[Sinner]

Originally posted by schmooky007
you don't need a tank to take over paris sinner.

It's good to have at least one, me thinks....


WAR NEWS

February 24, 2004: The United States is reducing its forces in Baghdad, from a current 36,000 troops to, by May 15th, 24,000. The number of American bases in Baghdad will go from 48 to eight, and most will be on the outskirts of the city. The American troops are being replaced by 12,000 Iraqi police and 3,000 Iraqi Civil Defense Corps security troops. The increased attacks on Iraqi police and security personnel has increased the deaths of Iraqi personnel to about the same level as American troops (263). The greater threat is now terrorist attacks (suicide bombings). Every week, more of these terrorists (most of whom are foreign) are captured, by Iraqi police and American troops. The Americans and Iraqis have separate intelligence organizations, with more information going from the Iraqi police to the Americans than the other way around (because of the continued bribery problem among Iraqi police.) But the Iraqi police are able to flush out foreigners, or information about them, quickly, once there are enough police in a neighborhood to resume regular patrols. But Iraq is a large place, and many city neighborhoods and country towns still don't have much police presence. There are plenty of places where foreigners and strangers can settle in and do whatever they do. Usually its smuggling or other criminal activities, and Iraqis have learned to leave these guys alone, even though some of them may be terrorists.


February 23, 2004: A bomb car went off outside a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing five and wounding over 25. Kirkuk is split by ethnic tensions. For decades, Saddam drove Kurds out of the city and replaced them with Sunni Arabs. He did this because Kirkuk is the main city in the northern oil region. Since the fall of Saddam's government, the expelled Kurds have been returning and demanding, and sometimes acting, to get their homes and land back. This has made recruiting for Sunni Arab resistance groups easier, and Kirkuk has been the scene of attacks, mostly on Iraqi police.

In the south, there was a rare attack on an oil pipeline. Attacks in the north, by Sunni Arabs fearful of Kurdish retribution, have been controlled by setting up a security organization of Iraqis to guard the oil facilities. There is no such security operation in the south.

The spectacular suicide bombing attacks get the most attention, but the violence that is doing the most damage are the assassinations of political and religious leaders. The killers are apparently former members of Saddams secret police, seeking to terrorize the new Iraqi government into accepting the return of Sunni Arabs to power. While these seems absurd to Americans, in the Arab world, such terror tactics are seen as practical and, alas, all too common. The antidote for such attacks is massive roundups of suspects and the use of torture and summary execution of captives to find out who the killers are. These tactics are no longer allowed. Western styles of police work are used instead, and teaching