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There's Good News from Iraq »
Posted by: Coop666 2 years, 7 months agoAl-Qaeda said to be in retreat in Al-Anbar. Or, at least that's what the Neo-Cons at Time Magazine would have us believe!
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Comments: 185
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jeffery1
May 24, 2007, 4:36 p.m.I know that to many right-wingers this is news but it is to be expected. The Iraqi insurgency is not all that hot about working with al Qaeda and in fact if we weren't in Iraq the insurgency would more than likely eliminate al Qaeda. Read this story:
Divisions Within the Iraqi Insurgency By Lydia Khalil at the following URL (if it is displayed correctly, otherwise search for the title and author):
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article...
The situation is more complex than most realize but it is fact that al Qaeda was not operating in Iraq until we removed the reasons why: Saddam and the Baath Party.
This is "good news" only in context of Bush's lies that got us to needlessly invade Iraq in the first place. Had we put enough troops in Afghanistan an dcompleted the job there and improved diplomatic relations throughout the region we could have achieved far more without the loss of life and money.
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catstevensComment has been removed: User banned.
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birddog54Comment has been removed: User banned.
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tchef
May 23, 2007, 9:43 p.m.Yes this is good news indeed. But also read the part about the government that we are supporting. Unless the people of this country can come together there will be no peace with or without Al Qaeda.
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truthiness
May 23, 2007, 10:28 p.m.well this is good news /bad news
good news- alqueda is getting pushed out by the sunnis
bad news- they are moving in larger numbers to baghdad (see increase in attack size in baghdad last few days).
-the sunnis are getting better organized as a groupd which could bode poorly for the civil war which is not showing signs of letting up (recently, several shiite tribes banded together with an AQI to form "the state of iraq" a seperatist govt complete with department heads including a war dept)
- the US is showing no signs of having control over this movement, therby continuing to look weak to our enemies as far as our ability to dominate the war.
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truthiness
May 24, 2007, 12:48 a.m."keep in mind that an attack can be as little as one round fired)"
if thats the case then philadelphia has a major insurgency going on. there was over 400 murders by gunfire last year. we're on track for 500 this year. there are gunfights in the street btwn teenagers in certain neighborhoods every weekend. usu. over thing like "you looked at my woman" but nonetheless a lot more than one bullet fired. and they have a campiagn going on of "no snitcing" which is essentially a political movement to scare people not to talk to the cops, and it works few murders are ever solved since it began.
so you have gunfights and and govt activity. sounds like it fits that definition.
or maybe there's a more specific defnition they're really using. sorry Luv, but I cant handle any more spin on this war. it was started on lies. it was bad strategy to open a second front. and Iraq was no threat. its just plain immoral.
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MajJohn
May 24, 2007, 9:30 a.m.Now just stop it! We don't need good news mucking things up and destroying our agenda!
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abntv
May 24, 2007, 12:06 a.m.I agree this is good news..lets see how much coverage it gets in the "mainstream" media...
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ETproductions
May 24, 2007, 12:47 a.m.Iraq is indeed a complex picture. What's happening in AL Anbar right now deflates Bush's new argument that we have to "Fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." There are 3 problems with that piece of illogic.
1 -- They weren't there till Bush let Bin Laden slip through the Tora Bora pass into safe haven and instead of winning Afghanastan (something we desperately needed to do, invaded Iraq instead (something we desperately needed NOT to do).
2 -- As he said, they HAVE been planning attacks on American soil and American interests elsewhere. So obviously, Bush's "fight them there" strategy has backfired.
3 -- The ones who are effectively fighting them there are Iraqis, not Americans. They know who belongs there and who doesn't. We don't.
General Petraeus is smart enough to see that Iraq is mostly a Civil war and that we must bring the Sunnis and Shiites into cooperation to end it. Sadly, Bush and Al Maliki aren't.
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truthiness
May 24, 2007, 12:53 a.m.s it true what I heard about the Son of God?
Did he come to save? Did he come at all?
And if I dried his feet,
with my dirty hair,
would he make me clean again?
They say they don't know when but a day is gonna come,
when there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun.
It will just go black, It'll all go back, to the way it was before.
I knew a lovely girl, with such pretty pride, and every man wanted her, yeah and so did I.
So did I.
But she up and died in a fit of vanity.
Now men with purple hearts, carry silver guns.
And they will kill a man for what his father has done.
But what my father did, you know it don't mean ******. I'm not him.
So you think I need some discipline, well, I had my share.
I have been sent to my room. I've been sat in a chair.
And I held my tongue. I didn't plug my ears.
No, I got a good talking to.
And now I don't know why,
but I still try to smile when they talk at me like I'm just a child.
Well, I'm not a child.
....cont...
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spkguy
May 24, 2007, 2:16 a.m.U.S. April death toll in Iraq passes 100
BAGHDAD (AP) รข;; A suicide bomber struck a crowd of funeral mourners Monday north of Baghdad, taking more than 30 lives at the end of one of the deadliest months of the war so far for U.S. forces. At least 104 American troops were reported killed in April.
The rising toll among Americans pointed to a potentially deadly trend: More troops exposed to more dangers as they try to reclaim control of Baghdad under the joint security plan being implemented by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Bombings and shootings nationwide Monday killed at least 102 people, counting the funeral attack.
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Obaku
May 24, 2007, 4:23 a.m.Seriously though, it is good news. Less Al Qaeda means less justification for staying, just to referee the Sunni/Shi'ite conflict.
The bad news is that Al Qaeda won't go away, they will just relocate to new targets of opportunity - like Houston, or L.A.
Oops, I'll bet Dickless Cheney never thought of that!
The true model for dealing with Al Qaeda effectively is not war, but the WHO campaigns to eradicate smallpox and polio.
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RedRiverJ
May 24, 2007, 10:42 a.m.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki isn't strong enough or fair enough. Seems to favor the Shi'ite's, not the sunni. I would think just like in our country elected officials should represent both parties, IE republicans and democrats. And we all KNOW our politicians are biapartisian in the USA don't we voters?
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abntv
May 24, 2007, 11:59 a.m.Keep in mind that Anbar is the route for supply and construction of a great deal of the IEDs being used in the Bagdad area. Anbar is also a route for incoming Al Qaeda. This is exactly what the troop surge was all about..
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abntv
May 24, 2007, 1:07 p.m.Isnt it interesting how some people prefer to deflect from any good news at all coming out of Iraq..Why cant people just accept the "fact" that good things are happening in there
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crespi
May 24, 2007, 1:15 p.m.When the President said "Mission Accomplished" didn't he mean it was time to come home?
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Matteu00
May 24, 2007, 1:24 p.m.I am watching the news right now. Iraq can't account for 100k - 300K barrels of oil each day (about $15 million daily gone missing), they cannot account for $5 billion US dollars each month, and the farmers are now growing Opium instead of rice because they can sell the Opium for much higher profits. Al Qaeda is a red herring that the administration is throwing out now and you will here more Al Qaeda talk this summer. And as I read through this article it does not sound good to me. But enjoy the headline.
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jovial
May 24, 2007, 2:13 p.m.See my front page story for a real look at Baghdad life from Iraqi's that live there. Unbiased, gripping, and revealing.
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abntv
May 24, 2007, 2:29 p.m.One more point then I am off to do real work..
Between 2003 and 2005 there were over 1,600 murders in the city of New York alone...
Does anyone propose we pull out of New York city
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Truzseeker
May 24, 2007, 2:45 p.m.Al-Qaeda (lol)... oh come on !
"Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet". A very common and widespread use of the word "Al-Qaeda" in different Arab countries in the public language is for the toilet bowl. This name comes from the Arabic verb "Qa'ada" which mean "to sit", pertinently, on the "Toilet Bowl". In most Arabs homes there are two kinds of toilets: "Al-Qaeda" also called the "Hamam Franji" or foreign toilet, and "Hamam Arabi" or "Arab toilet" which is a hole in the ground. Lest we forget it, the potty used by small children is called "Ma Qa'adia" or "Little Qaeda".
So, if you were forming a terrorist group, would you call yourself, "The Toilet"?
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Stitches68W
May 24, 2007, 2:47 p.m.It is good to here this news from Anbar Province. The Marines seem to have finally connected with the local Sunni leaders there. But the Sunnis know that since a US pullout has been brought to the table in the past few months, we are the only friend they have right now. And I am sure that it is not that they themselves like us, it is that they hate Al-Qaeda more. Most opposition groups around the country hate Al-Qaeda as well, but they hate us more. So they fight us instead. It is a confusing lesser of two evils, in their views, that they choose. The drop in violence in Anbar could also come from militants moving to a different areas of the country to conduct attacks. With more US troops "surging" into Baghdad, they know that they must make a strong case to the American public that it can fail. The truth is that we do not have enough troops on the ground, even with the Surge, to cover all these different areas.
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