October 15, 2004

Pound Falluja Don't Plead with It, Some Iraqis Say

Iraq's interim government, backed by U.S. armed forces, is shaping up for a full-scale assault on the rebel stronghold of Falluja, a move some Iraqis say is the only way to deal with the volatile town.

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to the people of Falluja to hand over foreign fighters holed up there, including Jordanian ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or face a military onslaught.

On Thursday, hours after twin suicide bomb attacks claimed by Zarqawi's group killed five people inside the best-protected compound in Baghdad, U.S. fighter jets unleashed on Falluja.
[...]
"Allawi must attack Falluja in whatever way necessary because they are the main reason for instability in Iraq," said Iman Jadoa, 40, a clerk from the southern Shi'ite city of Basra.

"They must be made to pay," she said.

Others questioned why it was that no suicide car bombs ever blow up in Falluja, and said the city needed to be taught a lesson if the whole of Iraq is to be pacified before elections are due to be held in January.

"I consider any invasion of Falluja a great step -- that's where the terrorists are," said Samkoo Mohammed-Ali, a university student in the peaceful Kurdish city of Suleimaniya.

"Why are there no bombings in Falluja? It's because a mosquito doesn't sting itself. The government must quickly take over Falluja so Iraq can genuinely live in peace and be reconstructed," he said.

Many commanders in Saddam's specialist Republican Guard force hailed from the Sunni triangle city, which has always had a streak of militancy.
[Maybe what New York and New Jersey have been to the Mafia mob here, the Sunni Triangle has been to the Iraqi "mob?"--Jen]

U.S. marines tried to overrun the city in April, after four U.S. contractors were killed and their burned bodies dragged through the streets by cheering crowds. But after weeks of fierce fighting and a heavy Iraqi death toll, they withdrew.

Falluja's residents saw that as a victory for the rebels, and the city has since become a bastion of Iraq's insurgency.
[This is a false assumption, of course, because U.S. forces have held themselves back, being fully capable of flattening the rebel town.
For whatever reasons, our commanders thought that winning hearts and minds was more important until recently.
Such is war and at least we have tried to use talks and reasoning to spare Fallujah's innocents and to avoid the slaughter of civilians who would get caught in the crossfire.]

The government has tried to negotiate with representatives from the city's mujahadeen council, a body which claims to represent some insurgent factions, but little headway has been made, and previous talks have ended in failure.

In a further sign of the breakdown of attempts at a negotiated settlement, U.S. marines on Friday detained Falluja's main negotiator and its police chief.
[Good move--if the police chief is working on the side of the enemy, this would explain a lot!
He is just one example of why we were adverse at first, and then reluctant, to use former Baathist soldiers and officers loyal to Saddam; many of these leopards haven't changed their spots and never will, not even for a free Iraq.--J.T.]
[...]

While Allawi appears determined to challenge Falluja to a showdown, there may be divisions in the government about whether an outright assault on the city is the right policy. Iraq's president has called repeated U.S. air strikes on the city in recent weeks "collective punishment" and questioned their use.

[...]
On Friday, a representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, urged negotiation, and said no military assault should take place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began for Sunnis on Friday.

I'm pretty sick and tired of our Islamist enemies trying to beg off every year for "Ramadan," while they'll continue to attack us.
In fact, our soldiers over there call it "Bombadan" because enemy attacks on our troops and civilians usually gets worse during the month-long religious "festival."
It's hard to tell with these al-Reuters reports which skew pro-"insurgents", but I'm still getting the impression that both our forces and Allawi and the Iraqi forces are of 2 minds still, alternating periods of negotiations with those of assaults on Fallujah.
Stay tuned to see what works.
All I know is that in the end, the US and free Iraq will prevail and the Islamofacists will lose.
Of course, today is Friday, the day for the big "whoop-dee-doo" and sermon at all the mosques to whip up the faithful.
Worse, being the Friday at the start of Ramadan, we can suppose that the rhetoric, calls for jihad and the fatwas are extra virulent and rabid:

[...] In a statement read Friday in Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere, Fallujah clerics threatened a civil disobedience campaign across the country if the Americans try to overrun the city.

The clerics said if civil disobedience were not enough to stop a U.S. assault, they would proclaim a jihad, or holy war, against all U.S. and multinational forces "as well as those collaborating with them."
[Obviously, this is the edited version the bad guys are giving to their enabler al-Reuters.
I'm pretty sure the jihad was called long ago, aren't you?
So, what can we look forward to?
More car bombs killing Iraqis and Coalition soldiers, more kidnappings of Westerners working in Iraq, more beheadings, right?
Lord have mercy!]

They insisted that the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was not in Fallujah, claiming his alleged presence "is a lie just like the weapons of mass destruction lie."
[If you ever doubted that the Enemy is paying attention to every single little thing our Media is saying--even all the way over there in Babylon, doubt no more!--Jen]
[...]

Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for Thursday's twin bombings inside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone - home to U.S. officials and the Iraqi leadership - which killed six people, including three American civilians, and wounded 27 others, mostly Iraqis. A fourth American was missing and presumed dead.

The President and Donald Rumsfeld have told us repeatedly and honestly that OIF is and will be a "long, hard slog" and "hard work."
This isn't the first hard work Americans have done by a long shot and God willing, it won't be the last, but we can do this if we are strong and steadfast to stay our course, especially here at home.

October 10, 2004

Vatican buries the hatchet with Blair and Bush over Iraq

Senior Vatican officials have decided to put aside their differences with Tony Blair over the war in Iraq, calling for multinational troop reinforcements to secure the country's fledgling democracy.
[...]

Despite the Vatican's vociferous opposition to the war, the bloody terrorist attacks and the continuing insurgency have convinced the Pope that only an increased military presence, including Nato troops, can secure peace.

"There is a feeling that there really is no going back," said a Vatican adviser.

In a trenchant interview in the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, Cardinal Sodano said that as the crisis in Iraq deepened, the time had come to forget past differences over the decision to invade.

His comments appear to be part of an orchestrated campaign to galvanise military and financial support for a democratic Iraq among critics of the war such as France and Germany.

A subsequent front page editorial in Avvenire, an influential Roman Catholic magazine which boasts Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's own vicar, as a board member, calls for "tens of thousands of Nato troops" to be sent to Iraq to assist the interim government and ensure free elections.

The prominent theologian, Vittorio Parsi, criticises the "laziness" of countries that have refused to commit troops to Iraq unless all occupation soldiers are removed. The Telegraph has learnt that the editorial was almost certainly commissioned by Cardinal Ruini.

"Even the European countries that opposed the American decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime know well that an Iraq in the hands of the worst terrorists and criminals goes against the interests of all," wrote Mr Parsi.

The Vatican's new stance will hearten Mr Blair and President Bush, whose campaign for re-election has been overshadowed by the crisis. Senator John Kerry, his Democratic opponent, has repeatedly criticised the president for failing to garner sufficient international support for the invasion of Iraq.

This should also "hearten" Sen. Ketchup, who's supposed to be a nominal Catholic in spite of his defense of baby murder (partial birth abortion and the killing of life begun for embryonic stem cells).
Tony Blair will breathe a little easier, too, as it's rumored he wants to join the Roman Church.
And President Bush, who revers and respects the Holy Father, even though he's a Protestant, will definitely appreciate the support, as will Iraq's thousands of (Assyrian) Christians.

Howard wins his place in history

Prime Minister John Howard swept the Coalition to a fourth term last night, cementing his place in Australian history and banishing Labor to another period in the political wilderness.
[Ozzie Labor sounds just like our Democrats!]
[...]
And to tumultuous cheers and applause, the fourth-term exuberant Prime Minister claimed victory at 10.40pm, declaring that Australia had not seen such an "extraordinary" electoral feat since the 1960s.
[...]
Australia stood on the threshold of "a new era of great achievement" and could achieve "anything it wanted", the Prime Minister said - seemingly close to tears.

The swing to the Government in what was expected to be a tightly fought contest, but ended up being a comfortable victory, was about 2 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. It was helped by preferences from the right-wing Family First Party, first-time entrants to the political arena whose strong vote suggests that the "religious right" has arrived in Australia.

Even the strong Greens vote - which topped 10 per cent in some electorates, with preferences flowing strongly to Labor - failed to dent the extraordinary swing to the incumbents, who campaigned heavily on mortgage belt issues.
[As astute Ozzies noted, if the Labor's Latham had won and the election had gone the other way, it would have been called a "referendum against the war in Iraq."--Jen]
[...]
That would allow the Government, for the first time since the 1980s, to pass its controversial legislation without bartering with the left-wing parties.
[Wouldn't it be fabulous if the GOP controlled the Senate in the same way?!--J.T.]

"This swing to the Government is almost unprecedented," exuberant Liberal Party strategist Nick Minchin said, putting the emphatic result down to the unity of the front bench team and Mr Howard's intense focus.

Voters didn't just ignore Labor's $40 billion restructure of health, education and other social policies, they spurned the party's entire thrust.

As Australia goes, so goes the U.S.?
We can only hope and pray that America will re-elect President Bush and spurn the DNC's entire Socialist thrust as personified by their Congressional and Senate candidates (as well as John F'n Kerry), as Oz has done by reelecting Howard and choosing his conservative party to represent them in Parliament.
Good on you, PM Howard!
The Coalition and our alliance is saved once again and remains solid.
God Bless Australia!--We'll toast this victory with a bottle of fine Ozzie Chiraz.

Moqadasa Sidiqi casts her vote for the landmark Afghan election in Islamabad, October 9, 2004. The 19-year-old Afghan woman living as a refugee in Pakistan made history on Saturday by casting the first vote in Afghanistan's first direct presidential election.
Afghan Poll Ends Peacefully; Opposition Claims Fraud

Afghanistan's historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence, but the vote was thrown into turmoil when most candidates said a flawed process made the poll invalid.

All 15 of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai, the favorite to win anyway, as the only candidate in the fray.

Election officials refused to halt the process, which appeared to have been embraced enthusiastically by most voters across the rugged Islamic nation despite fears of violence by Taliban militants.
[...]
U.S.-backed Karzai also said the vote could not be negated.
[Typical al-Reuters! "US-backed Karzai"...Karzai was chosen at an international conference in Germany, but now he's "America's man," huh?--Jen]

"It's too late in the day for a boycott," he told a news conference. "Millions have voted in the rain, the snow and the dust storm and we should respect their decision.

"Just because 15 people have said 'No', we can't deny the votes of millions."
[...]
The impoverished nation was voting to choose its first elected president and perhaps end a quarter-century of war.
[...]
But the mood in most places appeared irrepressibly upbeat over Afghanistan's transition to some kind of democracy.

"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Sayed Aminullah as he cast his vote at Eid Gah Mosque in the capital.

"I don't care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

In Kandahar city, former headquarters of the Taliban, large crowds of men pushed to get into a polling center near the blue-tiled Kherqi Sharif mosque, but only a trickle of women, all in burqa veils, were seen entering a school opposite to vote.

"We came here to vote for peace and stability and freedom for women," said Raihana, a 37-year-old mother of eight who lived in exile in Iran for 14 years to flee war.

There were only scattered reports of election-related violence despite the Taliban's threats.
[...]
The opposition have long felt the international community was biased toward the incumbent.
[This holds true for any incumbent, from Karzai to Bush to John Howard of Australia.]

Afghan affairs expert and author Ahmed Rashid said: "There were irregularities, no doubt about it, but the opposition boycott was probably pre-planned and they jumped aboard the ink issue when it emerged.

Isn't this terrific?!
I love it that my country (and her military) helped make this possible!
Long live free Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai!