U.S. embassy in Baghdad told ‘remain under hard cover’ due to violence.
U.S. embassy in Baghdad told ‘remain under hard cover’ due to violence.
AP reports:
The State Department has instructed all personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures due to incoming insurgent rocket fire that has killed two American government workers this week.
In a memo sent Thursday to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press, the department says employees are required to wear helmets, body armor and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of the less secure trailers that most occupy.
“Due to the continuing threat of indirect fire in the International Zone, all personnel are advised to remain under hard cover at all times,” it says. “Personnel should only move outside of hard cover for essential reasons.”
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Dumfuks.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:00 pmMy friends, see how the success of the Bush War is lifting the economy. Why, the helmet and body armor manufacturers have never been busier. That’s a dynamic economy, my friends.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:03 pmOh, yeah. Bush and his “progress” What a fantasy world he lives in.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:05 pmCan you say
Dien Bihn Phu?
March 27th, 2008 at 7:05 pmI wonder what McCain have to say about this? !
March 27th, 2008 at 7:08 pmNothing undercuts the “Surge is a success” BS, and shows Bush Jr to be such a worthless liar, as the very existence of the fortified area known as the Green Zone.
As long as there are any fortifications around the Green Zone, that means the situation is still considered too risky for business as normal.
And now that area’s being shelled rather vociferously.
That “Surge” sure is a “success” all right, at least as it relates to further showing up this Administration’s inability to directly influence Iraq in any positive way.
“Mission Accomplished” Indeed!
March 27th, 2008 at 7:11 pmtarazan Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I wonder what McCain have to say about this? !
“My friends , blah blah blah”…………
March 27th, 2008 at 7:11 pmIt’s just like an “open market in Indiana.”
March 27th, 2008 at 7:11 pmBush “progress”. General flying over Baghdad finds 180 soccer games going on. What kind of BS is this?! Bush gets away with saying this bull in front of “friendly audiences”, the only place he gives a speech.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:14 pmAt least they have enough sense to tell their people to come inside out of the rain of mortars and rockets. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t care more about the “political ramifications” of admitting the lives of their personnel were genuinely in danger in the relatively safest place in Iraq.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:14 pmRUCerious Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Can you say
Dien Bihn Phu?
Or Saigon, anyways… let’s hope they finished the heli-pads on the roof.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:19 pmMeanwhile, hunkered down below, here comes the KBR concession cart with the drinking water and the hand towels.
WOW! This surge thing is really working out…right??
March 27th, 2008 at 7:26 pmTell the people to go to McBush’s favorite bazaar, because it’s safe there. Send McBush to show them.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:27 pmi thought the embassy was unfinished… much less habitable…
much less “reinforced” !!!
March 27th, 2008 at 7:30 pmTalk about shooting fish in a barrel! Inside the “secure” green zone no one walks free. I’m surprised that the green zone has not been severely targeted before this. How ironic that reporters who are confined to the green zone will truly be on the front lines of the incoming rounds at last.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:31 pm“…due to the continuing threat of indirect fire…”
They still won’t acknowledge the truth, will they?
A 4 day and counting rocket and mortar attack sure sounds like direct fire to me…
March 27th, 2008 at 7:31 pmNow click your heels together and say, “The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.”
Meanwhile, overheard back in the Greenzone:
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”
Meanwhile, Republicans watching the Wizard of OZ scream at Dorothy on their TV sets:
“Cut and run defeatist!”
- Tom
March 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pmtarazan Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I wonder what McCain have to say about this? !
Think of your most natural reaction to this news, figure out what the opposite to that is, then you’ll have your answer.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:38 pmThe press will of course accept the shopworn myth that “elements within Iraq are trying to tip the Presidential election this fall…” when it is offered up as the only coherent possible answer to questions about the marked increase in violece. Look for it tomorrow, coming from the McMaverick camp, the White House, or one of their lackies.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pmI wonder what McCain have to say about this?
“The surge is working and we are winning and I don’t give a fu(k what anyone says.” John McBush
March 27th, 2008 at 7:44 pmTomR Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Now, that was funny. Thanks for the laugh Tom.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:46 pmTalk about shooting fish in a barrel! Inside the “secure” green zone no one walks free. I’m surprised that the green zone has not been severely targeted before this.
And this is what life will be like in the Embassy if we leave people behind after we stop occupying Iraq.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:48 pmI heard an interesting take on the radio today as to how we should leave Iraq. The suggestion was that we first send all the Contractors home. Then we send some of our troops home but leave some there to supervise a real rebuilding or Iraq. You know, when we give the people of Iraq jobs and actually rebuild their infrastructure. I kind of like the idea as long as our soldiers will be there to protect the workers and help rebuild Iraq. I really do feel that we owe them something for ruining their country. I also think that if they actually have jobs to go to that will allow them to rebuild their homes and their lives, they just might stop fighting with each other.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:50 pmBush the Wonder Monkey says:
This is a good thing. It’s just what we expected, and it’s what the critics have called for. It shows the real progress the troops are making to install democracy in the Middle East. Our policies are making a positive impact, and, as in the past, we are viewed as liberators and hailed as friends.
All is well. Nothing more to see here. Please move on and change the channel. No more questions. Trust us.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:50 pmDon’t panic folks, things are proceeding exactly according to plan, this is just what we expected and, frankly, what the critics have called for…it shows just how desperate these remaining dead-enders are getting, this is real progress, last throes, freedom is untidy, yada yada yada…
Nothing to see here, move along, move along…
March 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pmThe surge of violence is working!
March 27th, 2008 at 8:01 pm/sarc
our days of policing the world and putting bases everywhere is done. From this point on either we STOP IT or we go down in flames just like Spain did when they went broke trying to sell weapons to a peaceful world.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pmBilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I kind of like the idea as long as our soldiers will be there to protect the workers and help rebuild Iraq. I really do feel that we owe them something for ruining their country.
Yes we do owe the Iraqis a rebuilding.
However, we should get out completely, and then, IF they want us back in there they can INVITE US back. We were not invited to invade, and the last poll I heard about a month or so ago, said something like 60% of the Iraqis want us out. They did not say, “after you fix the place up.” To, once again, force our occupation on them without their real acceptance and approval is either ignorance or displaying more of the same arrogance we have been doing since 2003. (And this includes a real compassionate intent.)
March 27th, 2008 at 8:04 pmold_hack Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
our days of policing the world and putting bases everywhere is done. From this point on either we STOP IT or we go down in flames just like Spain did when they went broke trying to sell weapons to a peaceful world.
STOP IT? Wishful thinking, old_hack. As In noted in #28 above, the key is the active wish and participation in the country involved. We should seek that approval and the mutual benefits that can be derived from it. But like a marriage, we must be willing to shut down and move out of the house when asked.
So, lets look at it this way. How many foreign countries have bases and troops on our soil? How many foreign countries are hosting ours? Interesting, isn’t it?
March 27th, 2008 at 8:13 pmThe surge is working! The surge is working! God Damn, people are fu(kig stupid!
March 27th, 2008 at 8:24 pmDidn’t anyone listen to the Chimperor’s speechifying yesterday? More violence = the surge is working. How about Dana Chow Chow? More violence = we’ve been waiting for the Iraqis to do more violence for us.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:58 pmI’m in the middle of PBS’s “Bush’s war”. It’s a very good non-partisan piece.It shows how dysfunctional bush/co government was and still is. A must see for EVERYONE!
March 27th, 2008 at 9:03 pmShhh. Don’t tell McWar that the “surge” is not working.
Dien Bien Phu indeed.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pmHow can this possibly be so? Bush, McCain, McLieberman, and McGraham all say the surge is working and everything there is secure and stable.
A note to Bilbo at #23 — I do agree that our government has an obligation to “rebuild” our troops should not be left in the lurch. The best thing, I think, is to call on the contiguous Arab states and the UN to introduce peacekeeping forces. As far as who should pay — I think the war profiteers such as Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater should be forced to pay since they have made out like bandits behind all this.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:39 pmWill the U.S. military be able to leave Iraq next year?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=1987
.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:40 pmSend Dick Chenney and MacCaine for a stroll to the baghdad’s markets… the surge is working!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:06 pmSeriously speaking, if a foringner country invaded and occupied the USA, killing family members, imprisioning them and waterboarding them, would you sit and watch TV or would you give the illegal invader hell? That is what is happening in Iraq, and will continue until it is liberated from the Radical and extremist Bush administration.
I was in Vietnam in 67-68 and this Iraq thing has the same feel? We need to get our troops out of there, but we have to help with reconstruction, and humanitarian relief.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:11 pmI guess the Government employees were right when they told Rice their didn’t want to go to Iraq for their safety. Yes McCain and others tell us how safe the Green Zone is and even Bush thinks it’s a good thing for Iraq to be fighting and killing. Well most Americans really don’t want to hear the horrors that are happening to our soldiers, it’s better not to talk about it. Plus the only people that are concerned are those who have son’s and daughter’s risking their lives. But then again even Dick Cheney said they volunteered SO!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:49 pmIn Bush’s War [Part 2, Chapter 4] there’s a segment called Bremmer’s Next Edict: Dissolve the Iraqi Army [”And then there is the issue of taking on Moqtada al-Sadr”]. It’s talking about the coming of Paul Bremer and the appointment of General Sanchez [his first major military command] in the Spring of 2003. Apparently these two were mostly oil and water, but they did agree on one thing - Moqtada al-Sadr was one very dangerous cookie. Bremer wanted to take him on, and pushed Washington hard. Sanchez had the operation to fight al-Sadr ready to go. Rice and Rumsfeld just never got around to acting. They said it “worried” them.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:59 pmStay the course, boys. Freedom and democracy, freedom and democracy, freedom and democracy…..helmets and kevlar, helmets and kevlar, helmets and kevlar.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:21 amI believe that military experts, in the past, would call this situation; “pinned down, cut off and under fire”. Generally these conditions are followed by “defeat”.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:28 amAnd the military experts, past and present, would say Iraq is FUBAR. America’s colony in Iraq is imploding before our eyes.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:04 amim utterly shocked exley isnt on this thread…
March 28th, 2008 at 1:20 amChocolate Jesus Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 1:20 am
im utterly shocked exley isnt on this thread…
Shocked and delighted. I have noticed a paucity of trolls this last few days: no GiGi, Exley, keltoi and the rest of the crazy wingnuts. What gives? Is there a trollathon somewhere?
March 28th, 2008 at 2:14 ammost of these idiot trolls dont show up with thier mailing list talking points, quite frankly, i dont think any of them have figured out how to spin this whole shia on shia clusterf@ck as something which demonstrates how the surge is working..
March 28th, 2008 at 3:14 amExlexlia was around yesterday, regaling us with interesting stories about senators who unknowingly had thier trip to iraq paid for by saddam in order that they might accurately learn that iraq was not in possesion of any wmd…strangely he hasnt had any interesting links to show us recently about how great the surge is doimg
Must be some kind of a mistake. It cannot be mortar or rocket fire. Fred Kagan said that the civil war in Iraq is over!
March 28th, 2008 at 4:16 amhttp://www.crooksandliars.com/ 2008/ 03/ 27/ wronger-than-wrong-fred-kagan-decrees-civil-war-in-iraq-is-over/
.
Nope!
NEVER SAW THAT RESURGENCY COMING… IN THE LEAST.
I.
AM.
SHOCKED!!!
[/snark]
March 28th, 2008 at 5:46 amThis looks all too familiar.
Hussein!
March 28th, 2008 at 8:14 amMickey Says@39
March 28th, 2008 at 8:57 amI just got done watching the rest of it. Although it may be a little white-washed for some I think it was pretty well done. Not taking out Sadr early on was just one of many,many of shrub and co’s screw-ups. This “war” was FUBARed from the get go.I read the comments on PBS’s site and most were positive. There were a few of the 19%ers who still think this is not BUSH’S WAR! It seems the buck never stops on him!
Actually the biggest and most unforgivable “mistake” was invading in the first place.Alot of the characters of this war said they were “pressured” into cooking the NIE and other “intelligence”. Maybe they should have had the HONOR and intestinal fortitude to take a stand when it mattered!
March 28th, 2008 at 9:01 amViolence is down in Iraq.
Bush: “The surge is working!”
Violence is up in Iraq.
Bush: “The surge is working!”
March 28th, 2008 at 10:13 am