Feb 18 2008

Updates From Iraq

Published by at 11:22 am under All General Discussions,Iraq

The US is planning on reducing its forces in Iraq this summer if the trend of success we have seen over the last 6-7 months continues to hold.

Admiral Gregory Smith, Director of the Multi-National Force’s (MNF) Communications Division, told a news conference on Sunday that five American brigades would be withdrawn in July.

These five brigades, he said, were among 20 others to be pulled out as of end of July.

All indications are our successful efforts in Iraq will continue to reduce the violence, defeat al-Qaeda and provide the window for more political progress. Iraq seems to be firmly on the way to a new future, one the Surrendercrats on the left would have denied that country if it and run away and given the country over to the jackboot of al-Qaeda, as the Dems demanded a year ago now.

I think every one but the Dems and Bin Laden are glad President Bush did not listen the Surrendercrats’ dangerously mistaken plans on Iraq. If he had Bin Laden would be living in an old Saddam Hussein palace right now planning on ways to attack Europe and the US.

Instead the picture of Iraq today is a democratically governed center of Islam, where the faithful pilgrimage to holy sites and pray:

Thousands of Shiite Muslims from across Iraq started Monday a journey on foot to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, amid heightened security. Many pilgrims carrying food and water supplies walked for hundreds of kilometres to the city, following centuries-old rituals, in the hope that walking would earn them more rewards and blessings from God.

The former regime of Saddam Hussein banned all Shiite religious ceremonies, including the ritual of travelling on foot to the shrine of Karbala, traditionally held to be the tomb of Hussein, who died in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD.

The battle was one in a series of conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites.

Young and old people and even women carrying babies, all in black and stripes of green and carrying colourful banners, do the journey on foot despite the cold.

Locals along the roads to Karbala play host to pilgrims passing by, offering food, drinks and shelter.

Other pilgrims sing odes to the imam, the icon of Shiite Muslims.

“I do the journey to renew my commitment to Imam Hussein and his courage to stand up to injustices,” said Oum Mortada, a 41-year-old woman dressed in black, the traditional colour of mourning.

I doubt al-Qaeda is so dumb as to attack a holy pilgrimage. The reason Islam has turned on al-Qaeda is due to their mindless massacring of fellow Muslims so they can get headlines in western news media outlets. But even if they were that dumb, al-Qaeda would only reinforce and grow the tide that is turning against it in Islam. So let’s all pray for a peaceful pilgrimage as a sign of a peaceful future for Iraq

BTW, security has improved so much that even the UN has had to take notice and is ready to help repatriate those Iraqis displaced by al-Qaeda’s blood lust:

The UN’s top refugee official has hinted that security in Iraq may soon have improved enough for some of the 4m Iraqi refugees to begin returning home.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the BBC the UNHCR and Iraqi government were planning an assessment of conditions.

Some 2m Iraqis have fled abroad, while another 2m are displaced inside Iraq.

In December, the UNHCR said the situation in Iraq was “not yet conducive to large-scale return”.

Everyone of those Iraqis is heading back to hear the horror stories of Bin Laden’s butchers and the stories of Iraqi heros who drove al-Qaeda’s killers out of their homelands. And that is the story of Iraq for the history books – that and how close the world came to losing Iraq because of some partisans who wanted to run away and hand the country over to the Bin Laden’s butchers.

5 responses so far

5 Responses to “Updates From Iraq”

  1. crosspatch says:

    I would guess that the tempo of any withdrawal hinges at this point on what Sadr has to say with regard to his ceasefire.

  2. cali_sun says:

    My only concern is that the drawdown was part of a deal made with Iran by allowing them be off the hook with the last NIE, in return for their cooperation not to interfere in Iraq, and the Annapolis issue, when Israel was throwing under the table (forcing the Israelis to enter by service entry to appease the Arabs).
    I know our uniformed personnel are great heroes, but I can’t just get over the fact, that Iran is going full steam ahead with their nuke program following the NIE, knowing the Israelis can’t do anything alone.
    God help us all, should dems win this coming November! Maybe Pres. Bush sees the writing on the wall, and get the troops home before the dems can do more damage, and create another ‘Vietnam” which they so deperatetly seek.

  3. MerlinOS2 says:

    I was reading today that there are over 50 international oil firms signed up to bid some short term contracts until the oil legislation gets finalized to start repairs to the existing infrastructure that Saddam had neglected for so long.

    Looks like north of 70 Billion just to do the necessary fixes.

  4. MerlinOS2 says:

    More than 70 international companies have registered to compete for tenders to help develop Iraq’s oil reserves, seen as vital to financing reconstruction of the shattered country, the Iraqi oil ministry said on Monday.

    Iraq produces a fraction of its reserves, among the largest in the world and among the cheapest to exploit. International oil companies have been positioning themselves for years to gain access. Big oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Repsol, ConocoPhillips, BP, and StatoilHydro of Norway are among those that have said they have registered or intended to do so.

    “We are going to carefully study and check the documentation,” said Asim Jihad, an Oil Ministry spokesman. “Next month we will declare the companies which are permitted to work in the Iraqi oil fields.”

    Iraq produces about 2.3 million barrels of oil a day, dwarfed by its 115 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves. Only those of Saudi Arabia and Iran are larger.

    An oil official said last year that the Iraqi oil sector could need as much as $75 billion in investment.

  5. gwood says:

    Even if a small number of troops come home, it will be yet another defeat for anti-(Iraq)war Democrats. McCain can poke ’em in the eye every time the war is brought up. To call for troops to come home, 1-when none of them are dying, 2-when their presence there is WINNING the war, and 3-while they are already COMING HOME, will clearly expose Democrats as having picked the wrong side to root for.

    Thanks MerlinOS2, for the info on Iraqi oil. I have read that industry insiders estimate that by merely upgrading the country’s extraction tech, Iraqi crude production could increase by some 30%, and that there has been virtually zero exploration for new sources over the past 35 years.