What Will They Think of Next! 08-11-09 mpg Despite attacks, Iraqis resist sectarian reprisals Some quotes...."ARLINGTON, Va. — The number of insurgent attacks has declined in Mosul and across northern Iraq since the June 30 pullout of U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities. -- In their place, waning but persistent insurgent networks led by al-Qaida in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq have shifted to carrying out larger and more deadly attacks designed to entice sectarian reprisals by targeting local citizens, mainly Shiites, and Iraqi security forces, according to Maj. Gen. Robert Calsen, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq. On Monday, for example, a double-truck bombing near Mosul killed at least 34 people. -- But unlike in years past, Shiite leaders are not taking the bait." --- "It is too soon to gauge if Iraqi security forces alone will be able to keep the lid on violence, Calsen said, but he is optimistic. He [Maj. Gen. Robert Calsen] points to the reduced number of attacks and intelligence reports that say some insurgent networks have been broken or have run into financial difficulties since June 30. -- And in the end, I think what you’ll end up having is an irreconcilable remnant of criminals,” he said. “It’s clear that the population in Mosul does not share in their ideology, and these criminals will be treated — once you get a competent police force — they will be treated no differently than they are in any other major city, like New York City or London or any place like that.” - bold by website editor Wow! Think of that folks! Treat the bombers like criminals, follow the f-cking money, find out who sponsors them and cut off their sources of funding. Launch criminal investigations into their networks, arrest the sponsors, those they hired to commit their murders, try them, convict them and punish them under the rule of law. WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA!! WHO WOULD OF THUNK IT!! To bad the security forces of what used to be known as the United States of America didn't think of that back in 2001 when this nation still had a constitution, a democracy, the decent opinion of mankind and a functioning economy. But what the heck, Bush once called the constitution just a "Goddamn piece of paper" anyway, so it couldn’t have been that important. And besides, if they'd had that idea back in 2001 in what was formally called the USofA and which has now become the US-NRE, they wouldn't currently be occupying a country which contains the second largest reservoir of sweet crude in the world.....now would they? In fact, if the security services had just simply "followed the money" and standard “police procedures” PRIOR to 9/11/01, the attacks might not have occurred in the first place! And our poor, over burdened, hard working men and women in these security services wouldn't now be forced to make all those dreadful decisions on how to spend the trillions of extra dollars they received as a result of those terrible attacks. Must just be another one of those strange, totally inexplicable, unexplainable, bizarre, weird, coincidences, isn't that right folks? – mpg |