So, I guess the "winning the hearts and minds" part of the war is officially over? Well, that went well. :rolleyes:

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The best daily political cartoons can be found here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/commentary/index.html

It never got a chance to start, so how can it be "over"?
If they really wanted to win hearts and minds, they should start by allowing the iraqis to keep the heart inside the ribcage, instead of splattered all over some wall or pavement... An M-16 is a very poor "love" giver.


PS:Speaking of things that "went well", it seems this new spree of violence is not your "average" type. It seems way too concerted and well planned to be that. It looks like the several resistence groups have came together and started consolidating efforts. They are attacking several cities at once, and causing casualties like we´ve never seen. And we can´t even call it a civil war, because both shiites and suniis are working together now, to drive the US Army back into Kuwait.
Some sources claim today´s clashes in Ar-Ramadi have caused 130 coalition casualties, instead of the announced 12. Quote:

"As many as 12 US marines have been killed in fierce fighting in Iraq between Coalition forces and what is thought to have been Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Earlier reports put the death toll after the "intense" battle as high as 130."
Taken from the SkyNews website.
As always, we have to read between the lines of the Pentagon reports on casualties, as they are not being forthcoming with that information. If the real numbers ever get released, we will be in for quite a shock.
:rolleyes:

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"Quincitilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
Emperor Augustus of Rome.

This latest flurry of trouble is just the very beginning of a whole new trend. It's about to get much, much worse over there, I think. The real "war with Iraq" has really not even hardly begun yet. But it's about to, I suspect.

Hey Ranger, where have you been? You´ve been MIA from the forum for so long, that for a moment there i thought you had been drafted back and on your way to Bush´s Vietnam!

Now that the US Army is stretched thin over half a dozen countries,it seems the US army is having a shortage of manpower to send to Iraq as replacements, wich means they will be scrapping everywhere for fresh "canon fodder". If you´re not carefull, you´ll end up with a one-way ticket to Iraq in your hand, and a front seat to watch Bush´s fuck up show live in Technicolor! And in 3D!! ;)

All the experienced troops are pulling out, now that they finished their tour of duty, and all the n00bies are coming in... Maybe that´s why they are having so many fatalities, with all those rookie weekend warriors from the National Guard coming in, with 2 weeks of training under their belts...
Complete "canon fodder", if you ask me. This thing is evolving into a nation wide rebellion, and they have plenty of ammunition to go around.
I hope you don´t have any family over there. It´s a bad place to be.
:rolleyes:

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"Quincitilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
Emperor Augustus of Rome.

As a "prior service" (with two honorable discharges to my credit thus far) and as a career professional possessing many exceptionally rare and highly valued skills and an absolutely exemplary military record, I am indeed on their potential "recall" list, and always have been.

I was already happily back in civilian life in 1990, too, and yet I still ended up in Iraq, so this notion is not as far-fetched as you might presume. There are a LOT of guys my age (and older) serving with distinction in both Iraq and Afghanistan right now. I'm not even close to being officially "too old" to be called back, at this point, I'm afraid. And I am (once again) actually becoming a bit concerned that this may eventually come to pass yet again. I've already been contacted by the DOD several times in the past year and a half. So far it's been a "voluntary" request (always accompanied by a very generous monetary carrot), but they can legally compel me go back on active duty if they wish; that's very clearly stipulated in every soldiers initial enlistment contract. You never actually "get out" of the military once you've been in, you are just placed on the "inactive reserve" list, that's all. They can still call you back if they need to.

I would willingly go back into boots again to protect my country, that's never been in question. I will not, however, support Bush's stupid fiasco in Iraq in any way, shape or form, if I can possibly avoid it. I'm not willing to throw my life away for absolutely nothing. I have recently renewed my passport and made certain financial and travel provisions, just in case. Bush will just have to manage without me on this one. I'm getting a little too old to put up with the stupid, pointless political bullshit this moronic administration has come up with so far, I'm afraid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3609665.stm

"A US air strike has killed up to 40 people inside a mosque compound during heavy fighting in the Sunni Muslim Iraqi town of Falluja, witnesses say...

...Hospital and military sources in Falluja say more than 100 Iraqis have been killed since Tuesday in the town, where US forces have been fighting street battles with insurgents.

At least 30 coalition troops have also been killed in Iraq since Monday, including 12 US Marines in a single attack in the town of Ramadi on Tuesday.

It is the worst escalation of fighting since Baghdad fell to US-led forces a year ago.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said some "seasoned" US troops in Iraq might be kept there longer than scheduled to deal with the surge in violence."


These kind of news must be making it harder and harder for both the Iraqi people and the people in the coalition countries to accept the whole operation. And these events surely won't make it any easier to bring peace in Iraq, at least not anytime soon. Bush and his buddies got a bit more than they bargained for...

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You can squoosh a government but you will never break the will of the people. The US never did understand the culture in the middle east, never attempted to understand it and thought that just walzing in with their idea of "democrazy for all" will solve everything. They have not understood what they are up against just like they were clueless in Vietnam! Killing civilians in the name of democracy only makes enemies not friends... Someone explain that to Dubya!

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Like someone said:

Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.

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