Category: war

In a nationwide CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, 3,444 Arabic and Kurdish Iraqis were interviewed face-to-face regarding social and political conditions in Iraq since the war began. The data is raw, but it certainly is interesting.

All interviews were conducted in the residences of the respondents. These poll results are based on interviews conducted in all parts of Iraq, both urban and rural, representing about 93% of the total Iraqi population. Nearly all the interviews were conducted between March 22-April 9, 2004. An extremely small number of interviews were conducted between April 16-22.

See the results (PDF).

I’ll bet somebody like Jerry Bruckheimer sees a movie in this article by Dana Priest.

During the Sadr militia’s Sunday attempt to seize the U.S. government headquarters in Najaf, the building was defended not by U.S. troops but by a small group of Blackwater Security Consulting “employees”. The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf. It turns out that the four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were also Blackwater employees.

In Sunday’s fighting, Shiite militia forces barraged the Blackwater commandos, four MPs and a Marine gunner with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire for hours before U.S. Special Forces troops arrived. A sniper on a nearby roof apparently wounded three men. U.S. troops faced heavy fighting in several Iraqi cities that day.

The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf.

With their ammunition nearly gone, a wounded and badly bleeding Marine on the rooftop, and no reinforcement by the U.S. military in the immediate offing, the company sent in helicopters to drop ammunition and pick up the Marine.

The identity of the Marine and two other wounded men could not be established, but their blood was still fresh hours later, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt arrived to survey the battle zone.

Without commenting at a news conference yesterday on the role of the Blackwater guards, Kimmitt described what he saw after the fighting ended. “I know on a rooftop yesterday in An Najaf, with a small group of American soldiers and coalition soldiers… who had just been through about 3 1/2 hours of combat, I looked in their eyes, there was no crisis.

Spectacularly interesting article about the standoff. Hey, if it was a movie, I’d definitely see it.

War Rationale: Version 10.0 – In the year since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has repeatedly shifted its justification for going to war and constantly changed its story on the ‘imminent threat’ of Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, Iraqi connections with al Qaeda, the United Nations, political transition, democracy in Iraq, and the cost to the American taxpayer. We all know (almost) everything about it by now, but if you can hold back the tears long enough to laugh, you might find this account hilarious.

Making Iraq Safe? Nope. Easy Access to Oil? Maybe.

Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who is being blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq, could have been neutralized long before the war, however the Bush Administration passed on the opportunity three times. Why did the White House’s National Security Council veto Pentagon plans to attack Zarqawi’s Terrorist organization?

From MSNBC news:

“Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.”

Because our Calgary trip has been cancelled, Anna-Maria and I took a trip into Medicine Hat instead. We will be heading home to Lethbridge later today. I had the chance to talk to Dad about some current events and I can’t believe his take on “the events of” the last few weeks. (If you don’t like it get a new blog!). He feels that Canada has “gone to far” by not sending Iraqi diplomats home when the United States has put out a press release asking other countries to do so. For what good reason should Canada send them home? There is no reason. The US has no right to ask the world to send them home. Here are some excepts from a related article:

The spokesman displayed little sympathy for the Iraqi diplomats who might be expelled, saying he did not know where they should go but it was possible to return to Iraq by land. “We just think they need to be kicked out of the countries that they’re in,” Boucher said. Asked where they should go, he replied: “I guess, to put it bluntly, that’s their problem.”

The article also stated that Canada hasn’t been specifically asked:

A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told Reuters in Ottawa: “They (the Americans) have not asked us and we see no reason to change Iraq’s diplomatic status in Canada.” Iraq’s embassy in Ottawa has one Iraqi diplomat. Russia also refused the US request to expel Iraqi diplomats from Moscow, dismissing it as “unacceptable”.

In a war that seems more and more like it’s being run by an ambitious dictator, I can only hope it is over soon.