http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/ Today in Iraq
Saturday, April 24, 2004
War News for April 23 and 24, 2004
Bring ‘em on: One Bulgarian soldier killed in convoy ambush near Karbala.
Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed by roadside bomb near Samarra.
Bring ‘em on: Five US sildiers killed, six wounded in rocket attack near Taji.
Bring ‘em on: Explosions, firefights reported in Karbala.
Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi killed, three wounded after US troops open fire in Sadr City.
Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen killed, 16 wounded by car bomb at US base near Tikrit.
Bring ‘em on: Nine Iraqis killed in mortar attack on Baghdad market.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi translator and her husband assassinated near Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi police wounded in RPG attack near Baquba.
Bring ‘em on: One Italian soldier wounded in ambush near Nasiriyah.
CPA flip-flops on de-Baathification policy.
Chalabi gets the boot? “The US and the top UN envoy to Iraq have decided to exclude the majority of politicians who have served for the past year on the US-appointed Governing Council when a new Iraqi government is picked to assume power on June 30, The Washington Post reported today.” I wonder if Cheney and Rummy have approved this plan.
Al-Sadr threatens to retaliate with suicide bombers if US troops move into Najaf.
US issues warning to Fallujah residents while Baghdad fashion maven and incompetent administrator L. Paul Bremer talks tough on Iraqi TV.
snip
595 US troops wounded in last two weeks.
snip
Lieutenant AWOL is unhappy that Americans can see photographs of fallen soldiers’ caskets.
Support the Troops! “This is how Nicole Goodwin travels these days: with her 1-year-old daughter pressed to her chest in a Snugli, a heavy backpack strapped across her shoulders, and a baby stroller crammed with as many bags of clothes and diapers as it can hold. When you are a homeless young mother, these are the things you carry. And tucked away somewhere are the documents attesting to Ms. Goodwin's recent honorable discharge from the United States Army, as well as Baghdad memories that are still fresh.”
Commentary
Opinion: “Cronyism and corruption are major factors in Iraq's downward spiral. This week the public radio program ‘Marketplace’ is running a series titled ‘The Spoils of War,’ which documents a level of corruption in Iraq worse than even harsh critics had suspected. The waste of money, though it may run into the billions, is arguably the least of it - though military expenses are now $4.7 billion a month.”
Analysis: “Foreign policy in the Bush administration reflects a lack of experience in the real world away from a Washington overrun with armchair polemicists and ideologues. Too many of them have no experience in the military, where one learns to expect the unexpected, or in international finance, where America's insecurity also resides. This White House is known for its hostility to curiosity and intellectual debate… The failures of the Bush administration are not those of foreign intelligence but of a cerebral sort of intelligence.”
Opinion: “One of the eerie things about Bush's press conference performance was just how divorced from reality he is. Not only is he still claiming we're going to find the WMD and that Saddam Hussein was linked to 9-11, but he actually claimed we went to war to save the credibility of the United Nations. The man is living in Fantasyland.” For non-US readers the reference to a “turtle on a fence post” comes from a saying about Lieutenant AWOL: “He’s like a turtle on a fence post: You know he doesn't belong there, he can't get anything done while he's up there, he looks stupid sitting there, and you know he didn't get there by himself.”
Casualty Reports
Local story: Maine Guardsman killed in Iraq.
Local story: New York Marine dies from wounds received in Iraq.
Local story: Massachusetts soldier wounded in Iraq.
Local story: Three Florida Guardsmen wounded in Iraq.
Local story: South Carolina Guardsman wounded in Iraq.
Local story: Three Maine Guardsman wounded in Iraq.