Roadside Bomb Kills Second Iraqi Governor In Nine Days

Associated Press:

A roadside bomb killed a governor in southern Iraq on Monday, the second provincial boss assassinated in nine days and a likely prelude to an even more brutal contest among rival Shiite militias battling for control of some of Iraq's main oil regions.

Iraqi police blamed the attack on the powerful Mahdi Army, whose fighters are nominally loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr but have recently splintered as breakaway factions set their own course.

Read the whole story: Associated Press

Comments

[MGhamma]

09:18 AM on 08/21/2007

Surge and purge. Is that anything like scarf and barf?

[GhostintheMachine]

10:04 AM on 08/21/2007

Clinton said new tactics have brought some success against insurgents, particularly in Iraq's Anbar province.

"It's working. We're just years too late in changing our tactics," she said. "We can't ever let that happen again. We can't be fighting the last war. We have to keep preparing to fight the new war."

"People have to root for America," she said. "They have to want to be on our side."

Hillary Clinton wants to be on the side of the US why don't the Huffpos?

[Nyland8]

04:07 PM on 08/21/2007

And what is it about the phrase " ... years late" that eludes you?

How many dead is the surge supposed to bring back to life?

How many hearts and minds will it win?

How many Iraqis will totally forget the last 4.5 years of privation, suffering, indignity, death and malfeasance?

How many hundreds of billions of dollars will we suddenly have returned to our country to deal with our own domestic issues?

The answers to all the above questions is the same.
NONE.

Read between the lines. Hillary is just saying, "Nice job, guys. You did the best you can. You proved that, if the idiot Bush had only put enough of you on the ground 4-1/2 years ago, we might have had a chance. But it's time to come home ... because there is nothing you can do to reverse years of catastrophic failure to achieve anything meaningful in Iraq. And the Iraqis want us gone."

That's the real message. "Success" against insurgents is an absurd concept if staying in Iraq cultivates insurgents ...

... and we know it does.

Why don't you?

8

.

[jinjinpinti]

05:09 AM on 08/21/2007

Like the goober who called in a question to Bill Maher on Larry King the other night. Told Bill (in his southern drawl) to "Be a man"..."not tell a joke"...and "all you do is bash George Bush," etc. It was almost sad to hear this poor fool's embarrassing kool aid spiel.

[researcher]

11:00 PM on 08/20/2007

i persoanlly feel the surge is working. president bush and the general said it was working and I believe them.

signed

just your average naive, arrogant, and incompetent red state american voter.

note

just got back from the midwest and southern states and it is scary out there. i doubt if most of these people could find iraq on a map. they are indeed fox news material.

[Sundialsvc4]

10:27 PM on 08/20/2007

Let me make things so simple that even a neo-fascist can understand . . .

YOU .. HAVE .. LOST ..

You are NOT going to be able to walk away with $12 trillion worth of oil that easily.

In fact, you are not going to be able to "walk away" with the treasure AT ALL.

Not only are the Iraqis "on to you," the entire rest of the world is, too.

Amazingly enough, they have heard this tune before. Their grandfathers and their fathers even marched to it, as did yours. They are not going to march to the Angel of Death again.

It .. is .. over.

[MissingAmerica]

08:49 PM on 08/20/2007

I'm sure their government will act on this whenever it returns from its vacation. They are most likely in the South of France, or scuba diving in Maine with Bush. Our soldiers and the Iraqi citizens are paying the price while their government proves it has patterned itself after ours; take as many vacations as you can so as to be sure it's the little guy that gets it.

[researcher]

11:05 PM on 08/20/2007

in america it was the majority of those "little guys" that voted our congress and pres into office.

you do not have to look no farther than the average american voter for the problems we face in this country and the world.

you want to find naive, arrogance, and incompetence take a drive thru the midwest and the southern states. ask around then you will understand why bush got elected twice.

[acudoctor]

08:43 PM on 08/20/2007

The Guardian version of this story begins w/ this paragraph

A roadside bomb yesterday killed the governor of Muthanna province, an area of southern Iraq which President George Bush singled out in his weekly radio address last Saturday as showing political progress.

Out of touch

[unclebucky]

08:39 PM on 08/20/2007

Serious.

If they wanted to, they could OFF all the members of the Iraqi government in a fortnight. The only reason they don't is that they are stretching it out and out and out... They will pull the plug on the Iraqi puppet government only when that achieves the different effect needed in that future moment.

IT IS HORRIBLE that this is happening. My humour is black humour, biting cynicism indeed.

Reminds me of a kid in an unwinnable home situation so she starts cutting herself. In a way, Iraq is committing suicide. The only problem is that the action will involve several more millions than are still there.

HORRIBLE. And we did it. And we are DOING it now. And we plan to do it in the future. And we plan to NEVER STOP DOING IT. :(

Ugh.

--UB.

[nomoredead]

08:14 PM on 08/20/2007

When they started looting the hospitals and national museum after our first bombs, we should have seen this coming.

[StopThePlanet]

08:36 PM on 08/20/2007

Actually we should have seen this coming much sooner. Oh, I guess we did. In the first Iraq war. Dead-eye Dick will tell you all about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY

[VOTER]

08:02 PM on 08/20/2007

George and Laura "feel" the pain of this (his) war.

What more do the Iraqi citizens want from them?

[sarge]

07:59 PM on 08/20/2007

The faulty premise behind the surge is that a political solution has not been achieved due to a lack of sufficient U.S. troops to provide security. I see no evidence to support the theory. It appears to me that a political solution has not materialized because of a lack of will on the part of the various warring factions; specifically, opposition to a coalition democratic and secular government. Such an outcome is OUR goal, but not theirs, and no amount of troops is going to get them to adopt America's dream for Iraq. Some mistakes aren't fixable. I suspect it would be better for Iraqi's, in the long run, if we pulled out and let the UN take the lead in brokering diplomatic solutions. The French seem to be willing to take an active role. Surely they have more credibility with the various sects than the U.S.

[Nyland8]

09:25 PM on 08/20/2007

I think it's fair to say that the "faulty premise" of the surge is quite different than what the surge is actually about. As with everything about the Bush administration, there is what is alleged ... and then there are the facts.

What we are told is that the surge is meant to quell sectarian violence, make the Iraqis feel secure so that they can conduct the business of government and achieve a political solution.

But any reduction in violence in Baghdad is merely a by-product of the surge's real mission. It is the Green Zone, and in particular, our "embassy", that comes under near constant mortar attack ... and the extra 30,000 troops are meant to relieve that pressure ... to not force us to leave the capitol ... to secure a safe haven for our "diplomats" and our contractors. You can build a wall around your compound, but a long-range mortar can travel 4,000 meters. That means you have to control the streets - every street - for some distance - 24/7 - just to keep your own people safe, never mind the Iraqis.

If the "news" back home is that violence in Baghdad is down as a result of our surge ... well, so much the better. But to even assume that our highest priority has ever been the Iraqi people, defies credulity.

Our "permanent" bases in Iraq can't be under attack "permanently" - and it's become abundantly clear that the Iraqi security forces don't cover our backs ...

... so we've got to do that ourselves ...

... and that requires a surge.

8

.

[sarge]

11:17 PM on 08/20/2007

Can't argue with you nylan8. I wasn't really speaking to the administration's motives, but rather the general support for the surge as a tool to pave the way for a diplomatic solution, and the naive expectation that such a result will ultimately be realized.

[Meah]

07:56 PM on 08/20/2007

Will there be anyone left?

[GarsLuber]

07:34 PM on 08/20/2007

bush boy doesn't believe in the rule of law here, or Iraq.

At least he's consistent on that point.

[GarsLuber]

07:32 PM on 08/20/2007

that dead Governor also thinks the surge is working.

[helonias]

07:23 PM on 08/20/2007

The deaths are surging almost as much as the surge is.

Which will win?

[TJTelecaster]

07:21 PM on 08/20/2007

It's their version of term limits..!

Each his own..!