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Author: TriSec    Date: 09/07/2010 10:33:43

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,729th day in Iraq and our 3,245th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4417
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4278
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3956
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3558
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 189

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,275
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 791
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq : 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437


We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 076, 519, 600, 000 .00



Well, troops have pulled back to Kuwait; speeches have been made, flags have been waved, and still more soldiers and contractors are heading to Iraq in a "non-combat" role. The question remains...was it worth it?




RAMADI, Iraq — It was a way to show the government cared.
About 100 families of slain policemen and other victims of insurgent attacks gathered in an auditorium to receive packages of food from the local government.

"We don't want food," said Nooriya Khalaf, 39, pointing dismissively at the small bags with rice. "We want jobs."

The shouting and gesturing continued until the ceremony collapsed into chaos. The women rushed the stage, gathering around a police chief and shouting complaints at him.

Democracy is alive in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, Khalaf and others may have been visited by the secret police for their remarks and then never seen again. Today, a police chief is berated, and no one fears for their lives.

Yet many Iraqis are not pleased with life. Unemployment is 35%, according to Iraq's development ministry. Electricity is spotty. Terrorist bombings are almost a daily event. Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds are still arguing over who should be prime minister nearly six months after parliamentary elections were held.


Of course, Germany and Japan weren't rebuilt in a day, either....and as I noted a few weeks ago, we haven't left those countries more than a half-century after defeating them. (Although in "real" terms, the occupation lasted about a decade for each.) But then again, we truly defeated those enemies. If combat operations in Iraq are "over", then why are we still fighting?


US troops have helped Iraqi forces after militants attacked an army base in Baghdad less than a week after the withdrawal of American front-line soldiers from Iraq. The attackers, armed with assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts, managed to negotiate the police checkpoints that are supposed to keep the city secure and drive a minibus right up to the entrance of the Iraqi military base.

The attack has refocused concern on whether the Iraqi army is ready to take over the country's defences and internal security as President Barack Obama sticks to the pull-out timetable he set out on reaching the White House. Combat forces left the country ahead of the Aug 31 deadline, leaving 50,000 troops to advise and assist the Iraqis.

The base is home to the Iraqi 11th Division and was previously attacked three weeks ago by a suicide bomber who killed 61 would-be recruits. The Iraqi army was heavily criticised at the time for the lack of security in the square where the men were queuing to sign up.

At least two of the attackers jumped clear of the van before it was hit by shots and exploded, and ran into a building on the edge of the military compound. There they came under fire from a squad of US "advisers", as troops still in the country are termed. "They provided suppressive fire while the Iraqi army got into position to go in," a US forces spokesman, Lt Col Eric Bloom, said. "There was some return fire – the insurgents were firing down into the compound." Eventually, the two men detonated their belts. In all, 12 people were killed.

Lt Col Bloom said US forces also provided air cover and bomb disposal support. These are areas where the Iraqi forces are particularly weak. Last month, the Iraqi chief of staff said his forces would not be ready to assume full responsibility for the nation's defences till 2020.


Are we really looking at ten more years of this?
 

26 comments (Latest Comment: 09/08/2010 02:04:54 by livingonli)
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Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 12:25:28
Morning

Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 13:22:06
oh no Sassy has invaded KTLK!



Sassy! That's so harsh!

Comment by TriSec on 09/07/2010 13:22:13
Hmm, It's a little empty today.





Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 13:59:39
everyone's still on vacation? or there been chaos with the addition of school buses on the roads

Comment by Scoopster on 09/07/2010 14:26:56
Mornin' all!



Had an interesting run-in at the local college bus stop this morning with a bigoted asshat.. he thought it would be funny to shout insults across a six-lane street at a hispanic-looking woman who was on her way to work. I took off my headphones and asked him politely to stop because he was disturbing the peace of everyone else waiting there.



Then he got in my face saying "oh it's a free country I'll do what I want!" To which I replied "That's fine with me. You keep doing what you want and I'll hit the button on the blue light pole and have campus security stop by."

Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 14:38:23
"in the neighborhood we call 'out by the airport' "



Charlie Pierce just made me choke on my coffee!

Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 14:39:34
Quote by Scoopster:

Mornin' all!



Had an interesting run-in at the local college bus stop this morning with a bigoted asshat.. he thought it would be funny to shout insults across a six-lane street at a hispanic-looking woman who was on her way to work. I took off my headphones and asked him politely to stop because he was disturbing the peace of everyone else waiting there.



Then he got in my face saying "oh it's a free country I'll do what I want!" To which I replied "That's fine with me. You keep doing what you want and I'll hit the button on the blue light pole and have campus security stop by."






Oh my O.O

Comment by Scoopster on 09/07/2010 14:57:35
Wanna hear the ironic part?



When he got off the bus, his immediate ambition was to go sit in the center of town outside Dunkin to smoke cigarettes and chat it up with the other bums.



Do ya think if he had the chance he'd take her housecleaning job at the Newport Marriott?

Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 15:03:15
Quote by Scoopster:

Wanna hear the ironic part?



When he got off the bus, his immediate ambition was to go sit in the center of town outside Dunkin to smoke cigarettes and chat it up with the other bums.



Do ya think if he had the chance he'd take her housecleaning job at the Newport Marriott?






doubt it - that's wimin's work

Comment by TriSec on 09/07/2010 15:44:00
Quote by wickedpam:

"in the neighborhood we call 'out by the airport' "



Charlie Pierce just made me choke on my coffee!






East Boston is not an airport!





Comment by TriSec on 09/07/2010 15:51:01
Say folks, if you belong to UNN,you should check this out.



I won't divulge the story in detail (yep, going to make you click over there), but something member "Silly Goose" posted is rather leaping out at me. Extrapolate this....after the Nontroversy over the Mosque dies down and they build the thing, how long will it last before a mob destroys it?





Now it's all destroyed by the lies of one ignorant fraud, whipping up a mob into a ridiculous frenzy. Even now the people who ran the sanctuary can't come back — they've been threatened with death.



Ignorance isn't just a passive failure. Ignorance topples and destroys the great things people build up.





Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 15:53:39
Quote by TriSec:

Say folks, if you belong to UNN,you should check this out.



I won't divulge the story in detail (yep, going to make you click over there), but something member "Silly Goose" posted is rather leaping out at me. Extrapolate this....after the Nontroversy over the Mosque dies down and they build the thing, how long will it last before a mob destroys it?





Now it's all destroyed by the lies of one ignorant fraud, whipping up a mob into a ridiculous frenzy. Even now the people who ran the sanctuary can't come back — they've been threatened with death.



Ignorance isn't just a passive failure. Ignorance topples and destroys the great things people build up.









I've often wondered that myself

Comment by livingonli on 09/07/2010 15:54:08
Good morning all.





Only 10 posts. Where is everyone? Sundance right now is showing the Iraq war documentary "No End In Sight" and is showing it again at 4:30 today.

Comment by wickedpam on 09/07/2010 16:04:03
Quote by livingonli:

Good morning all.





Only 10 posts. Where is everyone? Sundance right now is showing the Iraq war documentary "No End In Sight" and is showing it again at 4:30 today.






Morning - I'm thinking extended vaca

Comment by TriSec on 09/07/2010 16:23:26
Some aviation obscura today....



First flight of the 14-bis (1906)



First flight of the B-32 (1942...an obscure fave of your loyal TriSec)



Comment by Scoopster on 09/07/2010 19:28:55
I thought I heard something on NPR this morning about a study.. something about how when ignorant people are confronted with the truth, they more often become more entrenched in believing the lie.



...but I can't seem to find it.

Comment by TriSec on 09/07/2010 19:42:46
Perhaps you were thinking of Comrade Lenin...



"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."





Curiously, President Roosevelt said this:



"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."



Who ya gonna believe, some Commie or a Democrat? (aren't they the same thing?)



Comment by Will in Chicago on 09/07/2010 21:05:32
Hello, bloggers!



TriSec, an excellent entry on Iraq. I fear that all we did was deepen existing divisions.



As for the story from Belize, it is very depressing. I hope that there is some justice.

Comment by Raine on 09/07/2010 22:50:42
Boo.





Back Home!!!





Comment by trojanrabbit on 09/07/2010 23:42:27
The move to the new Chez Rabbit is officially over.



It was a good 9 year experiment, but things just didn't work out. Now comes the unpacking (for the next whatever forever), and someday I hope to have a workbench built back and continue my TV project. But tonight I'm just resting my weary aching back lying out on the balcony. Cleo is looking out at me and doesn't look a bit happy.



One of the two little beasts decided to "get back at me" I think, by pissing in one of my sneakers.

Comment by livingonli on 09/08/2010 00:03:55
If you want to unwind, the O's are playing the Yankees on MASN while the Nats are playing the Mets on MASN2.

Comment by TriSec on 09/08/2010 00:57:38
Meanwhile, the Red Sox continue to suck.

Comment by BobR on 09/08/2010 00:58:38
Quote by livingonli:

If you want to unwind, the O's are playing the Yankees on MASN while the Nats are playing the Mets on MASN2.


baseball? meh.

Comment by BobR on 09/08/2010 01:03:45
Quote by trojanrabbit:

The move to the new Chez Rabbit is officially over.



It was a good 9 year experiment, but things just didn't work out. Now comes the unpacking (for the next whatever forever), and someday I hope to have a workbench built back and continue my TV project. But tonight I'm just resting my weary aching back lying out on the balcony. Cleo is looking out at me and doesn't look a bit happy.



One of the two little beasts decided to "get back at me" I think, by pissing in one of my sneakers.


btw - we got an antique radio a little while back. I haven't dared to plug it in, but I'm assuming it needs work. I might be pinging you at some point for advice.

Comment by BobR on 09/08/2010 01:04:56
Quote by TriSec:

Say folks, if you belong to UNN,you should check this out.



I won't divulge the story in detail (yep, going to make you click over there), but something member "Silly Goose" posted is rather leaping out at me. Extrapolate this....after the Nontroversy over the Mosque dies down and they build the thing, how long will it last before a mob destroys it?





Now it's all destroyed by the lies of one ignorant fraud, whipping up a mob into a ridiculous frenzy. Even now the people who ran the sanctuary can't come back — they've been threatened with death.



Ignorance isn't just a passive failure. Ignorance topples and destroys the great things people build up.





I can definitely see a molotov cocktail going through the front door.

Comment by livingonli on 09/08/2010 02:04:54
Quote by BobR:

Quote by livingonli:

If you want to unwind, the O's are playing the Yankees on MASN while the Nats are playing the Mets on MASN2.


baseball? meh.


Isn't the Mrs. still a Yankee fan?