COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Early Spring in Baghdad?


Bedein: Iraqi Security Forces Take Over Baghdad
By: David Bedein, The Bulletin
03/06/2007


The Middle East Newsline reports that, for the first time since the Saddam Hussein regime, Iraqi security forces have taken over the nation's capital.

A senior military official said Iraq army and police units have taken responsibility for security of Baghdad. Entitled Operation Rule of Law, the Iraq Army, under supervision of the U.S.-led coalition, was given the lead in operations throughout the city.

"They are very capable, competent, and the ability to plan and coordinate operations with coalition forces gets better every day," Brig.
Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, said.
In February, Anderson said the Iraq army and police progressed significantly in command skills. He said coalition and Iraqi forces constructed joint security stations and combat outposts throughout Baghdad in a move that terminated the policy of working out of forward-operating bases.

"In the past, we have been able to clear areas, but were not able to hold the areas and secure them over time," Anderson said. "We must demonstrate our ability to maintain the security in Baghdad over a long period of time."

Operation "Rule of Law" was designed by the Iraqi government and led by Iraq Army Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar. Officials said the army, which intends to establish a 24-hour presence, has established a command post in Adnan Palace in the International Zone.

Officials acknowledged that the Iraqi military and police presence in Baghdad - comprised of the army's 6th and 9th divisions and two national police divisions - was far from full strength. They said they hope to deploy at least 20,000 Iraqi soldiers and police in Baghdad.

"The soldiers are ready, motivated and excited about this mission and want to be a part of it," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Art Grimwald, a senior coalition advisor, said. "Before [under Saddam], soldiers were forced into joining. Now the army is composed of an entire volunteer force."

The U.S. Army intends to deploy up to 15 brigade combat teams in Baghdad. Officials said the deployment would be completed by the end of May.
At this point, the Iraqi-U.S. military presence in Baghdad has resulted in fewer attacks. Officials reported about 90 attacks per day in the city, a decrease of as many as 20 from 2006.

"We know hard days certainly lie ahead," Anderson said.

On Sunday, about 1,200 U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Baghdad's Sadr City, the headquarters of the Iranian-sponsored Mahdi Army. Officials said that the operation did not encounter resistance.



31 comments:

  1. So, that lady linked to the other day was correct in her use of the lexicon.

    The Sadr City operation WAS a raid, not a clear and control mission. Just as the early work on Haifa Street was.

    The Mahdi Army has faded away, like smoke over mirrors.

    Not a single shot fired against US or the Iraqi Army in Sadr City.

    Better the US go where there are Insurgents, expending assets there, not wasting valuable time on the law abiding citizens of the new Islamic Republic of Iraq.

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  2. If only that German lad had made his regular bank deposits in Baghdad.
    Then Deuce would be writing about:
    "Springtime for Shitler"

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  3. Newsweak, always looking for a negative angle, would headline:
    "Are the Shiites Going to Shit?"

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  4. ISTANBUL, Turkey (Associated Press) -- A Turkish court ordered access to YouTube's Web site blocked on Wednesday, after a prosecutor recommended the ban because of videos allegedly insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

    Paul Doany, head of Turk Telekom, Turkey's largest telecommunications provider, said his company had begun immediately enforcing the ban.

    "We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong," Doany said in remarks to the state-run Anatolia news agency. "A court decision was proposed to us, and we are doing what that court decision says."

    Doany said Turk Telekom would allow access to the popular video sharing site again if the court decision were rescinded. Access from Turkey might be possible through other service providers, he said.

    Over the past week, Turkish media publicized what some called a "virtual war" between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with people from both sides posting videos to belittle and berate the other. ...

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  5. Before we became Multicultural,
    we called it "Malarkey"

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  6. Insulting Ataturk or "Turkishness" is a crime in Turkey punishable by prison.

    Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, has been roundly condemned for not doing enough to curb extreme nationalist sentiments and to protect freedom of expression.

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  7. Panama Ed,
    The Armenians should put up videos of piles of corpses.
    ...although we know the genocide of the earliest Christians never happened.
    ...like the Bushes know the Saudi Sultans are our friends.

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  8. Here's the fatwa running on the leftwing site, The LiberalOC.com: An Open Letter from Conservative Bloggers to GPAC Organizers on Ann Coulter
    ___Atlas Shrugs

    My comment:

    WARNING! RINO droppings

    Since the beginning of this scandalous non-scandal, I have read scores (if not hundreds of comments). A point is being missed by conservatives, so fundamental to both conservatism and Republicanism, its absence from the debate is telling.

    The official statement coming from CPAC referred to Coulter's comment as "hate speech". As conservatives and Republicans should know, "hate speech" soon becomes "hate crime". Once it is allowed that speech itself may be criminal, the First Amendment is gutted; because the same judicial review that has sanctioned the misuse of the RICO statute will determine what constitutes the free exercise of speech. Are conservative Republicans certain that Justice Ginsberg is the best arbitor of the matter? Consequently, the effort to insinuate “hate speech” and “hate crime” into the conservative lexicon must be adamantly, vociferously resisted, as an attack on fundamental Americanism.

    What “credentialed” bloggers and sorority sisters do with their blogs is the matter of personal liberty – and more power to them. However, when these folk begin regurgitating the socialistic talking points of the would-be, PC thought police, they should lose credibility in genuine conservative and/or Republican circles. As for me, I will shun these sites as the dangerously unhygienic domain of RINOs.

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  9. PHILADELPHIA (Associated Press) -- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia hopes to add salvation to the seemingly endless list of things Internet surfers can find on Google Inc.'s YouTube.

    Just clicks away from videos of stupid pet tricks, the archdiocese has started posting weekly Lenten messages from Cardinal Justin Rigali on the popular video-sharing site. His first video has gotten nearly 16,000 views.

    The archdiocese got the idea after having success streaming video on its Web site. Spokeswoman Donna Farrell acknowledged some early concerns about the other content that can be found on YouTube, but she said all the feedback has been positive so far.

    More messages are planned for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.

    "The Catholic church needs to be in the public square spreading the word of God," Farrell said.


    Not in Turkey

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  10. Excellent comment, Allen.
    Hater that you are, however, I will ask the proprietors to exclude you from the Bar.
    There is no room for haters in the
    RINO Room.

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  11. It's all about Word Choice,
    Allen.
    You and Anne just don't get it:

    "Coulter’s vicious word choice tells the world she care little about the feelings of a large group that often feels marginalized and despised. Her word choice forces conservatives to waste time defending themselves against charges of homophobia rather than advancing conservative ideas."

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  12. You vicious chooser of words, you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I waste hour upon hour defending myself against charges of homophobia.
    Fuck You!
    Is so very hard to do.

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  14. "a large group that often feels marginalized and despised."
    ---
    Yeah, much higher than average incomes, control about 75% of the political agenda, even tho they are less than 5% of the population.
    Marginalized Indeed.
    ...and of course despised by all the DC career politicos that will suck whatever orifice the "oppressed" gays ask to be sucked.

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  15. ...but they "FEEL marginalized",
    thus all good RINO's calling themselves "conservatives" should bow, scrape, and deliver whatever is asked.

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  16. Anal Confusion:
    It was the Magnetic Asshole Guy that was named Maliki, not the nightsoil bank depositer:
    ---
    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An Iraqi national wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday but officials said he posed no apparent threat.

    The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, set off an alarm during passenger screening at the airport early on Tuesday morning.

    A police bomb squad was called to examine what was deemed a suspicious item found during a body cavity search of the man. Local media reports said a magnet was found in his rectum.

    "He was secreting these items in a body cavity and that was a great concern because there were also some electric wires associated with that body cavity," Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, told reporters.

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  17. Well, doug, Captain America just got killed off, hit by a sniper, they say.

    ReplyDelete
  18. SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - An inmate at an El Salvador jail was caught with a hand grenade stuffed up his backside -- a novel attempt to disguise his apparent escape plans.

    Guards at the San Francisco Gotera prison outside the capital San Salvador found the V40 grenade, about the size of a golf ball, lodged up the man's rectum during a security clampdown, a prison spokesman said on Thursday.

    They also caught another 16 inmates who each swallowed a mobile phone.

    "We'll have to expel the objects and if they won't come out we'll have to perform surgery in hospital," said Alberto Uribe, a spokesman for the El Salvador prison service.

    Last year, prison guards found an M67 grenade in the vagina of a female visitor at the overcrowded La Esperanza-Mariona prison on the northern fringes of San Salvador.

    Prisoners in the Central American country use weapons to try to escape or attack fellow inmates and prison guards, and use cellular phones to order free gang members to commit crimes or smuggle narcotics.

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  19. Next thing you know, Coulter will be calling folks that choose (or are born with) magnets in their Butts, "Maggots."
    ---
    Then we will all have to bedcome Democrats in shame, on our road to ultimate Dhimmitude.

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  20. Geez Ed,
    Pretty soon you'll have to be a an abdominal/rectal surgeon to join the FBI.

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  21. Uncle Doug will handle the Vaginal Grenades.

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  22. doug,

    re: "Coulter’s vicious word choice tells the world she care little about the feelings of a large group that often feels marginalized and despised..."

    I thought Coulter was talking about "faggots", not Muslims. Let's not start conflating issues.

    For those who insist on the homophobia of Coulter, see: Democrats Out To Destroy Gay Who Wandered From Flock Gateway Pundit.

    Yeah, the tall blonde babe cheerily posing with the gay dude is none other than Constitutional lawyer, Ann "fagg'em" Coulter.

    Dare to say a word about that Michelle, Ed, Ace, Fausta, Riehl, etc.

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  23. doug,

    re: You vicious chooser of words, you.

    But, but, but…

    “I’ve been put down
    I’ve been pushed ‘round
    When will I –I be loved

    When I found a new man……..”

    Oh..... wrong song…

    “Bend me, shape me
    Anyway you want me,
    You got the power…”

    Oh yes, Slyvia, princess of discipline! I have been such a wild child.

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  24. "Bend me" may not have been the ideal choice of phrase.

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  25. OK, Mat, Abbas gets caught with his slip showing and what have you to say?

    IDF Raids Fatah Intel Headquarters, Arrests Dozens

    Link

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  26. Bill Roggio reports:
    "... Over the past 24 hours, two major attacks occurred in Hillah (Babil province) and Mosul (Niwena province).

    In Hillah, two suicide bombers attacks pilgrims flocking to Karbala to mark the end of a religious period.Over 115 were killed and 200 wounded. Today, another 5 Shia pilgrims were killed and 14 wounded just south of Baghdad.

    This morning, I attended a press conference with Major General Bill Caldwell, the spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq. He noted that we can "expect increase SVBIED and SIED attacks as security operations progress." Al Qaeda "will do everything they can to instigate and serve as a catalyst" for further violence between Shia and Sunnis. "Al Qaeda is trying to restart the cycle of violence." Major General Caldwell also noted the Iraqi security forces had requested to maintain security for the pilgrimage.

    In Mosul, al Qaeda massed over 300 troops and staged a daring prison break at dusk. The Kurdish guards were overwhelmed, and called U.S. forces in Mosul for support. The prison housed several hundred high value targets, and al Qaeda was able to free 140 of them. The attack was said to have been led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of political front the Islamic State in Iraq. All but 47 of the prisoners have been recaptured, according to Iraqi police.

    The Mosul attack particularly highlights the downside to pouring troops into Baghdad from the provinces. Iraqi Army and U.S. forces have been stripped from the city, and currently about one U.S. battalion remains inside Iraq's third largest city

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  27. Trish and I agree that bombing those dudes in prison would "scatter" them.

    Couldn't have that, ...that would be "hateful."
    (and not in the spirit of postmodern long-warfare)

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  28. Least his underwear was clean.
    Must have listened to his mother's advise.

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