local Soldier ‘Inspirational’

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Brozovich (KDKA)

Oct 20, 2006 KDKA

MERCER: The war in Iraq has claimed another casualty from our area.

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Brozovich, 42, of Greenville, Mercer County, died Wednesday and three other local soldiers were injured when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle.

Brozovich, who leaves behind a wife and son, served with the 1-213th Air Defense Artillery unit of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

He was on his third tour of duty since the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

The blast that killed Brozovich also injured three other soldiers from Pennsylvania: Spc. Ryan Griffin, 39, of Pittsburgh; Spc. Robert Kaminski, 26, of Allison Park; and Pvt. Joshua Humberger, 20, of Grapeville.

According to the governor, Spc. Kaminski suffered very serious injuries. Griffin and Humberger both suffered serious injuries.

Sgt. Brozovich is the second person from Western Pennsylvania killed this week in Iraq.

Army Specialist Russell Culbertson, Jr., 22, was killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday near Abu Ghraib prison. He was from the small town of Lone Pine in Washington County.

Leavenworth Soldier Dies In Iraq;
“I Didn’t Want Him To Go, He Didn’t Want To Go”

October 20, 2006 TheKansasCityChannel

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. A soldier from Leavenworth who reveled in making others laugh has died in Iraq, his mother said.

His mother, Diana Pitts, told KMBC her son was killed Tuesday when an improvised explosive device struck his armored Humvee. At least two other soldiers also were killed, she said.

“The only way I can remember my son is he made everybody laugh,” Pitts said. “For almost 22 years, he was the rock of our family.”

Unger, who graduated from Leavenworth High School in 2003, would have celebrated his birthday on Halloween. He leaves behind a wife, Laura Unger, and a son and daughter.

Laura Unger said she met David in high school. “I was best friends with him in high school, that’s how we ended up married,” she said.

They both went into the Army and were stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. She got out to raise their son.

Then, David got the call to head overseas.

“I didn’t want him to go, he didn’t want to go,” Unger said.

The family is cherishing a video he made spoofing “MTV Cribs,” which gives viewers an inside look at the plush homes of television and film stars.

In Unger’s version, viewers got an inside look of a shabby-looking grassy patch in Iraq. Unger called the ground “the future bowling alley, golf course, horseshoe arena. It’s all gonna go down right here.”

He also joked about the birds who liked to leave droppings on military beds.

“He was just always just trying to make everybody happy and laugh. That was my child. I just don’t know what any of us are going to do without him,” said Pitts, who works in the chaplain’s office at Fort Leavenworth.

Pitts said Unger was expected to leave Iraq for Kuwait in mid-November. He would have returned to Texas with the 4th Infantry Division in December. Unger already had decided not to re-enlist and instead return to Leavenworth to spend more time with his family, Pitts said.

Unger was the first soldier from the Leavenworth-Lansing area to die in the Iraq war.

Funeral services, which will be held at the Belden-Sexton-Sumpter Funeral Chapel in Leavenworth, are pending.

Soldier With Sullivan County Link Killed By Bomb In Iraq

October 19, 2006 By MARK MARONEY, The Williamsport Sun-Gazette

An Army soldier with ties to Sullivan County was killed Tuesday in Iraq, and his family is mourning his loss.

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Christopher E. Loudon, 23, of Brockport, near DuBois, will be sorely missed for his dedication as a husband and father and as a soldier fighting terrorism, his wife and mother-in-law said from their Muncy Valley-area residence Wednesday night.

Loudon’s widow, the former Jacey Laidacker, 24, who lives with her mother and father, Suzanne and Larry Laidacker, described her husband as a “soul mate” and “best friend.”

“Chris was the most caring, kind, strong person that I know,” she said. “I’m going to miss him every day.”

Loudon, who was attached to the 4th Infantry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas, was killed by a roadside bomb that exploded as he was riding by in a Humvee on patrol in Baghdad, Suzanne Laidacker said.

Three soldiers with Loudon also died in the blast, she said. She did not give their names.

“He was looking for snipers, improvised explosive devices and knocking doors down,” Suzanne Laidacker said. Loudon was scheduled to return in December having left in July, she said.

“I have two sons and a daughter and he was my third son. If I could trade places I would give up my life.”

Loudon’s parents, Randy and Suzanne, live in Brockport. His brother, 1st Lt. Nicholas Loudon, 25, is a member of the 82nd Airborne and is also serving in Iraq, Suzanne Laidacker said.

The distraught mother-in-law spoke about how the couple met. “He fell in love with our daughter at college and we fell in love with him,” she said.

Jacey graduated from the Sullivan County School District in 2001, where her father, now retired, worked as an elementary teacher and guidance counselor. She and Loudon attended Slippery Rock University, where they met. It was “love at first sight,” Suzanne Laidacker said.

Loudon enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in high school and college. While in high school he always thought about a military career.

The two graduated from Slippery Rock University in 2005 and Loudon received his commission as a second lieutenant. He also took the rigorous Ranger training, passing the test on his initial try, Suzanne Laidacker said.

She described her son-in-law as a “warriorâ” who “wanted to do his duty for his country.”

Loudon leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter, she said.

Burial is expected to include full military honors. “He will no doubt receive the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and several other medals,” Laidacker said.

Friends, family and members of the Zion Lutheran Church in Turbotville, where Jacey and her mother and father worship, are providing an outpouring of community support, Laidacker said.

So have employees at Kay Jewelers in the Lycoming Mall, where the widow works as a seasonal sales associate.

“We’re all pretty upset,” said Judy Coup, Kay Jewelers assistant manager. “We’re all very close here.”

A special account for Loudon’s family has been set up at Sovereign Bank, and donations may be made at any branch, according to Kate Pacacha, Lycoming Mall’s director of marketing.

“It is a savings account for Jacey that people can donate to,” she said.

U.S. Patrol In Kirkuk Hit;
Number Of Casualties Not Announced

Oct 19 (KUNA)

A booby trapped car detonated targeting an American patrol in Kirkuk, the attack took casualties and damaged the area. No further details are available as the location is sealed off by American forces.

The Bullet Hit Just Under The Left Side Of The Marine’s Jaw

October 19, 2006 By JAY PRICE, Raleigh News & Observer [Excerpts]

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq: It was 9 a.m., and the start of another day of Lt. Col. Todd Desgrosseilliers’ hands-on approach to counterinsurgency.

Most go well, at least by the perilous standards for Marines operating in Anbar province, the heart of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim insurgency. Wednesday, however, would not.

By the end of the day, one Marine would lie wounded and bloody, shot through the face by a sniper’s bullet. Another would be startled by a near-miss that struck the goggles atop his helmet.

Desgrosseilliers’ personal detachment of 15 Marines, known as the battalion jump team, began Wednesday with a briefing from its fast-talking platoon commander, Lt. Jon Mueller, 29, of Denver. Then, the Marines strapped body armor over their fire-resistant jumpsuits, pulled on Kevlar helmets and flame-resistant gloves and climbed into their armored Humvees.

The mission was typical: Drive west from Camp Habbaniyah toward Ramadi, checking in with several of the 15 small Marine outposts scattered along a stretch of road between Fallujah and Ramadi. The Marines’ goal is to build a string of outposts all the way to Ramadi so that stretches of road now closed to civilians can reopen, Desgrosseilliers said. Then they’ll hand over the area to Iraqi forces. [Oh please. Nobody believes that bullshit anymore.]

At the first stop, in the town of Khaladiya, the Iraqi captain in charge took Desgrosseilliers behind the outpost and showed him bullet holes in the walls and impact craters in several bulletproof windows. Next stop: a bridge where the Marine outpost is attacked nearly every day.

On the way to the third stop, a burly Marine traveling with the jump team but wasn’t a member of it reminded a reporter to keep moving when outside the Humvee. The patrol was in an area where a sniper had been active, he said.

Two minutes later, when the patrol stopped so Desgrosseilliers could check in with a team of Marines with tanks, the Marine stepped from his Humvee and walked toward the tanks. The snap of a shot rang out from about 150 yards away in the direction of a mosque, houses and shops.

The bullet hit just under the left side of the Marine’s jaw and passed through his mouth, knocking out teeth and exiting through his right cheek. He fell to the pavement and a pool of blood began spreading around his head.

The shooting continued.

Cpl. Mario Huerta, 22, of Dallas, was outside his Humvee when he heard the first shot and looked back. A bullet whirred just above him, then another smacked into the goggles on his Kevlar helmet, rocking his head and denting the goggles but not hurting him.

Desgrosseilliers, who earned a Silver Star two years ago in Fallujah, turned when he heard the initial shot. He saw that the burly Marine was down and sprinted nearly 100 yards, ignoring the bullets zipping past his head.

Desgrosseilliers was the first to get to the wounded Marine, whose name can’t be divulged under military press rules, and he rolled him onto his back. He was joined by Navy corpsman George Grant, 25, of New York, as shots zipped past their heads.

Desgrosseilliers ordered the Humvees into a circle to block the shots. Then he and Grant ran a breathing tube up the wounded man’s nose so he wouldn’t drown in his own blood.

The closest field hospital was about four miles back, down a road where improvised bombs are common. Desgrosseilliers’ Humvee took the lead, its siren blaring to clear the road.

Within eight minutes, the jump team slid to a stop in front of the surgical unit at an air base near Camp Habbaniyah. Desgrosseilliers joined several jump-team Marines and orderlies in carrying the wounded man inside on a stretcher.

After a few minutes, Grant came out, blood all over his jumpsuit, and sat on the ground, wordless.

A doctor told Grant the Marine likely would live, that he’d been stabilized and would be flown to a larger hospital.

REALLY BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

US troops near Sadr City, Baghdad. (AFP/File/Dave Clark)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Stupid Liars At Occupation Command Caught In Another Stupid Lie:
“There Were No Alliance Casualties”
“The British Defense Ministry Said Several Of Its Soldiers Were Hurt”

10.19.06 Reuters & (AP)

A bomber wounded British soldiers when he attacked a military convoy in the south on Thursday, witnesses and an Afghan army officer said.

A NATO vehicle was ablaze after the blast in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.

“The bomber was on foot and hurled himself at the convoy of NATO,” said Afghan army officer Shamsuddin.

He had earlier said two NATO soldiers were killed but NATO said there were no alliance casualties.

The British Defense Ministry said several of its soldiers were hurt but none killed in the blast in the city’s bazaar.

A bomber hurled himself in front of a police car in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing one policeman and wounding four others, a police official said.

The blast occurred on a stretch of open road just outside the eastern city of Khost, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief.

Resistance Kills Eight Afghans Working For US Military Base

Oct 20 AFP News

Taliban rebels have shot dead eight men employed at a US base in eastern Afghanistan while a bomber threw himself at an Afghan army convoy and killed a soldier.

A group of 10 workers had left the American military base in the eastern province of Kunar in a minibus late Thursday when they were stopped by gunmen, provincial police chief Abduljalal Jalal told AFP.

“The gunmen sprayed the vehicle with bullets,” he said. Two labourers managed to escape.

The Taliban were also likely to have been behind a bombing near the eastern city of Khost Friday in which a soldier was killed.

The attacker waited for an Afghan army convoy that had to slow down at a speed bump and then detonated explosives strapped to his body, the provincial police chief General Mohammad Ayob said.

“One soldier was martyred and other seven were wounded in the suicide attack,” army general Mohammad Akram Sami told AFP.

Khost has suffered several blasts in the past weeks. One on Thursday killed a policeman and wounded five others.

In another attack reported Friday, police said a dozen Taliban attacked a district in eastern Paktika province late Thursday.

TROOP NEWS

“It Feels Like They Come Back From Iraq And If They Are Not Ready And Fit To Go Out Again When They’ve Patched Them Up They’re Just Nobody”
“They Should Be Pleased That He Wants To Stay In The Army; There Are Enough People Who Want To Get Out”

Sarah Tarry says her husband has no choice but to go AWOL (Ben Gurr)

October 21, 2006 By Lucy Bannerman. The Times (UK)

An army wife has complained of a lack of support for her wounded husband.

THE image of Carl Tarry, struggling to stay conscious as his colleagues scrambled to his aid, laid bare the dangers of the Iraqi mission.

Little did his wife think that the moment, captured on the front page of The Times in April 2004, would still be haunting his family two and a half years later.

Yesterday Sarah Tarry went public to describe a chronic lack of support from the Army for her husband since his clash with insurgents, which means that he may never be able to return to the job he loves.

“It feels like they come back from Iraq and if they are not ready and fit to go out again when they’ve patched them up they’re just nobody,” she said. “They’re just a number, they’re on the scrapheap and I don’t think that is right.

“They become a stack of paperwork. It’s not fair on the soldiers who have been injured for the sake of their country.”

Carl Tarry, a chef with the 6th Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, shattered his leg in seven places during the attack in Basra.

After surgery, he was told that he would lose his leg if he broke it again, and was cautioned that he risked long-term damage if he returned to his job. However, Mrs Tarry, 43, claims that he has received repeated orders to resume duty as a chef, despite obtaining documentation from the Medical Board stating that he is medically unfit to cope with 12-hour shifts on his feet, as that job requires.

If he fails to turn up for the new post, she fears the worst outcome for a proud soldier: that he will be reported AWOL. “I just feel like he’s being bullied by the Army into a job that he’s got written down in black and white he can’t do,” she said.

Mrs Tarry, who has been struggling to care for her husband at their home in Tidworth, Wiltshire, as well as holding down a job and bringing up their three children, aged 16, 12 and 8, said that his experience in Iraq had cast a long shadow across the family. She said: “It demoralises you. My husband is not a number. He has been in the Army 16 years, it’s his life.

“He’s trying his best to get back to work but they’re just not helping. They should be pleased that he wants to stay in the Army; there are enough people who want to get out.”

She added that the long time out of action had taken a toll on his confidence as a soldier. “He has changed. He gets depressed a lot. Things get on top of him. Little things can turn into a big thing. The children just accepted it.

“Sometimes Daddy can be in a good mood and sometimes he’s quiet and needs to be left alone. But if we could just get beyond this posting thing it would be ten times better. He wouldn’t be sat at home. He just wants to get back to work.”

Corporal Tarry, 34, who served two tours in Iraq and three in Northern Ireland, has no choice but to disobey orders to begin a new post, she added.

“Three times he’s told them he is not physically able to go into a chef’s job and three times they have given him a posting for a chef.”

She claimed that the latest order, which requires him to report for duty in Abingdon, ignored his requests to retrain as a driver.

“They said if he doesn’t turn up for the job on the date specified they will class him as AWOL. It should come through the door any day now.”

Corporal Tarry was injured near Basra on April 11, 2004, as coalition forces struggled to maintain control in the previously stable southern region.

That week’s escalation of violence took British troops by surprise and plunged Iraq into the worst violence since the war started the previous year.

Mrs Tarry said that she expected more support from the Army after her husband was injured in the line of duty. While he convalesced for weeks in hospital in Birmingham, she said that his employers offered limited help as she struggled to make visits.

“It seems like no one cares. All he wants is to get back to work, but he doesn’t even get a thank you.”

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The funeral of Army Cpl. Nicholas A. Arvanitis, in Salem, N.H., Oct. 17, 2006. Army Cpl. Arvanitis, 22, of Salem, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C., died Oct. 6, 2006 from injuries sustained when he encountered enemy fire in Iraq. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Get The Message?

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

Assorted Resistance Action

Destroyed police vehicles lie amongst at the scene of a bomb attack in Mosul October 19, 2006. A bomber blew up a fuel truck outside a police centre and rebels fired mortar rounds at another station in coordinated attacks, police and doctors said. REUTERS/Khaleed Al-Mousuly (IRAQ)

Oct 19 (Reuters) & (KUNA) & Xinhua & By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer & AFP & 10.20.06 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory PRESS RELEASE 061020a & Reuters

A bomber blew up his car at the entrance to Bab al-Aswad bank in the south of Kirkuk just as Iraqi soldiers were waiting to collect their salaries, said local police chief Adel Zine al-Abidin. Eight have been killed and 70 wounded.

A large part of the bank building, two army vehicles and several nearby shops were set on fire by the blast.

The blitz came just a week after Iraqi troops carried out a major security operation in the divided city, imposing a curfew and launching house searches in an apparently unsuccessful a bid to root out militants.

A bomber struck the al-Mutanabi police station near the Mosul University and a fuel station with a booby-trapped fuel truck in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, causing huge fires. Shortly after the explosion, insurgents fired mortar shells at another police center and clashed with police.

Twelve people were killed, including two policemen and 25 other were wounded, including five policemen in the Mosul attack, Colonel Abed Hamad al-Juboury, head of the police station told Xinhua by telephone.

Four Iraqi police officers have been injured when two improvised explosive devices (IED) blasted close to two patrol cars in central Kirkuk, Thursday. Iraqi police sources told KUNA, one of the blasts injured one police man, the other injured three.

A car bomb and a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen, in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital, an Interior Ministry source said.

Guerrillas killed an employee in the Ministry of Higher Education in central Baghdad.

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed three policemen and wounded three policemen, in Baghdad’s southern Dora district, an Interior Ministry source said.

In Dora, Baghdad, resistance fighters opened fire on a police station, killing four policemen.

Police Brig. Bassem Kadhim, who served with the border police, was shot to death outside his home in Baghdad’s southern Saydiya district, an Interior Ministry source said.

Three Iraqi policemen were killed in clashes with insurgents near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad

A car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded four more some 35 km (22 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police and the army said.

A VBIED attack on the Khaldiyah Bridge in Habbaniyah killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two other Iraqi soldiers.

Guerrillas killed one worker and wounded three others working for the U.S. base near the oil refinery city of Baiji, police said.

Militants with RPGs and AK47s attacked several police stations in Amara in southern Iraq on Thursday. Army spokesman said. Five Iraqi police were wounded.

An Iraqi army humvee after a car bomb exploded in Kirkuk Oct, 19, 2006. The Kirkuk bombing was aimed at a bank where a crowd of army soldiers waited to get their wages. (AP Photo)

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The Iraq Situation Is Not Winnable In Any Real Sense Of The Word Winnable”

[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]]

Oct. 19 By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID S. CLOUD, The New York Times [Excerpt]

“We are not able to project sufficient coalition and Iraqi forces to properly execute the strategy” of clearing, holding and rebuilding Baghdad and other areas of insurgents and hostile militias, said another veteran, retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff. “General Pace is doing the right thing by reassessing our entire strategy.”

“The Iraq situation is not winnable in any real sense of the word ‘winnable,’ “Richard N. Haass, the former chief of the policy planning operations in the State Department during Mr. Bush’s first term, told reporters on Thursday.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

October 20, 1967:
“Protesters Built Barricades Across Roads To Prevent Buses Carrying Recruits To The Army’s Conscription Centre”

BBC via Carl Bunin, Peace History Oct 16-22

10.20.67 BBC

The biggest demonstration yet against American involvement in the Vietnamese War has taken place in the town of Oakland, in California.

An estimated 4,000 people poured onto the streets to demonstrate in a fifth day of massive protests against the conscription of soldiers to serve in the war.

The city was brought to a standstill as protesters built barricades across roads to prevent buses carrying recruits to the Army’s conscription centre.

Police reinforcements came in from San Francisco as the protests turned violent.

Demonstrators, many wearing helmets and holding plywood shields, overturned cars and threw bottles, tin cans and stones at the police.

Four people were injured and seven arrested.

There was no repeat of the scenes three days ago, however, when police in Oakland used clubs and chemical sprays to clear the streets.

The heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators caused outrage throughout the country.

Recent polls suggest that American support for the war in Vietnam is declining steadily.

President Johnson is under attack from those who believe he is not being aggressive enough on Vietnam as well as those who think he should withdraw.

A Gallup poll published earlier this month showed his popularity rating plummeting to the point where if an election were held at this point in his term of office, he would lose by a landslide.

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

Another Blinding Flash Of The Obvious

[Thanks to Don Bacon, smedleybutlersociety@msn.co, who sent this in.]

October 18, 2006 News Limited

FORMER US secretary of state James Baker was visibly shocked when he last visited Iraq, and said the country was in a “helluva mess”, the BBC reported today.

Mr Baker is leading a review of the situation in Iraq by a bipartisan US committee of experts.

OCCUPATION REPORT

Good News For The Iraqi Resistance!!
U.S. Occupation Commands’ Stupid Terror Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To Kill U.S. Troops

Iraqi citizens try to clean up an office after an overnight raid by foreign occupation troops from the U.S.A., who arrested two guards, took computers and money, and wrecked what was not stolen, according to witnesses at a mosque in Baghdad’s al-Risala neighborhood. (AFP/Ali Al-Saadi)

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can raid and wreck churches, kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Idiot U.S. General On Militias:
Who Cares If They’ve Done “Bad Acts”:
Kill Them All

October 18, 2006 Aamer Madhani, Chicago Tribune

‘’When we speak of the militias-what I’m talking about particularly is the Mahdi Army and Moqtada al-Sadr – the Americans cannot have the attitude that they are terrorists and thieves,’’ said Hassan al-Suneid, a parliament members associated with the main Shiite bloc.

‘’These are people who are in the parliament. These are people who control several cabinet seats.’’

In recent months, the term Mahdi Army has disappeared from the U.S. commanders’ lexicon. Talk of arresting al-Sadr on an arrest warrant is ancient history and the U.S. rhetoric against him disappeared as he has cemented himself as one of the most influential figures in Iraq.

Privately, U.S. commanders say that there is a directive to avoid using al-Sadr’s name or mention the Mahdi Army. [Right. If you pretend it doesn’t exist, maybe it will all go away, like a bad dream. What infantile horseshit.]

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman, said that between 21 and 23 militia groups are operating in Baghdad and that it would be counterproductive to put too much effort in attributing bad acts to specific groups.

‘’If every time we engage a different group you’re trying to attribute it to one particular element, we’d run ourselves crazy trying to ascertain exactly who somebody did or did not belong to,’’ Caldwell said.

A World Class Example Of Press Stupidity;
Anti-Occupation Forces Defeat Collaborators & Take Amarah;
[But From These Two Bullshit Reports, You’d Never Know That’s What’s Going On]

Mahdi Army soldiers take Amarah Oct. 20, 2006. The Mahdi Army, captured the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday after their fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings. (AP Photo/AP Television)

#1:

[As you read this blathering idiocy, keep in mind the following: 1. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, supported the invasion, has supported and still supports the U.S. military dictatorship in Iraq, and is first and foremost among the collaborator political parties. 2. The Mahdi Army is opposed to the occupation, demands immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, and has fought the U.S. occupation army with force of arms.

[This stupid report mentions none of that of course. Not one world. It’s typical of pro-occupation propaganda written by collaborators that make it seem it’s just a bunch of crazed Iraqis killing each other for this or that primitive motive. This disgusting piece of trash is typical of what the occupation dictatorship likes to have you think. It’s pure disinformation for the occupation. T]

October 19, 2006 By Hamza Hendawi, The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, IRAQ: The family of the murdered chief of police intelligence in the southern Maysan province struck back today against his suspected killers, kidnapping the teenage brother of a local militia commander and vowing not to free him unless the culprits are turned over, police said.

Ali Qassim al-Tamimi was killed Wednesday by a bomb planted on the highway between Maysan’s provincial capital Amarah and the city of Basra farther south. He was killed along with four of his bodyguards.

Tamimi is known to be a member of the Badr Brigade, a militia linked to Iraq’s largest religious Shiite [translation: collaborator] party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI. The family maintains that the rival Mahdi Army of radical anti-U.S. cleric [translation: anti invasion and occupation of Iraq] Muqtada al-Sadr was behind his murder.

The showdown between the two Shiite militias has the potential to develop into an all-out conflict between the heavily armed groups and their political sponsors, both with large blocs in parliament and backers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ruling coalition. It also could shatter the unity of Iraq’s majority Shiites at a time when an enduring Sunni insurgency shows no signs of abating amid continued sectarian strife.

In response to the abduction, Mahdi Army militiamen deployed across the city, enforcing an impromptu curfew and taking control of several police stations, according to police Capt. Hussein Karim and al-Sadr’s media representative in Amarah, Aouda al-Bahrani. They also commandeered police vehicles.

By late afternoon, the city was almost completely deserted.

Clashes erupted between the Mahdi Army militiamen and policemen defending the force’s headquarters in the center of the city. Two policemen, two militiamen and four civilians were wounded in the fighting, in which mortars, rifle propelled grenades and assault rifles were used, according to Karim, the police captain.

The Mahdi Army commander in Amarah is sheik Fadel al-Bahadli. His brother, Hussein al-Bahadli, is believed to be 19.

Badr and the Mahdi Army have been at loggerheads for years, their differences primarily over control of cities and towns in the mainly Shiite south of the country. [There it is. The fact that one armed forces is opposed to the occupation, and one for it, isn’t worth mentioning, is it? This rat missed his chance. He would have been a great success writing “news” for Hitler or Stalin.]

Ironically, both al-Sadr’s political bloc, the so-called “Sadrists”, and SCIRI are members of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The clashes in Amarah will almost certainly increase pressure on al-Maliki to act against the militias, which are suspected of involvement in sectarian killings now wracking the country.

MORE:

#2:

[Reality: Anti-Occupation Military Formation Took Amarah]

The rubble of a destroyed police station in Amara. Mahdi Army troops fought with Iraqi police in an offensive Friday that left police stations in flames. (AFP/Essam Al-Sudani)

[More of the inane crap about religious wars in this story too, as well as more lying propaganda for Bush, like referring to the nationalist troops as “anti-American.” The real news is that an anti-occupation military formation raided and took Amarah. Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. T]

10.20.06 By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN & Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press Writers [Excerpts]

The Shiite militia run by the anti-American [translation: anti Bush occupation of his nation] cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of a southern Iraqi city on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance [translation: liberation from occupation] yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

The Mahdi Army held Amarah for several hours in an embarrassingly strong showing against the local police and security forces, controlled by the Badr Brigade militia loyal to SCIRI, the country’s dominant political force with deep and historic links to Iran.

Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, residents said, planting explosives that flattened the buildings in Amarah, a city just 30 miles from the Iranian border that was under British command until August, when it was returned to Iraqi government control.

About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling in commandeered police vehicles, witnesses said. Other fighters set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.

Thick, black smoke billowed from behind barricades at a police station, much of it from vehicles set on fire inside the compound.

The militiamen later withdrew from their positions and lifted their siege of police headquarters under a temporary truce negotiated with an al-Sadr envoy.

AP Television News footage showed thick, black smoke billowing from behind the barricades of a police station in Amarah. Much of the smoke came from fires set to vehicles that were parked within the compound.

Hooded gunmen [translation: resistance soldiers] roamed the streets, some of whom seemed to be directing the others [yes, most armed forces do have people who are in commend; what an idiot] while a stream of gunshots could be heard in the background.

Al-Sadr’s envoy, whose identity remains unknown, was due to meet with the provincial governor, the local Mahdi Army commander and al-Sadr’s representative in Amarah, a city of 750,000.

Mahdi Army militiamen have long enjoyed a free rein in Amarah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Maysan. Militiamen in Amarah often summon local government officials for meetings at their offices.

At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, had been killed in clashes since Friday, Dr. Zamil Shia, director of Amarah’s department of health, said by telephone from the city, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The fighting also wounded at least 59 people, including 22 civilians, according to Riyadh Saed, the duty physician at the city’s main hospital.

Amarah, a major population center in the resource-rich yet impoverished south, is a traditional center of Shiite defiance to successive Iraqi regimes. Its famed marshlands were drained by former dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1990s in reprisal for the city’s role in the Shiite uprising that blazed through the region after the 1991 Gulf War.

[Now for the smokescreen. Mahdi is anti occupation. Badr is pro-occupation. That’s what the fighting about. But check the following idiocy about Shia “unity” being at risk. There is no unity between nationalist resistance forces and Bush-loving traitors, and there never has been. Duh.]

The showdown between the Mahdi and Badr militias has the potential to develop into an all-out conflict between the heavily armed groups and their political sponsors, both with large blocs in parliament and backers of al-Maliki’s ruling coalition.

It also could shatter the unity of Iraq’s majority Shiites at a time when an enduring Sunni insurgency shows no signs of abating.

MORE:

“Mr. Sadr Does Not Own The Guns. ‘I Bought My Weapons With My Own Money’”

October 20, 2006 By SABRINA TAVERNISE, The New York Times Company [Excerpts]

“Right now I support the presence of the Mahdi Army,” said a senior judge on Iraq’s criminal court. “I know this is unacceptable in law, in politics, in society, but in this unusual time we are living in, this is the reality.”

In Sadr City, in a darkened room off a stone sun-splashed courtyard hung with laundry, Sayeed Abdul Zahra, a member of Mr. Sadr’s social service committee, dismissed outright any suggestion of disarming: “Impossible.”

Besides, he said, Mr. Sadr does not own the guns. “I bought my weapons with my own money.”

“The Administration Of Nouri Al-Maliki Has Become A Virtual Government-In-Exile In Its Own Country”

October 18, 2006 From James Hider in Baghdad, The Times [excerpt]

In the US-protected fortress, Iraq’s Government huddles, riven by sectarian splits and cut off from its terrified people. Inside their bubble ministers live in comparatively luxurious compounds, each sectarian bloc divided from the next by barricades.

They are hard to reach by telephone. Some spend more time outside the country than in it.

After just four months in office, the administration of Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, has become a virtual Government-in-exile in its own country.

Even the cautious optimism of Western diplomats who never set foot outside a highsecurity compound is being tested. “I don’t pretend there is effective Government all over Iraq. Is that a result of the security situation or low capacity inside the ministers? Well, a bit of both; but quite a lot of the latter,” one told The Times.

At a checkpoint outside the Green Zone, graffiti reads “Long live General Moqtada”, referring to the anticoalition Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Rat Gnaws On 101st Airborne

The traitor Cheney makes 4,000 Army soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division stand in the rain to hear him babble more bullshit 16 October 2006. (AFP/File/Tim Sloan)

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

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