Baghdad is under siege

[cal04]

Sunni insurgents have cut the roads linking the city to the rest of Iraq. The country is being partitioned as militiamen fight bloody battles for control of towns and villages north and south of the capital.

As American and British political leaders argue over responsibility for the crisis in Iraq, the country has taken another lurch towards disintegration.

Well-armed Sunni tribes now largely surround Baghdad and are fighting Shia militias to complete the encirclement.

The Sunni insurgents seem to be following a plan to control all the approaches to Baghdad. They have long held the highway leading west to the Jordanian border and east into Diyala province. Now they seem to be systematically taking over routes leading north and south.

Patrick Cockburn in Arbil, Northern Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1945769.ece

[partylessinOhio]

1. How will * 'splain this to LimpPaw?

[silverweb]

10. It'll never come up.

They'll both completely ignore the situation on the air.

[grasswire]

2. and what was that tonight about U.S. troops pulling out of Sadr city?

No more traffic stops there, CNN said. No more U.S. presence. Did we get kicked out?

[Graybeard]

3. YES !

As I understand it alSadr complained about the road blocks,
P.M. Malarkey ordered them removed and the U.S. complied.

[madrchsod]

13. ya the guy who was just here visiting bush

has decided that bush can not tell him what to do anymore....ya we are getting kicked out. it will be real interesting to see how long this guy lasts

[silverweb]

4. Who's got a map?

How does this affect our people in the "green zone" and "embassy" under construction? Isn't the The airport is outside the city to the east? southwest.

If Baghdad is under seige, then our troop installations there -- the "Green Zone" (aka "Emerald City") and new embassy in the making -- are also under siege, cut off from supplies and ingress/egress.

We're looking at a major bloodbath in the making.

:(

On edit: The following excellent map shows our installations in Baghdad as of 01/2004. The airport is one of our bases. Why don't I feel any better about situation?

[Graybeard]

6. Pentagon sending 20,000 more troops...

...to Iraq supposedly to "train" Iraqi recruits. The
real reason may be this development. 

[silverweb]

7. I suspect so.

And being a know-nothing civilian myself, I realize my opinion counts for shit, but I'd say it's way too little way too late.

[HuskiesHowls]

5. Can you say "Saigon"?? nm

[silverweb]

8. That's what I'm afraid of.

:(

[ninkasi]

9. It's sickening to think

that the immense cost in human life, and suffering, and devastation, has happened because a spoiled, rich man's son who has never managed to be a success at anything, and who was always bailed out by his daddy's friends, caused all of this. This is George W. Bush's war, started for only one reason, and that was to let Bush be a "war president."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2005/06/20/why_george_went_to_war.php


<snip"
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said, 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He went on, 'If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.'"

Are you happy now, Dubya? Has all of the suffering and death and pain been worth it so that you can be a "war" president?

[madrchsod]

11. war on terror?

..yes the god dam "war on terror" in iraq has turned into blood lust. after being told that things were getting better every month, this month was the 4th worse in the war and the guy that bush backed in iraq is telling him to go get fucked.

[pa28]

12. Sad that we have to get our news from foreign sources.

Our own media is failing the public yet again.

[brer cat]

14. Well, sometime after 11/7 our media will hear, I guess. sigh.