From the New York Times:
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Suspected Shiite militants lobbed rockets and mortar shells into the U.S.-protected Green Zone and a military base elsewhere in Baghdad on Sunday, killing three American troops and wounding 31, officials said.
....
The U.S. military said separately that an American soldier was killed Sunday in a roadside bombing in the volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad. A U.S. soldier assigned to the division operating south of the capital also died Sunday from non-combat related injuries, according to a statement.
The deaths raised to at least 4,018 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
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U.S. commanders have blamed what they call Iranian-backed rogue militia groups for launching missiles against American forces.
Is Bush determined to attack Iran before he leaves office? The war drums sound louder to me. Will Congress give him the go ahead? Will Bush even ask the Congress before he moves ahead?
UPDATE: From Juan Cole at Informed Sources:
Shiite guerrillas with at least some relationship to the Mahdi Army have been regularly sending mortar and rocket fire on the so-called Green Zone for some time, but they seldom used to hit anything. One question I hear asked in informed military circles is whether the special groups, which Muqtada al-Sadr considers Iranian puppets and rogues, have been given more accurate rockets by Iran, and maybe some better training in how to use them.
But the Mahdi Army is siphoning off a good $2 bn. a year in embezzled gasoline and kerosene, and it seems to me that with that sort of money you could pretty much buy anything you needed on the international arms black market. If Iran did not exist, would the situation in Iraq really be much different? It is all too convenient for the US to blame continued turmoil in Iraq on Iran, rather than to face up to the real divisions inside Iraq and the Bush administration's role in exacerbating them.
The British Government appears to be seriously concerned that the Administration is preparing for military action against Iran:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/05/wiran105.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox
War hysteria has served the Republicans well this past six years. Giving it another spin is probably their best shot at keeping the White House this November (well, that & H. Clinton's antics).
The British government is not alone in their concern. The US cannot protect the Green Zone, for which Petraeus holds the ultimate responsibility to keep safe, but he will not accept that responsibility, but rather displaces the blame onto Iran.
ReplyDeleteBush is by-passing consultation with Petraeus's superiors, the Joint Chiefs, and may move ahead to do what he wants without consulting Congress.
The only way I see it happening is if we have another incident over here.
ReplyDeleteThrough I am not one for conspiracy theories, it would make me suspicious if it happened right before the elections coming up.
Roland, I don't put it past the Bush maladministration to drum up a phony incident. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident which led to the escalation of the Vietnam War?
ReplyDeleteI am totally suspicious of the present leadership in the US. They lie and mislead routinely.