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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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