Good question asked (in Arabic) of Gen. Dempsey at press conference

[lebkuchen]

The questioner asked General Dempsey, commander of the 1st AD, about his decision to open up a road that intersected through the park across from the Al Rashid Hotel. The General stuttered a bit, and then admitted that he had opened the road and did so to promote a "return to normalcy" in Iraq, an action which he felt had instigated the attack to begin with, an attack which he believes "was in the planning for quite some time."

??

In August, soldiers of the 1stAD asked General Dempsey, "Sir, who is attacking us?"

General Dempsey said the following:

<snip>

Right now, it’s former Saddam loyalists and criminals who are angry at U.S. troops’ attempts to interfere with their lawlessness. But all that’s about to change, he said.

The new enemy is terrorists, he warned. They all know the Americans are in Iraq, and the “they all want to try and get a piece of you.”

“Regional extremists are even now flocking to Baghdad because , it’s the superbowl,” Dempsey said. “They’re coming here now and starting to get organized.”

Dempsey is warning his troops to get ready for an enemy “that wants to make a big, big splash, like dropping the Palestine,” a major hotel where many Westerners live.

<snip>

By the time the division is scheduled to leave Iraq, Dempsey said, two of its main goals are to defeat the remaining loyalist members of the regime and “neutralize” terrorist forces.

By “neutralizing,” Dempsey said he meant “stopping ability to conduct mass attacks” against U.S. military forward operating bases; the Baghdad Palace complex, where U.S. civil administrator L. Paul Bremer and other coalition officials live and work; and the Al Rashid Hotel, where troops and other U.S. officials live.

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=17213

Comment: Although the General sounds sincere in his efforts to bring "normalcy" back to Baghdad, one would have to question his decision to keep the park road open with a top DoD official visiting Baghdad, especially given Dempsey's own prediction that a hotel (he even mentions the Al Rashid") would be hit, soon.

<snip>

Most of the 1st AD deployed to Iraq on May 1, and will remain there through April or May 2004. Dempsey took command of the division in July and will pin on his second star in October.


2nd Comment: Good luck getting his third star, though w/the Bushies' ability to politicize the general ranks, one never knows.

Granted, the general has got one of the most difficult jobs in the world right now, and he seems like a bright guy, but in many ways, he has no idea what he's up against. Catch the irony in this statement:

<snip>

Such people are motivated by a lust for power and money, “and we can dry that up. We are drying it up, and doing a better job every day,” Dempsey said.

[La_Serpiente]

1. Oh geez

Our troops will be sitting ducks for all the fundies.

[lebkuchen]

3. Lugar says security is getting "much better!" Unbelieveable!

If security is so much better in Baghdad, Senator Lugar, then why did General Dempsey open up the park road across from the Al Rashid Hotel when the General himself had predicted last August that it would be hit by "terrorists?"

(One man's "terrorist" is another man's "freedom fighter.")

[mmm]

2. That's a fun one