Baghdad gets hit again

According to the latest report from Iraq the Model, terrorist bombs have struck in Baghdad again.

As we expected in the last post, the terrorists committed another crime against civilians by detonating two bombs in a market area.

Although soldiers and policemen are filling the streets, the terrorists are too coward to face the troops and choose to massacre unarmed civilians instead. What are they trying to prove with these cowardly acts? They can’t defeat the troops, so they attack civilians to discredit the security plan. But I don’t think such attacks can change the course of events on the long term; the Baghdad plan is a strategic effort that will go on for months, and time doesn’t seem to be on the terrorists’ side right now.

Today there was fighting in the neighborhoods around us and there were several attacks in other parts of Baghdad. It looks like some militants consider that sitting back and waiting is not an option and so they are trying to break the siege.

Waiting is probably not in the best interests of the terrorists.  A suddenly peaceful Baghdad would show them up as ineffective and incapable of inflicting damage.  Image is everything.  The answer to ITM's editorial question, what are they trying to prove, is that they hope to sway the likes of John Murtha and encourage other American politicians to join him. 

As Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Iraq have not been able to defeat the United States of America, Democrats and RINOs (Republicans in name only) are finally making the moves to do it themselves. The first step for the Democrats is the 'non-binding' vote of 'no confidence' in President Bush's plan to add reinforcements into the Iraq arena, which was passed on Friday. The second is to defund US troops. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) who vocally denigrated US troops in 2006 when he said they were murdering Iraqis "in cold blood continues to call for an immediate cut and run policy from Iraq.

But among Baghdadis, though the lull in the attacks is over, there is a sense of optimism that has sprung up and remains in spite of the renewed violence.

Al-Hurra TV aired a report on the story and interviewed some of the returning Baghdadis, one man said “those who returned earlier and saw the change in the situation called us and encouraged us to return, and I too will encourage the rest to come back”. The report showed those families asking the army to stay and not abandon their neighborhood, and showed the officer in charge giving his number to the locals so that they can contact him directly in case of emergency.

Looking at the relative increase in the number of attacks and their geographic extent one can expect the coming days to bring more escalation, but with the amount of power available for US and Iraqi troops I think the bad guys will not be able to achieve much.

The window of opportunity that closes on the terrorists in Baghdad closes also on the Democrats in congress.  The battle for Baghdad is on and it's being fought on both sides of the world, Baghdad and Washington.  This war can still be lost, but it's not over yet.

Comments

[Stephen Macklin]

So essentially the terrorists are not really fighting a battle they are lobbying Congress. It is - to borrow an apt phrase - guerilla marketing. Unfortunately in the current congressional leadership they are finding an audience all too receptive to their message.

[Tom Bowler]

That's a good way to put it, Steve - lobbying congress.