CBS - U.S.: Iraq Violence Widening

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/eveningnews/main646438.shtml

U.S. officials concede they are not defeating or even containing an insurgency that goes deeper than the daily attacks and kidnappings seen on television, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

The governor of Al-Anbar province in western Iraq has warned the U.S. that threats against local officials and their families have brought his government to the verge of collapse.

And it goes wider than the so-called Sunni triangle around Baghdad. A recent report prepared for the State Department by a private security firm says "a general trend is emerging of attacks spreading into historically less active areas."

Scott Taylor, a Canadian journalist who survived five days as a hostage around the northern city of Mosul says the area is honeycombed with Mujahadeen willing to die.

"I think that Mosul is probably about to explode in terms of the resistance which has been fairly dormant up until now in that particular area," Taylor said.

[misterphelps]

1. That's disturbing

Something we already know. Why is it that I'm grateful when the press actually reports the truth? Sad times.

This is bad news for our soldiers - bad news for our country

[Demoiselle]

2. I think David Martin, CBS Pentagon, is pretty reliable...

He's been around for quite a while, never showy, doesn't look like he's got "show biz" ambitions...but he consistently reports solid stuff. Glad to know this is beginning to get mainstreamed. I heard Scott Taylor yesterday (I think) interviewed on NPR. Very scary.

[0007]

8. The bad news come a day late and a dollar short

This could have been prevented with a little intelligence.

Bring the troops home.
"God protect us from those that believe in you"

[Eloriel]

20. You're grateful probably because, as Orwell put it --

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell


:-(

[UpInArms]

3. I guess that CBS has now been able to say

Iraqnam

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. O.K. Now I am fairly certain that Kerry understated how bad thigs are

There is NO WAY in hell that Kerry, Hagel, et al. would have stated things were so dire if they were not in fact much more so.
Kerry never would have risked alienating normally optimistic swing voters if there were not good reason to expect Iraq was about to implode.
The true breadth of the problem is still not apparent.

[redstateblues]

5. It shows we are winning-the bitter enders are just desperate

[n2mark]

6. Do you want to bet?

that things will quiet down between now and US election day?

[xchrom]

7. ho-hum - things bad in iraq?

as long as my good american life isn't inconvenienced and i get my tax cuts and nobody asks me to sacrifise anything because other american men and women are putting{and losing] their lives for my so-called best interests and freedoms -- and as long as there is a firm president in office making sure that i suffer none of the inconveniences associated with this struggle -- who cares?

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

9. Unfortunately, you're spot-on

And that's a sad commentary.

[0007]

10. Yawn, I know what 'ya mean jelly bean, why did you have wake me?

junior is keeping all us amikicans safe and cozy, M. Moore has got it all wrong. Talk about Kerry flip flopping while the prez talks to god?

A lady just called into c-span on Washington Journal and said she knows why so many folks hate junior, it is because he believes in God and those that hate junior hate God.

Please God protect us from those that believe in YOU"

[truthisfreedom]

11. interesting timing. i wonder if Kerry will bring it up.

[vonSchloegel]

14. I wish

It would be really nice if Kerry would promise to bring the boys home on January 22, 2005.

Lately though, he seems to be all poll and no sack.

[gratuitous]

18. That would be nice, but impractical

Nobody knows how bad the situation really is in Iraq, and setting an absolute deadline would just be an invitation for failure. I mean, I wouldn't hire a contractor to work on my house if I just described a complex problem over the phone, and he said he could do the whole thing in an hour for $150. That might sound real good, but I know that I'm going to be disappointed once the guy actually gets there and lifts a few floorboards or gets a good look at the pipes.

I think Kerry should capitalize on the clear contradictions between Bush's happy talk on Iraq and the decidedly different tenor of reports coming from people who are there in person.

[saskatoon]

31. Gratuitious

I don't care who is in there IT AINT GONNA WORK.The only way is to GET OUT like we did in Nam.

[rfkrocks]

12. saw Taylor on TV tuesday-if he is correct-it is over

He described different groups working together and the dislike of the occupiers as a single motivating concept (yes Zell Miller-we are occupiers)I think people who say things are going well over there are also somewhat correct-the part of Iraq they are in may well be working (green zone) but at least 1/3 of the country is in total rebellion and I don't see how anyone can think that will end. The Shrub admin could not have done anything worse-total lack of planning, lack of manpower, trumped-up war reasons, now porous borders of Iraq-I can't imagine a worse situation-It is not Vietnam but a larger Gaza strip-you can't defend it, no moral authority and large groups of people don't want you there-How can anyone believe Shrub is a capable president when he screwed-up so badly?

[bleedingheart]

13. but in other news John Kerry has a tan...so don't dwell on this nonsense

(sarcasm off)

[Supersedeas]

15. bury this--now back to innane polls or smiles handshakes tie color

[Beetwasher]

16. The Most Monumental Fuck-Up In Human History

It could very well lead to the death of us all...

[AFSCME girl]

22. Yup!

Thanks, Chimpy........:grr:

[VegasWolf]

27. Not a fuckup, * has said that he would do it all over. 'Strong leader'

[pretzel4gore]

28. yep, brute stupidity is not uncommon in human affairs

any reader of hisstory will acknowledge; forces that seem mindless (ever see pics of bulldozers burying bodies?) exist everywhere; keeping them in check is called civilization, and the rightwingers have undermined it!

[calimary]

30. Great job, shithead. Another in a continuing series, you Texas Twit.

What a mess. What a disgrace!

By the way, I don't see much wrong with getting our kids OUT OF THERE. PERIOD. OUT. OVER. END. They hate us occupiers? We're the ones on which everybody over there is focusing their anger and violence? Then it seems to me the answer is simple. Take The Occupiers Out Of It. As long as WE are there, we will have this complete disruption. THEY want their country back, too. Just as we Dems and liberals and progressives and moderates do. WHY CAN'T WE JUST GET OUT? Bring our troops home and get the hell OUT OF THERE?

I see argument after argument here, and elsewhere, from people who say we have to stay in because of blah-blah-blah, or thus-n-such, or whatever-whatever-whatever, and NONE of it makes sense to me. NONE of those arguments make sense to me, OR overshadow the REALITY over there: They hate us. They want us out of there. The violence is directed against, AND BUILDING against - US. OUR GUYS. OUR ARMY. OUR MARINES. OUR TROOPS.

I don't even buy the "you broke it you fix it" argument anymore. Because what's our idea of "fixing" it? Handing more blank checks to Halliburton? The company that's already made so much of our tax money magically disappear? SCREW it. At some point we have to cut our losses and LEAVE. All we're doing at this point is making the hornets angrier, and making sure we stick around so they have a nice big sitting-duck target to stay focused upon, and gather momentum and strength and allies and the moral high ground AGAINST. We just need to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. Before A SINGLE ADDITIONAL ONE of our loved ones is killed.

[saigon68]

17. Really ???? I'm shocked

Shocked I say

[leftchick]

19. defeating or even containing an insurgency ! What a Joke....

to even say that. Try INFLAMING the insurgency. Fucking geniuses....

[Javaman]

21. the guerrilla wins by not losing, the army loses by not winning...

[reprobate]

33. Wasn't it Chairman Mao who said that?

[Javaman]

35. It was Kissinger...but that's close enough LOL

[goforit]

23. This is just so patheitc!!!...Are you proud to be an American w/ Bush?

What a mess!!!

[goodboy]

24. We're makin' good progress....eom

[F.Gordon]

25. Whoa! People are fleeing the country??!!!

To get out of Iraq requires passports and papers, but there's never a shortage of the desperate braving the heat and long lines for their chance to escape.

No one knows for sure how many have already fled the country – certainly in the tens of thousands. There are many thousands more who dream of making the exodus to almost anywhere that is safer than this place.

Hey, we liberated you. Don't you know that Iraq is a better place with Saddam gone? Hey, where are you going? Hey, come back....

Irony time: bush* has told us that a higher percentage of people in Iraq think things are on the "right track" -- more than they are here in the great US of A. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have fled the country. So....what does that say about how "on track" we are here?

I say put Saddam back in power, bring the troops home and let's call it a draw.

[sattahipdeep]

26. Halliburton got back 1,000 times what

they contributed http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total

....
Major Gary Tallman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army, explained
that the contract was to create an "integrator" or coordination
hub for the security operation for every single reconstruction
contractor and sub-contractor.
"Their job is to disseminate information and provide guidance and
coordination throughout the four regions of Iraq."

Spicer in Iraq....
But this newest military contract in Iraq is different.
Aegis has no history in this business, Spicer has a debatable
track record with his previous company called Sandline, and
there's speculation that the contract was given for political reasons.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11350

[AntiFascist]

32. Interesting how so much more of our tax dollars are going to.....

employees of corporate interests in Iraq than to soldiers who are risking their lives protecting those employees.

[milkyway]

29. Iraq is spiraling out of control so fast, chimp is lucky tonight is the

foreign policy debate. A couple of weeks from now things might even be a lot worse than they are right now, and all the lies in the world wouldn't be able to save him.

[reprobate]

34. And America is spiralling out of control just as fast.

Civil rights? What were they?

Homeland security? More like Fatherland Security.

Anyone else see the parallel with germany 1933?

[Supersedeas]

36. TV networks too busy spinning style vs. substance of the debate to mention

this...now back to some innane poll results that clearly demonstrate that the debates have no impact on the 'Merican sheeple.