Iraqi Jihad Update by Dave Clark for AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
BAGHDAD (AFP) - An eerie calm has descended on Baghdad during the weekly day of prayers after a Ramadan of unprecedented bloodshed in Iraq, while US troops scoured the city for a missing soldier.Reports of violence in the war torn capital dropped in the three days since the end of the Islamic holy month, in part because thousands of US troops are deployed in the city hunting a comrade who was kidnapped by masked gunmen.
Police found the bodies of 11 murder victims on Thursday and overnight, a US military spokeswoman said Friday, a toll considered low by the standards of Baghdad's vicious dirty war between rival Sunni and Shiite death squads.
On Friday, US troops were still manning cordons around the Karrada district, where the soldier was kidnapped on Monday, and on the approaches to Sadr City, the Shiite militia bastion where they fear he is being held.
Meanwhile, with US casualties for the month so far running at their highest level in a year and 24 Iraqi police killed in an insurgent ambush on Thursday, the Al-Qaeda militant group issued a triumphant statement.
"We call on all mujahideen... to support the young Islamic state in Iraq. Weakness has gripped the infidel nations. The first signs of victory can be seen on the horizon," the group said in an Internet statement.
The message, which could not be independently authenticated, was issued in the name of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Iraq, which was declared on October 15 by a Qaeda-led coalition of Sunni insurgent groups.
[...]
His family report that he was seized from their home by gunmen, and the US military has said that Wednesday's raid was in part following up on a tip that his kidnappers were based in a Sadr City mosque.
Does this mean we can fold up the tents and come home? Or is this more of a "calm before the storm" thing?
"We call on all mujahideen... to support the young Islamic state in Iraq. Weakness has gripped the infidel nations. The first signs of victory can be seen on the horizon," the group said in an Internet statement.
Unfortunately this is true. We could crush them in a day but we are hamstrung by the ACLU "human rights" types and political correctness in general.
Now the enemy has confirmed that. This should be required reading for Bush and Rumsfeld.
Let the Pendleton Eight go!! Restore to them their positions and benefits. apologize to them publicly and change the Rules of Engagement.
Then let's see what statements these mooftis release next time.
Weakness is what emboldens these vermin. I was on a job outdoors yesterday and there were several rats crawling around. They didn't even scurry so I kicked one dead. Then the rest disappeared.
Lesson learned: Crack down hard on one and the rest of them alter their behavior. Works for moslems too - I guarantee it!
Good thing this is the "religion of peace". Can you imagine how bloody things would be if it was known as the cult of death?
I wonder how calm Iraq would be if we put Saddam back in power and then left?
"Reports of violence in the war torn capital dropped in the three days since the end of the Islamic holy month, in part because thousands of US troops are deployed in the city hunting a comrade who was kidnapped by masked gunmen."
I could see how thousands of well armed and armoured US troops would put a damper on A-Q activities, but what comprises the other part(s):
the end of "the holy month of Ramadan"?
a crack-down on the Shiite Mahdi army's "rogue elements" who are defying Sadr's orders?
jihaddists departing for the friendlier climate in Waziristan / redeploying to support the Taliban?
Either declare who the enemy is and defeat that enemy by destroying them so they don't come back in a generation and kill your kids; or stop the nation building excercise and social experiment once and for all.
Al Qaeda, Viet Cong, jihad extremeists, Communist insurgents -- are merely names for shadows.
The enemy has a name and a face! Identify the sob, and kill them at all levels.
Otherwise, get out!
and, oh yeah, what the MSM isn't all that great on reporting on... ...the number of jihaddists the the Coalition managed to kill and the majority of Sunni tribes in some of the more "restive" regions like Anbar who have sickened of A-Q's ways for a variety of reasons.
the majority of Sunni tribes in some of the more "restive" regions like Anbar who have sickened of A-Q's ways for a variety of reasons.
Posted by: waterdragon52
Can you please elaborate on this point? I hadn't heard anything of the like and would welcome some information. What you write sounds too good to be true.
Being that it's Friday I wonder when we'll see a story about another fire and brimstone sermon from one of those "holy" men? Since things are somewhat quiet in Baghdad for the moment perhaps it'll come from here.
The first signs of victory can be seen on the horizon
Nancy ?
Nancy Pelosi, is that you ?
Nancy ?
Posted by: Foehammer at October 27, 2006 12:17 PM
I wonder how calm Iraq would be if we put Saddam back in power and then left?
It might have been possible at one time.....
Alexander the Great often installed defeated rulers of countries he conquered as satraps.
POITIERS-LEPANTO, look again. That's not Nancy Pelosi, that's Dick Cheney.
I still lean more towards the "defection" theory rather than the "kidnapped" theory. But no-one seems to admit that this is a possibility so far.
I hope that they changed the passwords and security arrangements after the supposed "kidnapping" of the Iraqi-American translator-soldier.
An eerie calm has descended on Baghdad , would it not be a great note, they ran out of Iraqis to kill! no more to kill..they ran out of ammunition.
Alexander conquered a great swath that reverted directly after his death.
Alexander conquered a great swath that reverted directly after his death.
germaninamerica:
check out the warblog section of frontpagemag.com (appears Mondays, Weds and Fris) for posts by bloggers Bill Roggio in particular and also Ed Morrisey, or go directly to billroggio.com or captainsquartersblog.com and you should be able to find items about the Sunni tribes in places like Anbar. One of the more memorable stories of late was of the demand that one of the top A-Q in Iraq types be removed because he was another in the same vein of Zarqawi, and there was also one about an A-Q "press release" denouncing the announcement by the anti-A-Q tribesmen as not having the right to speak for the tribe.
The U.S, should declare the Iraq leadership as overtaken by terrorists, remove them, and take over the running of Iraq. Call for new elections. From secular thinking members of Iraq, draw on this group for new leaders, or even outsiders if need be. Rewrite the laws to remove all aspects of islamic law, and rewrite to be sure it stays out.
Only free people who want a new way and true freedom should be in control, if you can't find them there, find some here.
Say no to islam ,people of iraq, yours is a fresh start, a light moving into the future.
You want to win in Iraq? Try this, you may find everything to be clear as far as who is the enemy, and who is truly with us. Iraq may even turn out to be like Japan, in a few decades.
If we leave, forget it.
Find al-Sadr and kill him.
Really? Last I looked neither President Bush, the Congress or Senate nor the Department of Defense were "ACLU or "human rights" types however Bush and Co are certainly politically correct, fearful of offending muslims they are.
Tis amazing how the witless are so prone to blame, those who who are not empowered for the ills and problems of the nation and times.
But that's the mindset of "conservatives" and Oreilly Limpballs types..like braying about a non existent liberal media.. Even the New York Times was a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq, wow that's some kind of liberal.
Islofob IS1, you are in dreamland, time to wake up and smell the bombblast residue.
"Islofob IS1, you are in dreamland, time to wake up and smell the bombblast residue."
Posted by: special_guest
That may be true, you have a better idea(r)?
Islofob IS-1, I don't have any original ideas, but Hugh does, here and here, and in many other articles.
Don't get me wrong, yours is a common opinion, in fact your post could have been written by the President or Vice President themselves. But it is based on false assumptions ("they" are just like "us", they want freedom and democracy, there are just a few radicals controlling the vast majority of moderates, we owe it to the Iraqi people to stay and help them, etc. etc.) and it is not working. "Staying the course" at this point is going to take us over the waterfall.
Posted by: special_guest;
Thank you for your responce. By what you wrote, I would say read what I wrote again, you will find it is FAR from stay the course, I feel it is a viable change, although I do not think Bush would run with it.
It would reverse nearly everything he is doing as of now.
Also, everybody has ideas, and a voice. If you find a error, or somthing stupid with my thoughts, shoot it down, we can grow from it.
I want to see options on what we should do, and can do.
Dang it! You are so polite, and I was so rude, that now I feel the need to apologize and start again.
That is exactly what we have done in Iraq. Though Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and very little to do with terrorist attacks against the West, we overthrew him and made ourselves the caretakers of the Iraqi people, who incidentally don't like us and who incidentally want to live under Islamic sharia law. We brought in new leaders who lived most of their life in the U.S., and whom the Iraqi people mistrusted and disrespected.
How does one go into a foreign country, and tell them "okay, forget the past 1400 years of your history, and instead accept the values that developed in the West in a Judeao-Christian framework"? First, what gives us the right, second, how are you going to enforce it? How are you going to get inside the head of each Iraqi citizen and change their belief system? The false assumption is that, deep down, they are just like us and they want freedom and democracy, and if we just give them a little nudge, they will embrace it. But experience shows otherwise. They are happy with their own Islamic-based belief system, they don't want to give it up.
Alot of people died, including people who were vaporized, before we could dictate to the Japanese that the Emperor could no longer be considered a deity. We conquered Japan, pulverized it. So now we think we can remove a couple of henchmen at the top in Iraq, and that's somehow analogous to the situation with Japan, but it's not. Also, Japanese success after WWII was based on their own history and culture and work ethic and modernity, which is very different from Iraq's.
None of this proves you are wrong, and there is nothing stupid about what you said. I just have a different opinion. I apologize for the snide "dreamland" comment, I'm the stupid one for saying that. But give Hugh's articles a read, he's got a very different prescription for the Iraqi situation. You may be persuaded by them, as I was.
special_guest;
No need to apologize, no offence was taken. My feeling on this is Iraq is quickly becoming the new Lebanon. Iraq's new leaders are allied with Iran, and Iraq is allowing a army in iraq, supported by iran. Label the NEW leaders of iraq, the current ones, as terror suporters, remove them and call for new elections.
As far as forcing our ways on them, we wanted Iraq to be a "light into the M.E". For it to be true to this, islamic law can not be it's base of a new government. There is no freedom in islam. Remove it from the state and country law.
We don't remove islam, just from the law, not as the faith they MAY follow. Allow for chuches, christians, all faiths to live togeather. This must be forced when need be, as it is a corner stone of a free people. And it MUST be inforced, just as it would be here. No state sanction of faith , only freedom.
Bottom line, this is needed for true freedom to be there, if we are not willing to make the changes to move the country forward, then Huge is correct, we should remove ourselves NOW. We are now protecting a new islamic state, and it will partner with Iran if allowed to continue.
Right now, we are aiding the birth of a new, islamic state, and support for this is why the people ,here in the U.S. , are against us being there.
We did impose on Japan, forced the changes, as far as state support of the emperor as god , not the outlaw of "shinto", or a persons faith.
It was worth it for the world.