Posted on 04/06/2006 6:23:24 AM PDT by Wiz
Anti-U.S. forces have spread their control over the city of Samarra, according to a Shiite cleric in charge of Shiite shrines in the city.
“Samarra is still in the hands of terror … It is outside the jurisdiction and control of the state,” said Saleh al-Haydari in an interview.
A bomb attack in February had badly damaged a major Shiite shrine in the city sparking protests and revenge attacks.
The country is still reeling from the consequences of the bombing which have plunged it into political turmoil and sectarian infighting.
Haydari said the people of Samarra, estimated at more than 200,000, were powerless in the face of there rebels.
(Excerpt) Read more at azzaman.com ...
Why do I not believe this?
Somehow, I get the feeling that this publication is propaganda
More like wishful thinking...
Check out the Reuters propaganda piece.
They save the reality of the situation for the last paragraph:
"The Ministry of Interior said that no civilians causalities have been reported so far and more than 80 insurgents have been arrested since the operation began on Friday. "No casualties were reported among Iraqi security forces, civilians or coalition units" the US forces press service said."
I forgot the link
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/bab2ce96945f1f76d6cafe03fd40722e.htm
Yet the primary metric they have chosen to measure the Iwar in Iraq for the past 3 years, the casualty rate, now shows serious improvement. From myelectionanalysis.com: _______
81, 76, 50, 49, 43, 25
What are these numbers? This week’s Powerball winners? A safe deposit combo? New numbers to torment those poor b*stards stranded on the island in Lost?
No, they’re the number of troops that have died in hostile actions in Iraq for each of the past six months. That last number represents the lowest level of troop deaths in a year, and second-lowest in two years.
But it must be that the insurgency is turning their assault on Iraqi military and police, who are increasingly taking up the slack, right?
215, 176, 193, 189, 158, 193 (and the three months before that were 304, 282, 233)
Okay, okay, so insurgents aren’t engaging us; they’re turning increasingly to car bombs then, right?
70, 70, 70, 68, 30, 30
Civilians then. They’re just garroting poor civilians.
527, 826, 532, 732, 950, 446 (upper bound, two months before that were 2489 and 1129).
My point here is not that everything is peachy in Iraq. It isn’t. My point isn’t that the insurgency is in its last throes. It isn’t. My point here isn’t even to argue that we’re winning. I’m at best cautiously-pessimistic-to-neutral about how things are going there.
My only point is that, at the very least, people who complain that good news coming out of Iraq gets shuttered by the press aren’t crazy. I’m a regular denizen of the right-leaning blogosphere (though I spend about half my daily routine with left-leaning sites), and I was unequivicolly shocked when I saw this. Completely the opposite of what I’d expected. My non-scientific sample of three friends, all of whom are considerably more bullish about the prospects in Iraq than I am, revealed three people similarly surprised by these numbers. I’m guessing if I polled people on this site regarding the direction those numbers were going, and people didn’t answer strategically (eg figure I was up to something from the question words), no one would predict any of those numbers were on a downward trend, or were even flat.
Again, my point isn’t that we’re winning. My only point is that if the data you’ve received left you completely surprised by these numbers, what does that really say about the completeness of the data you’ve received?
Incidentally, these statistics are compiled by the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank.
ping
It's funded with money from the Government of Saudi Arabia.
Many provided news from this press include anti-Americanism crap. However, it sometimes provide valuable information.
Why does that not suprise me
(Shall we smash them with another Falluja like raid?)
Yep!! with extreme pejudice!
Yeah, you just go on believing that Mr. Haydari.
There is no doubt that we are winning and the American people would know it if we did not have a Treason Media filling its heads with constant lies.
Thanks for the posting which statistically PROVES that the Treason Media lies.
Per your link. Yea. We and the Iraqi army have a major shutdown going on in the city. The slime balls are being rooted out. Sure a different slant then this article shows.
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