November has been second-deadliest month for US troops in Iraq
By Will Dunham, Reuters | November 25, 2004

WASHINGTON -- November has been the second deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, and the Pentagon is braced for rising violence ahead of crucial parliamentary elections set for Jan. 30.

At least 109 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq this month, about half of whom died in an offensive that began on Nov. 8 to crush insurgents in their former stronghold Falluja, according to Pentagon figures.

In the 20-month war, only this past April, with 135 military deaths, produced a higher monthly U.S. death toll.

The offensive in Falluja, a city west of Baghdad from which U.S. officials said insurgents had launched a spree of killings, bombings and kidnappings, was part of efforts to reduce the level of violence ahead of January's elections.

But even as the U.S. military said 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been killed in Falluja and their safe haven decisively seized, rebels continued their campaign of violence in numerous other cities.

The Pentagon's latest official count, provided Wednesday, listed 1,230 U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war. It also listed more than 9,300 U.S. troops wounded in action, more than 5,000 of whom were too badly injured to return to duty.

While Pentagon officials have hinted at the possibility of reducing U.S. troop levels if elections go well and Iraqi government security forces prove capable, the officials warned not to expect any decline in violence in the near future.

"We are intent on trying to provide a secure and stable enough situation to be able to conduct nationwide elections in January. Now, I will not pretend that that's not a challenge at this stage," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the No. 2 officer in Central Command, responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

'ATTACKS WILL CONTINUE'

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters: "No doubt attacks will continue in the weeks and months ahead, and perhaps intensify as the Iraqi election approaches. I suppose this has to be expected."

Opinion polls have shown the U.S. public has been willing to stomach the continuing casualties in Iraq.

"I think the greater problem, frankly, is going to be within the ranks of the military itself, particular the families," said defense analyst Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute, citing stress from mounting casualties, lengthy deployments and units being sent back to Iraq not long after coming home.

"We are in the process of attempting to reassert control," Goure said, after the Pentagon initially was ill prepared to fight the insurgency that arose after President Saddam Hussein was swiftly toppled.

"Having said that, one has to recognize that there's a fair amount of bloodshed that will take place, largely because the other side is willing to shed blood," Goure said.

Falluja figured prominently in both of the two deadliest months of the war for U.S. troops.

In April, Marines began and then aborted an offensive against insurgents in that city in the weeks after four private U.S. security contractors were killed there, and pictures of their charred and mutilated corpses hung from a bridge seen globally. At the same time, U.S. troops fought militia forces loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and other southern cities.

This month supplanted November 2003, when 82 U.S. troops were killed, as the second deadliest month of the war for the Americans.

[Insert sarcastic commentary on Bush administration here]

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"The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind--surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false" - 1984

does anyone know where they are getting this figure from? Is this from direct observation or just estimates after bombing?

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"The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind--surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false" - 1984

Weapons cache biggest yet
By Tini Tran
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD — American troops said yesterday they had uncovered the largest weapons cache to date in Fallujah, where Iraqi officials said more than 2,000 people died in the weeklong U.S.-led offensive aimed at curbing the insurgency so that elections could be held nationwide.
The Fallujah siege angered many in the influential Sunni minority, producing calls to boycott the vote, a move that could cost the new government much-needed legitimacy.
The weapons cache, described by the U.S. military as the largest uncovered so far in Fallujah, was discovered Wednesday in the Saad Bin Abi Waqas Mosque, where fugitive rebel leader Abdullah al-Janabi often preached.

Troops found small arms, artillery shells, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank mines inside the mosque, the U.S. military said.
U.S. forces also uncovered what may have been a mobile bomb-making factory as well as mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, launchers, and parts of surface-to-air weapons systems elsewhere in the mosque compound, the military added. At a press conference in Baghdad, National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud said troops found the suspected chemical lab in the southwestern district of Fallujah, where pockets of insurgents are still holding out following the Nov. 8 U.S.-Iraqi assault.
"We also found in the laboratory manuals and instructions spelling out procedures for making explosives," he said. "They also spoke about making anthrax."
Mr. Dawoud showed pictures of a shelf containing what he said were various chemicals — about two dozen glass and plastic bottles, as well as plastic sacks full of some powdered substance labeled potassium cyanide in Arabic.
One of the pictures showed a row of plastic-covered computer terminals and chairs.
Mr. Dawoud also said a key aide of Al Qaeda-linked terror boss Abu Musab Zarqawi, who was believed to have been based in Fallujah, had been arrested in Mosul, where insurgents rose up this month in support of the Fallujah fighters.
Mr. Dawoud identified him only as Abu Saeed and did not say whether he had fled Fallujah. The Iraqi official said the death toll for the entire Fallujah operation stood at more than 2,085, although he gave no breakdown. About 54 U.S. troops were among those killed.
Meanwhile, leading Sunni Muslim politicians urged postponement of the Jan. 30 national elections, and a senior official said the government had agreed to meet outside the country with Saddam Hussein supporters to try to convince them to abandon the insurgency.
Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister and a member of the Iraqi National Council, said that delaying the vote by three months or more would enable political leaders to convince Sunni clerics and others to abandon their boycott call.
"I think that it will not be in the interest of anyone to let large segments of the Iraqi population be completely left out of the political process," said Mr. Pachachi, leader of the Iraqi Independent Democrats party.
Seven other Sunni parties also demanded a delay of the election, saying they want guarantees that they would not be marginalized in any new government expected to be dominated by rival Shi'ites.
In a bid toward drawing Sunni support, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said an Iraqi delegation would meet in Amman, Jordan, with "a number of political opposition movements," including some former Saddam supporters on the "most wanted list," to convince them to abandon the insurgency and take part in the election.
No date for the meeting with former Ba'ath Party figures was announced, and Mr. Zebari did not say who would attend, although he ruled out contacts with "terrorists."
He said the meeting was encouraged by Arab governments at this week's international conference on Iraq at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik.
It appeared that the contacts were aimed at trying to strike a deal with "nationalist" opposition groups and dividing them from religious extremists such as Zarqawi, a Jordanian.
However, a statement posted yesterday on an Islamist Web site and purportedly from the Ba'ath Party criticized the Sharm el Sheik conference for meddling in Iraq's affairs.
It vowed that "the Iraqi armed resistance" would keep fighting "to expel the [American] occupation" and "destroy the agent authority," meaning the Iraqi government.
The authenticity of the statement could not be determined, but it was written in a style routinely used by the party.
Many Sunni Arabs fear that the Shi'ites, estimated to form about 60 percent of Iraq's nearly 26 million people, will dominate the new government. Sunni Arabs make up an estimated 20 percent of Iraq's total population and form the core of the insurgency"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world...2445-4112r.htm

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"What exactly is this foreign policy experience?" Obama said mockingly of the New York senator. "Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no."

Thats great news.

I remember after the war, the British found a huge cache of weapons in/around Basra, effectively wiping out the resistance their, and allowing the soldiers to replace their helmets with their berets, and the process of winning hearts and minds could begin, and with great success.

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946