. February 7, 2007 SouthAmerica: As the AP article said: âIt was the fifth U.S. aircraft lost in less than three weeks and the latest sign of growing problems with aviation in Iraq.â The same thing happened to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the late 1980's when their helicopters started going down because of hostile fire that was the clue that the Soviets needed to realize that they were fighting a lost cause in Afghanistan and it was time to pack in and go home. â5 HELICOPTERS IN 3 WEEKSâ It is time to cut the United States losses in Iraq - and go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ********* Feb. 7, 2007 âU.S. loses another helicopter in Iraqâ By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer AP - The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq â A U.S. Marine transport helicopter crashed in flames Wednesday in a field northwest of Baghdad, killing all seven people aboard, the U.S. military said. It was the fifth U.S. aircraft lost in less than three weeks and the latest sign of growing problems with aviation in Iraq. A U.S. military statement gave no reason for the crash of the CH-46 Sea Knight, which went down near Fallujah in Anbar province, about 20 miles from Baghdad. However, at the Pentagon, three Marine Corps officials said the troop-transport helicopter was in flames when it went down, with the pilot appearing to attempt a hasty landing but losing control as the aircraft descended. They said witnesses in nearby Marine aircraft saw the flames but saw no sign that it involved hostile fire. An Iraqi air force officer, however, said the helicopter was downed by an anti-aircraft missile. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information. An Iraqi farmer who lives about a half mile from the crash site said he heard a missile fired moments before the crash, which took place in an insurgent-infested region. "The helicopter was flying and passed over us, then we heard the firing of a missile," the farmer, Mohammed al-Janabi, said. "The helicopter then turned into a ball of fire. It flew in a circle twice and then went down." Associated Press Television video showed the flaming wreckage lying in a field in front of a cluster of mud homes. A dense plume of black smoke rose over the remains. The Marine officials suspected the fire was caused by a mechanical problem, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. In a statement posted on an extremist Web site, an al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State in Iraq, claimed it shot down the helicopter, which it described as a Chinook â an Army helicopter which resembles a Sea Knight. But critics have long urged the military to replace the CH-46, which was introduced in 1964 at the start of the Vietnam War. In 2001, retired Col. Frank Jensen wrote in Defense News that the Marines should replace the CH-46 but cannot because of budget limitations. Regardless of the cause, the latest crash adds urgency to a U.S. military review of flight operations in Iraq, including whether insurgents have perfected skills in attacking U.S. planes. The latest crash occurred five days after a U.S. Army Apache helicopter went down in a hail of gunfire north of Baghdad. Three other helicopters â two from the Army and one operated by an American security firm â also have crashed since Jan. 20. A total of 20 Americans were killed in those four crashes. The military has said the four aircraft were all believed to have been shot down, raising new questions about whether Iraqi extremists are using more sophisticated weapons or whether U.S. tactics need changing. Any fresh threat to aviation would present serious problems for U.S. commanders as they launch the new security crackdown in Baghdad. The U.S. military relies heavily on helicopters in Iraq, not only for supporting ground forces in combat but also to move troops and equipment by air to avoid roadside bombs and insurgent ambushes. At night, U.S. attack helicopters prowl the darkened skies over Baghdad and other cities, using night-vision equipment to hunt for insurgents and militiamen planting roadside bombs or setting up firing positions. Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged that insurgent ground fire in Iraq has been increasingly effective. "I do not know whether or not it is the law of averages that caught up with us or if there's been a change in tactics, techniques and procedures on the part of the enemy," Pace told a Senate committee Tuesday. In December, a spokesman for Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party, Khudair al-Murshidi, told The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria, that Sunni insurgents had received new stocks of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and "we are going to surprise them." However, Pace said Tuesday that the four helicopters that crashed since Jan. 20 were brought down by small arms fire rather than missiles. On Wednesday, the Stars and Stripes newspaper quoted a U.S. officer as saying insurgents brought down an Apache helicopter last week near Taji by concentrating heavy automatic fire on the aircraft â rather than by using a shoulder-fired missile. Helicopter transmission gears and rear rotor assemblies are vulnerable to ground fire and cannot be protected by armor plating because of the weight. Sea Knight helicopters, with their distinctive dual rotors, are used by the Marines primarily as a cargo and troop transport, and can carry 25 combat-loaded troops, according to the think tank GlobalSecurity.org. __ AP military writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington. .
. February 19, 2007 SouthAmerica: Surprise Surprise. The American mainstream media is very slow in grasping about changes happening in Iraq and around the world. Take these people forever to grasp the changes of a fast dynamic moving world. It will take at least to the end of 2007 for the American mainstream media to finally grasp that after Saddam Husseinâs execution the new Sunni leader in Iraq it is the legendary Osama Bin Ladden. The US mainstream media might be in denial in the same way that the Bush administration has been in denial since they decided to invade Iraq. The United States with its supposed superior spying and military capabilities after 5 years they have not been able to find anywhere around the world a very tall man â of about 6â 8ââ in height. And today that man is the supreme Sunni leader in Iraq, and he is able to take a piece of Iraq and organize his own country and a government with ministers and a court system â and they donât have to be hiding in the green zone. **************** âOfficials say Qaeda chiefs at work againâ The Boston Globe - February 19, 2007 American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, have reestablished significant control over the worldwide terror network, The New York Times reported today. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times there is mounting evidence that the two leaders have in the past year established a network of training camps in the tribal regions of Pakistan along the mountainous Afghan border, including an operations hub in North Waziristan. The officials, saying that they needed to protect their intelligence sources , did not provide evidence for their assessments, which are at odds with recent statements by the Bush administration concerning Al Qaeda's leadership . .
southamerica, I think our main stream media seems slow because it is really not trying to report the honest facts as they happen but is primarily employed in making a show. You know, what people want to hear not honest journalism, I am afraid that stopped back a some years ago. I hear that with most of the primary media corporations of today the only way reporters can keep a job is by carrying the conservative leadership point of view. These companies do not want critical free thinking journalists that ask honest questions .....no way.
. February 19, 2007 SouthAmerica: Today The New York Times published a front page story âIraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promiseâ. Now that Iraq is in the middle of a sectarian civil war and it is moving very fast in the direction of breaking the country into three separate new countries - voila - How convenient they cook up a story of a major oil and gas findings where the Sunni population is concentrated inside Iraq. But the hardest part of this new plan regarding the latest US strategy in Iraq - it will be for the United States to convince the Sunni population that besides this newly found oil and gas on Sunni land - and to go with that â the United States also has a plan on how to build a deep-sea port on their new Sunni land that would be able to handle the oil supertankers; for the Sunnis to be able to ship this newly found oil to world markets. If the United States can convince the Sunnis about the merits of this new plan â and the new deep-sea port in Sunni territory it will be a major selling point of this new strategy and it will help this new plan to become a reality â at least in the minds of the members of the Bush administration. Another job well done. .
That is one eye opening book. I realize now that the same things are being done inside the US, the money guys use the politicians to use the public sector's money to get their own stuff done. It was probably always that way to some extent but now it is accelerated with lobbying up to a $12 billion a year business in DC from a tiny fraction of that 40 years ago. Why would California have a new plan to subsidize the health care of all people, illegals included? Because some big money guys want the cheap labor to undercut the wages of the middle class for one thing. They are using tax money confiscated from the middle class to do this and do not care how much the overall cost is, it is not their money. This thing about the middle class getting killed by socialism is what scared me into looking for another career and hence into trading actually.
. SouthAmerica: Reply to Maxpi This thread is about the Middle East - where Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and some other Arab countries are located. Let me clarify something for you: Middle East and middle class are not the same thing. .
Maxpi............great that you made the effort and read the book. It has most definitely influenced my perspective on the Middle East and political change world wide and that includes possible application even within individual states here in our country. It's the best read I have encountered in desperately trying to understand what's going on.
. February 26, 2007 SouthAmerica: I just hope that this âraving maniacâ does not trigger a nuclear war against Pakistan. I understand that he has âZEROâ credibility around the world, but stillâ¦â¦ *********** âCheney in Pakistan Seeking Action to Halt Talibanâ By Brendan Murray Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced stop in Islamabad to press Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to step up enforcement along the porous border with Afghanistan and prevent a resurgence of the Taliban and al- Qaeda training camps. Cheney was spending about four hours in the Pakistani capital for talks with Musharraf following a weeklong trip to Japan and Australia and a stop in Oman last night. The two leaders made no statements after they emerged from an hour-long meeting with their staffs before going into a one-on-one session. The Bush administration is trying to blunt a fresh challenge from the Taliban, a fundamentalist Muslim group that governed Afghanistan under a harsh code of Islamic law until the U.S. drove it from power after the Sept. 11 attacks. Cheney's visit underscores American concern about countering a Taliban offensive launched from the remote mountainous region along Pakistan's 1,510-mile-long (2,430 kilometer) border with Afghanistan. The area is largely controlled by tribal leaders and not the central government. ``The terrorists have concluded that we are decadent in spirit, weak in character and conquerable,'' Cheney said in a speech in Sydney on Feb. 23. ``The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option that we simply cannot indulge.'' ⦠.
I believe pakistan is the fifth largest receiver of US aid in the world or very close in the top. Without US aid, they would probably die of starvation, and yet those mad mullahs cuss us out. It is sad that we have to deal with them and call pakistan as our friend.