Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (113579)	9/1/2003 12:00:20 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"The best response is to get Iraq people to take charge of their responsibilities." Easier said that done. Can't do that until the iraqi people are convinced that there will be no return of saddam. And for that america has to be perceived as being committed for the long haul, thus more troops? And to stop terrorism we need to be more intrusive, not less and that creates ill feelings on the ground. All the ingrediants present for a quagmire. Enter the UN, iraqs version of arafat--Cant live with them; cant live without them. MIke PS Maybe we should have just cut a deal with iraq back in 1991. Let him have the corporation of kuwait in exchange for US modernization of the oil industry. He could have pumped his way to control of saudi arabia. How cynical of me? It was not something that was not suggested by others war objectors back in 1991. Maybe i am just getting a bit sick of the hyper moralists of both right and left. What would Kissinger have done? <g>

To: John Carragher who wrote (113579)	9/1/2003 12:06:02 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 281500

This report definately makes a case for getting Iraqis trained up as quickly as possible. They can do a better job "on the street" than US Marines. sky.com ============================================================ CAR BOMB ATTACK THWARTED Security forces have arrested two men outside a mosque in the Iraqi city of Kufah after finding two cars laden with bombs. The arrests came amid warnings from clerics that Saddam Hussein loyalists or al-Qaeda members will strike over the next two days. The men were arrested outside the Masjed al-Kufah mosque, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad. "We found the seats (in one car stopped on Sunday) were not well designed and had new covers. This raised our suspicion and we searched the seats and found them filled with bombs," a policemen said. "Yesterday we seized the same kind of car filled with bombs," he said, adding that that car was driven by two men from Yemen. The two men detained on Monday were from the southern Iraqi city of Basra, he said.

To: John Carragher who wrote (113579)	9/1/2003 12:08:36 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 281500

More on getting Iraqis to take a bigger role in protecting Iraq. This is great, good move. worldtribune.com ============================================================ U.S. pays tribes to protect oil pipeline SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Thursday, August 28, 2003 The United States has paid Iraqi tribes to guard a 950-kilometer oil pipeline to Turkey. U.S. officials said tribes in northern Iraq have been contracted to protect parts of the pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The officials said the tribes are meant to patrol areas of the pipeline to guard against looting and sabotage. It was not known how much money was being paid to the tribal leaders. The pipeline transverses areas controlled by Sunni tribes. Earlier this month, the pipeline was shut down when an explosion took place at the pipeline outside the northern town of Baiji, Middle East Newsline reported. The pipeline had served to transport 350,000 barrels of oil per day. Officials said the Iraqi tribesmen joined U.S. forces and security personnel of the state-owned Iraqi oil company in protecting the pipeline. A U.S. contractor, Kellogg Brown & Root, has been providing expertise to repair and rehabilitate the pipeline.

To: John Carragher who wrote (113579)	9/1/2003 1:35:28 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 281500

The most immediate problem with the line "turn security over to the Iraqis" is to forget the US reasoning, which is that it doesn't wish to arm Iraqi groups and thus foster a battle between various armed groups which leads to civil war. Since all the identifiable groups are most likely pursuing the strategy imputed to the slain Shiite cleric, which is US administration short term, but long term we get to run it, you can expect civil war. I don't see "arming the Iraqis" or "turning security over to the Iraqis" as a panacea. More likely the opposite. Michael just invoked the tripartite division theory again but there's no way easy way to get from here to there. The two most obvious objections are that each present Iraq group sees itself as controlling all of Iraq in the future and thus doesn't wish for a division. And, second, that the oil is in the north and south, leaving the middle Sunnis with squat. Not a pleasing prospect for them and likely to encourage them toward civil war. And, just to underline all this, no one political figure, no one political group, no one created political group, has wide legitimacy.

To: John Carragher who wrote (113579)	9/1/2003 3:50:52 PM
From: Harvey Allen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Police find two cars packed with bombs in holy city September 2, 2003 Security forces in Iraq have arrested two men after finding two cars laden with bombs, amid warnings from clerics that Saddam Hussein loyalists or al-Qaeda members would strike over the next two days. The men were arrested after cars they were travelling in were found loaded with explosives, said security spokesmen outside the Masjed al-Kufah mosque in Kufah, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad. "We found the seats [in one car] were not well designed and had new covers. This raised our suspicion and we searched the seats and found them filled with bombs," a policemen told AFP. "Yesterday we seized the same kind of car filled with bombs," he said, adding that that car was driven by two men from Yemen. The two men detained yesterday were from the southern Iraqi city of Basra, he said. The remains of Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, murdered in a huge car bomb in nearby Najaf on Friday that killed at least 82 others, were due to arrive in Kufah yesterday. Inside the mosque, clerics were calling on loudspeakers for people to "open their eyes" because "Saddam Hussein's followers and al-Qaeda will try today or tomorrow to make large explosions" in Kufah. Police were conducting vehicle searches at most street corners in the city yesterday. Ayatollah al-Hakim's remains were expected to be kept in Kufah at the Masjed al-Kufah mosque, considered the oldest outside Saudi Arabia. He was set to be buried in nearby Najaf. Tens of thousands of mourners turned out in Baghdad on Sunday for the start of Hakim's three-day funeral procession. smh.com.au