Why haven't American soldiers entered those areas in three years? Because of the Shi'ite support for the Wilsonian democracy project?
Iraqi Jihad Update. By Kim Gamel for Associated Press (thanks to Andrew Bostom):
BAGHDAD - Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.The military, meanwhile, reported that paratroopers had found the ID cards of two missing U.S. soldiers at an al-Qaida safe house 75 miles north of where they were captured last month, but there was no sign of the men. The house contained computers, video equipment and weapons.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said American troops launched the offensive in Baghdad's Arab Jabour and Salman Pac neighborhoods Friday night. It was the first time in three years that U.S. soldiers entered those areas, where al-Qaida militants build car bombs and launch Katyusha rockets at American bases and Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.
The overall commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said during a news conference with visiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the operation would put troops into key al-Qaida-held areas surrounding Baghdad.
Odierno said there was a long way to go in retaking the city from Shiite Muslim militias, Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaida terrorists. He said only about "40 percent is really very safe on a routine basis" — with about 30 percent lacking control and a further 30 percent suffering "a high level of violence."...
"There's about 30 percent of the city that needs work, like here in Dora and the surrounding areas," Odierno said. "Those are the areas that we consider to be the hot spots, which usually have a Sunni-Shiite fault line, and also areas where al-Qaida has decided to make a stand."
With Baghdad and Basra — the country's second largest city and gateway to the Persian Gulf — under curfew, violent deaths were down dramatically Saturday. Only three people were reported to have been killed or found dead in sectarian violence.
That did not include the discovery of 13 bodies of a tae kwon do team kidnapped last year in western Iraq while driving to a training camp in neighboring Jordan. The bodies were found 65 miles west of Ramadi, police and hospital officials said....
nderscoring the challenges, Gates arrived in Baghdad on Friday to find a city all but shut down by a security lockdown imposed after the bombing of an important Shiite shrine north of the city. The explosion at the Askariya shrine in Samarra destroyed the mosque's minarets and prompted at least two retaliatory attacks — both in southern Iraq.
On Saturday, attackers blew up the al-Ashrah al-Mubashra mosque in Basra at dawn, residents in nearby houses said. As they were leaving, the bombers wrote graffiti on the complex's outer wall with the names of revered Shiite saints, witnesses said. No injuries were reported.
Why haven't we entered those areas in 3 years?
Simple...political correctness.
Jeez-how crazy is this Policy of throwing billions away, blood & wounds of American soldiers just to 'save face'? IRAQ IS A F***ING
DISASTER.
An oxymoron if I ever read one. This is another example of the subtle MCPC of the MSM. The AP uses a distinctly Christian word loaded with all the wrong connotation when applied to Islam. How can a fanatical Muslim be "saintly."
So 40% of one city is safe. The cost? One trillion dollars -that's a "1" followed by 200,000,000,000,000 "0"s - and over 3,000 infidel soldiers lives.
Come on, anyone: are there adjectives to describe this?
At one time I was a firm believer in this war, now it seems to be a waste os precious American Military lives.
There's about 30 percent of the city that needs work…
The world’s most powerful military has 'surged' into a small City in an effort to control the violence. I’d say that the fact that thirty percent of the City is a no-go zone is relevant to the national discussion about the mission, the rules of engagement, and the underlying assumptions behind them. Far more relevant than:
There are positive signs.
The story on the ground is hopeful.
The Iraqi people are turning against the insurgents.
We’re witnessing something fascinating. The lessons that have been taught in our schools and repeated by those holding positions of leadership about the universal goodness of mankind are coming up short in Muslim lands. All of the attempts to project common decency fail. We buy common decency from some segments of the population, but the purchase turns out to be a rent check. We are un-learning forty years of education.
People are concerned about $880 billion in expenses for the Iraq war. But at the same time we incur $880 billion in unfunded welfare liabilities every fourteen weeks. $880 billion works out to about $2900 per American. Or a tuition of around $600 per year for the Iraq war. Comparable to the cost of cable TV. I say its been worth every penny.
Thoughts with the military and their families, the ones making the real sacrifices.
You can;t have (or 40%) fight a war.
Thus the Bush Plan was pre-doomed by
A) Not understanding Islam (Shi'ites v. Sunnis/ and brutal Mohammedan expansionism throughout history)
B) Not remembering what half-measures gained in Viet Nam
C) Not correcting "rules of engagement" mistakes quickly (as Lincoln did with his weak generals until he got Grant and Sherman)
and
D) Allowing an Islamic Constitution to be set up upon the defeated secular Iraq, sealing the foundation of failure on this project.
And we all have to pay to fund this fatal naivete.
TYPO above-
"...can't half fight..."
(not "...have fight...")
good point beard...brings to mind a former Generals comment from long ago...
"...I have never been taught to bomb HALF a bridge!.."
Welcome to the wonderful world of political correctness...unless we purge it completely, even from our lexicon, all the troops, money, etc will be for nothing. Problem is, now the PC control the pursestrings, too.
From above:
"And we all have to pay to fund this fatal naivete"
Oh is that spot on or what.
So let's ignore the misery, death, destruction and instead get some laughs for our bucks.
Giggle at the incompetence on display
Guffaw at the hubris and swagger
Chuckle endlessly at the way the clowns who thought up this pile of crap have all got away. Why haven't they been strung up FFS ?
Take a page out of War Nerd's playbook.
www.exile.ru/2006-June-02/massacres_babies_and_nukes.html
You
a) Nuke 'em
b) Bribe 'em
or
c) Leave 'em alone.
I go with c)
What's happening in Iraq is too much and yet not enough. And that mistake comes back to the flawed STRATEGY.
It seems there was NO post-Saddam plan. NONE .
The Neo Con clowns REALLY thought that the Iraqis would love us.
Now that's the biggest joke I've ever heard.