BAGHDAD, Mar. 1, 2008
Iraq Deaths Up, U.S. Deaths Down In Feb.
American Troop Fatalities Decline Last Month, But Civilian Toll Higher Compared To January
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A U.S. soldier of Charlie Company 1-15 Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat team, 3rd Infantry Division, passes next to a wall painted with the Iraqi flag during a routine patrol in Salman Pak, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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Pallbearers carry the casket of U.S. Army Spc. Chad Groepper, 21, whose funeral service was held at the Kingsley-Pierson, Iowa High School on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2007. Groepper died during combat on Feb. 17, as a result of small-arms fire in the Diyala province. (AP/J. Menenga, Sioux City Journal)
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Troop fatalities declined from 40 in January, and also dropped steeply from February 2007, when at least 81 troops died in Iraq.
But Iraqi casualties increased compared with January, although violence was reduced substantially from a year ago.
The AP count revealed at least 739 Iraqi security forces and civilians were either killed or found dead last month, up from 610 in January, which had the lowest monthly death toll since the end of 2005.
In February 2007, at least 1,801 Iraqis were killed.
The statistics on casualties are considered a minimum, and are based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
Three factors are widely credited with reducing violence in Iraq over the past six months: an increase in U.S. troop levels; a cease-fire by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia; and the decision by tens of thousands of Sunni fighters to accept U.S. funding and turn against al Qaeda in Iraq.
At least 3,973 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the AP's count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,237 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Since the invasion of Iraq, only two months have had a lighter U.S. death tolls than February, the AP found. They were last December, when 23 deaths were reported, and the month of February 2004, when 20 American troops died. Last month's troop fatalities included three non-combat deaths.
Insurgent Leader Apprehended
The U.S. military announced the capture Saturday of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up - the latest sign that al Qaeda in Iraq plans to keep using women to carry out suicide attacks.
The military said the man was arrested Thursday in an operation near the town of Kan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad in Diyala province - still an al Qaeda hotbed.
"The ringleader was a man trying to recruit women to carry out SVEST (suicide vest) bombings. The cell leader used his wife and another woman, to act as carriers of his next SVEST attack," the military said.
Women have recently been used more frequently by al Qaeda in Iraq as bombers, with six attacks or attempted attacks this year alone, according to U.S. military statistics. That's out of a total of 19 such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion began in 2003, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said in a recent briefing.
The latest included two women with a history of psychiatric treatment who killed about 100 people at pet markets in Baghdad on Feb. 1.
It remains unclear if al Qaeda has begun using women because it has been unable to recruit new insurgents or because they are more difficult to detect.
In Other Developments:
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 69 Comments%u2018When asked about Senators Kerry and Edwards'' votes on the Iraq war, Obama said, "I''m not privy to Senate intelligence reports,%u2019 Mr. Obama said. %u2018What would I have done? I don''t know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.%u2019
In a meeting with Chicago Tribune reporters at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said, %u201COn Iraq, on paper, there''s not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago. [%u2026] There''s not much of a difference between my position and George Bush''s position at this stage.%u201D [Chicago Tribune, 07/27/04]
It will be far costlier than LBJ"s.
McCain"s "Great Society" will be for Iraqis only. Not Americans.
Someday McCain will get around to telling us how he plans to pay for his "Great Society." ((At age 69 he claimed he "still needed to be educated" about economics.)
Could you please post a URL for that surprising quote ?
I want to make sure it isn"t being taken out of context.
Thanks.
"The 2004 remark comes from an interview Obama gave the Chicago Tribune on the eve of the 2004 Democratic convention to nominate John Kerry for president. The invasion had long since ended. Troops there were attempting to stop insurgent attacks and prevent kidnappings in the face of concerns from the American public that the situation in Iraq was starting to deteriorate.
"On Iraq, on paper, there"s not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago," Obama said. "There"s not much of a difference between my position and George Bush"s position at this stage.
How do you stabilize a country that is made up of three different religious and in some cases ethnic groups with a minimal loss of life and minimum burden to the taxpayers?" Obama said later in the interview.
Taking the interview in its entirety, it"s clear Obama was speaking about the need to bring a satisfactory conclusion to the Iraq invasion once it had commenced, not diminishing his initial opposition to the war."
Source:
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/378/
Hi Ice, sorry, this is all I keep, maybe you can back track on it.
I gotta go; have a good day.
Fact Check : Sen. Obama%u2019s Iraq War Record
1/9/2008 2:50:08 PM
This morning, Sen. Barack Obama claimed that President Clinton "made several misleading statements about my record" on Iraq. Actually, everything President Clinton said was true:
It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he has been against the war every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time -- not once -- well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn''t know how you would have voted on the resolution, you said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war, and you took that speech you''re now running on off your Web site in 2004, and there is no difference in your voting record and Hillary''s ever since
"By 2004, he was saying that he basically agreed with the way George Bush was conducting the war," she said.
In the debate with Clinton, he made the same point a little more succinctly: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out."
Clinton"s statement wrongly gives the impression that Obama was endorsing the Bush administration"s overall policy in Iraq. We find her statement to be Half True."
Source: Same as previously posted.
Thanks. You have a good day too.
Watch out for those mad rivers and blue barns in the Mountains of Ohio. :-)
IMHO, he has lucked out and ridden one call with good oratory into a strong run for the presidency.
He has not done much else.
What your GOP want''s you to believe is a straight up lie...
... Another reason to get pissed at the GOP taking advantage of the lack of knowledge here in this country.
Perzactly!
He has not one stance that he can claim of his own! Much less the same stance twice! Yet this is going to be the greater savior of the universe!
Most of the kids in this video have never supported a family on their own. Have never had to struggle to make ends meet. Have never, in fact, lived apart from their parents. One young one still a teenager claiming she wants a different kind of world for her new baby. She''s little more than a child herself! It is this kind of young cultist following that is going to shape our future? It is simply promomting an American Idol contest for who puts out the most touching video?
C''mon, wake up America!
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Posted by j-whitman at 04:06 PM : Mar 01, 2008
I know he didn''t. But that''s my point, J. He doesn''t yet have the experience and competence to do the great job that''s having to be done here. There''s a lot he just doesn''t know!
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Posted by j-whitman at 04:04 PM : Mar 01, 2008
J, the only redeeming thing about Obama is that he has echoed Hillary in every statement, he has basically (pardon the pun) xeroxed all her plans.
We the candidate who made the plans in the first place and has stood fast by HER platform!
,,, I''''m watching Hillary in Texas now doing something I''''ve been trying since 1999 to get them to start talking about ----- National Security
She blasted McCain out of the saddle on the subject, that''s my pet issu,e & we should have attacked repubs on it years ago. ---
-- The only reason people think the GOP is better on national security is their own lack of knowledge & the politics of fear.
The republican party has led us into every situation where we were involved in genocide & every time it''s hurt our national secoruty for decades.
--- Now McCain spins it to attack them for wanting to change NAFTA.
they remain ,however, wrong, criminally wrong
BUSH belongs on trial as a war criminal
look what all the experience in the world has gotton us for the last eight years,
experienced at what is the question;
what is rumsfeld and cheney real experience?
Was it foreign policy, or *** the taxpayer??
That should tell people something of how bad this GOP is for our country.
McCain has had a full set of life experiences.
His rhetoric does not match up with Obama or even Hillary but he has experienced more than any of us would ever want and his opinions are forged from those experiences.
Interestingly, here in North Texas we are represented in the US Congress by another POW - Sam Johnson. Sam approved of waterboarding. McCain did not. Although McCain says Sam experienced the worse, Sam says it was McCain.
Life experiences.
You''ve got to stop reaching pal...... McCain has Flip-Flopped on his own principles.
J, you have to acknowledge the good and the bad in each candidate or you will be swayed by the BS sound bites.
--- We need to win a war on terror while addressing problems in the rest of the world & Bush/McCain are ignoring & are creating more problems Reagan created in setting up more genocides
I''m not supporting her, but McCain is out to lunch & has become a party puppet.
The gloves are off here and wounds are being delivered.
I hate empty rhetoric. Can not stand it. Probably comes from work where you run into empty suits from time to time. Fire those guys.
The general election will be best served by a contest between Obama and McCain as the choice for America will be as far apart as we have had in a long time. Hillary is not that far apart from McCain.
Two ads that don''t wash real well in Northern Texas. Not sure who is doing his planning there. Down south they might be working better.
Yes Obama has been totally constitant opposing Iraq, he is not in any way going to pull us out as soon as he gets in, surrender or abandon our efforts. Neither would Hillary.
As a matter of fact our military in Iraq is using time tables, to think they aren''t is just silly... And to assume they wouldn''t support the next President just as hard as they do Bush''s policies is also wrong.
It contains the full phrase "al Qaeda in Iraq" four (4) times.
AP and CBS will receive suitable compensation from their masters as agreed.
Posted by donbl1 at 06:06 PM : Mar 01, 2008
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Hillary and McCain have similar vile world views. Not suprising that she would run an ad that McCain voters would like if it was from McCain.
That''s why I''m for Obama rather than Hillary.
This article contains the required six (6) references to "al Qaeda".
It contains the full phrase "al Qaeda in Iraq" four (4) times.
AP and CBS will receive suitable compensation from their masters as agreed.
Just bypassing instant Terrorislama spam.
Posted by donbl1 at 06:06 PM : Mar 01, 2008
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Hillary and McCain have similar vile world views. Not suprising that she would run an ad that McCain voters would like if it was from McCain.
That''''s why I''''m for Obama rather than Hillary.
(Bypassing instant Terrorislama spam)
That''s the bottom line to it all.
Illusions of power.
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Posted by Iceman_1960 at 06:57 PM : Mar 01, 2008
ROFL! Hillary didn''t decide it first, so Obama hasn''t got there yet!
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