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itsapinkthing


Coach

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Another Attack in Iraq
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Please pray for our troopr girls...


 


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Multiple rounds hit a dining hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul on Tuesday, killing 22 people, including U.S. troops, members of the Iraqi national guard, and Iraqi civilians, Pentagon officials said.


Fifty-one people were wounded in the incident -- which occurred at noon (4 a.m. ET) as people ate lunch at the Camp Marez base, the officials said.


No other details on the attack were immediately available.


Pentagon officials said there are about 8,500 U.S. troops in the Mosul area, 3,500 of them from a Stryker brigade based in Fort Lewis, Washington.


Mosul has been a site of repeated attacks in recent weeks. When the U.S. military launched a major offensive in Falluja in November, there was concern some insurgents had fled to Mosul and would launch attacks from there. The U.S. military recently conducted an offensive to try to flush out insurgents in Mosul, but the violence has continued.


Tuesday's attack came shortly after British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit to Iraq.


During a news conference with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Blair called the insurgency "a battle between democracy and terror," in advance of Iraqi elections set for January 30.


"On the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work ... and on the other side, people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq." (Full story)


Iraqi voters are expected to choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, there will be elections for a permanent government by the end of next year.


On Sunday, nearly 70 people died in car bomb attacks in the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. (Full story)


During a Monday news conference in Washington, President Bush said "terrorists will attempt to delay the elections, to intimidate people in their country, to disrupt the democratic process in any way they can."


Still, he added, "I'm confident that terrorists will fail, the elections will go forward and Iraq will be a democracy that reflects the values and traditions of its people." (Full story)


Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force early Tuesday launched airstrikes on insurgents fighting American troops west of Baghdad in the town of Hit, a U.S. military spokesman said.


"At approximately 2 a.m. this morning [6 p.m. ET Monday], a U.S. Air Force aircraft, in support of troops in contact, engaged an enemy fighting position with precision weapons," said 1st Sgt. Steve Valley with the Combined Press Information Center.


No other information was immediately available.


Near Baiji, Iraq, on Tuesday, oil pipelines were reported on fire, sources from Northern Oil Company said. The cause of the fire was unknown, the sources said. The fires are near portions of pipelines that were damaged by saboteurs two days ago.


The burning pipelines intersect the Ceyhan export line and a domestic line and carry oil from the Kirkuk oil fields.



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Tati


Chanel

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Believe me, I pray for all of them every single night.

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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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My heart really goes out to their families. It's all an awful waste.  We were just having a bummed out discussion about it here in my office. 


We're mired in this for years... this insurgency is not going quietly or soon. It is a lot more complex between the shiites and the sunnis than most people understand (least of all the White House) - it's not as simple as one side "hating freedom" or democracy.  It's their religious power struggle between the two factions, and the fact that the minority ruled for so long and will not go willingly with the majority, who have long been supressed.  And then the poor Kurds...   We've stirred up a civil war that nobody planned for or anticipated, and our young troops - who had all the best intentions and trusted their leaders - are dying for that mistake.  I'd call it a catastrophe, really.  It absolutely breaks my heart. 



-- Edited by dc at 12:30, 2004-12-22

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~ dc "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - Oscar Wilde
blubirde


Chanel

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quote:
Originally posted by: dc
"My heart really goes out to their families. It's all an awful waste.  We were just having a bummed out discussion about it here in my office. 
We're mired in this for years... this insurgency is not going quietly or soon. It is a lot more complex between the shiites and the sunnis than most people understand (least of all the White House) - it's not as simple as one side "hating freedom" or democracy.  It's their religious power struggle between the two factions, and the fact that the minority ruled for so long and will not go willingly with the majority, who have long been supressed.  And then the poor Kurds...   We've stirred up a civil war that nobody planned for or anticipated, and our young troops - who had all the best intentions and trusted their leaders - are dying for that mistake.  I'd call it a catastrophe, really.  It absolutely breaks my heart.  -- Edited by dc at 12:30, 2004-12-22"


I couldn't have even thought it better myself.

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itsapinkthing


Coach

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dc - My BIL it seems is headed into his second extension come March. If they don't send him back to the states then he will spend more than 2 years in active wartime there. The changes I've seem in him are unbelievable. It is a "waste" in SO SO many ways. I can no longer comment on thw war, or the politics. I am so numb from all the side-effects. 

-- Edited by itsapinkthing at 14:51, 2004-12-22

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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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itsapinkthing, I am sorry to hear about your BIL and I hope that he will be safe and come home soon.  My thoughts are with your family. ((hugs)) 

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~ dc "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - Oscar Wilde
Mia


Kate Spade

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dc - don't you get the feeling of teetering with Iraq? It's felt this way for a few months for me. Like things are *right* on the edge of going straight to hell. It's like there are enough US and other foreign troops on the ground to contain, but not to actively destroy the resistance (and although I was against the war, I am most definitely for 'our side' prevailing, because I think that's what most regular Iraqis want, too). Did you see that footage of those Iraqi police being executed on the street in Baghdad? I mean, it was broad daylight, and the insurgents were unmasked - it was totally brazen.


I don't see a solution to Iraq. If there were a lot more troops to put on the ground, maybe I would, but there aren't and I have no idea how it's going to work out. It seems like there is such an atmosphere of fear there, except now the regular people are afraid of the insurgents rather than Saddam. Part of me is thinking, naively "why can't these people - the insurgents - see that they are hurting Iraq, not helping?" and then the other part of me thinks "first of all, these people have no interest in 'helping Iraq' and second of all, who thought we were going to be able to just somehow magic a democracy into being there?" I ask myself how easy it would be for a much stronger foriegn army to invade Canada and turn us into a tribal society. I mean, it wouldn't matter how strong they were, that's just an extremely difficult and complex - probably impossible - task.


It is just so, so depressing and horrible. I don't know how they think they will be able to have fair elections in the Sunni areas - I would think that voting would be taking quite a large risk of being killed.



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Ally S


Kate Spade

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DC and Mia, you both summed it up perfectly.


And thanks to an administration who cannot accept that they have made a mistake, it is now too late and Iraq has become our modern day Vietnam. I see us there for years.


Sadly, as the elections that Bush insists will happen there on 1/30/05 grow closer, I fear we will see more and more attacks and innocent lost lives on both sides.


Itsapinkthing, your family is in my thoughts, as well as every other family that has someone there.



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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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mia and ally, i share your concerns. I do see us there for years, and I do get that "teetering" feeling. Obviously I was against the war to begin with, but now that we're there, I am rooting every day for our "side" & troops, as well as for the iraqi police and soldiers (how brave of them to sign on, seeing what is happening every day). But I also want what is truly best for the Iraqi people - ordinary iraqi people. They certainly didn't ask for this shit, and you can't impose democracy. I only hope that somehow this ends out bettering things for them now that we're knee-deep in it.

And of course, we can't forget that this issue is not just contained to Iraq. The hornet's nest that we kicked with this war has only served to increase anti-American sentiment worldwide, making us less safe (I know I am a broken record on that), and our allies as well. It was a hell of a thing Bush went and did, for whatever reason - neocons' demented theories about democratizing the "arab world," or oil, or just misplaced blame for terrorism. It's so awful I can hardly bear to think of it, but then again it is hard not to.

I have a lot more faith in the average person in the military than I have in our entire govt. Bless their hearts and godspeed is all I can say.

-- Edited by dc at 23:27, 2004-12-22

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~ dc "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - Oscar Wilde
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