Green Zone bombarded with heavy rocket fire.
By on Apr 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Green Zone bombarded with heavy rocket fire.
Reuters reports that militants “bombarded Baghdad’s Green Zone with rockets on Sunday, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to launch one of the heaviest strikes in weeks on the fortified compound”:
The strikes appeared to defy a renewed call for a ceasefire by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has seen many of his masked gunmen leave the streets of the Sadr City slum where they hold sway in eastern Baghdad. [...]
Iraqi police said eight missiles or mortars had hit the Green Zone and another 14 fell in other parts of the Iraqi capital before nightfall in several quick bursts, killing two people and wounding 20.
“Militiamen have fired 700 missiles and mortars over the past month in Baghdad,” Reuters adds.
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I thought I read that Sadr City was barricaded and contained and that they had pretty much sewed up the resistance.
Does this mean that it ain’t so?
I want to know what each of us are willing to risk to stop our occupation in Iraq.
Are we ready to sacrifice by reinstating the draft?
It seems to be the only way left wherein if enough kids lives are affected the peole of this nation will rise up and say…..enough, we’re not going to take it anymore.
Anyone with me?
April 27th, 2008 at 4:07 pmAny moment now, the White House will start spinning this news as a living “proof” that the surge is working, and/or that the US military needs to stay in Iraq.
Remember:
More violence = the surge is working
No violence = the surge is working
Less violence = the surge is working
Stay the course! ®
April 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pmOne More Gregor…
Weather permitting…the surge is working.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:16 pmThe “green” zone should probably be renamed the “orange” zone.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:23 pmThose State Dept. employees that balk at going to Iraq are so irrational, eh?
April 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pmAs Petraeus introduces the next episode of Fantasy Nation – Bush, the surge! The surge! The surge is working!
April 27th, 2008 at 4:37 pmIt looks like the 6 week push into Sadr City has been largely ineffective. But that should come as no surprise to anybody.
One of the ironies is that Iran wants US forces to be out of Iraq in the worst way and they think the best way for that to happen is to just lay low. Some of the locals in Iraq have other ideas, however. With the hot weather just starting in Iraq things could get pretty ugly pretty fast.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:38 pmSo, the troops are not leaving because they keep attacking us. And they keep attacking us because our troops are not leaving.
The Surge was not a success just because of what we did, it owes any “success” it can be given to the fact that Sadr ordered a cease fire. The violence will never go away completely, but it will be significantly reduced, in the long run, the sooner we get our troops out of there.
Violence begets more violence. Someone has to end it. Sadr tried, but we didn’t.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pmWell… it is an occupation isn’t it? If it was my country, I would be fighting the occupiers too!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:16 pmsacopenapa Says:
Well… it is an occupation isn’t it? If it was my country, I would be fighting the occupiers too!
True, if it was a foreign country in an occupation here, torturing people, dropping WP on civilians, etc, I would be cleaning carbon from my rifle daily. Just saying…
April 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pmOBVIOUSLY this bombardment is a fabrication of the vast left wing media and their usual anti-Republican conspiracy. It never happened. The liberals are making is all up. Limbaugh will tell us all tomorrow and O’Reilly will sweat to it tomorrow night. /sarc
April 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pmOK, this shows the idea to put an amusement park right next door must be some sort of tax scam. They must be planning on using crappy equipment (and then claiming it was brand new stuff) when it gets blown to hell. I don’t see how any insurance company would ever cover this place, so it must be a con, for reconstruction funds.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:56 pmCan it really be true that an amusement park is planned for Baghdad? Mark Twain once said, “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
April 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pmIt must be a dark day in Trollville. They have abandoned the smug, self-righteousness – and the blue-sky prognostications.
They’ve collectively been forced to yank small bits of ideological hair from their heads, whenever another setback occurs in Iraq, until they now are effectively bald. Sometimes they’ll come around wearing virtual wig and sunglasses, but after a while, it’s fairly easy to discern who’s under the makeup.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:27 pmAmusement parks, all’s well in Iraq, all the other nonsense, it comes down to one thing: Control.
You can read more here.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:36 pmcivil behavior @ 1
The American sheeple will do nothing. There won’t be a draft because the ruling class will object. They don’t want their kids fighting in a war. The only people who were drafted during Viet Nam were the lower classes and the middle classes that didn’t want to go to prison.
What we need are anarchists in this country. Block the roads and railways. Preferably without getting any people injured or killed. Why not interrupt commerce in between the rush hours?
Trucks driving slowly side by side would pull over if the police appeared. But if one of them blocked an intersection and told police that his air brakes locked up. Soooo.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:40 pmThis is the link to the truckers who stand up where most of us do not. Support them if you can!!
http://www.theamericandriver.com/files/TruckersAndCitizensUnited.html
April 27th, 2008 at 6:52 pmUm Aziz is an elderly woman whose three daughters and a son were killed when the roof of her house collapsed because of the force of an explosion nearby. She cursed U.S. forces.
“I don’t want any reparations from the government. I want my revenge from God,” she said outside her ruined home, wearing bandages from her own injuries and a broken leg.
“Let the Americans listen: If they kill all the men, we will fight them. We: the women and the children. And if they take our weapons we will fight them with stones and knives.”
We would feel exactly the same way if we were in their shoes. If an invading force killed all of my children; I would be thinkin’ they have to sleep sometime. How can they possibly say the surge is working with a straight face??
“I would like to emphasize that these are not ‘violent’ clashes, at least not in our definition. They are not protracted gunfights,” said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover. “While attacks continue there have been less.”
He is either drinking heavily or Lt. Colonel Stover is the new spin doctor for how well we are doing in Iraq. I would think the fact that they are trying to decimate the Green Zone and all the diplomats is a pretty good indicator they don’t want us there. I don’t think there is any grey area on this one.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:10 pmOT but relevant;
An excellent look at Betrayus and his importance to BushCo over the last few years. Don’t miss this one.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/print/174924/Tomgram%253A%2520%2520Petraeus%252C%2520Falling%2520Upwards
April 27th, 2008 at 7:14 pmMs_Joanne Says:
April 27th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Thanks for the link! Worth the read!
April 27th, 2008 at 7:38 pmMerlin, thanks for linking that Betrayus story. Well, sort of ‘thanks’, I’m feeling kinda sick now.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pmMs Joane
I agree! We need more MEDIA REGULATIONS! Speacially about ownership! If it wasn’t for the internet, where would we get real NEWS from? I used to think brazilian news was bad, but wait until you experience Australian MEDIA… I never seen something so bad! Rupert Mordock have a lot to ansewr for!
April 27th, 2008 at 8:54 pmMs Joane, thanks for the great link! As Howard Zinn says: it is the people who make CHANGES, not Governments.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:58 pmSpecially the criminal government who is occuping Afegahnistan and Iraq, and the WH and the Pentagon!
Credit where credit is due. HT to Katy for that link. I just put a little commentary around it. :-)
April 27th, 2008 at 9:12 pmThis whole thing of keeping our troops in Iraq just so BushCo won’t take responsibility for having lost the war is just revolting. The US military won the military “war” part in April of 2002. It has been BushCo. that has lost Iraq since then.
Right now, there is no logical reason to keep our troops in Iraq. The “Surge” has done nothing except damper down the violence (a good thing), but has nothing to progress the other 17 reasons given for having a “Surge”.
The long term effect that the US troops and the “Surge” will have on Iraq will be equal to the hole ones fist leaves on a bucket of water when it is removed. Having US troops in harms way is only prolonging whatever the final outcome of this fiasco will be. Whatever the outcome, the outcome will not be as a result of our troops and our money being placed in that hostile environment, or the “Plan” of BushCo.
I say, inform the al-Maliki government that due to their inability to control the government and provide security to their country which would allow US troops to be withdrawn, the US is no longer going to provide any security in Baghdad or the rest of the country. US troops will withdraw from Baghdad within two weeks of the notification to safe locations in the provinces with the sole responsibility of securing the borders to prevent foreign insurgents from entering Iraq. US troops, over the course of the next nine months will remove all heavy equipment and reduce the number of combat troops to a number of less than 35,000. within the next nine months all remaining US troops will be removed from Iraq, but will stay in the region to prevent a total power vaccuum from developing.
If the Iraqi forces won’t stand up for their own country, the US will stand down.
Enough is enough.
COOPER: “Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?”
MCCAIN: “I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.”
What’s he been smoking?
April 27th, 2008 at 9:37 pmFreely elected government of Iraq? When two thirds of the country boycotted the election?
Yeah, we’re wanted there. Just like the Soviets in East Germany. Like the Israelis in Gaza and the West Bank. Like the Japanese in Manchukuo.
When a government defies the will of the people a country is not free. Just like the good ol’ U.S.A.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:14 pm>It is not an “occupation” when the freely elected government >of Iraq wants us there.
Hahahahahah. hHahahaha. Hahhah.
Ahhh….puleeze…if there was anything close to “free elections” in IRaq Al-Sadr would be running the place and asking us, perphaps not so politely, to leave. So you support a government who tries to ban and bombard its political competition, then you say “the freely elected government” doesnt want us to leave..anyone who thinks the iraqi governments so far unsuccessful attempt to bring the hammer down on sadr has nothing to do with iraqi elections in october is incredibly naive.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:15 pmThe U.S/NATO presence in Afghanistan is an occupation too. There. That’s cleared up.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:46 pmVoice_of_Reason Says:
To claim Iraq is an “occupation” but Afghanistan is not and “needs more attention” is to be so far out of touch with reality that it boggles the mind.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I may regret asking this, but where the hell is this coming from? You’re the only one saying it as near as I can tell. Who said that Afghanistan “needs more attention”?
April 27th, 2008 at 11:21 pmFreedom Rebel…
Perfect. The Iraqis are just like us, you kill my son/daughter/father/… and I will come after you like there’s no tomorrow. It’s is only natural.
Like Wayne A. said, violence begets violence. Revenge is a powerful force and is a positive feedback loop.
It’s a real shame when you have more respect for Sadr than the pResident of the USA.
BTW, Voice-of-Reason, you’re a pathetic cnt.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:39 pmNo, really. You are one pathetic cnt.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:40 pmHere’s a sure fire way to stop the attacks! Leave.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:01 amAnd our “glorious leaders” can’t secure “the Green Zone”, after more than 5 years, yet continue to say we can’t leave till the entire country is “secure”. Just how stupid/insane does one have to be to swallow this “logic”?
April 28th, 2008 at 12:09 amNo night is not complete without a dose of Kilo’s “half-truths”.
1. Sadr is far from the only force fighting the U.S, the Iraqi government etc.
2. I haven’t seen anyone defending Sadr.
3. Sadr has repeatedly called for his troops to fight only U.S. forces and collaborators.
Good night good people.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:54 amYou too trolls.
Kilo, ‘getting hammered on Foster’s” DOESN’T mean beating yourself over the head w/ fresh six pack. We all know “it feels so good” once you stop, but this could result in permanent brain damage…
Okay, so it’s too late to do anything about that…
April 28th, 2008 at 12:54 amif you guys really want to stop the war you’re gonna have to do a lot more then just sit around reading about it
here’s a start.
National Initiatives for National Citizens
April 28th, 2008 at 1:14 ampete Says:
And our “glorious leaders” can’t secure “the Green Zone”, after more than 5 years, yet continue to say we can’t leave till the entire country is “secure”. Just how stupid/insane does one have to be to swallow this “logic”?
______________
Just one word for ya, Pete… “Kilo”…
April 28th, 2008 at 1:41 am>It’s nice to see such a robust defence of Sadr’s right to >participate in the political process while fielding RPG >wielding militias opposed to the Iraqi government.
And this is something that every powerbroker in Iraq isnt doing? Name one major political party in iraq today that doesnt have its own militia, or us government funded “awakening council” group or whatever? You know who the Badr brigades work for, by chance? First saddam was the bad guy, now sadr is the bad guy..all these things may be true…but to assert somehow that anyone involved in the iraqi government today is a “good guy” is naivette bordering on pure stupidy!
Sadr had a rival killed? Oh gosh, wow, yes, I guess just being mutually “anti-saddam” doesnt generate the goodwill it once did…
April 28th, 2008 at 3:23 amIf you think the people currently calling the shots in the iraqi government are any more decent or have initiated lethal violence against those who oppose them, well..you just might be as dumb as the people telling us we’re be greeted by flowers, fighting for no more than 6 months, and pumping enough oil to pay for everything..
#19 Merlin Says:
thank you for the link, good article..
April 28th, 2008 at 6:47 am#34 RUCerious Says:
Here’s a sure fire way to stop the attacks! Leave.
Got my vote… I so agree…
April 28th, 2008 at 6:52 amWhat the liberal media doesn’t report is that the missiles are delivering small shipments of flowers and candy.
-GSD
April 28th, 2008 at 7:59 amThe war crimes are working.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:07 amKilo Says:
…from the ethnic cleansing campaign you’d been carrying out ?
It’s nice to see such a robust defence of Sadr’s right to participate in the political process while fielding RPG wielding militias opposed to the Iraqi government.
You have an active imagination, if that is what you got from my statement. Too bad you have very bad reading comprehension. My statement meant nothing more than I stated and I implied support for no one, especially Sadr, you fooking moron.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:47 am>As we’ve established, I can just ignore factions carrying >out assassinations, running death squads and participating >in genocide campaigns by saying “oh wow, really”.
You can and you do. You’re trying to single out Sadr as a “bad guy”, mentionting these things he does, as if that somehow makes him different than politics as usual in iraq. Fact is, the dudes interest’s are not those of the united states, thats why you bring up these things he does as if to make him sound like he’s some sort of deviant in iraqi politics. Everything you mentioned about Sadr is so “run of the mill” for iraqi politics thats its not even worth mentioning. You dont seem to be at all bothered by the fact we arm and support iraqis who take equally brutal actions. At least you dont feel the need to ever menion it. If we’re to be bothered by Sadr’s acts, we should be bothered by everyones, and the only logical conclusion is we should cease to involve outselves with these people if it bothers us so much.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:55 am>Are we able to dismiss all assassinations on the same basis >or is this just an allowance we are granting to Sadr alone ?
Something people like you condemn only Sadr for. When the people who give lipservice to supporting our causes do it, for some reason, its not so bad. At least, not worth mentioning..
April 28th, 2008 at 8:58 amKilo, life must be endlessly painful for you. I mean, clearly you’re the only one here who understands what’s going on in the world.
You’re where, Australia, in your own words? But you understand American politics so much better than the rest of us combined.
i’ll bet you even beat off to a picture of Botch, don’t ya?
Funny, for all your ENDLESS tough guy bluster, you aren’t… actually… serving in the military, are you? I mean, you could enlist in the Army, go serve in Iraq, and you’d get your American citizenship in the bargain.
THEN, you’d have a REAL reason to chime in on American politics, instead of being a drunken ass clown piping in from your mother’s basement halfway around the world all the time.
COWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
G’day, you pathetic ass clown.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:26 amIt’s nice to see such a robust defence of Sadr’s right to participate in the political process while fielding RPG wielding militias opposed to the Iraqi government.
Democracy has never successfully been installed by an invading force. Ever. Any claims to democracy were extinguished when Saddam’s executioners chanted the name of their real leader. And it wasn’t some vichy puppet.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am