By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's interim prime minister blamed U.S.-led coalition forces Tuesday for "great negligence" in the ambush that killed about 50 American-trained soldiers, and a U.S. airstrike in Fallujah killed an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said. An Iraqi insurgent group, meanwhile, said on a Web site it had taken 11 Iraqi National Guard soldiers hostage. They were seized on a highway between Baghdad and Hillah, according to the Internet posting by the militant group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army. The posting included the names of all 11. The authenticity of the posting could not immediately be verified. The movement claimed responsibility for a number of attacks and hostage takings, including the kidnap and murder of 12 Nepalese, who were seized in August. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi blamed the coalition for poor security in Saturday's ambush about 95 miles east of Baghdad. "It was a heinous crime where a group of National Guards were targeted," Allawi said. "There was great negligence on the part of some coalition forces. It seems there was sort of determination on doing Iraq and Iraqi people harm." http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041026/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_041026154445
Not good. The only way to bring stability is going to be getting these guys up and running. Letting them get slaughtered on the side of the road is NOT moving in the right direction. I think its an amazing show of anti-insurgent sentiment that Iraqis are still showing up to join police and national guard units at all considering the bombings and these ambushes.
Agreed. The only problem is that there are insurgents showing up to be trained as anti-insurgent police, then they get weapons and training and go back to fighting against us and the Iraqis. As I stated in another thread, a friend of mine that has ties over there said it is happnening often enough where US militray personnel don't trust the people they are training anymore.
How can a former CIA operative hand picked by the Bush Administration not be trusted? See: Chalabi, Ahmed The Bush Administration is a joke.
If as some polls supposedly report 80% plus want us to leave, how can we hope to keep killing the IRaqis till the majority start liking our occupation? Isn't it more likely that the minority supporting Bush and Hayes' war will decrease rather than increase? I suppose with massive immigration and intermarriage we could eventually make them love the USA.
That would be cool if I was on the ticket, I have to admit it has a ring to it (although really it should be Hayesstreet/Bush cause I don't look like a monkey). If Iraqis continue to join the police and national guard to fight the insurgents/terrorists, that is a good thing, no?
It is disheartening to learn that there are a few bad apples with the recruit as evident by the roadside checkpoint and subsequent massacre of trained Iraqi recruits last weekend. But trully who can blame the administration on this one? How can anyone really tell if a recruit really wants to help the effort or there to be a mole or spy to undermine the efforts that is behing the spirit?
Lots of unarmed men in a convoy of lumbering vehicles in a country racked by civil insurrection and foreign fighters. That's a recipe for disaster. We had a mini mutiny on our hands when US soldiers were asked to go outside the green zone in unarmored vehicles. Now the Iraqis will have to have armed escorts or carry their weapons home.
It seems to me, and I might be wrong, that the US is afraid to give "our" Iraqis anything much more powerful than M-16's Probably because we are afraid they will sell it or use it against us. The Bushies are struggling to keep the full extent of the Iraqi mess under cover till after next week. It reminds me so much of Nixon's men struggling to keep the emerging Watergate affair under wraps till reelection. Even if only 5% of "our" Iraqi soldiers are moles it is enough to make the whole force ineffective and keep the US carrying the whole load, especially as the coalition of the not so willing starts pulling out. Iraq will be safer once we pull out as we are the problem, not the solution. We do owe it to the Iraqis whose country we have destroyed to pay reparations as they attempt to rebuild. It is a shame what we have done to the Iraqi people.
