That is going to be the MSM spin next year, folks, mark my words.
True or not, that is the script they have been fed!
"6,000 Sunnis join pact with US in security push; Volunteer effort to block routes of fleeing militants" by Lauren Frayer/Associated Press November 29, 2007
HAWIJA, Iraq - Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces yesterday in what US officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds.
The new alliance - called the single largest single volunteer mobilization since the war began - covers the "last gateway" for groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq seeking new havens in northern Iraq, US military officials said.
You mean, THIS "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Also see: "Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program
US commanders have tried to build a ring around insurgents who fled military offensives launched earlier this year in the western Anbar province and later into Baghdad and surrounding areas. In many places, the US-led battles were given key help from tribal militias - mainly Sunnis - that had turned against Al Qaeda and other groups.
Extremists have sought new footholds in northern areas once loyal to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party as the US-led gains have mounted across central regions. But their ability to strike near the capital remains.
A woman wearing an explosive-rigged belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military announced yesterday. The blast on Tuesday wounded seven US troops and five Iraqis, the statement said.
That's it?! That's all the violence my AmeriKan MSM papers report?
That black-op of an inside job lie?
The ceremony to pledge the 6,000 new fighters was presided over by a dozen sheiks - each draped in black robes trimmed with gold braiding - who signed the contract on behalf of tribesmen at a small US outpost in north-central Iraq.
For about $275 a month - nearly the salary for a typical Iraqi policeman - the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in the area.
Where's my check, government?
About 77,000 Iraqis nationwide, mostly Sunnis, have broken with the insurgents and joined US-backed self-defense groups.
Those groups have played a major role in the lull in violence: 648 Iraqi civilians have been killed or found dead in November to date, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. This compares with 2,155 in May as the so-called "surge" of nearly 30,000 additional American troops gained momentum.
Talk about skewing the statistics!
For the record:
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
US troop deaths in Iraq have also dropped sharply. This month, the military has reported 34 deaths, and 38 in October. In June, 101 US soldiers died in Iraq.
Even though this has been the deadliest year by far!
Tired of the statistical manipulation and the shit-shoveling, reader, I really am!
Village mayors and others who signed yesterday's agreement say about 200 militants have sought refuge in the area, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk on the edge of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Hawija is a predominantly Sunni Arab cluster of villages which has long been an insurgent flashpoint.
200 militants!! That's it?
That's who is raising such hell?
Oh, man, STINK!
The recently arrived militants have waged a campaign of killing and intimidation to try to establish a new base.
Sheikh Khalaf Ali Issa, mayor of Zaab village:
"They killed 476 of my citizens, and I will not let them continue their killing."
That's our guy killing... Iraqis?
Yeah, Iraqi, "Al-CIA-Duh," what's the difference?
Those indigenous "Al-CIA-Duhs" have families, or... ?
Major Sean Wilson, with the Army's 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division:
"[With the help of the new Sunni allies], the Hawija area will be an obstacle to militants, rather than a pathway for them. They're another set of eyes that we needed in this critical area."
By defeating militants in Hawija, US and Iraqi leaders hope to keep them away from Kirkuk, an ethnically diverse city and the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields.
Army Major General Mark P. Hertling, the top US commander in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press this week:
"They want to go north into Kirkuk and wreak havoc there, and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid."
Kurds often consider Kurkik part of their ancestral homeland and often refer to the city as the "Kurdish Jerusalem." Hussein, however, relocated tens of thousands of pro-regime Arabs to the city in the 1980s and 1990s under his "Arabization" policy.
Sounds like an Israelization policy to me.
The Iraqi government has begun resettling some of those Arabs to their home regions, making room for thousands of Kurds who have gradually returned to Kirkuk since Hussein's ouster.
Oh, so Kurds have the right of return.
Only Palestinians are denied that right, huh?
Tension has been rising over the city's status - whether it will join the semi-autonomous Kurdish region or continue being governed by Baghdad.
Abu Saif al-Jabouri, mayor of al-Multaqa village north of Kirkuk:
"Hawija is the gateway through which all our communities - Kurdish, Turkomen and Arab alike - can become unsafe. Do I love my neighbor in Hawija? That question no longer matters. I must work to help him, because his safety helps me."
I gotta tell you, readers, I get sick of the sectarian lie after a while!
"U.S. Military Plans to Bolster Iraqi Sentry Forces by 10,000" by CARA BUCKLEY
BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 — The American military expects to add roughly 10,000 Iraqis to its roster of unofficial security guards who act as paid neighborhood sentries here, and will then cap the program, a military official said Wednesday.
The guards were hired by the tens of thousands earlier this year, when American forces offered tribal sheiks money in exchange for information about terrorist and criminal activities. About 77,000 people, who are alternately called volunteers, concerned local citizens, or members of awakening councils, have joined, the vast majority of them Sunnis.
The program has been credited with helping to drive violence down sharply nationwide, but also stirred concerns among Shiites that the Sunnis would use the money and training to re-form militias. About 60,000 of the guards are paid $300 a month, while the rest are still being enrolled, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the multinational forces.
Admiral Smith said Wednesday:
“Our intent was not to send the message that this was a job creation program.”
Yeah! Why should they get one when we don't?
The program was expected to grow by another 10 percent to 15 percent at the most, he said. The military said it wanted to keep the number below 100,000. Earlier this week the Iraqi government announced that it would take over from the Americans next year the obligation of paying the guards’ salaries.
Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said Monday:
“It is an Iraqi responsibility, this is the right thing to do, it is not an American responsibility. And at the same time, the loyalty of these people should be to Iraq.”
The American military also wants the program to act as a bridge to funnel people into jobs with the Iraqi Army or the police. About a third of current enlistees have expressed interest in doing so, said Admiral Smith, though just 2,000 have so far.
Also on Wednesday, 20 busloads of returning Iraqi refugees arrived in Baghdad from Syria, though the exact number of the refugees was not clear. Mr. Dabbagh, the government spokesman, put the figure at 800 people; the Baghdad City Council said the number was closer to 200. The International Organization for Migration said about 300 people had returned on the buses.
There have been varying reports about the number of displaced people who are returning to Iraq or to their homes within Iraq. Earlier this month, an Iraqi official said roughly 46,000 people returned from other countries in October, evidence, he said, of improved security conditions here. But that figure included all Iraqis who crossed the borders, not just the displaced who were returning.
Yup, gotta mention those Iraqis coming back, even if it's forced, as a positive -- even if the government lies about the returnees!
There are also concerns about how smoothly the resettlement is going. Roughly a third of the people who have come to Iraq have discovered squatters living in their homes, said Dana Graber Ladek, the International Organization for Migration’s Iraqi displacement specialist.
Ms. Ladek wrote in an e-mail message:
“Property claims could be a tremendous issue that the government of Iraq will need to address.”
Ooooh! That could be a real bad problem!
In another development, Unicef warned that Baghdad might be facing a cholera outbreak, with 101 new cases reported in recent weeks. Cholera is a waterborne disease that often appears when sanitary conditions are poor, and the capital, where raw sewage flows into many waterways, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s new cases, the agency said. The increase is of particular concern because the rainy season is approaching, and, according to agency figures, Iraq’s sewage treatment plants are working at less than one-fifth of their capacity."
That's LIBERATION? The gift of a CHOLERA EPIDEMIC?
And they want people to come back to Iraq?
What is saddening is that rule under Saddam was WAY BETTER!
At least he was one of them, and he kept the society running under brutal sanctions!
Look at what Bush has done!
DESTROYED BABYLON!!!!!