Posted on 10/05/2006 8:29:43 AM PDT by SmithL
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making an election-season visit to Iraq, said Thursday she will tell its leaders they have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.
"They don't have time for endless debate of these issues," Rice said during a news conference aboard her plane. "They have really got to move forward. That is one of the messages that I'll take, but it will also be a message of support and what can we do to help."
Rice said Iraqis must resolve for themselves complex problems such as the division of oil wealth, possible changes to the national constitution and the desire for greater autonomy in various regions of the country.
"Our role is to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction," she said.
Car bombs, as well as other explosions and shootings, killed 34 people across the country Wednesday. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Saturday, a disproportionately high number. Most of the casualties have been in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by American and Iraqi forces that has been going on since August.
A military transport plane that flew Rice and her party into Baghdad Thursday had had its landing delayed by 35 minutes by "indirect fire" — either from mortar rounds or rockets — in the airport area, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Rice was meeting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials as the sectarian spiral of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis threatened to undermine his government. Th
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making an election-season visit to Iraq..."
Only a few words in and the MSM spin begins.
Oh, it's an election season visit. I see.
Can anyone on this thread articulate what Bush and Rice's plan is for Iraq? What are the milestones?
Do you really think it was "indirect" fire??
Milestones:
1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.
2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.
3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Qaida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaida leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaida leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.
4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.
5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.
Sure...the Iraqi gov't and security forces can handle protection on their own, without COALITION (yup...other countries are there too...something our media constantly and conveniently downplay or omit) and we can leave. And it's happening...a lot faster than it did in post-WWII Japan and Germany, mind you.
I was flying to Amman for business in mid-August and two mortars whomped in real close while we were in the terminal about an hour before our flight was scheduled.
Our flight went out on time.
A couple of years ago, that kind of thing used to close the airport for a few hours.
Now, everyone just goes about their business.
Car bombs, as well as other explosions and shootings, killed 34 people across the country Wednesday. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Saturday, a disproportionately high number. Most of the casualties have been in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by American and Iraqi forces that has been going on since August.
NO mention of the at least 150 terrorists that were captured or killed just north of Baghdad yesterday.
Sadly, there's a lot of political capital that could've been snagged from the Dims on this rather than casting them only as "Cut n Run."
Although that may be true that Dims are C-n-R, it would've been nice to see someone figure out how to use that undercurrent as a way to scare the Shia and Sunni into hammering out a deal and getting their own forces up and running faster.
But Bush is good at strategery, not jujitsu I guess.
Hard to believe.
Paraphrasing Jack as the Joker in Batman - Where's OBL? He's in a cave - washing his tights!
Did you understand the message, al-Maliki???
Gaaa! I saw that as well.
Revolting.
Is indirect fire a normal thing at BIAP?
I don't recall much shooting at all at Victory.
"What are the milestones?"
Win------>Withdraw
?
You sure do change your tagline allot, I like to keep mine the same so I know who I am when posting. ;-D
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