"Iraq raids net al Qaeda suspects, bomb ingredients," from CNN:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi troops found 100 gallons of nitric acid and other bomb-making materials Sunday during raids that yielded the arrests of 72 suspected members of the al Qaeda in Iraq network, the U.S. military said.
The "constellation of overnight raids" was conducted in Anbar and Salaheddin provinces, the military said.
"Coalition operations like these continue to chip away at the al Qaeda in Iraq network, and we will continue to target them as long as they continue to injure and kill the innocent people of Iraq," said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.
Half of those arrested were captured during raids in Samarra, in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, according to the military. The nitric acid and bomb-making ingredients were found during a raid in Karmah.
The Samarra arrests came as authorities banned all movement in the city in response to recent threats, most notably a threatened suicide attack on the Samarra bridge, a security official said.
Jihad against electricity and flood prevention:
The Samarra bridge has a dam that generates power and regulates water levels on the Tigris River.
The city went on high alert after the Islamic State of Iraq -- the insurgent umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq -- distributed leaflets to police in Samarra on Saturday, warning them that they have three days to "repent" or be killed.
The insurgent group also told police to use loudspeakers at mosques and marketplaces to announce their rejection of the "apostate state."
A daylight curfew went into effect at 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Saturday ET) until further notice, the official said.
Two hours after the curfew took effect, a group of gunmen traveling in about 30 vehicles attacked a convoy of fuel tankers just outside Samarra, kidnapping the drivers of 16 trucks and setting fire to the vehicles, a Tikrit police official said.
wow...3 days, eh?
Only a frantic desperado would make such a hurried demand...
a demand that could've only been triggered by frantic position,
which in turn could've only been brought about by getting their @$$es kicked recently.
...but of course, that @$$-kicking is already being dismissed as a failure by cheese-eating surrender monkeys before it's come full circle, so...*ahem*, that can't be the case, can it. Of course not...
LOL
The entire story proves that General Patraeus, Fouad Ajami and a growing chorus that the Iraqi center has formed a willing goverment from Sunni, Shia and Kurds. The Sunni have acknowledged their mistake in boycotting the elections and are now full bore for the secular government.
Even Sadr's bands have splintered and the 95% majority of Iraq has rejected al Qaeda.
President Bush is proven correct again.
Victor Davis Hanson had a wonderful acticle on all of this in Iraq which is a must read found nowhere else.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTljYjgzNmRjOWY4ZjljZDJhODcxODhkNjhjZTExMTU=
Iraq, and the Truth We Dare Not Speak
We must win American hearts and minds.
By Victor Davis Hanson
Not long ago I talked to a right-wing hardnosed fellow in a conservative central California town about the need to stay and finish the task of stabilizing the democracy in Iraq and rectifying the disastrous aftermath of 1991. He wasn’t buying. Instead he kept ranting about the war in the ‘more rubble, less trouble’ vein. And his anger wasn’t only over our costs in lives and treasure. So I finally asked him exactly why the venom over Iraq. He shouted, “I don’t like them sons of bitches over there — any of ’em.” His was a sort of echo of Bismarck’s oft-quoted “The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.”
There are dozens of tragic ironies in Iraq. The fostering of democracy by a Republican president only alienated his dour realist base. Yet his idealism did not even win as recompense faint sympathy from supposedly Wilsonian Democratic opponents. Indeed, they now sound like Bob Taft isolationists. The fiercest critics of the brave struggling Iraqi elected government remain liberal Senate Democrats, not Republicans.
The Iraqi oil fields were liberated from Russian, French, and Baathist extortion. Then subsequent sky-rocketing oil prices further enriched the Middle East — only to earn the slur “No Blood for Oil.”
Liberation of the downtrodden Shiite from a largely oppressive Sunni minority only won the U.S. disdain from Shiite Iran and assorted Shiites from Lebanon to the Gulf — and resentment from nearby Sunni monarchies.
President Bush stayed on after victory to offer consensual government, unlike his father in 1991. As a reward, he won criticism from the critics of Bush I for now attempting what they once so loudly advocated.
Perhaps strangest of all is the tragicomic spectacle of Middle East “reformers” and democracy advocates. They vehemently criticized American efforts in Iraq from their autocratic masters’ state-run censored megaphones in Cairo, Riyadh, and Amman.
All that and the dreary narrative from the battlefield help to explain plummeting public support for the war at a time when empathy for brave Iraqis is critical to the continuance of the effort. But there is another, more worrisome dynamic at work here. I would call it the “them sons of bitches” sentiment that is usually better left unspoken.
By any honest assessment, the great majority of Iraqis are brave citizens who voted en masse for change, at great risk to their safety. Kurdistan is a stunning success. It belies stereotypes that Muslims can’t govern themselves peacefully, practice consensual government, or create vibrant economies. Tribal sheiks and clerics in Iraq hate al Qaeda as much as we do. They suffer far more losses in trying to rid their country of such killers. American soldiers testify to the friendliness and support of the Iraqi people.
But that American alliance with freedom-loving Arabs is not what is reported. Instead the public hears and sees two quite different things. The two are antithetical to each other.
First, we are now well accustomed to the administration talking of “freedom” and “democracy,” and of providing an “opportunity” for the Arab world “to embrace” liberty. Indeed, the 3,000 plus Americans killed in action in Iraq and the hundreds of billions spent so far are often explained as being for the sake of offering a chance for something better than the non-choice between a Saddam or an Assad and the theocratic alternative of the Taliban or the Iranian ayatollahs.
But such a legitimate and necessary rationale depends also upon general empathy for the Middle East. We are embarking on this new course in the hopes that the American lives sacrificed and our treasure spent are for a friendly people that appreciates our efforts. I think they do, and that the record of brave Iraqi reformers is worth the effort — both for the sake of our future security and so as to adopt a new moral posture that respects Arab self-determination.
But, again, most Americans now don’t think it is worth it — and not just because of the cost we pay, but because of what we get in return. Turn on the television and the reporting is all hate: a Middle Eastern Muslim is blowing up someone in Israel, shooting a rocket from Gaza, chanting death to America in Beirut, stoning an adulterer in Tehran, losing a hand for thievery in Saudi Arabia, threatening to take back Spain, gassing someone in Iraq, or promising to wipe out Israel. An unhinged, secular Khadafi rants; a decrepit Saudi royal lectures; a wild-eyed Lebanese cleric threatens — whatever the country, whatever the political ideology, the American television viewer draws the same conclusion: we are always blamed for their own self-inflicted misery.
Islam is sooooo Beautiful!
Death , destruction, death . What's not to love?
1400 years of redundant turnspeak and aggression.
One just has to look at the state of the Islamic world and it's hard not to see how they really do have the better model for mankind. They are leaders in Human rights , scientific advancements , and are the great culturalists . Islam is also great for the human spirit,
you live your life to the barbaric code of a murdering , pedophile Bandit who justifies murder , rape and maiming as God's will.
Question that and you simply torture , maime , or kill anyone who thinks for themselves. regardless if proven guilty or not. in true Islam guilt is not a pre requisite to receiving Allah's wrath.
Islam is an ideology where the actually feels Hatred as love and knows no wrong .
simply beautiful.
Lame Cherry
There is no such beast. Is their a freedom loving Nazi? A freedom loving Communist?
Unless you want defeat the theocracy and institutions of Islam and re-write the faith then no victory can be achieved in Iraq.
Why are we arresting these scum? Why can't they be left dead on the battlefield? That is the only way we will prevail. Gitmo will only strengthen their bodies and resolve.
Is a convoy of 16 fuel trucks left unescorted? Seems to me a high value target should have at least a radio equipped humvee in attendance that could have called in close air support.
infidel!-
They're not going to Gitmo. Rest assured that each and every captive will receive a strong talking to.
There's a reason we don't slaughter at every opportunity.Each of those 72 will be evaluated for what they know and what will be necessary to get them singing.
Those of little worth will be imprisoned in Iraq. The willingness of the others to speak will determine if they're to be interrogated in theater or transported to an undisclosed location where certain gloves can be removed.
I hope the local police stations will do something defensive. They do tend to get blowed up a lot.
Yawn.
bush's little police action and nation building experiment failed years ago.
It has accomplished several things though...
1. Added nicely to ahmadinejad's shiite crescent.
2. Guaranteed we'll be saying "president obama" or "president clinton" in January.
3. Killed 3300 Americans (so far) needlessly.
4. Shown the world we don't have the will, the fortitude, or the intelligence for war.
Good job george. Now continue destroying the US by your personally approving saudi and iraq muslim "students" and "refugees" into MY country. Continue creating "palestine" for muslim terrorists as a reward for years of Jew-killing, you prick.
We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with them. Now, in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.
If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue. It is less a special principle than a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most pressing needs.
-Robespierre; on Keeping Things Civil
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Communism/ROBESPIERRE'S%20SPEECH.htm
Virtue, without which terror is fatal: terror, without which virtue is impotent. Nice line Robespierre.
One side will find terror. The other side will not find virtue. It’s going to be a rough Century.
Lame Cherry,
We have to stop thinking of Kurdistan as Iraq. It's not. It's inside the lines on a map, but that's it. The only thing the Kurds have in common with about twenty percent of Iraqis is that they are Sunni Muslims. They're not Arabs.
That got them no quarter with the Sunni Arab tribes who ran the country.
The day that eighty five percent of Sunni ARABS and Shi'a ARABS are willing to turn in their neighbors who are threatening their freedom will never come.
Militants live and operate in civilian neighborhoods. "Innocent civilians" know who they are. "Innocent civilians" sit quietly while they plan bombing campaigns and go out and attack Coalition forces and the Iraqi army. Then when those killers run back to the civilian neighborhoods the inevitable firefight results in civilian casualties. We don't hear Iraqis condemning the insurgents who initiated the firefight. Instead they demonstrate against American forces who responded.
The Sunnis who demonstrated against al-Qaeda never would have done so if al-Qaeda had not attacked their neighborhood. If al-Qaeda had limited itself to attacking the Coalition these very same people would have been the loudest to cheer. Their professions of friendship aren't worth a dime.
There's a reason we don't see Iraqis willing to stand up against the terrorists and support the US. They don't exist.
It was a rude awakening.
"Guaranteed we'll be saying "president obama" or "president clinton" in January."....
Posted by Arm A. Geddon
I beg to differ.
Firstly, it's a real shame that some republicans have bought into the dimmicrat and media lie that the reason republicans were voted out was because people were sick of the war. Bullcrap
Actually, the republicans were voted out as a kick in their ass for not listening to the people who put them in office.
They were voted out because they didn't care about the American workers and sat on their thumbs while our jobs were exported.
They were voted out because they turned a blind eye to the border and immigration issue - in favor of corporate America's desire for cheap labor.
They were voted out because they still don't give a crap about Americans and still favor insurance companies and pharmaceuticals, while Americans can't afford healthcare or medicine. Even Fred Thompson voted against allowing Americans to buy cheaper Canadian prescriptions. It's criminal.
They were voted out because they became arrogant and ignored those who put them in office.
The sad bit is that they STILL have their ears plugged and STILL do not get it. The dimmicrats are counting on the republicans to be so focused on the war and sucking up to corporations that they continue to piss off the voters.
If the republicans want to win, they need to get off their asses and do the work of the people who voted them in.
Kick out illegals and make them come in like everyone else - legally. Secure the borders. Create a national health plan like Europe. Protect the American workers and stop the jobs from pouring out of the country by imposing heavy taxes and import duty on American owned companies that bring goods back into the US - EVEN via Mexico.
This is a cool site. It charts the number of posts containing a word over time. In the last year the number of posts containing ‘Islam’ has gone from about zero to 2500 per day. Look at the link, it will make you feel better.
http://technorati.com/chart/islam?chartdays=90&language=n&authority=n
Have we lost the war in Iraq?
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/
and
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/2007/04/have-we-lost-war-in-iraq-huh-when-sen.html
What bugs me here is the term "arrest."
Can an insurgency be defeated? Why don't you call Joseph Stalin back from the dead and ask him if an insurgency can be defeated?
Why are we arresting these guys? All they need is a few plants in the Iraqi government and they are free. Either we are willing to do what is necessary, i.e., kill them, or we should go home. (Not sure we shouldn't go home (who are the good guys anyway) but that's another matter.)
You can't win with these Jimmy Carter like-respect human rights, respect the sanctity of the mosque, the Koran is sacred tactics. We need to kick ass! If we find nonuniformed insurgents in Iraq, we need to just kill them. And stop giving a crap about the human costs of what happens to their families if our missiles hit them. That's just pathetic. A town gives us trouble. Then thats the end of that town.
That's my plan. Either Bush is williing to do what it takes or at least admit that he's not willing to do what it takes. It is going to take Stalin like tactics to survive the Jihad so lets stop getting so prissy about human rights.
Nope.
reid's just touting his bought-&-paid-for-by-georgie-sore@$$-party line like a good lackey...for hi to do otherwise would be poltical suicide (as their own party is in a major civil war of its own between 3 factions)...but that's another forum entirely.
The Goobs,
I agree with all your reasons why the republicans lost.
However they will lose again for the following reasons:
1. Conservatives, and in particular religious conservatives, aka The Base, do not like being lied to - especially by those they worked so hard to put into office. Many are just pissed and won't vote. Many realize that the RNC is soft communism/socialism/globalism to the DNC's hard communism/socialism/globalism or as Savage puts it "two card Monte" and have likewise given up.
2. The "anybody but gore" / "evil of two lessers" and "we're strong on National Defense" reasons for voting republican have proven to be utter bullshit and won't fool many people again. More lost votes.
3. Half the country hates bush and by extention the republicans. The republicans screwed their base like a cheap hooker and then ran with the cash on the dresser. They've lost 20% of the 50% that initially supported him, which is why jorge bush al-saud's approval ratings are 30%.
4. The hatred of the looney left is positively visceral and off the scale. They will do anything and everything to prevent another RNC win.
5. Nobody trusts the republicans as they are vicious, backstabbing traitors and liars.
"Coalition operations like these continue to chip away at the al Qaeda in Iraq . . . . "
Chipping away ain't gonna cut it.
Either take 'em all out* or let them do it to themselves**.
_____________________
*untie the hands of our troops, forget the ridiculous Rules of Engagement that do so
**Remove our troops from Harm's Way, and let the Islamic factions go at it full bore. Do I care about the "People of Iraq?" No. Am I heartless because I value one American life more than billions of Moslem lives? Implement the Hugh Fitzgerald solution to the Iraq problem. And hit Iran sufficiently so that they keep out of Iraq being busy licking their radioactive wounds.
In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/29/news/rebuild.php
A trillion dollar lesson. I hope we’ve learned something.
It's nice to know that Bush Derangement Syndrome is spreading from the left.
We capture (arrest, whatever term you like) rather than kill for two reasons. One is moral and the other is practical.
Dead men tell no tales. We will get actionable intel from some of these arrested. We may be able to solidly track back and discover sources for these bomb making supplies.
May I suggest checking in to some of the great mil blogs out there? Michael Yon is a good place to start..
Or does someone here hate the uniformed services?
National Review is starting to get it. Here is an article by Raymond Ibrahim that says what Robert Spencer has been saying: 200 Million Minority
I wonder how many Iraqis have the self-awareness to connect Islam with their reduced quality of life? The threat made here about killing apostates is a good example of doctrinally based, Islamic intolerance leading to violence. It would be encouraging to think that there was an uptick in apostasy as a result of religious disillusionment.
Probably not, because Islam discourages the sort of speculation needed to become disillusioned. Islam is like a mental Roach Motel: The faithful check in, but they don't check out.
Not enough like Ali Sina.
turn
"It's nice to know that Bush Derangement Syndrome is spreading from the left."
Its nice to know the Bush Defense Syndrome is still in force with the Bushite legions.
"We capture (arrest, whatever term you like) rather than kill for two reasons. One is moral and the other is practical."
They were not in uniform of a nation state. They should be treated as such.
"Dead men tell no tales. We will get actionable intel from some of these arrested. We may be able to solidly track back and discover sources for these bomb making supplies."
Good Job, Buck Rodges! Or they will just send us on a wild goose chase.
"May I suggest checking in to some of the great mil blogs out there? Michael Yon is a good place to start.."
Hahahahahahahahaha! Bushite ROPers to the end. God you guys really are no different the left wing libs. Irrational arguments and pure fantasy trips!
"Or does someone here hate the uniformed services?"
No we love them. We want to put them in the best postition to win wars. Right now that is not the case in Iraq. Let the Iraqi jihadis kill each each other. We have bigger jihadis to fry!
Islam is anti-everything! Anti-love, anti-peace, anti-freedom, anti-progress, etc. Is the world being prepared for the anti-christ? Oh wait, they are anti-christ too, so maybe he's already waiting in the shadows.
If jihadist aren't cramming their religion down your throat, then they're cutting it off. Repent of die! The choice is either 'Yes Master' or dead silence from their perspective.
I choose to speak the Truth about your evil so called religion -- you won't shut me up.
"Nobody trusts the republicans as they are vicious, backstabbing traitors and liars"
Yeah some neo-cons have done a great disservice to this nation by taking advantage of the liberal media-manufactured tide against conservative ideology, using the Iraq situation as a political grenade to secure their seat at the expense of what should be done, no matter how popular or not. I never see it solely as a Republican - Democrat confrontation...but a battle of ideologies between liberalism vs. conservative.
But still our best avenue to right the ship against the borg-o-slam global jidhad is elements within the Republican party. The Democrats for the most part have clearly stated their policy of bend over appeasement to the worst degree. Their "road to peace" through Damascus [and probably Tehran next] is surrender to fear of Islam in all reality.
Either McCain or Gilluani will atleast take a stand against it.
soteriA
I doubt McCain will get it. It'll probably be Rudy, but Romney's pretty good. He's tough on illegal aliens and he's said some jihadwatch-like things about Islam lately. I'd like to see a Rudy-Romney ticket.
You know what you get when you cross a Catholic and a Mormon? Someone with a lot of wives who doesn't know what to do with them.
As a life long Republican, Ifor one wish all Americans would vote. And clean house, Shumer,Mccain,Fiengold,Kennedy,Spector,Pilosie,Reid,any jurk, be him or her Repubilcan or Democrat after 2 or 3 terms throw them out on their ears! But alas this is not a perfact world.
"Coalition operations like these continue to chip away at the al Qaeda in Iraq network, . . ."
Chip away, huh? This is like attacking cockroaches by squashing them one at a time. There are too many and they reproduce faster than you can find 'em and step on 'em. After a while one might realize that a new method (strategy) is needed. Ya think?
Greatcomet-
You'd crap yourself if you were to face a jihadi.
It is going to take Stalin like tactics to survive the Jihad so lets stop getting so prissy about human rights.
Posted by: DavidE
General Patton like tactics would suffice rather nicely.
great idea allahfanculo:
My brother over there jokingly refers to getting (politically) "strafed...on account of a couple of jackasses" in congress & they're sick of restraint.
So are we...so
as soon as we get rid of the PC left and the spineless right, we can get it done...tomorrow.
"Is a convoy of 16 fuel trucks left unescorted?...."
....sounds like a suicide mission to me....
To all those posting hate towards Arabs and Islam:
Islam has been around for more than 1400 years and will be around long after your hate filled racist carcasses have gone. That's a fact! Whether you hate Islam, Arabs or both they're here to stay and there is nothing you can about it. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
In addition they will win because they are brave, daring and intelligent unlike scumbags like you posting hate from far away and in full safety. Eat your heat out loosers!
"Islam has been around for more than 1400 years "
...and ruined everything it has touched....
Git_Real-
The bloodthirsty Aztec "God" Quetzecoatl was around for far longer than "Allah".
And nobody has heard from him lately.
Same with the bloodthirsty "God" Moloch.
Not doing very well any more.
Ditto: Baal, Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, etc.
Lots of bloodthirsty "Gods" have died out.
As "Allah" will eventually vanish into the dismal past, only to be looked upon as a bad dream of human cruelty, locked safely in museum cases.
And dusted every Thursday.
"Eat your heat out loosers!"
Posted by "Be_Real!" (Boogie quotes intentional)
Did you mean "Eat your heart out, losers!"?
"In addition they will win because they are brave, daring and intelligent unlike scumbags like you..."
See your doctor. Get back on your meds.
In addition they will win because they are brave, daring and intelligent unlike scumbags like you posting hate from far away and in full safety. Eat your heat out loosers!
Posted by: Be_Real!
hey there is muslim comic on this thread... good for laughs.. how can you put "brave" with islamist cowards to blow up unarmed civilians including women and children? the only date is coming from the "actions" of islmaists.. so get real "Be Real! your a hoot.. get back on your drugs boy.
lol be_real:
Lock N Load.
Arm A. Geddon - I couldn't agree with you more. Well said.
AMartinez - What we need is a revolution and a total clean out of the puppet politicians in Washington, (BOTH PARTIES) but that would take a national uprising and let's face it.....most Americans are content to shop at the great wall of China Mart, stuff their faces in front of their cable TV's and remain totally unaware of what is happening in the rest of the world.
The Romans knew what our current government knows.....BREAD AND CIRCUSES (look it up).
Why is it that terrorist sympathisers can march every opportunity, but we sit and watch our country being destroyed by greedy politicians in bed with corporations? We may also learn how many of them were in bed with the call-girl service in Washington!
Why is it that we settle for crap politician A (lefty-liberal, globalist, socialist, european wannabes) or crap politician B (all for the benefit of the wealthy, globalist, line their pockets stockholders, eventually get a nice lobbyist job with some pharmaceutical company) when we deserve leaders in Washington that care about US! Neither party gives a damn about us because they are too busy looking after their own asses.
Seems the only REAL choices are put before us by corporations who pay their campaign bills to gain useful idiots (puppets) to use when elected.
Where are the patriots??????.......Besides those of us on this board and our kids being blown up by muslims in Iraq? I dare say if the Redcoats would have come today, we would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to fight them!
jcom972 - I'm with you. I'm happy to send them on to their 72 demon virgins.