Anbar province does NOT border Kuwait. And insurgents and militias are not using sticks and stones for weapons. The exposive devices are only sort of “homemade” and the explosive component in explosive device certainly isn’t homemade and neither are their grenade launchers, AK47s, mortars or 50 calibur rifles. We graciously left numerous Iraqi arms depots unprotected after the invasion allowing Iraqis to help themselves and then moved things along even more by telling armed and trained Iraqi soldiers that they no longer had a paycheck coming in.

They can’t beat us toe to toe, as Cheney whined, but they know that and therefore do not fight us toe to toe unless they’re caught unaware.

It’s more like at least six groups who are at odds either with one another or in internicine struggles amongst themselves and against us when convenient. There are also bands of just plain old criminals running about because the police are ineffective.

So far as abandoning southern Iraq to Iran is concerned we won’t really have a say because competing Shiite militias will and are battling for the prize. At least one group is pro-Iranian and the other group is NOT pro-Iranian.

Though much of the infrastructure in Iraq is in ruins they still operate some schools and, unlike us, have free medical care which would be fine except many health professionals have fled the country in fear for their lives. The principle infrastructure problem is the lack of electricity and potable water combined with an almost complete lack of other basic public services.

There is NO political solution and no chance of US military victory. Iraq was Pandora’s Box and we committed the unforegivable act of opening that box.

Our military presence is unwanted and becomes more tenuous as time goes on and it would be far better if we left sooner rather than later.

we are fighting small groups with home-made weapons and improvised explosive devices: of course we will be victorious again and again militarily.

but the relevance of a military victory is over. iraqis don’t have rudimentary economic, health, and schooling infrastructure. most are unemployed. and there are at least three groups in the country who have no interest in working together. it is a political solution that is necessary not a military one.

pull back into anbar province to protect kuwait; let iran have the south because they do now anyway (and we all know that is was the current administration and military generals that gave it to them).

and send the rest of the troops home. now.

Now I find this, via crooks and liars:

Christopher H. Bagwell, grandson of Nancy and Richard Hughes of Cleveland, was severely wounded Tuesday, Sept. 18, in Iraq.

Bagwell and his squad leader were the only two survivors of a 12-member squad decimated when an Iraqi youth detonated explosives wrapped around his body.

A graduate of York Institute and Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Bagwell spoke with his grandmother last week.

She said the young soldier told her he had just passed the youthful bomber with his squad leader, with his squad following behind handing out candy to children. The Iraqi village was believed to be a friendly zone for the U.S. military.

The youngster, believed to be 10 to 12 years old, detonated the explosives as the soldiers were walking by. Ten members of the squad were killed, along with the youngster.Bagwell was severely injured.

An Iraqi youth, Exley. Not a member of al Qaeda. Or was he? How do you tell? How do you stop things like this? Do you round up all the parents in Iraq and order them to stop telling their kids to die for their country? Do you order the parents to stop using their kids as human bombs?

And this:

A curious note, the DOD military casualties for September 18 lists only 6 deaths. Only 3 of those deaths were in the same city in Iraq. We were told that military casualties were down in September to the lowest rate since July of 2006.

Can’t we even get the truth about our military casualties? These convenient omissions have become far too commonplace in most every aspect of this war, and every move this administration makes.

So who are you going to believe, Exley? The government, who has for reasons unknown under-reported the number of deaths on that date, likely so that they can claim victory in reducing the number of casualties, or are you going to believe a member of the squad if he tells you that 10 people were killed in his group?

hateful, smearing piece of s~!@

Comment by republicans hate facts — October 15, 2007 @ 7:04 pm’

RHF’s paranoid, anti-Semtic rantings must be a true embarassment to the reasonable ‘progressibes’ who frequent this site. This is not the only thread in which RHF has spewed his prejudice. Sad, really.

It saddens you to learn that the U.S. is defeating the radical Islamic terrorist organization Al Qaeda in Iraq?

It saddens you to read an AP article reporting a reconciliation meeting between Shiite and Sunni leaders?

That’s just bizarre, Juan. Your desire to see continued suffering and war in Iraq is baffling and troubling.

I think Exely´s common sense is drunk-sleeping in a Maori bar, down in New Zeland.

It will be a slow sadness, then.

Those of us who love this country and support our troops, however, are pleased by this good news and hope it continues.

You should read them again….slowly.

Go to Iraq and you will find out.

I really wish you were being namejacked because those posts are so sad.

We created al queda in Iraq; we can uncreate them just as easily, since they never really existed, beyond 2 to 5 % of the insurgency.

Lord Chatham To Parliament 1777