Saturday, September 30, 2006

Some things never change....

The Ranter
The Views of The Ranter

U.S. troops detained a bodyguard for the leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political group on suspicion he was preparing massive suicide bombings inside the fortified Green Zone, prompting fearful Iraqi officials on Saturday enforced a total ban on movement in Baghdad.

Of course this did little to put a stop to the expected violence as an interpreter for the U.S. military was killed and a car bomb exploded killing one and injuring five others

In Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, police opened fire on a suspected car bomber. The vehicle detonated, killing two and wounding 30 others, police Lt. Nejim Abdullah said.

It is very evident that in the areas controlled by our newly trained Iraqi forces and police that they are not doing enough to control the violence even I a time when a curfew is in effect and no one should be in the streets. They need to get out more patrolling their areas of operation.

Speaking on Al-Arabiya TV on Saturday morning, Interior Ministry official Hussein Ali Kemal said the move was to "prevent the security situation from deteriorating." He added, however, that the information was that there was a threat that an attack "might occur against places of worship and shopping centers during Ramadan."

In other events Baghdad police on Saturday found six corpses in the eastern section of the capital, more apparent victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the city.

This all points to a very important point I wish to make, the Iraqi forces need to create a higher patrol presence and not worry of the reprisals, if they are forceful enough to make a difference the reprisals will not continue.

Our military cannot be everywhere at every time and this is the basic concept of self governing and self protecting as well as the basis for our recruiting and training their military and police. But, we cannot be with them 100% of the time, they need to take the bull by the horns and protect themselves too.

I know every veteran of the red mud will attest to the fact that teaching a country’s military to protect themselves is not as easy as it sounds. There will be troops that will give their lives if needed and fight as our own military and there will be others who will sit in the background waiting for us to take charge of the situation, this will never change.

Let us all hope they soon begin to have the desire to win and not sit back enjoying a coffee while our own troops are doing the fighting.

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