The surge - like it is possible to stop a civil war -

[Joe for Clark]

Baghdad Complex
Dec-28-2006 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea.

President Bush is considering increasing the number of troops in Iraq and embedding more U.S. advisers in Iraqi units. White House advisers have indicated Bush will announce his new plan for the war before his State of the Union address Jan. 23.

In dozens of interviews with soldiers of the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment as they patrolled the streets of eastern Baghdad, many said the Iraqi capital is embroiled in civil warfare between majority Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs that no number of American troops can stop.

snip..

But their more troubling worry was that dispatching a new wave of soldiers would result in more U.S. casualties, and some questioned whether an increasingly muddled American mission in Baghdad is worth putting more lives on the line.

Spc. Don Roberts, who was stationed in Baghdad in 2004, said the situation had gotten worse because of increasing violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

"I don't know what could help at this point," said Roberts, 22, of Paonia, Colo. "What would more guys do? We can't pick sides. It's almost like we have to watch them kill each other, then ask questions."

Based in Fort Lewis, Wash., the battalion is part of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. Deployed in June, its men were moved to Baghdad from Mosul in late November to relieve another Stryker battalion that had reached the end of its tour.

"Nothing's going to help. It's a religious war, and we're caught in the middle of it," said Sgt. Josh Keim, a native of Canton, Ohio, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "It's hard to be somewhere where there's no mission and we just drive around."


http://www.strykernews.com/archives/2006/12/28/520_inf_soldier.html

[spanone]

1. KICK AND RECOMMEND

[applegrove]

2. Wow!

[angry_chuck]

3. let's get out now

we cannot 'win'

they hate us and want us out more than they hate each other.

their hatred for us is a unifying tool for them.

george b8sh just wants chaos. so much chaos that we all aquiesce.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=253953&mesg_id=253953

that is why they f8ck everything up.

they are not stupid. They ware calculating.

[lyonn]

4. Agree, but, our country keeps hitting the hornets nest

apparently to see what will happen! Insane logic is involved when bush thinks putting many more troops in Iraq will accomplish anything good. Forget the idea bush would consider reducing our presence there.

[Joe for Clark]

5. We don't control anything - it is just an illusion at this point.

Except -

That election we had in November was no illusion - We did speak with a clear voice.

If he does not follow the wishes of our country, he will pay a political price. It is our history.

Joe

[angry_chuck]

8. they hit the nest in order to

keep us in a perpetual state of war. They realize we will not stand for being in Iraq much longer hence the push towards agression aimed at Iran and Syria.

http://www.prwatch.org/tbwe/index.html

edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGAqA-muYU

[Joe for Clark]

9. The thing that really scares me is I doubt they have any idea

what they are aiming at anymore.

Joe

[DemReadingDU]

10. It wouldn't surprise me that Bush is setting up his plan now

Then when he announces it next week (or whenever), the big surge will be underway. All to save his own legacy about bringing democracy.

From the article you posted above...
"Nothing's going to help. It's a religious war, and we're caught in the middle of it," said Sgt. Josh Keim, a native of Canton, Ohio, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "It's hard to be somewhere where there's no mission and we just drive around."

[Joe for Clark]

11. Hi DU,

I hope this new year is good for you!!

I was certain in November. Praying I was wrong ever since.

The day they announced they were moving 3/2 south - that was the breaking point. That he was going to do this, it was pre-ordained.

I am convinced the main problem with our president is that he has no clue about what combat means to those kids - NO CLUE.

That Sgt is surely right - there are a lot of kids there right now that know it.

He is going to do it anyway. And you know, that is exactly what they do. I know.

God bless the United States - I think he may be our last line of defense here.

Joe

[angry_chuck]

13. Bush has his plan set up, Ready 2 Go!

Prensa Latina, writing on October 13, gives a similar story but names George W. Bush rather than his father:

An Argentine official regarded the intention of the George W. Bush family to settle on the Acuifero Guarani (Paraguay) as surprising, besides being a bad signal for the governments of the region...Luis D Elia, undersecretary for the Social Habitat in the Argentine Federal Planning Ministry, issued a memo partially reproduced by digital INFOBAE.com, in which he spoke of the purchase by Bush of a 98,842-acre farm in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia.

A visit by Jenna Bush on behalf of Unicef may have triggered speculation, as Upsidedownworld also suggests. But, could there be truth to the rumors? As calls increase for his impeachment, the President could well be thinking that South America would make a fine place to retire.

Another rumored land deal, this one involving the U.S. military, attracted the attention of Project Censored, which listed "U.S. Military in Paraguay" as one of its top 25 censored stories of 2007.

Five hundred U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons, and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and
International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction. Neighboring countries and human rights organizations are concerned that the massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is potential real estate for the U.S. military.

"U.S. and Paraguayan officials vehemently deny ambitions to establish a U.S. military base at Mariscal Estigarribia," writes Project Censored.

But, there's good reason to believe this rumor, based on a top-secret memo described by Newsweek on August 9, 2006. The memo, cited in the 9/11 Commission report, "lamented the lack of good targets in Afghanistan and proposed instead U.S. military attacks in South America or Southeast Asia as 'a surprise to the terrorists.'"

http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/10/14/11926/843

Private military base funded by the taxpayers, supplied with his own mercenary force to protect him from the horrible things that he has done. Once they are found out he will be already safely fortified in the same region into which some Nazis fled after the fall of the reich. Seems a fitting place for b8sh to flee to.

[angry_chuck]

12. Suspicio, ergo sum

"... coordinate this global conspiracy by waging psychological warfare on the rest of the conspirators, telling each no more than is necessary for him to fulfill his designated role, often with explicit recognition neither of his role, nor of the unarticulated rules that govern him. Thus, the overwhelming bulk of the conspirators do not know, but only suspect, that they are part of and in service to 'a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

[Marie26]

6. It's so tragic & stupid.

At the airport yesterday, I saw so many young soldiers saying goodbye & going off to war. I wanted to cry for them & their families.

[neoblues]

7. The Troop Increase is just too small to work...

If we sent in Sixty Million, and provided 28 million sensory isolation booths and trained all 60 million troops in the advanced arts of brainwashing... and, if we were prepared to keep those troops there for, say, the next 105 years... and, we were prepared to provide all the food, clothing, shelter and medical care etc., of the entire population of IRAQ for that period of time... and, if we got over any qualms about forcibly changing the religions of an entire generation of an entire country... Of course we'd have to somehow keep the rest of the world from intervening/interfering a century... and, it would cost untold trillions more than we could ever hope to make available (though, of course, by stealing the IRAQI's oil, we'd offset the cost a little)...

Even though it's ludicrous, I shouldn't have posted it--I wouldn't want to give Bush or any neocons any ideas.