BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide car bomber killed at least 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded dozens more people in Iraq’s north on Sunday. Meanwhile, the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under fire from either mortars or rockets, and a round that fell short injured two bystanders.

The Easter Sunday attacks underscored the fragility of Iraq’s security, despite a decline in violence over the past year. They also came as the U.S. military death toll in Iraq nears 4,000.

Iraqi security forces opened fire on the bomber as he drove toward the military base in the northwestern city of Mosul but were unable to foil the attack because the truck’s windshield had been made bullet-proof.

The attacker blasted through an armored vehicle to reach the courtyard of the military headquarters, according to an Iraqi army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

Police said at least 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 42 people wounded - 30 soldiers and 12 civilians - in the attack. Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been described by the U.S. as the last urban stronghold of the Sunni-led al-Qaida in Iraq.

Full Story Here:
Suicide Bomb Kills 13 Iraqi Soldiers

I know I’m not even close to being the military expert, so I probably don’t have a good understanding of this situation, but I am going to opine a bit anyway…

If The Surge was as successful in Baghdad as we believe it to be, WHY haven’t we done a Surge on the whole place and taken total and full control of Iraq??

And just for grins I have got to ask, the successful Surge ran the bad guys out of Baghdad, it didn’t make them all dead, it made them establish themselves in other areas of operation as most have run to safer ground, but be that as it may, if we did do another Surge, but this time on the entire country, with special attention given to Mosul, where will all the bad guys go if we don’t kill them in that Surge?? Back to Baghdad??

I’d think that may be a lot closer to the truth than anyone would care to admit, simply because the American forces can’t cover the entire nation of Iraq and the Iraqis aren’t going to do the job in full as long as WE are there to protect them and do the dirty work for them…

And another thing, WHERE did an insurgent car bomber get a bullet proof windshield and what the hell were the Iraqis using to stop that car?? A weak-assed 5.56 M-4 or recycled M-16?? Maybe some AK-47’s??

I realize that the 5.56 and the 7.62 rounds are fairly effective against a human target IF that target isn’t wearing some type of armor, but both are nearly useless against a vehicle, and if said vehicle is armored, well, the results are in this original story…

Just because a weapon and it’s ammunition are lighter and easier to carry doesn’t make that weapon ideal for all situations, it makes it lighter and easier to carry, that’s all, and some folks that have actually carried a rifle into combat have tried, many times, to point this out to those that ride a desk, or have never seen a combat zone other than the ones on the 6:00PM news, the M-16 and M-4 aren’t the best we can give our troops, while much lighter than the old M-14, they are less effective…

If a heavier weapon like the M-14 is too heavy for our troops to carry, maybe we need to P.T. the troops more and make them stronger, just sayin’, because our troops need a heavier and more effective round than the 5.56 NATO, and again, even the 7.62 isn’t really enough against vehicle attacks…

In summation, stand up Iraq, fight for your freedom, EARN your freedom, stop these attackers in whatever way you feel you must, if the American way of stopping them isn’t good for you, use your own skills and ideas, show the world that you deserve freedom and that your entire army is willing to stand and engage these insurgents in successful operations on it’s own, that is when I will stop my critical posts concerning Iraq, when the Iraqis show that they WANT the freedom other nations enjoy, when they show a willingness to FIGHT for that freedom, then Iraq can be considered Mission Accomplished…

Freedom is NOT a gift, freedom MUST be earned, as the old saying goes, freedom isn’t free, and my one wish for Iraq and it’s people is that they DO have the desire and drive to be a free Iraq, an Iraq that can stand on it’s own, otherwise, this has ALL been in vain…