U.S. Fails To Curb Baghdad Violence

Attacks Up 22% During Ramadan Despite U.S.-Iraqi Efforts

(CBS/AP)  Caldwell also said that U.S. forces had entered the city of Balad as early as last Friday after it got word of the early stages of the sectarian killings that swept through the region an hour's drive of Baghdad for four days and left at least 95 people dead, most of them Shiites.

He said that the control over the city was left in the hands of the Iraqi military, however, and that the Iraqi government had not asked for U.S. assistance. U.S. forces were continuing to patrol the city, which has a major U.S. air base on the outskirts.

"The violence is indeed disheartening," Caldwell said.

The military says the sharp increase in U.S. casualties 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.

One official told Martin that if the violence doesn't go down after Ramadan ends this weekend or at the latest after the November elections, "We're in big trouble."

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.

The increasing death toll is having an effect on American public opinion, too, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante. As the battles bring American forces back to patrol areas they had already turned over Iraqis, even many of the president's Republican allies are concerned.

President Bush said Wednesday in an interview that the intensifying violence in Iraq now might be compared with the Tet offensive in Vietnam beginning in 1968.

The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies undertook a series of attacks that shook America's confidence about winning the war and eroded political support for President Johnson.

"There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election," Mr. Bush said.

But he added, "My gut tells me that they have all along been trying to inflict enough damage that we'd leave. And the leaders of al Qaeda have made that very clear."

Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told the Dallas Morning News, "we've tried to step back and let the security forces take over, but that's not entirely successful."

Republican presidential frontrunner Sen. John McCain says more troops are need in Iraq.

"We need a functioning government, we need to put down what has now become a classic insurgency and we need to have a stable situation in Iraq," McCain said.

The president says often that the United States won't abandon Iraq before it is pacified, but pressure for some kind of solution is clearly growing, reports Plante.

[mjv2944]

Bush is not an evil man, just dumb, and hardheaded. It appears he doesn't listen to sound advise and believe me Henry Kissinger is NOT full of good advise. He started a war on a lie and continues to wage it. He and his cronies are the only WMD's in Iraq.

[drgoodwin12]

Read this article before you post it is not biased and is written by a conservative in a conservative newspaper.It does not bode well for the STAY THE COURSE strategy and it is not an oped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901907.html
The article is free to read you just have to create an account,no money involved.So please read.

Just as the justification for an invasion was based on lies, so has the aftermath of the invasion.

Bush would like you to believe that terrorist groups like Al Qaeda are responsible for attacks against American Troops - the reality is that religious militias - Shia and Sunni - are behind the majority of the attacks.

Bush was warned before he went to war that after Saddam was removed from power, there would be power struggles between the various religious/ethnic groups.

He chose to ignore them and the result is that Americans are dying because of his policies.

The responsibility for the invasion of Iraq and the aftermath lays firmly on his shoulders.

He wanted war at any cost and he got it.

The man who couldn't be bothered turning up for his own military responsibilities is now happy to send American sons and daughters to die in a war that he, a known coward, started.

Meanwhile, Bush is safe at home while they are dying and his friends and campaign contributors are becoming richer of the bodies of American troops.

In a war that Bush wanted - he had and has no answers.

All he has is blood on his hands.

bmallen3 wrote:

"This set of comments is so full of nonsense it is pure fiction. Nobody lied, Bush is not evil, The US is not evil, terrorist want to kill you whether you negotiate with them or not, none of the writers have a clue about the Middle East nor any solutions to the terrorist problem..."

And clearly, you have no clue either.

And apparently, even the truth doesn't seem to ring any bells with you.

Back to the old head in the sand routine for you.

[cofmanaaron]

What to do about Iraq? Maybe good intelligence and targeted bombings of terrorists would work better than ground occupation. Wouldn't it stop any developing military threat that might appear after we would withdraw troops? I don't mean, of coarse, Isreali-style bombings, but it seems to me that we might have gotten Osama if we'd just sent a few jets to the training camps before 9/11 when Tenet briefed Ms. Rice about the threat. Hmmmm, WMD factories can be blown up.

[cofmanaaron]

Oh, and the fact that Halliburton and defense contractors that the Bush family partly owns profits hugely from this situation didn't hurt when there could have been any doubt in Bush's mind about the intelligence he 'decided' upon. Hey, there's an explanation for Katrina too, Bush likely undermined FEMA or outright told them to back off so Halliburton could make big bucks cleaning the mess up. Republicans have always preferred the market to government programs. Any question? After all, why else is Halliburton ripping us off by all accounts while the government lets them off the hook?

[cofmanaaron]

Bush isn't evil, true, but I seriously think that he let his personal emotions get the best of his judgement concerning Iraq. Past and present. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he disagreed with George senior about stopping at Basra while Bush Jr. was thinking about what to do after 9/11. It was the right war, but the wrong target. He let Iraq and the 'failure' of his father in bringing the Mideast in line through Iraq get to him, and now he can't admit to himself that he's lost and he screwed up the chance to fight the war on terror successfully. Joe Klein paraphrases Woodward in Time: "if he dumps Rumsfeld, isn't George W. Bush tacitly admitting that his dad was right about a lot of other things too, like choosing not to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 1991?" And just today we learn our reservists are going back for a second round and the way it looks a draft is not far off. God help us, and may some of us open our eyes and grow some brains and some *****. Throw the idiots out!

[frankly6]

Has it occured to you that we were not attacked by Iraq? That no terrorists were there before we attacked Iraq? Do you know that all of our intelligence agencies now agree that our presence there is only helping extremists recruit more extremists and made us all less safe. They wrote a very detailed report about it and someone had to leak it because Bush didn't like how it reflected on his "stay the course" strateginimummmm... Doesn't it make you want to scratch that thick head of yours that the man who is really responsible for 9/11 is not only still at large but Bush could care less? Here's what Bush says about Binladin: "I don't know where he is and you know I don't really think about him much".

You say the people in this forum don't have a clue about terrorism or the Middle East. Well we would all love to hear what you know about how and why we ended up in this mess and how we get out. Maybe you can tell us who the terrorists are, where they're from, and what they want. It would be extremely enlightening I'm sure. If you can write a paragraph with some original thought rather than talking points or some tired, empty, rediculous slogans you heard on fox news I will be extremely impressed.

[radiob-2009]

To nynative1340 I see you have read and are well informed.It is to bad that to many people who post here have not read anything.They simply blindly listen to the mantra.Good Post

[radiob-2009]

To ozilot the majority of killings taking place in Iraq now are from the militias.Just trying to keep you correct on who is considered the greater threat.Read the Washington Post article.It is far more detailed than this one and it does not praise anybody.It is actually one of the most informantive articles written without bias.It is not Fox News.

[radiob-2009]

A litle bit of history on Iraq.It was by all accounts the birthplace of the garden of eden.Read your bible,it is there.Now let us step forward to the year 1982,Saddam Hussein is in power and he has gained that position by killing his opposition.Yet throughout the eighties we considered him an ally,helped him build his military into one of the strongest in the middle east(Russia also helped)and continued to support his regime until 5 days after he invaded Kuwait.There were only two presidents during this time period where he commited mass genocides of the Kurds and gassed the Iranians.A litle more history here,we had one ambassador to Iran And Iraq.You know the name.He assisted in the selling of weapons to both countries.All this talk about the blood of U.S. soldiers and ordinary Iraqis is now to supposed to be on our hands as stated by a previous poster because we oppose the current Iraqi War.It is obvious to most people that if you support a dictator who commits genocide against his own people then you are complicit.Few people here have said CUT AND RUN or STAY THE COURSE.The majority of people realize that neither course is sane.Time is running out to change direction and if we do not change our policy then we will be left with the above mentioned policys which will result in an Islamic State and a haven for terrorist.Read the Washington Post and Times,Woodwards book along with the N.I.E. report.

[getcentered]

One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some smart people in our government, but they%u2019re not in the White House, that I know too.

Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.

DOE: "The tubes cannot be use for a centrifuge"
CIA: "NO yellow cake connection"
NSA: "no contact between Iraq and Al Qaeda"
Pentagon: "Taking Iraq will be a long a hard fought guerrilla warfare exercise"

Funny, I don't remember hearing much of this dissent in the run-up to "The GOP/Bush Iraq War".
Why? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.

Message to Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:

I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.

I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.

Shame on Republicans for their lack of imagination, their poor performance as leaders and their willful ignorance when adapting policies that effect the lives of every American.

We have to do everything in our power to remove these incompetent leaders from power.
Americans need to vote with their minds and not their emotions so Congress can be made up of leaders that will do the same.

[nynative1340]

...continued from below...

Conservative or liberal, you don't have to attack those who disagree with your view. This is the U.S.A; we are allowed to do that.
On the other hand, I can say whatever I want about the President; he's no longer my Commander in Chief, and he could never fill the shoes of any of the Commander in Chiefs I served under, from Ike to "wild Willy."

[nynative1340]

Gosh, some of you sound a lot like that hate peddler Ann Coulter. The difference is, she gets paid quite well to peddle that right-wing hatred of anyone who doesn't see it her way.

This is supposed to be a board where we can have a discussion or debate without attacking each other. I think that's what the rules are.

Left or right, liberal or conservative, progressive or 'status quo', one can't help but notice that Bush's approval ratings are extremely low. You've got to notice that the approval ratings for the 'conservative led' Congress, Senate and House, are at a rock-bottom embarrassing 16 percent.

Conservative or liberal, you've got to know that planning a war only ten days after becoming president is not a conservative action. The 'liberal' media has been very kind to Bush in not pursuing this fact.

Conservative or liberal, you've got to know that lying to go to war is not a conservative action.

Conservative or liberal, you've got to know that attacking a nation that didn't attack us is not a conservative action.

Conservative or liberal, you've got to know, that a dim-witted C-average student with no real business acumen, a 'businessman' who never turned a profit in the oil business, could not possible have the skills necessary to lead a democracy of nearly 300 million free-thinking people. (He did turn a profit in selling the Texas Rangers, but the citizens of Arlington Texas took a big one in the shorts over the stadium deal.)

[diamtool]

Warning! WARNING!
any one who dares call our Glorious Leader a liar is possibly an ENEMY COMBATANT and may be detained, tortured and shipped to Guantanamo without evidence or trial.
George Bush was selected by OUR LORD to rule our Country in these end of days. therefore we have given him exclusive and absolute power to determine who is an ENEMY COMBATANT and they of course HAVE NO RIGHTS as humans!
Vice Chancellor Cheney und Field Marshall Rumsfeld may also determine ENEMY COMBATANTS to be tortured.
PRAISE OUR GLORIOUS LEADER OR YOU COULD BE NEXT!

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS
GOD FORGIVE GEORGE BUSH

[laurieleemoo]

okay---gotta go---i have definitely had enough of you liberals for today. Tomorrow is another day. See ya

[laurieleemoo]

excusemcsgt----how is my statement insane (just because you are part of the problem and disagree with me---does not make me insane. IT IS A FACT--------A COLD REALITY------SORRY YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE TRUTH. You liberals have the blood of those people on your hands. What---you don't think these insurgents our sitting here listening to you people----they watch our news and you all are feeding them with your hate campaign---it makes them feel that what they are doing is not so bad after all--because, hell---'the american people hate Bush today----so they tell themselves they Must be right and it only encourages them. If you can not see that you people are even more stupid than I originally thought.

[angryliberal-2009]

CBS knows it too. The fact is that the only thing these Mooslems can do to kill people is blow themselves up too or use a sniper rifle and drive away real quick. Those are acts of desperation not the act of a winning team.

They will surley be surprised when the 72 virgins they'll see will be nuns with shot guns.

[angryliberal-2009]

Attacks have increased during the month of Ramadan every year. Anyone with a brain knows that muslims kill each other more during the Holy Month.

[diamtool]

sounds like some people still have 9/11 and iraq mixed up. still no connection. guess the news doesn't get around so fast to some places. funny, seems like it's always the people that need an excuse for the Iraq mess that get mixed up with the facts om 9/11. but they mention it alot, anyway.
Afghanistan, the taliban and al queda were responsible for 9/11. They are all still in business. we've handed that job off to nato.
so we can concentrate on Iraq.
Where we are stuck in a civil war between ancient enemies.
Remember when we had "broken the back of the insurgency"
and they were "a few dead enders"
and "Bring em on"
That's not strong on security- that's just stupid,
heckuva job georgie!

God Bless Our Troops
God forgive George Bush