Iraqi military forces are hyping recent gains against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in the area along the frontier between Baghdad and the Anbar Province, saying they’ve taken back a whole district near Fallujah as well as the town of Albu Farraj.
Albu Farraj is on the outskirts of Ramadi, one of the major Anbar cities where control is being disputed between the government, AQI, and local tribal leaders. Officials claimed it was an “important base” for AQI in Anbar.
But despite those modest gains, the city of Fallujah remains more or less entirely under AQI control, as well as much of Ramadi. The rest of the Anbar Province is largely in open revolt, with Sunni tribal leaders opposed to the Maliki government’s heavy-handed treatment of them.
The gains aren’t entirely one-sided, either, as militants attacked the Transportation Ministry in Baghdad itself, killing several people and starting a brief hostage crisis.
Military officials say the hostage situation is now resolved, but the attack in Baghdad underscores that despite the military’s offensive in Anbar, AQI is not entirely on its heels in a defensive posture, and continues to look for opportunities to attack.
Under international law, the US is considered guilty for these crimes because the US initiated the crime against peace: aggression.
Add it to the long list of war crimes that US officials should now be in prison for, but short of a successful rebellion I can't see how that's going to happen.
Should we be happy or sad that the government success was not one sided, but that AQI had some success as well. It seems to me that protecting population from chaos, anarchy and armed terrorists is no longer in vogue. From Syria and Iraq to Ukraine — protecting population that just want to go to work, and enjoy life, is no longer respectable. Respectable are the mobs that destroy and burn everything in their way, terrorists that out of nowhere show up to kill dozens of unsuspecting people, killers of police and soldiers that stand in their path. Since when did we decide to put an equal sign between a cop and a molotov coctail wielding crowd? And worse yet, what makes us think that these "revolutionaries" represent anybody? Since when they speak for the people. None of these revolutionaries are financed by God, so whoever is financing the violence, hopes to bypass the ballot box, because they cannot win. It is not a good sign of times, when violence descents on innocents, and the police is condemned for defending them.
So the US has all their combat troops out of Iraq? How about non-combat Troops? I guess no-combat means they don't go out and instigate combat. There must be some to protect our diplomatic brigadoon over there.
I understand we also have thousands of "private security contractors" still there as well.