Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra

[frogcycle]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3631718.ece

Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.

Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.

In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.

more...

[Subdivisions]

1. But, but, but...

We've been TRAINING them to take over for us - for SIX GODDAMNED YEARS!

How much training do our kids get before they're sent over there to die?

[frogcycle]

4. a buddy of mine pointed out THREE YEARS AGO

that when he got drafted out of college for failing to turn in his "I am making progress in college; please don't draft me" form on time, he was "trained" and had boots on the ground in VN six months later.

The very same populace that keeps needing "more training" to be ready to "stand up so we can stand down" supplies the insurgency and is clearly trainable, gaining skills enough in whatever informal surreptitious training facilities they have. You cannot train in a political position.

Most of the US civil war was fought using soldiers with little or no training on either side. They mostly were loyal to whichever side they fought on, felt that "killing rebs' or "killing yanks" was the thing to do, so they did it.

In Iraq, what they need is to have local loyalty to autonomous regions (Biden plan, anyone?).

Looks like Al Sadr got tired of waiting.

[wtmusic]

2. "Mission Accomplished." "The surge is working."

Who wants to author the next pathetically nearsighted neocon slogan?

[Adsos Letter]

6. How about "We had to destroy Iraq in order to save it...?"

...oh, wait...

[sweettater]

3. Like the old saying

BLOOD is thicker than WATER. Did the dolts in DC think otherwise? Apparently.

[frogcycle]

5. I just hope we don't end up with large numbers of stranded troops and contractors

Good Morning, Viet Nam!

[damntexdem]

7. Better move more U.S. troops to Basra! Oops, wait ...

I mean to Baghdad.

Nassariya maybe?

Hmm, maybe it would be best to move the U.S. troops to New Jersey until Iraq calms down -- say in a couple of hundred years or so.

[ThomWV]

8. Another clear example of our ongoing string of successes.