Posted on 09/30/2004 8:25:04 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
My post was in response to American In Tokyo's post #58.
"The terrorists are every bit as evil as Nazis and would kill every American on the face of the earth if they get the chance. I don't think there are enough Americans who really GET IT quite yet."
I know, it's a shame so many here don't get it. The islamo-fascists and the nazis are so strikingly similar in their ultimate goals and barbarity its scary.
Mostly true. However there are places which provide support and refuge of sort to these scum. Those places need an application of massive force. Fallujah would be one of those places, and we are starting to apply that force. Too slowly IMHO, but I'm not there either so MHO doesn't count for too terribly much.
Actually that picture is supposedly of kids killed when the car they were riding in was attacked by a US aircraft and ran into a canal, drowning them. Awfully clean and unmussed kids and clothes don't you think? Reuters conspiring with the terrorist again, IMHO.
NATO's top commander in Europe General James Jones said that up to 3,000 troops could be deployed to train Iraqi security forces, under an Alliance mission given the green light last week.(AFP/File/Daniel Mihailescu)
NATO mission in Iraq could involve 3,000 troops: Jones
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO 's top commander in Europe General James Jones said that up to 3,000 troops could be deployed to train Iraqi security forces, under an Alliance mission given the green light last week.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed to the training mission in principle in June, but has struggled to agree on the details amid resistance notably from France.
Jones, who is NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said: "in the initial paper we sent out we hypothesized that it will be no more than a brigade. that's approximately 3,000."
"It may be less than that but it will not be more than that," he said, adding that it would be made up of some forces that are already in Iraq.
That figure would include the military trainers as well as security personnel, according to Jones.
Up to now, NATO officials have spoken only of a mission of "a few hundred" instructors, probably about 300, who would train army officers at a military academy outside the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
"He's not envisaging it will go beyond 3,000," a military source close to Jones said, adding that the exact size was still to be determined.
Jones has provided the alliance's highest military body with an "operational plan" outlining the framework for the mission, which is due to go before NATO's top ambassadors for approval at their next meeting on October 6.
NATO officials contacted on Thursday refused to confirm the figure of 3,000 troops and stressed that discussions were still at a "preliminary" stage.
"It is too early to prejudge the size of the mission," said one official, who did not wish to be named. He added that the figures quoted were attributed to general Jones only.
Last Wednesday NATO approved the political directives that will make it possible for the training mission to go ahead.
The man expected to command the mission on the ground, US army lieutenant general David Petraeus, is to travel to NATO headquarters on October 8 for talks with NATO leaders, according to the official.
Petraeus is currently head of the training programme run by the US-led coalition in Iraq.
A majority of NATO members are part of the current coalition in Iraq, and are expected to supply troops for the training mission.
NATO leaders agreed at a June summit to launch the mission after overcoming objections from France, which strongly opposed last year's US-led invasion.
But it has taken months to hammer out details of the mission. France, Germany, Belgium and Spain have all said they will not under any circumstances contribute troops to the operation.
The alliance already has about 40 soldiers in Iraq training army officers, but London and Washington argued that it had to be enlarged.
International Monetary Fund, Managing Director Rodrigo Rato. The IMF which has just approved a 436-million-dollar emergency loan to Iraq, said it would now work with the government there on a possible longer term credit arrangement.(AFP/File/Victor Rojas)
IMF will monitor use of its loan by Iraq: Rato
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund, which has just approved a 436-million-dollar emergency loan to Iraq, said it would now work with the government there on a possible longer term credit arrangement.
"We will be working with the Iraqi government," IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato told a press briefing here.
"And we will start looking at the possibility of a standby program," he said, referring to an IMF arrangement under which funds are made available to governments that commit themselves to economic reform projects and targets.
Rato also said the Fund would "monitor" the use of the 436-million-dollar "emergency post-conflict assistance" that was approved by its executive board for Iraq on Wednesday.
But he stressed there was nothing unusual in such vigilance, which is applied in all such cases. Iraq's current interim government is un-elected, its members having been appointed by the United Nations ahead of national elections scheduled for January.
The assistance became available after Iraq on September 22 paid off its overdue financial obligations to the Fund, which totaled 81 million dollars.
The IMF executive board said in a statement Thursday the emergency aid was "a sign of support for Iraq's economic reconstruction efforts through 2005" and was also aimed at helping "catalyze additional international support, including debt relief."
IMF experts have estimated that Iraq could eventually be eligible for around 850 million dollars in emergency reconstruction assistance from the Fund.
Negotiations to secure the loan approved Wednesday took place outside Iraq because of the breakdown in security there and IMF officials say there are no current plans to send Fund staff to Baghdad.
Earlier this month, financial sources in the French capital said the Paris Club of creditor nations had agreed in principle to a major reduction of Iraq's outstanding debt, with a final announcement expected before the end of this year.
Officials from the Paris Club's 19 members, including the United States, France, Russia, Germany and Japan, had met and agreed to cut Iraq's estimated 120-billion-dollar debt by at least 50 percent, one source said.
But club members were still debating whether to cut Iraq's debt immediately by 95 percent, a proposal supported by the United States and Britain, or by 50 percent as a first step, as called for by France, Germany and Russia.
Paris Club members hold about 47 billion euros of Iraq's debt including interest, with most held by countries in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is Iraq's largest foreign creditor.
IMF emergency funds are attributed in consultation with the Paris Club and the principal donors for the country concerned.
Prospects for alleviating Iraq's debt burden are likely to be discussed on Friday at a meeting here of finance ministers and central bankers grouped in the G7 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Who did this bombing? Psychopaths who are high on islamo-babble
My bad, make that AP, not Rueters. (Note the photogs name) (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) Almost the same thing anyway.
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. forces on Thursday attacked a suspected safehouse used by an al-Qaida linked group in Fallujah, the military said. Hospital officials said at least four Iraqis were killed and eight wounded.
Also, witnesses said U.S. forces opened fire Wednesday on a car passing Fallujah on the road west from Baghdad. The driver was shot in the head and lost control of the car, which plunged into a canal, said witness Hussein Alwan, who lives near the scene.
A man was brought to Fallujah General Hospital late Wednesday with a bullet wound to the head, Dr. Ahmed Khalil said. Later, the bodies of two women and five children arrived.
U.S. military officials, called repeatedly by The Associated Press, said they had no immediate information on the incident. But the military has repeatedly cautioned about the unreliability of information about casualties from Iraqis in Fallujah, a Sunni insurgent stronghold.
Intelligence reports indicated the house attacked by U.S. forces on Thursday was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said in a statement, adding that the followers were planning attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens.
"Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safe house," the statement said. Explosions continued in the northeastern side of the city for hours.
Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four others damaged in the strike.
At least four Iraqis were killed — including two women and one child — and eight wounded, Khalil said.
"Multinational forces take great care to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties," the military said in the statement. "Terrorists' placement of weapons caches in homes, schools, hospitals and mosques continue to put innocent civilians at risk."
American jets, tanks and artillery units have repeatedly targeted al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah in recent weeks as U.S.-led forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January. The military says the attacks have inflicted significant damage on the network, which has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, kidnappings and other attacks.
Doctors say scores of civilians have been killed and wounded in the strikes.
U.S. ground forces have not entered Fallujah since ending a three-week siege of the city in April that left hundreds dead.
Oh this is a game to you?
So now you're suggesting that we can be selective and discriminating (which would be a good thing), without being "selective" and "discriminating" (which is apparently a bad thing).
See, the problem I have with posts like your #11 is that they have no real meaning. They're just Keyboard Kommando rants.
Neither of us has ANY control over what will actually happen as a result of this bombing, nor anything else that our military does in Iraq. All we can do is talk about it.
Like it or not, it's as much a game to you as it is to anybody else who posts on these threads.
Hey d-weed my son has had 3 tours over there, do what it takes.
D-weed? Oooooohhhhhh......
Toying with armchair quarterbacks is a game. I see nothing worth a serious response to "killkillkill."
You "see" nothing.
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