For example, you write: “Why are we in Iraq? Several reasons: To remove a brutal dictatorial leadership and free the oppressed people of Iraq; To assert American influence in the Middle East and create and maintain a strategic base within the heart of the region that will allow us react, militarily, to further terrorist provocations and/or threats to the United States, our allies, and our ‘interests’ in the region; To create a viable and successful democratic society in a section of the world that seems to loathe the very concept of “freedom”; and to drag the most backward, barbaric culture on the face of the planet into the 21st Century.”

First of all, the brutal dictator Saddam was our ally in the 1980s. We have the receipts for many of the weapons, most of which were destroyed in the 1990s, that Bush Jr. later used as an excuse for war.

Right, metaphorically speaking, our military lease was up in Saudi Arabia, so the shock and awe was worth 3,000+ US lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives to move the base to Iraq. Millions of POIs, POMs and POAs, some of whom now want to join al Qaeda as a result of our actions, the alienation of our allies, the disastrous shift of focus from al Qaeda to Iraq is all worth one lousy Baghdad military base according to you.

An area of the world “that’s loathe to accept the idea of freedom”??? In other words, Iraqi’s should be grateful that we’re bombing them into democracy.

You believe Iraq is “the most backward, barbaric culture on the face of the planet into the 21st Century.” As if invading and bombing a country that hasn’t attacked you were a civilized act.

What do you know about Iraq? I’m not an expert, but at least I’ve read enough to know that the history of that area is rich. Babylonia, today’s Iraq, has made significant contributions to the world in the fields such as medicine, astronomy, algebra and mathematics, literature, the arts. For example: In Babylonian times, women and men were educated and most towns had libraries. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the 7 wonders of the world. Did you know that a basic theory of evolution was developed 600 years before Charles Darwin by 13th century Persian scientist Nasir al-Din Tusi? Or that the 10th century Iraqi Muslim astronomer, engineer, mathematician and physicist Ibn al-Haytham may have been the father of modern optics and established the use of scientific experiments? Or that the 20th-century Iranian Ali Javan invented the gas laser in 1960?

Until the invasion, Iraq had one of the highest literacy rates and most well educated populations in the Middle East.

BG, an ambush is by definition covert, so your “overt ‘ambush’ ” is an oxymoron.

As for the “more troops” vs “better tactics, better planning” argument, maybe one or the other would have prevented this particular incident, maybe not, but one thing is certain. Nothing could have prevented the U.S. being defeated in Iraq any more than anything could prevent the Viet Nam defeat. More troops, better tactics, better planning would only have prolonged the pre-retreat agony, and increased the damage to American lives, and the American military, and the devastation to Iraq and its people.

There is no right way to do a wrong thing.

Right on, sister, right on!!!, as we used to say when I was young(er);-)

Just someone: “if we do withdraw it won’t be because of our troops “squealing”.”
Yeah, back in the days we used to call that withdrawal “peace with honor”, yet with the same results: GI Joe running for cover, grabbing for that last helicopter, shitting his pants and crying for mommy.
And now you bring up F-16 Hornet fantasies of manhood, American heroes ensconced in high tech weaponry. Well, get real homeboy, that’s exactly what makes the Iraqi Resistance the heroic and courageous ones in this sordid affair: they’re fighting with minimal weaponry (quite effective at that) an invading colossus bristling with WMDs, and they’re kicking the shit out of the motherfucker!!
Of course, the Iraqi people are paying the heavy price: collateral damage we call it in the current version of “newspeak”.
Have you ever read this short story by Tom Wolfe about fighter jocks flying missions off carriers over Vietnam, and how they all had Filipino man servants?
That was because they just couldn’t drop their underwear at the ship’s laundry after they came back from missions where they had to dodge SA-7s and NV flak with said underwear showing major brown spots after our “heroes” landed their F-4s on the deck!! So the “barely human” filipino, the slope ‘du jour’, was the only one who got to see our heroes’ intestinal action “up close and personal”, so to speak!!
Well, I’m glad you’re contributing money to the cause. It’ll help our “heroes” pay for their laundry bill!!!! :-D

What a shame that hundreds - maybe thousands - more American troops are going to be killed and maimed before someone or something forces the U.S. regime to recognize reality and order them home. What an even greater shame that the longer you stay the worse things will be for Iraqis and the longer it will take for them to recover - if they ever will.

And the greatest shame is that those who brought about this catastrophe will never be held accountable.

No ambush, I agree. I wonder even more, knowing all that we know about this cabal who has set this all in motion, if somehow they were not set up??? It is horrible for me to even think this way, but with the way bushco, and these neocons have run things, I wouldn’t put even something like this out of the scope of their treason…
I am so glad to see Wolfowizzzz gone. Hope he and his buddies won’t be forgotten… their time in hell is coming… The whole group of them, to the HAGUE…

OT, but important, I believe… I have been busy making Impeachment signs from recycled materials, and putting them around town wherever I can… what other things (besides calling and writing/emailing reps) can we do to keep the pressure on??? Hopefully I can get a ride to the Detroit Town meeting… Dingell is getting tired of me, and as for Mike Rogers (Rethug who beat out Jim Marcinkowski)… he is getting ready to go on my updated sheetmaster list… I think he is and idiot…

Michel, Iraqis really, really do not like foreigners interfering in their business. Polls and other indicators show that the majority of Iraqis of all “stripes, tribes, religion, and political coloration” hold low to very low opinions of Al Qa`eda in general and so-called “Al Qa`eda in Iraq” (whose connection to bin Laden’s Al Qa`eda is questionable) in particular. It is also a fact that Iraqis have been actively fighting against these people to an increasing degree from the beginning. Whatever “support” so-called “Al Qa`eda in Iraq” and other “foreign jihadists” have ever had is born of Iraqis’ desperation to rid themselves of the American occupation, which they rightly see as a long-term project. As soon as the Americans are gone, what little support there is for these “foreign jihadists” will evaporate almost entirely, and they will quickly follow the Americans as all of them run yelping for the border.

Insurgents definitely wrong. The use of the term insurgent is incorrect. There are no insurgents in Iraq. This is more than mere semantics. Words are chosen to shape perceptions, often in a misleading way. The Bush administration has paid tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars to high level P.R. firms to help it choose the most effective words with which to create perceptions and mislead the public about its aggression against Iraq.

“This was not the work of amateurish resistance fighters…”

So, to you resistance fighters are by definition amateurish? What does that say about your military, then, given that these amateurish resistance fighters have defeated you?

“…nor militia and possibly not even Iraqis.”

Even your own military commanders have admitted that the number of non-Iraqis among those fighting them is miniscule, and that the overwhelming majority of those who have successfully defeated the occupation are what they call POI’s (pissed off Iraqis).

“This raid, like the raid last June…were likely conducted by professionals. International terrorists who likely come into Iraq to fight, leave the country for a while until things cool down, and return a few months later to do it again.”

Yeah, we know, BG, Iraqis are all just a bunch of bumbling amateurs. All the REALLY effective actions against the occupation are done by foreigners, just like all the REALLY effective weapons are made by Iranians, not Iraqis, ’cause Iraqis don’t know how to do anything without outside help.

Parenthetically, it is striking - but not at all surprising - how closely U.S. occupation tactics mimic the Israelis’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. And why not? Look how successful the Israelis have been in controlling the occupied population. (Irony intended)