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	<title>Comments on: Momentum Is A Factor In Iraq II</title>
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	<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389</link>
	<description>High Flying Political Debate</description>
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		<title>By: The Strata-Sphere &#187; May 2008 One Of Top Two Least Violent Months Of The Entire Iraq War</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-334583</link>
		<dc:creator>The Strata-Sphere &#187; May 2008 One Of Top Two Least Violent Months Of The Entire Iraq War</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 May 2008 14:49:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-334583</guid>
		<description>[...] In September 2007 I was able to see some real data as General Petraeus reported to Congress on the enormous progress The Surge had achieved in a few short months. The main thrust of this post was how political momentum was going to impact inIraq&#8217;s violence levels, following the trends in violence in Anbar Provence where the Surge and Awakening first succeeded. Looking at the curves over time for Anbar I made some predictions for Iraq in general: I want to skip to slide 8, page number 7 to first focus on the Anbar results, to see the model we hope will be reflected across Iraq. These are not projections, this is what happened in Anbar. In Jun 06 the monthly attack rate was above 800 per month. By Oct 06 the al-Qaeda bloodletting peaked at just under 1400 per month. These are attacks - not deaths, but the deaths and injuries will clearly track with the number of attacks. Then we see the shift in alliance occur and by Feb 07 the attacks dropped down to a little over 1100. So the momentum had shifted at this point. And then another factor took over: acceleration. As the tide turned against al-Qaeda the number of attacks in Anbar started to drop off even faster. By Aug 07 the number of attacks in Anbar were down to 200 per month. Anbar is a large and highly populated Province, so 200 per month is a pretty low level and it is one quarter the level from Jun 2006. [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] In September 2007 I was able to see some real data as General Petraeus reported to Congress on the enormous progress The Surge had achieved in a few short months. The main thrust of this post was how political momentum was going to impact inIraq&#8217;s violence levels, following the trends in violence in Anbar Provence where the Surge and Awakening first succeeded. Looking at the curves over time for Anbar I made some predictions for Iraq in general: I want to skip to slide 8, page number 7 to first focus on the Anbar results, to see the model we hope will be reflected across Iraq. These are not projections, this is what happened in Anbar. In Jun 06 the monthly attack rate was above 800 per month. By Oct 06 the al-Qaeda bloodletting peaked at just under 1400 per month. These are attacks &#8211; not deaths, but the deaths and injuries will clearly track with the number of attacks. Then we see the shift in alliance occur and by Feb 07 the attacks dropped down to a little over 1100. So the momentum had shifted at this point. And then another factor took over: acceleration. As the tide turned against al-Qaeda the number of attacks in Anbar started to drop off even faster. By Aug 07 the number of attacks in Anbar were down to 200 per month. Anbar is a large and highly populated Province, so 200 per month is a pretty low level and it is one quarter the level from Jun 2006. [...]</p>
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		<title>By: DaleinAtlanta</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214469</link>
		<dc:creator>DaleinAtlanta</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:12:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214469</guid>
		<description>PS:  how&#039;s THAT truth hurt?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>PS:  how&#8217;s THAT truth hurt?</p>
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		<title>By: DaleinAtlanta</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214468</link>
		<dc:creator>DaleinAtlanta</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214468</guid>
		<description>&quot;And thatâ€™s why weâ€™re still there fighting and dying - &quot;

Let&#039;s be clear about one thing, WEASEL-Traitor:  &quot;we&#039;re&quot; not doing anything!

You&#039;re so busy cringing, whimpering, and crying on your knees, pining to surrender to Al Qaeda, any how, any way, as fast as you can, that &quot;we&quot; are certainly NOT &quot;fighting and dying&quot; anywhere!

YOU have never served any where, any way, any how!

YOU are not even an AMERICAN!

You are a LIAR, a FRAUD, a WEASEL little Anti-American, Pro-Jihadi Traitorous Leftwing Nutback F&amp;#K!

So don&#039;t YOU DARE include yourself in ANY PHRASE with the brave Men and Women of America who are fighting and dying right now in Iraq and elsewhere!

YOU are NOT &quot;We&quot; you little miserable F#@K!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;And thatâ€™s why weâ€™re still there fighting and dying &#8211; &#8221;</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s be clear about one thing, WEASEL-Traitor:  &#8220;we&#8217;re&#8221; not doing anything!</p>
<p>You&#8217;re so busy cringing, whimpering, and crying on your knees, pining to surrender to Al Qaeda, any how, any way, as fast as you can, that &#8220;we&#8221; are certainly NOT &#8220;fighting and dying&#8221; anywhere!</p>
<p>YOU have never served any where, any way, any how!</p>
<p>YOU are not even an AMERICAN!</p>
<p>You are a LIAR, a FRAUD, a WEASEL little Anti-American, Pro-Jihadi Traitorous Leftwing Nutback F&amp;#K!</p>
<p>So don&#8217;t YOU DARE include yourself in ANY PHRASE with the brave Men and Women of America who are fighting and dying right now in Iraq and elsewhere!</p>
<p>YOU are NOT &#8220;We&#8221; you little miserable F#@K!</p>
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		<title>By: Soothsayer</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214348</link>
		<dc:creator>Soothsayer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:26:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214348</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Bush did not decide to invade Iraq before 9/11. How can you believe this?&lt;/blockquote&gt;

Lurker-

All you have to do is read the book written by former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O&#039;Neill, a Republican and former CEO of Alcoa.  O&#039;Neill says that at the first Cabinet meeting in February of 2001 all Bush wanted to talk about was invading Iraq:

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;b&gt;â€œFrom the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,â€ says Oâ€™Neill, who adds &quot;going after Saddam was topic &quot;A&quot; 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. &quot;

â€œFrom the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,â€ says Suskind. â€œDay one, these things were laid and sealed.â€&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

All the lies about WMD; all the ignoring of data that said Saddam did not have WMD&#039;s or ties to al-Qaeda; all the talk of mushroom clouds , all of the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a rathole in the desert was the result of a concerted conspiracy to fulfill George Bush&#039;s preconceived plan to invade Iraq.  And that&#039;s why we&#039;re still there fighting and dying - for George Bush&#039;s lies. 

The truth hurts.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Bush did not decide to invade Iraq before 9/11. How can you believe this?</p></blockquote>
<p>Lurker-</p>
<p>All you have to do is read the book written by former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O&#8217;Neill, a Republican and former CEO of Alcoa.  O&#8217;Neill says that at the first Cabinet meeting in February of 2001 all Bush wanted to talk about was invading Iraq:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>â€œFrom the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,â€ says Oâ€™Neill, who adds &#8220;going after Saddam was topic &#8220;A&#8221; 10 days after the inauguration &#8211; eight months before Sept. 11. &#8221;</p>
<p>â€œFrom the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,â€ says Suskind. â€œDay one, these things were laid and sealed.â€</b></p></blockquote>
<p>All the lies about WMD; all the ignoring of data that said Saddam did not have WMD&#8217;s or ties to al-Qaeda; all the talk of mushroom clouds , all of the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a rathole in the desert was the result of a concerted conspiracy to fulfill George Bush&#8217;s preconceived plan to invade Iraq.  And that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re still there fighting and dying &#8211; for George Bush&#8217;s lies. </p>
<p>The truth hurts.</p>
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		<title>By: lurker9876</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214129</link>
		<dc:creator>lurker9876</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:08:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214129</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Bush decided to invade Iraq B4 9/11.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

Bush did not decide to invade Iraq before 9/11.  How can you believe this?

CrossPatch is correct.

Don&#039;t forget that we sided with Stalin during the second world war to fight against Hitler.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Bush decided to invade Iraq B4 9/11.</p></blockquote>
<p>Bush did not decide to invade Iraq before 9/11.  How can you believe this?</p>
<p>CrossPatch is correct.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget that we sided with Stalin during the second world war to fight against Hitler.</p>
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		<title>By: crosspatch</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214118</link>
		<dc:creator>crosspatch</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:50:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214118</guid>
		<description>In other words, it wasn&#039;t in our interest to see either country win and so we were able to help see to it that neither one did.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In other words, it wasn&#8217;t in our interest to see either country win and so we were able to help see to it that neither one did.</p>
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		<title>By: crosspatch</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214116</link>
		<dc:creator>crosspatch</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:46:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214116</guid>
		<description>Assistance given to Saddam was enough to prevent Iran from winning but not enough to allow Iraq to win either.  We ensured a stalemate. Neither country &quot;won&quot; that war.  They just got tired of fighting each other.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Assistance given to Saddam was enough to prevent Iran from winning but not enough to allow Iraq to win either.  We ensured a stalemate. Neither country &#8220;won&#8221; that war.  They just got tired of fighting each other.</p>
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		<title>By: Soothsayer</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214083</link>
		<dc:creator>Soothsayer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214083</guid>
		<description>I&#039;m saying we never should have given Saddam jack . It compromised our moral position in the world.  And it was done by the same creeps who decided to invade Iraq BEFORE they came into office in 2001.  Bush decided to invade Iraq B4 9/11.

And when he had the chance - he lied to the Congress, lied to the people, lied to the world.

Then he did a sorry job of planning and got us stuck in a quagmire because he&#039;s an imbecile.

That&#039;s what I&#039;m saying.

And the best way to get out of this mess is simply to get the f*** out.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m saying we never should have given Saddam jack . It compromised our moral position in the world.  And it was done by the same creeps who decided to invade Iraq BEFORE they came into office in 2001.  Bush decided to invade Iraq B4 9/11.</p>
<p>And when he had the chance &#8211; he lied to the Congress, lied to the people, lied to the world.</p>
<p>Then he did a sorry job of planning and got us stuck in a quagmire because he&#8217;s an imbecile.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m saying.</p>
<p>And the best way to get out of this mess is simply to get the f*** out.</p>
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		<title>By: Cobalt Shiva</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-2#comment-214007</link>
		<dc:creator>Cobalt Shiva</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:32:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-214007</guid>
		<description>So, if I understand your argument, Soothie, you&#039;re saying that because we gave some help to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War, we had no business whatsoever correcting our moral lapse, and we were obligated to maintain him and his extended family in power into perpetuity.

Please correct me if I&#039;m misstating your position.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, if I understand your argument, Soothie, you&#8217;re saying that because we gave some help to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War, we had no business whatsoever correcting our moral lapse, and we were obligated to maintain him and his extended family in power into perpetuity.</p>
<p>Please correct me if I&#8217;m misstating your position.</p>
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		<title>By: Soothsayer</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213995</link>
		<dc:creator>Soothsayer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:15:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213995</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;I know you earn for the good old days when your hero Saddam gassed civilians and filled mass graves and ethnically cleansed Marsh Arabs and destroyed his countryâ€™s ecosystem and infrastructure while he terrorized his entire population&lt;/blockquote&gt;

Get your facts straight, Terry, it was Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Don Rumsfeld who loved Saddam.  George H.W. gave Saddam a one billion dollar tax-payer guaranteed to buy chemical pre-cursors to WMD&#039;s, and Rumsfeld actually &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;glad-handed&lt;/a&gt; the bloody bastard.

Too bad you don&#039;t know jack about history.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>I know you earn for the good old days when your hero Saddam gassed civilians and filled mass graves and ethnically cleansed Marsh Arabs and destroyed his countryâ€™s ecosystem and infrastructure while he terrorized his entire population</p></blockquote>
<p>Get your facts straight, Terry, it was Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Don Rumsfeld who loved Saddam.  George H.W. gave Saddam a one billion dollar tax-payer guaranteed to buy chemical pre-cursors to WMD&#8217;s, and Rumsfeld actually <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/" rel="nofollow">glad-handed</a> the bloody bastard.</p>
<p>Too bad you don&#8217;t know jack about history.</p>
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		<title>By: Cobalt Shiva</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213994</link>
		<dc:creator>Cobalt Shiva</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:08:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213994</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;The fact that you are a gullible little ghoul who believes any anti American crap people feed you leads me to believe that your are either a complete idiot, or you are not an American at all.&lt;/i&gt;

He&#039;s Adam Gadahn&#039;s catcher.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>The fact that you are a gullible little ghoul who believes any anti American crap people feed you leads me to believe that your are either a complete idiot, or you are not an American at all.</i></p>
<p>He&#8217;s Adam Gadahn&#8217;s catcher.</p>
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		<title>By: Terrye</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213992</link>
		<dc:creator>Terrye</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:05:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213992</guid>
		<description>Soothie:

I know you earn for the good old days when your hero Saddam gassed civilians and filled mass graves and ethnically cleansed Marsh Arabs and destroyed his country&#039;s ecosystem and infrastructure while he terrorized his entire population, but come to terms with it...your hero is dead. He will not be coming back. Iraq is far from perfect but it is better off without that mass murdering son of a bitch. The fact that you are a gullible little ghoul who believes any anti American crap people feed you leads me to believe that your are either a complete idiot, or you are not an American at all.

I notice how all kinds of people from journalists to military people to Democratic Congressmen  and Senators can say there is improvement in Iraq and here you are feverishly clinging to the words of one journalist telling you what you obviously want to hear.

What did the Iraqi people ever do to you that you hate them all so much?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Soothie:</p>
<p>I know you earn for the good old days when your hero Saddam gassed civilians and filled mass graves and ethnically cleansed Marsh Arabs and destroyed his country&#8217;s ecosystem and infrastructure while he terrorized his entire population, but come to terms with it&#8230;your hero is dead. He will not be coming back. Iraq is far from perfect but it is better off without that mass murdering son of a bitch. The fact that you are a gullible little ghoul who believes any anti American crap people feed you leads me to believe that your are either a complete idiot, or you are not an American at all.</p>
<p>I notice how all kinds of people from journalists to military people to Democratic Congressmen  and Senators can say there is improvement in Iraq and here you are feverishly clinging to the words of one journalist telling you what you obviously want to hear.</p>
<p>What did the Iraqi people ever do to you that you hate them all so much?</p>
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		<title>By: Soothsayer</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213989</link>
		<dc:creator>Soothsayer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:50:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213989</guid>
		<description>Dale:

&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquSRFKuv4Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Are you talkin&#039; to me?&lt;/a&gt;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Dale:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquSRFKuv4Q" rel="nofollow">Are you talkin&#8217; to me?</a></p>
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		<title>By: dhunter</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213987</link>
		<dc:creator>dhunter</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:42:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213987</guid>
		<description>Moderate Muslims are helping us kill radicals and giving W. the signed papers to prove it!
   Libya gave up nukes, N&#039;Korea is thinking it might. The leaders in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq are fighting AlQueada.  Fighting them there so they aren&#039;t blowing up malls and scho0ols here. Moderate muslims are sick of radicals killing all in their way.
   Taliban is defeated in Afgahnistan. No attacks in 6 years on domestic soil. Saudis are going to increase oil output and its&#039; time to return to Clintoon/ Carter days of hide at home and pretend there is not a problem to be addressed??
     Ignorance is surely bliss or Chrissy Mathews and Sooth couldn&#039;t face the morning light. 
      Sooth are you  actually Chrissy Mathews hiding behind that screen name .</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moderate Muslims are helping us kill radicals and giving W. the signed papers to prove it!<br />
   Libya gave up nukes, N&#8217;Korea is thinking it might. The leaders in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq are fighting AlQueada.  Fighting them there so they aren&#8217;t blowing up malls and scho0ols here. Moderate muslims are sick of radicals killing all in their way.<br />
   Taliban is defeated in Afgahnistan. No attacks in 6 years on domestic soil. Saudis are going to increase oil output and its&#8217; time to return to Clintoon/ Carter days of hide at home and pretend there is not a problem to be addressed??<br />
     Ignorance is surely bliss or Chrissy Mathews and Sooth couldn&#8217;t face the morning light.<br />
      Sooth are you  actually Chrissy Mathews hiding behind that screen name .</p>
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		<title>By: Soothsayer</title>
		<link>http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389/comment-page-1#comment-213986</link>
		<dc:creator>Soothsayer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:37:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4389#comment-213986</guid>
		<description>Give it a rest, Dale.

&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquSRFKuv4Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;You talking to me?&lt;/a&gt;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Give it a rest, Dale.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquSRFKuv4Q" rel="nofollow">You talking to me?</a></p>
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