[Zardoz]

Eight more U.S. dead yesterday:

Eight U.S. troops killed in Iraq on Memorial Day

So much for the "goals" of the "surge":

Iraq likely to miss goals set by U.S.

94 Senators never actually read the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq before the invasion (although most were extensively briefed, and it was wrong, in any case...):

Records: Senators who OK'd war didn't read key report

Cindy Sheehan is worn out, says her son died for nothing, and has given up:

Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest

Just another day's worth of Iraq news...

[mekrob]

The death toll from Monday has now reached 10. 2 in a helicopter crash, 6 on the recovery mission and 2 others by a roadside bomb. We're on pace for between 125 and 130 in this month, which would make it the third deadliest since the war started. And we still haven't reached the peak of the surge.

[Zardoz]

They're getting better at it:

Attacks on U.S. Troops in Iraq Grow in Lethality, Complexity

As U.S. troops push more deeply into Baghdad and its volatile outskirts, Iraqi insurgents are using increasingly sophisticated and lethal means of attack, including bigger roadside bombs that are resulting in greater numbers of American fatalities relative to the number of wounded.

Insurgents are deploying huge, deeply buried munitions set up to protect their territory and mounting complex ambushes that demonstrate their ability to respond rapidly to U.S. tactics. A new counterinsurgency strategy has resulted in decreased civilian deaths in Baghdad but has placed thousands of additional American troops at greater risk in small outposts in the capital and other parts of the country.

[Zardoz]

U.N.: More than 4 million Iraqis displaced

More than 4 million Iraqis have now been displaced by violence in the country, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday, warning that the figure will continue to rise.

The number of Iraqis who have fled the country as refugees has risen to 2.2 million, said Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. A further 2 million have been driven from their homes but remain within the country, increasingly in “impoverished shanty towns,” she said.

Pagonis said UNHCR is receiving “disturbing reports” of regional authorities doing little to provide displaced people with food, shelter and other basic services.

[Zardoz]

US arming former insurgents

To many American soldiers in Amiriyah, this nascent allegiance stands out as an encouraging development after months of grinding struggle. They liken the fighters to the minutemen of the American Revolution, painting them as neighbors taking the initiative to protect their families in the vacuum left by a failing Iraqi security force. In their first week of collaboration, the Baghdad Patriots and the Americans killed roughly 10 suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq members and captured 15, according to Kuehl, who said those numbers rivaled totals for the previous six months combined. He is now working to fashion the group into the beginnings of an Amiriyah police force, since the mainly Shiite police force refuses to work in the area.

They feel that the Baghdad Patriots are the lesser of two evils. I don't know, but it seems that this may be something that they just have to do. There is little other choice, really. What they've been doing up to now hasn't worked at all. I'd say they should give this a go.

What have our guys got to lose? How could it be any worse than what has been going on so far?

[Zardoz]

Well, duh!

Military Envisions Longer Stay in Iraq - Officers Anticipate Small 'Post-Occupation' Force

One of the guiding principles, according to two officials here, is that the United States should leave Iraq more intelligently than it entered. Military officials, many of whom would be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity, say they are now assessing conditions more realistically, rejecting the "steady progress" mantra of their predecessors and recognizing that short-term political reconciliation in Iraq is unlikely. A reduction of troops, some officials argue, would demonstrate to anti-American factions that the occupation will not last forever while reassuring Iraqi allies that the United States does not intend to abandon the country.

"Post-Occupation Force". Nice one. That sounds so much better than "We're there forever".

[Troyboy1208]

Yet another important piece of Infrastructure destroyed:
Major Overpass Destroyed
I find it Ironic that the US Convoy on top of the Overpass during the explosion was carrying demolition experts...

[Troyboy1208]

Instead of wounded now the bridge collapse has actually killed 3 american soldiers.

[Zardoz]

They hit the mosque again:

U.S. official: Samarra attack may have been inside job

Authorities have evidence that Wednesday's bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra was an inside job, and 15 members of the Iraqi security forces have been arrested, a U.S. military official said.

Two minarets were destroyed at the revered Shiite shrine, the military said, in a repeat of the 2006 bombing that sparked Iraq's current wave of deadly sectarian violence. There was no immediate word on casualties in the city north of Baghdad.

[Troyboy1208]

It seems like whenever we hand over control of things these things happen. Bad things seem to happen when the Iraqi security forces take over.

[Zardoz]

Not much left of the mosque:



We can expect the shit to hit the fan any time now:

Iraq on alert after shrine attack

[Troyboy1208]

Agreed. Those two pictures look very different. Must be the angle or something . Any way I think Zardoz and I are the only one following events in Iraq anymore lol.

[mekrob]

Agreed. Those two pictures look very different. Must be the angle or something . Any way I think Zardoz and I are the only one following events in Iraq anymore lol.

The one on the right has only one tower, which has a clock on it I believe. That same tower is still present in the picture on the left, except it appears much smaller. You can notice the golden dome behind and the two minarets to the sides of the clock tower.

The right one is at a lower angle and pretty much perpendicular to the front entrance of the mosque, while the other is higher up (notice adjacent building in both).

What I would absolutely love to see the [s]American [/s]Iraqi government do is impose a strict curtailment on vehicular traffic. Many benefits:

1) Stops carbombings almost completely.

2) Gets an oil rich nation off of oil. This would in turn encourage so many more nations to get off of oil as well. (Of course, it could have the opposite effect and the US will just buy that extra 500 kpd from Iraq).

3) Improves health of the people as well as the economy since people are blowing 70 cents/gallon on gas (instead can be sold for 3-4 times that).

4) Long term, it forces the city to condense and endorses public transportation. Also reduces massive amounts of pollution (although they'd still have sewage lining the streets)

[mekrob]

Just ask the Jews who tried to get into the US during the Holocaust but the US wouldn't let them. Or how about the Ugandas, Somalis, Afghanis, Sudanese, etc.

Desperate Iraqi Refugees Turn to Sex Trade in Syria
By KATHERINE ZOEPF

MARABA, Syria — Back home in Iraq, Umm Hiba’s daughter was a devout schoolgirl, modest in her dress and serious about her studies. Hiba, who is now 16, wore the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and rose early each day to say the dawn prayer before classes.

But that was before militias began threatening their Baghdad neighborhood and Umm Hiba and her daughter fled to Syria last spring. There were no jobs, and Umm Hiba’s elderly father developed complications related to his diabetes.

Desperate, Umm Hiba followed the advice of an Iraqi acquaintance and took her daughter to work at a nightclub along a highway known for prostitution. “We Iraqis used to be a proud people,” she said over the frantic blare of the club’s speakers. She pointed out her daughter, dancing among about two dozen other girls on the stage, wearing a pink silk dress with spaghetti straps, her frail shoulders bathed in colored light.

As Umm Hiba watched, a middle-aged man climbed onto the platform and began to dance jerkily, arms flailing, among the girls.

“During the war we lost everything,” she said. “We even lost our honor.” She insisted on being identified by only part of her name — Umm Hiba means mother of Hiba.

For anyone living in Damascus these days, the fact that some Iraqi refugees are selling sex or working in sex clubs is difficult to ignore.
...

Many of these women and girls, including some barely in their teens, are recent refugees. Some are tricked or forced into prostitution, but most say they have no other means of supporting their families. As a group they represent one of the most visible symptoms of an Iraqi refugee crisis that has exploded in Syria in recent months.

NYT

So unbelievably sad. Yet not a tear in DC.

[Bas]

Just ask the Jews who tried to get into the US during the Holocaust but the US wouldn't let them. Or how about the Ugandas, Somalis, Afghanis, Sudanese, etc.

Did you know Anne Frank's family was denied a visa to the US? only found out about that last year.

[smallpoxgirl]

Ah yes, America went in to free 20 million terrorists then?

I assumed jboogy was talking about the US government.

[Hawkcreek]

--

[Pretorian]

Just ask the Jews who tried to get into the US during the Holocaust but the US wouldn't let them. Or how about the Ugandas, Somalis, Afghanis, Sudanese, etc.

Did you know Anne Frank's family was denied a visa to the US? only found out about that last year.

I wonder why I've never heard of any jews trying to go to Madagascar or arounds? Why hundreds of thousands of soviet jews were begging US for a refugee status as soon as they landed in Rome, Athens or Vienna, while holding an Israeli entry visa?

[Jack]

There's no good reason for us to take them.

Their oil has value. They do not. We don't need more people. We've got all we need, thank you very much.

That said, perhaps China needs workers. Maybe they should go there.

[seahorse]

We'll have plenty of refugees once Cantarell collapses. The Dept of Homeland Security is also building, via Haliburton, the necessary facilities to house them and provide for all their needs