Is Iraq Getting Better?

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

I hope so for the sake of all.

Over the past three months, there has been a sharp and sustained drop in all forms of violence. The figures for dead and wounded, military and civilian, have also greatly improved.

All across Baghdad, which has seen the worst of the violence, streets are springing back to life. Shops and restaurants which closed down are back in business.

People walk in crowded streets in the evening, when just a few months ago they would have been huddled behind locked doors in their homes.

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**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

I question the sanity of this move.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad will play host to an international film festival next month, the first major cinematic event in the war-ravaged capital in more than two years, an Iraqi film director said on Sunday.

Films for the Baghdad International Film Festival will be submitted mainly from Egypt, Jordan and Iran. Egypt alone plans to submit 27 movies, director Dr. Abdul Basit Salman told AFP by telephone from Cairo, where he is now based.

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**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

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Baghdad will play host to an international film festival next month, the first major cinematic event in the war-ravaged capital in more than two years,

That seems like an opportunity for a major attack from terrorists. Rolling Eyes

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

I totally agree and that is why I question the sanity of such a move.

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

There is no sanity in Iraq. It's a ploy to make people believe it is safe.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Maybe we should have just invaded with checkbooks, it would have been cheaper.

nstead, the insurgents-turned-leaders depend on an influx of money from the U.S. or from the provincial government to keep Islamic extremists from dominating the town again. So far, the U.S. military has spent $1 million, the cost of one of the military’s newest armored vehicles, on reconstruction projects and salaries for residents to secure the town and its surrounding area — 30,000 people in all. If the U.S. plan works, the next million will come from the Shiite-led provincial government

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**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

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If the U.S. plan works, the next million will come from the Shiite-led provincial government

Yea, right. More corruption is what I see.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

If we had invaded with a checkbook instead oif an army, at least we would know where the money was going, not like now.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

An op-ed piece on nthe Iraqi good news.

More than seven weeks ago, US media attention on Iraq peaked as Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ray Crocker delivered their much anticipated evaluation of the George W. Bush administration's "surge strategy" before Congress.

By most official and media accounts, security in Baghdad and in surrounding provinces has improved markedly since then, with US commanders attributing much of the decline in violence to successes in driving al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups from Baghdad. Iraqis are said to be experiencing some sense of normalcy after being victimized by the kidnappings, bombings, and wholesale slaughter that marked the last few years.

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**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Yet another opinion on the situation in Iraq.

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq -- Senior military commanders here now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias.

In more than a dozen interviews, U.S. military officials expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but "it's unclear how long that window is going to be open."

The lack of political progress calls into question the core rationale behind the troop buildup President Bush announced in January, which was premised on the notion that improved security would create space for Iraqis to arrive at new power-sharing arrangements. And what if there is no such breakthrough by next summer? "If that doesn't happen," Odierno said, "we're going to have to review our strategy."

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**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

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The lack of political progress calls into question the core rationale behind the troop buildup President Bush announced in January, which was premised on the notion that improved security would create space for Iraqis to arrive at new power-sharing arrangements

I never did think it was a rational decision to send more troops, and this situation seems to confirm that no amout of troop strenth will bring about a political solution.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Yep, the Iraqi people will have democracy when they want it, not when Washington does.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Key Iraqi Political benchmarks.

Nov 15 (Reuters) - With violence dropping across Iraq, U.S. officials say it is now time for Iraqi political leaders to match security gains with movement on key legislative goals aimed at promoting national reconciliation.

The "benchmarks" were to have been met by September but remain stalled amid factional fighting in cabinet and turmoil in parliament which has all but paralysed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

Washington hopes the laws will help to reconcile the ruling majority Shi'ite community with minority Sunni Arabs, who were politically dominant under Saddam Hussein and have formed the backbone of the insurgency.

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**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

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With violence dropping across Iraq, U.S. officials say it is now time for Iraqi political leaders to match security gains with movement on key legislative goals aimed at promoting national reconciliation.

Wishful thinking.

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The "benchmarks" were to have been met by September but remain stalled amid factional fighting in cabinet and turmoil in parliament which has all but paralysed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

It won't be resolved anytime soon either. More wishful thinking.

Washington is counting on them to to what needs to be done, and they are nothing more than a collection of useful idiots.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Now I ask, the political may never be settled, but after the lull and Iraqis realize that the US is still occupying their country, will they resume attacks?