Iraq rocket fire 'falls sharply'

[Patroklos]

This exactly what most people predicted and it is exactly what has happened.

Wouldn't you have to wait until the troops leave and this actually happens before claiming its is what has happened?

[GePap]

it's nice to know violence is down from its wartime peak. It's sad to know violence continues at levels higher than from 2003 and 2004, and that the drop has not brought violence down to those levels yet.

[Wezil]

That's the next corner to be turned GePap. Or maybe it's the corner after the next one. I don't know anymore. So many corners have been turned I'm getting dizzy.

[Krill]

We aren't turning corners, we're just stuck on the inside lane of the roundabout.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Krill
We aren't turning corners, we're just stuck on the inside lane of the roundabout.

That's where they found Al Qaida's "#2 Man". Again, and again, and again.....

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
You said the samething for two posts despite it not relating to the thread. What would you call it?

Not relating to the thread?! You said attacks have fallen and I pointed out the reasons why they have fallen along with why we shouldn't expect this to be a permanent decrease. How the hell do you think that's not relating to the thread?

[Krill]

Originally posted by Wezil


That's where they found Al Qaida's "#2 Man". Again, and again, and again.....

I thought he was the guy killed in a missle blast? They found him there, and there, and there...

[CrONoS]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E23A78E5-0B4B-4BE6-B8F4-5BCB7A1C93B9.htm

http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=280108621532510

Progress, Progress And More Progress

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 4:20 PM PT

Winning: News from Iraq gets better by the day, but the media have done their best to downplay the turnaround and congressional Democrats have basically pulled the covers over their heads and pretended it doesn't exist.

Related Topics: Iraq

There's an eery silence out there about what's going on in Iraq. It's almost as if the silence is, well, intentional. Here are just a few examples of what we're talking about, pulled from last week's developments:

• In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British Major Gen. Graham Binns said that attacks against British and American forces have plunged 90% since the start of September.

• Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reported that terrorist attacks of all kinds are down almost 80% from last year's peak — thanks directly to the U.S. surge of 30,000 new troops.

• Amid growing signs that even Iraq extremists have tired of terrorism and killing, a Sunni religious group closed down the high-profile Muslim Scholars Association because of its ties to terrorists.

• U.S. Major Gen. James Simmons, speaking in Baghdad, said Iran's pledges to stop sending weapons and explosives into Iraq "appear to be holding up." Roadside bombs, the leading killer of U.S. troops, have plunged 52% since March, he added.

• Perhaps most touching, according to a report from Michael Yon, who deserves to be the first blogger to win a Pulitzer Prize, Muslims are asking Iraqi Christians to return to help build Iraq.

Iraqi Muslims recently crammed into St. John's Catholic church in Baghdad to attend a Christian service. According to Yon, "Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. 'Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.' "

• Finally, there's this from Douglas Halaspaska, a reporter on the Web site U.S. Cavalry ON Point: "I came to Ramadi expecting a war and what I found was a city that has grown from the carnage, and all its inhabitants — both Iraqi and American — healing. I was not expecting what I found in Iraq . . . it was better than all of that."

Again, all this has taken place just in recent days, weeks and months. The positive news has become simply overwhelming.

Which makes it all the more curious why major newspapers and network TV news programs can lead with a barrage of news out of Iraq when things there go bad, but can't seem to find the space or time when things turn good. As the bad news dries up, their interest in the good remains nil.

It takes people like Yon, whose online webzine can be found at http://michaelyon-online.com, to tell us what's going on — not the highly paid prima donnas whose past reporting has made them so invested in defeat that they can no longer afford to tell us the truth.

Stranger still is the Democratic Party's response, as reflected in its recent actions in Congress.

We expected a certain amount of sheepishness on their part. After all, wasn't it just Sept. 11 that Hillary Clinton told Gen. David Petraeus his progress report on Iraq required "a willing suspension of disbelief"? What we didn't expect was all the self-delusion and denial that now seems to mark Congressional Democrats' efforts on Iraq.

The Democrats are denying our troops the funds they need to finish their job by playing games like Friday's, when they tried to tie $50 billion in funding to massive troop withdrawals, beginning almost immediately.

The measure failed in the Senate by seven votes. But the question remains: Why would they do such a thing in a war America is on the verge of winning?

Meanwhile, as if that vote wasn't enough, Democrats ripped Iraq's government — apparently oblivious to what's going on in Baghdad.

"Every place you go you hear about no progress being made in Iraq," Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday. "The government is stalemated today, as it was six months ago, as it was two years ago. It is not getting better; it is getting worse."

Virtually nothing in those three sentences is true — unless you replace "Iraq" with "Congress." Yet, Reid speaks for his party.

As Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said, "The days are over when the money is sent no questions asked, when the money is sent without a price."

Yes, "price." That last word is telling, for the "price" the Democrats are exacting by playing politics comes out of our troops hides — not Washington's. Our troops in Iraq need the resources to finish this war. By not funding them to the level needed to win, Congress will certainly endanger lives — and make victory a bit harder.

If the Democrats want to keep playing politics as Iraq turns, fine. But what do they do next year if, as now looks likely, the U.S. wins?

Propaganda or reality?

I wish this is reality for the Iraqi's, the world and the american army.

[Seeker]

Well a fall-off is the perfect time for Iraqis to hit the road and try to make the dangerous journey to the UK and USA. They need every break they can get.

[MOBIUS]

Iraq rocket fire 'falls sharply'

Well it would be a bit silly if they merely floated to the ground...

There's lots of potential reasons why there might be a lull that have absolutely nothing to do with the surge, and I've seen far too many false dawns claimed by the supporters of this illegal invasion.

Get back to me next year when things are still improving in the right direction...

[Dinner]

• In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British Major Gen. Graham Binns said that attacks against British and American forces have plunged 90% since the start of September.

No ****? You mean Britain withdraws most of its troops and attacks on troops decline? Who would have guessed?

Talk about selectively reporting facts and omitting facts which don't fit your spin.

[MOBIUS]

Yeah I laughed at that...

We planned to leave earlier but the Americans didn't want us to - so we lost a lot of soldiers in the last few months and the enemy could say with a bit of justification that they forced us out...

[Patroklos]

[DirtyMartini]

Originally posted by MOBIUS



Get back to me next year when things are still improving in the right direction...

Don't hold your breath...

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Wezil
Turning yet another corner.

Have we turned enough corners to end up where we started?