Posted on 02/09/2005 9:12:57 AM PST by CHARLITE
MOSUL is the good girl who went bad. Quiet in the early days of the occupation, the violence-ravaged Iraqi city has become a must-win battlefield for our enemies. The terrorists and insurgents will throw all they have left into the fight.
There's no mystery involved: Mosul's the decisive point in northern Iraq. Over the long term, the city's vastly more valuable than Fallujah.
Insurgent attacks, terrorist bombings and assassinations erupted last autumn and continue on a regular basis. They're not going to stop soon. After Baghdad, Mosul will remain the most bitterly contested Iraqi city in the months ahead.
Every blast and tactical ambush has a strategic purpose. Our enemies fantasize about turning Mosul into another Mogadishu or Beirut. We need to prevent it from turning into another Fallujah. The odds are on our side, not theirs.
But be prepared for more bloodshed in Mosul. If our enemies lose the city, they've lost Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Time for another citizen evacuation?
Good analysis of the problem.
How do we get 5000 Mosul cops to hold their positions and not run away like they did in November? We do not want to fight their civil war.
I've got a buddy stationed in that area. The last contact I had with him was that he had gone out on patrol in a new vehicle, got into a firefight, and came back with a vehicle only good for parts.
I would not want to be on the receiving end of the payback these desert dwellers are asking for with these attacks.
And after Mosul, it'll be Um Qasr - the new must-win spot for insurgents. Then it'll be another town, then another, then another, then another.
The insurgents are rapidly figuring out that their time is short. I think what we're seeing in other places is the final spasms. The Iraqi people have spoken.
I thought the exact samething. Their like Dean in his scream speech: We going to Fallujah, Ramadi, Najaf, Mosul and then all the way to Bahgdad...... YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGGGG!!! *splat*
The best thing about your list of towns is that there's not ONE SINGLE AMERICAN CITY on it.
SPLAT! :)
I am amazed and not seldom outraged about all the nonsense, lies and fabricated scenarios in some of the best places like nypost.com in this case.
In the first paragraph Ralph Peters displays the situation in Mosul as if something unexpected magically turned nasty in Mosul and that we (the US) had nothing to do with it.
The situation was crystal clear from the beginning and Kurds have been warning and asking the Americans to not to leave Mosul in the hands of a class of Arabs who have been holding the power in Mosul up to the war, because those were no less than the worst Baathists and die-hard Saddam loyalists which were joined by the Islamist thugs after the war.
Gen. Petraeus who was in charge of Mosul for more than 12 months was proud that he was managing Mosul so greatly.
The reality was that the Saddamists, arab fashists and muslim thugs were happy that after Saddam's fall they were allowed to remain in charge of Mosul.
This was like paradise for the Arabs because in their logic if you win a war you finish of your opponents and behead them all.
But getting the allowance from the US enemy to keep Mosul in their hands was something they didn't dare to dream of.
This gave them the safe haven they needed. They could keep the stolen state money and finance the terror. They even had access to new "free Iraq government" money and could even enhance their capabilities.
Now they were official iraqi government representatives, police officers, university professors etc.
It was relatively calm in the beginning because they were enjoying and exploiting the free space they were given and they were widening their grip of everything in and around Mosul.
They continued their terror and daily beheadings against Kurds and Christians in front of the eyes of the Americans. But the Americans didn't care because the US policy has been "contain the Kurds... don't let them gain any meaningful power and significance ...", inline with their great strategic allies Turkey, Arab states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan etc..
The shameful desaster last fall 2004 as 100's of arab police guys deserted in Mosul and left the city for the terrorists came with no surprise to us Kurds and those who know the place because 90% of those so called police officers were Baathists, criminal officers of the previous iraqi army, in many cases Republican Guard criminals ...
Interestingly the arab leadership of the police in Mosul has been denying Kurds the 40% share which was decided earlier and they were keeping their great officers almost 100% Arab.
As I said this was happening with the knowledge of the Americans!
In last December the kurdish regional parlament issued a resolution saying that they feel obliged to intervene in Mosul to protect the Kurds who were terrorised on daily basis and the racist arab (in)security forces in Mosul were doing nothing to protect them.
Kurds have presented dozens of proofs how the arab leadership in the city was cooperating with the terrorists and harbor them.
Again no reaction from the US.
The situation started changing 2 months ago as kurdish Peshmerga freedom fighters came to the city and were taking control of security side by side the american forces which as individual soldiers are nice and sympathetic to Kurds, as far as I know and they appreciate the honest support from the Kurds.
They know also how helpful they are and how many american lives they have saved in the last 2 years by, starting with valuable intelligence about the terrorists upto their active help and utilization of their knowledge of the country, people and geography which all has been extremely helpful for the US army.
Without kurdish participation there would have been no elections and ballots in Mosul.
The longer the Americans are in Iraq the better they understand the value of the Kurds, as a people and as a military factor.
They were first finding them rather amusing with their WWI weaponery, their baggy pants and their casual look and behaviour.
But they are realizing now that in Iraq and with those arab thugs high-tech alone is no cure.
.....
Ralph Peters goes on saying:
"... Mosul became so heavily populated with military and security officials that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, chose it as their hide-out — and died there. The city remained calm in the early months of the occupation because Saddam's loyalists felt confident that the struggle could be won elsewhere — they preferred to ravage the cities of others, rather than risk their own retirement homes."
So what is this supposed to say?
Does it mean that they (US polic makers & the US military) only now found out about these facts?
If that is the case then they are amateurs and almost idiots. Playing such a big game with so little knowledge & insight.
But if they knew that all, well then why did they allow all that bad and devestating developments? THis is simply a crime allowing all the mayhem, death & destruction with full knowledge of it.
I guess the bottom line is:
Bush and the Americans have to make up their minds and decide what they want?
Are they after their own materialistic & monetary interests, as the Arabs and their opponents among the leftists and the so called peace movement allege?
Or are they really interested in promoting and bringing about Democracy and the God given right to freedom and free will?
In that case, they should stop helping, cooperating or just allowing Arabs, Turks and Persians to oppress, kill and annihilate Kurds and deny them everything which could mean a step forward towards basic rights which 99% of the world take for granted.
It's amazing. The only people in Iraq who are really sympathetic and supportive of the coalition forces are the Kurds and the people whom the Americans and the coalition forces even care about least are the same Kurds!
So the bill seems to be clear as always it has been.
If you are just Mr. Nice nobody cares about you...
only if you start really hurting they will conisder considering you!
Kind regards
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