U.S. Troops Battle Insurgents in Baghdad

[leftchick]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4801274,00.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops fought insurgents in a central Baghdad neighborhood Tuesday and a Turkish businessman held hostage for almost two months was released after his family reportedly paid a ransom.

U.S. troops and gunmen exchanged automatic weapons fire in the area around Baghdad's notorious Haifa Street on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.

The gunbattle lasted between 10 to 15 minutes, and U.S. troops sealed off the area afterward, said policeman Salam Mohammed. No casualties were reported.

Elsewhere in the capital, a bomb exploded along a highway in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, killing one civilian and seriously wounding a policeman, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. Footage from Associated Press Television News showed a white police SUV littered with holes from flying shrapnel after the blast.

[gWbush is Mabus]

1. the U.S. is probably funding those "insurgents"

[UL_Approved]

2. I keep thinking the same thing

Except that the Iraq situation is deteriorating to where we will need to make a quick get away. There is always more than meets the eye to political struggles...

[are_we_united_yet]

3. How man pockets of resistance are there?

[egoprofit]

14. it's like a pair of cargo pants... a bunch of pockets

i always wondered what some of them were used for.

[Alpharetta]

4. Is Haifa Street in Sadr City?

My understanding is Sadr City, a slum of 1,000,000+ mostly Shiites, has been relatively autonomous up to now and the U.S. troops have not done their kick-in-the-door thing there because they think most of the insurgents are Sunni, ex-Baath, etc.

But Sadr City also has the Shiite militia.

Fighting there could lead to the Shiite militia getting much more active.

Which would be a good way to accelerate the civil war which the U.S. needs to keep Iran's clerics from ruling Iraq via Shiite proxy.

[Alpharetta]

5. answer: it's not Sadr City but it is primarily Shiite

http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,SS_092204_Ugly,00.html

"The part of Haifa Street where Sunday’s fighting took place has always been poor and problematic, according to local Iraqis and 1-9 Cav members.

“These are the same people Saddam had problems with, but he used much more brutal tactics than we can to control them,” said Capt. Reggie Kornegay, a civil affairs officer with the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion but who is attached to the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment.

[jmcgowanjm]

6. Haifa St starts at the Al Rashid Hotel hard up against the GreenZone

and runs parallel to the Tigris River along it's western
side, about 3 miles, up
to and including the AlAzimiyah Palace/District.
The area has been inhabited for at least 3000
years.

[lebkuchen]

9. Saddam used more brutal tactics?

Did he obliterate Haifa Street? How about the city which engulfs this neighborhood?

Jesus, we have lousy leadership, in govt. and the military.

[jmcgowanjm]

15. Why did we arrest Saddam?

Quantum Theory states that "lousy leadership"
cannot last -"This Administration is rotten to the core. It is
venal, corrupt, vicious and holds the voters in utter
contempt.

Bush is not a Christian and neither is Rove. When the
Bible thumpers discover that many promises made to
them cannot be kept, they will become very angry but then,
Bush was elected and cannot be removed from office so
he cares not about them. What happens when the
obnoxious Brother Pat Robertson discovers Bush is not going
to create a cabinet post just for him? The only promises
Bush and his people will keep will be those made to the
rich supporters in the business
community.

Voice of the WH
www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1384.htm#001

This all requires that the insurgency be brought under
control without too great an expenditure of time, money and
U.S. casualties, that the election-based deal-making
and government are sufficiently accommodating, and that
the Iraqi people will accept more pacification and
political clienthood without widening and intensifying
the resistance.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7240

Greetings to Germans who wish their water
was hotter. ;}

[lebkuchen]

17. and the 1st law of physics states

that objects prefer to keep doing what they've always been doing, unless hit with a big enough force to move it in another direction.

Which means Bush has never broken a bad habit in his life, no matter the force exerted against him. He defies scientific theory!

We could all be going down with this joker and his insane policies.

Time to work a crossword while drinking wine in a tepid bath to take the edge off this unpleasant thought. It's worked before! :)

[jmcgowanjm]

7. Details of Battle

IRR 021405

Resistance attack on US column leaves four Americans dead on Hayfa Street.

Iraqi Resistance forces fired C5K anti-tank rockets at
US vehicles on Hayfa Street in Baghdad’s al-Karakh
District, totally destroying a Humvee and killing four US troops
at 1pm local time, Mafkarat al-Islam
reported.

[lebkuchen]

13. I wonder what division was involved

If the 1ID, those dead soldiers had already spent a year in Iraq and were due home any day now.

[Yavin4]

8. But, but, The Media Said That Things Were Rosy and Great

since the election. On my TV, right there on my TV, the cable news people said that everything in Iraq was just great. So, why are we still fighting?

[lebkuchen]

10. We're still fighting for a10 mile stretch btwn the airport and Green Zone

The Triangle of Death south of Baghdad has also been giving us a few problems, as well as a handful of cities, north, south, east and west.

[gratuitous]

11. It's a puzzlement

I sure hope someone can give us an administration-friendly explanation, who's simultaneously on the payroll of both a major media corporation AND the White House.

I feel like I just stepped into one of those AOL commercials: I want my news with more tilt than a pinball machine in a redneck bar on a Saturday night.

[lebkuchen]

12. Great metaphor

I wonder which US govt. dept. pays the most $$ for media services rendered promoting Bush's agenda. I also wonder if a quarter of a million is the most paid out to any one individual. If not, how high a figure are we talking to get a member of the media to sell his soul and promote propaganda?

[jmcgowanjm]

16. Too Effin' Funny, gratuitous

'Cause I've been in too many of those bars.