Well, you really gotta hand it to the NYT! They did it again!
Hat trick today, huh, Times?
"U.S. Starts First Major Pullout From Iraq, Beginning With Brigade Members" by ALISSA J. RUBIN
BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 — The first substantive drawdown of American troops in Iraq has begun, as the first members of a brigade in Diyala Province have started to leave, American military officials in Baghdad said Saturday.
Gee, the A.P. was reporting all week that Bush had already started and was already on track.
Oooooh!
Col. David W. Sutherland of the Third Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, whose soldiers have been working in Diyala since last November, said all 5,000 of his troops would be gone by mid-December.
However, because of continuing violence in Diyala, another brigade that is already in the country will take the place of the Third Brigade Combat Team.
The replacement soldiers are already in Diyala and are taking over their new jobs, Colonel Sutherland said. The replacement brigade, which had worked in Salahuddin Province, which is to the north and west of Diyala, will leave quieter areas of that province to the Iraqi Army and concerned local citizen groups, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, spokesman for the multinational division forces in Baghdad.
“There is a 5,000-troop net decrease in theater,” Admiral Smith said. “The redeployment without replacement reflects the overall improved security situation in Iraq.”
But he cautioned against painting too optimistic a picture. “We do not assess we are in a trend of peace; we are in a trend of decreasing violence,” he said.
Then why the pullback? Want to give up all your gains?
When this initial drawdown is completed, the number of troops will drop to about 157,000 from 162,000 in June, when the American troop level was at its peak.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, has said repeatedly that there will not be another troop increase and has pledged to bring home a total of five brigades by July 2008.
That's what the liar says, huh -- unless, of course, conditions on the ground change.
Question: Has one troop left yet? Then I don't want to hear it!
The military began increasing troops in Baghdad and surrounding areas in February in an effort to stop the cycle of violence in the capital. Between February and June, an additional five brigades were added to the roughly 130,000 troops already in Iraq.
Military officials underscored that although there had been gains in Diyala, they wanted to be sure that their departure did not result in lost ground and for that reason were holding steady the number of battalions there.
Diyala has been among the most dangerous provinces for American troops and Iraqi civilians in the past year.
“The province swirled into a cycle of violence,” Colonel Sutherland said. Among the militants active in the province are Baathist insurgents, Kurds who want to expand their territory, Shiite militias, Iranian-backed militias and extremist Sunni groups linked to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown militant group whose leaders are foreigners, according to American intelligence sources.
Yup, got the whole hodge-podge there, doncha?
Ummm, how come they ain't all killing each other?
Why do we even have to fight them? Unless....
In May, before a major operation intended to dislodge the extremists, the American military recorded 1,051 significant acts of violence; in October, the number had dropped to 464, Colonel Sutherland said.
So says the lying military and MSM!
I heard different from the web and outside sources!
Now who were the ones who lied us into war again?
Because I'm not going to believe them ever again!
Oh, hi, AmeriKan MSM! :-)
Military officials announced Saturday that a bomb made of ball bearings and placed in a bird box that blew up at a popular animal market in central Baghdad a day earlier was the work of a cell of Iranian-backed Shiite militias that military officials refer to as “special groups.”
“The group’s purpose was to make it appear Al Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for the attack,” Admiral Smith said, using the military’s name for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. “The special groups’ aim was to demonstrate to Baghdadis the need for militia groups to continue providing for their security.”
That's strange.
The same motivation could be applied to the AmeriKan army and "Al-CIA-Duh!"
Hmmmmmm!
Asymmetrical Warfare Group
Operation Gladio
Operation Northwoods
Salvador Option
Special Police Commandos
Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group
Prop 201 tutorial
FRU
As the military has been increasingly successful in forcing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia to abandon Baghdad, the justification for the existence of Shiite militias has diminished.
You mean, THIS "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Also see: "Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program
Admiral Smith said that the military had captured four of the people responsible for the bombing and that, based on their confessions and forensics, it had concluded that the bomb was similar to explosives used in previous attacks by special groups. He emphasized that there was “no evidence Iran ordered the attack.”
Also in Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi dignitaries and families gathered on a riverbank for the ceremonial reopening of a famed boulevard: Abu Nawas Street, on the east side of the Tigris once famous for its fish restaurants.
It is a showcase project by Iraq’s government to reassure Iraqis of the success of its nine-month security crackdown."
Notice how they throw in the lie about Iran. too!
I've about had it, readers!
For the record, I get tired of the damn lies:
35 people killed every day, with the number of Iraqis killed by the surge around 300 per day, 10,000 per month -- and 1.2 million Iraqis dead since the invasion (not including the 1,654 killed in September), mainly due to the U.S. military's 75 air raids a day, and the five-fold increase in air bombings.
Also see: Story Iraq: MSM Lied About Death Tolls
Memory Hole: Iraq
Did you see that memory hole?
Violence is STILL WORSE THAN LAST YEAR?
WTF? MSM LYING TO US AGAIN!!!!
