BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2006
70 U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq This Month
October Could Be Deadliest For U.S. In Almost 2 Years, As 11 Killed Already This Week
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Play CBS Video Video Deadly Month In Iraq With 69 U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far in October, the military is on pace for its deadliest month in nearly two years, with no signs that the violence is abating. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Video Reserves Redeployed To Iraq The Bush administration's "stay the course" strategy means a lot more U.S. soldiers will have to spend a lot more time in Iraq. As David Martin reports, the Pentagon has issued another call-up.
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Video Bloodbath In Balad Exclusive Video: With no U.S. troops present in the rural town of Balad, Iraq, it was all-out civil war between Iraq's two main ethnic groups. Chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports.
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Iraqis walk past a car bomb wreck in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006. A parked car bomb blast wounded seven bystanders in Baghdad's central Alwiya district. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)
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Iraqi police officers secure the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006. A parked car bomb blast wounded seven bystanders in Baghdad's central Alwiya district. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)
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Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, wearing headphones for translation, gestures as he listens to witness testimony during his trial held in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Wdnesday Oct. 18, 2006. (AP Photo/David Furst)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Photo Essay Iraq: The Last 12 Months A photo recap of events in Iraq over the last year.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
The military says the sharp increase in U.S. casualties — 70 so far this month — is tied to Ramadan and a security crackdown that has left American forces more vulnerable to attack in Baghdad and its suburbs. Muslim tenets hold that fighting a foreign occupation force during Islam's holy month puts a believer especially close to God.
The latest American death took place Wednesday, when a soldier was killed after his patrol was attacked with small-arms fire south of Baghdad. Ten Americans were killed on Tuesday — nine soldiers and a Marine — the highest single-day combat death toll for U.S. forces since Jan. 5, when 11 service members were killed across Iraq. There have been days with a higher number of U.S. deaths, but not solely from combat.
October is now on track to be the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq since November 2004, when military offenses primarily in the then-insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, left 137 troops dead, 126 of them in combat.
As the death toll climbed for both U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians, who are being killed at a rate of 43 a day, the country's Shiite-dominated government remained under intense U.S. pressure to shut down Shiite militias.
Some members of the armed groups have fractured into uncontrolled, roaming death squads out for revenge against Sunni Arabs, the Muslim minority in Iraq who were politically and socially dominant until the fall of Saddam Hussein.
There have been growing signs in recent days of mounting strain between Washington and the wobbly government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who felt compelled during a conversation with President Bush this week to seek his assurances that the Americans were not going to dump him.
In other developments:
Despite the mounting death toll of U.S. troops this month, White House spokesman Tony Snow said they would not make President Bush reconsider his plans for Iraq.
"No, his strategy is to win. The president understands not only the difficulty of it, but he grieves for the people who have served with valor," Snow said in Washington. "But as everybody says correctly, we've got to win. And that comes at a cost. And God bless the men and women who have risked their lives going into hostile areas because they do believe in the mission."
Also supporting the president was Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who said Mr. Bush has a plan to win the war in Iraq but is keeping it quiet, a statement Democrats pounced on Wednesday as reminiscent of comments made during another divisive war.
Burns, at a debate Tuesday night with Democratic challenger Jon Tester, said he believes Bush has a plan to win — but added: "we're not going to tell you what our plan is."
The administration is asking for patience, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently pointed out that the Iraqi government isn't even five months old — "less than a baseball season." But a Republican strategist close to the White House says there is "great concern" in the administration about Maliki's competence.
The spiking American death toll has also compounded a period of intense violence among Iraqis. If current trends continue, October will be the deadliest month for Iraqis since the AP began tracking deaths in April 2005. So far this month, 775 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, an average of 43 a day.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday blamed American officials who ran Iraq before its own government took nominal control for bringing the country to the present state of chaos.
"Had our friends listened to us, we would not be where we are today," Zebari said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Asked which friends he was referring to, Zebari said:
"The Americans, the Coalition (Provision Authority), the British. OK? Because they didn't listen to us. The did exactly what they wanted to do. ... Had they listened to us, we would have been someplace else (by now), really."
It was an unusually harsh statement from Zebari, a Kurd, whose ethnic group owes much to the U.S. intervention in Iraq and for its virtual autonomy in the north of the country.
A report in Britain's Financial Times on Wednesday said the White House is now pressuring Iraqi authorities to give amnesty to Sunni insurgents. That would be a surprising change for the Bush administration, which has resisted amnesty because it could potentially include fighters who have killed American troops.
At the State Department, spokesman Tom Casey said a decision on amnesty would be left to the Iraqi government.
"I wouldn't describe our position as pressuring them to do this now or at any particular moment except at a point when they feel their national reconciliation process has gone through its appropriate steps and they're ready to move forward with it," Casey said.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 71 CommentsThe fact of the matter is that while there is a buck to be made in Iraq by companies such as Halliburton and people like Cheney, US troops will stay there.
It doesn't matter how many American sons and daughters are killed, just as long as those who are really in charge are making money.
US troops aren't there to protect Iraqis - they are there to protect companies like Halliburton and profiteers like Cheney.
There's only one way to stop this rot - impeach Bush.
Bush "The War President" and Cheney's unprovoked violence against Iraq has caused the death of at 100 times more innocent civilians than Osama. (And Iraq had NOTHING to do with Osama or 9-11 !)
So when will we IMPEACH this S.O.B. and put him in JAIL WHERE HE BELONGS?
(John Hopkins Institute says 200 times more civillian dead, but lets be conservative)
The poll, done for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found:
%u2022 Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.
%u2022 About 61% approved of the attacks %u2014 up from 47% in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis.
%u2022 An overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden and more than half, 57%, disapproving of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
%u2022 Three-fourths say they think the U.S. plans to keep military bases in Iraq permanently.
These people want to establish control & dominance of the Middle East oil fields. They needed a catatrophic event to justify a strong military presence there. That event was 9/11. The Iraq War also generates millions of dollars in income for military contractors.
This sh*t-stirring US soldiers' presence there, is the main cause why this unrest is taking place in IRAQ. As long as garantees are not given to minorities, unrest is staying the course.
Interesting.
Of course, *any* plan would have to be better than ol' GW's previous plans (based on the Ostrich principle ie sticking one's head in the sand pretending everything is all right).
Regardless, just having a plan doesn't cut it.
We've all see the results of his previous plans - thousands of soldiers dead, many thousands of innocent civilians dead.
And just to make his dad happy.
Hey what do you call the Iraqis that want us to leave their country as soon as possible? Kut-n-run Iraqis!
Hello;
I have read other reader's comment on the way this Administration (Bush) is handling it's foreign affairs.... by way of IRAQ.
This is what I tell my friends. I FEAR for AMERICA. I also don't have a GUILTY concience about America's involvement in IRAQ. You know why?
Because I did NOT vote for Bush during the last election. I VOTED for KERRY. But BUSH won by only a SLIGHT margin.
So.... if that SMALL MARGIN voted for Bush in this last Election, DO NOT be surpised at the CARNAGE our American soldiers are going through at this moment. It's OBSCENE AND UGLY.. to say the least.
The world wonders. I think America was sold a "bill of goods", when the push for war centered on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be NON-EXISTENT.
NOT ENOUGH reliable intelligence was gathered... and SOMEBODY made a HUGE mistake!
At the COST of our soldier's lives and families being EMOTIONALLY broken through all this sordid experience.
What a waste!!!
Thanks,
ralphj53
http://www.noterror.info
Get educated. Now.
For everyone else, please pass the word.
if OUR GOVERNMENT and OUR COURTS are CORRUPT
The TROOPS are DYING IN-VAIN for a LIE
ALL of these people who think they are fighting for AMERICA
the AMERICAN WAY
for FREEDOM, and LIBERTY
it is a LIE
The TRUTH IS IT all comes down to the COURTS and
COURTs are CORRUPT
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
James B. Veasaw v. Cari M. Domingues,et al.
No: 05-1467
the U.S. SUPREME COURT COVERED UP GOVERNMENT CRIME
even when the CRIMES showed up
on paper in the COURT RECORD..!
I guess we have a DOUBLE STANDARD JUSTICE SYSTEM
you know
ONE for the GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
(Bureaucrats / Politicians)
and
ONE FOR THE PEASANTS
(The People)..!
Americans and Iraqis are dying by the thousands because a small group of evil men, power-mad and money-hungry, managed to seize control of a nation blinded by fear after September 11 to use it for their own narrow ends. Some arrogantly believed that they could "reshape" the Middle East by recreating Iraq in the image of a Western liberal democracy. Others selfishly coveted the dollars that could be made through a destructive war and its aftermath.
The shame is that Americans as yet have not demanded that our government stop what it's doing and pursue a new path. While we can do that next month, it will take years - decades - to repair the damage done to our image. But no amount of time can fix those killed, in my opinion murdered, by the Bush administration.
How do we get out of this problem?
Sadly, we're stuck with this other dim-witted pseudo-Texan for another two years.
How many more will die...
I'm more interested in what your reaction is to those of us who questioned your shameful attitude toward American Muslims. I may have missed that post....
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