Car Bomb kills 59 in Baghdad

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-14 10:48am

Car bomb at Baghdad police station kills 47
Attack on police bus in Baquba kills 12 officers
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Posted: 9:56 AM EDT (1356 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Assailants Tuesday launched two deadly assaults at Iraqi police targets -- killing 47 people in a car bombing at a police recruit line in Baghdad and 12 police officers in a drive-by shooting in Baquba.

An Islamist Web site Tuesday posted claims of responsibility for both attacks by a group affiliated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Claims of responsibility by the group -- Unification and Jihad -- cannot be confirmed independently by CNN. The group has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and other terrorist attacks in Iraq.

Deadly attacks against police targets have been a constant in the Iraqi insurgency as rebels attempt to intimidate Iraqis and thwart them from joining the fledgling government's security forces, whose growth and power is important to Iraq's future stability.

The Baghdad bombing took place on a crowded road near Haifa Street, a dangerous stretch through central Baghdad dotted with markets, coffee shops and hair salons. The neighborhood has been plagued by fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents, earning a nickname from residents -- "Little Falluja." Falluja is a rebel stronghold city to the west of Baghdad.

Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said a Toyota four-door sedan was used in the attack. Saad Alamili with Iraq's Ministry of Health said 47 were killed and 114 were wounded in the attack.

The carnage along the stretch sparked anger at the United States and Iraq for poor security. Upset crowds sifted through debris and cursed Americans.

One man cursed President Bush. Another cursed Americans, saying "it's an American-Israeli conspiracy."

Video outside the Karkh Police administrative and recruitment center showed smoldering wreckage of seven or eight cars.

The same police station came under mortar attack a couple of hours earlier. Of the four mortars fired toward the building, two landed in the courtyard behind it, one landed near the front gate and a fourth did not explode. No injuries were reported.

In Baquba two hours later, gunmen attacked a police minibus in a drive-by shooting, killing 12 officers and wounding three civilians, Iraqi authorities said.

Rahman said the minibus was filled with 18 police officers. The Health Ministry provided the death toll.

Other developments

Northern Oil Co. pipeline workers are investigating an explosion and fire early Tuesday that shut down an oil pipeline in northern Iraq near Bayji. Insurgents have targeted the oil infrastructure in recent months but the cause of this incident is not yet known.

A Task Force Olympia soldier died and five others were injured Tuesday when suspected insurgents struck their patrol with small-arms fire on the western side of Mosul. The injured were evacuated to military hospitals in Mosul and Baghdad.

The U.S. military reported Tuesday that two U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded Monday in an attack in Baghdad. A roadside bomb and small-arms fire were used by the assailants. The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 1,014, including 767 killed in hostile action and 247 killed in nonhostile activities, according to the U.S. military.

A group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released a video Monday apparently showing the beheading of a Turkish truck driver who was kidnapped last month in Iraq. The video was posted on the Web site of the group Unification and Jihad. Al-Zarqawi has claimed credit for several attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces, including the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 23 civilians August 2003.

U.S. warplanes attacked a building Monday in Falluja where associates of al-Zarqawi were meeting, the U.S. military said. The strike followed clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents in the Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad. A coalition statement described the attack as "a successful precision strike on a confirmed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist meeting."

Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, former U.S. Marine commander of forces in western Iraq, said Sunday that he had opposed the method and timing of the U.S. response to those attacks. Conway made his comments shortly after relinquishing his command at a ceremony at Marine headquarters outside Falluja. (Full story)

CNN's Diana Muriel, Kevin Flower, Arwa Damon, Mohammad Tawfeek and Abbas Al-Kazani contributed to this report.

Looks like despite his best efforts, Iraq won't be keeping quiet any time soon for Mr. Bush. Now the Iraqi poplice force is being watonly slaughtered and what will we do about it? If the police force your building is reduced to nothing more than a target what hope is there to restoring order without direct US military action? Sorry Mr. Bush, you cannot Iraqize this war as Nixon found out to his chagrin in Vietnam.

EDIT: Death toll just went up.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-14 10:51am

"No Quagmire Here!"- Ann Coulter.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-09-14 11:42am

Wait... LEt me see if I can put this in the form of an equation, just to make sure i'm not a compelte moron.

Carbomb
+
Islamic militant group taking responsibility
___________________________________

American/israeli conspiracy?

Silly me, I thought it would be

Carbomb kills random people, some of whom may or may not support the 3\/01 americans
+
Islamic militant group taking responsibility
_____________________________________

more support for the "Multi-national task force"

What the fuck is the mindset of these morons?! Are they so naive as to believe that every negative event to occur in the world is a result of israelis and americans trying to "Keep them down"?! Please, someone help me to understand. Maybe it's just a fundamental cultural difference, but I just don't get it.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-14 01:49pm

Hatred is an emotional reaction, not a reasoned response.

They want to believe it, so they do.

Same fucking thing with Bush's chances of reelection. People aren't voting for him because of his less than stellar record, they are voting for him because he makes them feel good about it.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-09-14 01:49pm

"Vietnamization" didn't work in Vietnam, why would they think it would work in Iraq? Poorly trained and armed Iraqi police forces aren't soldiers, they aren't going to be able to fight the insurgency well and we get things like this. Of course, politically, it was inevitable given the way that the war is being fought.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-09-14 04:13pm

Gil Hamilton wrote:"Vietnamization" didn't work in Vietnam, why would they think it would work in Iraq?

Actually Vietnamization worked just fine, and the country only fell after the US abruptly cut off financial support and the North invaded with several thousand tanks. I see no looming insurgent tank army, and unlike South Vietnam Iraq actually has resources it can export for money. That money might not pay to rebuild the country, but its more then enough to keep an army from running out of fuel and ammunition.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-14 04:27pm

Last I saw (several months ago) the power grid was still below pre-Invasion levels. Does anyone know anything about the Iraq import/export situation with regard to oil?

Having parts of the military you are training going over to the enemy is not a good sign (Felluja).

I'm not seeing any sign that the Iraqis are ready to pick up the ball and run with it.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-14 04:40pm

Imperial Overlord wrote:Last I saw (several months ago) the power grid was still below pre-Invasion levels. Does anyone know anything about the Iraq import/export situation with regard to oil?

Having parts of the military you are training going over to the enemy is not a good sign (Felluja).

I'm not seeing any sign that the Iraqis are ready to pick up the ball and run with it.

Sure they are, just like the Afghan communist regime was ready to take over for the Soviet occupiers against the mujahedin.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-14 04:45pm

Out of the billions poured into the reconstruction authority I think only 1 billion has been properly accounted for. Its a fucking travesty that no one is talking about. The American people don't want to hear about accounting or numbers.

I am convinced to this day that Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals did not get a more scathing reaction because it was essentially a scandal of accounting. No one was blown in their office, no cigars were inserted anywhere, no one died, no one was cheating on their wife, etc.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-14 05:13pm

Stravo wrote:Out of the billions poured into the reconstruction authority I think only 1 billion has been properly accounted for. Its a fucking travesty that no one is talking about. The American people don't want to hear about accounting or numbers.

It's not about an aversion to accounting; voters have no problem understanding numbers if somebody tells them they're paying more in taxes now than they five years ago, even if they didn't really feel the difference until it was pointed out to them.

Typical voters are sheep, but they're proud sheep. Most of the people who vociferously supported the war and the $87 billion have invested too much of their pride into these decisions to admit that they were conducted under false premises or horribly botched.

I am convinced to this day that Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals did not get a more scathing reaction because it was essentially a scandal of accounting. No one was blown in their office, no cigars were inserted anywhere, no one died, no one was cheating on their wife, etc.

I personally theorize that it was something else altogether: the "sink or swim", "every man for himself", "dog eat dog" ethos of business which many people subscribe to as a model for social justice. I'm sure a lot of people felt no real sympathy to the people screwed by Enron because "they should have know better" or "they should have paid more attention to what was going on." People have an amazing capacity to nullify their feelings of sympathy for a fellow human being if they can convince themselves that this person deserves it.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-14 05:28pm

Same deal as why Seven Day Adventists stick with their religion even though they've pushed back the end of the world a half dozen times. They've invested so much in it, they can't admit they've been taken and waisted so much. Much easier to continue throwing good money after bad.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-09-15 09:12am

So if we had *not* disbanded the Iraqi army, but instead trained the conscripts who wanted to stay enlisted and reformed it along more Western lines, would we still have this problem?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-15 10:30am

HemlockGrey wrote:So if we had *not* disbanded the Iraqi army, but instead trained the conscripts who wanted to stay enlisted and reformed it along more Western lines, would we still have this problem?

Who said anything about reforming it? Keep the same assholes in charge and let them maintain control using their old methods. Social change can only happen slowly, not dramatically and overnight, and without social change, attempts to "reform" Iraq's institutions would be doomed to failure anyway.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-09-15 10:46am

Who said anything about reforming it? Keep the same assholes in charge and let them maintain control using their old methods. Social change can only happen slowly, not dramatically and overnight, and without social change, attempts to "reform" Iraq's institutions would be doomed to failure anyway.

I was thinking more along the lines of "this button calls down an airstrike, try not to charge the machine guns if you don't have to."

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-15 10:51am

HemlockGrey wrote:
Who said anything about reforming it? Keep the same assholes in charge and let them maintain control using their old methods. Social change can only happen slowly, not dramatically and overnight, and without social change, attempts to "reform" Iraq's institutions would be doomed to failure anyway.
I was thinking more along the lines of "this button calls down an airstrike, try not to charge the machine guns if you don't have to."

The problem there is alot of these people sympathize with the rebels. Its not like they have this burning fervor for Western ideals or even freedom. They have far more in common with the rebels than they do with the occupiers. So we have a serious issue when it comes to unit loyalty. Hell, the Fallujah brigade's equipment ended up in insurgent hands within weeks of it being founded.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-15 11:14am

Stravo wrote:
HemlockGrey wrote:
Who said anything about reforming it? Keep the same assholes in charge and let them maintain control using their old methods. Social change can only happen slowly, not dramatically and overnight, and without social change, attempts to "reform" Iraq's institutions would be doomed to failure anyway.
I was thinking more along the lines of "this button calls down an airstrike, try not to charge the machine guns if you don't have to."
The problem there is alot of these people sympathize with the rebels. Its not like they have this burning fervor for Western ideals or even freedom. They have far more in common with the rebels than they do with the occupiers. So we have a serious issue when it comes to unit loyalty. Hell, the Fallujah brigade's equipment ended up in insurgent hands within weeks of it being founded.

Right, that's why keeping the original Iraqi army and allowing residual unit loyalty, nationalism, and chain of command to retain order would have been the wisest decision. But it's too late for that; Rumsfeld et al showed their genius by completely dismantling any security apparatus that existed and then assuming they could figure out how to make a new one as they went along.