2011年5月5日星期四

Yahoo! News: Iraq

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Iraq

What We Learned About Fighting an Unconventional Enemy Eight Years After 'Mission Accomplished' (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 05 May 2011 01:06 PM PDT

ContributorNetwork - Sunday marked eight years since the "Mission Accomplished" speech by former President George W. Bush aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. While the mission of dismantling the government of Saddam Hussein had been completed, the real challenge of war in Iraq was about to begin. What has happened and what we have learned in Iraq since May 1, 2003, is worthy of examination. Even though the government of Hussein had fallen, no one anticipated the civil war that would rage between the Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims. According to NPR, the Shia and Sunni had split into separate branches in the years after the Prophet Muhammad's death in the year 632. The Shia believed that the Islamic leadership should stay within the family of Muhammad, while the Sunni wanted the community of Muslims to determine who would succeed him. While Muhammed's son-in-law was eventually selected to succeed him, it was not before two other leaders were selected and murdered. Ali himself was killed in fighting in the year 661. The violence and war would end up splitting the Sunni and Shia, who as of this writing have not reunited. The fighting and bloodshed took a huge toll on approval ratings for President Bush, along with the rest of the Republican Party in general. Anti-war demonstrations were common, with one protester going so far as to camp out near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Bush was reelected in 2004, but Republicans lost control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2006 amid Democrat pledges to end the war. In the aftermath of the 2006 elections, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned his position. Among the complications of the civil war that broke out were Iraqis not only killing each other, but targeting U.S. troops as well: U.S. troops they saw as occupiers instead of liberators. A TIME article detailed the unconventional tactics employed by the insurgents were a challenge to the superior fire power of the U.S. forces. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide bombers were not the combat situations we were expecting. Unchallenged air superiority, along with the best trained ground forces, battled to a stalemate with the insurgents. American soldiers were dying, and the country was quickly losing its stomach for the war. In this instance, the United States may have been a victim of its own success from the first Gulf War. Surgical airstrikes, followed by a brief ground war and very few U.S. casualties, made it look as if we could fight a war with almost no loss of life. Once the body count began to build, the clean, sterile war we were in became very messy. War is never pretty, and despite U.S. airpower, wars are won on the ground. However, to put the casualty counts into perspective, Operation Iraqi freedom has resulted in 4,365 service members killed in hostile and non-hostile situations, according to numbers posted by the Congressional Research Service. World War I led to the deaths of 116,516 service members; World War II led to the deaths of 405,399; Korea led to the deaths of 36,574; and Vietnam led to the deaths of 58,209. While one service member lost is too many, the numbers are not nearly as terrible as those of earlier wars. Having the media embedded with troops does not help fight a war. War is a nasty, messy, ugly business. Some of the images that come back from the front have a definite, negative impact on civilians at home. Unless crimes have been committed, what happens on the battlefield needs to stay on the battlefield. Fortunately, President Bush listened to his generals and sent an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq starting in February 2007: the "surge." The surge helped reduce the sectarian violence, train Iraqi forces, and support the fledgling Iraqi government. Iraq has since had national elections, and recently, the United States has removed all combat troops from the country.

Consequences of 'Mission Accomplished' Felt Eight Years Later (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 05 May 2011 01:04 PM PDT

ContributorNetwork - When President George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln May 1, 2003, he declared combat operations in Iraq were over.

US official: Plan for Iranian exiles in Iraq (AP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 11:37 AM PDT

AP - An American diplomat says the U.S. will try to broker a deal to move a threatened Iranian opposition group away from its camp near Iraq's border with Iran.

Iraq concludes first book fair in 20 years (AFP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 11:00 AM PDT

Iraqis visit the Baghdad International Book Fair in which dozens of regional and foreign publishing houses took part in the Iraqi capital. Iraq's first book fair in 20 years concluded on Thursday with organisers and attendees hailing it as a return for the violence-wracked country to the global literary scene.(AFP/Sabah Arar)AFP - Iraq's first book fair in 20 years concluded on Thursday with organisers and attendees hailing it as a return for the violence-wracked country to the global literary scene.

Arab League delays summit by year to March 2012 (Reuters)

Posted: 05 May 2011 10:48 AM PDT

Reuters - A summit of Arab leaders has been postponed by a year to March 2012 because of turmoil in the region, but will still be held in Iraq as originally planned, the Arab League said Thursday.

U.S. floats new plan for Iranian camp in Iraq (Reuters)

Posted: 05 May 2011 10:34 AM PDT

Reuters - The United States has drawn up a new plan for an Iranian dissident camp in Iraq, calling for its residents to be temporarily moved to a new location in Iraq pending eventual resettlement in third countries.

Suicide car bomber kills more than 20 in Iraq (Reuters)

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:17 AM PDT

A member of the civil defence (C) and policemen inspect the site of a bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad May 5, 2011. At least 16 people were killed and 41 wounded on Thursday when a car bomb exploded in Iraq's southern city of Hilla, medical and police sources said, as security forces braced for likely attacks by al Qaeda. A suicide bomber rammed his car into the entrance of a police quarters based in the centre of the mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla during a shift change when many police officers were outside the building, the sources said. REUTERS/HabibReuters - A car bomber killed more than 20 people and wounded 80 on Thursday at a police building in the mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla, an official said, as Iraq braced for revenge attacks after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden.

Suicide bomber rams Iraq police station, kills 20 (AP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:07 AM PDT

An injured Iraqi man waiting for treatment outside a hospital in Hillah, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 5, 2011. A suicide car bomber crashed his vehicle into a barrier outside a police building in central Iraq on Thursday morning, killing and wounding dozens of policemen, a local councilman said. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)AP - A suicide bomber driving an explosives-packed vehicle rammed his way into a barricaded police compound Thursday and killed 20 police officers in the second major deadly blast in Iraq this week.

Arab Spring puts off Baghdad summit until 2012 (AFP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 08:05 AM PDT

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, seen here on May 4, has said an Arab summit due to be held in Baghdad next week has been postponed until March 2012.(AFP/Johannes Eisele)AFP - An Arab summit due to be held in Baghdad next week has been postponed until March 2012, the Arab League chief and Iraq's foreign minister announced on Thursday, after Gulf calls for it to be scrapped.

Bin Laden may have little impact on Iraq battlefield (Reuters)

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:58 AM PDT

Reuters - Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. commandos in Pakistan may have little practical impact on al Qaeda in Iraq, a weakened but still deadly Islamist insurgency that could launch strikes for the next decade.

Arab League summit postponed until next year (AP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:26 AM PDT

AP - The annual Arab summit that was to have been held in Baghdad this month has been postponed until next year at Iraq's request, the Arab League announced on Thursday.

Iraq suicide car bombing kills at least 21 police (AFP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:16 AM PDT

A picture taken by a mobile phone shows a destroyed car sitting over rubble in the mainly Shiite city of Hilla. A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a police station south of Baghdad before blowing it up on Thursday, killing at least 21 policemen in Iraq's deadliest attack in a month.(AFP/-)AFP - A suicide attacker blew up a bomb-filled car at a police station south of Baghdad, killing 21 policemen on Thursday, as Iraqi forces braced for Al-Qaeda revenge attacks after Osama bin Laden's death.

(AP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 02:23 PM PDT

AP - Officials: 3 Moroccan citizens arrested in deadly Marrakech bombing, including main suspect

Novice filmmakers open window on Iraq (AFP)

Posted: 05 May 2011 12:19 AM PDT

Iraqis watch a documentary film at the Al-Elwiya club during the Documentary Film Festival in Baghdad, on April 2. The festival was organised by the Iraqi capital's struggling and non-governmental Independent Film and Television College to showcase student films made between 2004 and this year.(AFP/File/Ali al-Saadi)AFP - As Baghdad writhed with violence in 2006, Emad Ali set out to make a film about the iconic Shabandar Cafe. But he turned the camera on himself after the teahouse was bombed, a deadly mortar killed his wife and a gunman shot him three times.

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