The third-deadliest day since the war in Iraq began

January 22, 2007

Readers no doubt heard about the series of attacks in Iraq over the weekend that led to 27 U.S. deaths on Saturday, the third-deadliest day for United States forces since the war here began nearly four years ago. But if you haven’t seen the details about how the attacks unfolded, they’re worth reading.

New details also emerged about clashes on Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, which left five Americans dead. Lt. Col. Scott R. Bleichwehl, an American military spokesman, said the gunmen who stormed the provincial governor’s office during a meeting between American and local officials were wearing what appeared to be American military uniforms in an effort to impersonate United States soldiers.

The sophisticated attack hinted at what could be a new threat for American troops as they start a fresh security plan centered on small bases in Baghdad’s bloodiest neighborhoods, where troops will live and work with Iraqi forces. One of the American military’s greatest concerns, military officials have said, is that troops will be vulnerable to attack from killers who appear to be colleagues.

It is not uncommon for gunmen to impersonate Iraqi security forces, but this appears to be the first time that attackers have portrayed themselves as Americans.

It’s a painful and tragic nightmare when our troops can’t be sure of the difference between friend and foe.

Two points stood out from this story. Laura Rozen asked, “So the attackers killed the Americans but spared the Iraqi Security Forces in the room meeting with them? Who would have had the capability to mount such an operation, and have such intel on who was meeting where and when, down to the room?”

Also, as Faiz noted, the White House’s escalation plan includes embedding U.S. troops in Iraqi units. Don’t the weekend’s developments cast a shadow on this kind of plan?

Doesn’t matter. Bush doesn’t have, and never has had, any military plans. When he’s presented with military planning he rejects it and/or fires the planner. The only thing Commander Codpiece has is plans for is to appear to be a “war president”, and that’s beginning to get pretty threadbare as the meat grinder keeps disposing of our troops. Since the “Caligula solution” is out, the only option is impeachment.

  • This is a nightmare beyond all expectations. I hate to think of anything so terrible as to push our gallant troops to overt mutiny, but this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back if it becomes commonplace.

    How long could most of us survive in a place where you never know where a fatal bullet might come from, or whose finger might be on the trigger?

    This is going to get very, very ugly.

  • “Shadow” understates it. Violently. (which, I imagine, is the intent of describing it that way)

    This is a suicidally stupid plan.

    Thank god Bush wasn’t in office during WWII, or he would’ve probably volunteered to embed American fighter pilots in planes with kamikaze bombers.

  • Embedding Americans with Iraqi troop units is the most f*cktarded thing I’ve ever heard in my life. What a great way to make it easy for enemy. We’re dividing and conquering ourselves.

  • What, exactly, would Bush have to do to get impeached?

    How about accused of treason, or actions that effectively undermine the power of the United States?

    Matt Yglesias had a post a couple years ago suggesting, at least partially tongue-in-cheek, that if Bush were an Iranian agent, we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

    I think we can tell the difference now: If Bush were an Iranian agent, he would have to be more circumspect at trying to get American troops killed.

  • …but this appears to be the first time that attackers have portrayed themselves as Americans.

    I’ve never served but I can imagine having to worry that what looks like a friend is actually the enemy makes the Soldier’s Top 10 List of Worst Fucking Nightmares. And the new guys coming in are going to live right in the neighborhoods? Lovely.

    But remember, only critcism of the Proxydent can hurt troop morale!

  • If both the White House and Congress continue to disregard the sanctity of our troops’ lives forever, at what point is a military coup in order? Something to think about…

  • That’s how crazy Bush is, that the prospect of a military coup doesn’t actually sound so implausible or bad. What’s even scarier is that it’s conceivable we *could* have a coup that’d be led by people who *are* more responsive *and* more supportive of American rules, laws, values, and ideals. (not that I’m rooting for it to happen, of course, but at least *that*, by comparison, *might* not be as completely fucking insane)

    Reminds me vaguely of the movie “Gladiator” except without – as far as we know – the part about the prick in power trying to fuck his sister.

    Unless anyone wants to rig a DNA test to make him and Condi seem to be related…

  • I remembered watching a program about the Soviet Union’s turning point in Afghanistan. The day the first Soviet helicopters were shot down by mujaheden guerillas using shoulder fired, American supplied Stinger missiles the end had arrived.

    Whether it will be a significant breach of the Green Zone by sectarian militias or when US choppers start falling from the sky due to better technology provided to the insugency, a point will come when fate catches up the American occupation.

    The president needs to put down the sabre and pick up the diplomatic satchel. The more we let these problems fester and the more determined we are to coutner them with force, the more time we buy for opponents who have everyhting to gain and nothing to lose.

  • Our troops are in a place they shouldn’t be, doing things that shouldn’t be done, and exposed to risks they should not be exposed to. Escalation, concentration in Baghdad, and embedding with Iraqi troops will only raise the risks. We’ve been “flying blind” since April 2003, with almost no Arabic speakers, no useful intelligence, and increasingly cut off from the Iraqi people as time has gone on. This occupation, never right in any legal or moral sense, became irreversibly un-maintainable in the most pragmatic and amoral terms by the fall of 2003. Yet it’s ground on.

    The largest number of troops killed at once this weekend were in helicopter that was downed east of Baquba, resulting in the deaths of all 12 servicemembers aboard. The backstory to the disaster is that Gen. Ray Odierno’s Fourth Infantry Division has been conducting sweeps of the area for the last two months. Finding very few men of military age, they sealed off the area and began an intensive bombing of the Sunni villages there.

    The Baquba campaign is very similar to what we’ve been doing in Anbar province and other heavily Sunni areas for three and a half years.

    Since the fall of 2003 we have been participants in a civil war, de facto weighing in on the Shia ‘side’. Now the deployments in Baghdad will have our troops explicitly doing the Shia militia’s work for them in Sunni neighborhoods, _plus_ possibly taking on the Mahdi Army on their home turf. In expectation of that, the Moqtada’s militia members have shed their ‘uniforms’ and may melt away out of the neighborhoods temporarily if there are large-scale U.S. sweeps. The very _best_ result possible will be that melting-away (“clearing”). Under no conceivable circumstances could U.S. troops “hold” Sadr City — sniper and IED attacks will increase, U.S. detention of suspected fighters will increase, and the worst-case scenario is what’s already happening to Sunni neighborhoods like Haifa Street: U.S. bombing, right there in river city.

    A war of all against all, where we are blind, enraged, surrounded by enemies and with the potential to inflict death on a massive scale.

    Nothing but the best for our fighting men and women, eh?

  • Well, it’s a good thing Hillary announced her exploratory committee thing, otherwise right-wing radio would have to find some other story to help ignore the death of 27 American soldiers from this weekend.

  • Me, good. Evil, bad.

    That’s the core of the madman’s message. He will continue to pour American blood into the gutters of Iraq’s streets and alley-ways until this country swings around to his ludicrously-demented philosophy, and grants him the Orwellian power he so brazenly thirsts for.

    27 deaths in one day? That’s chump-change for this callous little whelp—and there is but one all-encompassing solution that will remedy the refusal of a tyrant to listen to reason. There is, likewise, an historical precedent to such action:

    The People, through their Representatives, must openly declare their withdrawal of allegiance to this heinous monster who dares to present himself as “the Decider.” Should those Representatives refuse to take the necessary actions, then the People must be prepared to act, independently of their Government, to right the criminal wrongs committed against these United States of America, its Citizenry, and its Constitution by the vast and myriad tyrannies of George W. Bush, his administration, and his Tammany-esque bureaucracy.

    The President cannot federalize the State Militia, if the State disinvests itself of the Union. Thus, one can only ask: are Articles of Secession, at this time, in order?

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