General Fears 'Spectacular' Iraq Attacks

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20050107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A top U.S. military official raised fears Friday that insurgents may try to carry out "spectacular" attacks as the Iraqi election draws near, while Sunni religious leaders called for unity but persisted in their demands that the vote be delayed.


The comments by Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel echoed a warning by Iraq (news - web sites)'s prime minister the day before that insurgent violence would only increase ahead of the Jan. 30 election for a National Assembly.


Hours after Allawi spoke, a roadside bomb killed seven U.S. soldiers in northwest Baghdad on Thursday, deadliest attack on American forces since a suicide strike in Mosul 2 1/2 weeks ago. Two Marines also were killed in western Iraq.

<snip>

"I think a worst case is where they have a series of horrific attacks that cause mass casualties in some spectacular fashion in the days leading up to the elections," Lessel said. "If you look over the last six months they have steadily escalated the barbaric nature of the attacks they have been committing. A year ago you didn't see these kinds of horrific things."

... I expect we will be seeing some of those looted high explosives.
:(

[DavidDvorkin]

1. It's just because they're desperate

And know they're losing and we're winning.

Which I suppose the Administration will keep saying right up to the point where the last helicopter takes off from a rooftop with the last fleeing Americans.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Yep. But we'll do it with "honor"...

I wonder if Baghdad Bob is available these days? Bartlett could use him.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. I hope our people carry lists of buildings with flat tops

Maps of Baghdad with appropriate buildings circled in red.

[wtmusic]

2. "A year ago you didn't see these kinds of horrific things"

(unless they were perpetrated by Americans)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. Is their a "horrific meter" used to gauge these things?

Is that part of OTS?

[Jacobin]

3. Looks pretty 'spectacular' to me already

[Redstone]

5. I especially like this part...

"I know it's hard but it's hard for a reason," Bush told reporters

And that reason would be?

Is he talking about Iraq or Viagra?


Redstone

[leftchick]

7. he is an asshole....

why can't most Americans see that? why?

[Massachusetts]

18. It seems

that most Americans are MORONS, plain and simple.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

21. ding ding ding

<sirens> Come on down!!!

[jackofhearts]

8. A year ago you didn't see these kinds of horrific things."

Because they were being perpetrated by the US war mongers against the Iraqi population and we were not allowed to see them. The media are whores to the bush junta and would not dare the show the carnage we have created yet they have nooooo problem showing the death, destruction and piled up bodies from the tsunami waves.

[mediaman007]

14. Maybe the prison abuse encouraged them...nope, can't be

our 'merican news didn't say so.

[Just Me]

10. "Catastrophic success" delivered to those who fear freedom.

"Catastrophic success" delivered to those whom we "liberated".

"Catastrophic success" delivered to those who hate American imperialism,...umm,...I mean democracy.

They're attacking our soldiers 'cause they hate our freedom to invade/occupy/destroy/control their country.

What's the matter with those people? Where's the appreciation? Where's the flowers and chocolates and hugs?

HMPF!!

[Larkspur]

11. Whoever is running the Iraqi insurgency, I'm sure is planning on

"spectacular" attacks so that it will prove how impotent American troops are in protecting the Iraqi people and thereby, making it harder for Americans to befriend Iraqis who could help them. The upsurge in violence, seems to me, to be a "warming up" for the attacks I'm sure are planned for their election day.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

16. I remember something called the 'Tet Offensive' in Vietnam.

It demoralized the US troops and public effectively.

This White House will try to hide the horrors but will fail and prolong the agony of their victims.

But then maybe the Pentagon Papers were just a conspiracy theory and authorities should be obeyed blindly. Maybe Karen Kwiatkowski didn't work in the White House under the Office of Special Plans that secretly organized a war outside of government jurisdiction. Maybe she is just a conspiracy theorist, not a whistleblower.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. "Shock and Awe"

Perhaps the insurgents are following the game plan of the idiot who authorized the destruction of their country. It is a shame that our soldiers will be the targets!

[cliss]

13. I think you're right.

I believe those missing explosives will be making a spectacular comeback.

Does this mean that RumsFailed is responsible for the deaths of his own troops?

[leftchick]

17. never!

in bushworld no one is responsible for anything negative. :(

[damntexdem]

15. EXPECTS spectacular attacks -- not has experienced them?

I guess that mess-hall bombing was small potatoes.

[sarcasmo]

19. Will the Iraqi civil war start this spring? after the elections?

I'M looking for the Iraqi civil war to start sometime this spring. The Sunni's will not get the control they want which will set off the civil war. You can not force freedoms upon people which they do not want.

[moondust]

20. General knows they've got those high explosives.

You know, the ones the U.S. failed to secure that disappeared into the broad daylight.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

22. he's just talking about

spectacular bouquets of flowers thrown in gratitude for freedom and fair elections.