"The American presence is far from over.... 50,000 will stay another year in what is designated as a noncombat role. They will.... accompany Iraqi troops on missions.... Special forces will continue to help Iraqis hunt for terrorists."
Related: Occupation Iraq: Non-Combat Combat
If government or the newspaper said the sky was green would you believe them?
More:
"Airmen beginning deployment to Iraq
About 40 members of the Massachusetts Air National Guard are set to leave for a six-month mission to Iraq. A send-off ceremony is scheduled today at Otis Air National Guard base on Cape Cod for the departing airmen of the 102d Security Forces Squadron. Officials say it is the largest single deployment of that unit since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the first time the entire command staff of the squadron will deploy. The unit will be responsible for security and air base defense operations during its stay in Iraq (AP)."
But we are leaving!
"Goodbye Iraq: Last US combat brigade heads home" by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press Writer | August 18, 2010
KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait -- The American presence is far from over. Scatterings of combat troops still await departure, and some 50,000 will stay another year in what is designated as a noncombat role. They will carry weapons to defend themselves and accompany Iraqi troops on missions (but only if asked). Special forces will continue to help Iraqis hunt for terrorists.
So the U.S. death toll -- at least 4,415 by Pentagon count as of Wednesday -- may not yet be final....
And the SAME can be said for IRAQIS!
As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos.
For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there....
And what my printed paper cut:
Once out of Iraq, there was still work to be done. Vehicles had to be stripped of ammunition and spare tires, and eventually washed and packed for shipment home.
Or shipped to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, to the north, insurgents kept up a relentless campaign against the country's institutions and security forces, killing five Iraqi government employees in roadside bombings and other attacks Wednesday. Coming a day after a suicide bomber killed 61 army recruits in central Baghdad, the latest violence highlighted the shaky reality left by the departing U.S. combat force....
Which tells you the "surge' was NOT ABOUT Iraqis!
Related: Last US fighters take leave of Iraq (By Ernesto Londono, Washington Post)
And look at the MESS we are LEAVING BEHIND (makes one wonder why we didn't leave sooner):
"Iraqi military is ready, US says; General finds forces have ‘stepped up’; Violence escalates amid withdrawal" by Matthew Lee, Associated Press | August 9, 2010
WASHINGTON — A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol yesterday in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, killing eight people. Most of the victims were civilians standing in line outside a post office to collect the monthly stipend for the country’s poorest citizens, police officials said.
That is NOT the way an INSURGENCY WINS hearts and minds!
The blast occurred just a day after explosions tore through a market in the southern city of Basra, killing 43 people.
Related: Occupation Iraq: Directing Terrorist Traffic
Police said the blast, which also wounded 23 people, took place between a gas station and an abandoned cinema in the city center. Of the eight killed, two were police officers, they said.
Initial reports from Ramadi said the blast was caused by a parked car bomb. Conflicting reports on casualties and the causes of explosions are not uncommon in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of attacks.
In Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, police officials and a member of the city’s security committee said the blasts Saturday were caused by a car bomb followed by another bomb placed next to a power generator.
The second blast ignited a fuel tank, according to the officials and Ali al-Maliki of the security committee.
In other violence yesterday, a car bomb exploded near a school and a cluster of stores in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring four.
In northern Iraq, gunmen shot dead Abdul-Karim al-Jubouri, a local leader of a government-allied Sunni militia known as Sahwa, or Awakening Councils, that rose against Al Qaeda in 2006 and 2007. Jubouri was walking on his farm west of the oil city of Kirkuk when the gunmen struck, killing him and wounding two of his bodyguards.
Farther north, the governor of Nineveh Province, Atheel al-Nujaifi, escaped an apparent assassination attempt unhurt when a roadside bomb hit his motorcade in Mosul, the provincial capital.
Baghdad’s traffic police are demanding their own guards after at least 10 were killed over the past week in drive-by shootings and other attacks.
Security officials have blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for the killings, in which gunmen used pistols fitted with silencers.
That doesn't seem like an "Al-CIA-Duh" modus operandi.
Related: Occupation Iraq: "Al-CIA-Duh" Escapes From Iraqi Prison
Yeah, it must have been those guys!
They said the militants target traffic police to create chaos on Baghdad’s congested streets and embarrass authorities who boast of improved security.
Many of the traffic police are unarmed, surprising given years of violence on the city’s streets. Now, they are demanding assault rifles as well as protection from the tens of thousands of heavily armed police officers and soldiers deployed across the city.
Authorities, eager to stop the killings, are moving quickly to meet their demands.
A top security official involved in an ongoing investigation of the killings said 13 suspected insurgents have been detained in the past few days in connection with the targeting of the traffic officers. He said initial findings suggest that the killings are the work of Al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups.
What is not clear so far is whether these groups were coordinating the attacks, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Whoever is behind the killings, the attacks on the traffic police have shown that Iraq’s insurgency remains capable of striking in the heart of Baghdad, Iraq’s most heavily guarded city, despite the killing and capture of hundreds of leaders and members.Yeah, what a contradiction, huh?
--more--"
"11 killed in Sunni insurgent attack aimed at Iraqi soldiers; Army lured into booby-trapped house by shots" by Stephen Farrell, New York Times | August 12, 2010
BAGHDAD — Eleven people were killed when Sunni insurgents lured Iraqi soldiers into a booby-trapped house on the eve of Ramadan, Iraqi police said yesterday.
The army was called to the house in Sadiya, 60 miles north of Baghdad, shortly after midnight by neighbors who heard shots coming from the building and feared that the family inside had been killed.
The house exploded just as the soldiers arrived and were forcing their way into the building. Eight of the raiding party were killed and five more were wounded, police officials in Diyala Province said. They said they believed that a bomber with a remote control device was waiting nearby to time the explosion to kill as many soldiers as possible....
The gunmen are thought to have killed the owner of the house because they suspected him of collaborating with security forces. His wife and a 15-year-old relative were also killed.
Twelve people have been arrested. The head of the local district, Ahmed Alzercoche, said that security forces suspected that the attack was carried out by insurgents, including members of Al-Awda, a group loyal to Saddam Hussein’s ousted Ba’ath Party. Al-Awda means The Return.
I guess "Al-CIA-Duh" has been worn out, huh?
Not fooling anyone anymore?
The attack is the latest in a series of shootings and bombings, as insurgents seek to take advantage of the failure, after five months, to form a national government, and as the Aug. 31 deadline approaches for the US military to cut its troop numbers to 50,000. That number is down from the peak of more than 160,000 during the buildup of US soldiers here in 2007.
In Baghdad, police said that Intissar Mohammed Hassan, the director of a maternity hospital in Baghdad, was killed when three gunmen broke into her home yesterday. They also stole gold and other valuables from the house.I was going to say who would want to kill a nurse when I realized it was CRIMINALS, not terrorists!
--more--"
"Extremist organizations retain their grip on Iraq; Almost daily attacks persist, general says" by Ernesto Londono, Washington Post | August 15, 2010
Like I am going to believe what they say.
BAGHDAD — As the end of the US combat mission in Iraq nears, extremist groups “are very much alive,’’ according to the US Special Forces commander here.
That is what we are leaving them, huh?
And we didn't even rebuild the place.
Though weakened by the deaths of top leaders and a drop-off in foreign funding, Al Qaeda in Iraq’s “cellular structure’’ remains pretty much intact, Brigadier General Patrick Higgins said in his first interview since taking command in Baghdad last fall.
I am SO SICK of "Al-CIA-Duh!"
Members of Al Qaeda in Iraq have increasingly resorted to kidnapping and extortion to stay afloat, the general said.
“The line between terrorism and criminality has blurred so much that some of these guys are just outsourcing,’’ Higgins said. “We’ve seen indications that some of these guys for a price will put together a [roadside bomb] or do an assassination.’’
Although Al Qaeda in Iraq no longer appears capable of carrying out the type of massive bombings that targeted prominent government buildings last year, the Sunni extremist organization and other groups continue to conduct attacks almost daily....
Higgins said US commandos have no plans to conduct unilateral counterterrorism operations in the months ahead, and he said their Iraqi counterparts have become more proficient.
“We’ve got them to a level of what I call good enough-ness,’’ he said. “Tactically, they are very sound.’’
The Iraqi commandos will continue to need US support in gathering and analyzing intelligence and putting together cases to support prosecutions, he said.
Learning the law from a war criminal empire?
Maliki's hit squads.
--more--"
Related:
"Gunmen killed six Iraqi security personnel yesterday, including a pair of sleeping police officers who were shot and set on fire, as debate persists over whether Iraqi forces can protect the country....
--more--"
And about that inability to launch massive attacks?
"Blast targeting army recruits kills 41 in Iraq" by Associated Press | August 17, 2010
BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials said 41 people were killed and 112 wounded today in a suicide bombing strike against Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad....
Also yesterday, four Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi were killed when a car bomb exploded next to their bus north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said....
There is a steady flow of Iranian pilgrims into Iraq to visit its hallowed Shi’ite shrines, and they are often targeted by Sunni militants, especially in former insurgent strongholds such as Diyala Province, where the attack took place.
The US military, meanwhile, provided further details about a brazen robbery of four foreign commercial ships anchored off Iraq’s southern coast last week....
Iraqi officials insisted thieves, not insurgents, were behind the bold robberies, which they said do not pose a larger threat to commercial traffic in the strategic Persian Gulf waters.
--more--"
The Iraqis even have PIRATES now!
"Gunmen rob 4 ships off Iraqi coast" by Associated Press | August 16, 2010
BAGHDAD — Gunmen robbed four commercial ships anchored near the southern oil hub of Basra in a rare attack off the Iraqi coast, the US Navy said yesterday.
Two men armed with AK-47 rifles boarded the American ship Sagamore near an Iraqi oil terminal in the northern Persian Gulf at 4 a.m. on Aug. 8, taking computers, cellphones, and money from crew members before fleeing the vessel after about 40 minutes, according to Lieutenant John Fage, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
And NO BIG DEAL!?
Oh, right, they are NOT SOMALI!
He said three other ships — the Antigua-flagged Armenia, the North Korean Crystal Wave, and the Syrian Sana Star — were robbed under similar circumstances over two hours starting about 2 a.m. the same day.
Fage said he had no information about the attackers.
And that SURE IS STRANGE, isn't it?
Salah Aboud, head of the country’s ports agency, said two Iraqis were arrested after Iraqi naval forces found a boat holding some of the stolen materials during a search of a nearby area.
Related: False Flag Fizzles in Persian Gulf
Yeah, one gets the feeling ANOTHER ATTEMPT fizzled as well!
Where the IRANIANS to be BLAMED?
Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq, but Iraqi security forces and civilians continue to face daily attacks.
At least 14 people were killed and 30 wounded in violence yesterday, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
Three leaders of a government-backed Sunni militia that fights Al Qaeda in Iraq were killed and a fourth wounded in a drive-by shooting as the men were leaving a mosque in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr south of Baghdad after their morning prayers, officials said.
Bombs killed two other members of the Awakening Councils in separate attacks in the capital and to the west.--more--"
Goodbye, Iraq.
Well, not really!
"Bomber kills 61 Iraqis in recruitment drive" by Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer | August 17, 2010
In this image from mobile phone video people look on the scene where at least 60 people were killed and 125 wounded in Iraq on Tuesday Aug 17 2010 when a suicide bomber blew himself up among hundreds of army recruits who had gathered near a military headquarters in the capital, Baghdad. (AP Photo)
My God!!!
BAGHDAD -- Officials quickly blamed al-Qaida....
Bodies of bloodied young men, some still clutching job applications in their hands, were scattered on the ground outside the headquarters' gate. Soldiers collected bits of flesh and stray hands and legs as frantic Iraqis showed up to search for relatives.
Yeah, Iraq's great now.
The early morning bombing in central Baghdad starkly displayed Iraqi forces' failure to plug even the most obvious holes in their security two weeks before the formal end of the U.S. combat role in Iraq.
Actually, we left early -- or so I was told by my MSM.
Army and police recruitment centers have been frequent targets for militants, underscoring the determination of the applicants to risk their lives for work in a country with an unemployment rate estimated as high as 30 percent.
And they called it LIBERATION!
"I have to get this job at any cost in order to feed my family," said Ali Ahmed, 34, a father of two who returned to the bloody street after taking a friend to the hospital. "I have no option but to come back to the line. If there were other job opportunities, I would not be here in the first place."
So the job market is EVEN WORSE than the Saddam times?
*******
Yasir Ali, a 29-year-old recruit, washed blood off his body at a nearby police station and then went back to the line outside the Iraqi army's 11th Division headquarters and recruiting center.
I don't think I could do that. I would have to go home.
The men waited in vain. The recruitment center was shut down after the attack, and the military said it would not reopen....
All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media....
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb attached to a fuel truck detonated in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Ur on Tuesday night, killing 10 people, wounding 46 and causing a nearby gas station to catch fire, according to police and hospital officials.
That is Mossad's calling card.
Military recruiting stations and security checkpoints continue to be easy targets for insurgents who have killed 454 soldiers, policemen and government-backed local militias so far this year, according to an Associated Press count.
But we can't get a number on Iraqi civilian dead?
The repeated bombings show that despite at least $22 billion in U.S. funding since 2004 for training and equipment, security forces are little better at protecting themselves than the population.
It's called WA$TED TAX LOOT, American.
Good thing you didn't need it for anything.
The looming departure of the U.S. military has turned Iraqi forces into even more attractive victims for insurgents looking to prove their might by exploiting security gaps.
The White House said the bombing will not halt either Iraq's transition to democracy or the U.S. troop withdrawal....
Which means we NEVER REALLY GAVE a SHIT about Iraqis!
So WHAT WAR are the TROOPS HEADED to next?
--more--"
"Iraq recruitment center bombing kills dozens; Desperate for jobs, some stay at scene" by Stephen Farrell, New York Times | August 18, 2010
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber penetrated apparently lax security measures at an Iraqi army recruiting office in Baghdad yesterday, killing dozens of recruits in the first major bombing of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The attack comes in the fraught period just ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline for US forces to reduce their numbers.
Oh, another INSIDE JOB, huh?
Iraqi soldiers said they pulled at least 40 bodies away from the scene, where a large pool of bloodstained water and a pile of flip-flops sat in the middle of a square beside the vast security walls that shielded those inside the former Ministry of Defense building, but not those who had lined up outside. Iraqi officials at the Ministry of Interior and the nearest hospital said the death toll was at least 48, with more than 120 wounded.
Last night, Iraqi police said eight people were killed and 44 wounded after a bomb attached to a fuel truck loaded with kerosene blew up in Ur, a Shi’ite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, the Associated Press reported.
The ease with which a lone suicide bomber struck at the military recruiting station — a common target since the outset of the post-2003 insurgency — will inevitably raise questions about the state of readiness of the Iraqi security forces ahead of the US drawdown to 50,000 troops....
As weeping relatives dragged bloodstained wooden coffins from the morgue at the nearby Medical City hospital, Ali Mohammed Athab said his unemployed 21-year-old son Haidar had left his parents’ home in the Zafaraniya district of Baghdad before dawn to apply for a job — even one with all the attendant risks of serving in the Iraqi police or army — because he had few other prospects and wanted to make a future for himself....
Major General Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman, told the state Iraqiya television channel that the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia was responsible but offered no evidence....
So?
You guys never do, MSM.
