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Subject:
Who's Killing Our Boys
wjhii
8/6/2005 11:54:03 PM
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Who?s Killing Our Boys By William John Hagan
Houston Home Journal Warner Robins, GA 08/10/2005
One third of the 1,402 American Soldiers killed by hostile fire have died as a result of ?roadside bombs? or what the US military, euphemistically, refers to as Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). While, at the beginning of the American Occupation of Iraq, the term improvised appeared to describe these devices, this is no longer the case. In the past few months, it has become clear that these IEDs are no longer the makeshift bombs of the early insurgency, but sophisticated factory-manufactured weapons from a deadly source.
On July 24th, one of these new generation IEDs was used to kill four soldiers with the Georgia National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team. The bomb contained 600 pounds of explosives buried beneath a roadside in South Baghdad. An additional four soldiers were killed, six days later, by a similar 500 pound bomb that was buried under a Baghdad Street. According to Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, Commander of the Georgia Brigade, his men had discovered about a dozen other bombs in the area. It is clear that these attacks took place with obvious complicity of the residents of South Baghdad. In the densely populated confines of South Baghdad, it would be impossible to bury dozens of half ton explosives under public roads without locals witnessing the events. We?re taking about major road work. The transgressions of these internal assaults become compounded when one realizes that we are not just fighting an internal insurgency but a well-financed foreign campaign to keep Iraq in tatters.
The IEDs, now being used in Iraq, are being supplied by Iran. As recently as last week, a large shipment of IEDs were captured as they entered Iraq from Iran. In direct response, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a glaring critique about Tehran?s ?meddling? in Iraqi affairs.
There are two reasons why Iran wants to keep the Untied States bogged down in Iraq: A successful Iraqi insurgency increases the chance that the United States will be forced into a Vietnam-like withdrawal from Iraq. Such a scenario would leave the Iranian government in a good position to bring Iraq?s Shiite majority into its sphere of influence. More importantly, the success of the insurgency decreases the likelihood that the United States will have the manpower left to expand the War on Terror to Iran.
If the United States plans to leave a democratic Iraq in its wake; then, it is left with no choice but to deal militarily with the Iranian theocracy that is threatening mid-East stability. According to a May 15th article in the Washington Post, the military has a classified contingency plan, known as COMPLAN 8022-22. This strategy is designed to strike Iran in response to "imminent" threats, using both conventional and possibly nuclear weapons against Iranian targets, without involving ground forces in the initial stages. This operation would be similar in nature to President Clinton?s war against Serbia. A source with close ties to the NSA and the former Carter administration also confirmed for me that in June 2004 the United States began preparations for such an attack on Iran with war exercises that included the majority of the US Carrier Fleet and the 6th Maine Expeditionary Unit. Publicly, the operation was know as Summer Pulse?04, which the Navy described as preparation for ?a national emergency or crisis?. It seems that Iran?s current meddling in Iraqi affairs may leave the Bush administration with no choice but to take military action against Iran. The Iran Government should be well advised to consider this before assisting in the murder of any future US troops in Iraq.
Letters to the editor can be e-mailed to: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
William John Hagan can be visited on the web at: link
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