Category Archives: Iraq

Attacking modernity

Posted on January 16, 2007 | Comments Off on Attacking modernity

Why the double bombing on Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad that killed scores of women students? Simple, says Alan Sullivan, the seablogger:

"If the women get ideas about liberty, they might change the Dark Age culture of honor, shame, and female bondage that blights the Islamic world."

The Jihadis only like women when they’re covered from head to toe, speak only to family and submit to daily beatings.

But even Israeli Arabs are not immune. A teenage girl in Ramle, near Tel Aviv, is dead in what police are calling an "honor killing" for not hewing to the dress code.

UPDATE  Mohammed at Iraq the Model has a memorial for the dead students:

"A policeman says: the cell phones didn’t stop ringing in their pockets and purses but there was no one to answer…they were gone. The ringing will keep me awake tonight, angels of Iraq."

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Posted in Iraq, The War

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Mookie still in the saddle

Posted on January 15, 2007 | Comments Off on Mookie still in the saddle

Until we get rid of this punk in the black turban, there’ll be no victory parades. And right now, it appears his buds in the Iraqi government are still protecting his porky little butt. Or, as this troop asserts: "The Madhi army is sitting on the 50 yard line eating popcorn and watching us do their work."

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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President Bush

Posted on January 14, 2007 | Comments Off on President Bush

He’s grown old before my eyes. More wrinkled, grayer, doesn’t smile as much as the Texas governor who once elbowed me in the ribs as he circulated among state troopers after receiving an Austin briefing on a major flood in South Texas. I was there as a reporter. He didn’t know me from Adam. But he may have remembered me from the governor’s mansion’s Christmas party for the news media the previous December. If so, he had a good memory for faces and names. When he elbowed me, in a sort of happy-jock way, with a happy-jock grin on his face, I sort of half-smiled and, though I was there to write down whatever he said, I spent the rest of the time trying to stay out of his way. He still smiles easily in news conferences at the White House, but I can see that he’s tired. He spends too much time with the loved ones of dead soldiers and Marines, too much time with the wounded at Walter Reed, too much time with generals and advisers, and probably reads too much of the vitriol the media, the Dems, and the haters have thrown at him for six years now. I don’t hate him. I dislike some of his decisions, such as his refusal to control illegal immigration, to have (until lately) declined to increase the size of the fighting forces, and his apparent disinclination to follow through on some of his (I think) admirable aims after 9/11, such as taking on nations supporting terrorism. Saudi Arabia comes to mind. Yet, in the main, I still like him, and I’ve lost some friends over defending him. Bush haters all. Their slurs seem irrational to me. Also to House of Eratosthenes who (which?) has the best essay I’ve ever seen here on Bush Derangement Syndrome. Good luck, George, in your last two years. Try not to let the bastards get you down.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Texana, The War, Troops

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Ain’t your grandfather’s war

Posted on January 13, 2007 | Comments Off on Ain’t your grandfather’s war

Lot of truth in this analysis, seems to me, unfortunately: neither Bush nor Dems accepting responsibility for what the war (or its loss) means. He wants to win but not tell the electorate exactly what that will entail–war with Iran and Syria for one, and staying in Iraq for decades, for another. The Dems want to lose but not tell the electorate why, beyond their hatred for Bush, because they doubt their real hatred, for America as it is presently constituted, would play in Peoria. They make Bush look honorable, but just barely. Crikey!

Via Fresh Bilge 

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Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq, The War, Troops

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We can’t leave, but we can’t stay

Posted on January 12, 2007 | Comments Off on We can’t leave, but we can’t stay

I usually find reasons to take heart from former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan’s latest column, but not today. The headline "The Two Vacuums" and the subhead "Neither Iraqis nor Democrats seem ready to do what’s required of them" seemed reasonable so I printed it out to read. Only when I read it did I realize that the headline writer, for whatever reason, was trying to avoid her main point, which is that Bush is coming unglued, hasn’t a clue what to do, and his new strategy isn’t new at all. It certainly seems new to me, with its hints of finally cleaning up Mookie and his sectarian-warring militia in Sadr City, and the insurgent/militia sanctuaries in Syria and Iran, even if that means war with those terrorist-supporting countries (see bit about carrier battle groups in the Gulf, and providing Patriot anti-missile systems to regional allies), and a clear and hold strategy for Baghdad’s most violent neighborhoods, which I don’t recall seeing before. Maybe I am the one who sees substance that isn’t there, but his detractors (the usual ones and the shocking new ones like Noonan) seem to be saying: "We can’t leave, but we can’t stay. Sorry if Iraq falls apart and the genocide begins, but we are an impatient people more interested in presidential style than substance, and we are losing what patience we had with this man and his war." As if it really was only his war, and getting rid of him would make all things better. The mind reels. Mine, anyhow.

UPDATE  For all that, the stock market continues to soar. Somebody’s not pessimistic. But Donald Sensing is, deeply.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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The view from Baghdad

Posted on January 12, 2007 | Comments Off on The view from Baghdad

Fighting continues in the city, between insurgents, militia and the government, but so far Bush’s "new plan" seems not to have truly begun and Iraqis, meanwhile, are arguing among themselves whether it will do any good, according to Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

"…there are different opinions even among members of a single bloc but I also see that a majority supports the new strategy while opposition is coming from extremists who realize that they will be the next target for the government and allied forces."

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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The view from Iraq

Posted on January 11, 2007 | Comments Off on The view from Iraq

My late mother avoided television news most of her life, but in her last years found herself watching the local version now and again. Their devotion to the police blotter (because it’s cheap and easily available) left her convinced there was a major crime wave in her town. There wasn’t. Likewise, according to Iraqi embed and freelance journalist Bill Roggio, the troops contend that Americans and others get a distorted view:

"American troops watch the news and follow the debate in real time. They will tell you the war they see on television isn’t the war they are fighting. To the troops, the war as portrayed on television is oversimplified and digested into sound bites. The soldiers are portrayed as victims and the violence is grossly exaggerated."

Worth a read. 

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