the mess in Iraq seems to be snowballing

[pickel]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,91157,00.html

[Knothead]

The killing of the television cameraman, 24-year-old Richard Wild, occurred around midday, while the victim was carrying no apparent sign that he was a reporter.

Wild, who arrived in the country two weeks ago aiming to be a war correspondent, was killed by a single pistol shot fired into the base of his skull from close range, colleagues said. The assailant fled into the crowd and was not apprehended.

The U.S. soldier killed Sunday at Baghdad University also was shot at close range. The soldier from the Army's 1st Armored Division was evacuated to a combat support hospital after the midday shooting. He died later, the U.S. military said.

In a similar incident, an assailant with a pistol shot and critically injured a U.S. soldier in the neck on June 27 as he shopped on a Baghdad street.

On Saturday, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the United Nation's International Organization for Migration office in Mosul, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad. The grenade slammed into a wall and damaged several cars, said Hamid Abdel-Jabar, a spokesman for the U.N. special representative in Iraq.

Surprise, surprise.

This jazz is going to continue, folks. Here's the shortwave on it:

They don't like us occupying their country.

Any more than I would stand for another country occupying MY country.


It's horrible, yes, but....is this difficult for anybody to understand?

[0ptical]

We should have been gone a long time ago...I think we need to get out fast!!

[SeanC]

The reality of the situation is settling on the people. Before this everything they said and did was under strict control and they knew their places in Iraqi society.

Then everything was turned upside down. Now the reality of the situation is sinking in.

Sean

Geotge Bush made some very bad calls earlier this year based on political and financial motives. He did not come clear with the American people with his hidden agenda.

He is personally responsible, as Chief Executive, for the deaths of hundreds of soldiers on both sides as well as thousands of Iraqi civilians.

This whole war may just have the reverse effect than what Bush was hoping for next year.

As far as the mess he's getting this country into, I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.

[MTAtech]

The Bush spin is that this is the work of 'Saddam loyalists.' Although some of this may be true, it is apparent that the opposition movement is starting to be grass-roots. The U.S. will respond by cracking down harder which will strengthen the movement.

Meanwhile, fundamentalists are taking over Iraq. There are no more liquor stores in Iraq. Women are starting to be oppressed. Kuwait just voted in fundamentalists. If nothing is changed, a year from now that 75% that supported the war will be asking ‘who got us here.’

The only hope is to gain legitimacy by getting the U.N. involved.

Well, as I said in the "bring 'em on" thread, Bush's foolishly aggresive stance only serves two purposes:

1) Getting US soldiers killed on a daily basis - Monday's casualty-3 dead

2) Further incites the fundamentalist movement- they are fighting a cause not political/financial gains and this movement will be hard to control as its momentum picks up.

Bush, with his false bravado and extremely poor judgement, is only sinking further in the quagmire.

[Theophylact]

We should have been gone a long time ago...I think we need to get out fast!!

I opposed getting in. Now we've done it, we're responsible for the mess, and we have to put in the money, the forces, and the commitment to fix things up. Otherwise, we're going to wind up with a wrecked country that hates us even more, a revived Ba'athist party bent on revenge against collaborators, and Kurd/Shi'ite/Sunni tribal violence -- with Iran waiting next door, armed with nuclear weapons, waiting to come in.

A similar thing it happening in Afghanistan, where (except for Kabul) the country is pretty much in the hands of rival warlords, the economy is in a state of collapse with opium being once again the major export, the Burka is being reimposed on women, the Taliban is reviving -- all because we weren't willing to pay for fixing up the damage we created.

Even if we had caught or killed Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden (and we're now fairly sure we did neither), WINNING IS NOT ENOUGH.

The US, or at least the Bush Administration, suffers from severe Attention Deficit Disorder.

But those were never the objectives for Bush. He wanted to make money through kickbacks (Halliburton....), oil contracts, strategic military bases and gain popularity by appealing to a gullible population's patriotism.

Bush's moves may just backfire on him before the election process becomes an uncontrollable juggernaut thrusting this man on people here for another term.

[Chuckiechan]

Well, GWB declared and end to major combat actions May 1.

If we can't get the country up and running and under control, with democratic institutions functioning in three months we should leave. At least that is what the killers are counting on.