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Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink
by noteworthy at 9:51 pm EDT, Aug 16, 2006 |
The disconnects between headline and article were just too great not to pass along. You'll forgive the sarcasm. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, of Multinational Force Iraq, said operations in and around Baghdad are designed to reduce murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the capital.
My, what lofty goals you have! Who needs kindergarten and women's rights when you can have a 50% reduction in the assassination rate?! Honestly! Caldwell said the core conflict in the country has changed from an insurgency to a sectarian struggle.
In other words, the sovereign central government is firmly enmeshed in a civil war. "Keep up the good work!," says Caldwell. "Our job here is almost done." Shiite death squads and Sunni terrorists in Baghdad are locked in a mutually reinforcing cycle of sectarian strife, Caldwell said.
If you look at my chart here, you'll see it's clear that both targeted assassinations and random violence are strongly on the rise over the last six months, and our analysts expect this trend to continue into the fourth quarter. Al Qaeda in Iraq has launched a propaganda campaign that seeks to portray the terror group as a legitimate political organization and an alternative to the legitimate, democratically elected government of Iraq, Caldwell said.
You know, like Hamas and Hezbollah. However, the group does not protect citizens, but kills them.
Ah, the old bait and switch. How many election cycles does it take to learn that everyone breaks their campaign promises? Al Qaeda in Iraq is still bringing in foreign fighters to randomly kill innocent Iraqis.
If only we could get them to do something productive; we could certainly use the cheap immigrant labor. But it turns out these foreign fighters are rather lazy; they make a few killings, and then they think they're entitled to sit around all day sipping tea and reading classic literature. The group has encouraged sectarian violence and sees it as a road to civil war.
Those fools! Here they are trying to build a road, and I've just told you we're already there! Why can't they see that? |
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RE: Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink
by pziegler at 11:06 am EDT, Aug 18, 2006 |
Spc. Ziegler here with U.S. Central Command, I cannot find in the original article where the General said, "Keep up the good work." So, I thought I would post a link to the original article so your readers could judge for themselves. Notice the first paragraph where the headline connects with the body of the story? http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2221&Itemid=18 |
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RE: Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink
by noteworthy at 11:41 am EDT, Aug 18, 2006 |
pziegler wrote: Spc. Ziegler here with U.S. Central Command, I cannot find in the original article where the General said, "Keep up the good work." So, I thought I would post a link to the original article so your readers could judge for themselves. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2221&Itemid=18
Thank you for the reply and additional link, and thank you for taking the time to create an account in order to do so. "Keep up the good work" was not intended to be presented as an actual quote; rather, it was part of the commentary. Apologies for any confusion in that regard. Notice the first paragraph where the headline connects with the body of the story?
I do see that, but by my reading, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence reported in the article is not particularly good news or a "positive trend." However, to summarize the "good things" reported in the article: * transition to Iraqis of responsibility, control, and execution
* numerous suspected bad guys captured, along with their weapons
* many homes and businesses "cleared", enabling Iraqis to hold and rebuild
* businesses, including two banks, recently reopened Regarding the statement that operations are designed to reduce violence, undoubtedly this is true. Whether violence is actually declining, in absolute terms, is another issue. |
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RE: Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink
by Mike the Usurper at 3:27 pm EDT, Aug 18, 2006 |
noteworthy wrote:
pziegler wrote: Spc. Ziegler here with U.S. Central Command, I cannot find in the original article where the General said, "Keep up the good work." So, I thought I would post a link to the original article so your readers could judge for themselves. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2221&Itemid=18
Thank you for the reply and additional link, and thank you for taking the time to create an account in order to do so. "Keep up the good work" was not intended to be presented as an actual quote; rather, it was part of the commentary. Apologies for any confusion in that regard. Notice the first paragraph where the headline connects with the body of the story?
I do see that, but by my reading, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence reported in the article is not particularly good news or a "positive trend." However, to summarize the "good things" reported in the article: * transition to Iraqis of responsibility, control, and execution
* numerous suspected bad guys captured, along with their weapons
* many homes and businesses "cleared", enabling Iraqis to hold and rebuild
* businesses, including two banks, recently reopened Regarding the statement that operations are designed to reduce violence, undoubtedly this is true. Whether violence is actually declining, in absolute terms, is another issue.
Something else that is being ignored is that the "sectarian violence" is in large part against the police and other Iraqi authorities. These groups are very heavily Shiite, and appear to have been acting to smack down the Sunnis. Every part of this is a total botch. The Iraqis will never "stand up as we stand down" because their standing up is escalating the civil war out of control. W and Co. managed to find a way to make a bad situation orders of magnitude worse. |
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CENTCOM Internet Resources
by Rattle at 5:20 pm EDT, Aug 18, 2006 |
Spc. Ziegler here with U.S. Central Command, I cannot find in the original article where the General said, "Keep up the good work." So, I thought I would post a link to the original article so your readers could judge for themselves. Notice the first paragraph where the headline connects with the body of the story?
First off, welcome to MemeStreams. Most of the users on this system are critical of the war in Iraq, but don't let this deter you from posting links here. All perspective and information is welcome here. Second, I'd like to give you a bit of advice about how to use the system in a way that better supports your mission: When replying to a post and linking an external resource, it works better if you put the URL for the resource in the URL field of the post, and change the title of the post to something that describes it. This post is an example of the result. This makes it easier for users to follow the link, as well as improves the link's search ranking within Google. It is also possible to link within a post using standard HTML. If you reply to this post (or any other post containing a link), you will see examples of this in the text. CENTCOM Internet Resources |
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