U.S. soldiers reporting steady progress in one-time insurgent stronghold

[Barrett808]

U.S. soldiers reporting steady progress in one-time insurgent stronghold
Blood, sweat and tears pave way for new day in Tal Abtha
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, May 16, 2005

TAL ABTHA, Iraq — After seven months in the bowels of the war in Iraq, there’s one thing that lifts Sgt. Erik Griffin’s spirits.

“The one thing that doesn’t keep me down in the dumps is that I see progress,” said the 34-year-old soldier with Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

For example, in the former insurgent stronghold of Tal Abtha, a town of 5,000 predominately Sunni Iraqis an hour’s drive from Mosul, there’s a semifunctioning police department. While the department has plenty of trained officers, there is only one vehicle, which limits their ability to patrol.

The cops still have not grasped the concept of foot patrols, and revert to old practices of lingering at the station to wait for trouble instead of seeking it out, U.S. soldiers say.

(more)

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29117

[Webster Green]

1. Idiots!

A semifunctioning police department with one vehicle is progress?

The goal of "the coalition" is to recruit Iraqi collaborators to fight against their fellow countrymen. In other words, civil war.

Delusional fuckwads!

[The White Tree]

2. That does seem to be a pretty low standard

[Decay]

3. "The cops still have not grasped the concept of foot patrols"?

With IEDs everywhere, I think I know why.

[DrDebug]

7. Given the situation in Iraq

Lingering at the station sounds like the best idea. And you can argue all day about who's turn it is to drive ;)

[frylock]

4. gosh, how heartwarming..

a semifunctioning police department with only one vehicle is veiwed as progress. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the good stuff we hear is happening that the librul media refuses to write about.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. The Iraqi "security forces" are responsible for the executions

that have been uncovered. That's good old fashioned animal justice for you. Didn't take them long to include this bag of tricks.

[Decay]

6. Those kids in the pic of your sig...

They are not pointing to that flag are they?

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. Apparently the flag salute used to be the same one the Nazis

used, that is, until the Nazis starting using it.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. One word: "Negroponte". Two words: "Death Squads".

[Ilsa]

13. I heard that on NPR this morning.

They said some of the victims survived, but are critical, and that their wives have come forward to say that they had been picked up by the Iraqi security forces recently.

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. Yes, how about that. They didn't count on any victims

living to tell the truth. I suspect they won't make it.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. One "insurgent stronghold" down, several thousand more to go.....

...and once the military reduces that strongpoint and moves on to the next, the "insurgents" will merely occupy the rubble and launch more attacks. The US military seems to be incapable of grasping the concept that they are being bled a little every day.

In another couple of years, we'll look around and suddenly realize that our casualties are well beyond the pace of casualties we suffered in Vietnam using the exact same tactics. We didn't exceed 2000 dead in Vietnam until nine years had passed...we're almost there in Iraq in a lot less time.

Oh, and by the way, does anyone know how many dead and wounded we've lost in Afghanistan, the "Forgotten War"?

[bowens43]

10. “The one thing that doesn’t keep me down in the dumps is that I see progre

progress = dead Iraqis

[damntexdem]

11. Yeah, steady progress through the 'bowels of war.'

And we all know what comes out of bowels: corporate-media news reports.

[lebkuchen]

12. There's that word "progress" again

Under the Bush administration, it means the exact opposite of what it used to mean.

[74dodgedart]

14. If this is winning, I'd hate to see what losing is like..

Can we stand anymore 'catastrophic success'?