Posted on 05/06/2007 9:43:24 PM PDT by jdm
BAGHDAD, May 6 -- Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year. They were among 12 U.S. service members whose deaths were announced on a day when car bombs killed scores of Iraqis across the country, threatening to deepen sectarian tensions.A senior U.S. commander said Sunday that the military was bracing for a rise in the casualty rate in the coming months, as an ongoing security offensive attempts to tame the devastating violence and stabilize Baghdad.
"All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you'll probably see an increase in American casualties because we are taking the fight to the enemy," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's Task Force Marne, told reporters Sunday. "This is the only way we can win the fight."
Even as insurgents take aim at U.S. troops, they have stepped up their attacks on so-called soft targets, especially in Shiite areas of Baghdad, in an apparent attempt to stoke sectarian warfare. In the deadliest such attack Sunday, a car bomb explosion tore through one of the capital's biggest markets at midday, killing 42 people, police said. The blast, in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa, ravaged buildings, scorched vehicles and injured at least 67 people, police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It is going to be very tough on the future of Iraq vis a vis our national interest, if we cant get a handle on the ied problem and all the murders taking place. And if we leave, Iran moves in. It looks like lose lose right now, hope it changes.
We “capture” 12, they kill 40.
We kill 4, they kill 60.
It seems as if we’re fighting hardened killers with spit balls.
If our ROE don’t change, this slaughter will certainly continue.
My prayers are offered up for these brave ones and their families.
How are you going to get a handle on the IED problem? These are the weapons the enemy has. They are relatively easy to make and easy to use. Like carbombs they are almost impossible to counter completely. What one does is to kill as many of the enemy as possible while clearing neighborhoods. The media makes it seem as though this were like fireants, and that for ever terroist who is killed another will replace him. Actually, no.
Ditto. Prayers for the troops, their families, friends, loved one's.
“My prayers are offered up for these brave ones and their families”
Amen
This is precisely what has been happening for years now. The jihadists can tap many countries for replacement terrorists, and they have. We don't have a control of the borders and we don't have control of the violence. We are trying to fight a war by making our military act like police. It never has, and won't, work.
Folks, this is not a good thing. But listen to this man, a US Ranger who called into a Radio Show.
We owe it to them to stay with them and let them win. They can do it.
This is a terrible thing that happened. But I do not think this Sargeant is an isolated case, not from what I have heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh1dWrf-k_E
Go to post #3, he says it well.
If you are out to control guerillas, it is never going to be possible to use conventional military techniques. You think differentlY/ Look at the experience of the French in Spain 200 years ago or in Algeria, 50 years ao the German experience in Yugoslavia. But, of course, it is necessary to stop the flow of foreign replacements. They don;t give a damn about the country and the locals do, because they want to stay. The civil war in Spain is useful. You do have to have a standing national army. Then you can win. We probably need a Franco.
Then as they have always been saying for four years, the Iraqis have to do it.
In the end Van Fleey was able to stand up a capable national army in Korea and they were able to take the places of US troops in the line. In 1950 they were pitiful (of course our guys in Japan weren’t that much better); by 1960, they were in pretty good shape. But this thing can’t be done overnight. Of course, the Koreans had the advantage of a functioning government, even though Rhee’s bunch were not the world’s best.
Is it just me or do these big hits seem to almost always come on Sundays?
Is if that the terrorists know that Sunday is our day of worship or is our Military a bit short staffed or laid back on Sunday?
We shouldn't be out to "control" guerrillas. We should be out to kill the enemy. Destroy their homes, destroy their neighborhoods, destroy their cities if that's what it takes. Carpet bomb the borders if that's what is needed to stop the infiltration. If there is safe havens across the borders, take them out too.
This is a guerrilla war only because we have refused to use our military might and have allowed it to become one. If we are not prepared to fight to win, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks, we should not be there.
Part of the problem may be that we never hear about our own successes - how many terrorists really have been killed or captured, and how much intelligence have we obtained that has prevented other and worse attacks. We’ll never know because the thrice-damned MSM never sees fit to report on our successes.
We seem to have managed Fallujah and Ramadi without destroying these cities.
The MSM can’t do anything but count explosions and talley our casualties. They depend on the military and their Arab stringers. The terrorists have made most of them afraid to to their own reporting. They hide in their hotels.
Maybe their problem is the arab stringers. The Pentagon and the military have press releases all the time, many of which are posted here, retailing our successes including numbers captured and killed. If the MSM wants to depend on arab stringers rather than our own military, then they're despicable.
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