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2005-02-07 Iraq-Jordan
Hunt for the Bomb Factories
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Posted by Paul Moloney 2005-02-07 2:04:46 AM|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 A few unrelated points:

* Hard to believe that this sort of operation, but expanded in scope and intensity in select areas and including large-scale preventive detention/screening operations and draconian restrictions on road movement, would not have greatly reduced the death toll to friendlies in the past 1.5 years. Why any road in relevant parts west of Baghdad and in al-Anbar was not intensely controlled since the outset, and why any military-age male in areas of concern wasn't biometrically ID'd/swabbed for explosives/polygraphed/held for interrogation/bribed/cajoled (varying with individual and circumstance) -- long ago -- remains a mystery to me.

* Time's misuse of the word "nationalist" is both ludicrous and offensive. How is it "nationalist" to blow up economic infrastructure and murder large numbers of innocents or government officials in your own country? Why is the term "nationalist" applied to a minority of ruthless criminals whose community is stained with decades of genocide, tyranny, and international lawlessness on a scale not seen since Nazi Germany? Do "nationalists" murder and destroy in a desperate bid to prevent their country from establishing accountable and open government that doesn't squander the national patrimony on the debauchery and megalomaniacal insanity of absolute despots? What exactly is, in any way, "nationalist" about the efforts of a morally leprous and rightly unseated minority to regain their previous position of blood-soaked tyranny and corruption?

Were the SS "nationalists" in any informative sense of the word? As usual, it's hard to know whether Time's failure here stems from intellectual dullness or moral imbecility.
Posted by Verlaine in Iraq 2005-02-07 4:50:54 AM||   2005-02-07 4:50:54 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Good comments, Verlaine. You probably have a better feel for the geography, but I can't imagine that the road traffic between Baghdad and parts west is so heavy that you couldn't a) ban all non-essential traffic b) inspect ALL vehicles at checkpoints with bomb-sniffing dogs. Whatever manpower it takes, do it. Maybe a lot of that is already being done, I don't know. In a similar vein, I wonder whether they are exploiting every possible technological approach to detecting/jamming roadside bombs. I know about the RF jammers that they are using. But I wonder whether there are also technologies for wired bombs and UAV aerial surveillance and video surveillance methods that could detect the bombs or the bomb planters.
Posted by HV 2005-02-07 8:45:09 AM||   2005-02-07 8:45:09 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Dear Verlaine,

First of all thank you so very much for your sacrifices my wife and 4 children owe you a debt which we could never possibly repay. My second family is my fire crew. We had one of our boys serving with you in 2004 and he's now home. Being firefighters we feel as though we have a special stake in the greater War on Terror. I've been trying to point out the successes that we are having aka successful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq 45/55 bad guys on the deck of cards. The problem lies herein: The MSM is where these guys get their info. All we here about is 1,450 dead American soldiers and 16,000 dead iraqi civilians and police. I'm constantly telling them don't worry were getting the bad guys. They turn around and say that yes we capture them but eventually like the guys in Gtmo will get released and be back to fight again another day. Do you have any idea how many enemy kia's? I'm trying to feed these guys something anything that says it's ok boys we are winning and yes we've taken alot of bad guys off the map with our sacrifices. We lost 357 brothers on 9/11 and another 1,022 have since retired or left the profession due to stress and anguish. There alot of broken men and women who would love nothing more than revenge. The shitty press makes us feel like we are losing and I hate them for it. Can you provide a link or any stats on enemy killed or foreign fighters killed or both.
Any tidbits would be appreciated.

Thanks again

Brian
Posted by Rightwing 2005-02-07 9:44:13 AM||   2005-02-07 9:44:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 The Estonians, again. Those guys are everywhere! How about we make Estonia the 51st state?
Posted by Chuck Simmins  2005-02-07 10:21:05 AM|| [http://blog.simmins.org]  2005-02-07 10:21:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 "Take Mr. Turban here," he orders, referring to the scarf around the suspect’s head. "All that s was right behind his house--he knows something," he says.

Great quote! He must be a closet Rantburger.
Posted by Alaska Paul  2005-02-07 11:16:23 AM||   2005-02-07 11:16:23 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Too bad the ACLU will be all over this guy for saying that alaska paul
Posted by Thraing Hupoluper1864 2005-02-07 4:15:16 PM||   2005-02-07 4:15:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Neat article. Hey seems Iran is spiraling out of control. Kinda scary, man they will have to be brutal! Still shaken folks but man what a deal. Sorry I havn't been active.
Posted by Lucky 2005-02-07 6:03:36 PM||   2005-02-07 6:03:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 miss ya Lucky! Get bettah!
Posted by Frank G  2005-02-07 7:14:26 PM||   2005-02-07 7:14:26 PM|| Front Page Top

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