Rebels 'on run' in Iraq (says the commander of Australian forces in Iraq)

[Barrett808]

Rebels 'on run' in Iraq
Patrick Walters, Baghdad
March 09, 2006

THE commander of Australian forces in the Middle East claims coalition troops are turning the tables on al-Qa'ida in Iraq, with the ability of insurgents to mount effective attacks steadily diminishing.

Brigadier Paul Symon said that while Iraq was going through an "awkward period" during the transition to a new government, the US-led coalition remained confident that the country would not descend into civil war.

Despite daily images from Iraq of carnage from suicide and roadside bombs, Brigadier Symon said military operations against al-Qa'ida and its affiliates were proving to be "very effective".

He told The Australian in Baghdad that the organisation led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was sustaining significant losses. It was now less agile and relying on much less seasoned fighters.

"We are seeing an insurgency that is diminishing in effectiveness in its tactics and techniques. It's trending that way. I think they have lost some of their better people," he said.

(more)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18397433%255E601,00.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Yea...they are on the run to attack more of our US troops...

:sarcasm:

[niyad]

2. you beat me to it--was going to say, "running in our direction with ied's

[MadMaddie]

3. Great minds think alike!!

:hi:

[NanceGreggs]

4. Translation, please?

"We are seeing an insurgency that is diminishing in effectiveness in its tactics and techniques ..."

I don't speak Australianeeze - does this mean the same thing as "the insurgency is in its last throes"? I seem to remember that phrase from somewhere, a long time ago ...

[hvn_nbr_2]

9. Up is down. In is out. More is less. It's not "Australianeeze"...

It's basic propagandese.

[0007]

11. Aye mate, I think it the same as turning the corner!

[heirs_of_liberty]

23. General Howe, winter of 1777

The only people who could control Iraq in the first place will be the only ones in the last!

:patriot:

[formercia]

25. A popular song among the English troops of the day:

A World turned upside down.

Tradition has it that when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (1781) the British played this tune. There is some debate as to whether that is myth or fact.

If buttercups buzz'd after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies
To the gypsies for half a crown;
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.


http://www.contemplator.com/england/worldtur.html

[happyslug]

27. The reports I heard said they did, for they were Denied the Honors of War

General Clinton when he took Charleston the year before had denied the Americans the "Honors of war". In the 1700s if a Garrison surrendered if it had fought validity the opposing side would give its the "Honor of War" i.e. March out under their own colors playing a tune of the other side. Clinton Denied the American this Honor in Charleston and in turn Washington Refused to grant Cornwallis the same Honor at Yorktown). Thus Cornwallis' troops marched out of Yorktown with their Colors Cased (i.e. their flags wrapped up on its pole inside a cloth protective case) with their band playing one of their own songs. Americans knew the song and reported it in most recent years some British historians said no BRITISH reports playing such a tune and thus must be false.

Thus out of Yorktown you saw the British Troops marching out of Yorktown in their Bright Red Uniforms, but no flags flying. The Americans and French Forces had their flags flying. Thus you saw this red column among the whites uniforms of the French and the Blue Uniforms of the Americans. You saw huge White French Flags (The tricolor was not to be adopted till almost ten years later) and huge American flags but no British Flags.

Yorktown ended a Campaign the British should never have entered into. The British took Charleston for a naval base out of the Hurricane prone Caribbean. That part of the plan was OK, the problem was the British wanted to expand beyond Charleston. That was the problem, as they went further and further from their base in Charleston they became more and more entangled with the Americans. It is like the US moving from Kuwait to Baghdad. Protecting Kuwait was easy, it is along the coast and if you have Naval Superiority an ideal base of operations. But as you move from Kuwait to Baghdad, you end up with extremity long supply routes that can be attacked by Guerrillas. You Stretch out your Supply lines till they break and you to re-setup your supply line you do something stupid like moving your army to Yorktown and waiting for reinforcements (Which nerve came and thus why Cornwallis had to surrender).

In Iraq we have Baghdad, but not the people of Iraq. Our Military feels it has to do something (And retreat is out of the question). Thus we will do something stupid like Cornwallis (Who was the best general the British sent to America during the Revolution but even great Generals make great mistakes). Thus I fear the US will attack Iran and make the situation in Iraq even Worse (Just like Cornwallis's plan to attack Yorktown forced him to abandoned the Carolinas to the Americans).

[formercia]

5. 5 years from now

it will be the same message, just worded a little differently.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel

We can look forward to a stable and democratic Republic of Viet Nam.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. "the light at the end of the tunnel" -- would that be the

freight train of pan-Shi'ism and\or pan-Arabic nationalism rushing towards us?

[DavidDvorkin]

16. Hah!

Or the train of the next superpower, perhaps, as we waste what strength we have left.

[heirs_of_liberty]

19. Vietnam redux is pretty close.

Maybe we should ask Saddam for some help, since the words 'moderate' and 'Shiite' cannot be combined in any meaningful manner.

[pocket]

7. crikey!

they are as full of shit as the US commanders are.

[still_one]

8. would he please define "who are the rebels?"

[coalition_unwilling]

15. Would those be the same as "anti-Iraqi forces"? (eom)

[Roland99]

21. They look something like this:

[heirs_of_liberty]

28. Those who oppose Republican Liberty in Iraq are mostly...

Supporters of Republican Liberals:

• Liberals - people who could care less who runs anything, mostly urbanized and/or educated Iraqis who are loving realists.
  
  
• Saddam - nice prison eh?
  
  
• Halliburton dudes - bringin in the sheaves of US taxpayer loot for themselves or further recycling through Langley...
  
  
• Sunni-socialist liberal Arabs who's Ba'athist government actually kinda worked not too badly except for Saddam the Big Mouth Moron.
  
  

Supporters of the insurgents:

• US Tory Conservative so-called 'republicans', afraid to admit that conservative religious socialism established as political fascism is pure evil itself, just like it's 'godless' Marxist imitation.
  
  
• Sunni-Socialist Kurdish secessionists - mercilessly poison gassed in the hundreds of thousands by Great Britain and Turkey and then, a bit later, once again as "commie Kurds" for the Bush/Reagan - Saddam regimes.
  
  
• Conservative Shiite-socialist Arabs - A totally hateful and malignant Wahhabi style socialist cult of radical fundamentalist conservative political fascists aligned with al Queda and Iran, who ironically were the first Muslims to develop liberal democracy way back in 1946, before the MI6-CIA Mafias overthrew it in Iran and placed the malignant Shaw conservative privatist tyrant on an illegitimate criminal throne (same time they stole Kuwait) and established the SAVAK mafia to intimidate, lie, cheat, steal and persecute them for 40 years.
  
  
• Sunni conservative privatist Arabs - who's Saddam Club actually sort of worked (for them at least).
  
  
• Conservative Christian Fascist US and Anglican Fascist 'crusader' Troops - who murdered several hundred thousand innocent Iraqi's with heartless sanctions over the stolen city of Kuwait battle, or like cowards with Nintendo bombs from outer space to murder 30,000 more to chase one post 9/11 political opponent of religious fascism in Israel into a hole in the ground.
  
  
• al Qeada - Who'd just love to see everyone else at each others throats or dead.
  

[Cults4Bush]

10. Put down the bloody crack pipe!

... and pick up one of the thousands of dead children instead, ya lieing warmonger fool.

[Bozita]

12. Sounds like a large shipment of Fosters recently arrived

[Kailassa]

13. The poor ol' chook's just got brown-nose-itis

Well, it just goes to show that even if we do turn up to work in our shorts, wearing our thongs on our feet, and, when we get home, we first play with our pussies and then stuff them full of whiskettes; - when it comes to pushing the Neocon propaganda, we can speak Merrakin with the best of them.

Speaking of which, the way to really piss off an Aussie bloke is to admire his lady-friend's fanny. That word, in Australian, refers to something you are unlikely to see in polite society.

[Massachusetts]

17. THE commander of Australian forces

Another Fosters mate? (hiccup)

[Buck Rabbit]

18. The kind of astute battlefield analysis employed in

Gallipoli.

[Roland99]

20. Al Qaeda in Iraq, eh? Good grief

[oblivious]

22. No it's true. Things are really calming down there: Just look here.

A few articles listed on http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

FACTBOX-Developments in Iraq, March 8
* MOSUL - Hospital and police sources said they received five bodies shot dead by U.S. forces in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. No details of the incident were available. The U.S. military said it was checking the report.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked the house of Interior Minister advisor Major General Hikmat Moussa Salman in western Baghdad. Police said two of his bodyguards were killed and two wounded.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms seized about 50 employees from the offices of a security company in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Four civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol in the western part of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two Interior Ministry personnel were killed and five wounded when a roadside bomb went off near minister of interior's convoy in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

TAL AFAR - A U.S. soldier was killed and four others wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Tal Afar northwest of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, U.S. military said in a statement.

BAQUBA - Iraqi army and police arrested 19 suspects in raids in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 18 men, bound and blindfolded, were found on Tuesday night in a minibus in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

FALLUJA - Four civilians were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a main road in Falluja, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were killed and six civilians and two policemen wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of two people were found, bound and blindfolded, after they were shot dead in eastern Baghdad, police said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM843564.htm

23 Bodies Found Around Baghdad; GI Killed
BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 8, 2006 (AP)— A U.S. military patrol and Iraqi police discovered 23 bodies many of them handcuffed and strangled in various parts of Baghdad, authorities said Wednesday, while bombings, gunfire and other violence claimed at least seven other lives.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1699537

March 8, 2006, 1:36PM
50 security firm workers kidnapped in Iraq
Bodies of 25 others found in Baghdad
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3709029.html

FACTBOX-Developments in Iraq, March 7
* KHALIS - A car bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded one other in the town of Khalis, north east of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

* BAGHDAD - Six civilians were wounded when two car bombs parked on the side of the road were detonated in northern and northeastern Baghdad, police said. The target of the explosions was not clear, they said.

* BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital, police said. There were no casualties.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed three members of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's office in Baquba, police and hospital sources said. Two other members were wounded.

BAGHDAD - Three mortar rounds landed on the headquarters of the National Dialogue Front, a Sunni Arab party headed by Salih al-Mutlak. No casualties were reported.

KIRKUK - Three students and a soldier were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol drove by Kirkuk University in central Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

HAWIJA - A policeman was killed and another wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Kirkuk-Hawija highway, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - Five civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded in southern Baghdad, police said. The target of the explosion was not clear.

BAGHDAD - A civilian was killed and his wife was wounded when a car bomb struck at a U.S. patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded three police officers. The policemen had arrived at the scene after gunmen had killed a policeman on a patrol.

HILLA - Three traffic policemen and four civilians were wounded when a car bomb went off in central Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad. Another car bomb exploded in northern Hilla but no casualties were reported.

BALAD - A policeman was wounded when four mortar rounds landed in and around Balad police station in Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAIJI - Three policemen were killed and four were wounded when gunmen attacked their patrol in the oil refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT - A Sunni shrine was destroyed on Monday when gunmen planted bombs inside it in the city of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Britons burned to death in car after Basra gun battle
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=342852006

[daleo]

24. The civil war may be getting in the way of "Al-Qa'ida in Iraq"

Insurgents may be busy choosing up sides for the larger conflagration. Its like Dick Cheney curing your headache - once he blasts you with a shotgun, you forget your previous headache.

[DainBramaged]

26. I wonder if these clowns take guvment made acid?

[Barrett808]

29. He may be saying this because the US casualty rate has dropped

In the last three months, the US casualty rate has dropped significantly:
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

This is not, however, because the insurgency is "on the run." Quite the reverse: the US is desperately handing over swaths of Anbar to the insurgency in preparation for withdrawal. In a war on Iran, the Sunnis would become our allies. We may yet see Saddam back in power in Iraq!