Please have your radar checked

pandabear

Well-Known Member
read it and weep boys, america is turning the tide. So how are you guys feeling inside? happy? i dont think you honestly can say you do. Hence, your invested in defeat, but victory is transpiring:mrgreen:

I luv you guys:joint:


[SIZE=+2]Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled[/SIZE]


[SIZE=-1]By Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Washington Post Staff Writers[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Monday, October 15, 2007; A01[/SIZE]

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.
But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.
"I think it would be premature at this point," a senior intelligence official said of a victory declaration over AQI, as the group is known. Despite recent U.S. gains, he said, AQI retains "the ability for surprise and for catastrophic attacks." Earlier periods of optimism, such as immediately following the June 2006 death of AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid, not only proved unfounded but were followed by expanded operations by the militant organization.
There is widespread agreement that AQI has suffered major blows over the past three months. Among the indicators cited is a sharp drop in suicide bombings, the group's signature attack, from more than 60 in January to around 30 a month since July. Captures and interrogations of AQI leaders over the summer had what a senior military intelligence official called a "cascade effect," leading to other killings and captures. The flow of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq has also diminished, although officials are unsure of the reason and are concerned that the broader al-Qaeda network may be diverting new recruits to Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The deployment of more U.S. and Iraqi forces into AQI strongholds in Anbar province and the Baghdad area, as well as the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighters to combat AQI operatives in those locations, has helped to deprive the militants of a secure base of operations, U.S. military officials said. "They are less and less coordinated, more and more fragmented," Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said recently. Describing frayed support structures and supply lines, Odierno estimated that the group's capabilities have been "degraded" by 60 to 70 percent since the beginning of the year.
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the Joint Special Operations Command's operations in Iraq, is the chief promoter of a victory declaration and believes that AQI has been all but eliminated, the military intelligence official said. But Adm. William J. Fallon, the chief of U.S. Central Command, which oversees Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, is urging restraint, the official said. The military intelligence official, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity about Iraq assessments and strategy.
Senior U.S. commanders on the ground, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, have long complained that Central Command, along with the CIA, is too negative in its analyses. On this issue, however, Petraeus agrees with Fallon, the military intelligence official said.
For each assessment of progress against AQI, there is a cautionary note that comes from long and often painful experience. Despite the increased killings and captures of AQI members, Odierno said, "it only takes three people" to construct and detonate a suicide car bomb that can "kill thousands." The goal, he said, is to make each attack less effective and lengthen the periods between them.
Right now, said another U.S. official, who declined even to be identified by the agency he works for, the data are "insufficient and difficult to measure."
"AQI is definitely taking some hits," the official said. "There is definite progress, and that is undeniable good news. But what we don't know is how long it will last . . . and whether it's sustainable. . . . They have withstood withering pressure for a long period of time." Three months, he said, is not long enough to consider a trend sustainable.
Views of the extent to which AQI has been vanquished also reflect differences over the extent to which it operates independently from Osama bin Laden's central al-Qaeda organization, based in Pakistan. "Everyone has an opinion about how franchisement of al-Qaeda works," a senior White House official said. "Is it through central control, or is it decentralized?" The answer to that question, the official said, affects "your ability to determine how successfully [AQI] has been defeated or neutralized. Is it 'game over'?"
In Baghdad, the White House official said, the group's "area of operations has been reduced quite a bit for a variety of reasons, some good and some bad." Three years of sectarian fighting have eliminated many mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods. Those areas had been the most fertile and accessible places for AQI, which is composed of extremist Sunnis, to attack Shiite civilians, security forces and government officials. But the death of mixed neighborhoods also has made another Bush administration priority -- promoting political reconciliation -- more difficult.
The expanded presence of U.S. troops in combat outposts in many parts of Baghdad has also put pressure on AQI, but a major test of gains against the organization will come when the U.S. military begins to turn security in those areas over to Iraqi forces next year.
Recent suicide bombings in northern Iraq have convinced some officials that AQI has moved its operations in that direction. But the officials said they do not know whether AQI militants have permanently decamped from Baghdad and Anbar province, or whether they are merely lying low in anticipation of a U.S. departure or the failure of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to end the sectarian divisions that AQI fostered and now feeds upon.
While a victory declaration might have the "psychological aspect" of discouraging recruitment to a perceived lost cause, the White House official said, advantages overall would be minimal. "I recognize that there are pros to saying, 'Hey, listen, the bad guys are on the run.' " But if AQI were later able to demonstrate residual capabilities with a series of bombings, "even though it was temporary," he said, "the question becomes: How does this play out in terms of public opinion?"

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mexiblunt

Well-Known Member
Yeah it's gettin close to election time. Things will definitly start to look good over there! I'm just a peacfull canadian observer, I just see what the major media puts out. But it sure seems like when there is a big turn around or a big event happening over there it seems to coincide to what is going on over in the U.S. Wouldn't it be convienient to be finnished with al-queda just in time to deal with Iran?
 

medicineman

New Member
Mexiblunt, a voice of reason. I doubt it's going that well, I think they are just keeping news from getting out. I imagine they have another US attack planned for oct '08'. Really surprised me they didn't trot one out for the midterms. I guess they are holding out for the big one.
 

pandabear

Well-Known Member
actually they have been trying since 9/11/01 we have foiled so many american attacks, you have to dig hard to find out about it though, but its not that they are not trying, its that the might of the richest and most powerful nation so far in history is bearing down upon them with all its might militarily, finacialy, and cladestinly with very little relent, trust me its not easy for them:mrgreen:

Iran is next, they are deep in it, the cuds forces will be the first to get raked, then the whole government of Iran will be little more that a box of twinky's and a supersoaker:mrgreen: its comming this spring, get your popcorn out guys and those little baby american flags:mrgreen:
 

ViRedd

New Member
Israel attacked a nuclear installation in Syria a few weeks ago and it hardly got a mention in the American main stream media.

Israeli attack struck Syrian nuclear project

Syria had a detection system built by the Russians and North Koreans that was supposed to be state of the art. It didn't even register and took the Syrians completely by suprize ... and all of the rest of the Axis of Evil too. Iran is shitting bricks at this point. Sorry to say ... war with Iran is inevitable at this point.

Vi
 

mexiblunt

Well-Known Member
Mexiblunt, a voice of reason. I doubt it's going that well, I think they are just keeping news from getting out. I imagine they have another US attack planned for oct '08'. Really surprised me they didn't trot one out for the midterms. I guess they are holding out for the big one.
Yup! I can smell a bush dictatorship. The pieces are beginning to fall into place. Not that I like the idea of that, but most radars are for defence purposes. Others are for commercial airplanes, they don't work that great for defence.
 

ViRedd

New Member
Yup! I can smell a bush dictatorship. The pieces are beginning to fall into place. Not that I like the idea of that, but most radars are for defence purposes. Others are for commercial airplanes, they don't work that great for defence.
Bush will be out of office in January '08. Unless you can explain how Bush can be a dictator from his ranch in Texas, your assertion doesn't hold much bong water.

Vi
 

mexiblunt

Well-Known Member
Bush will be out of office in January '08. Unless you can explain how Bush can be a dictator from his ranch in Texas, your assertion doesn't hold much bong water.

Vi
I know it doesn't. but lets just say if there were a huge terrorist attack just before the elections, what would happen? I don't know alot about politics but couldn't he impose a martial law type deal where he is the comander in chief? and have total control of the country, like a dictatorship?
 

ViRedd

New Member
Think about this: If Hillary is elected, and then re-elected for a second term, that means that we will have had two families in executive power for a 28 year stretch. Now THAT'S a dynesty!


Vi
 
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