Insurgents Wage Precise Attacks on Baghdad Fuel

[Rose Siding]

Insurgent attacks to disrupt Baghdad's supplies of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, water and electricity have reached a degree of coordination and sophistication not seen before, Iraqi and American officials say.

The new pattern, they say, shows that the insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines, power cables and reservoirs feeding Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

The shadowy insurgency is a fractured movement made up of distinct groups of Sunnis, Shiites and foreign fighters, some of them aligned and some not. But the shift in the attack patterns strongly suggests that some branch of the insurgency is carrying out a systematic plan to cripple Baghdad's ability to provide basic services for its six million citizens and to prevent the fledgling government from operating.

A new analysis by some of those officials shows that the choice of targets and the timing of sabotage attacks has evolved over the past several months, shifting from economic targets to become what amounts to a siege of the capital..........

http://nytimes.com/2005/02/21/international/middleeast/21sabotage.html?hp&ex=1108962000&en=d35c051c003cb7c4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Journeyman]

1. So what the hell did Hillary and the rest look at. . .

during their "tour" of the "fledgling democracy" that caused her to conclude the insurgency is "failing"?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1250990

[NNN0LHI]

6. Hillary and the boys got first hand news from Iraq

While they were holed up in their rooms inside the Green Zone watching CNN. Must have been an eye opening experience.

Don

[teryang]

2. Haven't they heard, the war is over?

<"They know what they are doing," Dr. Alsammarae said. "I keep telling our government, 'Their intelligence is much better than the government's.' "<snip>

<The new pattern of sabotage, he said, lays the groundwork for chaos - a deeply resentful populace, the appearance of government ineffectuality, a halt to major business and industrial activities. The second side - the suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings - he said, is aimed in large measure at sowing discord among ethnic and religious groups. >

[dbt]

3. A few "dead enders."

And a few more every hour. Pretty soon, we're talking QUAGMIRE. Can you say Iraq Nam? I knew you could. Don't you wonder why the people in DC can't say it?

:freak:
dbt

[DemoTex]

5. VC redux.

Because U.S. politicians and commanders had oversold progress in the war as a way to quiet domestic dissent, the savage Tet fighting shocked millions of Americans and widened Washington's credibility gap on Vietnam. Within weeks, President Lyndon B. Johnson would bow out of his race for re-election. Tet was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War. (Snip ..)

At a greasy car repair shop at 59 Phan Thanh Gian Street just before the VC attacks on Saigon, 19 VC sappers climbed into a small Peugeot truck and a taxicab to begin the short drive to their objective, the U.S. Embassy. Wearing black pajamas and red armbands, they were part of the elite 250-strong C-10 Sapper Battalion. Most of them had been born in Saigon and were familiar with the streets of the crowded city.

Two days earlier, heavy baskets, supposedly containing tomatoes, as well as bamboo containers of rice, had arrived at the home next door to the repair shop. They also contained all the AK-47s, B-40 rocket-propelled grenades and satchel charges the 19 sappers would need for their mission that evening. Shortly after midnight the soldiers were briefed for the first time on their combat mission against the American Embassy. There were no mock-ups of the location, no instructions on what to do after gaining entrance to the compound, no word of reinforce-ments or an escape route and no confirmation that this would be a suicide mission.(More ..)

http://www.thehistorynet.com/vn/blvcassaultonembassy/

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines

.
.
.

Well DOH!!

It's THEIR friggen country!

That's like saying that Americans know their Road System!

They don't have to be wizards to notice those huge pipes criss-crossing their nation, and to know what's in them . .

AND

I don't believe they (the"insurgents") are doing the sabotage to harm Iraqis . .

They are trying to keep the oil out of the Amerikkkans grips!

If it stays in the ground, the Iraqis will get it sooner or later,

and if the Murikkkan War Machine should run out of oil . . .

:shrug:


As far as the power lines and the reservoirs - hmmm

would this be beyond the scope of PhsyOps?

I don't think so - -

Wouldn't surprise me one little bit to discover that some of these "insurgents" are on the US payroll, or at least the BFEE's . .

[Igel]

8. You obviously didn't actually read or understand some

of what the author said. Author may be lying, but it's unlikely.

Unless the Americans you're talking to are the ones in the Green Zone, the oil and energy infrastructure that's being targeted doesn't affect Americans. Exports aren't targeted; infrastructure feeding domestic consumption is.

By showing that mommy government can't properly take care of its dependent children, the insurgency dishonors and undermines the government and saps its support among the populace. Nobody wants to side with losers.

[manic expression]

9. Not exactly

That oil barely reaches Iraqis anyway. The lines for gas are unbelievable throughout the entire country. The resistance is trying to make sure that the corporate profiteers are hurt. As you said, they are showing Iraqis that the US occupation is NOT trying to help them at all (and that is true...and an understatement of the truth at that), and in disrupting the infrastructure it will cause more Iraqis to see this.

[Igel]

10. Yes, the oil barely reaches Iraqis.

I know that the last time I had crude oil in my possession was 30 years ago; oil barely reaches Americans.

But if you trash the pipelines to the power stations and refineries, you hurt the occupation forces and the locals. I'm not sure Enron is in charge of the power generation facilities in Iraq; last I heard, the ministry there pretty much ran it ... at a loss. I don't think any Americans are profiting from Iraqi money at this point; Iraq doesn't have any. Moreover, guess which is better able to requisition and haul in fuel. It's not only the occupation forces suffers from loss of prestige and honor.

Many Russians believed the communists (i.e., Lenin) had ousting the tsar as their goal; they were certainly proven naive, for that was but the first step. The Bolsheviks killed Aleksandr and Mikhail Aleksandrovich, but they didn't kill a tsar.

Similarly, I don't believe that most of the insurgents have ousting the Americans as their real goal.

[tabasco]

11. WTF does the Russian Revolution have to do with Iraq??

Talk about some convoluted logic.

I'm quite sure the Iraqis are fighting to get America out. How about looking at some historical examples of occupied countries trying to defeat an invader. There are plenty more of those examples than whatever it is you are trying to argue.

[Igel]

14. It's called an analogy.

Everybody keeps saying they're freedom fighters, and if the US leaves a reign of peace, harmony, and prosperity will dawn in Mesopotamia. After all, as the freedom fighters kill worshippers and unarmed women, the claim is that all they want is for the occupation to end.

It's naive. As an example, note the Bolsheviks: "We want to get rid of the tsar" was the claim. The claim was for public consumption. And nothing more. And six months after the tsar abdicated, they seized power.

[manic expression]

12. Have you ever heard of

Halliburton or Bechtel? They are making mountains of money off of the war, and hurting their means of making money will hurt them (the infrastructure that they are running badly and making money off of).
Americans are profiting off of Iraq itself, they don't need to make Iraqi money, simply American money.

The Bolsheviks ousted Kerensky and his government and took power, the Czars were already ousted at that point.

The resistance wants the Americans out at all costs. How do you not see this? The expulsion US occupation is the one of the only points every insurgent in Iraq can agree on. What in the world would they be fighting for if not to kick the US occupation out? That is their first goal, and we shall see how they differ in their views of Iraq's future once they accomplish this.

By the way, I was saying that Iraqi oil rarely results in a gain for Iraqis.

[Igel]

15. Yes, and Halliburton is raking in tons of *American* money.

The resistance wants the Americans out at all costs.

And once they're out, the "resistance" will want something else at all costs.

There will probably be either a quick coup followed by untold bloodshed, or a civil war bringing on untold bloodshed.

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. "Obviously" ?? - - hmmm

.
.
.

First of all I did read, and I have reasonably acute cognitive skills.

Secondly "Unless the Americans you're talking to are the ones in the Green Zone" - I don't recall talking, or SAYING I was talking to any Americans, let alone any in Iraq on this issue.

And I STILL seriously consider the possibility that these "attacks", or at least some of them, are orchestrated in the West.

If indeed the Iraqis are responsible, I believe that their intent is to disrupt the American War Machine, NOT to harm their fellow Iraqis.

oh - "losers" ??

You mean that "gang of thugs" that's been running circles around the US Military for almost 2 years?

hmmm again . . .

[DeepModem Mom]

7. kick