OMG! You Think Iraq Is a Bloody Mess Now? It Is Going To Get Worse!

[leftchick]

I had read a while ago that the US Military had a plan in place for Iraq after our elections to get Iraq ready for their elections. This is the first article I have found detailing what the US strategy has been so far and how they have adjusted for the future.
The "November Offensive" will be begin if aWol* is re-selected!


:(

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI29Ak01.html

<snip>
Immediately after the collapse of the non-negotiations, the US initiated almost daily bombing of various neighborhoods in Fallujah. The cover story has been that they are bombing "safe houses" used by terrorists associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that no other people are present during the attacks. But hospitals report daily that the vast majority of the casualties are civilians. It is clear to everyone but the US public that the attacks are designed to persuade the people of Fallujah to abandon their support of the rebellion. To add a further element of threat to the equation, the US has repeatedly announced that it would soon reinvade the city, and during the second week of September even announced on loudspeakers that the residents of certain areas should evacuate because of a pending attack. This was a bluff. US military officials admitted to American reporters that they are waiting until after the November elections in the United States.

We can expect that the bombing will continue until November, followed by a full-scale assault on the city, one that might be far more brutal than the previous attacks on Fallujah and Najaf - unless, of course, the strategy changes again. In the meantime, there are ongoing overtures for new negotiations, but without either side changing its position.


.... this part is particularly stomach turning:

<snip>
What the US may have gained, therefore, is the apathy of the world to escalating violence against Iraqi civilians. This, more than the success or failure of these individual campaigns, may lay a foundation for the massive offensives that the US military appears to be preparing for in the period just after the US elections in November. The world is fully aware of the ability of the US Air Force to level even a very large city, using 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs delivered in great numbers by carrier-based aircraft. The calibrated increases in the destructiveness of US air attacks over the past few months appears to have numbed local and international outrage, a condition that allows for further escalation and many more casualties.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

1. MSNBC has an "Iraq Getting Worse" headline story today

I posted this a few minutes ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2426389

It seems like even the news media has given up on reporting on the Disneyland-like atmosphere of beautiful downtown Baghdad.

This can't be good news for Junior. Aw, shucks.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. This can't be good news for Junior. Aw, shucks.<<

Screw 'em. What's good for the goose..... is good for the gander.

I gotta go skiing now.... will have to wear my goggles...

[leftchick]

5. Good to see it is a US news source!

and a GE source no less! thanks!

[ixion]

2. as a country, we are SO going to hell...

It's too bad most 'Murikans are ignorant morons... a little understanding of Karma would go a long way in this case.

How we can be killing these innocent civillians and still think that we are somehow "God's" favorite is beyond me. :-(

The saying should not read: "God bless America".

It should read:

"God, have mercy on us, for we are idiots."

Just my two cents.

[leftchick]

8. I heard a c-span caller today say....

he was voting for bush* because John Kerry would kill 3000 babies a day if he is elected! It is only a fetus that matters to these lunatics. Fuck them after they are born!

[w4rma]

13. or "Father forgive them and have Mercy for they know not what they do." nt

[ixion]

16. I don't buy the 'know not what they do' where humans are concerned

murder is murder, and that's all there is to it. Nothing difficult to understand, IMO. ;-)

[oldlady]

3. won't they do it

anyway...even if Kerry is elected? (You said: "The 'November Offensive' will begin if aWol* is re-selected!")

I worry that the lame-duck period will be such a mess, even if Kerry is elected & my brother ships out in early December.

peace
please

[leftchick]

6. God I hope not.....

I worry about that lame duck period as well.

Is your brother going to Iraq? My prayers are with him....

peace indeed!

[gratuitous]

7. This corrupt administration's death throes . . .

Hoo boy, the time between the election and the inauguration will set records for Washington hypocrisy, you can bet. Stupidhead's going to get carpal tunnel from all the blanket pardons he'll be signing.

I just hope they don't take too many of us down with them.

[jmcgowanjm]

9. what the aerial bombing means

"In our ability to let loose destructive power at great
distances and by air, the United States military is
undoubtedly unparalleled as a power today. And yet here's
the counterintuitive way you have to think about
American airpower in Iraq: Watch where the bombs
and missiles are falling - starting with Falluja and ending up
on Haifa Street - and you can map almost exactly
where American power is blinking off. The use of air power,
in other words, is a sign of American weakness. Its use
maps our inability to control Iraq. To the extent that you
can monitor our air power, you'll know much about what's
going badly in that country, in part because the resort to
air power in a guerrilla war means the surefire alienation of
the contested population. It means that you've given up
on 'hearts and minds,' to use a classic Vietnam-era phrase,
and turned to the punitive destruction of bodies and
souls."

http://xymphora.blogspot.com/

[bemildred]

11. And it means you don't have any troops there.

It is basically a PR exercise to blur the image of impotence
caused by the inability to get ones way.

[Jacobin]

10. THIS is how bad it is, just in one month:

The willingness of Iraqis to fight to oust Americans from their country is now almost universal. If they had one of the vaunted elections and the proposition on the ballot was "should americans leave Iraq now", the vote would be overwhelming to get us out.

WTF is so hard for Americans to understand?

[vogonity]

15. Great graphic

Wow, that map blows my mind. You can see problems are all over Iraq. I have to share this with some people.

[ogsball]

12. This is bad for everyone. . . .

I am certainly a Kerry supporter but I regret this war so much and feel that blood is on my own hands. What no one says is I paid (or I will pay for) those bombs--my country is me.

God forgive me.

[leftchick]

14. the US is largely paying for the weapons the resistance use....

via the Iraqi police and NG that work with them. This quagmire is fucked from all sides!