At least 31 dead, 71 hurt in Baghdad blasts

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Monday in a crowd that had gathered where an explosion moments earlier damaged a bus full of schoolgirls, with both blasts killing at least 31 people and wounding 71 others, officials said.

Also Monday, a woman suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaeda, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion.

The twin Baghdad blasts — the deadliest in the city in months — occurred moments apart during the morning rush hour in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of the Azamiyah district in the northern part of the Iraqi capital.

Police said the first explosion damaged a minibus carrying young girls to school. The second happened when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the middle of a crowd that had gathered around the vehicle.

Police officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast.

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At least 31 dead, 71 hurt in Baghdad blasts

Iraq is a place the U.S.A. NEVER needed to go, Iraq was the downfall of George W. Bush and the Republican party, the invasion itself, the way this debacle was prosecuted, the aftermath, ALL of it. Saddam was an evil man, his death was NO loss to the world but the Bush administration took us into a BS war that has all but bankrupted the U.S.A., and for nothing!!

The are no WMDs, there never were any WMDs, Bush had a bad case of wanting to vindicate himself in *Daddies* eyes, he wanted to *get* that bad man Saddam, because Saddam had threatened Daddy, that was it, plain and simple, Iraq was the temper tantrum of an impertinent child that was trying to make his Daddy happy! And in doing so, he removed valuable, and much needed troops and resources from Afghanistan, and now we are having to go back and do that one over again, great war planning there GW!

My Son has served a year in Iraq, on patrol on the route to BIA, Route Irish, and his National Guard group is already tasked to go back in 2012, this is one promise I hope Obama CAN keep, our guys OUT of Iraq, and then perhaps we can concentrate on the REAL war on terror, where that war REALLY was, Afghanistan and Pakistan, not in Iraq, where, until WE went there and deposed Saddam, it NEVER was.

George W. Bush is terribly concerned about the legacy he is leaving behind, well, he has built his own legacy, the Moron in Chief will go down as the worst president the USA has ever had, bar none, at least so far.

But you know, there IS a bright side to this story, NO U.S. military personnel were killed, and that is a good thing, our troops have already made too many sacrifices in a place they NEVER should have been.

Iraq has descended into nothing but a civil war, and there is nothing *civil* about it. And it WILL continue until the *infidel* is out and some Muslim strongman is ruling with an iron fist, and administering death under Sharia law, and administering it in great numbers!

Iraq moves against some US-backed Sunni fighters

BAGHDAD - The Shiite-led government is cracking down on U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters in one of Iraq’s most turbulent regions, arresting some leaders, disarming dozens of men and banning them from manning checkpoints except alongside official security forces.

The moves in Diyala province reflect mixed views on a movement that began in 2007 among Sunni tribes in western Iraq who revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq and joined the Americans in the fight against the terrorist network.

U.S. officials credit the rise of such groups, known variously as Awakening Councils, Sons of Iraq and Popular Committees, with helping rout al-Qaida.

But Iraq’s government is suspicious of such groups, fearing their decision to break with the insurgency was a short-term tactic to gain U.S. money and support. The government fears they will eventually turn their guns against Iraq’s majority Shiites.

The effort in Diyala northeast of Baghdad began last month as U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an operation against al-Qaida and other extremists in that region.

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Iraq moves against some US-backed Sunni fighters

Civil War: –noun
a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

Can I define this in any other way? One that can be more easily understood or readily digested?

Iraq is now, and has been for quite some time, engaged in a CIVIL WAR, by ANY definition.

I have had several supposed scholarly writers try and tell me otherwise. These are the facts, the war in Iraq is now a CIVIL WAR and it’s root cause is the differences between the ideologies of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, who gets to be in charge, who sided with the Great Satan, that would be us, and who is going to subscribe to the teachings of a goat loving pedophile and false prophet, that would be Mohamed and the *Religion of Hypocrisy*.

And here is the part we need to ALL consider, Iraq will always be in a state of upheaval, political or religious, or in their case, both, since in Iraq they are one in the same. And if these upheavals are taking place with U.S. troops in place, and an Iraqi force that we are being led to believe is ready to step up and take full control of Iraq, what is going to happen as soon as U.S. forces are gone from Iraq?

I’ll tell you exactly what’s going to happen, and believe me when I say, I don’t want to see U.S. troops in Iraq for one minute longer, but here’s the drill as soon as we’re gone. All out CIVIL WAR erupts, Shiite militias, funded and supplied by Iraq, via Russia, will go into full attack mode against the Sunni population. Total chaos will ensue, another *strong man*, the likes of Saddam will emerge, at least 4,143 U.S. troops will have died in vain, BILLIONS of our tax dollars will have been wasted and Iraq will return to the status quo.

The only thing I am not sure of at this particular point in time is this, will the new *strong man* be Sunni or Shiite? That is dependent on the winner of the CIVIL WAR and the winds of Iraqi politics, and the full blown CIVIL WAR is almost assured.

I hope Mr. Bush enjoys his legacy, the USA is in a true *No Win* situation, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Thank you Mr. Bush.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush declared progress in the Iraq war Thursday, saying terrorists “are on the run” and a generally improved security environment should permit further U.S. troop reductions.

Standing on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office of the White House, Bush also announced that effective Thursday, the duration of troop tours in Iraq will be cut from 15 months to 12 months.

Bush said this reduction “will relieve the burden on our forces and it will make life easier for our wonderful military families.”

“The progress is still reversible,” Bush acknowledged. But he added, “There now appears to be a degree of durability in gains.”

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Bush declares significant progress in Iraq war

You can’t deny it, Iraq has shown great improvement, and it’s about time too. We have put in a lot of time, money, effort and, not to forget, many American lives to make this happen.

I never made any secret of the fact that I have always believed, and to this day continue to believe, Iraq wasn’t where we needed to go, especially at the time we went. I felt that Afghanistan was the REAL War on terror, I still do, and now we’re having to *ramp up* there once again because, after all, Iraq has become a much more peaceful place.

I still think that Iraq, in the early stages, after the Republican Guard was defeated and Saddam had been deposed, was the most ill managed excuse for an occupation that ever happened. Bush micromanaged Iraq and damned near caused this country to suffer the ultimate embarrassment, an *ass kicking* by a bunch of raghead insurgents.

It took several mission re-definitions, it took some catchy slogans, *The Surge*, and what it all boiled down to was this, someone finally got it through Bush’s thick head that he didn’t know his ass from 2nd base about war fighting and IF he seriously wanted to make his dream for Iraq come true, let the warfighters run the war.

This story, and the one just below it, tie in very well together, we must continue to fight the War on terror, we have NO choice, but that battle is going to always expand, soft targets will always be the ones that these terrorist look for. We can’t let the USA become that *soft target*.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the “Long War” against violent extremism and that the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists should be the nation’s top military priority over coming decades, according to a new National Defense Strategy he approved last month.

The strategy document, which has not been released, calls for the military to master “irregular” warfare rather than focusing on conventional conflicts against other nations, though Gates also recommends partnering with China and Russia in order to blunt their rise as potential adversaries. The strategy is a culmination of Gates’s work since he took over the Pentagon in late 2006 and spells out his view that the nation must harness both military assets and “soft power” to defeat a complex, transnational foe.

“Iraq and Afghanistan remain the central fronts in the struggle, but we cannot lose sight of the implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front, and multi-dimensional conflict more complex and diverse than the Cold War confrontation with communism,” according to the 23-page document, provided to The Washington Post by InsideDefense.com, a defense industry news service. “Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is crucial to winning this conflict, but it alone will not bring victory.”

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Pentagon: Terrorism to be threat for decades

Sec. Gates seems to be a master of *the understatement*, a lot like the eggheads that keep saying that California *could* have a massive quake sometime in the next 30 years. Safe bets, hedged bets, they works pretty well, and the probabilities are in your favor.

Terrorism will not go away, even with a full victory in Afghanistan and Iraq, terrorism won’t go away even if radical Islam is totally wiped out. Timothy McVeigh wasn’t an Islamic terrorist.

But maybe Gates is on to something, fighting terrorism with “irregular” warfare tactics?? What a concept! And verbiage is everything, semantics make it all seem so much better.

Irregular Warfare? Wasn’t that what the U.S. Army Unconventional Warfare Manual covered for years? Isn’t irregular warfare, and the necessity of it’s use one of the really important lessons we supposedly learned in Vietnam?

Let’s face facts, we turned up the heat in Iraq, and to do so we drew down our forces in Afghanistan, and there was a fairly rapid resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We turned up the heat and it now appears that many of the insurgents in Iraq, those not Iraqi themselves, have moved on to easier picking so to speak.

When we ramp up our efforts in Afghanistan, and I feel we must, I hope the DoD doesn’t forget that if we make it too tough on the insurgents there, they’ll simply move on to less challenged areas.