Thanks for the link Foreword!
Time will tell, I suppose. But the coalition, should really avoid being the 'occupying power'. It should have been a quick mission with a handover to the UN whilst Iraq recovers.
ISP
Another US Death, Why Dont They Leave?
by ISP 25 Replies latest social current
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expatbrit
handover to the UN whilst Iraq recovers.
Yes, nothing like another twelve years of pointless talk while the French veto the use of anything but Camembert in emergency relief supplies to help Iraq recover from Saddam Hussein.
Expatbrit
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foreword
I guess the Iraqis will be eating a lot of camembert....LOL
So now that you've gotten as far as you have with the Iraqis, do you still think you had good reasons to go to war with them?
If the UN was useless, to which I agree, why do you even use them as an example of inadequacy in their search for weapons in comparison to the US' time to locate them?
The US has intelligence (that's what they tell us). If they knew for a fact that Saddam had weapons (WMD), and from Powell's comments to the UN, they knew, and apparently where. Well then what's taking so long? Shouldn't they with all the technology they have, monitored sites they knew the weapons were located at, before and during the war, account for all suspious trafic, where it went, and when time came to attack, they'd know where they are. They do have GPS technology don't they? Satellite imagery?
Rumfeld announced, just around the time Bush said the war was over, that we had just seen history being written. That they had fought the most efficient battle since the beginning of times.....And they couldn't keep track of the goals, which were WMD? Ouch, now that doesn't look too good. I'll give them an "F" for proper use of technology.
Or did they mean they had just beaten the Japanese at a fireworks contest. Cause it was the best fireworks show that I was ever given to see
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ISP
Expat, the UN does alright in non-combative situations. The US presence may appeal to you but it doesn't seem to be acheiving anything. There is no evidence that the US/UK will do any better than the UN. Its obvious to me that you need some international assistance to help the Iraqi people.
So far as your skit on the French, the US are doing OK with the mess in Iraq in terms of the award of reconstruction contracts etc.
Telcos Duke It Out Over Iraq
By Elisa Batista | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
02:00 AM Jun. 27, 2003 PT
The fighting in Iraq hasn't stopped and the country isn't stable, but U.S. telecom companies are already trying to muscle in to sell cellular-phone service.
It's unclear how quickly the country's economy can turn around, how much cellular service is in demand or who would even pay to have it built, but at least two U.S. providers are poking around the country for new business.
- Saddam's Homepage Gets Face Lift
- Iraq War Boosts Space Spending
- Tech Firms Eye Juicy Contracts
- Looted Iraqi Art Displayed Online
- Unwired News: The Next Generation
- Yahoo Spam Filter Thwarts FTC
- It's Raining ID-Theft Bills
- SCO Advances Suit Against IBM
- RealNetworks Nabs Euro Phone Deal
- Tech Buyers Do More With Less
Most recently, Tecore Wireless Systems, a private company in Columbia, Maryland, said it would lay the groundwork for phone companies to offer wireless in Iraq. Tecore sells cellular infrastructure and software to carriers in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East. It plans to begin building a distribution center in Iraq by the end of summer, the company said.
Tecore's plan closely follows news last month that the U.S. government awarded WorldCom a $45 million contract to build a cell network in Iraq. The Pentagon also gave Motorola a $10 to $25 million contract -- depending on options the company exercises -- to install radio communications for security forces in Baghdad.
The WorldCom deal was especially eye opening because the company has never before operated a cellular network in the United States. It also filed for bankruptcy protection last year after having committed $11 billion in accounting fraud. One analyst questioned whether the U.S. government is rewarding the company's behavior.
"There's so many questions surrounding why WorldCom is being awarded so many government contracts given the accounting scandals they have had," IDC analyst Rena Bhattacharyya said. "On the other hand, WorldCom did put up a wireless system in Afghanistan and they (Pentagon officials) were happy with that."
But some U.S. telecom companies are not happy about the presence of the early bidders, and legislators in Congress are taking their side.
WorldCom and Tecore use cellular technology based on Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM. The technical cellular standard is common throughout Europe and Asia, but not the United States.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was so irked by the government's decision to use GSM technology -- which he called a "European-based wireless technology" -- that he shot off a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in March demanding that the government consider a "native" network standard called code-division multiple access, or CDMA. The technology was developed by Qualcomm, a company based in San Diego in Issa's district. It is the most common U.S. cellular standard and is used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS.
"The situation with respect to cell phones in Iraq is fairly confusing right now," Issa's chief of staff Dale Neugebauer told Wired News. "There have been claims and aggressive PR moves by GSM providers to make it sound like they have sole access to contracts in Iraq. We have been assured by administration officials that their intention is to license spectrum for GSM and CDMA networks."
Bush administration officials did not return calls seeking comment.
But Tecore's director of marketing and product management, Sonu Mirchandani, said his company was willing to use any of the technical standards. It chose GSM because it was the best system for Iraq. GSM, he pointed out, is the most common network in the Middle East, so Iraqis will be able to use their cell phones in neighboring countries as well.
"We are seeing a lot of growth in the GSM markets worldwide," Mirchandani said. "We put up a GSM system in Afghanistan. It's been phenomenal."
Telecom analysts were reluctant to say whether U.S. companies were in the best position to repair Iraq's infrastructure. Iraq's landline network was already badly damaged in the 1991 Gulf War, and even the few people who had home phones had sporadic access. Analysts have estimated it will cost $1 billion to repair the country's landline system.
Iraq has never had a cell-phone system, but analysts say it would be easy and cheap to install.
"What makes the most sense is having a GSM network put in place," Bhattacharyya said. "The problem ... is the U.S. has more experience with other technologies and not the GSM standard that's been primarily used in Europe."
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ISP
Category: News & Opinion Topic: News & Current Events Synopsis: Source: Reuters Published: July 19, 2003 Author: Andrew Marshall For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.
U.S. Soldier Killed as Wolfowitz Tours Iraq
Sat July 19, 2003 03:37 AM ET
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier was killed by guerrillas in Iraq Saturday as one of the key U.S. architects of the war to topple Saddam Hussein toured the chaotic and lawless country.
With U.S. troops being killed every week in Iraq, the United States is considering returning to the United Nations to try to persuade countries to send in soldiers or share costs, running about $4 billion a month.
But at this stage, diplomats at the United Nations say, no one has any idea what kind of a U.N. resolution would bring in help and persuade nations to send soldiers. Exactly what role the United Nations could assume is unclear, they said.
A military spokesman in Baghdad said the soldier was attacked with small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire early Saturday as he guarded a bank in Baghdad's Mansur district.
The military had initially said the attack was Friday.
The spokesman also said one U.S. soldier was wounded when a convoy came under attack Friday from guerrillas with guns and grenades in the town of Miqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad. Another U.S. soldier was killed Friday when his Humvee drove over an explosive device in the restive Sunni Muslim town of Falluja, 32 miles west of Baghdad.
The deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed in combat to 149 -- more than the 147 killed in the 1991 Gulf War. Since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 35 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile incidents.
Most of the guerrilla attacks on U.S. soldiers have been concentrated in Baghdad and in Sunni areas to the north and west where support for Saddam is still widespread.
The United States, which is now facing a high cost in cash and casualties as it tries to control Iraq, said Friday it was open to giving the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq, especially if other governments respond by offering more to peacekeeping and reconstruction.
"We're open to this prospect. We're indeed talking about it with other people, but at this point I can't draw to a conclusion," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is touring Iraq to see for himself the conditions in the country. Many Iraqis say Washington has failed to restore order and basic services after the fall of Saddam, and anger is growing.
But Wolfowitz said in an interview published Friday that no amount of planning could have foreseen the collapse in law and order after Baghdad fell.
"The so-called forces of law and order just kind of collapsed. There is not a single plan that would have dealt with that," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying.
"This is a country that was ruled by a gang of terrorist criminals and they're still around. They're threatening Iraqis and killing Americans."
NO SIGN OF BANNED WEAPONS, OR SADDAM
Wolfowitz is deputy to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and is seen as one of the most pro-war figures in the Bush administration, arguing military action was essential to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and of Saddam.
But no banned weapons have been discovered, and Bush has been under attack from Democrats who said he used faulty intelligence to justify war.
To defend itself against the charges, the White House on Friday released declassified intelligence that said there was "compelling evidence" Iraq sought uranium for nuclear weapons.
Saddam has also not been found, a fact that U.S. officials concede is fueling guerrilla attacks against American soldiers. An audiotape said to be made by Saddam was broadcast on Arabic television Thursday, urging Iraqis to launch a jihad, or holy struggle, to oust occupying troops.
A U.S. intelligence official said analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had found the tape was probably the voice of Saddam and could have been recorded in recent days.
The U.S. military said Friday it had detained 611 people, including 62 former "regime leaders," in its latest operation aimed at eliminating armed Iraqi resistance.
Operation Soda Mountain mounted 141 raids, seizing 4,297 mortar rounds, 1,346 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 635 other weapons, it said.
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U.S. soldier killed guarding Baghdad bank, military wraps up two operations
PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Write
(07-19) 00:52 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
A U.S. soldier was fatally shot guarding a bank Saturday in the capital, while the U.S. military concluded two separate sweeps in and around Baghdad -- arresting more than 1,200 people and seizing weapons, explosives and ammunition, the military said.
The death came a day after two separate attacks on convoys in which one soldier was killed. It brought to 149 the number of U.S. personnel killed in combat since the March 20 start of the war -- two more than the 1991 Gulf War total for U.S. deaths in combat.
The soldier guarding the Baghdad bank died at about 2 a.m. outside the Al-Rasheed Bank in western Baghdad, Corp. Todd Pruden said.
Pruden also announced that a U.S. serviceman was injured Friday when the convoy he was in was attacked north of Baghdad with small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades and mortars. Three vehicles in the convoy were damaged in the attack in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northwest of the capital, Pruden said.
In another convoy attack Friday, a U.S. soldier was killed when a bomb was detonated by remote control at a traffic circle near the main bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad.
The military also announced it had wrapped up two sweeps -- dubbed Operation Ivy Serpant and Operation Soda Mountain earlier in the week. Some 1,210 people were detained in the two operations, including 112 people suspected of close ties to the former Saddam Hussein regime.
The operations, which both ended Thursday, netted some 6,000 mortar rounds, more than 1,400 rocket propelled grenades, explosives, AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons. None of those captured, however, were among those still at large from a list of 55 most wanted Iraqis from the former regime.
U.S. authorities have captured 34 people on the list, but not Saddam or his two sons.
A U.S. intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Friday that a new audio recording purportedly by Saddam urging Iraqis to continue a "holy war" against U.S. forces is probably authentic and recent -- further evidence Saddam survived the war. The message was aired Thursday, the 35th anniversary of the coup that brought Saddam's Baath Party to power.
Violence against U.S. troops has been concentrated in Iraq's "Sunni Triangle," stretching north and west from Baghdad.
At a major Sunni mosque in Baghdad, formerly known as the Mother of all Battles Mosque, preacher Khalid al-Dari called Friday for the Americans to leave Iraq and said the new U.S.-appointed government "will enshrine Iraq's sectarian differences."
Iraq's minority Sunni Muslims have long ruled the country, and many of them fear Saddam's ouster will swing the balance of power to majority Shiites. The new 25-member ruling council, appointed by the Americans, has a slim Shiite majority.
But imams at some Shiite mosques also had harsh words for the Americans.
Muqtada al-Sadr, addressing thousands of Shiites at a mosque in the central holy city of Kufa, vowed to establish a council "of the righteous" that would rival the new government.
Al-Sadr said the government is comprised of "nonbelievers" who don't represent the people.
"We will not cooperate with the council," he told the crowd. "We will form our own council. Iraq will then have two councils: one of the wrongdoers and one of the righteous."
"Zionists!" the crowd chanted. "Zionist council!"
In an interview later with The Associated Press, al-Sadr said he would launch a parallel government and draft a constitution in consultation with all the country's Islamic movements.
"Eventually, we'll have a referendum separate from the Americans and, God willing, elections separate from the Americans," he said. -
Stan Conroy
"Bring them on"
At least George is getting what he wanted. The parents of that soldier should call George on the phone and tell him how delighted they are at that comment.
I'm beginning to feel sorry for those US soldiers. At first they seemed to be invaders, but now they are becoming victims too. Can you imagine the guilt you would feel invading a country, killing other human beings, then realize you are there because of lies? No wonder there are suicides (non-combatant fatalities)among the troops.
Stan
