Baghdad embassy officials must wear flak jackets.
By on May 9th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Baghdad embassy officials must wear flak jackets.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad “has ordered its staff to wear flak jackets and helmets while outdoors or in unprotected buildings following an increase in mortar and rocket attacks against the heavily protected Green Zone.”
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Business
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Global Warming
Health Care
Hoffman
Immigration
International Relations
Iraq
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Tea Party
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
Please send John McCain to the viewing of this!
May 9th, 2007 at 1:40 pmFreedom is on the march!!!
May 9th, 2007 at 1:40 pmfeel the surge
May 9th, 2007 at 1:41 pmAnd when they ride around in helicopters, they sit on those helmets so they don’t get their balls blown off.
—LTC Bill Kilgore, Commander, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, US Air Cavalry
May 9th, 2007 at 1:41 pmIsn’t it a war?
Of course if we surrender, problem solved. Only we will have to start wearing parachutes when we go into our office buildings or get on an airplane.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:41 pmswimmingly
May 9th, 2007 at 1:42 pmGood call. There’s a war going on.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:44 pmwont be long to Bush has to wear a Flak jacket in the Whitehouse, rotten tomatoes for sale here everybody
May 9th, 2007 at 1:44 pmA sure sign of the GOP desperation over Iraq is ever-increasing Republican propensity to rhetorically reduce the conflict to the realm of the normal. With casual analogies to American sports, business and shopping, Republican leaders try to conflate the Iraq chaos and carnage with the commonplace and carefree.
For the story, see:
May 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pm“The Evil of Banality: Republicans Speak on Iraq.”
those must be some nasty flowers they’re throwing at us….
May 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pmCivilian deaths ‘deeply shame’ US
May 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pmAn American commander in Afghanistan has said that he is “deeply ashamed” by the killings of 19 Afghan civilians by US Marines in early March.
It has become a major issue, with Nato recently saying that its biggest error last year was killing civilians.
TODAY
An air raid by foreign forces has killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, the provincial governor has said.
Funny…the last time I went to a flea market in Indiana I don’t remember seeing any flak jackets or helmets. There must be a reason. Are they in style this season?
May 9th, 2007 at 1:47 pmOf course if we surrender, problem solved. Only we will have to start wearing parachutes when we go into our office buildings or get on an airplane.
Comment by Patrick1
Its impossible to surrender when we are not fighting an enemy army. There is no surrender when you are an occupier. You either stop occupying them and leave or you continue… It is impossible to surrender when you far FAR out power those you are fighting and you stay or leave under your own choice.
What a coward.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:47 pmWait’ll Dolce & Gabbana come out with their new Baghdad Boutique Collection!
May 9th, 2007 at 1:48 pmAnd I soooo wanted to purchase a few of those beautiful McCain market rugs. [pinky to lip]
May 9th, 2007 at 1:48 pmWould these be the same one our boys are wearing? You know, the ones that are worthless when it comes to stoping bullets
May 9th, 2007 at 1:52 pmA Baghdad in the Springtime. When a US diplomat’s fancy turns to love and walks in the park with her boyfriend while both wear flak jackets and are guarded by 100 heavily armed escorts.
Patrick1trickpony and Paul of Farce-Us, it’s not a war any more. It’s a civil war and anarchy. And you guys caused it. And the Iraqi parliament wants you guys OUT.
The original authorization was to protect America from Saddam’s WMD –not there, so that’s done. And to enforce the UN resolutions on Iraq. That too has been done. Although the UN suggested the occupation was itself against the UN charter, but what you gonna do, eh?
May 9th, 2007 at 1:54 pmPaul: “Good call. There’s a war going on.”
Hey Paul, the next time somebody asks you to describe what “winning” would be, maybe you could say, “Embassy personnel don’t have to wear flack jackets.”
May 9th, 2007 at 1:56 pm#5 Crawl back under the bed, Patrick. You’ll be safer there.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:58 pm“Isn’t it a war?
Of course if we surrender, problem solved.”
Is it a war? Who are we shooting at? Who is shooting at us? Do we really know?
Surrender? To who? Who is coordinating the war against us?
I know. It must all those Insurgents from Insurgia.
Why don’t we just bomb Insurgia?
If we don’t fight them there, all the Insurgents will follow us home, just like little puppy dogs, because they don’t have Mapquest or a World Atlas and cannot find us otherwise.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:03 pmoh yes…and this is progress.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:04 pmThey’re wearing the flak jackets to reduce the number of stains on their suits — from the chocolates being thrown…
May 9th, 2007 at 2:11 pm“Game’s on! Yeee-hah!”
-Darth Cheney
May 9th, 2007 at 2:12 pmThis seems normal. After all, there is an OCCUPATION going on, one which most Iraqis would like to see end. But who cares about what THEY think, who told them Iraq was going to be a DEMOCRACY anyway?
May 9th, 2007 at 2:14 pm#5 Crawl back under the bed, Patrick. You’ll be safer there.
Comment by VerbalKint
He is posting from his Mama’s basement. She lets him out on tuesdays if there are no brown people walking the streets that day.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:16 pmNope.
I guarantee that these people are wearing Dragon Skin body armor and are driving in Rhinos.
The crap is giving to our troops.
The Humvee was a piece of sh!t in 1991 when I drove one. That is why the Blackwater mercenaries drive the Rhinos.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:21 pmOf course if we surrender, problem solved. Only we will have to start wearing parachutes when we go into our office buildings or get on an airplane.Comment by Patrick1
Dont quit your day job reading crystal balls. Muuuhaa.
Well a comet could wipe you out tommorrow or a car crash a piano from above an uncovered pit a heart attack a robbery brain hemmorage road rage lightning a tornado a hurricane a earthquake a tsunami a flood the rabies cancer a plane crash a drugoverdose some ecoli poison a neighbors pool an electrical shock or bee stings a snake bite or deadly spider an lyme disease.
Of all the things to worry about he, Patrick dear 1, worries about a parachute first. There is a reason passenger planes don’t have them P1. You can’t open a door at 40,000 feet with the plane pressurized and if you did you’d prolly pass out before you ever got your chute on. Then you weould have to hope you brought some oxygen if you didn’t freeze to death.
#5 Crawl back under the bed, Patrick. You’ll be safer there.
Comment by VerbalKint
Good advice VK. You should telecommute Patrick1 and sell your car. Be sure to lock the basement windows and bolt the stairwell door. Also you may want to stock up on plastic sheeting, diapers, and duct tape. You can wire your premises with video cameras and alarms. Your Valium will be delivered by mail. [Pinky to Lip] Right mini me? Rightttt.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:21 pmI am so glad that Cheney and Loserman and all the other hacks are finding significant improvement in conditions in Baghdad and throughout Iraqnam. Employees wearing flak jackets inside the “safe” green zone is but another example of how well the war is going and how we are still being greeted as liberators.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:22 pmwe ALL NEED TO IGNORE THE TROLLS, if you see their posts, don’t read it, skip over it, don’t respond ever, they are repulsive subhumans who do not deserve a responce to anything they post.
Join the IGNORE THE TROLL SCUM CLUB today.
I will join, but I sure loved putting them down.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pmPerhaps they should rename it the “orange zone”, or the “magenta zone”. Green just doesn’t seem to fit any more.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:33 pmHey Buck Fush, sign me up! I promise I will ignore the squeaky noises coming from the muck under the bridge.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:33 pmThis is good news! Listen up progs, there are a fixed number of villians in the world and the more they step up the attacks in Iraq, the fewer attacks we will have on American soil, freeing up our beautiful minds to think about money and golf and shit.
Bush is a freeking genius! As soon as he saw the attacks on 9/11 (well, maybe not “as soon”, but as soon as he finished his picture book and cleaned up the piss running down his leg) he realized that we needed to lure those bad guys away from our homeland.
So he tried Afghanistan, and sure enough we started losing soldiers. The plan was working! But was that enough for George? No!! A lesser idiot would have quit there, but Bush is not your run of the mill idiot, he decided we needed a war in Iraq.
Brilliant! Just look at the number of lives we have squandered.
And just to make sure, he is going to surge. More deaths, more head injuries, more hatred against Americans. Pretty soon, (maybe September?) we should be running out of badguys. You just wait and see.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:33 pm#21, their flak jackets won’t cover the brown stains around the crotch area, though.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:34 pmHoorah for the ITTSC club! Can I get a charter membership?>?
May 9th, 2007 at 2:35 pmignore the troll club. is that similar to the ‘i’m taking my ball and going home club’ or more like the ‘i know you are but what am i club’? I’m disappointed, because I came here thinking I would be discussing topics of the day with some thought provoking adults. Now, I realize I could have had a more enlightening conversation with my 7 year old.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:46 pmnow that they have flak jackets they can finally go shopping in mccain marketplace.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:57 pm.
#34 – paul
Are you identifying yourself as a troll?
May 9th, 2007 at 3:06 pmIraqi Union Set to Strike over Oil Law
Yes expect oil to go up in price
Iraq’s largest oil workers’ trade union will strike tomorrow, in protest at the controversial oil law currently being considered by the Iraqi parliament. The move threatens to stop all oil exports from Iraq.
The oil law proposes giving multinational companies the primary role in developing Iraq’s huge untapped oilfields, under contracts lasting up to 30 years. Oil production in Iraq, like in most of the Middle East, has been in the public sector since the 1970s. Continue reading ‘Iraqi Union Set to Strike over Oil Law’
http://priceofoil.org
May 9th, 2007 at 3:11 pmZooey. Well, I have been called a troll before (not by you, though). I appreciate your addressing me, even though, in doing so, you are jeopardizing your ITTC status.
P.S. I must disclosed that, although I don’t believe that I am a troll, I do live under a bridge, have long hair and large feet. I hope that doesn’t influence the opinions of others here towards my points of view.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:22 pmYou know, paul, maybe you should have a conversation with your 7 year old. You might learn something.
There’s fighting going on, but I wouldn’t call it a war. The war was what happend 4 years ago and lasted a few weeks. This has been an occupation by a power that lies notoriously to the people, the press, and the UN. Read that UN resolution –the one granting the coalition a mandate a year after the fact. It’s full of some whoppers. I don’t think it would stand up in court if the Iraqis wanted to try those mercernaries or various other goons of the willing executioners.
Why is the US still in Okinawa?
May 9th, 2007 at 4:04 pmdavid. what do think would happen if we pull our troops out of Iraq today?
May 9th, 2007 at 4:18 pmpaul, I think the genuine popular power base will assert itself. And that would result in the insurgency ending. And the return of the refugees.
paul, you have to remember that Saddam had the power and water back on in 6 months after the first Gulf War. Halliburton and Blackwater have had four years and they’ve done a lousy job. (Like any American contractor.)
It’s your vanity, paul, that imagines there will be a bloodbath. There won’t. And the Iraqis will do will. al-Sistani and al-Sadr will create a stable Baghdad. The differences between Sunni and Shia are greatly exaggerated. Remember: the insurgency is fighting the occupation.
May 9th, 2007 at 4:28 pmIt’s your vanity, paul, that imagines there will be a bloodbath. There won’t. And the Iraqis will do will. al-Sistani and al-Sadr will create a stable Baghdad. The differences between Sunni and Shia are greatly exaggerated. Remember: the insurgency is fighting the occupation.
Comment by david
I’m not convinced that there won’t be a bloodbath, it’s just a question of when and how bad. There’s a slow drain bloodbath going on now, while the US military does its best to keep it that way. Once the US is out, things are likely to go to hell, at least for awhile, but following the present course of relying entirely on the military will only delay the event (which is, of course, the plan: delay until january 2009).
What the US must do is offer sanctuary to any Iraqis that have been identified as collaborators (translators, drivers, etc.) which was not done when withdrawing from Vietnam. And the US must dramatically increase the quota for Iraqis to emigrate. Millions have already left the country because of the lack of security, and a lot of those are stuck in the neighboring countries without much of an infrastructure of support.
I still believe the only possibility of stability in the country is to acknowledge that it isn’t really a nation and never has been; some form of partition is the only thing that can keep people away from each others’ throats. Whatever is done, simply throwing the bodies of young Americans at the problem isn’t solving anything and never will.
May 9th, 2007 at 4:47 pmBush should be proud of his spirit of cooperation and compromise–with AQ. The green zone is under seige and will be overrun. 35,000 more troops coming in? “Bring them on.” Hey, the oil deal giving big U.S. oil companies 70 per cent ain’t signed yet. Gotta wait awhile. Bush rebuffed 11 Repub congressmen who begged for their political lives and lost. Bush is a tragic, pathetic figure who is begging to be impeached because he knows he is way over his head and always has been since he looked at his pre-entrance Yale exams scores.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:12 pm>david. what do think would happen if
> we pull our troops out of Iraq today?
the same thing thats going to happen when we leave in X years. the same thing thats going to happen if you take a brain dead person off life support tommorow as opposed to 10 years from now.
thats the thing. there is no “good” outcome. do you think there is ANYTHING american can’t accomplish? could we invade and occupy the whole world if we wanted to?
saying every single possible undertaking america (or any other country or person) could take has a possible possitive outcome is ludicrous. its like dousing yourself in gasoline and asking “what are the possible positive outcomes of me lighting a match”?
there are none.
some things are just a bad idea.
this is something you people are fundamentally unable to understand.
somethings, even things american tries to do, are just bad ideas.
saying “can we win in iraq” is like asking what vanilla sounds like. there is no organized army with a coherent centralized command and control whose fighting us. the question makes no sense in the context of a civil war involving dozens of different factions who all hate each other almost as much as us. when you give a countryful of religious nuts “freedom” and “democracy” this is what happens.. they all agree to kill each other and be religious nuts.
> came here thinking I would be discussing topics of the day with some
> thought provoking adults.
can we have a thought provoking discussion about the influences and idealogies spreading across the middle east that led rummy, reagan and company to ally themselves with saddam? trolls here dont want to talk much about that…. any reason to think that the people who saddam kept at bay arent still something to be concerned about? saddam was a mean visicious dog, but at least he responded positively when you fed him meat, and he sure as heck kept the nutty neighbors away….
May 10th, 2007 at 11:05 am