'freedom fighters' my A$$

[jmonty]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Originally Posted by QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Suspected al-Qaida bombers stepped up attacks on key transportation arteries, striking a bridge north of the capital Monday a day after shutting the superhighway south of Baghdad with a huge explosion that collapsed an overpass and killed three U.S. soldiers.

The latest attack, a parked truck bomb, blew apart the bridge that carries traffic over the Diyala River in Baqouba, police said on condition they not be identified by name because they feared retribution. There were no casualties, but motorists and truckers now must use a road that runs through al-Qaida-controlled territory to reach important nearby cities.

Baqouba is the capital of Diyala province, which is swarming with al-Qaida fighters. Those militants were driven out of Baghdad by the four-month-old U.S. security operation and out of Anbar province west of the capital by Sunni tribesman who rose up against the terrorist group.

The attacks on the bridges were only the latest in a campaign to deepen turmoil in
Iraq, especially on the vital transportation network linking Baghdad to the rest of the country. Such bombings — especially suicide attacks — are an al-Qaida trademark and one of the group's many and ever-shifting tactics against U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Earlier this month, a bomb heavily damaged the Sarhat Bridge, a key crossing 90 miles north of the capital on a major road connecting Baghdad with Irbil, Sulaimaniya and other Kurdish cities.

In March and April, three of Baghdad's 13 bridges over the Tigris River were bombed. The attacks were blamed on Sunni insurgent or al-Qaida attempts to divide the city's predominantly Shiite east bank from the mostly Sunni western side of the river.

The most serious attack, an April 12 suicide truck bombing, collapsed the landmark Sarafiyah bridge and sent cars plunging into the brown waters of the Tigris. Eleven people were killed.

U.S. forces used bulldozers Monday to push aside the rubble of the overpass that crashed onto Iraq's main north-south highway just east of Mahmoudiyah, a dangerous triangle of death city with a large al-Qaida presence.

The suicide truck bombing 20 miles south of Baghdad not only brought down a section of the bridge, it killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint and wounded six other American soldiers along with an Iraqi interpreter, the U.S. military said in a statement issued at its Camp Victory headquarters at Baghdad International Airport.

Paul Kane, a fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the attacks on bridges are an extension of earlier insurgent attacks on "electric generation sites, infrastructure for water and also the obvious target of oil pipelines."

Kane noted that Iraq does not have railroad service so insurgents "may be at the end of the transit list. If anything, it means they're trying to be creative and they're running out of targets."

Tumult arose in Iraq's fragile political structure Monday when lawmakers declared themselves fed up with the parliament speaker and voted to oust the controversial Sunni politician from his powerful post.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani is a physician who was jailed by Saddam Hussein and who had said from the parliament speaker's chair that those who attack American forces should be treated as heroes. He was voted out in a closed session of the Shiite-dominated 275-member legislature.

His ouster appeared to have grown out of a shouting match Sunday with lawmaker Firyad Mohammed Omar, a Shiite Turkoman.

Omar had complained to the speaker about the heavy-handedness of al-Mashhadani's bodyguards; al-Mashhadani responded abusively, according to lawmakers who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Omar told fellow legislators that the speaker's guards had assaulted him.

Al-Mashhadani's deputy, Khaled al-Attiyah, who chaired the closed session, will assume the duties of the speaker until a replacement is chosen.

"It's an illegal decision made by a juvenile house," al-Mashhadani told the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa in an interview posted on the Internet.

Al-Mashhadani is part of the Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc with 44 of the house's 275 seats. Salim Abdullah, a fellow lawmaker from the Accordance Front, said it would offer a replacement for al-Mashhadani within a week.

The speaker's job is allotted to a Sunni member of parliament according to an agreement among lawmakers who struggled for months to chose their leadership, a prime minister and government.

"We agreed to replace him because we want to improve the house's performance," Abdullah told The Associated Press.

But al-Mashhadani told Radio Sawa that if his performance as speaker were below par, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's was "much worse." The level of competence of President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, was "even worse because he does nothing," the former speaker said.

The man expected to become Britain's next prime minister, meanwhile, met with Iraqi leaders in an unannounced visit. Treasury chief Gordon Brown has vowed to study his country's participation in the Iraq war in the face of growing opposition at home.

Brown, slated to succeed Tony Blair this month, was on a one-day fact-finding mission, British officials said.

In London, the House of Commons rejected a motion by Britain's opposition Conservative Party calling for a formal inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq. By a vote of 288 to 253, the lower house of parliament sided with Blair, who has ruled out such an inquiry while British troops are deployed in Iraq.

Like so much in Iraq these days, even final exams for high school seniors aren't going as planned: Iraq's Education Ministry delayed the start of finals after some of the test questions were leaked to students, an official said.

A week of final exams had been due to start Tuesday with the Islamic education test, but that was put off until July 1 while authorities investigate reports of cheating, an official said, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Iraqi police, morgue and hospital officials reported 34 deaths in sectarian violence across Iraq on Monday, including 17 bodies dumped on Baghdad streets and believed to be the victims of Shiite death squads.

The al-Qaida front group Islamic State in Iraq posted a video showing what it said were 14 captive members of the Iraqi security forces. The hostages were shown in uniform standing in three rows; one of them repeatedly sighed and looked up at the ceiling. It wasn't clear when they were seized. The video was provided to the AP on Monday by the Virginia-based IntelCenter

[hugeness]

They are dirty roaches that need to be stepped on until we hear the pop.

[Dig]

Originally Posted by hugeness

They are dirty roaches that need to be stepped on until we hear the pop.

That is your opinion of course. I am a proud citizen of the USA and although I have a very large amount of sorrow whenever I see fellow citizens become casualties of this "war", I also understand that we have troops stationed on extremely holy Muslim land throughout the Middle East. Thus, I do not blame these people for killing our troops. All we have to do is get out and withdraw our forces from the Middle East(entire), and all will be well.





Dig

[Flakker]

Originally Posted by Dig

That is your opinion of course. I am a proud citizen of the USA and although I have a very large amount of sorrow whenever I see fellow citizens become casualties of this "war", I also understand that we have troops stationed on extremely holy Muslim land throughout the Middle East. Thus, I do not blame these people for killing our troops. All we have to do is get out and withdraw our forces from the Middle East(entire), and all will be well.





Dig

Oh hai Ron Paul!

[paolo59]

Originally Posted by Flakker

Oh hai Ron Paul!

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

[Dig]

Originally Posted by Flakker

Oh hai Ron Paul!

Haha, never been called that while expressing my opinion. By the way I don't really know who Ron Paul is. I hear his name thrown around on CNN and other news stations from time to time. What I said is just the conclusion I have come to after researching the history of the area and the situation .





Dig

[HELIX35]

You do understand you name is on every post you make? Signing "dig" at the bottom is pointless.

[Dig]

Originally Posted by HELIX35

You do understand you name is on every post you make? Signing "dig" at the bottom is pointless.

I was not aware of that lol. Thanks for pointing it out to me. I guess I am just used to doing it on other forums I post on.

[RasLion]

Man thats too long for me to read... but there are so many factions in Iraq and they are all fighting eachother AS WELL as the Americans.

So how can ALL the factions be called freedom fighters? Its BS. They all just want to be in power and TAKE everything for themsevles. Sunni's get in power... they kill all the shiites. Shiites get in power... they kill all the Sunni's. And is sharia (sp) law actually free? Hell no.

[US_Ranger]

Originally Posted by Dig

I was not aware of that lol. Thanks for pointing it out to me. I guess I am just used to doing it on other forums I post on.

We're here to help!



US_Ranger

[StrongInChrist]

Originally Posted by US_Ranger

We're here to help!



US_Ranger

lol






StrongInChrist

[hugeness]

Originally Posted by Dig

That is your opinion of course. I am a proud citizen of the USA and although I have a very large amount of sorrow whenever I see fellow citizens become casualties of this "war", I also understand that we have troops stationed on extremely holy Muslim land throughout the Middle East. Thus, I do not blame these people for killing our troops. All we have to do is get out and withdraw our forces from the Middle East(entire), and all will be well.





Dig

You are a proud citizen but you dont blame those bastards for killing our guys? "Extremely holy muslim land"? You should be glad that I am not president because I would blow up every mosque I could find just to prove a point. We arent being tough enough with these pieces of garbage and it's all because of liberal pussies in and outside of government. Nobody cares about the extremely muslim land over there, we want as many bad guys dead over there as possible. My first question as president would be "wheres the button"?

huge

[Scarface2883]

Well, according the the "holy" Muhammad, the freedom fighters are 'good' muslims, and the muslims who are not in Jihad are not good muslims. But, Muhammad also married a 6 yr old girl when he was 53, and consumated the marriage when she was 7. (yes serious) (yes in the Quran)

[Nail_Adam]

Originally Posted by ryannath

Well, according the the "holy" Muhammad, the freedom fighters are 'good' muslims, and the muslims who are not in Jihad are not good muslims. But, Muhammad also married a 6 yr old girl when he was 53, and consumated the marriage when she was 7. (yes serious) (yes in the Quran)

Hi

Here's a really nice map to you trolls: http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/151/trollmapxe7.jpg

Take the yellow route, if you fail at that too, you still have the red route

enjoy

[RangerX]

Originally Posted by MWarsame

Hi

Here's a really nice map to you trolls: http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/151/trollmapxe7.jpg

Take the yellow route, if you fail at that too, you still have the red route

enjoy

LOL

[BVAV]

Originally Posted by hugeness

You are a proud citizen but you dont blame those bastards for killing our guys? "Extremely holy muslim land"? You should be glad that I am not president because I would blow up every mosque I could find just to prove a point. We arent being tough enough with these pieces of garbage and it's all because of liberal pussies in and outside of government. Nobody cares about the extremely muslim land over there, we want as many bad guys dead over there as possible. My first question as president would be "wheres the button"?

huge

That's why you would never be president of anything since you're clearly not very bright. I also find the way neandrathals like you refer to liberals as "pussies" amusing. LOL

I guess you feel that your hysterics are a sign of strength.

[jmonty]

Originally Posted by US_Ranger

We're here to help!



US_Ranger

was it a common tactic for the insurgent/terrorists in iraq to bomb civilian infrastructure? i saw a few times when they took out parts of pipe lines but i wasn't involved at all in combat ops so i didn't hear much about their targets. except when there were wounded americans...

[Suga__Free]

Originally Posted by hugeness

You are a proud citizen but you dont blame those bastards for killing our guys? "Extremely holy muslim land"? You should be glad that I am not president because I would blow up every mosque I could find just to prove a point. We arent being tough enough with these pieces of garbage and it's all because of liberal pussies in and outside of government. Nobody cares about the extremely muslim land over there, we want as many bad guys dead over there as possible. My first question as president would be "wheres the button"?

huge

consistently innovative and creative in revising your wackness for a new generation

[matt555]

Originally Posted by Dig

That is your opinion of course. I am a proud citizen of the USA and although I have a very large amount of sorrow whenever I see fellow citizens become casualties of this "war", I also understand that we have troops stationed on extremely holy Muslim land throughout the Middle East. Thus, I do not blame these people for killing our troops. All we have to do is get out and withdraw our forces from the Middle East(entire), and all will be well.

Dig

Great post, keep it up!

[US_Ranger]

Originally Posted by jmonty

was it a common tactic for the insurgent/terrorists in iraq to bomb civilian infrastructure? i saw a few times when they took out parts of pipe lines but i wasn't involved at all in combat ops so i didn't hear much about their targets. except when there were wounded americans...

They did that **** all the time when I was up north near Tikrit. They'd bomb gas stations and the pipelines that brought the gas to the trucks that were sent to the gas stations. The next day, hundreds upon hundreds of cars would be backed up at different gas stations as the insurgents (freedom fighters) bravely ****ed their own countrymen over by blowing up their only source of fuel within 60 miles. I never really understood it. Did they not realize we got our fuel from non-Iraqi sources?

They would also take it upon themselves to constantly drop decapitated bodies in front of the gate. I can see it now :

Ahkmed : I hate American soldiers!
MHmd : Me too!
Ahkmed : Let's kill a random person and drop his body off to show the Americans we mean business!
Mhmd : Good idea! We'll show those pigs who the true freedom fighters are!


Yeah, it never made much sense to me.

[jmonty]

interesting.

[RojoJolly]

Originally Posted by hugeness

You are a proud citizen but you dont blame those bastards for killing our guys? "Extremely holy muslim land"? You should be glad that I am not president because I would blow up every mosque I could find just to prove a point. We arent being tough enough with these pieces of garbage and it's all because of liberal pussies in and outside of government. Nobody cares about the extremely muslim land over there, we want as many bad guys dead over there as possible. My first question as president would be "wheres the button"?

huge

Excellent post.

[skinnycalves]

very wise quote from the movie Lord of War

Every faction in Africa (ignore this part) calls themselves by these noble names - Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other... I guess they can't own up to what they usually are: a federation of worse oppressors than the last bunch of oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves freedom-fighters.