Why is it so quiet in Iraq?

[catmandu57]

American casualties have fallen to an all time low, which is a good thing, don't get me wrong on this please. If I had my way there wouldn't be any Americans there to be fed into the grinder, but I'm just developing a sense of unease, like something big may break at any time.
Are we forting up and not patrolling any more, have we ran low on resources and can't patrol, are the forces being massed for something?
I feel like I'm in an old wester movie where the cavalry is talking about it being quiet too quiet then all hell breaks loose.
I don't have a good feeling about this.

[daninthemoon]

1. I've been waiting for bushler to tell us how swimmingly things are

going as evidenced by the apparent lull. Maybe even he has smartened up enough to sense the possible "calm before the storm". Maybe something big is brewing, maybe something to do with Iran, or Kurdistan, but I also have been wondering if somethings is afoot and about to break loose. Weren't things quiet just before Tet? Anyone remember?

[Submariner]

2. "Morale was incredibly low"

Morale among US soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, called "search and avoid" missions.

New York -- Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here in upstate New York say that morale among US soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions.

Phil Aliff is an active duty soldier with the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum. He served nearly one year in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006, in the areas of Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, both west of Baghdad.

"Morale was incredibly low," said Aliff, adding that he joined the military because he was raised in a poor family by a single mother and had few other prospects. "Most men in my platoon in Iraq were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan."

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/66160

The troops know Bush ia a weak coward who put them into an unjustified meat grinder and won't fight for the asshole anymore.

[catmandu57]

7. Boy, that's what I hoping is happening

That our troops are saying enough, it got the same way at the end of Nam.

[MH1]

3. Some speculation

There is an election in most parts of the US in a couple weeks. (Not that you could tell from DU). Unlike many Democrats, most Republicans who are at all involved in politics seem to recognize the importance of these little off-year elections when positions like county and municipal commissioners, mayors, state supreme court judges, etc. may be elected.

There was a thread earlier about US troops "pretending" to patrol, rather than patrol. As a veteran, my suspicion is that TPTB know full well that this is going on, but are allowing it to proceed for these next crucial political weeks, so that all the talking heads can say how well Iraq is going now, that the casualties being down is evidence of that (when it is actually, if the thread this morning is correct, evidence of troops staying out of harm's way). A better feeling about the current state of affairs will probably translate into less damage to republicans at the ballot box on Nov. 6.

Just a speculation.

[rodeodance]

9. also, more air attachs (more civilian deaths)------which does not hit the news very often

[daninthemoon]

13. Disturbing but completely plausible scenario. The current admin

has used the troops as a political tool from the beginning.

[krispos42]

4. Good question

Although the way they are restricting the few press members that actually go out and cover things may be part of it.

Also, apparantly a lot of American soldiers have stopped active patrolling now. It's in a thread in GD someplacel; I think I read it yesterday. Grunts in Humvees now just park on a corner or a bridge or something and make fake radio reports saying they are conductiong sweeps.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2141532

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Because there's almost no one left alive?

We'll have to wait for the next influx of Al-Queda into Iraq for more news-worthy items.

[rodeodance]

10. they did there own ethnic cleansing of most of Baghdad.

[Oceansaway]

6. .

i read awhile back that there was a news/media blackout...

[wtmusic]

8. al-Sadr called for a ceasefire

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2145284

[rodeodance]

11. ALL eys are on IraN---our new booggyyyyyman!

[frogcycle]

12. my $.02

the whole damned thing - all 56 months - has been manipulated.

The level of US casualties is a direct function of what missions they send troops on.

The crushing of Fallujah caused a huge jump. Like the invasion itself a year earlier, that was a war of choice. The excuse of the killing of the four Blackwater contractors was just that - an excuse - to get the public to cheer "right on, go get 'em" as we obliterated a town because some of its people resented the invasion and demonstrated that in the ugly, violent way that is typical in the local culture but horrified us.

That added fuel to the whole thing, made it clear we had a "long way to go," enabled more institutionalization of the occupation.

In mid-2006 as opposition to the war was becoming ever more vocal, midterm elections were on the horizon, and fatalities were ebbing (the six-month running average had dropped to 68/month, lowest since pre-Fallujah) the need for a "surge" was invented. To support that, they started conducting more missions that exposed our troops. It suddenly became essential to search out more "insurgents." The Humvee/IED fatality rate started up. By November the six-month monthly rate was up to 79. That was a gamble that may have backfired - the antiwar flames were fanned as much as were the "go get the bastards" fervor that had been hoped for. Be that as it may, the "surge" went forward, coupled with more and more of those risky missions, and billeting troops in forward outposts where they were more vulnerable.

The six-month running average/month was 105 by May '07, where it stayed through September.

That was all a contrivance. In reality, most people who said early on that we had become the catalyst and needed to get out to get the violence to abate were correct. The problem for the admin was, if they heeded that early on, it would have showed that they never should have made the mess in the first place. No, they had to make it much worse, take a lot of casualties, so John Boehner could say "small price to pay." Then when they did what they should have four years earlier, and just stopped looking for trouble, coordinating that with the predictable reduction in Iraqi-Iraqi violence as the venting of age-old animosities ran its course as predicted, and localized ethnic cleansing was accomplished, they could claim that their trumped-up "surge" made it happen.

It's kind of like knowing an eclipse is coming, and telling a bunch of primitive people you have great supernatural powers and are capable of hiding the sun, then putting on some sort of performance to "prove" it.

Now they can point to the brilliance of their "pacification", "democratization", "bullshitization" PNAC world view, and use it to rationalize doing the same to Iran.

You are absolutely correct in being nervous. This is the calm before the storm. This is a dog-and-pony show just like the FEMA "press conference," designed to get the sheeple to rubberstamp the next unprovoked war of imperialist aggression. The 3838 US military deaths are just so many poker chips to them.

They have brutalized Iraq about as much as they can; it is losing steam as an excuse to continue war. We're going after Iran. Soon. Bet on it.

[Bitwit1234]

14. It's still happening. If you read the other news on the net you'd see.

Our media has probably ordered by bush to black out all negative reports.

[EFerrari]

16. That's right. They keep changing the way they count casualties.

[OHdem10]

15. The Surge is working---Surge is Working

Three days ago I posted a more detailed report. All three
Cable Networks gave a complete report which indicated for
the first time the Military on the Ground says Surge is
working. They are starting to hand over outlying provinces
and December should be able to start handing over areas
in Baghdad to Iraqis.

The significance: All Networks on same note with similar
raport. Surge is working means no reports or fewer reports
from Iraq.

My post was not up more than an hour.