Robert's Stochastic thoughts

Friday, June 01, 2007

Excellent news from Baghdad

Sunni Insurgents Battle in Baghdad
Residents of Western Neighborhood Join Groups' Fight Against Al-Qaeda in Iraq

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 1, 2007; Page A11

BAGHDAD, May 31 -- Sunni residents of a west Baghdad neighborhood used assault rifles and a roadside bomb to battle the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq this week, l

[snip]

The Baghdad battle is evidence of a deepening split between some Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaeda in Iraq, which claims allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Although similar rebellions occurred in Diyala province earlier this year, the fighting this week appears to be the first time the conflict has reached the streets of Baghdad.

Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said.

Is that clear enough Mr Bush ? Of course it isn't, but any non idiot should be able to understand that the US occupation is the only thing saving Al Qaeda in Iraq from destruction.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...: Nonsense, complete deceptive nonsense. Any and every time the President and military personnel have spoken of Iraq for several months they have spoken of al-Qaeda, as though al-Qaeda has suddenly taken over Iraq. Nonsense. Al-Qaeda is the excuse that is used to explain all violence in Iraq, and we have not slightest idea of what sort of cause it is or to what extent it is a cause and Juan Cole holds it of no general significance.

Nonsense.

anne; 4:33 PM
Anonymous said...: American propaganda, and I used the term with consideration, from before the war and through the occupation has made it all but impossible to understand Iraq.

This morning public radion did a report on how the President's language on iraq is picked up through the defense department and ranks of officers.

We do not cut and run; say what?

Iran; always Iran.

They will follow us home; who will follow us where?

Nonsense.

anne; 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...: When 4 years ago, the chair of Columbia's Middle East studies department suggested we had a matter of weeks to leave Iraq now that the government was deposed, the anchor of public television news asked at once, "you mean we should just cut and run." The interview then was ended.

They will follow us home.

Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.

anne; 4:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Fighting in Iraq, must be al-Qaeda and therein we have a rationale to stay in Iraq forever. Lost cat? Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is determined there will be no cats, nevermore, in Iraq. Be afraid for cats, very afraid. *

* No cats were harmed in the making of this comment.

Nonsense.

anne; 4:45 PM
Anonymous said...: What the heck, I guess they really are after our cats. I consider this however so much nonsense. Just another reason to remain in Iraq forever. Surge on....

anne; 9:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, 4 years and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths and tens of thousands of prisoners, and more than a million, possibly 2, displaced. And, Americans surging through the capital but who should show up?

Think we can find the mass destructive weapons now?

anne; 9:59 PM
Anonymous said...: During an interview with BBC Radio that was broadcast today, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he did not want to see another war like the one still raging in Iraq five years after the American-led invasion there.

“You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say, ‘let’s go and bomb Iran,’“ Mr. ElBaradei said, in his strongest warning yet against the use of force in Iran. “I wake up every morning and see 100 Iraqis, innocent civilians, are dying.“

anne; 10:21 PM
Anonymous said...: The intent of this Administration is to continue to occupy Iraq in such a way that leaving becomes all but psychologically impossible for another Administration. And, I still wonder whether any of the Democratic candidates will simply declare he or she will pull all our troops from Iraq immediately on election.

anne; 10:26 PM
Anonymous said...: http://www.juancole.com/

Juan Cole:

June 2, 2007

There were Sunni on Sunni clashes in the Amiriya district of Baghdad between Salafis and others, with US troops intervening agains the Salafis. Such reports are murky and I am suspicious of the whole "Iraqi Sunnis rallying against al-Qaeda" trope....

anne; 1:13 PM
Anonymous said...: For a while the personification of enemy was Muqtada al-Sadr, but I guess there are better scarier enemies to point to.

anne; 1:18 PM
Anonymous said...: http://www.juancole.com/2004/05/us-ordered-spanish-to-bring-in-muqtada.html?hp

May 11, 2004

US Ordered Spanish to Bring in Muqtada 'Dead or Alive': Spanish Command predicted "Large-Scale Military Response"
By Juan Cole

The new Spanish Minister of Defense, Jose Bono, is drawing the curtain from some of the events of early April when the US authorities in Iraq decided to attempt to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr in the wake of his self-identification with Hamas. It appears that at first the Coalition Provisional Authority and the US military command approached the poor Spanish about carrying out the arrest of Muqtada. The Spanish were in charge of Kufa and Najaf, where Muqtada is based.

The post-Franco, post-fascist Spanish military must have been absolutely astounded and disgusted by the Texan demand that they deliver Muqtada to the US "dead or alive." And, they immediately refused. Obviously, if the Spanish had taken the US bait and carried out the arrest, their forces would have faced the full fury of the Sadrists, who are capable of quite a lot of fury. This whole episode strikes me as shameful and cowardly on the Americans' part....

anne; 1:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Notice that our Secretary of State is busily criticizing the Spanish even now for leaving Iraq, which is likley when we think of it the reason the surge is not surging enough yet. Oh, for the Spanish warring again....

anne; 1:21 PM
Anonymous said...: http://www.juancole.com/

June 2, 2007

By Juan Cole

Rice is complaining that the Spanish decision to withdraw from Iraq in spring of 2004 was made hastily and did not provide the US and its other allies with time to prepare for it. But as Spain's then defense minister told the story, the US Coalition Provisional Authority had demanded that the Spanish troops in Najaf (I think there were only 1200) try to "kill or capture" Muqtada al-Sadr. The Spanish officer corps had a much better grasp at that time of Muqtada's significance and the likelihood that any such attempt would throw all of south Iraq into turmoil. And they looked around Najaf province and imagined a million enraged Shiites. I think the Spanish military and defense ministry decided that the US was using them as a fall guy and said 'no thank you' by pulling out. When the US itself went after Muqtada and his aides . . . It threw south Iraq into turmoil for 2 months and there as very hard fighting by the US military. The Spanish might well have been massacred if their small force had attempted the same thing. So Rice should give it a rest.

anne; 1:26 PM
Anonymous said...: We need to leave Iraq immediately, as we have needed to leave Iraq immediately for 4 years, as we had no just cause for waging war in Iraq and less cause for occupying Iraq.

There is no "excellent news" from Iraq, only sadness and lunacy. Were there to be peace in Iraq from this day, which we can hope on hope for, there would only be a legacy of years of sadness.

We need to leave Iraq immediately.

anne; 1:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Again, I will support no candidate who does not pledge to leave Iraq completely and immediately. No candidate. This Administration is trying to insure that we will occupy Iraq forever. I will not acceed. We must leave Iraq immediately.

anne; 1:35 PM
Anonymous said...: These 4 years, I have been listening to smart people tell me of the excellent news from Iraq, always in the midst of death and detruction, listening to why we cannot leave Iraq in the midst of tragic lunacy. Enough, enough, enough.

Where is conscience? We must leave Iraq immediately.

anne; 1:45 PM
Anonymous said...: We must leave Iraq immediately. Learn to stand for peace, not war. Think to Martin Luther King and learn.

anne; 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Not to worry, public radio is all over the attack on al-Qaeda story this morning. Al-Qaeda is after our cats, * be afraid, be very afraid.

We no longer know how to think, so I am digging ever this afternoon of mass destructive weapons shipped by Iraq to New England.

Remember, the lunatic columnist at the New York Times who always understood the secret of Iraqi weapons was "trucks?" The weapons were bustling about in trucks, with cats guarding against truck mice.

* Birds are better.

anne; 2:46 PM
Anonymous said...: So, there I was at lunch with a prominant mathematician when his son asked "Daddy, who are the bad guys in Iraq?" Quick as mathematics itself Daddy answered, "al-Qaeda."

Remind me to lunch alone.

anne; 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...: No question, save the cats. Al-Qaeda is after our cats. What is it about cats, though? Just wondering.

anne; 7:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Who needs Martin Luther King when we have the Greeks? Where is that sword of mine anyway? I will defend every last cat to the death, preferrably theirs and not mine but to the death.

anne; 8:33 PM
Anonymous said...: There was a time, remember, when some wondered about the difficulty of leaving Iraq when there was no planning for the possibility of leaving Iraq. But, I argued such planning was irrelevant for there was no intent to leave Iraq. We circle round. The intent has only been to find a rationale for continuing to occupy Iraq indefinitely, and notice that the Administration has been testing rationales to find what might take hold. We have thus, Korea in 1952 and Korea 55 years on.

anne; 8:53 PM
Anonymous said...: More excellent news from Baghdad?

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02581777.htm

June 2, 2007

Explosions as US Warplanes Circle Baghdad-Residents
By Reuters

BAGHDAD - U.S. jets and helicopters circled over Baghdad amid the sound of explosions and heavy machinegun fire on Saturday evening, residents said.

A Reuters journalist saw at least one air-to-ground missile streak through the air before hitting the ground with a large flash.

The military activity, which by 1945 GMT appeared to have died down, seemed to be centred around the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad, the residents said....

anne; 9:00 AM
Anonymous said...: When American forces bomb in the middle of a city, a city that we are not at war with, is this also "excellent," and if so how "excellent?"

anne; 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...: Who knows when but Picasso painted "Guernica" over the bombing of a village in Spain. We bomb over and over in villages in cities in Iraq, and no one gives a darn; well, I suppose the people being bombed give a darn.

anne; 9:04 AM
Anonymous said...: There is no excellence in this horrid war and occupation. None. There is only amoral heartbreak. We need to leave Iraq immediately, and possibly we can refrain from any more wartime "excellence" notes.

anne; 9:08 AM