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Despite formal combat end, US joins Baghdad battle

September 6th, 2010 . by TexasFred
Despite formal combat end, US joins Baghdad battle

BAGHDAD (AP) - Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.

The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Sunday’s hour-long assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security.

Full Story Here:
Despite formal combat end, US joins Baghdad battle

When it comes to COMBAT, and having any success with it, I am pretty sure the French army is about the only one in the world that is more pathetic than the Iraqi army.

Iraq, it’s government, it’s police, it’s army, it’s civil infrastructure, the whole stinking mess, is shot through with corruption and infiltrated by those that WE refer to as insurgents.

Iraq, under Saddam, wasn’t much of a fighting force. They held Iran in check a few years ago simply because Iran has an army that is every bit as pathetic as the Iraqi army. That seems to be the rule of thumb for Arab militaries. They look like they are fighting like hell as long as they fight one another, but let a major military step in, or a dedicated insurgency, and they look like a version of the Keystone Cops.

The U.S. military has been training the Iraqi army for over 8 years now. Our training is NOT lacking. The Iraqis are a pathetic, rag-tag bunch and basically suck at organized tactics and have a serious issue with authority and taking orders.

The American troops who joined the fight and provided cover fire for Iraqi soldiers pursuing the attackers were based at the compound to train Iraqi forces, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom. Iraqi forces also requested help from U.S. helicopters, drones and explosives experts, he said. No American troops were hurt, Bloom said.

The best part of this entire story is written in the last few words of the above paragraph, ‘No American troops were hurt.’

Those are the words that every father, mother, wife, child, brother, sister, ALL family members love to hear. We are, for the most part, tired of our sons and daughters fighting, and dying, and being maimed, physically and mentally, for a government that can’t, and never will stand and defend itself, nor survive without our assistance.

Two weeks earlier, an al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber waded into a crowd of hundreds of army recruits outside the building and detonated a blast that killed 61 people. That was the deadliest act of violence in Baghdad in months.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack.

Well gee, I don’t know. Maybe this will come back to bite me but I’m going out on a limb here and make a guess. I have a feeling that al-Qaida will claim the attack. That’s a bit of serious Intel analysis folks. At least as accurate as the media, and quite likely some so-called military Intel guys too.

An old *inside joke*. Two words that don’t go together: Military Intelligence. Just sayin’…

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Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

July 27th, 2010 . by TexasFred

Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness in how such funds were being spent in a country where people complain basic services like electricity and clean water are sharply lacking seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The audit found that shoddy record keeping by the Defense Department left the Pentagon unable to fully account for $8.7 billion it withdrew between 2004 and 2007 from a special fund set up by the U.N. Security Council. Of that amount, Pentagon “could not provide documentation to substantiate how it spent $2.6 billion.”

The funds are separate from the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq.

Full Story Here:
Audit: US can’t account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

Out of curiosity, I wonder how much of the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq can be accounted for? And WHY was $53 BILLION U.S. tax dollars allocated to rebuild a nation that is RICH with oil reserves and the revenue from that oil?

I have said this before, on numerous occasions, George W. Bush was the founder of the ‘Lets see how many ways we can bankrupt America’ campaign. The Bush bailouts set the trend, Obama is just a continuance of those same Bush policies, on a much grander scale.

The report comes at a critical time for Iraq, which four months after inconclusive elections squabbling political factions have still not agreed on a new government.

As I, and many of my readers have commented in the past, a U.S. style government is not going to work in an Islamic nation. Our way of governing isn’t working here, for us. How can anyone expect that some form of democracy will work in a place such as Iraq?

Despite security gains made since 2008, bombings remain near a daily occurrence that compound the frustrations and fears of Iraqis increasingly weary of the political crisis - one many say reflects how the country’s politicians are more interested in their own interests than those of the nation.

Iraqi politicians are more interested in their own interests than those of the nation? Well, you know, I may have been wrong after all. Maybe a U.S. style government HAS taken hold in Iraq.

The continuing impasse was highlighted on Tuesday when Iraqi lawmakers gathered for the second time this month only to indefinitely postpone the parliamentary session because there was still no decision on the new government.

Sounds a lot like a certain *grass roots* group that I know of… :?

The U.S. audit is unlikely to do anything but further stoke that frustration felt by Iraqis who continue to suffer from poor infrastructure despite the billions spent.

Yeah, well, welcome to OUR world. BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars have been spent, the recession is still not over, nearly 10% of the nation is unemployed, campaign promises have been broken, lies have been told and the Obama regime wants to spend even MORE of our tax dollars to bail US out.

The audit cited a number of factors behind the inability to account for most of the money withdrawn by the Pentagon from the Development Fund for Iraq.

It said most of the Defense Department organizations that received DFI money failed to set up Treasury Department accounts, as required.

In addition, it said no Defense Department organization was designated as the main body to oversee how the funds were accounted for or spent.

“The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” the report said.

In the military vernacular, SNAFU, FUBAR and a few other things you can’t, or shouldn’t say in polite company.

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33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders

March 10th, 2009 . by TexasFred

33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders

BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders and high-ranking security officials touring a market after a reconciliation meeting west of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 33 people in the second major attack in the capital area in two days.

Despite the ongoing violence, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said he does not believe the Iraqi government will ask Americans to remain in the country past a 2011 deadline set by a security agreement between the two countries.

The bombing - which left clusters of bodies near the shabby market stalls lining a road - was part of a spike of violence that comes as the U.S. military begins to draw down its forces.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt as the tribal leaders were walking through the market in the town of Abu Ghraib, accompanied by security officials and journalists, according to the Iraqi military.

Full Story Here:
33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders

Is it just me?? Does anyone else think it strange that now, after 6 years of U.S. occupation and supposed pacification, that Iraq still has these kinds of attacks with such huge numbers of casualties?

Our involvement in Iraq is akin to owning a boat. Yes, a boat. A device that produces a hole in the water, one into which the owner throws great sums of money. That is what Iraq has been for America. We have lost over 4,250 lives, the lives of U.S. troops, we have spent untold BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars and we have gained absolutely NO return from our investment.

I’d say that lack of return, in and of itself, pretty much dispels the Libbers claims of Iraq being a *WAR FOR OIL*. Iraq was not a war for oil, Iraq was a temper tantrum thrown by George W. Bush and was the catalyst for this terrible money crunch that we are suffering. Well, along with some other sweetheart and brother in law deals made BY Bush and Cheney!

The 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw was set in a security agreement that took effect on Jan. 1. There has been speculation the Iraqis may ask the U.S. for an extension.

Count on it, and I’ll tell you why. The Iraqis are the most ill-motivated people on the face of this earth. Iraqis have been ruled under a dictatorship, in one form or another, for centuries. That is all they know. They are incapable of standing on their own. That is a totally foreign notion in their mindset.

The Iraqis will accept whatever happens to them, Saddam was proof of that. Iraq was a relatively peaceful place as long as Saddam was in power, peaceful in the terms of open warfare and insurgent bombings. That was because Saddam kept a tight lid on Iraq, the Iraqi people KNEW what Saddam would do if they went against him and his regime.

Terror, and RULE by TERROR are the accepted method of government by the Muslims, of all sects. The strong man wins, corruption is the rule of the day in Iraq, democracy is not an acceptable practice and the idea of a Republic? Well, that’s as strange to the Iraqis as is democracy and acceptance of Christianity.

Iraq has basically been a waste of life and fortune, and if the USA continues to remain engaged in Iraq, Iraq will continue to bleed us dry! The only good thing I can say about this entire story is, NONE of the dead were U.S. servicemen…


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