Bush's success in Iraq.

[medicinal]

Is this success in Iraq that Bush talks about? ERMELI, Iraq (AFP) - The darkness of grief gripped the Iraqi village of Ermeli on Sunday as black mourning banners, armbands, bloodstains and soot bore grim testament to a truck bomb attack that left 140 dead.

The rural community was the latest victim of a week of intense violence and political intrigue in an Iraq mired in bloody civil conflict, and one day after the attack the population was divided between shock and bitter anger.

Policemen guarding the entrance to the town wore black armbands and stony expressions, determined to face down the extremists behind the attack, in which a truck packed with four tonnes of explosives detonated in a crowded market.

"I lost my uncle and his son in the explosion," policeman Imad Abdul Hussein told an AFP reporter, adding that the village was without running water after the suicide bomb destroyed pipes and brought down electricity cables.

"I am at work today to retaliate against the criminals, and to send them a message that we are alive and we are on our homeland and we will fight Al-Qaeda until the last drop of our blood," he said.

"We will either kill them or they will annihilate us," he added, before launching into a slogan that underlined how the violence of Al-Qaeda's Sunni extremists has driven a wedge between Iraq's rival communities.

"Triumph to Ali's Shiites!" he shouted, referring to the first revered imam of the Shiite Muslim tradition and the hero of Iraq's majority community.

The mayor of nearby Tuz Khurmato said Al-Qaeda had struck because Ermeli had been a peaceful village of Sunnis and Shiites from Iraq's Turkman minority surrounded by smaller hamlets of Sunni Arabs.

"Al-Qaeda hit Emerli because it is a safe and stable town. They target safe places to paralyse and confuse the government," said Mayor Mohammed Rashed, saying the truck was a 10-tonne Hino which came from the Sunni west.

"They want to send a message to the world that they are capable of targeting anything, to show by their explosions that the police are failing," he said.

"But they contribute, by these explosions, to build our awareness and unity in fighting the terrorists," he insisted.

Police chief Lieutenant Colonel Khalfa al-Bayati, rattled off a litany of destruction. "Almost every household in Emerli has lost a loved one," he said.

"We have around 1,200 mud-brick houses in the town. Fifty houses are totally demolished, 20 houses are partially demolished and 45 shops and more than 35 cars were wrecked," he said.

"We have registered a total number of 140 killed but there are also 20 missing and 270 injured," he added, accusing Al-Qaeda of carrying out the attack in revenge for recent successes against the group by his men.

The Emerli bomb blast came after a bloody and dangerous week even by the standards of Iraq's four-year descent into civil war.

Over the course of the week, US military confirmed the deaths of 22 soldiers and marines, and the British army in Basra lost two troops during what was described as one of its biggest operations of the war so far.

Shiite militias clashed with Iraqi security forces in the southern town of Diwaniyah, and suspected Sunni insurgents detonated bombs in Baghdad: six more civilians were killed in a double car bombing on Sunday.

Against this backdrop, political support for US President George W. Bush and his Iraqi ally and counterpart Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was slipping.

Bush saw two more US senators from his Republican Party speaking out against the open-ended use of American forces to prop up Maliki's government, despite calls from US commanders for more time to build on recent successes.

Maliki, meanwhile, engaged in a war of words with his former supporters in Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement, calling on it to lay down its weapons after its Mahdi Army militia clashed with police and US-led troops.

Sadr's aides in turn accused Maliki of pandering to the US "occupier" and warned that he might not last much longer in office, amid reports that some Sunni and Shiite MPs might unite to force a confidence vote in parliament.

In Emerli, however, the mourners had no stomach to think of politics. Many refused to even greet a government delegation sent to inspect the rescue

medicinal Reviewed by medicinal on 07-14-2007. Bush's success in Iraq. Is this success in Iraq that Bush talks about? ERMELI, Iraq (AFP) - The darkness of grief gripped the Iraqi village of Ermeli on Sunday as black mourning banners, armbands, bloodstains and soot bore grim testament to a truck bomb attack that left 140 dead. The rural community was the latest victim of a week of intense violence and political intrigue in an Iraq mired in bloody civil conflict, and one day after the attack the population was divided between shock and bitter anger. Rating: 5

[higher4hockey]

what would you do med if you were in charge? ( im curious, i dont mean that in a hostile way)

[medicinal]

what would you do med if you were in charge? ( im curious, i dont mean that in a hostile way)

If you are referring to Iraq, I would get all the transportation I could find and gather up all the Americans and head for Kuwait to await transport back to the world and fuck the crazy Iraqis and their infernal sectarian war. when they sort it out, then we can Begin to negotiate for the oil reserves. We both know this is about the oil, so let them get their war over with first, the oil will remain in the ground just waiting for our Oil Barrons to show up and secure it. as far as the damage we've done to Iraq, when the oil begins to flow, they will be the richest nation on earth. Every man woman and child will be well off. The oil sharing laws are designed to share the wealth. The US and Briton are trying to write themselves into the laws and that is what is causing the governmental turmoil in Iraq. When we leave, there will be a much higher chance of making the government work. there will be some disturbances and I'd bet a new president and a few other members of parliment or whatever they call their government, but we are the main problem. So my first priority would be to get the fuck out.

[khronik]

This isn't about oil. All the oil in Iraq isn't worth the money we paid for this war.

[Krogith]

This isn't about oil. All the oil in Iraq isn't worth the money we paid for this war.

The U.S.A. has spent $$ your right but..... where is the $$ going? who pockets? This war is not ment to make America Rich, just Share Holders of all the Companys that America is shoveling $$ to.



This War not only will give the "Right" companys contorl of what ever project they want (Oil, bombs, armor, Tanks, bullets, chem labs, roads, bridges, plumbing, Steel..... I think I could keep going) Look at Boeing! All this Money has to come from somewhere..... O yeah U.S.A. banks borrow $$ from the F.R. on loan! ROFL

This War is makeing so many tycoons rich. And most of them happen to be Good Friends :wtf:

[afghooey]

This isn't about oil. All the oil in Iraq isn't worth the money we paid for this war.

The US borrowed the money to fund the war from the (private) Federal Reserve Bank (at interest). The American people will be paying off that interest with our income taxes for years to come. Someone is profiting off of this war for sure... it ain't the American people, and it certainly ain't the Iraqis.

US SPENDING IN IRAQ

Spent & Approved War-Spending - Over $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds. President Bush is expected to request another $140 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $750 billion.

Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors

Mismanaged & Wasted in Iraq - $10 billion, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings

Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported - $1.4 billion

And that's not even taking into account all the lives that have been lost, troops and Iraqi civilians alike....

edit: got those stats from here:
http://usliberals.about.com/od/homel...raqNumbers.htm

[Psycho4Bud]

But isn't it a bit ironic on how some of the people in here are all about sending our troops into Darfur?

Like it or not, just packing bags and leaving Iraq isn't in the game plan for either the Democrats or the Republicans....the only difference in their plans is troop strength.

Have a good one!:s4:

[medicinal]

This isn't about oil. All the oil in Iraq isn't worth the money we paid for this war.

You don't get it! We, the taxpayers, are funding the war so the elites, captains of industry, and the oil barrons can reap the rewards. You and I will never see a nickle of the profits made on this war, but we and our great grandkids will be paying for it for a long while.

[delusionsofNORMALity]

But isn't it a bit ironic on how some of the people in here are all about sending our troops into Darfur?

those same people would undoubtedly be singing the cut and run tune a few years down the road, once they realized we had gotten ourselves into another untenable situation.

[medicinal]

those same people would undoubtedly be singing the cut and run tune a few years down the road, once they realized we had gotten ourselves into another untenable situation.

I'm curious, outside of cut and run or stay the course, what is your esteemed solution?