400 heavily armed Iraqi rebels launch assault on U.S. base in Ramadi

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6281902&cKey=1133428827000

RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi militants attacked a U.S. base and a local government building with mortar rounds and rockets in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday, before holding ground on several central streets, residents said.

Around 400 heavily armed and masked men were patrolling the main thoroughfares of the city, long a focus of guerrilla activity, and had set up checkpoints at entrance and exit points, residents from across Ramadi told Reuters. snip

"They've taken control of all the main streets and other sections of Ramadi," a reporter for Reuters in the city said. "I've seen about 400 armed men controlling streets, some of which were controlled by Americans before," he said.

[Tsiyu]

1. Stay the course, morans

Sickening news...

[Solomon]

16. Wonder whether they were Saddamists, Rejectionists, or

Terrists?

[Hissyspit]

2. Last throes, dammit, haven't you insurgents heard yet!!?

You are in your last throes!! So finish throeing already!

What a fucking insane re-creation of Vietnam we stupid Americans have gotten ourselves into...

[Lasher]

3. Wait a minute, this can't be right!

Didn't Rummy just say that our grateful Iraqi allies are now controlling the peaceful road to the Baghdad airport? Didn't he say that we are handing control of happy little towns like Ramadi over to Iraqi police because there's nobody left to fight against us? Maybe these 400 people were just excited because they get to vote for freedom, thanks to our benevolent president, who they adore. Maybe they were just heavily armed with flowers and candy that they wanted to bestow on our troops.

[ClayZ]

29. May have been sadamists or protesters! Might have been people.

Just when we were making so much progress! :sarcasm: Could have been soldiers without uniforms....


ARGH! I need an alternate reality!

[LittleClarkie]

4. Damn Rejectionists! Don't you know when you're defeated@?

Now shoo!

[ngGale]

5. DejaVu....

taken control of the streets! Bad news, more of our soldier's will die trying to take it back. God, please just bring them home.:cry:

[laruemtt]

6. wonder how our trusty media

will spin this info to us.

[Tactical Progressive]

10. Well, they've been getting hit alot lately

by Republicans saying they aren't showing the good sides of Iraq, only the bad. Not all the happy, carefree democratic citizens finally able to go shopping, movie-going, restauranting, school, etc. Probably because it's as dangerous for reporters to be out on many of the streets trying to talk to people as it is for Iraqis themselves.

But that reality doesn't make a dent in the media's fear of the right wing's hatreds; their screamers calling them unpatriotic - practically Saddam propagandists - for not telling them what they want to hear. So they've been putting as much happy-face as they can on the air - in order to create 'balance', the new definition of journalism. I've noticed this over the past few weeks.

BushCo's latest line of refurbished, reformulated lies however, aren't getting much traction, nor are his approval ratings, so they aren't able to get back to full-on Republican adoration. So this way at least it's balance - half Republican lies / half truth - which is better than what we've had in this country for the last ten years politically - 80% Republican lies / 20% sneering at Democrats.

Anderson Cooper just had the Time Mag Iraq Bureau Chief on who effectively called Bush a flat-out liar. Bush's speech used this big recent battle to show how battle-ready the Iraqi forces are. He talked about how they lead the attack when in fact it was completely an American battle with Iraqi forces tagging along like children. The guy was there in person watching, and so anecdotally just smashed the president's credibility - from his most recent speech - into smithereens. Before that Murtha was making the BushCo principles, strategies and tactics in Iraq sound foolish, pointing out that both electricity and oil production in Iraq are down 60% from before the invasion and they're not paying for themselves. So much for happy-talk.

Which is alot for the media to confront after they just came out all starry-eyed over Bush's speech. They do that, even when it's just warmed-over plastic turkey - hoping their immediate positive feedback will give an early-mover uptick for Bush. That early push can generate positive feelings which then later poll higher, and cycle it up. They did the same thing to Gore in reverse - pushing him down early to generate further negative feedback even though everyone thought he won the debates. Still, their tactic works to some degree or another. It may be unconscious on their part, but you can watch them doing it. Unfortunately, their positive spin on the same old Bush terra BS speech didn't work - again - so they're stuck trying to:
1) show the positive 'balance'
2) complain that Democrats don't have a plan because they don't all agree on EXACTLY how quickly to remove the troops in 2006 after the Iraqi elections.

In short, they aren't on our side; they are still terrified by right-wing anger. They just aren't able to get past either the popular distrust of Bush or the increasingly and continuing dishonesty of Bush.

[hatrack]

20. Yet when Farenheit 911 showed Iraqis shopping, going to school, etc.

The Pukes attacked it as propaganda.

So, which is it, guys? Is the good news only "news" when it takes place during civil wars but not during the reigns of brutal dictators?

[Merrick]

7. Yeah, they're getting desperate now

resorting to taking over entire towns...

[jannyk]

8. It's on the Beeb now too

as 'breaking' news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4487862.stm

[laruemtt]

9. rummy will use this as an excuse

to bomb the crap out of ramadi, or give it the fallujah treatment.

[Yupster]

32. Boy I would think an urban

situation like that would be a sniper's dream come true.

[leftchick]

11. Did you post this in LBN Don? I have not seen it.

Not surprisingly....

<snip>

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for information about the situation.

what a fucking mess.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Just onesies and twosies.... dead enders, and former Baathists. Nothing

to see here, move along now.... shoo.


http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19293/
Before his departure, CPA chief Paul Bremer issued 100 Orders to dramatically restructure Iraq's economy to fit free-market ideals. And no Iraqi, including future elected officials, can undo them.

[annabanana]

13. damn damn damn

I expect we'll see "hardenend" responses to our forays into more towns soon. .. and a spike in casualties..

I don't believe this will be spinnable.. so they'll just have to ask corpomedia to ignore it completely.

[Cooley Hurd]

14. al-Ramadi's gone back and forth in terms of who's controlling it...

What I fear most is a "Fallujah Solution" being applied to Ramadi by the US military. Jeebus H. Cripes...:( :(

[RepublicanElephant]

15. this is not vietnam, it's WORSE!

how many tet offensives will it take, america?

[NuttyFluffers]

17. but were there turnings of corners or forgettings of poland?

or especially a white woman missing?

otherwise the media might not have a story...

[Freedomfried]

18. "We're bringing it on", they shouted.

just took em a little while.

[long_green]

19. This is a warning sign if we will only heed it

If we delay the withdrawal of our forces too much longer, we may not have the option of withdrawing them at all.

[Doctor_J]

21. Wait, that's not towels they're throwing in!

Maybe that one Iraqi battlion we've trained can go and beat them back

:eyes:

[WLKjr]

22. 400 now ,

1000+ later.


fear leads to anger
anger leads to hate
hate leads to suffering

(forgive the yoda saying, but I find it very true)

[gratuitous]

23. See? Bush is right

The Iraqis are taking more and more control of their own security details. Too bad for our troops that the enemy those Iraqis are fighting against is . . . well, them. But it's their own fault, really, for not having the surname "Bush."

[Loonman]

24. Not TET

But an amazing simulation.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. DAMN! Get the hell out of there!

Whose child will be that last child he asks to die? (Thanks Kerry) Jenna? Barbara? HELL NO! GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ NOW!!!!

[HereSince1628]

26. Sounds like rejectionists have their own fully operational Battalion

400 operational forces, if you add the unseen elements...HQ staff and support elements that's getting close to a light infantry battalion isn't it?

But the good news for the US is that 400 insurgents in one place make a GREAT target for a MOAB.

[smoogatz]

27. See, the Iraqi army IS standing up.

Just not the U.S.-backed one that we're trying so hard to train. Which leads to an interesting question: I'm not a vet, but isn't basic training in the U.S. army something like eight weeks long? What the hell is taking so long with the Iraqis? We've been trying to train their asses for two YEARS. Here's my theory: we don't really wANT to train them, because if we do, two things might happen. First, they could turn against us, and use American weapons on American troops--a disaster. Second, they could turn on the Sunnis (the people we're training are mostly Shi'a), using their new combat skills and weapons to commit a bit of ethnic cleansing. That's already happening, apparently, on a small scale. So we can't train them, really, because we can't trust them. But we can't leave until we train them. Thanks, W!!

[Old and In the Way]

36. And a peaceful Iraq would mean no justification to stay.

We have a whole bunch of paid mercenaries that could be helping to keep Iraq destabilized and providing cover for our continued presence there. Think back to the initial takeover of Bahgdad....we let their national museum get ransacked, but protected the oil ministry building....that should tell us this administration's priorities...

[sofa king]

28. I defy you to find a single surprised historian

This was the logical next step in this war. In any reasonably successful guerrilla war, the insurgents begin targeting the occupiers with large-scale raids on outlying positions.

There is an interesting step after that. To reach this level of strength and cohesion, the insergent forces almost always have to surrender some of their authority to political supporters.

The politicians are almost always too impatient. So the next step after this is an attempt to besiege and destroy a major position of the occupiers. It almost never works militarily (example: Tet; exception: Dien Bien Phu), but it often makes much political hay.

Projecting from the rate at which the insurgency has been growing, I think it is safe to predict that by this time next year, at least one of our fourteen shiny new bases in Iraq will be attacked and beseiged by the insurgents. That incident will mark the first large-scale "battle" in this war, and for the purposes of the insurgents, the victory is in the attempt.

[Straight Shooter]

30. Interesting how bush and the Repubs reject a thoughtful withdrawal

and almost immediately a major assault occurs. It's as if the insurgents are sending a message in return, saying, "Hell with bush and the Americans. They're never going to leave."

[long_green]

34. I disagree.

These insurgents KNOW we're leaving. They're helping to speed it up. It's up to us whether we leave like the Brits in Hong Kong or like we did in Saigon in 1975.

It will be the latter.

[Straight Shooter]

35. I beg to differ.

The insurgents don't know we're leaving. We don't even know that for certain. george w. bush is a total nutcase, at least if you're willing to believe people like Wilkerson and Sy Hersh. george w. bush has never learned the art of compromise and accepting defeat. He may well drag this thing into some pits of hell of which the world has never before seen.

I repeat, george w. bush is a nutcase. No telling what he'll do.

[CoffeeCat]

31. But.....but....WE'RE MAKING PROGRESS!

Come on folks....we're turning a corner....the insurgency is in its last throes...all of this is based on 'darn good intelligence'...it's a 'slam dunk'...we're making good progress...we just had Iraqi elections....we just voted on an Iraqi constitution...we removed a ruthless dictator...we must not 'cut and run'....we must stay the course and not let the terrorists win...things are improving...the insurgency is being defeated...I choked on a pretzel.

/lies off

[EVDebs]

33. Taking the same hill over and over again ? vs Hearts and Minds

[sofa king]

37. Oh dear. It gets worse.

I'm sorry if dragging this thread back to the fore is improper etiquette; if it is someone please do me the favor of informing me. But I have just seen something which I think is fairly important.

Juan Cole, who I think is one of the most insightful observers of the Iraqi operation, has this to say this moring:

"Aljazeera is reporting, based on video released by guerrillas that the latter have taken over Ramadi and attacked US troops there. I saw on CNN International a rebuttal of this claim by Gen. Lynch, who alleged that the Zarqawi group is very good at propaganda and is obscuring what is really going on in Iraq."

Whatever the truth, the timing of this statement by General Lynch falls desperately flat, particularly in light of revelations that the Pentagon has been deliberately puchasing disinformation space in Iraqi newspapers. I have a feeling that this statement will rankle Iraqis in the exact same way that White House attempts to deflect blame by echoing allegations of wrongdoing against its accusers does here in America. It's almost as if Karl Rove is now moonlighting as a writer of Defense Department talking points.

Worse still, Dr. Cole reports that the United States is responding to the incident with a planned sweep of Ramadi which is certain to disrupt the elections in that province. This action will also fit in perfectly with past Sunni allegations that the elections are rigged in favor of chosen Bush Administration factions.

Many Iraqis are not going to buy this sort of bullshit any more than we, the readers of Democratic Underground, believe what the White House is telling us. The critical difference is that some Iraqis have already shown a willingness to take up arms against this deception, and they are increasingly coming to view their American occupiers as the enemy.