Guerrillas blasted rockets at Baghdad's most heavily fortified hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying Sunday, killing an American soldier and wounding 15 people, U.S. officials said.
Wolfowitz, who escaped unhurt, vowed that the United States would not be cowed into abandoning Iraq (news - web sites).
But the bold attack on the hotel with the tightest security in Baghdad, if not the Middle East, undermined Washington's claim that it is steadily defeating the guerrillas who have killed 109 U.S. soldiers since President Bush (news - web sites) declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1.
The rockets crashed into the Rashid Hotel at about 6 a.m. (0300 GMT), sending rapid explosions echoing across the city and throwing several guests from their beds.
Some people were carried out of the hotel on stretchers and others walked away spattered with blood after the missiles destroyed rooms on stories below Wolfowitz's on the 12th floor, witnesses said.
Wolfowitz, an architect of the U.S. war on terror and an intellectual force behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was led away by security forces. He appeared composed after descending a stairwell past thickening smoke and blood stains with a fire alarm blaring, witnesses said. But he looked shaken when he addressed reporters a few hours later.
"The U.S. military confirmed that a rocket-propelled grenade had downed a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter which crashed near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Saturday, wounding one soldier. The attack occurred just hours after Wolfowitz had flown out of Tikrit in a helicopter after visiting troops."
I doubt that Wolfowitz is a target but by destroying a heavily fortified hotel and a Black Hawk the guerrillas are sending a message that no spot and no one in Iraq is safe.
posted on October 26, 2003 07:25:19 AM new
There's no other reasonable way, twelve. Sometimes it's better to admit defeat than to maintain a costly state of failure that may never end.
posted on October 26, 2003 07:28:08 AM new
It's only a failure in your eyes... I still believe... we rebuild that country and the people will tire of the fighting...
posted on October 26, 2003 07:52:12 AM new
That's probably what the Israelis thought about the Palestinians in the beginning. "They'll get tired of fighting." Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on October 26, 2003 08:39:53 AM new
The same strategy that was used in Viet Nam. Declare victory and withdraw.
Republican, the other white meat!
posted on October 26, 2003 08:53:18 AM newwe rebuild that country and the people will tire of the fighting
Except this is a Shiite Moslem country who's soldiers, terrorists, and guerillas believe that if they die fighting this battle they go straight to Heaven with those 70 virgins waiting. The moderates and Suunis will suffer the most after the country is abandoned. Moderate Shiites leaders are already being killed by the radicals.
posted on October 26, 2003 10:00:11 AM new
Twelve, how much longer do you think the war in Iraq should continue? At what point should the U.S. pull out?
posted on October 26, 2003 12:32:55 PM new
It will take a couple years to rebuild the infrastructure and establish a their own government and stabalize the economy. As the international community starts to help and the iraqi forces began to take control we will begin phasing out our troops. It will take several more months to even get a proper amount of civilian forces and Iraqi military forces trained for their respective jobs. After that they will slowly began protecting their own country. This is a years long process and can not be done in a matter of months.
posted on October 26, 2003 02:03:42 PM new
KD - thankfully the US military is multi-tasked, so the answer to your question is before, during, and after
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
This bombing represents a major failure of intelligence. If the guerillas of Iraq are beyond our control, how can we deal with the rest of the Middle east?
posted on October 26, 2003 09:12:24 PM new
Sing along now
'Onward christian s.o.o.o.o.oldier, marching on to war'
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods . . . thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people . . . If thou shalt hear . . . Certain men . . . have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods . . . Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants ofthat city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword” (Deuteronomy13:6-15).
“And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both males, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men who were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go you forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city” (Ezekiel 9:5-7).
posted on October 27, 2003 08:18:37 AM new
Rev.20:12-13
"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; ... and they were judged, every man according to their works."
Don't you go being a "LOOSER" now bear.
Thou shalt not be a looser????
Dan.12:1
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
posted on October 27, 2003 09:56:13 AM new
How about declare victory and turn it over to the UN. Isn't that what we did in Nam? Gave it to the South Vietnamese government so they could officially lose the war/police action.
The Iraq thing is playing out exactly the same way as Viet Nam did. Win their hearts and minds while they blow up GIs and their own people. "He who does not learn from the past is doomed to relive it".
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on October 27, 2003 02:49:04 PM new
Over the past 24 hours we've witnessed a brilliantly executed rocket attack on the heart of the Green Zone, a wave of car bombings that has killed more than 40 people and destroyed the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad and three Iraqi police stations, plus the combat deaths of at least five American soldiers (including a light Colonel.) God knows how many more have been wounded.
Billmon
"The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react," Bush said as he sat in the Oval Office with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq. He added: "The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity is available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become, because they can't stand the thought of a free society."
Kerry likened Bush's statement to the "light at the end of the tunnel" claims during the Vietnam War.
"Does the president really believe that suicide bombers are willing to strap explosives to their bodies because we're restoring electricity and creating jobs for Iraqis?" Kerry asked in a statement.
posted on October 28, 2003 11:32:28 AM new
This war is a little different from Nam because Iraq is as much about religious differences as anything else. That makes it even worse than Nam. The Israel/Palestine conflict has gone on forever and Iraq could too. Only a ruthless dictator could hope to rein over Iraq. It's a loss-loss situation like Vietnam.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers unleashed a wave of terror in the Iraqi capital yesterday, illustrating the inability of U.S.-led coalition forces to guarantee security and the ability of attackers to strike seemingly anywhere.
Car bombs exploded at the Red Cross headquarters and three Iraqi police stations, killing at least 36 people, including one U.S. soldier. About 230 people were wounded, including six soldiers. A fourth attempt on a police station was thwarted when the driver was shot before he could detonate his bomb.
President Bush said the attacks were acts of desperation.
"The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that's available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become," Bush said in Washington.
How ludicrous can the President of the United States be?????????????
Doesn't he have speech writers and propaganda spinners? Is this the best that they can do? It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
Good Lord! Now he is trying to censor the international press?
"Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has repeatedly been accused by U.S. officials of biased reporting, accusations the station also dismisses. Journalists from Al-Jazeera and other news organizations have occasionally been held for short periods by coalition soldiers."
"The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, which includes unions representing 500,000 journalists in over 100 countries, has criticized U.S. military forces for what the organization said was an increased harassment of reporters since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. The organization cited several cases in which journalists in Iraq allegedly had been detained or beaten by U.S. soldiers."
Lott suggested moving more troops from the relatively stable south closer to the region around Tikrit, where attacks on U.S. forces have been common. He said there was a need for more trained military police, adding that his comments were not a criticism.
“Honestly, it’s a little tougher than I thought it was going to be,” Lott said. In a sign of frustration, he offered an unorthodox military solution: “If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens. You’re dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we need to be very aggressive in taking them out.”
