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Banned
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Quote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...eadlines-world
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...nG=Search+News
July 23, 2005 latimes.com : World
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Rebels Banking on U.S. Pullout, Official Says
# Coalition commander in Iraq says the insurgency could last months. Fighters apparently hope to weaken the government, take over.
By John Hendren, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — Insurgents in Iraq will probably sustain the current rate of bloody attacks for at least six months, through the next elections, and expect the United States to give up on Iraq within five years, senior defense officials in Baghdad said Friday.
.........Vines and three other senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because their comments reflected ongoing military and intelligence operations, outlined an updated picture of an insurgency increasingly driven by a small minority of foreign fighters carrying out bolder and deadlier bombings under the leadership of Jordanian Al Qaeda figure Abu Musab Zarqawi............
.........Although the insurgency could sustain itself in the short term, with an estimated 100 to 200 foreign fighters entering the country from Syria each month, the commanders said evidence suggested that the insurgents could be running low on funds. Izzat Ibrahim, a fugitive general loyal to Saddam Hussein, recently asked other sympathizers of the ousted dictator to give money to the insurgency, the officials said. Ibrahim is believed to have operated out of Syria, they said.
However, a senior Western diplomat familiar with the region said in late spring that the insurgency "had hundreds of millions of dollars" at its disposal, and would be able to continue operations for years to come. Hussein's first wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah, is considered a "major financier" of the opposition, funneling funds through Syria, the defense officials said.
As some insurgents from Zarqawi's group and Hussein sympathizers use Syria as a haven, the defense officials said, they also have shown an interest in reasserting control over Fallouja, in western Iraq. The city is undergoing a massive reconstruction after U.S. troops drove out insurgents in street-to-street fighting in November. As with Mosul, in the north, officials said, Fallouja holds strong symbolic value for the insurgents, as a Sunni-dominated region with a ferociously independent streak.............
............."It is not a new phenomenon, but it has taken an increasingly vile and revolting turn because Zarqawi has targeted the Shia mosques and population," Vines said.............
..........Asked about the prospect of a civil war, he said: "While it is not a likely outcome, we believe that is Zarqawi's desired end state. If a segment of the population believes that it is under attack, there is an impulse to strike back, and that is of grave concern to us."
U.S. commanders blame Zarqawi in particular for a spate of increasingly large bombings, such as the attack that caused a fuel tanker to explode last week, killing nearly 100 people...........
....... "There is no significant number of Iraqis who are willing to blow themselves up," one official said.
The bombers who are found afterward are often difficult to identify, but Iraqis agree that they appear to be foreigners.
The foreigners detained by U.S. forces in Iraq have come largely from Egypt and, secondly, Saudi Arabia, with others from Libya, Sudan and Tunisia, U.S. military officials said. Some recently discovered roadside bombs bear the earmarks of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.
The increased visibility of foreign fighters, whose numbers have sometimes been estimated as low as 5% of the insurgency, has helped cement a loose bond between the fledgling Iraqi government and security forces and their American counterparts, one senior defense official in Baghdad said.
"What we get from the Iraqi government is: 'We want you to help us. Then we want you to leave,' " the official said.
"And we're OK with that."
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I'm not eff....ing "OK with that"......with any of it. I prefer the BS that they want me to eat, served up pipin' hot on a sesame seed roll....with mustard.
"Zarqawi" is mentioned in this short "article" five times. The insur-gents are either runnin' outta money, or the insur-gents got "hundreds of millions of dollars" at its disposal".
If you are an avid consumer of this Bushco BS, thank god almighty that they got Zarqawi as a posterboy for the legitimacy of the delusion that they constantly dispense about "fightin" em thar....so we don't haveta fight em ovah heah" !! If something were to happen to completely turn vapor man Zarqawi into vaporware...this would just be about fightin' a homegrown insur-gency intent on driving out the occupiers....and there'd be nobody to point to that "might" be fixin' to come on ovah heah...if we wasn't fightin' em over thar.
I'm wearin' out a BS detector every month, readin' all of their BS. Anybody know where I can buy one that will still work after I slam it upside the wall, everytime I see the name "Zarqawi"?
Do we have to keep portraying our troops, our intelligence community, and our Prezdent as total and ineffective incompetents to keep all of this BS pipin' hot and in the bun?
Does anybody really buy into this BS anymore?
Last edited by host; 07-23-2005 at 03:03 AM..
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