Reality in Iraq and Afghanistan today are predictors of what will come

March 27, 2008

Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra

Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.

Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.


In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.

The most secure area of the capital, Karrada, was placed under curfew amid fears the Mahdi Army of Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr could launch an assault on the residence of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the head of a powerful rival Shia governing party.

While the Mahdi Army has not officially renounced its six-month ceasefire, which has been a key component in the recent security gains, on the ground its fighters were chasing police and soldiers from their positions across Baghdad.

Rockets from Sadr City slammed into the governmental Green Zone compound in the city centre, killing one person and wounding several more.
go here for the rest
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3631718.ece
Linked from RawStory

2 US troops die in rising Iraq violence
US Widens Bombing in Basra;
Baghdad Blast Kills 2 US Soldiers;
40 Iraqi Police Surrender Arms
RYAN LENZAP News
Mar 29, 2008 13:38 EST
U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said.
Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m.
In eastern Baghdad, two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a mostly Shiite area that has seen fierce clashes this week.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/2_
US_troops_die_in_rising_Iraq_viol_03292008.html

Last year was the deadliest in Iraq. We lost 901 plus those who came home and committed suicide. So far this year, we lost 103. 40 in January, 29 in February, and 34 more as of today according to ICasualties.org. They also found six deaths that were not counted anywhere.

McDonald, James W. 12-Nov-2007
Wasielewsk, Anthony Raymond 08-Oct-2007
Cassidy, Gerald J. 25-Sep-2007
Richards, Jack D. 29-Jul-2007
Salerno III, Raymond A. 16-Jul-2006
Smith, John "Bill" 01-Oct-2005

This is the news out of Afghanistan.
03/29/08 AFP: Bomb hits Afghan electricity building killing two
A bomb blew up a small electricity department building in southern Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.

03/29/08 AP: Afghan radio station set ablaze
Arsonists set fire yesterday to a radio station accused of being un-Islamic, and two poppy-eradication policemen were killed in southwestern Afghanistan, officials said.

03/29/08 AP: Defense secretary says Britain must be willing to talk to Taliban
Britain's defense secretary said the government must be willing to talk to elements of the Taliban and other extremist groups to persuade them to abandon violence.

03/29/08 AP: Pakistan military intelligence center opens on volatile border
U.S., Afghan and Pakistani are opening the first of six joint military intelligence centers along the rocky Afghan-Pakistan border.

http://www.icasualties.org/oef/


Last year was also the deadliest in Afghanistan. We lost 117. 16 more gone this year.

Why am I posting this here this time instead of my other blog? Because it's important. It is important that while most of the country thinks Iraq and Afghanistan are not worth being informed of, the fact is, what happens today will be something we all have to deal with for the rest of our lives.

From the Marine who comes back wounded after wanting to spend the rest of his life in the Marines, suddenly so wounded he cannot even hold down a civilian job, to a female Air Force pilot who has been so traumatized by sexual assaults, she may not want to live anymore instead of wanting to become something so much more. We'll have to live with the Army soldier who wanted to earn the college benefits for his future returning so wounded by PTSD that he ends up becoming homeless because the VA would not honor his claim, and the soldiers who were given dishonorable discharges because their PTSD claims were dismissed and they were given discharges under "preexisting conditions" and no help at all. We will have to deal with the National Guardsmen and women who wanted to join the guard to help the people here when natural disasters strike but were instead sent into Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving behind their families, jobs and coming home either too wounded to work or facing a financial crisis because their incomes were hit hard by being deployed.

Some people in this country, like Vice President Cheney view it as "they volunteered" but what they didn't volunteer for is what happens to them after when this nation does not take care of them. They did not volunteer to lose all they had because they were wounded. They did not volunteer to be extended over and over again under "stop loss" to the point where they feel they were betrayed.

While we read the stories of what happens to them after, we need to stay fully involved in what's happening to them while they are deployed to know what we will face tomorrow. The stories we read today are all predictors of what is to come. We have to face the reality of what they are going through today or their tomorrows will be even worse.

Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington