Two More Americans Killed in Iraq (+ commentary)
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents (enemies, evildoers, deadenders, bad guys)killed two American soldiers (champions, good guys, freedom fighters) Thursday in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad as the United States was reportedly ready to make major changes in its blueprint for handing over power to a new Iraqi government. (After successful raids were carried out by American and Iraqi good guys the previous day ~ and more enemies learned that their neighbors are ratting them out).
The bombing occurred near Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of the capital, according to the U.S. command. Two soldiers from Task Force All-American were killed, along with at least one Iraqi, the command said. One U.S. soldier was wounded. (God bless and protect our Soldiers and allies, comfort the loved ones and friends of our brave fallen and wounded warriors, help us to never forget the price paid by our brave Soldiers for our freedom.).
Insurgents also fired a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday at an American convoy in Khaldiyah but the projectile missed, witnesses said.
Those deaths brought to 545 the number of American service members who have died since President Bush launched the Iraq war on March 20. Most of the deaths have occurred after Bush declared an end to active combat May 1. (AP couldn't fit all the GOOD our troops have done since May 1st in their anti-war newswire copy (fed to hundreds of American and international "hometown" print and TV "news" outlets), but they could daily honor our fallen best and brightest by mentioning the truth that our troops removed Saddam the monster for good, and have since saved the lives of thousands of Iraqi children.).
With casualties mounting in an election year, the Bush administration would like to transfer political power to the Iraqis by the end of June and shift more security responsibility to the U.S.-trained Iraqi force. (With a press determined to undermine our war efforts for partisan political sake, they will paint our President as a heartless pol, though he's stood up to our terrorist enemies, and to the slanderous mainstream press, for 11 months.. and 2 + years... and counting)..
Bush wants to end the occupation well ahead of the November presidential election in the United States to minimize Iraq as a campaign issue. However, the formula for establishing a new government remains in dispute. (AP, absent 911.)
U.S. and Iraqi officials were awaiting an announcement later Thursday by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the feasibility of holding legislative elections here before June 30, as demanded by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and others in the influential Shiite clergy. (Not the will of the majority of Iraqis who know that Kofi and the UN covered up Saddam's atrocities for years, and then protested our war efforts - fiddling as thousands more of Saddam's critics, loved ones of our Iraqi allies, were mass-murdered by Saddam's regime during the Winter of 2002-3, pre-war.)
The Bush administration hopes Annan will say that elections are impossible by June 30 and endorse the idea of extending and expanding the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council so it can take interim control of the country on July 1. (5 MILLION Iraqis, estimated, are missing from the records, thanks to Saddam. We have more confiscated records from Saddam's regime than were confiscated after WWII. It will take years to document Saddam's abuse and neglect. The Iraqi Governing Council, CPA, DoD, reported this in a very public press conference in January, along with the need for an accurate census before legitimate elections could occur. Every vote counts?)
In an interview with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, Annan said elections were essential in Iraq but they could probably not be held before the transfer of power.
"There seems to be a consensus emerging that elections are essential and everyone would want elections. But at the same time, there seems to be a general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June," Annan said in the interview published Thursday.
Rather than hold elections, the United States proposed choosing members of a new legislature by regional caucuses. The lawmakers would then select a government to take power by July 1. However, the caucus idea has little support among Iraqis, who fear the Americans could manipulate the process to ensure their favorites were chosen. ("The press has become the greatest power within the western countries, more powerful than the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. One would then ask: By what law has it been elected andto whom is it responsible?" ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn )
With Washington standing firm on the date for transferring power and dwindling support for the caucuses, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday in Washington that the Bush administration was considering a plan to extend and expand the U.S.-appointed Governing Council so it can take temporary control of the country on July 1.
The council would then rule the country until a legislature could be elected, the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
On Thursday, Ahmad al-Barak, a Shiite council member and coordinator of the Iraqi Bar Association, said after meeting with al-Sistani in Najaf that the Shiites were hoping for an early election but would be willing to wait a few more months if Annan recommends against a vote before June 30.
"I think that elections can be held after five months from now and in that case we have no problem," al-Barak told reporters. "Power could be transferred to the Iraqi people through the Governing Council or any other body which will take the responsibility to make the right preparations for the elections."
Other Shiites have said that any expansion of the Governing Council must respect the current alignment of power. The Shiites, believed to make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, hold 13 of the 25 council seats. (AP, the voice of America's critics.).
In Baghdad, a Sunni council member, Samir Shaker Mahmoud, said he also believed the plan to expand and extend the Governing Council was a possible solution.
"I think this option is available and I know several members of the Governing Council who think this is feasible, it's possible," he said. "But of course all members of the council believe that elections, credible elections, must be conducted as soon as possible."
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded Thursday in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, missing U.S. vehicles but wounding an Iraqi policeman, witnesses said. On Wednesday, U.S. troops arrested seven people in Baqouba suspected of links to al-Qaida but gave no further details.
The attacks followed a mortar barrage Wednesday evening against the U.S. base at Abu Ghraib prison on the western edge of Baghdad. The U.S. command said attackers fired 33 mortars and five rockets between 6:30 p.m. and 6:50 p.m., but only one soldier was slightly injured.
Abu Ghraib was one of Iraq's most notorious prisons during the rule of Saddam Hussein, who detained, tortured and executed many regime opponents there. The U.S. military uses the prison to house coalition opponents and former regime members.
The latest incidents followed a deadly suicide attack against a Polish-run base south of Baghdad on Wednesday that killed 10 Iraqis and wounded more than 100 people, more than half of them coalition soldiers. (The latest incidents follow the accomplishments of over 110,000 US troops ~ and their civilian, Coalition, and (majority) Iraqi allies ~ across a nation the size of California. This unreported truth would undermine the daily AP quagmire-peddling (which emboldens our enemies, undermines our war efforts, undermines the President's chance of reelection....and endangers our troops, our allies, and the free world.).
545 brave American Soldiers have paid the ultimate price for AP's freedom, and the press repays our honorable and awesome troops by mocking their motives, misrespresenting their courage as folly, ignoring their many daily victories, undermining their missions - endangering their lives.
It's a testimony to the skill and courage of our troops, and the willingness of our Iraqi allies to help, that so few troops have paid the ultimate price for our freedom in Iraq.
One of Saddam's many weapons'-filled, booby-trapped hospitals, schools, warehouses - hit by an enemy grenade or stray missile - could have killed thousands in major cities across Iraq as our troops marched to Baghdad, weapons left within reach of even the Iraqi children. Saddam and our enemies were hoping the Iraqi people would take up arms against our troops - and the vast majority of Iraqis - grateful to our troops after decades of terror under Saddam - chose not to.
Over 23 million newly freed Iraqis; over 110,000 US troops in Iraq at any one time; in a nation the size of California; a nation filled with weapons; with our troops conducting dangerous raids and taking out many dangerous enemies weekly; 545 brave Soldiers lost over the past 11 months - precious, priceless, noble lives - and there sacrifices were not in vain.
Saddam killed thousands, many times....mass-executions, over 40 villages attacked with WMDs, children starving by the thousands while Saddam built palaces, blamed sanctions, and stoked int'l anti-American sentiment with help from the free press, ANSWER ~ and their NGO allies.
11 months, 545 brave Soldiers lost. Thousands of Iraqi children saved. Our troops are being prayed over, AP, and God is answering our prayers. )
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
