Just another day in Baghdad.
As the Baker boys dither and emasculated heads of state meet in Jordan, Agence France Presse gets right to the point today:
Baghdad's overflowing morgues have welcomed another grim daily harvest of bullet-riddled corpses as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met US President George W. Bush and vowed to halt the violence.
Iraqi security officials said they had recovered the bodies of 58 murder victims in Baghdad over the previous 24 hours — a US spokeswoman confirmed 49 — and that a mass grave holding 28 corpses was found north of the city.
Perhaps the best indicator of the mood among Iraqis is provided by Zeyad, an Iraqi blogger for the Washington Post, where he provides "a sampling of posts to Iraqi message boards where people ask for instructions on how to defend their neighborhoods from marauding militiamen":
A Mujahid for Allah – Baghdad of Al-Rashid: In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.
They want it a war, so be it. We are up to it, God willing.
My brothers, heed these recommendations:
1- Prepare weapons and ammunition.
2- To avoid their mortar fire, do not gather in large numbers at one place in your areas.
3- Spread out in small groups, and assign a commander to each.
4- Always take cover behind a barrier (anything that can protect you from enemy fire).
5- If there is an attack against your area, try not to waste your fire (make maximum benefit from the ammunition you have available).
6- Assign duties to your brothers.
7- Maintain communication with other groups in your area so you can respond to any breach of the area by the attackers.
8- Have courage and patience when you face them. They are cowards and will be defeated.
Remember that your brothers, the Mujahideen, will be with you in your fight against the murderous criminals. May God save us and save Iraq.The son of Anbar – Baghdad: Dear brothers, the Khadhraa and Jami'a districts are in need of ammunition. Please come to our aid.
. . . Abdul Rahman – Iraq: Please keep these steps in mind:
1- Deploy snipers on the rooftops of buildings that lie close to the main entry points for each area.
2- Prepare positions for medium weapons at a distance from the entry point, and make pincers with sniper and PKC fire. When you choose a position, make sure you can retreat to alternate positions from it, in case the enemy overruns the area (do not choose a building that is not adjacent to another, or use ropes to quickly slide down the building).
3- RPG carriers should maintain their positions on side streets and take cover behind barriers. Do not fire just for the sake of it (attack the first and last vehicle).
4- Create heavy fire density to force the enemy to take cover, and then eliminate them by sniper fire.
5- Provide hand grenades and distribute them to the Mujahideen.
6- Fighters with light weapons should always change positions, fire from different angles and not stay at one place.
7- Prepare and plant roadside bombs on the entrance to every area.
8- Bomb the gathering locations for the army of filthy Muqtada.
9- Prepare a special group to deal with any breach, and it should be armed with RPGs, PKC machine guns and KIA vehicles.
10- Plan ambushes and lure the enemy by using bait vehicles that they chase to be dragged into the killing zone.
It seems like these folks are a bit past the point of expecting results from summit meetings and blue-ribbon commissions.
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NED!
;(
Thanks Swopa.
Balrog!
These folks seem like they know what they’re doing, they’re doing a lot of what *I’d* be doing, if I were in their shoes.
Balrog, if you are reading here, I left you a love letter at the bottom of the last thread.
In summary: DON’T GO!!!!!! We need you and your ideas.
I want the people of Iraq and the people of Israel and Palestine to see we hold our own people and politicians responsible for transgressions they have committed against the peoples of the Middle East. Anything less will not do.
egregious – i left you a note downstairs
This story is tragic. Imagine if Baghdad were St. Louis, or Nashville. Why are so many people dying in Iraq? Because this Administration is both criminal and criminally incompetent.
Mission Accomplished Bush, you nitwit.
Balrog, Christy, Jane, Pach, Swopa, TRex and most of all…
ZED!
George Walker Bush is the Anti-Christ — his mission is to sow as much death, destruction, and chaos as possible.
Heckuva Job, Bushie!!!
Anti-Christ Mission fucking Accomplished . . .
If anyone could do anything about the civil war, they would be doing it.
There is no one in charge.
Get our people out of there.
OMG
How on earth did we just go through a discussion about IF this is civil war?
These people are fighting for their lives and it is George Bush’s fault. The blood of Iraq is on his hands.
May he be summarily impeached. May he live out his days in seclusion and shame for what he has unleashed on this earth. May the international criminal court find him and his accomplices guilty of war crimes so that he can never leave this country.
May all this happen so that we never forget which branch of government is charged with declaring war and oversight.
twolf1 @ 7
Got it thanks. No prob.
OT, but significant.
My wife just found a site that accumulates news for any area, region, or topic, and it looks like a useful tool for all the stuff we do. It is called Topix. Give it a spin and see what you think.
http://www.topix.net/
This ain’t no Mud Club,
Or CBGB’s…….
Guests on Scarborough last night said that this (Iraq) is a lot worse than a civil war- Clusterfuck’s failure in Iraq is drawing other countries into the conflict and we are close to a regional firestorm as various countries enter the conflict to protect their favored players (sunnis and shia).
rwcole — you’re 115 last thread is quite a bomb.
Bushco has completely obliterated our standing among all nations.
We are sc*ewed.
CNN – Hadley – President may be making changes to Iraq policy in weeks, not months. Iraqi forces will be trained faster to take over.
All I can say is WTF. That means they are admitting they have been dragging their feet on training iraqis or they are gonna throw the iraqi soldiers into the fire w/o proper training — most likely both. Is anybody surprised?
“Baker boys” — bwahahahaha! Good one, Swopa. :)
twolf at 18
“Is anybody surprised? ” Not at all. The Vietnamization of the Iraq War is right on schedule.
And we hear that the Baker Commission is finished with their fig-leaf report that might provide cover for starting to get out, but they’re not going to release it until Wednesday. ‘Cause, you know, it’s not like anyone’s life depends on whether we wait another week or anything. Just like it didn’t matter to anyone important if they used the commission as an excuse to wait until after the election to make decisions.
That’s some real high-quality leadership there!
twolf1 @ 18
You can tell there’s nothing going on but ass-covering because for everything they propose doing, the obvious response is either “you tried that before and it didn’t work,” “you said you were already doing that months ago,” or “why the hell weren’t you doing that months ago?”
Ok, I installed the gabbly side bar thingy, but how do I launch it?
I’m impressed by the organization the Iraqis are sowing. Not that it’s going to be good for us, but it is impressive.
I had a professor while an undergraduate who was not given tenure and developed a very bad mood..
At one point he was describing “objectivity” and remembered a scene from a comic book where a character was disolving while standing in a pond- looking down and saying “interesting, very interestin”.
That’s what Clusterfuck has been doin for four years in Iraq- watching the whole region go to hell and watching with interest.
Pardon my typo, that’s ’showing’, not ’sowing’, although they may be sowing organization too.
Friends,
My post last thread was NOT meant to be an indictment of anyone here, nor was it an attempt to change people’s posting habits. And nor (’nor’ is one of those words that feel weird to say or type) was it a weird attempt to gain sympathy. Maybe 30 years ago, but I’m way too old for that now.
That said, I really appreciate the outpouring. It’s clear to me now (and again) that it is my reaction to the situation that is in error. I need to adjust my expectations and feel confident that I am making a difference whether acknowledgement is part of it or not.
In any case, thanks so much for the kindness. I haven’t felt this good since election night.
Balrog, if you’re still about –
Ah, sh*t, ya made me tear up. I lurk a lot & yours is one of the voices whose presence I’ve missed…….among a number of others. I understand exactly where you’re coming from; the welcome mat does sometimes seem a little threadbare lately……at least in comparison to what I remember from many months ago. Please know that your contributions are always appreciated.
angie @
17
Or would that perhaps be scre*ed?
Rev up the helicopters. Notify the embassy.
No baggage, please.
Swopa, is there anything we can do to get knowledgeable people like you and Juan Cole to address Speaker Pelosi’s meetings about the Middle East?
President Bush In Jordan, on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki: “He’s the right guy for Iraq.”
Yep, Yessiree, he’s the right “guy,” the right “fella,” he’s “good folks” who unnerschands that it’s Hard Work bein’ a Decider always stayin’ On The Hunt fer them Terrists who Lurk and Plot and Plan their Tackticks fer their Hateful Ideeologeee and would love t’ use Nookuler weapons agin’ us Murkins.
One inspiring, eloquent President, steeped in the nuances of proper diplomatic language.
Stay The Corpse.
_
The Baker commission is going to call for a gradual pullback of U.S. troops WITHOUT a timetable. That’s the best they can come up with? I always had low expectations but apparently not low enough.
Baker commission keepin a VERY TIGHT lid on their report eh?
It’s well past time for Compassionate Hearts to intervene.
Holiday Activism.
Copied from Imm’s comment in the thread below:
I just finished my brief in SCOTUS I am very tired and caught a cold running myself down.
But the brief is fine! We may be the first people ever to cite Buffy to the Justices….
Clusterfuck’s got a barn burner goin over there in EyeRock..Soonees murderin She eyetes–She eyetes murderin Soonees.
So now that he’s got it goin good- how does he stop it? Whoops!!!Didn’t think bout that.
Them darn Eye rockees..Can’t tell em apart without a scorecard!
rwcole @ 38
“They all look alike t’ me.”
- Trent Lott
_
Played golf yesterday with an ubergooper…”What da ya think’s gonna happen in Iraq?” I asked him….”I think we need ta blow em all up” he answered…..
In gooper speak that means “I’ve been totally wrong about this from the beginning and I’m so pissed off about it I can’t even speak”
Christy Hardin Smith @ 19
Half-Bakered
rwcole @ 36
Not to be confused with Sooners ;)
Baker Report:
“We don’t have the faintest fuckin idea what ta do about this mess. Ah mean yer fucked if ya do and yer fucked if ya don’t..We’re glad it’s someone else’s problem..
If ya want a second opinion- give us a call…
Good luck”
we gotta get da sheeyte outta there soonee
“We think ya oughta get out of there as soon as ya can- within reason- as long as ya don’t leave a mess behind- and as long as the Prezadent don’t mind– just tryin ta bee helpful- the Baker Gang.
as bad as iraq is – and as bad as it looks to get….
please tell me that i’m being paranoid to still be worried about an attack on iran…?
CNN – ISG will NOT call for withdrawal timetable. will call, NEXT YEAR, for Al-Maliki to set benchmarks. Will also say media is presenting unreasonable timelines
cnn.com headline:
Al-Maliki: Iraq forces can take control in June
Bush just seems to be so out of it. He always had been that way. He serves as a puppet for Cheney and the neo-cons. Of course he is the worst president ever (including French and other presidents here as well). But there is so little original thought coming from him – it’s all from his handlers. That is the nefarious thing about his handlers – we may impeach Bush, but we are not getting at the root of the evil. I would so much rather have Addington, Perle, Norquist, Wolfowitz, Cheney etc. in front of the Hague court than the hapeless clown who trumpets their poison.
Waccamaw at 27 — good to see you. I think a lot of the usual social niceties kind of fell by the wayside in the frenzy of the election cycle. I can’t speak for everyone who writes here, but I know that my phone was ringing off the hook — I was on a number of conference calls with other bloggers and/or candidates and/or various other folks about any number of issues, trying to get information on numbers or where DCCC/DSCC/DNC money would be spent, trying to push for some of our Blue America candidates to get a piece of the pie. So hanging out in the threads was the thing that got sacrificed for me because I could not be everywhere at once and get any less sleep than I was already getting and survive it. (And poor Howie, I really don’t know how he lived through it — I’m not truly certain that he slept for over a week right before the election.)
That said, there is no excuse for folks not feeling welcome. And I don’t want to hijack Swopa’s thread, but I wanted to let you know that I had noticed your absence the last little bit.
Will Obama force Clinton’s early entry?
WASHINGTON – Several months ago, long before the euphoria in Democratic ranks began to build about a run for the presidency by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic consultant in Washington told me that Sen. Hillary Clinton could afford to wait until much later than the other 2008 contenders to declare her candidacy.
He argued that Clinton’s non-announcement — holding off until as late as the fall of 2007 —would freeze the other contenders as the news media became obsessed with hand-wringing stories about “what will Hillary do?”
Her late entry wouldn’t hobble her, he argued, since she could quickly raise immense sums of campaign money and catch up and surpass her rivals.
I spoke to that same Democratic consultant this week. Now, he said, Obama has fundamentally transformed the race and “he may force her to get in early.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15969751/
selise @ 45
It would be bat-shit crazy – but then again Bush is bat-shit crazy. I really think he would get a lot of pushback from the military if he tried a sneak attack – they would simply leak it to, say, Murtha. In his now-weakened political state, I just don’t think he could pull it off.
catfood @ 33
here’s the question we need to be asking the press;
why are they giving any credibility at all to the president when he makes novel claims that a timetable is counterproductive?
the man has no military clue what so ever, has been wrong with every single thing he’s said, every single prediction and whatever he says has always been wrong
a time teble is NECCESSARY for succes, this is a FACT
you NEED to create benchmarks and then meet those benchmarks, if you don’t meet them your strategy is flawed and you have to reevaluate your method or your goal
SO WHY ISN’T ANYONE CHALLENGING THE NOVEL IDEA THAT WE CAN’T HAVE A TIMETABLE?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 51
Funny you should say that,
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/30/134126/72
(Excuse the weird formatting thing going on here!)
[Mod note; does that look better? Back slashes are an important thing to remember when using html]
I like what Nancy Pelosi said about the Baker Boys right after the election. Paraphrasing: It should be elected officials making these decisions. I don’t really care what the Baker commission has to say.
OT – I knew the time would come as it does on every successful blog where people start feeling left at the gate. I learned the hard way on the DFA blog that as more and more people come, the conversation becomes stretched into hours of reading.
It is exasperating at times to give a comment and have no one respond but in all truthiness, this is about fact telling and sharing your set of facts. The conversation/sharing part is important, but we all absorb so much from each and every one of us. No matter if they get responded to or not.
I believe people confuse this mode of sharing with a sit down chat. It is easier when there are 2-300 of us, but thousands becomes a roar.
Best IMO to take a step back from the conversaton part, absorb all the good rich truth and insights, and let the pride go. It happened on DFA, it happened on Kos, and it will eventually happen here. I still read Kos all the time, but almost never comment. No point in hearing my own voice.
And to Balrog and others who lurk, welcome. And Balrog, as a (I think) fellow Minnesotan, come Nov. 2007, we will kick Coleman’s behind.
Hey victor davis hanson says Iraq is no more dangerous than driving on California’s freeways.
klyde @ 57
Geeve me a freekin break.
Just getting to the computer this morning. Just wanted to let you know that George Will’s little tantrum in the Wa Post now has 46 pages of reader comments and counting. Touched a little nerve, Mr. Will did. It does make one hopeful for eventual triumph of common sense over the Beltway Bilge.
David Schuster was right on last night…
Who was that mean assistant to Condi…
He had an axe to grind…
Bush’s staff is on edge, you reckon?
Jack
PeteCO @ 54
What Chris Bowers says makes sense. And I hope Bowers is correct. I do however, still have LiebermanLamont stuck in my brain.
-ck- @ 10
Frankly, I don’t see that Bush has anything whatsoever to do with Christ,–”anti-” or otherwise–beyond his ability to pronounce the word. He isn’t acting in a specifically anti-Christian manner, because he never comprehended what Christ was about to start with.
klyde @ 57
So, he’s signed up and he’s reporting from Baghdad? If not, I don’t give a rodent’s sphincter about his superlatives.
MsAnnaNOLA @ 12
Period.
EvilDrPuma @ 62
actually, he’s a dispensationalist…a person that thinks the armageddon is a good thing and will do anything they can to make it happen
look it up, scary stuff, and yes, bush is a dispensationalist
Oklahoma kiddo @ 61
I don’t personally know any Democrat who thinks Hillary would be a good idea. Go figure.
Can anyone figure out WHY Clusterfuck decided to meet with the Iraqi Prime Minister?
Obviously, they don’t meet to actually discuss anything- no one would let Clusterfuck actually make a decision on the fly- they meet in order to be seen meeting- but in this case- who did they want to be the spectator?
Most likely just a chance for clusterfuck to show that he’s still burnin plenty of jet fuel fuckin around with the issues of the day.
-ck- @ 10
It has always puzzled me why Chrisitians accept Bush as one of them just because he says he is. His actions never seem to match his words, yet Christians don’t say anything.
Balrog @ 11:40 am (#27)
One reason I don’t comment on comments all that much is because there are so many of them. Just plowing through the comments in an hour-old thread can sometimes take an hour, more if I follow the links. I’d say that in the case of most morning posts, I skip the comments entirely. It’s just too much to follow, and new comments come so rapidly, followed by new threads, that it is easy to overlook even the smartest comments.
perris @ 65
Yes. Very scary but true. It is like a weird cult. The same cult that thinks god is going to come back and re-green the planet so no need to protect the environment at all.
Hillary, of course, would just be a cover for a third and fourth William Jefferson Clinton term.
Probably america’s had enough of em- although whenever I hear Bill talkin- I get captivated again by his logic and command of the issues.
perris @ 65
I don’t dispute you. I just fail to see what dispensationalism has to do with Christ other than borrowing and distorting some vocabulary.
Redshift @
21
me thinks twas all election hype… the same ol same ol
STALL, Stall, SPIN, Stall
Bush I and company out beating the drums to try to keep a few Republican votes from turning before the election…
not Rove’s style, but I doubt if Rove complained too much about another diversion.
Recall the fundie preacher who said that our troops in Iraq should pray for the President?
How about a little handy laminated Prayer Card that’d fit in the front pocket of your kevlar vest (if you got issued one), for easy access while you’re lying there in the desert bleeding slowly to death from your blown-off legs:
_
rwcole @ 71
Bush has shown one thing. It’s better to have a really smart President than a really dumb one. Maybe we should thank Bush for that.
Heavenly Father
May the President’s bicycle collapse under him, May his dick fall off- may he get a case of clapp from the first Lady.
Amen
I’ve got a
fuck’nbenchmark for the Baker Boys.Keep both lanes of the Straits of Hormuz open. Iraq is gone.
What matters to the world economy is whether the ME continues to deliver it’s life blood. Prior to Bush’s war of choice, this doomsday scenario wasn’t nearly so likely an option. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. It’s a lot closer to happening, because Bush invaded/occupied Iraq.
rwcole @ 76
LOL
rwcole @ 76
Didn’t all that stuff already happen?
Badwater @ 68
Which speaks volumes (to me, at least) about Christianity in America today, particularly self-described “Evangelicals.”
twolf
Oops- guess that’s last year’s prayer.
rwcole @ 81
at least you recycle
Atrios called the bush supporters “fact free and proud of it.” The problem is the lack of facts it’s the lack of
morality on the part of people like victor davis hanson
EvilDrPuma @63. No, I think he has that same trick knee thing that kept confederate yankee out of the Army.
rwcole @ 66
Just to dominate the news and keep the bad (i.e., real) news from getting out.
new thread
May- Yeah I think that’s the game- Clusterfuck doesn’t actually READ the paper- but every day that he opens the WP and sees his ugly mug on the front page he says—”I ain’t no Lame Duck- right Karl?”
rw – you got it!
angie @ 11:25 am (#17)
Had to use the search thingy, but there it was:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/a…..25,00.html
Washington, DC, isn’t the only place where self-delusion runs rampant. Fun quote from the link:
Five years ago, there was no change in the relationship to comment on. Two years ago would have been too late. In between, it’s pretty clear that on both sides of the Atlantic that any such statement would have been roundly ignored by the popular press. As for the “rats”, Myers was described in the article as a “senior State Department analyst”. In all likelihood, that’s a senior GS position in the foreign service. They don’t just desert because something the President has done is politically unpopular.
klyde @ 57
Victor Davis Hanson is a maroon/knucklehead/put-your-favorite-epithet- here. He was a maroon on the faculty at Fresno State, and retiring from there to the Hoover Inst at Stanford improved the intellectual levels at both Fresno and Stanford…
BC
Badwater @ 75:
It’s a shame that we need to be shown that self evident fact. There should be a certain minimum level of IQ required before one is allowed to run for president. I am sure Bush does not have a particularly high IQ, probably more of an average one around 100. 120 should be a minimum to run for president.
Hi everyone,
I don’t care if I’m part of the “in” crowd, I am exactly what my nom-de-plume implies and ***I’m staying.***
Just thought y’all oughta know that. ;-)
Yours in Kitty Hilarity
GPB
I knew that this “war” was wrong from the climate of insanity that brought about it’s inception; and now the climate of death and bloodshed that I and my country are responsible for. (I’d bump up my Lexapro to 20 mg. a day but that wouldn’t even help me any more) When every American should be hanging their head low for the deaths of our troops and our worldly neighbors and families and children by our corporate commander in chief; I still only rarely come across those who do. I am utterly enraged by and ashamed of my country for its embrace of fear and hysteria and the abandonment of common sense that allowed the implementation of a completely avoidable humanitarian tragedy and allows others still to fester out of control. For shame!
Bush and Maliki had news conference earlier where bush said maliki was anxious to take more responsibility and bush was proud of him for that. So i guess that is all that was needed, maliki to step up and we can bug out. Bush went on to say that first we had to train them how to pump gas and change tires and all the complicated stuff armies do besides fighting. Right now we are in the left-right-left training, but soon, but soon.
please tell me that i’m being paranoid to still be worried about an attack on iran…?
Not paranoid….I think it is still a possibility and was the end game for the war criminals in the white house. You will know they are trying if we initiate an aggressive campaign against the Shiites in Baghdad and Basrah. If Iran comes to their defense then it’s on to Tehran.
Guitar_Playing_Bastard @
91
Laughed til I cried! OK, you can stay.