Bush puppets Allawi & Blair shake hands in photo op, 80 dead or wounded

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

BRAVO, gentlemen, BRAVO. Mission FUCKING Accomplished. Take a well-deserved bow.



"British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)(L) and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shake hands after reviewing an honor guard in Baghdad, December 21, 2004. Protected by U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, Blair flew into Baghdad Tuesday in a surprise show of political bravado designed to boost prospects for Iraqi elections in January. Photo by Bob Strong/Reuters"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20041221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_041221170737

Military: Americans Among 20 Dead in Mosul

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20041221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_041221170737

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rockets struck a mess tent at a military base in Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch Tuesday, and military officials said at least 20 people were killed and more than 60 were wounded. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility.

The dead included U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign national contractors and Iraqi army, said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia in Mosul.

The attack came the same day that British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) made a surprise visit to Baghdad and described the ongoing violence in Iraq (news - web sites) as a "battle between democracy and terror."

Jeremy Redmon, a reporter for the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch embedded with the troops in Mosul, reported that 24 were killed in the attack at Forward Operating Base Marez, including two from the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion, which had just sat down to eat. He reported 64 were wounded, and civilians may have been among them, he said. One Pentagon (news - web sites) official put the death toll at 22; another military official said it was around 20.