CNN's Michael Ware said in a broadcast Jan. 30 that Ramadi is "the true al Qaida national headquarters." If that were true, al Qaida is in bigger trouble in Iraq than most of us realize.

Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt devoted his show last Wednesday to the (overwhelmingly negative) opinions of Iraq war veterans on the demands of Democrats that U.S. troops be pulled out. One call was from "Bruce in Upland," whose son is a soldier currently serving in Iraq.

"I will speak for my son who right now is bored out of his mind in Ramadi, because he hasn't heard a shot fired in combat now in about six or seven weeks," Bruce said.

There were about 22 enemy incidents per week in Ramadi in April, said Marine Major Jeff Pool. That's declined to "about two per week." (An enemy incident is any type of direct or indirect fire, from a sniper to a mortar or an IED attack.) Throughout Anbar province, the number of "incidents" has dropped from about 400 last December to 155 last week, said Maj. Pool, the public affairs chief for U.S. forces in western Iraq.

"Though these numbers are a substantial drop, I believe them to be artificially high," Maj. Pool said. The increased operational tempo resulting from the troop surge has increased exposure to the enemy as it has increased the number of al Qaida operatives killed or captured, he said.

"Anbar is returning to a state of normalcy, so I consider the soldier in Ramadi being bored a true measure of progress," he said.

A lot of things have changed since Mr. Ware did that interview with Anderson Cooper. But he was wrong even then.

In October of 2006, al Qaida declared Baquba to be the capital of the Islamic State in Iraq, and claimed to control both Anbar province (of which Ramadi is the capital), and Diyala province, of which Baquba is the capital).

So how are things faring for al Qaida in its new capital? About as poorly as in Ramadi, says Michael Yon, a former Green Beret turned freelance journalist who is embedded with U.S. forces.

"It's really slowed down here in Baquba," Mr. Yon told Mr. Hewitt in a telephone interview Thursday. "I was just in the TOC (tactical operations center) about 15 minutes before I came on the show, and they were like the Maytag repairmen here."

U.S. intelligence thought there were about 1,000 al Qaida in Baquba when Operation Arrowhead Ripper began June 19. Those who haven't fled have been killed or captured.

The smaller part of the reason for the dramatic improvement in Ramadi and Baquba is the change in strategy embodied by the surge. The larger part is the change of heart of most of al Qaida's former allies.

Mr. Yon was with U.S. troops in the Spring of 2005, when they fought insurgents in the Baquba suburb of Buhritz. Among "the most proficient at killing our people," he said, were the 1920s Revolution Brigades.

In April the 1920s Revolution Brigades attacked al Qaida and asked for U.S. help. Last week Mr. Yon returned to Buhritz with a leader of the group, "Abu Ali."

Mr. Yon asked Abu Ali why his group switched sides. "Al Qaida is an abomination of Islam," he replied. "Cutting off heads, stealing peoples money, kidnapping...every type of torture they have done."

Sheikh Abdul Sattar al Rishawi, founder of the Anbar Salvation Council, gave similar reasons for his change of allegiance.

When al Qaida ran Baquba, it would amputate the two fingers used to hold a cigarette of any Iraqi caught smoking. Men who refused to grow beards were beaten, as were women for the "sexually suggestive" behavior of carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag, Mr. Yon said. He recounted finding the bodies of beheaded children.

Al Qaida's brutality has alienated the overwhelming majority of Sunnis as well as the Shias who were the primary targets of its attacks. When the U.S. can provide them with protection, ordinary people are turning on al Qaida with a vengeance.

Most of al Qaida's leaders and many of its foot soldiers escaped from Baquba, and probably will try to establish another "capital" elsewhere. But they're running out of places to go.

"They can't go south to (overwhelmingly Shia) Basra," Mr. Yon told Mr. Hewitt. "There are only a few places they can go to in Anbar, and these are drying up. There's fewer places in Diyala, and what's left is drying up. They certainly can't go to the Kurdish regions, because they will be killed."

Mr. Yon said he expects al Qaida to focus on Mosul, capital of Ninevah province in Iraq's northwest. "But the Iraqi security forces up there are pretty well advanced, and they can hold their own now," he added.

This is great news. The push is working. Al Queda's own brutal tactics are turning the people of Iraq against them. It will be a great day when we can bring our troops home and leave behind a stable democracy.

Sometimes I wonder how yall get your information!
Does this look good to you......




BAGHDAD — Dozens of Shiite villagers in the north were massacred by Sunni extremists, two officials said Tuesday, while a car bomb exploded across the street from the Iranian Embassy in the heart of Baghdad and killed four civilians.

Meanwhile, Shiite legislators loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr decided to end their five-week boycott of parliament, one of their leaders said. The Shiite protest along with a separate Sunni boycott had blocked work on key benchmark legislation demanded by the U.S.

Police Col. Ragheb Radhi al-Omairi said 29 members of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight in Diyala province when dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided their village near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. The dead included four women, al-Omairi said.

Al-Omairi said he had not seen the bodies. Police said some of the bodies were recovered, and that some of the gunmen wore military clothing.

The village is in the same province as Baqouba, where fighting escalated Tuesday. U.S. and Iraqi troops regained control of western Baqouba last month, but al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgent elements remain active in the rest of the city. The al-Qaida front Islamic State of Iraq had declared Baqouba its capital.


On Tuesday, U.S. soldiers pushed into the insurgent-controlled part of Baqouba backed by helicopters and at least one jet. Sunni imams in four mosques used loudspeakers to call on their followers to fight the Americans, residents said by telephone.

Separately, the U.S. military said the most wanted Al Qaeda in Iraq figure south of Baghdad was killed last weekend by a precision-guided artillery round.

Abu Jurah, an Al-Qaeda cell leader, died Saturday in the Arab Jabour area just south of the city after U.S. troops received word that he and 14 others were meeting at a house there, a U.S. statement said.

In Baghdad, the deadliest bombing occurred when a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army patrol in Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people, including six civilians, police said.

The blast near the Iranian Embassy occurred in late morning a few hundred yards north of the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, sending a huge cloud of black smoke over the city. Three civilians also were wounded, said police.

All the Baghdad police officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

Also Tuesday, the bodies of two security guards were found in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after they were kidnapped from the office of a cell phone company where they worked, police said.

U.S. forces have launched offensives around the Iraqi capital to try to halt the flow of bombs and fighters into the city.

The U.S. command said American soldiers had killed about a dozen insurgents during a three-hour gunfight Monday in Fadhil, a Sunni enclave in the center of the city. The battle began when paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division came under fire from the Islamic Bank building, the military said.

One U.S. trooper was slightly wounded, the U.S. said.

U.S. Marines also have started a new offensive to establish a presence in towns along the Euphrates River long used as insurgent sanctuaries.

Operation Mawtini, begun Sunday, includes more than 9,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops and aims to establish control in remote areas of western Anbar province, the U.S. said.

The leader of the 30-member Sadrist bloc in parliament, Nasser al-Rubaie, said the decision to end the boycott was made after the government agreed to rebuild a Shiite mosque in Samarra which was destroyed in two bombings and to secure the highway from Baghdad and the shrine.

Pressure is now expected to mount on the Sunnis to end their boycott, which began over the ouster of the Sunni speaker of parliament last month. Sunni leaders say agreement is near on ending the protest.

Both protests have paralyzed work in Iraq's fractious, 275-member assembly as pressure is growing in the United States to bring an end to the U.S. military role here.

However, the Sadrists also oppose a number of bills sought by the government, including legislation to regulate the oil industry. That could make it tougher for key benchmark legislation to win approval.

Meanwhile, a group in Switzerland said nearly 2.2 million Iraqis are living in a precarious state of displacement inside Iraq, struggling to access regular food supplies or adequate shelter and health care.

About 60,000 additional Iraqis are being uprooted from their homes each month, spurred by sectarian violence, military operations and general lawlessness, said Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration.

The 120-nation migration body has been distributing aid to hundreds of thousands of displaced and vulnerable Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Pandya said it has become increasingly difficult to guarantee assistance for those most in need in Iraq, largely because of the insecurity in the country and limited resources for aid groups.

In Kirkuk, families collected the bodies of relatives from hospitals a day after a triple bombing killed about 80 people. Others were searching debris still left on the street, hoping for clues about what happened to friends and relatives whose bodies have not been identified.

All but one of the victims died when a massive truck bomb exploded near the Kirkuk Castle and the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani.

It was the deadliest attack in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, where Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds are competing for control of the city at the heart of the northern oil region.

Separately, the U.S. military said a Marine died Monday in a non-combat related incident in Anbar province. No further details were released.


Complete coverage is available in FOXNews.com's Iraq Center.

Fanta46,

You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

There's a time you got to go and show
You're growin' now you know about
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

When the world never seems
to be livin up to your dreams
And suddenly you're finding out
the Facts of Life are all about you, you.

It takes a lot to get 'em right
When you're learning the Facts of Life. (learning the Facts of Life)
Learning the Facts of Life (learning the Facts of Life)
Learning the Facts of Life.

the date of this info is, Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Fanta,

Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he's a man of means.
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.

But they got, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

Everybody's got a special kind of story
Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don't matter that you got not alot
So what,
They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine.
And together we'll be fine....

Because it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

Is that your favorite TV show?



You should join the service, 1st, you might learn some facts.
Second take your own advice and report both sides of the story, or at least an accurate account of the facts! AYE???

Why dont you volunteer? Are you scared?
Talk a good game, but you dont want to play?

I'll answer your question...

===========================================================
One banana, two banana, three banana, four
Four bananas make a bunch and so do many more.
Over hill and highway the banana buggies go
Coming on to bring you the Banana Splits show

Making up a mess of fun, Making up a mess of fun
Lots of fun for everyone

Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la

Four banana, three banana, two bananas, one
All bananas playing in the bright warm sun,
Flipping like a pancake, popping like a cork,
Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper and, Snork

Making up a mess of fun, Making up a mess of fun
Lots of fun for everyone

Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la

(background singer - La-----aaah!)

Two Banana, four banana, one banana, three
Swinging like a bunch of monkeys hanging from a tree
Hey there everybody won't you come along and see
How much like Banana Splits everyone can be

Making up a mess of fun, Making up a mess of fun
Lots of fun for everyone

Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la
===========================================================

Hope that makes my position clear.

They should draft chicken-****s like you. Then maybe you would grow up, or at least grow a backbone! AYE?

Ahh, youd probably sit in the foxhole and cry like a baby then get your whole squad killed!

****, I bet your 350 lbs, and couldnt even pass the physical!!!

Fanta46,

You said "They should draft chicken-****s like you"

My only response can be...

============================================================
Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Fish don't fry in the kitchen;
Beans don't burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin'
Just to get up that hill.
Now we're up in teh big leagues
Gettin' our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it's you and me baby
There ain't nothin wrong with that.

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
============================================================

In your face cheap sode man!

what was that an admission, Wha, Wha, Wha!!!



Are ya scared spider? just say so.........

Fanta46,

Fanta46 said "****, I bet your 350 lbs, and couldnt even pass the physical!!!"

You are correct, I couldn't pass the physical.

Pffft!!!!
Can't or won't try, there in lies the question!

Fanta46,

Do or do not. There is no 'try'.

I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to have to go to war.

Dayv,

You are a good man. I don't know you, but it seems that your heart is in the right place.

Wishing evil on other's is the surest way to bring it upon ourselves.

I agree with dayv....

No one in their right mind likes war.
Sometimes war is inevitable.
Sometimes war can/could be prevented.
Like this current one.

However...

Whether you're for or against the war/reasonings for the war....
God Bless our Troops.
May they retuprn home safely....
As Soon As Possible.

knoxman

P.S.: I wouldn't wish the horrors of war on anyone.

Well, dumbasses that back this war, while they sit around the hen house clucking too afraid to volunteer is exactly why we need a draft.
They suck up the benefits gained by the brave men and women who made this country what it is, and do nothing to contribute except run their unknowing ignorant mouth. They should be drafted, then see how quick they are to talk the talk!
Quit living off everyone elses sacrifice, and sacrifice your own ass!

Hey Fanta..please don't let anger destroy your intellect...you may be responding to someone elses attack..but you insult alot of people with your attacks..I think all voluntary military is the best of a Democracy...think about it..IF the general public does not support an Administration or their war policies...then no one will join, thereby making it impossible for a President to fight an unjust war that Americans don't support. I know all this logic goes against your belief that Most americans don't support this war...but if that was the case there would not be anyone left in Iraq to fight because they would all quit and the military would not be re-cruiting at almost record levels...I know truth hurts..but something you might want to think over....heres to you bud