SwiftVets.com

[Whacker77]

This past weekend, the NYT ran a story about a November/December offensive to clean out the terrorist strongholds. The reason for the wait they said was continued training for the Iraqi army. The idea sounds reasoned, but I think it's a mistake. The time is now.

I know that Bush has said that he won't make Iraqi decisions based on the election, but the longer we wait the larger the perception grows that Iraq is out of control. I don't believe that but there are plenty of dummies who will.

I think Bush should order an offensive on Fulluja now. First of all, it's the right thing to do. Secondly, it would demostrate to the rest of the country that the Americans are in control. And thirdly, I think it would reinforce the idea that Bush is a strong leader. Ordering a possibly bloody offensive six weeks before an election proves that.

Most importantly, it would reinforce to the public at large why we went to Iraq in the first place. They were promoting and harboring terrorists. Anyone who who can't see that need only be reminded of Abu Mussab al Zarqawi and his group Ansar al-Islam. The longer we wait, the more hostages and the more beheadings we face.

Exert control and win this election!

[jataylor11]

I wonder if President Bush has seen the beheading videos. If I had access to the "football" the "game" would be over by now.

[gleanerl]

i know it needs to be done, yet i'm torn.
my oldest son is a sgt, usmc.
he is in fallujah now.
i don't think anyone can necessarily count on what is reported as to a time table for the clean up.
but it will be cleaned up.
i just watch and read the news.
we'll know when it starts.
_________________
_________________
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire (1929 - )

[BuffaloJack]

If we ever catch this al-Zarqawi A&#hole. he needs to be killed on the spot, his body shredded, fed to wild pigs, the pigs butchered, and the pork chops and bacon sent to his family.

[jataylor11]

Actually he needs to be feed to wild pigs while still alive-- video taped of course. And his family needs to be forced to eat the pigs, and then kill them. His entire family, everyone he has ever met needs to be killed --- let this be an example to the entire world. We will kill evil -- we will meet evil with death. Then make Al Jazzera play the video 24/7 for a month with the warning this fate will meet all who continue in terrorism. (I am sorry I watch the Armstrong video --- my anger is unharnessed).

They want to be medeval --- get medeval on their as*es ---the same in Sudan with the killing of Christians in Darfur, all places in the world where Muslims are murdering non-Muslims.

[Guest]

[Stacman]

[jataylor11]

[quote="Stacman"]

[NYCnative]

I posted this before but for those who didn't see it, I'll post it here.

On an Iraq Blog, IraqTheModel.com, you see a growing disgust from Iraqis themselves in Fallujah. What Bush was hoping for is taking place in the Middle East. On FreeMuslims.com, they have printed Kuwaiti newspapers critical of Syria and one article actually praising Bush as a great leader. That never would have happened if we didn't go into Iraq.. I firmly believe "when", not "if" we are successful in Iraq and Afghanistan, democracy IS possible in that region of the world...........

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

Monday, September 13, 2004

What do Fallujans think?
It looks like there’s determination to solve the crisis in tension foci in Iraq as a key step before holding the elections. It’s become more than clear that the terrorists are an obstacle created by known external powers to delay the desired political process in Iraq and the public opinion here agrees with the measures taken by the government to destroy the strongholds of crime and terror. There’s a pole at the popular “ New Sabah” newspaper that demonstrate this clearly as about 93.65% voted as agreeing with the government policy in Iraq. (Link in Arabic)
Of course everyone knows that asking for back up from the multinational forces is unquestionable.
Anyway, what I want to say here is that yesterday I received some information from a reliable source, that I’ll refrain from mentioning his name or position, about what’s going on in two of the hottest, probably most dangerous spots in the mean time; Talla’far and Fallujah.

Talla’far’s name has been repeated more often recently and the news I heard confirm that the town has become an exclusive haven for the Baáth party where the party’s members gained full control of the streets to the degree that no one would dare to say a word against Saddam in public.

The Baáth formation there reminded me of Saddam’s days; the same old pyramid structure of units and ranks has been reformed but the most important is that the command center for this structure lies in the Syrian city of Al-Hasaka and the chief commander is, “Ahmed Younis Al-Ahmed”, a member in the former “Revolution Command Council”, and who’s believed now to be the secretary of the reformed organization in Iraq and this man is well supported by the Syrian government who provided shelter for a whole lot of mid-ranking party officials who escaped Iraq and still ranting with slogans of making a come back and re-controlling the country.
In Fallujah the situation is totally different where control is in the hands of the radical Islamic groups together with Arab fighters from across the borders. The latest information I received indicate that seven major “armies” have united their efforts; the “armies” are: Mohammed’s army, Al-Farouq’s battalions, the Salafies, Ansar Al-Sunna and three other groups I couldn’t get their names.

There was a dispute about who should lead the “army” and whether this commander should be a cleric or a military expert. Abdullah Al-Janabi, one of the significant Sunni clerics there was a candidate for that position but the dispute was settled and an agreement was reached to assign a military professional as the chief commander because the war is against a well organized and highly trained army, so they chose an ex-colonel in Saddam’s army to lead the fighters. The new commander began organizing the “army” and planned a redeployment for the units and gave orders that ammunition must be used only according to the “102 rule” which was a protocol used in the old Iraqi army. Also, many of the concrete walls that were constructed to protect some facilities were dragged and used by the fighters to construct safe positions and they painted the roofs of the position with pitch and ground glass which are supposed to distract surveillance aircrafts and in addition to that, new weapons were introduced including some anti-aircraft batteries (including SAM 6 missiles) were reportedly assembled and prepared in positions.

The “army” commanders know for sure that these preparations will never grant them victory but the primary objective they’ve agreed on is to level Fallujah with the ground as part of a plan to ruin the reputation of the government and the multinational forces by forcing them to enter a bloody and destructive battle that will end with negative consequences even for the winner in a critical time where events and news have a strong impact on political field in both Iraq and America.
This subject however, cannot be resolved by talks, the terrorists have made up their mind to confront the legitimate authorities.

I want to point out that the citizens of Fallujah have had enough of those fighters who lost a great deal of their support, if they had any, but the problem is that they still have the power and they still get support from the clerics and the extremists.

We will always be faced with this problem, as it has been clear that it is a basic tactic used by the terrorists to hide among innocents and use them as shields. Saddam used it, Taliban and Sadr and all the other terrorists and dictators. However, I believe that this sick tactic has become rather useless lately and cannot fool all people anymore, and not even the majority.

We in Iraq accepted the sacrifices needed to remove Saddam, in Afghanistan we didn’t see any real demonstrations protesting against the American Army for the accidental death of civilians when targeting Taliban fighters and the same applies for Iraq lately. Isn’t it amazing that many people in the west and some Americans blame the American army and administration for the life losses and mess in Najaf, while Najafies are strongly blaming Sadr in their latest demonstration without a word to condemn the American army!? Aren’t people, even seemingly simple people, smarter than what some media elite thinkers and reporters want us to believe!?
It’s also worth mentioning that the news I heard from inside Fallujah confirm that the bombarded targets we hear about in the news every now and then did belong to Zarqawi followers and those targets were identified and chosen according to reports from the Fallujans most of the times.

This does not, by any means, mean that the military power should be set free without any monitoring or questioning, but we simply should not overestimate the danger because we’ll be underestimating the people’s lust for freedom and how much they are ready to give to have it, and this will be an insult to them. I’ve always felt insulted by the anti-war and human shields who came to Iraq before the war telling me that they were here to protect me! That was very insulting to my intelligence, my dignity and humanity. Protect me from what? Freedom and having a dignified and honorable life?!
I think there is no other choice but to confront them and this is the choice they want to impose on the government, so this is going to be a tough challenge but unfortunately, there’s no other way.

By Mohammed.
=============================================
IRAQ THE MODEL
Wednesday, September 15, 2004


Hearts and minds.
I guess we all agree that hatred is probably the main precursor of violence, so a full understanding for this unpleasant feeling is needed if we we’re looking for a way to end the violence, and finding answers for questions like: why hatred appeared? when did it begin for the first time? what are the related factors? and who contributed in provoking hatred? Is a key step in curing hatred.

As the world is living the 3rd memorial of the 9/11 attacks, the BBC opened a forum for Arab readers to allow them to voice their feelings about the “hatred wave against America”. This time the forum has a special significance because Arabs are directly related to this topic and the largest part of this “wave” comes from Arab countries.
I’ve found that all Iraqi participants (except for two) carry no hatred for America, not to mention the admiration and gratitude for America that were clear in some Iraqis’ comments.

Anyway, I decided to translate most of the comments posted by Iraqis along with some of the Arabs’ comments that caught my attention so that you can view some opinions that can rarely be seen in the media and I decided not to translate any of the offensive comments which you can find almost everywhere. I must add that most of these posters with offensive comments said that their comments were directed “against the American government, not the people”.


“America is not an enemy of Arabs and Muslims, on the contrary, on many occasions she backed Muslims when other Muslims did nothing like in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. America helped us get rid of the worst dictatorship in history and despite the unstable security situation now in Iraq we breath freely and say whatever we want to say without fear from Saddam and his dogs
I was-and still-working as a teacher and Saddam was paying me 2 dollars a month, can you imagine that? while he paid thousands and thousands to his followers. Things now are much better for me and I feel grateful for America and the coalition for what they did to save us”
Amjad Al Ubaidy -Baghdad/Iraq.

“The Americans are peaceful and smart people. Unfortunately, this hatred was created by some clerics who try to brain-wash the youth every Friday after the prayers so many would go out with hatred in their hearts and anger toward America”
Reemon A’adil Sammi-Iraq.

“The truth is that people who encourage the dialogue and call for friendship with the US are the people who have reached a conclusion that the era of arrogance, fake heroism, ridiculous Baáthist
slogans and Arab stubbornness that made Arabs the most backward among nations, has come to an end. It’s enough to acknowledge that the economy of a European country such as Spain is stronger than the economy of the Arab countries collectively. The pro-American youth are the best and the most educated while those who consider them traitors can bring only death and doom.”
Yugene-Baghdad/Iraq.

“First of all I’d like to send my condolences to our American friends on the third memorial day for the terrorist attacks. And I send my condolences too to my Iraqi fellow citizens who have been suffering from terrorism every day and every hour for nearly two years on the hands of people who hide behind slogans of religion and patriotism.
I call all Iraqis to build strong relations with the Americans. Hatred has to be eradicated especially between Iraq and USA (if ever existed) and between Arabs and USA in general.
The false slogans of Arab nationalism that emerge here and there calling people to hate America are all against the interests of our people. We followed these slogans for decades and look what we’ve ended up with; poor countries ruled by dictators. We must head to the other side and hopefully we can find our goal there and put an end to the poverty and oppression that are ruining our nation”
Mohammed Abu kelel-Najaf/Iraq.

“The Arab youths are living under cultural, religious and even sexual repression while people in the West enjoy all aspects of freedom and this motivates the Arabs to immigrate to the US or Europe to be able to live in a civilized environment but unfortunately most immigrants fail to merge with the western communities because of the effect of the religious heritage they accumulated since childhood therefore they tend to establish a closed Islamic-Arab community in America or Europe and this will eventually lead to a conflict between the two cultures”
Mohammed Othman-Syria.

“I had finished my studies in America and lived there for years and I sensed how advanced is that country but I was shocked when I returned back to my country to see how the governments are humiliating our people. I chanted anti-American slogans against my will and I long for living there again and I’m sure that some of those who have spoke against America on this forum wouldn’t mind living in America in spite of all the hatred their words contained”
Hisham-Cairo.

“I believe the West has a lot of good qualities for which we should show respect and love and perhaps its being a shelter for runaways from oppression and poverty in our Arab countries is the most admirable thing.
Arabs’ hatred towards America is primarily attributed to the political and religious system in Arab countries which is feeding this hatred because of the belief that any proximity between Arab and American people would weaken its (the system’s) position among its people. The losing party from this hatred remains the Arab people that needs the West’s help in many fields while the West needs us in very few ones and that’s why who opposes the West is in fact opposing his own interests.
The question remains: shall we let the hatred provokers use us?”
Mohammed-Baghdad.

“The problem lies inside us, the Arabs; whether governors or citizens. We’re still living the era of backwardness, ignorance and crying for the past. We don’t understand how decisions are made in America and the defect is within ourselves.
I’m a big admirer of America and the progress that America had achieved in such a short period.
One more thing, those who offend America must not forget that it was America who helped the Muslims in Albania, Bosnia, Kuwait and Sudan. Where is the Arab civilization? We never saw the Arabs offer help but we all saw the food packages and flour sacks carrying the letters USA.
The problem with Arabs is that they always have find someone to put the blame on.”
Fadi-Libya.
“America should not be blamed for the hatred that grew against her. If an Arab country (with powers similar to those of America) have suffered what America had suffered from terrorism and if it was some Americans who carried out the attacks on that Arab country. The Arabs would’ve terminated America and slaughtered every American woman and child just like what the Islamists are doing now in Iraq”
Yusuf Al Muhandis-Iraq.

“America is the leader of the world and she represents the tip of the pyramid in economy, science, sports, military power and many other fields and if someone is looking for progress, justice and freedom then America is his destination while those who want to bring back the dark ages consider America their enemy.
It’s true that America and her society have some negative points but these look tiny when compared with the positive ones.
America’s success is a success for the civilized world and her failure is a failure for the whole world. If you don’t trust my words take a look at America’s allies and friends and see how they live and then take a look at America’s enemies, they’re living in poverty under oppressive tyrannies. Just make a comparison between the two Koreas to have a closer view”
Mohammed Khafaji-Babylon/Iraq.


“America offers freedom for free. It’s true that I’ve never been there and I don’t have friends living there either but I keep America in my mind and sole. Hatred was brought to us by the extremists; the enemies of mankind.
I and every true Iraqi love America because to us she represents freedom and liberation. America untied us from Saddam’s chains and also liberated Yugoslavia from her dictator and liberated Germany before that. History is full of events that support my feelings”
Hazim Al Shammari-Bafgdad/Iraq.

I have a secret to share with you; we (my brothers and I) used to hate America some years ago, just like the vast majority of Iraqis and that was the result of being isolated from the rest of the world by the thick walls Saddam built around us. We used to be reading one newspaper, watching one channel and hearing one voice; the voice of the “mighty leader” that looked eternal but those feelings gradually changed after we started to see more clearly who was actually responsible for Iraq’s misery and began to open our eyes, ears and minds to other points of view and to other sources of information in a seriously dangerous search for the truth.

Later, the uncertain feeling changed to a more positive one when we realized that our only chance to get rid of the tyrant was in America’s hands especially after 9/11 and the events that followed that day as we saw that America is determined to fight terrorism and terrorism-supporting criminal regimes.

During the eighteen months that followed 9/11 we were dreaming of the day when the “zero hour” finally comes and nothing will ever match what we felt when we saw the first missile strike Saddam’s palace.
After we started this blog, we had the chance to meet many Americans, both civilians and soldiers and we discovered the noble feelings and the warm wishes they have for Iraq and Iraqis and that made me believe more than ever that we’ve put our trust in the right place.
Yes, I love America and I’m a friend of all American, and I’m truly proud of that, and so are many, many Iraqis who owe their freedom to the great sacrifices made by American people.


- posted by Omar @ 20:45
Comments (544)
_________________
"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." -Inscription on the Liberty Bell

[BuffaloJack]

al-Zarqawi needs killing on the spot for the simple reason that it will be the only time that it can be done.
If not killed immediately, then liberal bleeding hearts will get involved and the media circus will drag it out forever. Take Saddam for instance. That mass murderer is still suckin' air. He ought to be dead.
No waiting, no suffering. Kill al-Zarqawi the instant the opportunity presents itself.
That goes double for bin Ladin.

[blue9t3]

Hey Buffalo, I love the sausage idea, a real american breakfast!
Right after sadam got caught they interviewed an Iraqi woman, she said to put sadam in a cage on the corner, so that everyone could take a little piece of him!
I think its time for a little Iraqi justice, works for me!
_________________
MOPAR-BUYER

[buffman]

I think he should be bound and have to watch as the relatives of his victims tear his family to shreds. Then let them put him to death by stoning.
_________________
Never Ever Give Up
America First

[msindependent]

My two cents = I don't believe anything the NYT say's.

[DaveL]