Military sweep in Sunni area causes concern

[maddezmom]

More suspected rebels were detained, but leaders feared political talks would be affected.By Charles J. HanleyAssociated PressBAGHDAD - American and Iraqi troops pushing through a desolate area of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland rounded up dozens more suspected insurgents, including the alleged killers of a television journalist, U.S. and Iraqi officials said yesterday.

The three-day-old sweep through villages 60 miles north of Baghdad stirred growing unease among leading Sunnis. One called it a needless "escalation" at a time of difficult negotiations over forming a government that would represent all of Iraq's communities.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a dozen more bodies were found as a shadowy war of Shiite-Sunni reprisals went on. And Shiite Muslim pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala again came under attack, with a roadside bomb killing one and wounding five.

Reports of violence came from elsewhere as well: an oil-tanker driver shot dead 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, a tribal sheikh slain 30 miles west of the capital, a car bombing near a U.S. base in the northern city of Tal Afar in which the suicide driver was the only casualty.

more:http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/14135551.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_nation

[Erika]

1. Allawi said Civil War had arrived

and here it is.

And we're there because?

[tatertop]

2. We are there (and we are not leaving) for plenty of reasons

It is not about Democracy or the welfare of
Iraqis. It is not about the safety of the US.
It is not about this fictional thing called fighting terrorism
that they fly in front of the face of dumbmerica day and night.

It's about petro dollars; it's about
gouging the treasury while eliminating the social net;
it's about criminal cronyism
the likes of which the world has never seen; it's
about supporting the creation of 'greater' israel
at the expense of humanity and world law; it's about
creating absolute chaos in the Middle East so that
christ will come quickly; it's about building and maintaining
permanent bases to facilitate more wars; it's about
eliminating ALL rights of US citizens; it's
all about creating and forcing the will of evil upon the world.