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| Iraq |
| Violence Declines Further in Iraq |
| 2008-10-02 |
| Violence in Iraq dropped further during the summer although security gains remain "reversible and uneven," with the main threats coming from Iranian-backed militias and the Shiite-led Iraqi government's slow integration of volunteer Sunni fighters, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday. Potential is growing, moreover, for politically driven violence as ethnic, tribal and religious groups vie for influence in advance of provincial elections planned in coming months, according to the congressionally mandated quarterly Pentagon report on security in Iraq. Overall, civilian deaths across Iraq declined 77 percent in the three months from June to August compared with the same period a year ago, with June recording the lowest monthly death rate on record since the war began, the report said. Sectarian killings increased slightly in July and August, but they remained 96 percent lower than for the same period in 2007, it said. For example, there were 26 ethno-sectarian deaths in Baghdad in the summer months -- in contrast to more than 1,200 in the same period last year. Total attacks and other security incidents remained at their lowest levels since early 2004, even as the U.S.-led coalition withdrew thousands of troops. "Security incidents are now at the lowest levels in over four-and-a-half years, instilling in the Iraqi people a sense of normalcy that permits them to engage in personal, religious, and civic life without an inordinate threat of violence," the report said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 IMO its broadly correct to argue that 2008 - 2010 [2012] IRAQ will be mostly safe = "quiet" until such time IRAN conducts its first indigenous Nuke tests. Again, TOPIX > RUSSIA FEARS NUCLEAR ARMS ON ITS BORDERS, which IMO includes present anti-US ally IRAN. The MILITANTS, etal. are attempting to destabilize ASIA AMAP ASAP [priority front], which in turn is motivating the US-Allies to send + commit more Milfors to oppose local Radical Islamism, which in turn is inducing ISLAMIST/MAD MULLAH-DESIRED GREAT POWERS = GEOPOL CONFRONTATIONISM AND "MUTUAL DESTRUCTION", ETC. WHICH IRAN USES AS COVERT PDENIABLE COVER TO NUCLEARIZE. * ISLAMIC MILITARY HISTORY > THE MILITANTS WILL EVENT RETURN TO REFIGHT THE WAR/BATTLE FOR IRAQ, EXCEPT THEY WILL HAVE DE FACTO NUKES-WMDS WID THEM [Nuclear Jihad-Terror]. IMO this will likely not occur intil after IRAN test-detonates its own nucweapons. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-10-02 21:31 |
| #5 Nothing against Iraq, Darrell, but that ain't very hard.... BTW, are you Darrell, or the other brother Darrell? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-10-02 15:25 |
| #4 The new Iraq -- safer than D.C. and more fiscally responsible too! |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-10-02 14:49 |
| #3 Deaths in Baghdad are now so low that one car bomb can skew prior year and month-to-month comparisons. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2008-10-02 11:35 |
| #2 It said 'decline', not 'gone'. |
| Posted by: Milton Fandango 2008-10-02 10:51 |
| #1 No sh*t? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-10-02 08:54 |