McClatchy: Cheney praises "phenomenal" progress as bomber kills 39

[babylonsister]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/30645.html

Cheney praises "phenomenal" progress as bomber kills 39
By Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008



BAGHDAD, Iraq — Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Monday and credited Iraqi leaders and a massive U.S. troop build-up with security improvements he described as "phenomenal" after meetings with U.S. military commanders and Iraqi politicians.

But violence continued against civilians. At sunset Monday, a female suicide bomber killed at least 36 people and injured more than 40 when she blew herself up among Iranian pilgrims just outside a crowded Shiite Muslim shrine in the southern holy city of Karbala, said Raheem Mishawi, a spokesman of Karbala's provincial government. Local police said many Iranians were among the victims.

Cheney's trip coincided with that of another high-profile visitor, Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who arrived Sunday for a two-day fact-finding mission for the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee. Cheney was a chief architect of the U.S.-led invasion that began five years ago this week; McCain was an early supporter of the war.

"It's especially significant, I think, to be able to return this week as we mark the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the campaign that liberated the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's tyranny and launched them on the difficult but historic road to democracy," Cheney said, according to a White House transcript of his remarks at Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's home in the heavily guarded Green Zone compound in Baghdad. The leaders took no questions.

Both Cheney and McCain have been strong backers of the "surge" strategy that brought an extra 30,000 American troops to Iraq in an effort to drive out Islamist extremists and reduce the sectarian violence that has claimed thousands of lives and turned Baghdad into a dismal city of walled-off neighborhoods segregated by sect. The year-old surge has helped bring about a sharp drop in bloodshed throughout Iraq - with the number of attacks down by more than half - though many skeptical Iraqis call the relative lull only a pause in the violence.

[malaise]

1. It would have been 'phenomenal'

only if Cheney...I'm scared of Agent Mike so I can't say more.:shrug:

[bushmeister0]

2. Bomb magnet hits town, bombs explode

AP reports:

"BAGHDAD - A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to one of Iraq's most revered mosques. The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad. . . Two U.S. soldiers also were killed Monday in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll closer to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters its sixth year."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=Ai0JODi06fGu5.Xuv2bLCFpX6GMA

And, naturally, there were the various roadside bombs, shootings, bus bombings, kidnappings, dead bodies found on the streets; otherwise a prettt quiet day.

War is peace, disaster is progress.