Read, and weep:
Gunmen have executed up to 50 Sunnis in an ethnically divided Iraqi town, in what appeared to be a horrific revenge attack for the slaughtering of 75 mainly Shia Muslims in a double-truck bombing only hours before.
In signs that the sectarian conflict in the north-western Iraqi community of Tal Afar is rapidly spiralling out of control, dozens of men were randomly shot in the head by rampaging gunmen in an overnight attack at the Sunni district of al-Wahda.
Police and military sources claim that the gang, some of whom may be off duty Shia policemen, stormed through the neighbourhood, firing at their victims at close range and leaving bodies piling up in homes and on Tal Afar’s streets.
A doctor at the town’s main hospital – still overwhelmed with casualties after the earlier double suicide bombing – this morning confirmed that all those who died had been shot in the head in deliberate execution style.
Seems the slogan of those police must be this: You suicide bomb one of ours, we execute one of yours. By the way, Tal Afar, for those of you who remember, was once one of Our Dear Leader’s thousand points of light in Iraq back in the day of “clear, hold and build.”
(Cont.)
[BUSH] “Tal Afar is a city of more than 200,000 residents, roughly the population of Akron, Ohio. In many ways, Tal Afar is a microcosm of Iraq: It has dozens of tribes of different ethnicity and religion. Most of the city residents are Sunnis of Turkmen origin. Tal Afar sits just 35 miles from the Syrian border. It was a strategic location for al Qaeda and their leader, Zarqawi. Now, it’s important to remember what Al Qaeda has told us, their stated objectives. Their goal is to drive us out of Iraq so they can take the country over. Their goal is to overthrow moderate Muslim governments throughout the region. Their goal is to use Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks against America. To achieve this goal, they’re recruiting terrorists from the Middle East to come into Iraq to infiltrate its cities, and to sow violence and destruction so that no legitimate government can exercise control. And Tal Afar was a key way station for their operations in Iraq.” […]
“In May 2005, Colonel McMaster’s unit was given responsibility for the western part of Nineva Province where Tal Afar is located, and two months later Iraq’s national government announced that a major offensive to clear the city of the terrorists and insurgents would soon be launched. Iraqi and coalition forces first met with tribal leaders and local residents to listen to their grievances. One of the biggest complaints was the police force, which rarely ventured out of its headquarters. When it did venture, it was mostly to carry out sectarian reprisals. And so the national government sent out new leaders to head the force. The new leaders set about getting rid of the bad elements, and building a professional police force that all sides could have confidence in. We recognized it was important to listen to the representatives of Tal Afar’s many ethnic and religious groups. It’s an important part of helping to remove one of the leading sources of mistrust.
After about two weeks of intense activity, coalition and Iraqi forces had killed about 150 terrorists and captured 850 more. The operation uncovered weapons caches loaded with small arms ammunition and ski masks, RPG rockets, grenade and machine gun ammunition, and fuses and batteries for making IEDs. In one cache we found an axe inscribed with the names of the victims the terrorists had beheaded. And the operation accomplished all this while protecting innocent civilians and inflicting minimal damage on the city.
After the main combat operations were over, Iraqi forces moved in to hold the city. Iraqis’ government deployed more than a thousand Iraqi army soldiers and emergency police to keep order, and they were supported by a newly restored police force that would eventually grow to about 1,700 officers. As part of the new strategy we embedded coalition forces with the Iraqi police and with the army units patrolling Tal Afar to work with their Iraqi counterparts and to help them become more capable and more professional. In the weeks and months that followed, the Iraqi police built stations throughout Tal Afar — and city residents began stepping forward to offer testimony against captured terrorists, and inform soldiers about where the remaining terrorists were hiding.
Inside the old Ottoman fortress, a Joint Coordination Center manned by Iraqi army and Iraqi police and coalition forces answers the many phone calls that now come into a new tip line. As a result of the tips, when someone tries to plant an IED in Tal Afar, it’s often reported and disabled before it can do any harm. The Iraqi forces patrolling the cities are effective because they know the people, they know the language and they know the culture. And by turning control of these cities over to capable Iraqi troops and police, we give Iraqis confidence that they can determine their own destiny — and that frees up coalition forces to hunt the high-value targets like Zarqawi. […]”
“The success of Tal Afar also shows how the three elements of our strategy in Iraq — political, security, and economic — depend on and reinforce one another. By working with local leaders to address community grievances, Iraqi and coalition forces helped build the political support needed to make the military operation a success. The military success against the terrorists helped give the citizens of Tal Afar security, and this allowed them to vote in the elections and begin to rebuild their city. And the economic rebuilding that is beginning to take place is giving Tal Afar residents a real stake in the success of a free Iraq. And as all this happens, the terrorists, those who offer nothing but destruction and death, are becoming marginalized.”
Dear residents of Tal Afar, why do you hate our President so much? He saved your city from the terrorists in 2005, for gosh sakes. After all he did for you, this is the thanks he gets? Such ingratitiude!
Seriously, why should we believe a word that comes out of the mouths of anyone who still supports this ongoing feast of atrocities which is Iraq under the American Occupation? I can’t think of any reason. Not one. Simply put, whoever mouths such mendacious generalities is a liar. And they know that as well as we do.
The Liebermans, McCains, Cheneys and Bushs of the world can insist all they want that Iraq is getting better all the time, but all the evidence points to the opposite conclusion. It’s been a human tragedy wrapped in Republican talking points for our subservient news media to faithfully report without much critical comment for far too long.
If you saw the report from CNN last night refuting this latest round of bullshit, you finally heard the well deserved scorn of a reporter who is actually based in Baghdad, Michael Ware, dripping with contempt for McCain’s mendacity.
BLITZER: Michael, you’ve been there, what, for four years. You’re walking around Baghdad on a daily basis. Has there been this improvement that Senator McCain is speaking about?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I’d certainly like to bring Senator McCain up to speed, if he ever gives me the opportunity. And if I have any difficulty hearing you right now, Wolf, that’s because of the helicopter circling overhead and the gun battle that is blazing just a few blocks down the road.
Is Baghdad any safer? Sectarian violence, one particular type of violence, is down. But none of the American generals here on the ground have anything like Senator McCain’s confidence.
I mean, Senator McCain’s credibility now on Iraq, which has been so solid to this point, has now been left out hanging to dry. To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.
And to think that General David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed Humvee? I mean, in the hour since Senator McCain has said this, I’ve spoken to some military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly, the general travels in a Humvee. There are multiple Humvees around it, heavily armed. There are attack helicopters, Predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection.
So, no, Senator McCain is way off base on this one — Wolf.
BLITZER: Michael, when Senator McCain says that there are at least some areas of Baghdad where people can walk around and whether it’s General Petraeus, the U.S. military commander, or others, are there at least some areas where you could emerge outside of the Green Zone, the international zone, where people can go out, go to a coffee shop, go to a restaurant, and simply take a stroll?
WARE: I can answer this very quickly, Wolf. No. No way on Earth can a Westerner, particularly an American, stroll any street of this capital of more than 5 million people.
I mean, if al Qaeda doesn’t get wind of you, or if one of the Sunni insurgent groups don’t descend upon you, or if someone doesn’t tip off a Shia militia, then the nearest criminal gang is just going to see dollar signs and scoop you up. Honestly, Wolf, you’d barely last 20 minutes out there.
I don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.
Sadly, CNN and other American news outlets are only now allowing their Baghdad correspondents and reporters to contradict the official line out of the White House, or out of the mouths of Bush apologists like McCain and Lieberman. Too late for the hundreds of thousands of people of Iraq who have died, and the millions who have been displaced. Too late for the soldiers killed, or worse, maimed and discarded by our military and a Republican Party who defined “Supporting the Troops” as meaning support for whatever ridiculous, insane and murderous decisions our “Decider” happened to be making with regard to Iraq.
Too late for all of us.
