Bulgarian soldier dies after Iraq bomb attack

SOFIA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A Bulgarian soldier died and three others were wounded on Sunday when a car bomb exploded near their military convoy in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, government and military officials said.

"He died while being transported from the hospital in Kerbala to Baghdad," a military source, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.

Government spokesman Dimitar Tsonev confirmed the soldier's death and said three others had been wounded in the attack, which occurred on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the defence ministry had said only two soldiers had been wounded. Tsonev said the three would be released from hospital on Monday.

Bulgaria has a 480-strong peacekeeping battalion stationed in Iraq, and its presence there has become a flashpoint domestic issue, not least since six of its soldiers and several civilians have been killed in the past year.

The government of the poor Balkan state, which joined NATO earlier this year, is a strong proponent of the U.S.-led military operations in Iraq, although opinion polls show around 70 percent of Bulgarians oppose the war.

You are talking about this: "although opinion polls show around 70 percent of Bulgarians oppose the war." ?

I have seen many strange polls, so I'm aware that the exact numbers may not be correct, however It's true that most people there think Bulgarian soldiers should come back home. No because they hate America or something. Just look at the facts:
Bulgaria has 8-9 million population - they lost six soldiers in Iraq, so If you compare the population, It's like about 200 soldiers for the USA. They probably spend about $30 million a year on Iraqi mission. This is a really poor country, so for them It is like at least about $20-30 billion for the USA. And they also have a few hundred soldiers in Afghanistan. How many people in the USA even know that they have soldiers in Iraq ? 5% ? Almost 50% of the US citizens support a guy, who say that they were bribed...

If we need to crunch numbers regarding Bulgaria and Iraq, the main figure is more than US$ 1 billion. That much Saddam Hussein's regime owed Bulgarians for the variety of infrastructural projects they were contracted for in Iraq long before the first Gulf War.

UN sunctions prevented Saddam to pay Bulgaria off, in money or in petrol, and the projects themselves (mostly military by nature, and executed under the Soviet supervision) were bombed into dust in 1991. But they worked on schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure as well, which was abused by Saddam (used for hiding anti-aircraft artillery and the likes) - and so also reduced to rubble. Remember the discussion on palestinian "homes"? Same all-Arabic pattern...

Bulgarian governments after the fall of communism never lost hope that some day this huge for the country money will be somehow reimbursed. Thus their active attitude to the affairs Iraqi...

That said, Bulgarian participation in the Coalition of willing is on principle, not on any mercantile plans. New Europe, unlike the Old one, does understand where the real danger for its future comes from.

It's true that most people there think Bulgarian soldiers should come back home.

LOL! How do you know what is true and what isn't about Bulgaria? I am an expert on that country, you are not.

And yes, people there - like people in America, Poland, Great Britain and so on - want their soldeirs safely to return home. After the job is properly done.

As to the polls, they are not just slightly imprecise, they are totally falsified to serve the lefty liberal cause.

Take the recent Australian election. The media and the polls had one and the same leitmotiff during the campaign: incumbent conservative candidate John Howard and his Labor rival Mark Latham are in too close race to call. It meant to mobilise the Left for the last effort and to take over the country. If happend, it would be a real disaster.

However, Howard not only won the election by a wide margin, his party took over several "safe" Labor seats in both Houses of the parliament. How come that polls not only were not able to predict this result, but were so far off the mark?

The answer is - look who did them. They were used not as a measuring instrument but as a spin tool for certain ideological and political goals.

Same is in motion now in the US: I bet that GWB will win much easier than he did over Gore... but if you believe the polls, Kerry needs just one last effort to jump into the Oval Office.

Returning to Bulgaria, one needs no more than a glance on who the most respected pollsters are...

As I told in my previous post, Mr Andrei Raichev, the head of Gallup Bulgaria, is:

a former director of the Young Comminist League's research ideological institute,

a founder of a EuroCommunist (or proxi Communist) party after 1989,

a son of the former KGB operative in Bulgaria and Bulgarian Communist Party's grey cardinal Ventzel Raichev,

and a grandson of the Communist International functioner and Stalin's hack in the post-WWII Bulgaria Kiril Andreichin.

Need more background or it is clear enough what kind of interests this guy would serve?

OK, here is another detail: he is a son-in-law of General Nedialkov, from infamous DS, or Darzhavna Sigurnost (State Security).

I know about this billion, however when they will get this money back ? In ten years ? Do you know how much they lost in relations with France and Germany, which If we like it or not are the key countries in EU ? They wanted to join EU in 2007, but in current conditions I doubt they will manage to do it. They will lose more money from EU than this mythical billion, which I doubt they will ever get back.

"New Europe, unlike the Old one, does understand where the real danger for its future comes from."

Governments of so called New Europe know that their countries need good relations with the USA. That's all.

"How do you know what is true and what isn't about Bulgaria?"

I know how it looks in Poland and I assume that situation in Bulgaria is a little similar.

"I am an expert on that country, you are not."

Wow ! How did you become an expert ?

"How come that polls not only were not able to predict this result, but were so far off the mark?"

Some people just believe too much in the polls. Usually, at least in Europe polls look in this way: on 95%(or sometimes 98%) results of elections won't be more different than 3% in the polls, but this is +3% or -3%, so in fact 6% and you have these 5%(or 2%) left. One more thing - you don't know If all these people, who are asked "Who will you vote for?"tell the truth. Some of these people can also change their mind. That's why It doesn't matter If some candidate has 2-4% more or less in the polls than his rival.

"As to the polls, they are not just slightly imprecise, they are totally falsified to serve the lefty liberal cause."

World wide lefist conspiracy... ?

And now the most important, If these polls in Bulgaria are totally falsified, so what are the real numbers Mr. expert ?

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