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Diversions
Posted by Stephen Green · 22 November 2005
We must be losing in Iraq: The Taliban has attracted additional money, and suicide bombers, from Arabia. Two years ago, most of this support shifted to Iraq, where al Qaeda believed it had a better chance of winning some kind of victory. But too many Arab terrorist resources in Iraq produced nothing, and Iraqis have become very hostile to al Qaeda as a result of all the Iraqis killed by terrorist attacks. So now, efforts are shifting to Afghanistan. However, this is also a hostile environment for Arab terrorists. al Qaeda must've gotten a hold of that DNC talking point claiming that Iraq was a distraction from Afghanistan, and thought it was meant for them. Either way, the Big Q has been forced to fight us Over There - which, if you ask me, is a fine way to fight our wars. Hat tip to the California Yankee, who puts this story in context: Almost two years ago, Newsweek published this article claiming that al-Qaeda was diverting a fighters from Afghanistan to Iraq. The article also claims that al-Qaeda decided to "reorganize the distribution of funding" reducing monthly payments to the Afghan resistance from $3 million to $1.5 million. Hmm. I wonder why Newsweek isn't giving this more play. Comments
Actually the administration managed to lose both wars except for "green zones" in each country that house the puppets we have put into play and our troops. The rest of each country is off limits. Doubt me, fly into Baghdad and take the airport road. For $200+ billion and 2000+ dead you should be able to drive 7 miles. Posted by: madmatt at November 22, 2005 12:07 PMI'm a little puzzled as to what exactly your point here is. Seriously. Posted by: shingles at November 22, 2005 12:18 PMMost of the people we are fighting in Iraq have nothing to do with al Qaeda. The vast majority are Iraqis who are pissed off that we invaded and are currently occupying their country. I didn't see a source on strategypage.com. Where did they get their information? Posted by: John Gillnitz at November 22, 2005 12:50 PMJohn, I suggest you speak with a few Marines before you post something as idiotic as "The vast majority are Iraqis who are pissed off that we invaded and are currently occupying their country." Most of the so-called insurgents (terrorists) responsible for the bombings in Iraq that have been captured or killed are Syrian, not Iraqi. The two Marines I had the pleasure to speak with stated they couldn't remember the last time they tangled with Iraqis. That would explain why so much military attention has been paid to the Iraq/Syrian border over the past couple of weeks. Nice try, dumb ass. Most of the so-called insurgents (terrorists) responsible for the bombings in Iraq that have been captured or killed are Syrian, not Iraqi. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies foreign fighters make up only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents. re: the CS Monitor article One of the co-authors of the CSIS paper referred to in the article is a Saudi apologist. In an article he wrote for NRO he is called a "Saudi oil and security analyst". In a Financial Times article he is referred to as: "head of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, an independent consultancy that works closely with the Saudi government." Gee, a guy who works closely with the Saudi government writes a paper that says there are very few Saudi terrorists in Iraq. Now there's a surprise! He didn't say 'Saudi', he said, 'foreign'. Strategypage don't seem to attribute their articles to authors, which makes doing a similar 30-seconds of Google research more difficult. Maybe they're sending fighters to Afghanistan because their work in Iraq is nearly done. Maybe they don't need as much money, since they were practically given 850 tonnes of high explosives. (Courtesy of a botched invasion.) Some of those billions swindled from the reconstruction fund probably ended up in their hands, too. Posted by: Railroad Stone at November 22, 2005 08:21 PMwell, Just in case you were suffering from selective memory loss, let me remind you that your cretinous President and his demented and incompetent crowd have let Bin Laden escape. Fighting the war on terror indeed! The guy responsible for 3000+ deaths on American soil is laughing all the way to his cave, and, more than likely, plotting another grand scale attack. Meanwhile your asshole of a President has us bogged down in Iraq. Stop making an ass of yourself by blaming the DNC. That makes about as much sense as claiming that the earth is flat. Posted by: Devil's Advocate at November 23, 2005 07:05 AMAccording to the Center for Strategic and International Studies foreign fighters make up only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents. Posted by John Gillnitz Did they get them to stand still while counting them? Or did they send out a questionaire? mad bikini blogger- 1.Zawahiri isn't in Iraq; I think you're mixing him up with someone else. He's in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and has no real connection to Iraq (he's Egyptian). However, don't you find it at all curious that almost three years into this Iraq adventure, less and less of the evidence in support of the invasion stands up to scrutiny? Lastly, if all this incredible evidence in support of an Iraq/Al Queda link was so strong and persuasive, you’d think the Bush administration would be yelling about it at every opportunity from every corner. Yet they remain strangely quiet. Why? Railroad Stone, I was commenting on the CS Monitor article, not the comments by Mr. Gillnitz. In fact, the first line of my post says: "re: the CS Monitor article". If you read the CS Monitor article, it references an article in The Guardian that is based on the CSIS paper. The title of the CSIS paper is: "Saudi Militants in Iraq: Assessment and Kingdom's Response". While it discusses foreign fighters in general, the paper's focus is on Saudis. Hence the title. Posted by: Trudger at November 23, 2005 08:59 AM"Suspected foreign fighters account for less than 2% of the 5,700 captives being held as security threats in Iraq, a strong indication that Iraqis are largely responsible for the stubborn insurgency. Since last August, coalition forces have detained 17,700 people in Iraq who were considered to be enemy fighters or security risks, and about 400 were foreign nationals, according to figures supplied last week by the U.S. military command handling detention operations in Iraq. Most of those detainees were freed after a review board found they didn't pose significant threats. About 5,700 remain in custody, 90 of them non-Iraqis. The numbers represent one of the most precise measurements to date of the composition of the insurgency and suggest that some Bush administration officials have overstated the role of foreign holy warriors, or jihadists, from other Arab states. The figures also suggest that Iraq isn't as big a magnet for foreign terrorists as some administration critics have asserted. In Ramadi, where Marines have fended off coordinated attacks by hundreds of insurgents, the fighters "are all locals," says Lt. Col. Paul Kennedy, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. "There are very few foreign fighters." USA Today Few Foreigners Among Insurgents Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the last week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday. There was evidence that an organized force of foreign fighters was present. One dead guerrilla bore Syrian identification. A number of insurgents believed to be foreigners wore similar black "uniforms," each with black flak vests, webbed gear and weapons superior to those of their Iraqi allies. But despite an intense focus on the network of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi by U.S. and Iraqi officials, who have insisted that most Iraqis support the country's interim government, American commanders said their best estimates of the proportion of foreigners among their enemies is about 5%. The overwhelming majority of insurgents, several senior commanders said, are drawn from the tens of thousands of former government employees whose sympathies lie with the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein, unemployed "criminals" who find work laying roadside bombs for about $500 each and Iraqi religious extremists. "Over time, it's the former regime elements that are the threat," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who joined Casey for a visit to bases in Baghdad and outside Fallouja before meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Posted by: John Gillnitz at November 23, 2005 09:55 AMRead below how the Chickenhawks support our troops: by killing measures designed to help veterans! The Republican creatures are repugnant hypocrites.
Two amendments to the Tax Relief Act of 2005 – one that sought to make combat pay of those serving in Iraq eligible for the earned-income tax credit and another to fund an additional $500 million for post-traumatic stress and substance abuse counseling for returning Vets -- were killed by Senate Republicans late last week. An amendment (S.Amdt. 2616) sponsored by John Kerry (D-MA) and Barack Obama (D-IL) would have extended the poverty-reducing, earned-income tax credit to the combat pay earned by soldiers on active duty in Iraq. The amendment, argued Obama on the Senate floor, would "... ensure that the families of our men and women in combat are not deprived of their tax benefits." "In the midst of war, are we really going to tell our troops that their combat pay doesn't count as earned income for purposes of calculating tax credits?" said the Illinois Senator. "That is hard to imagine. Our troops not only earn their combat pay, but they have also earned our respect. They deserve our commitment of support." It was defeated with 55 votes in favor of passage and 60 votes required. Every Democrat voted in favor, while all votes against were cast by Republicans. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) proposed an amendment (S.Amdt. 2634) to the Tax Relief bill that would have provided additional funding "... for readjustment counseling, related mental health services, and treatment and rehabilitative services for veterans with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance use disorder." "This amendment is backed by the American Legion, AMVETS, and Disabled American Veterans," said Boxer, in pleading for passage of the amendment. "We pay for this in a very simple way. We say the tax cuts of 2001 that have not yet taken effect for those earning over $1 million a year be deferred. We find that when we pay for this $500 million, we have millions left over to reduce the deficit." Boxer should have known that mentioning where the money would come from – in this case, America's wealthiest people – would doom her bill in the GOP Senate. But she closed her floor argument by quoting an e-mail from the wife of an Iraq War Veteran who committed suicide upon his return. "I got an e-mail from a woman who was married to Captain Michael Jon Pelkey, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for over a year. He sought help on several occasions but was discouraged by the wait time and the stigma," said Boxer. Boxer then read directly from the e-mail which said "Michael passed away in our home at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest on November 5, 2004. I feel that my husband is a casualty of this war and to date the Army has not done enough for post-traumatic stress." "I know millionaires in California, and I know they would give up a tax cut to help our veterans who are fighting in deplorable conditions every single day," said Boxer. "I hope my colleagues will take a stand for our veterans and say to the millionaires of this country: We know you want to help them." Senate Democrats could only get one Republican vote for Boxer's amendment – Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) – and the measured died 55-43. Pass this information on to any Republican you know with a "support the troops" sticker on their car.
Cost of the War in Iraq To see more details, click here. 1528 days, 16 hours, 48 minutes, and 20 seconds
George Pataki: Retreats!
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Anyone feel like checking the IPs on this storm of Kos-Kidz Komments to see if Gillnitz, Advocate, Shingles, Stone(d), & Matt are seperate people or just one wanker with MPD & too much free time? Posted by: Cybrludite at November 23, 2005 10:58 PMActually I see this transfer of resources to Afghanistan as a bad thing. Since the American left has determined that absolutely no level of casualties is acceptable, al-Qaeda could be shifting resources to cause a noticeable spike in casualties there. Al-Qaeda doesn't have to kill thousands, only hundreds. Throw in a few spectacular terror attacks and an assasination of a key political figure or two and you have a "quagmire". Al-Qaeda's counting on a hysterical, defeatist response from the MSM. They're not likely to be disappointed. Exposed to a constant barrage of negative stories the American peoples' resolve will wilt away. Again. 9/11 notwithstanding, wouldn't be long before spineless and irresponsible American politicians began demanding an "exit" strategy.
Trudger: Point taken. I thought you were trying to refute John's comments which, even on second view is understandable, imho. If your point was just a tangent, you should tag it with 'OT' or something. Oh, and Cybrludite...no. Thanks for the input, though. Posted by: Railroad Stone at November 24, 2005 10:09 PMThe vast majority are Iraqis who are pissed off that we invaded and are currently occupying their country. -- John Gillnitz
Friends of yours?
One last thing: If you haven't/can't figure that last (previous post) out, don't think your snarling tantrum is going to get you much credibility. Posted by: Sharpshooter at November 25, 2005 09:25 AMHas your President and his neo-con entourage expended as much money and as many troops to go after Al - Qaeda and Bin laden, than he and his crowd have expended into going in a war of choice in a country that was no threst to us, we would be a whole lot better off. Thank you rightnutters for supporting that criminally incompetent crowd. I feel so much safer now. Posted by: Devil's Advocate at November 25, 2005 01:51 PM |
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