Operation Thunder (New Iraqi Security Offensive)

[seinfeldrules]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050526/ts_nm/iraq_dc_47

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government will pour tens of thousands of Iraqi troops into Baghdad in an unprecedented operation to seal off the city and hunt insurgents who have launched a fresh wave of violence, ministers said on Thursday.

Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said 40,000 Iraqi troops would be deployed in Baghdad for Operation Thunder, the biggest Iraqi military operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Backed by the 10,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad, they will set up hundreds of checkpoints and block roads into the capital.

 

[The Monkey]

When will this operation take place?

 

[A True Canadian]

I don't think it would be wise to announce an exact date for an operation of this size. That would just give the enemy time to prepare.

 

[Tr0n]

[garthbrooks]The thunder rolls and the lightnin' strikes...[/garthbrooks]

 

[GiaOmerta]

I don't think it's wise to announce an operation of this scale at all. It gives time for any of the cells in Baghdad to prepare.

 

[MjM]

I dont get, dont they block roads as it is?

 

[Cons Himself]

I don't know what you guy's media is telling you in the US, but over here on the BBC the word is that this has gone beyond a simple insurgency, and has now started to degenerate into a full-blooded ethnic civil war between the Sunnis and the Shia.

Oh crap.

 

[KoreBolteR]

im glad the iraqis will finally be able to secure themselves.. this means the country will be one step furhter to peace and democracy

thx for the link seinfeldrules :cheers:

 

[Cons Himself]

Didnt you read what I just posted Kore. If this does go down the civil war route the Kurds will probably declare independence in the North and those back stabbing Turks will probably invade to stop a Kurdistan being created. Then the whole region will jsut go to sh!t

worst case scenario of course.

 

[KoreBolteR]

of course i read what you said.

and no way will this create civil war... there are shias and sunnis in the iraqi army, trying to prevent the terrorists to prevent more mayhem.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

I don't know what you guy's media is telling you in the US, but over here on the BBC the word is that this has gone beyond a simple insurgency, and has now started to degenerate into a full-blooded ethnic civil war between the Sunnis and the Shia.

Oh crap.

It's not in civil war. Whatever your source is it's on crack. Heard stories of BBC reporters sending stories back to HQ and having seen the exact opposite of what they've said be published.

Look at other sources aside from big media like BBC, CNN, and FOX/SKY

Ask soldiers actually in the field for instance. Plenty of units have computers at their FOB, my buddy was on AIM when he had spare chances to talk, I'd hear about something big that happened once in a while like 4 hours before the news said it. Typically it was dramatized a lot more on the TV, too.

 

[Cons Himself]

lol FOX

like i watch that tosh

BBC > All American Mass Media

we here in the UK have actual legal statutes that prevent opinionated news coverage on the TV. thats left down the newspapers. thank god.

Channel 4 news is the best over here though. sky news is just chomping at the bit to become FOX, and the Dirty Digger (Murdoch) is lobbying Blair to get rid of the law I outlined above.

 

[CptStern]

lol FOX

like i watch that tosh

BBC > All American Mass Media
.

this has more integrity than most american "news" programs. It's nothing but propaganda ...you know something is wrong with american media when the top news agencies apologised for their slanted coverage of the days leading up to the invasion of iraq (look it up: new york times and the washington post)

 

[Lobotomy Lobster]

Channel 4 and the BBC are both very reliable sources of news in my opinion. They are never opinionated, they don't bother with editorials or anything other than the real facts and they try their best to simply tell it as it is most of the time.

I expect this is at least part of the reason that Labour (and all it's preceding goverments) are trying to pretty much pull apart the BBC (although presumably, some of it is due to 'donations' by Murdoch)


I personally believe that eventually, the situation will degrade into a civil war. The country is very unstable, and the confusion and chaos means that any would be rulers can build up a power base and start carving out an empire. Look at Zaqarwi.

 

[kirovman]

The BBC is some of the most unbiased news I have ever seen. In actual reported news it just reports the news in an emotionless, unopinonated way, it doesn't say whether the Americans or Insurgents are right or wrong, it will however quote the opinion of whatever representative.
CNN is alright, but Fox? Pfftt, they're partnered to Channel 5 or something. Just shows what league they are in.

Channel 4 and the BBC are both very reliable sources of news in my opinion. They are never opinionated, they don't bother with editorials or anything other than the real facts and they try their best to simply tell it as it is most of the time.

I expect this is at least part of the reason that Labour (and all it's preceding goverments) are trying to pretty much pull apart the BBC (although presumably, some of it is due to 'donations' by Murdoch)

Stupid government trying to get rid of our BBC.

And damn Murdoch - doesn't he own the Sun and Channel 5?

 

[Cons Himself]

Murdoch runs the News Corporation - they own The Sun The Times, Sunday Times and News of the Screws.

The Dirty Digger as he is usually known (likes to Dig up Dirt on his enemies and print it in his crappy rags) has been lobbying the Gov via the Competition Commission to let him take over Channel 5. He has also been lobbying as I said to repeal the law on opinionated TV news bulletins so he can make Sky News into a British FOX News of sorts.

At the first sign of a swing back to the Tories you mark my words, Murdoch will sack Rebekah Wade (current editor of the Sun) and swing the paper back towards the right wing. It always was a centre-right paper anyway, only Blair's new Labour project was right wing enough for The Digger to support it. Wade is only kept in there because she has close links to the Blairs - Tony and Cherie. Once the country starts to swing back to the Tories, the Digger will bring in Kelvin MacKenzie, ex News of the Screws editor back to edit the Sun. Oh what a surprise - MacKenzie's talkSPORt just got bought out by an Irish Media Company - so now I guess he's out of a job. Add into that the fact that there are rumours on Fleet Street that Wade is gunna be sacked (even with Piers "Morgan" Moron on the Mirror, the Sun hasn't been able to extend its lead in readership that much) and I think we'll be seeing MacKenzie at the helm of a newly right-wing Tory0supporting Sun some time during this Parliament.

 

[iyfyoufhl]

some one define a term "terrorist" to me

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

some one define a term "terrorist" to me

From MW.com as terrorism, terrorist-

One who participates in violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands <insurrection and revolutionary terror>

 

[MjM]

Now Newsweek have retracted the story- obviously under pressure from the White House. Is it true? Probably… We've seen enough blatant disregard and disrespect for Islam in Iraq the last two years to make this story sound very plausible. On a daily basis, mosques are raided, clerics are dragged away with bags over their heads… Several months ago the world witnessed the execution of an unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque. Is this latest so very surprising?

Detainees coming back after weeks or months in prison talk of being forced to eat pork, not being allowed to pray, being exposed to dogs, having Islam insulted and generally being treated like animals trapped in a small cage. At the end of the day, it's not about words or holy books or pork or dogs or any of that. It's about what these things symbolize on a personal level. It is infuriating to see objects that we hold sacred degraded and debased by foreigners who felt the need to travel thousands of kilometers to do this. That's not to say that all troops disrespect Islam- some of them seem to genuinely want to understand our beliefs. It does seem like the people in charge have decided to make degradation and humiliation a policy.

By doing such things, this war is taken to another level- it is no longer a war against terror or terrorists- it is, quite simply, a war against Islam and even secular Muslims are being forced to take sides.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Just to make sure you know, Armies, even the US, terrorise.