Insurgent attacks erode months of strategic progress in once-calm Bayji

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25748

What in the world has gone wrong in Bayji?

By Iraqi standards, this crossroads city of 125,000 on the Baghdad-Mosul highway used to be peaceful. But military leaders worry that a spate of recent attacks have eroded months of U.S. work to rebuild the region.

Attacks against U.S. forces averaged fewer than one a day in the 80-by-60-mile region around Bayji, patrolled by the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 1-7.

Then on Nov. 9, all hell broke loose.

That day, insurgents attacked Task Force 1-7 patrols in several parts of the city at once and turned Bayji’s main north-south artery, Highway 1, into a shooting gallery. The firefight lasted more than five hours. There were no U.S. casualties, but about 25 enemy fighters died.



Insurgents blew up the center support for this highway bridge near Forward Operating Base Summerall on Nov. 13.



A fuel tanker burns in downtown Bayji during a firefight Nov. 9 between U.S. forces from the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 1-7 and Iraqi insurgents. A tank shot a rocket at the fuel tanker because rebels were using it as cover.

[VegasWolf]

1. Whack a mole! n/t

[pfitz59]

2. Yup!

Arms caches and munitions everywhere. Porous border. Tribal and religious vendettas. 200:1 odds against US forces. (We can never win a war of attrition!) If they lose ten fighters for every one of ours we will never win. Bushco are idiots.

[LynnTheDem]

3. POROUS BORDER...exactly! So why didn't the Iraqis JUST LEAVE IRAQ?

The rightwingnuttery seems to think Iraq had a wall around it, preventing Iraqis from being able to leave. FACT is, Iraqis were always free to leave the country and did so on business or vacation or permanently as ex-pats.

I often pointed out before the invasion that the Iraqis could JUST LEAVE Iraq if they didn't like their goevernment -exactly what the rightwingnuts always screech at us; "JUST LEAVE America if you don't like it!" But nope, bushCartel and their rightwingnut idiots went on about the Iraqis being held captive inside Iraq; we must "LIBERATE" them!

Funny then how bush now complains daily about that POROUS BORDER where everyone's coming & going in a free-for-all. With such a POROUS BORDER how come the Iraqis didn't JUST LEAVE Iraq???

Gee...maybe that's why 97% of the Iraqis view us as OCCUPIERS and NOT AS LIBERATORS.

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=7752&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported