Thursday, May 19, 2005
Civil War?There has been some talk of Iraq being in the verge of civil war the past couple of weeks. Well, I'm no expert, but this looks like civil war to me: 10:38:09 AM | [...]
One of starkest revelations by the commanders involved the surge in car bombings, the principal insurgent weapon in attacks over the past three weeks that have killed nearly 500 people across central and northern Iraq, about half of them Iraqi soldiers, police officers and recruits. [...] The senior officer who met with reporters in Baghdad said there had been 21 car bombings in the capital in May, and 126 in the past 80 days. All last year, he said, there were only about 25 car bombings in Baghdad. [...] Arriving at a lunch with reporters from a meeting with Iraqi cabinet ministers and military commanders, the officer said he expected the government to make an early move to revise the defense minister's announcement of a ban on raids on mosques and religious schools. The revised policy, the American officer implied, would allow Iraqi forces, backed by Americans, to raid mosques when they are used as insurgent strongholds. And there was this at the beginning of the article: In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back
from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive
trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American
troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday
that American military involvement could last "many years."
Who are the soldiers who will be in Iraq for "many years"? When every branch of the military continues to miss recruiting goals? S is already stop-lossed, like thousands of others. And sadly, there is little legal recourse for any of them. 
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Last update: 8/24/05; 8:16:46 PM .
