MORE SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN BAGHDAD AND OTHER IRAQI CITIES

Suicide bombings in Iraq are increasing as U.S. forces battle the elements and a new wave of attacks all across Iraq, including Baghdad.

Dust storms have prevented U.S. forces from going on patrol, but it hasn't stopped the suicide bombers who use the dust storms for cover as they carry out their missions.

All across Iraq the wave of violence is escalating, but still the mainstream press in the United States looks the other way.

General David Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, has said the drawdown of troops will be delayed because of the increased security problems all across Iraq.

Below are just a few of the incidents which took place Wednesday in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

Bill Corcoran, editor of this blog devoted to telling the truth about the Iraq war and not Bush White House spin or propaganda from FOX NEWS.


Suicide bombing kills 7, injures 17 in Muqdadiya

http://tinyurl.com/2xug65


Muqdadiya, Feb 20, (VOI)- At least seven civilians were killed and 17 more were wounded on Wednesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in central Muqdadiya, a security source said.
“A bomber blew up an explosive belt strapped to his body in al-Asri neighborhood in central Muqdadiya, northeast of Baaquba, killing seven and injuring 17,” the source, who asked anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).Muqdadiya is 45 km northeast of Baaquba, the capital of Diala, which lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.


#1: A dust storm that has gripped much of Iraq for the last two days kept police from identifying a booby trap that set off the initial explosion, he said. The storms, which shut down the capital's airport and sent dozens of Baghdad residents to hospitals with breathing difficulties, were expected to abate Thursday.Heavy sandstorms blanketed much of Iraq for a second day Wednesday, shutting down the capital's airport and sending dozens of Baghdad residents to hospitals with breathing difficulties. Southern Basra was also affected, as was the northern city of Kirkuk.

#2: In yet more violence, Samir al-Attar, deputy minister of Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology, was wounded Wednesday when two roadside bombs detonated near his convoy about a minute apart as he was driving through Baghdad, according to police and ministry officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't allowed to release the information.Two of al-Attar's guards and three civilian bystanders were injured, the officials said on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to release the information.

#3: Three Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers were killed at approximately 10:30 p.m. Feb. 19 when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in northwestern Baghdad.

#4: Two civilians were injured on Wednesday when an explosive charge went off in central Baghdad, a police source said. “An improvised explosive device went off near al-Shaab international Stadium in central Baghdad, wounding two civilians,” the source, who wished to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq

#5: Around 1 p.m., a car bomb was parked at the main street of Ghazaliyah neighborhood ( in west Baghdad) near the Kamal market. One civilian was killed and two were injured.Diyala Prv:Muqdadiyah:

#1: Ten people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a market near the restive city of Baquba north of Baghdad on Wednesday, an Iraqi army officer said. "A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in the market of Muqdadiyah, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 others," General Ragheb al-Omayri told AFP.Samarra:

#1: Two would-be suicide bombers wearing explosives vests were killed by members of a neighbourhood security patrol as they tried to approach their checkpoint on Tuesday in the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Tikrit:

#1: Two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol near the town of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Dalouiya:

#1: Three policemen were injured on Wednesday in a bomb explosion near their vehicle patrol east of Dalouiya, a police source said“A roadside bomb was detonated targeting a police vehicle patrol near Peshiktin village, east of Dalouiya, wounding three policemen,” the source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of IraqNinevah Prv:Mosul:

#1: In other violence in Iraq, four policemen were killed while on patrol in the main northern city of Mosul, a police officer said.Gunmen killed three policemen and wounded three others when they attacked their patrol in a drive-by shooting in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Tal Afar:

#1: And a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in the town of Tal Afar, which lies west of Mosul towards the Syrian border, killing one woman and wounding eight other people, General Najim al-Juburi and doctor at the local hospital said.Al Anbar Prv:

#1: U.S. forces searching for al Qaeda in Iraq fighters on Tuesday discovered 16 bodies, most killed within the past three to six months, U.S. Army officials said. The bodies were uncovered as troops searched an abandoned industrial chemical storage site in the western Iraqi desert. A 3-day-old operation in pursuit of al Qaeda in Iraq yielded signs of insurgent activity, but no fighters. Afghanistan:

#1: Militants have abducted two staff of education department in Afghanistan's western Farah province, said a press release of Afghan Interior Ministry received here Wednesday. Two supervisors of the Education Department of Farah province, busy in visiting schools in Bakwa district, was kidnapped by armed men of militant leader Mullah Ibrahim, on Feb. 18, the ministry said.

#2: A journalist who brought news to Canadian television has been detained without charge at a U.S. base in Afghanistan for almost four months, his employer says, calling for his immediate release. Javed Yazamy, 22, earned the nickname Jojo while serving as a translator for the U.S. forces but spent the past two years working primarily for CTV News in Kandahar. He went missing in October when an unknown caller summoned him to Kandahar Air Field and foreign soldiers captured him in the dusty parking lot just outside the main gate.

Casualty Reports:

Chris York injured Dec. 15 in Iraq. He shipped out to Kirkuk, Iraq, last May and expected to be there until about August serving with the U.S. Army. "All we know is he was in a turret in a Humvee," said his grandmother, Karen York. The vehicle either hit a land mine or was struck by some other kind of explosive device. "They removed his spleen, one kidney, part of his stomach, part of his intestine."

Sgt. Joshua Gutierrez of the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas, was on patrol near Osut, Iraq, searching for missing U.S. soldiers on June 18, 2006, . Around midnight, in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Gutierrez unknowingly drove over a bomb, it exploded, and his Bradley caught fire. “I was unconscious about twenty seconds,” he said. “The guys in the cargo area got out. After I came to my senses, I tried getting out too, but my leg was already pretty much amputated. There was so much going on. My gunner pulled me out, and they got me away before the ammo and fuel blew (everything) up.” Doctors completed the below-the-knee amputation of his right leg, he had a mild traumatic brain injury, and he had three broken bones in his left leg. In succession, he needed medical care in Iraq, Germany, Texas, and San Diego.

Sgt. Andrew Parmley he felt his body forced backward and his left arm go numb. His weapon remained strapped to his chest in firing position, but in a split second, Parmley’s role had shifted from fighting soldier and combat medic to battlefield casualty. He looked down at his useless left arm. “My whole sleeve was bloody,” he said. Although the pain in his arm was “off the scale” and he wondered if it would eventually need to be amputated, he remembers feeling grateful to be alive. The bullet entered his upper arm and traveled through — damaging his ulnar nerve but missing the bone. On that late December morning, Parmley and his platoon had been on a routine mission in the farming community of Arab Jabour — an area south of Baghdad plagued with pockets of Al Qaeda militants.

GEN. PETRAEUS WANTS SLOWER TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

All the talk coming from the Bush White House and FOX NEWS about how troops in Iraq will be drawndown apparently was just a smokescreen.

General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in Iraq, is quoted in the MARINE CORPS TIMES http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/02/Army_Petraeus_080218w/ that the withdrawal of U.S. troops will not be as fast as the Bush White House and FOX NEWS said it was going to be.

Violence in Iraq is definitely on the rise.

Also, the Marines and Army have been having difficulty in meeting recruitment goals.

Many of the troops in Iraq are now on their fourth and fifth rotation to the war zone and the National Guard and Reserves are also stretched to the breaking point.

Adding to the confusion the military faces, the Taliban in Afghanistan is showing signs of reconstituting itself. This week alone there were three suicide bombings in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of almost 200 Afghan citizens.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that bring readers the latest developments in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Petraeus backs slower drawdown from Iraq

By Sean D. Naylor - Staff WriterPosted : Tuesday Feb 19, 2008 13:40:13 EST

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/02/Army_Petraeus_080218w/

The U.S. military commander in Iraq said today that while “there’s every intent” to continue reducing the size of the U.S. force there after the last of the brigade combat teams that constituted the “surge” returns home this summer, it would be “sensible and prudent” to pause the drawdown once the surge units redeploy.

Gen. David Petraeus said he had discussed the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. Central Command head Adm. William Fallon, as well as with the chairman and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen and Marine Gen. James Cartwright.

“The consensus is that when you have withdrawn over one quarter of your combat forces – it’s literally a quarter of our brigade combat teams plus two Marine battalions and the Marine expeditionary unit – that it would be sensible and prudent to have a period of consolidation, perhaps some force adjustments and evaluation before continuing with further reductions,” said Petraeus during a telephone interview.

There is “every intent” to further reduce forces once the departure of the surge forces is complete in July, but the senior leaders agreed that further reductions ought to be based on conditions in Iraq once the surge forces have left, he added.

“So there should be some decision points, once the dust has settled from all those reductions, at which you assess the situation and determine recommendations for additional reductions,” he said. However, he said, U.S. leaders had yet to determine what decision point might be.

“We’re still doing the analysis to lay out how best and when best to make recommendations on further reductions,” he said.

Petraeus listed a series of factors that will influence any decisions on further withdrawals, including how enemy forces react to the departure of the surge units; local and national political developments; local and national economic developments that might “help cement some of the security gains,” as well as the prospect of elections in the early fall.

The general said that any notion that the debate over whether to pause the drawdown after the surge units leave was pitting him against the Joint Chiefs was “a vast oversimplification” of the situation.

“I very much understand the strain and the sacrifice that these long deployments have required, he said, adding that he and his family had “first-hand knowledge” of those sacrifices as he estimated that by the time he next briefs Congress in April he will have been deployed 52 months since 2001.

“We all want to reduce that strain and increase dwell time” for units at home station, he said.

HALF OF BAGHDAD WITHOUT WATER

President Bush and Fox News continue to brag about the gains "the surge" has brought to Baghdad, Iraq, but what they don't talk about is the critical nature of life in the capital city.

As we reported earlier, most of the doctors have left Irag and water and electricity are at a premium in Baghdad.

Unemployment is still one of the biggest problems in Iraq and many young Iraqi men are joining the security forces just to earn a paycheck.

Iraq is NOT getting back to normal. Car bombs, suicide bombings and the decapitating of Iraqi citizens is going on everyday in Iraq.

Reported by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a blog dedicated to theTRUTH about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Half of Baghdad Still Without Water
By Ahmad Raheema, Azzaman. Posted February 18, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/77306/

Despite the talk of progress, Iraq remains a nightmare.

Power failures and maintenance have disrupted running water supplies to almost half of the capital, Baghdad, home to nearly 6 million people.

A Baghdad Municipality source said the project supplying drinking water to Rasafa, the eastern half of Baghdad, was temporarily idle.

The source, refusing to be named, said running water supplies may not resume for a few days.
He attributed the stoppage, which has caused large-scale popular resentment, to blackouts which have recently even affected essential utilities like water.

The stoppage has led to the closure of bakeries and restaurants in Rasafa, aggravating the suffering of Baghdad residents.

Water resumed intermittently and in inadequate quantities through household taps for half a day after a three-stoppage on Thursday.

Then the taps dried once again.

IRAQI MEDICAL SYSTEM WRECKED BY WAR

Iraq once had one of the best medical systems in the world, but when the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003 many of the top doctors and nurses fled to neighboring countries like Syria, Iran and Jordan.

The "brain drain" has been very hard on the Iraqi people who now suffer through a war without end and no means of getting treatment for themselves or their children.

President Bush and his mouthpiece FOX NEWS can talk until they are blue in the face about the success of "the surge," but the reality of life in Iraq is a far different story.

Along with a shortage of electricity and water, the Iraqi people also are faced with a shortage of medical people to attend to their family health problems.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog that brings readers the very latest on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan sans the filter of the Bush White House and FOX NEWS.

Iraqi Medical System Wrecked by War

By LORI HINNANT – 17 hours ago

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5isRxoqKp0584RoRlD8iQf5msy77wD8USTJ480

BAGHDAD (AP) — Already a troubled system, Iraqi medical care has fallen to the brink of collapse since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago.

Scores of doctors have been slain, cancer patients have to hunt down their own drugs — even IV fluid is in short supply. On Tuesday, a former deputy health minister and the head of the ministry's security force will stand trial, a year after they were accused of letting Shiite death squads use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.
Specialists are hard to find. At one point, Baghdad — a city of more than 5 million — had no neurosurgeon, said Dr. Hussein al-Hilli, director of the Ibn Albitar Hospital in Baghdad.

"This was something that was horrible because we had many head injuries, many spinal injuries," al-Hilli said. He described "big shortages of drugs, big shortages of everything" — including IV fluid. "This simple thing, we don't have."

Like so many areas of life in Iraq, the health care crisis is vast and complex, and there is no quick solution to improve conditions for doctors and patients.

According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003, among the professionals from many fields caught up in Iraq's sectarian violence.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of other medical personnel are believed to have fled to Iraq's northern semiautonomous Kurdistan region and neighboring countries.

Even with the security gains of the past several months across Iraq, it is still dangerous for doctors and their families if they dare step out of heavily guarded hospital compounds.

Drugs supplies are so low that Iraqis hospitalized for illnesses as serious as cancer are asked to track down their own medicine.

"When we need medicine, we go directly to private pharmacies," said Ahmed Khalil, the 38-year-old owner of an auto repair shop in Fallujah. "We know we're not going to get any from Fallujah hospital."
And when pharmacy shelves are bare, Iraqis turn to the black market.

"Before the invasion, we got our share of medicine through government-owned medicine depots," said a Baghdad pharmacist, who spoke about on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal. He said hospitals and clinics get some drugs from the medical depots, but it's rarely enough for the number of people in need.

"Sometimes we get medicine stolen by employees who work at the depots or at hospitals," he said.

At worst, the black-market drugs are dubious knockoffs, according to patients, doctors and pharmacists alike.

The war has taken a special toll on hospitals.

Fallujah, site of one of the deadliest battles between U.S. troops and militants west of Baghdad, is slowly rebuilding as violence ebbs, but memories of the danger are acute at the city's main hospital.

"Doctors would concentrate most of the time on treating people wounded in U.S. bombings or clashes between insurgents and U.S. forces. Other patients got little attention," said one doctor at the hospital, who also declined to be identified because he also feared for his safety. "We were beaten by gunmen if we failed to save their wounded fellows."

Jassim Naseef, 52, took his pregnant wife to a private clinic three months ago, paying 20 times what the public hospital would have charged for the birth of their son: $247 compared with $12. The hospital wards, he complained, were dirty and lacked electricity.

"I chose the expensive private clinic in order to ensure that my wife and my son got the best medical care," he said.

The American military and non-governmental organizations such as the Iraqi Red Crescent do a great deal to help, al-Hilli and others said, by bringing in supplies and advisers and helping train medical staff still versed in 1970s-style medicine.

Al-Hilli also has been buoyed by the Iraqi government announcing a plan to build more hospitals. He said no new hospitals had been built since 1986, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, more than two decades ago.

Yet there are still major problems. Iraq's Health Ministry has been in almost constant flux since the war started. Each minister has stayed "eight months or seven months or 11 months," al-Hilli said.
Then, there are the arrests of former Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili and Brig. Gen. Hameed al-Shimmari, who was in charge of the ministry's security force. Soldiers stormed their offices last February in separate raids.

U.S. officials had been complaining that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers were transforming hospitals into bases for his Mahdi militia and — were diverting medicine from state clinics to health care facilities run by the cleric's movement.

The clinics helped al-Sadr build a powerful nationwide political movement modeled in part on the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

There was another ominous development earlier this month, when the acting head of al-Rashad psychiatric hospital was arrested by the U.S. military in connection with the possible exploitation of mentally impaired women by al-Qaida in Iraq, presumably the suicide bombers who destroyed two pet markets in Baghdad and killed nearly 100 people.

The U.S. military wouldn't speculate on a motive but noted at the time of the arrest that al-Qaida often uses threats or extortion to get what it wants, which could possibly put the death of the former director, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Ajil, in a slightly different light.

He was gunned down on his way home from work in December.

PARTIAL CURFEW FOR FALLUJA, IRAQ A WEEK AFTER FOX NEWS CALLED CITY A SAFE HAVEN

Just a week ago a Fox News reporter toured the streets of Falluja, Iraq with a U.S. Army General in a display of how safe Falluja has become since the introduction of the "surge."

However, on Monday a partial curfew of Falluja was ordered when reports surfaced insurgents and terrorists had entered the city.

The city of Falluja is the prime jewel in the Bush Administration's crown of selling the American public on the idea the "surge" has been a roaring success in Iraq.

As Falluja goes so goes Iraq is the battle cry of the Bush administration and their propaganda mouthpiece Fox News.

The United States military is going to launch a full-scale effort to seek and destroy any insurgents or terrorists who have entered Falluja.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE

Police impose partial curfew on Falluja

http://tinyurl.com/23sqlb

Falluja, Feb 18, (VOI) - Police forces on Monday imposed a partial curfew over Falluja during hunt down operations for gunmen, a police source said."Falluja police imposed a curfew on al-Muhandiseen, al-Mualimeen, and al-Wehda neighborhoods in central Falluja," the source told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

"The ban includes vehicles and pedestrians," he explained."Police patrols ordered residents via loudspeakers to remain indoors while searching some houses," the source noted."

This came after a tip-off that indicated some gunmen had entered the city," he highlighted.Falluja is 45 km west of Baghdad.

EIGHT DIE IN SUICIDE ATTACKS IN IRAQ. THREE FROM FEMALE BOMBER

The violence in Iraq shows no sign of letting up as the toll from Sunday's suicide bombings rose to eight, including three who were killed when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a shop in central Baghdad.

The mainstream media in the United States continues to ignore the upward trend of violence in Iraq and still praises the "surge" even when there is ample proof the "surge" has not curbed the violence in Iraq and the capital city of Baghdad.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the only blog devoted entirely to bringing readers the truth about conditions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.


Toll from Iraq attacks rises to eight

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/17/content_7619362.htm

BAGHDAD, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Death toll from attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including a suicide bombing attack in Baghdad, rose to eight, sources with Interior Ministry and police said.

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a shop in central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada on Sunday, killing up to three people and wounding eight others, an Interior Ministry source said.

Earlier, the source put the casualties at two killed and four injured.

The female suicide bomber entered the shop after being chased by Iraqi army soldiers on suspicion that she was a suicide bomber, the source said.

The blast destroyed the shop and caused damages to several nearby shops and civilian cars, he said.

In northern Iraq, a car bomb struck a police patrol in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, damaging a police vehicle and killing a policeman aboard, the police said.

Two civilians were also killed and two others injured by the blast in the city located some 400 km north of Baghdad, they said.

In Salahudin province, a roadside bomb went off in the morning near a civilian car in the town of Beiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, killing the driver aboard, who was later appeared to be a member of the U.S.-backed Awakening Council group, which fight al-Qaida in Iraq network, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, unknown gunmen stormed a house in the town of Duluiyah, 90 km north of Baghdad, and shot dead a woman before they fled the scene, the source said.

The attacks came as the Iraqi government have been emphasizing the dramatic security improvement in the war-torn country since months ago, thanks to a large influx of U.S. troops and the cooperation of Iraq's Sunnis.

However, the U.S. military commanders have doubts over security, stressing that the al-Qaida remains a serious threat.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS ACROSS IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Violence continues throughout Iraq and Afghanistan as both countries teeter on the brink of collapse again.

Despite all the flamboyant talk from the Bush administration and their puppet mouthpiece, Fox News, both Iraq and Afghanistan are in the throes of chaos as suicide bombers take their toll in both countries.

Here is just a partial list of incidents from Iraq and Afghanistan that took place Monday.


Baquba:#1: Three civilians were wounded on Monday when a booby-trapped car went off south of Baaquba targeting Popular Committees fighters, said an official police source. "A car bomb was detonated in Bahraz district, south of Baaquba, targeting a gathering of the Popular Committees fighters, injuring three civilians,” the source, who asked to remain unnamed, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq

#2: A suicide car bomb targeted the office of the local committees in Shams village south of Baquba city around 12:00 pm. No casualties were reported.Iskandariyah:#1: Gunmen killed one man and wounded another in a drive-by shooting on Sunday in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.Babel Prv:#1: The Babel provincial council vice chairman was wounded in a quarrel with the guards of the city's court of appeal on Monday and was taken to a hospital, a police source in the province said. "A quarrel occurred between Dr. Niema Jassem, who was entering the court of appeal in the city, and the guards of the court," the source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) ."The court guards assaulted Jassem, breaking his right arm and causing him bruises in other parts of his body," the source said, adding "Jassem was taken to a hospital while the guards were kept under investigative custody."Basra:#1: A police officer from the internal affairs department survived unscathed an attempt on his life in central Basra on Monday while three of his guards were wounded, an official police source in Basra said. "Unidentified gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by fire at Capt. Muhammad Nouri, an officer in the internal affairs department, in central Basra," the source, who refused to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq

Tikrit:#1: Maj. Nahi Khalaf Ahmad was killed when a roadside bomb detonated before noon outside his house in central the capital city of Tikrit, 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Three people were also wounded by the blast that caused damages to nearby houses and civilian cars, he said.Samarra:#1: Separately, an Iraqi police force teamed up with fighters from an Awakening Council group and raided on Sunday night al-Qaida hideouts in the open area of the al-Jallam, just east of Samarra City, some 120 km north of Baghdad, Mazin Younis, head of the Awakening group in the city, told Xinhua. During the raid the police and the Awakening Council fighters had sporadic clashes with some militant groups, which resulted in the killing of an insurgent who was wearing an explosive vest and the detention of two others, Younis said.Al Anbar Prv:Hit:

#1: Two civilians were killed and another wounded in a blast that occurred inside a store selling electrical appliances in central Hit, 70 km west of Ramadi, on Monday, a security source said. "The store owner was killed and his son wounded. Another civilian who happened to be inside the store at the time was killed," the source told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on condition of anonymity.Ramadi:#1: Police patrols on Monday found two unknown corpses in the city of Ramadi, a police source said. "A police patrol found two bodies thrown on the international road in western Ramadi," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -

Voices of IraqAfghanistan:#1: It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that a soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment was killed in southern Afghanistan yesterday, Sunday 17 February 2008. One other soldier was also injured in the incident but his injuries are not life threatening. Just before 2100 hrs local time soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, as part of their Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) role, were taking part in a foot patrol with 40 Commando Royal Marines near Kajaki, Helmand Province, when they were caught in an explosion.

#2: A suicide bomber targeting a foreign military convoy in Afghanistan killed 37 civilians in an attack near the Pakistan border on Monday, the interior ministry said. The attack happened on a narrow bridge in the bustling town of Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar province, a stronghold for Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government and its Western backers. Kandahar's governor Assadullah Kahlid told a news conference the bomber was in a car and had attacked a convoy of Canadian troops serving under NATO's command. Four Canadians were wounded, he said. But another official from the area said two foreign soldiers also died.

A suicide car bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy left three Canadian soldiers wounded at at least 37 civilians were killed. The bombing occured at a busy market in southern Afghanistan. The Canadian military released few details initially, saying only that no Canadians were killed.#3: update An Afghan governor says the death toll from a suicide bombing in Kandahar province has risen to more than 100. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid told a mosque filled with mourners Monday that he had warned the militia commander who was the target of Sunday's attack that bombers were trying to kill him. The suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of men and boys watching a dog fighting competition.

SECOND SUICIDE BOMBING KILLS 37 IN AFGHANISTAN: 100 KILLED ON SUNDAY

Just as was anticipated the insurgents and the Taliban have shifted their attacks away from Iraq and are now targeting Afghanistan.

On Sunday 100 people were killed in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber blew themselves up at a dog fight, and on Monday another 37 were killed in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber set off an explosive in the middle of a foreign military convoy. The deaths were mostly Afghan civilians.

The Taliban as well as Al Queda have been showing signs of stepping up their attacks in Afghanistan where the United States military has over 25,000 troops.

There is already talk in the Bush White House and at the Pentagon of sending additional troops into Afghanistan.

Commentary: President Bush obviously bit off more than he can chew when he decided to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The resurgence of the Taliban and Al Queda in Afghanistan is very worrisome, and military leaders in Iraq are now saying the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will probably not take place.

The United States military--especially the Army and the Marines---are stretched to the breaking point and are in dire need of more recruits to offset the rotations that find some units going back to Iraq and Afghanistan for their third fourth or fifth tour.

The "surge" in Iraq is like a band-aid and there is already talk it will not have a lasting effect on the violence in Iraq which is already showing signs of increasing.

A female suicide bomber killed three people on Sunday in Baghdad and the bodies of ten Iraqi citizens who had been decapitated were found in Baghdad.

There are also troubling signs with the Iraqi government as members of the Sunni bloc are voicing displeasure with the way the government is handling matters in Iraq.

The British government was in Iraq for 30 years with 90,000 troops and were never able to bring stability to Iraq.

There is no reason to believe the results will be any different even if the U.S. military stays in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 100 years as Sen. John McCain has proposed.

Bill Corcoran, Chicago, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells the TRUTH about Iraq and Afghanistan and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.

Suicide bomber kills 37 in Afghanistan

18 Feb 2008 13:42:53 GMT 18 Feb 2008 13:42:53 GMT Source: Reuters

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP294429.htm

By Mirwais Afghan and Ismail Sameem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber targeting a foreign military convoy in Afghanistan killed 37 civilians in an attack near the Pakistan border on Monday, the interior ministry said.

The attack, a day after more than 100 people were killed in the deadliest suspected suicide raid since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, comes as some Western politicians call for a stronger resolve to stop Afghanistan sliding back into anarchy.

"The suicide attack ... caused the killing of 37 non-combatants and wounding of 30 others," the ministry said in a statement in Kabul.

The attack happened on a narrow bridge in the bustling town of Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar province, a stronghold for Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government and its Western backers.

Kandahar's governor Assadullah Khalid told a news conference the bomber was in a car and had attacked a convoy of Canadian troops serving under NATO's command. Four Canadians were wounded, he said. But another official from the area said two foreign soldiers also died.

A NATO spokesman in Kabul confirmed the blast, but refused to provide more details. Several fuel shops were on fire in Spin Boldak after the bombing, witnesses said.

Despite the presence of more than 50,000 foreign soldiers led by NATO and the U.S. military, as well as some 140,000 Afghan troops, Taliban militants have made a comeback in the past two years and more than 11,000 people have been killed in violence.

Sunday's attack happened as a crowd of people were watching dog fights in Arghandab, on the western outskirts of Kandahar city. Dozens of victims were buried side-by-side in a mourning ceremony on Monday.

Provincial governor Khalid has accused the Taliban of the attack, but the insurgents denied responsibility.

Khalid said he had intelligence about the attack and had tipped off the Canadian forces about it.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she saw no need to change parliamentary mandates limiting the number of troops her government can send to Afghanistan, despite mounting pressure from NATO allies.

"We are not changing the mandates as they are at the moment," Merkel told reporters. "I see no need for a change at the moment."

Germany, which has roughly 3,300 troops in Afghanistan, is under pressure from allies, particularly the United States, to send additional soldiers and shift them from the north to the more dangerous south to help battle Taliban insurgents.

The main mandate, due to expire in October, allows Germany to send a maximum of 3,500 soldiers to Afghanistan. German media have reported Merkel's government seeks to increase the number of troops.

IED BOMBS DOWN IN IRAQ BUT UP IN AFGHANISTAN

Senator John McCain, the likely Republican candidate for POTUS, has an expression for it. He calls it "whack-a-mole."
What McCain is referring to is how when U.S. forces seem to be getting the upper hand on IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) in Iraq they pop in Afghanistan.

This has been the MO (Modus Operandi) of the insurgents and Al Qaeda since the U.S. invaded and occupied both Iraq and Afghanistan. Violence is putdown in one area only to pop up in another area.

A study release by Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) spells out what is working and what isn't working in the ongoing effort to stop IED attacks.

It is worth reading.

Bill Corcoran, editor CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that brings readers the latest developments in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.

Improvised Bombs: Down in Iraq, Up in Afghanistan; Tech Barely a Factor

By Sharon Weinberger February 14, 2008 1:40:00 PMCategories: Bomb Squad

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/ieds-down-in-ir.html
There's good news in Iraq: improvised explosive device (IED) attacks against coalition forces in Iraq have dropped dramatically over the last year. Not only is the use of IEDs dropping off, but more IEDs are being found before they go off, and more Iraqis are alerting forces of possible attacks.

That's all good news, but as noted in the just released Fiscal Year 2007 Annual Report of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), while IEDs are declining in Iraq, "the opposite trend has been observed in Afghanistan." The report notes, "In that theater, an emboldened, increasingly aggressive enemy has increased the use of IEDs. The number of IEDs employed against U.S. forces in FY07 reached an all-time high, more than doubling over the last half of the fiscal year."

More interesting are the reasons cited for this turnaround. It's not a silver bullet technology, or frankly, anything specifically the JIEDDO has done (though no doubt it's contributed in some areas). Rather, the report points to four major factors:

1) "The decision of many local faction to support coalition force efforts."
2) "The sustained presence of coalition forces throughout the Baghdad security zones that have greatly reduced the monthly number of IED incidents in Baghdad."
3) "The success of numerous locally focused brigade and regimental-level operations against networks."
4) "Relentless efforts to disrupt the event chain which enables activities."

If operational tactics dealt the biggest blow to the IED threat, how, then, has JIEDDO contributed to the drop-off? Well, protective capabilities, which JIEDDO has supported, have played a role, the report notes, so too has better training. Also, JIEDDO has been involved in a number of efforts to disrupt IED networks (cited above as a contributing factor to the overall decrease). The reports notes that over the last year, insurgents have had to employ six IEDs to bring about one coalition casualty. On the flip side, IEDs that do go off have become more lethal, demonstrating how insurgents are adapting. But the report makes clear that it's military operations that have played the greatest role in this turnaround.

What hasn't worked? Well, nifty gimmickry doesn't always pan out. JIEDDO says over the past year it's canceled Alexis and Electra-C, systems that emitted wave forms to pre-detonate IEDs. They interfered with the counter-IED jammers. That's not good. Warlock Dragon, which uses high-power microwaves against IEDs, also ended up being something of a dud. Despite promising tests, it didn't work well in the field (because insurgents were using countermeasures, JIEDDO says).

Interestingly, although the report appears to place heavy emphasis on the success of things like attacking the IED network, counter-IED systems still gets the lion's share of JIEDDO funding ($2.57 billion out of $4.77 billion) for fiscal 2008. This could simply be because technology is cash-intensive, while efforts to attack the network are not. But, it's still an interesting data point.

80 KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN BY SUICIUDE BOMBER: 2 U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ: FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 3

The violence has shifted back to Afghanistan where on Sunday 80 people were killed while attending a dog fight.

Meanwhile, in Iraq there is no sign of a letup in the violence that continues throughout the country.

Here is what happened on Sunday in Iraq:

TWO U.S. SOLDIERS ARE KILLED IN IRAQ. FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 3

Diyala Province, unspecified locationTwo U.S. soldiers killed by small arms fire, one injured and medically evacuated. No further details at this time.

BaghdadFemale suicide bomber kills three, injures 10. Attack in predominantly Shiite Masbah district appears to have been partially thwarted by police. I presume this is the same attack reported by VoI, in which a female suicide bomber targeting a police checkpoint is said to have injured four people in Karada. McClatchy apparently explains the contradiction by noting that MNF said there were only injuries, but Iraqi police reported three killed. MNF typically minimizes the casualties from these incidents. I can't find "Masbah" on my map of Baghdad, but perhaps it is part of Karada. For those who don't know, Karada is on the peninsula formed by a sharp bend in the Tigris, across from the Green Zone.

Two bodies found dumped on Saturday in different places.al-Khalidiya (near Ramadi)U.S. forces kill a cab driver who got too close to them at an intersection. No comment from MNF.

MosulRemotely detonated car bomb, apparently targeting police, kills one police officer and two civilians, two more civilians injured.Six civilians injured by mortar and small arms attack in al-Thawra neighborhood.

BaijiRoadside bomb kills three people in a market on Saturday.Reuters also reports a police officer killed by another bomb on the same day.Baqubaa 17-year-old girl named Nadia Jameel was killed near her house in Al-Katoon neighborhood, west Baquba, apparently by a stray bullet.


80 die in bombing at Afghan dog fight

By ALLAUDDIN KHAN, Associated Press Writer 56 minutes ago

http://tinyurl.com/2rmrwd

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores on Sunday, an Afghan governor said. It appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

A prominent militia commander who stood up against the Taliban was killed in the attack and officials said he may have been the target.

Several hundred people, including Afghan militia leaders, had gathered to watch the competition on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast but it was not immediately clear how many of the casualties might have been caused by bullets.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 80 people had been killed in the attack. Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 70 were wounded.

Khalid blamed the attack on "the enemy of Afghanistan," which typically means the Taliban. The attack's apparent target, Abdul Hakim Jan, served as a commander of an auxiliary police force, a government-backed security force made of area tribesmen that is often shorthand for a local militia operating with government approval.

IRAQI DEFENSE MINISTER WANTS MORE U.S. TROOPS

Just a couple of weeks ago President Bush and the Pentagon were saying they were going to drawdown the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.

However, the Iraqi Defense Minister wants more troops in Iraq and U.S. military people are saying the "surge" could end in July with more troops in Iraq than when it started.

Once again the troops and the American people are being given double-speak on the troop withdrawals from Iraq.

What is even more disquieting is the Iraqi Defense Minister is calling the shots on how many U.S. troops stay in Iraq.

Perhaps before President Bush leaves office next January he can just ONCE tell the American people the truth about Iraq.

It would be refreshing.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that tells the TRUTH about what is happening with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq defence minister says in need of US troops
Senior Pentagon official says US 'surge' likely to end with more troops in Iraq than before.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24366

DUBAI - Iraq's defence minister said on Saturday that his country needs US troops to protect its borders and also for "strategic deterrence."

"We need US troops... for the defence of the borders... I don't have anything I can use for strategic deterrence. I do not have intercepting aircraft," Abdel Qader Jassim al-Obaidi said on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

"My need for them (US troops) is pressing in this regard," al-Obaidi said.

But the Iraqi official, who was in Dubai to attend a conference on Iraqi defence and security, said that Iraqi troops always replace US forces when the security situation improves and the latter withdraw from a certain area.

"Whenever the security situation seriously improves we replace them. We have a plan for this year but I cannot disclose the timetable," he said.

"Anyway, the Americans themselves are not willing to abandon Iraq unless they are confident that we are capable. This is an agreement," al-Obaidi added.

A senior Pentagon official said earlier this week that the US "surge" is likely to end in July with more troops in Iraq than the 132,000 who were there before five extra combat brigades were sent in more than a year ago.

Lieutenant General Carter Ham said that support forces and trainers who went in with the surge will still be needed to back up Iraq's expanding security forces after the last of the extra combat brigades leaves.

"It's likely that the number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Ham, the operations director of the Joint Staff.
Currently there are about 158,000 US troops in Iraq, down from a high of about 170,000 at the height of the surge.

U.S. FORCES IN IRAQ KILL IRAQIS TRAINING FOR SECURITY JOBS

In still another demonstration of FUBAR (ask one of the members of your family who was in the military what that means if you don't know), the U.S. military in Iraq has KILLED dozens of Iraqis who were in training to takeover security operations in Iraq.

This is just another story that will NEVER be covered by the mainstream media in the United States, especially FOX NEWS which is the mouthpiece of the Bush Administration.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the blog that tells the TRUTH about events in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraqi Sahwa fighters stage demonstration against U.S. forces in Iraq

Babel - Voices of Iraq
Saturday , 16 /02 /2008 Time 8:23:22

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=69823&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Babel, Feb 16, (VOI) – The Sahwa (Awakening) tribal fighters staged a demonstration and announced their withdrawal from any activities in Hilla after three of them were killed by U.S. fire during a landing operation north of Hilla, an official source from Babel police said.

"U.S. forces conducted a landing operation in the area of Abad Weis in Jerf al-Sakhr, (60 km) north of Hilla. The U.S. soldiers opened their fire at a gathering of Sahwa men, killing three of them without any apparent reason," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

"The U.S. forces killed 19 Sahwa fighters and wounded more than 12 others in just one month and a half," Sabah al-Janabi, the chief of the Sahwa forces in the area, told VOI.

"After each incident, the U.S. forces claim that it occurred by mistake. The U.S. side promises to offer an apology and compensations for the victims' relatives but does not fulfill these pledges," said Janabi.

"Therefore, we announce our withdrawal from the Sahwa council and leave any duty assigned to the Sahwa fighters," he stressed.

Hilla, the capital of Babel, lies 100 km south of Baghdad.

VIDEO RE DEFECTIVE HELMETS FOR TROOPS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BREAKING NEWS: Vice President Dick Cheney is asked about the Pentagon awarding a new $74 million dollar contract to Sioux Manufacturing, which just settled a lawsuit for providing faulty Kevlar helmets for our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. Sign the petition demanding an investigation at the VoteVets.org website.

http://www.headzup.tv/wuhzup/index.php

MARINE DEATHS IN IRAQ CAUSED BY LACK OF BOMB-RESISTANT VEHICLES

According to a new study, hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed in Iraq because Marine bureaucrats refused to approve the armor needed to protect them while on patrol in MRAPs, the 40-ton truck used so often when Marines go out on patrol in Iraq.

The study is just another example of the foot-dragging that has been going on with the Defense Department when it comes to protecting soldiers and Marine in the field of combat in Iraq.

Not long ago it was reported the soldiers and Marines were not getting the new Kevlar helmets so badly needed to protect them from the IED's and other explosive devices used by the insurgents and Al Queda.

President Bush and his propaganda branch, FOX NEWS, can boast all they want about the success of the "surge" but in reality the equipment U.S. forces are using in Iraq is outdated and in many cases just worn out.

The United States has 160,000 troops in Iraq and there are now reports the scaling back of troops will be put on hold as violence all across Iraq begins to show signs of increasing.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog devoted to telling the TRUTH about conditions in Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.


Lack of MRAPs cost Marine lives

Study Says Refusal to Send Bomb-Resistant MRAPs to Iraq Led to Marine Deaths

RICHARD LARDNERAP News
Feb 15, 2008 15:37 EST

http://tinyurl.com/237doa

Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

The study, written by a civilian Marine Corps official and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years.

Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the so-called MRAPs, according to the study. Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded.

After Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared the MRAP (pronounced M-rap) the Pentagon's No. 1 acquisition priority in May 2007, the trucks began to be shipped to Iraq in large quantities.
The vehicles weigh as much as 40 tons and have been effective at protecting American forces from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the weapon of choice for Iraqi insurgents. Only four U.S. troops have been killed by such bombs while riding in MRAPs; three of those deaths occurred in older versions of the vehicles.

The study's author, Franz J. Gayl, catalogs what he says were flawed decisions and missteps by midlevel managers in Marine Corps offices that occurred well before Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006.

Among the findings in the Jan. 22 study:

_ Budget and procurement managers failed to recognize the damage being done by IEDs in late 2004 and early 2005 and were convinced the best solution was adding more armor to the less-sturdy Humvees the Marines were using. Humvees, even those with extra layers of steel, proved incapable of blunting the increasingly powerful explosives planted by insurgents.

_ An urgent February 2005 request for MRAPs got lost in bureaucracy. It was signed by then-Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who asked for 1,169 of the vehicles. The Marines could not continue to take "serious and grave casualties" caused by IEDs when a solution was commercially available, wrote Hejlik, who was a commander in western Iraq from June 2004 to February 2005.

Gayl cites documents showing Hejlik's request was shuttled to a civilian logistics official at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in suburban Washington who had little experience with military vehicles. As a result, there was more concern over how the MRAP would upset the Marine Corps' supply and maintenance chains than there was in getting the troops a truck that would keep them alive, the study contends.

_ The Marine Corps' acquisition staff didn't give top leaders correct information. Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, was not told of the gravity of Hejlik's MRAP request and the real reasons it was shelved, Gayl writes. That resulted in Conway giving "inaccurate and incomplete" information to Congress about why buying MRAPs was not hotly pursued.

_ The Combat Development Command, which decides what gear to buy, treated the MRAP as an expensive obstacle to long-range plans for equipment that was more mobile and fit into the Marines Corps' vision as a rapid reaction force. Those projects included a Humvee replacement called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and a new vehicle for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

The MRAPs didn't meet this fast-moving standard and so the Combat Development Command didn't want to buy them, according to Gayl. The study calls this approach a "Cold War orientation" that suffocates the ability to react to emergency situations.

_ The Combat Development Command has managers — some of whom are retired Marines — who lack adequate technical credentials. They have outdated views of what works on the battlefield and how the defense industry operates, Gayl says. Yet they are in position to ignore or overrule calls from deployed commanders.

An inquiry should be conducted by the Marine Corps inspector general to determine if any military or government employees are culpable for failing to rush critical gear to the troops, recommends Gayl, who prepared the study for the Marine Corps' plans, policies and operations department.

More than 3,900 U.S. troops, including 824 Marines, have been killed in action in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. An additional 30,000 have been wounded, nearly 8,400 of them Marines. The majority of the deaths and injuries have been caused by explosive devices, according to the Defense Department.

Congress has provided more than $22 billion for 15,000 MRAPs the Defense Department plans to acquire, mostly for the Army. Depending on the size of the vehicle and how it is equipped, the trucks can cost between $450,000 and $1 million.

Click on link above to read the full account of how Marines have died because of the lack of bomb-resistant vehicles.

LIFE IN IRAQ IS ANYTHING BUT STABLE

Is Iraq as stable as the Bush White House and FOX News are saying?

Not at all.

Read this full account of what life is like in Iraq. It is not what the Bush White House and FOX NEWS are saying.

Iraq: They Call This Stability?

By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UKPosted on February 15, 2008, Printed on February 16, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/77146/

People in Baghdad are not passive victims of violence, but seek desperately to avoid their fate. In April 2004, I was almost killed by Shia militiamen of the Mehdi Army at a checkpoint at Kufa in southern Iraq. They said I was an American spy and were about to execute me and my driver, Bassim Abdul Rahman, when they decided at the last moment to check with their commander. "I believe," Bassim said afterwards, "that if Patrick had an American or an English passport [instead of an Irish one] they would have killed us all immediately."

In the following years, I saw Bassim less and less. He is a Sunni, aged about 40, from west Baghdad. After the battle for Baghdad between Shia and Sunni in 2006, he could hardly work as a driver as three-quarters of the capital was controlled by the Shia. There were few places where a Sunni could drive in safety outside a handful of enclaves.

What happened to Bassim was also to happen to millions of Iraqis who saw their lives ruined by successive calamities. As their world collapsed around them they were forced to take desperate measures to survive, obtain a job and make enough money to feed and educate their families.
In the US and Europe, the main measure of whether the war in Iraq is "going well" or "going badly" is the casualty figures. The number of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians being killed went down to 39 US soldiers and 599 Iraqi civilians in January.

The White House is promoting the idea that the United States is finally on the road to success, if not victory, in Iraq.

On the back of this renewed optimism about the war, Senator John McCain, the premier hawk among the Republican candidates for the presidency, has been able to revive his foundering campaign and is set to be his party's nominee. Despite the scepticism of many US journalists permanently stationed in Iraq, television and newspaper newsrooms in New York and Washington (in London they are more skeptical) have largely bought into the idea that "the surge" -- the wider deployment of 30,000 extra US troops since February 2006 -- has succeeded.

But any true assessment of the happiness or misery of Iraqis must use a less crude index than the number of dead and injured. It must ask if people have been driven from their houses, and if they can return. It must say whether they have a job and, if they do not, whether they stand a chance of getting one. It has to explain why so few of the 3.2 million people who are refugees in Syria and Jordan, or inside Iraq, are coming back.

Go back to link to read the full story....

FOX NEWS BRAGS ABOUT CALM IN FALLUJA, IRAQ, BUT IGNORES VIOLENCE ALL ACROSS IRAQ

FOX NEWS is doing their level best to try and sell their audience on the idea that the "surge" has been a roaring success. On Friday, FOX NEWS had one of their reporters touring a market in Falluja, Iraq with a U.S. Army General. The point of the news piece was to give the impression that Iraq is a "sea of calm."

However, FOX NEWS conveniently overlooked what was taking place in the rest of Iraq and Afghanistan in their rush to judgement.

Iraq and Afghanistan are anything but a "sea of calm," and violence continues all across both countries.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, the blog devoted to telling ALL the facts about Iraq and not Bush White House and FOX NEWS spin.

POTPOURRI OF VIOLENCE AND MAYHEM IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN


War News for Friday, February 15, 2008

The DoD is reporting the death of a soldier previously not reported by CENTCOM. Staff Sgt. Javares J. Washington died in a vehicle accident in at Camp Buehring in Kuwait City, Kuwait on Monday, February 11th. No other details were released and the incident is under investigation.

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: An IED attached to a civilian car exploded targeting a Sahwa checkpoint in Ghazaliyah this afternoon, killing 2 people, one of which was a Sahwa member and injuring 4, 2 of which were Sahwa members.

#2: 4 bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today. 1 in Qahira, 1 in Binook, 1 in Hurriyah and 1 in Saidiyah.Diyala Prv:#1: Diyala Police found 5 bodies in one place in al-Salam neighbourhood, 20 km to the north of Baquba. They were found on the side of the road.

There was evidence of torture and each had several gunshot wounds in the head.Balad Ruz:#1: Gunmen in a police uniforms manning a fake checkpoint kidnapped four people from one family on Friday, including two women, near the town of Balad Ruz, about 70km (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Police found the body of a man with gunshot wounds on Friday, a day after he had been reported kidnapped in Balad Ruz, police said.Hawija:

#1: Raids on al-Qaida forces in northern Iraq have left seven insurgents dead, the U.S. military said. But local police said Friday that two women and two U.S.-allied fighters were among those killed. An Iraqi police officer in the area, however, said a house that was bombed belonged to a Sunni Arab and tribal leader, and that six family members died. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the bombing occurred about 33 miles southwest of Kirkuk and two of the victims were women. Another two of those killed, he said, were part of an Awakening Council, one of the Sunni groups that last year abandoned their support for al-Qaida and began joining the U.S. in its effort to clear out insurgent forces.

Two U.S. helicopters opened fire at a house in al-Zab area, al-Huweija district, (70 km) south of Kirkuk, killing eight civilians of the same family who were inside the house at the time," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. " Unidentified persons opened fire at the two U.S. helicopters, which fired back," the source said, not determining whether the attacked house was the source of the fire. "So far we are not certain whether the fire opened at the U.S. helicopters were from that house or another nearby place," indicated the source, adding the fatalities were two men, a woman and five children.

Mosul:#1: in an operation Wednesday in southeast Mosul, the U.S. military said it killed an insurgent wearing a suicide belt who shot at troops as they were targeting the building of an alleged al-Qaida supporter.Tal Afar:#1: At least four people were killed and 13 wounded in northern Iraq when two suicide bombers with explosive vests blew themselves up at the entrance to a Shi'ite mosque during Friday prayers, police said. The bombers struck in the afternoon in Tal Afar, 420 km (360 miles) northwest of Baghdad.#2: A few minutes later, the second attacker ran toward people who were busy in the aftermath of the first explosion. "But police opened fire on him before he reached the people," the mayor said. A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information, said the second attacker blew himself up without causing casualties.

Afghanistan:#1: Insurgents ambushed a police vehicle in southwest Afghanistan, and the three-hour gunbattle that followed left four policemen dead. Two other police officers were wounded in Thursday's clash in Nimroz province, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub Badakhshi, the provincial police chief.Taliban fighters attacked a police patrol, killing four policemen, wounding two others and taking away two more in southwestern Afghan province of Nimruz, provincial governor said Friday.

Casualty Reports:Pfc. Wes Hixon of Cody, 22, is in critical condition after his vehicle was struck by a bomb Feb. 8 near Baghdad.Four other soldiers with him in the cab of the vehicle died. Six others who were in the vehicle's transport area are in critical condition, according to family friend Brenda Marchese and other members of Families on the Frontline. As a member of the 25th Infantry Division, he was driving a Stryker on patrol five miles outside Baghdad when it ran over an improvised explosive device that blew the 8-ton vehicle in half.

They may be shopping in Falluja, but the rest of Iraq is a "sea of violence" instead of a "sea of calm."

U.S. HAS PAID $38M TO IRAQIS IT KILLED

You won't hear FOX NEWS or the Bush administration talking about this, but the U.S. has shelled out $38M to Iraqis it has killed.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog of the truth about what is REALLY happening in Iraq.

U.S. has paid $38M to Iraqis it killed

Published: Feb. 13, 2008 at 11:29 AM

http://tinyurl.com/2y8vkt

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- In its efforts to win support from Iraqis, the U.S. military has made $38 million worth of payments to the families of civilians they have killed since 2004.

Most of the money has been distributed in the areas of the country where Iraq's Sunnis live, and some Shiite dominated areas in the south have not received any funds.

The cash handouts, known as condolence payments, are made at the discretion of mid-ranking U.S. officers in local areas and come from a special military fund called the Commanders' Emergency Response Program.

A recent audit of the program carried out for Congress by the Special Inspector General for Iraq found that, of the $38 million paid out since 2004, more than half, $21.35 million, was distributed in Anbar province; $5.5 million was given out in Baghdad, but none was spent in Basra.Pentagon officials budgeted $10.8 million for the payments in 2007 -- an increase of nearly one-third over 2006.

The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, a non-profit that advocates compensation for civilians harmed or killed by U.S. military operations, supports the condolence program but says more information should be collected about the process of distribution.

The payments "aren't just handouts," said CIVIC Executive Director Sarah Holewinski. "They're necessary strategy in a place where the United States needs the support of the population."

Holewinski called the program "a tremendous opportunity to create goodwill among Iraqis" but added that the accounting for the payments was "so vague as to be irrelevant in determining success or failure.""Who was paid? How much? Importantly, who wasn't paid and why?" asked Holewinski."Inadequate records on civilian harm -- and help -- deny the military the chance to prove effective implementation and ultimately the success of the condolence system."

READ IT AND WEEP: 2 MILLION IRAQI CHILDREN ARE UNDERNOURISHED

The Bush Administration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS can continue to brag about the success of the "surge" and how the Iraqi government is coming together, but the truth is over 2 million Iraqi children lack adequate nutrition.

Bill Corcoran, editor, of CORKSPHERE. http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the blog that tells the inside story of what is REALLY happening in Iraq.

Iraq's children 2007: a year in their life

State of Iraq's Children 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2mozaf

At least 2 million Iraqi children lacked adequate nutrition (according to the WFP assessment of food insecurity in 2006) and faced a range of other threats including interrupted education, lack of immunization services and diarrhoea diseases.Only 28% of Iraq's 17 year olds sat their final exams in summer, and only 40% of those sitting exams achieved a passing grade in South and Central Iraq.

Early estimates from the Ministry of Education show that net primaryenrolment rates may have fallen from 86% in 2004 to 46% in 2006 (although the estimated 2 million refugees and the lack of a current census may have contributed to this decline).

However, millions were able to return to school in November, despite the many challenges.Many of the 220,000 school-aged internally displaced children had their education interrupted, adding to the estimated 760,000 children out of primary school in 2006.One third of children in remote and hard-to-reach areas (28 out of 117 districts) were cut off from health outreach services, including immunization, as a result of insecurity.Only 40% of children nationwide had reliable access to safe drinking water, and only 20% outside Baghdad had a working sewerage serviceAn estimated 600,000 children had been displaced since 2006, the vast majority unable to return home.

By the end of the year, approximately 75,000 children and their families were living in temporary shelters. A fewfamilies did begin to return: 50,000 refugees and 10,000 IDPs were registered between September and December 2007, according to the Iraq Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and InternationalOrganization for Migration (IOM).

Hundreds of children lost their lives to violence and thousands fell into poverty after their main family wage-earner was kidnapped or killed. A drop in violent incidents was reported by the UN from July 2007,particularly around Baghdad.Approximately 1,350 children were detained by military and police authorities, many for alleged security violations (this includes a small number of detentions that may have occurred in 2006 or previously).

ARMY OFFERS $40,000 DOWN PAYMENT ON HOUSE FOR NEW RECRUITS

The U.S. Army is stretched so thin with deployments to Iraq that recruiters in three states are now trying a new tactic to lure young men and women into the Army.

They are offering up to $40,000 in a down payment for a house if the person enlists in the Army.

The new Army slogan could be: "Be All You Can. Join the Army. Get a House."

It continues to baffle this blogger how the media in the United States avoids writing about the war in Iraq and the long deployments our troops face.

This story from the ARMY TIMES http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_armydownpayment_080213/ is living proof the United States Army is suffering for new recruits and will do anything and pay anything to get someone to sign on the dotted line.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a blog that tells the TRUTH about conditions in Iraq with the U.S. military.

Recruiters try offering home down payments

By Michael Hill - The Associated PressPosted : Thursday Feb 14, 2008 13:06:07 EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — How’s this for a recruiting slogan? Join the Army, Buy a House.

Faced with the challenge of expanding the Army in wartime, the military is testing an incentive program that pays enlistees up to $40,000 toward a home or a startup business after their commitment. The “Army Advantage Fund” program is being tested here and four other areas —Cleveland, Seattle, San Antonio and Montgomery, Ala., — for the next six to nine months.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, in Albany Wednesday to promote the pilot program, said it will help the Army compete for high school graduates and recognize soldiers in a time of conflict.

“The Army Advantage Fund will ensure that the quality of life of our soldiers and their families equals the substantial quality of service that they give to the nation,” said Freakley, who is responsible for recruiting as head of the Army Accession Command.

Under the program begun Feb. 4, enlistees who commit to five years of active service are eligible for $40,000, while reservists can receive $20,000 for five years. Lesser cash incentives are being offered for three- and four-year enlistments.

The premium is being rolled out as recruiters face challenges attracting enlistees during the war in Iraq. While the Army met its goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers in the past fiscal year, officials have acknowledged they face challenges trying to increase active-duty Army, National Guard and Reserve rosters by 74,000 within the next four years.

The Army is already moving ahead with enticements like accredited college hours for training programs so soldiers can earn associate’s or bachelor’s degrees.

Freakley said the Army needs to be creative to compete with businesses and schools for high school graduates, and providing money for housing or entrepreneurship scored high with focus groups. He declined to provide a cost estimate for the pilot program, which will be evaluated later this year to determine whether it will be rolled out nationwide.

On hand for Freakley’s luncheon speech to local leaders were two new recruits who are in line for the money. Armando Rodriguez, of Springfield, Mass., said he would have signed up anyway. But the 22-year-old recruit said he and his wife could use the $40,000 toward a house when they settle to raise a family after his service.

“It’s definitely going to make our lives a lot better,” Rodriguez said, “instead of living from paycheck to paycheck.”

Freakley and other proponents likened the pilot program to the GI Bill of Rights, which has helped veterans pay for higher education since the end of World War II.

“An additional $40,000 can help ensure that the veterans have a place to call home,” said John Brown, national commander of the veterans support organization AMVETS, in a prepared statement.

The GI Bill has become a political issue in recent years, with critics claiming its benefits are not keeping up with the costs of college. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has promised to update the bill to keep pace with inflation as needed if he is elected. Democrat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to expand benefits such as education and housing for service members.