Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

"Insurgents seem to be picking up the pace, in what i deam to be desperation. This tells me the US and it's friends against terror are winning the war. I've x'ed out certain points to protect my friend and his family. This was recieved today. While the final paragraph is disturbing, it only shows 1 thing. We are all human." This upper portion is my take.

Gloribee

XXXX, finally here’s my resume. I’ve been stuck at D-15 for several days, no flights, no power, no water except bottled water, MRE’s only. The only thing we did have was a lot of incoming.

By the way D-8 has been catching hell, several guys medevaced out, XXXXX ,he’s the foreman now you may not know him. He dashed out during a mortar attack and give first aid to a wounded guy. Great guy, they hit the fuel point and several other places several PPI people were badly injured, two lost their legs.

We’re taking fire everywhere now, F-2 has been hit every other day or so, they shelled the trailers where the PX people live yesterday. The Z-Lake water point was hit two weeks ago, one operator wounded in the foot.



Look over the resume, see if it’ll work and if you can give it to the individual, I don’t have the address, my computer was destroyed in the shelling, so this is a new one I had your address in my personal file. They’re trying to go into IT and find all my information on the main server, but that was hit also on Wednesday.



On the plus side we’re getting a lot of bunker time, a crazy way to make money.

There is more and more talk about a big pull out in late 2007, early 2008, but we’ll see, a lot of demobs right now.

I’d like to go in January /February but we’ll see what happens with the job offers; I’m planning on going back to XXXX XXXX in April for my second end of year R&R, but you know how poor the job market is in the XXXXX. It’s never been good but its worse now, the fishing is still bad everyone’s catch is down and the quotas are lower also.

Take care, most of the lads you knew here are gone or going, a lot of Turks and Bosnians like I said before and the language problem with them are bad. They’ve had several bad accidents due to it and of course the upper management is screaming about it.

We had two new guys quit the same day they arrived, as they flew in the airport took a few rockets that was it for them. They got off the plane and back on, so much for their adventure trip.



Several Soldiers we’re jailed for shipping weapons, explosives back to the U.S also. Now the U.S is worried about the gang members joining up to receive training and steal weapons. A whole series of articles in the Stars and Stripes on gang members in their Army and the troubles it’s causing. Several units in Germany have had serious gang problems and thieves of weapons, ammo, vests, night vision gear. It seems their supplying their friends back home for serious combat or gang wars.



Well take care, you made the right move


XXXX

Gloribee

Troops prep for third Iraq tour By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer
42 minutes ago



FORT STEWART, Ga. - With two combat tours under his belt and an unprecedented third fast approaching, Army Sgt. Steve Butcher gets a lot of questions about Iraq from his 6-year-old daughter, Molly.

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Do men use guns? Yes.

Do people get killed? Yes.

"Daddy, that's stupid," she told him when he returned from his second deployment about a year ago.

Recruits in Butcher's infantry unit have questions as well. Why are U.S. troops still in Iraq? Should they be going back?

Butcher, 27, sees the war in terms of simple economics: time, money and effort spend by terrorists fighting American forces in Iraq leaves them with fewer resources to plot another Sept. 11 back home.

"That's really all the justification I need," says Butcher, a squad leader from Rochester, N.Y. "I don't really worry about the politics of it. I can't do anything about that anyway."

While U.S. policymakers weigh bleak assessments of Iraq's future and Americans question the war's slow progress, the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division will begin deploying in January for its third tour.

With its latest deployment orders, the 3rd Infantry has been called to duty in Iraq more than any division in the Army. Its tanks and armored Bradley vehicles were among the first to rumble into Baghdad in the 2003 invasion.

The Fort Stewart-based troops have either been at war or training for it ever since. They deployed a second time in 2005 as Iraq elected its first democratic government. Now, a year after soldiers came home to their families, they'll be saying goodbye again.

That's not what Staff Sgt. Julius Moton expected after he deployed to topple Saddam Hussein's regime nearly four years ago. He'll be among the first wave of more than 4,000 troops with the division's 1st Brigade to depart next month.

"I thought that was it," said Moton, 27, of Cleveland, recalling the end of his first tour. "Now this time, it's almost less than a year from the last time. It's pretty stressful."

Most troops expected after returning from their second rotation that they would have to go back to Iraq, said Lt. Paul Fleming, a platoon leader in the 1st Brigade. They know the cycle will likely continue, he said, until the fledgling Iraqi military can defend the country on its own.

"They see the big picture," said Fleming, 26, of Killeen, Texas. "They know when these guys can take control themselves, we don't have to go over there anymore."

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, estimates about 60 percent of his soldiers have served at least one tour in Iraq.

"It used to be you'd walk into a formation and see one or two guys wearing a combat patch, and those were Vietnam veterans," Lynch said. "Now you see almost no one who doesn't have that right shoulder patch."

That experience has come at price — 147 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry died in its first two deployments to Iraq, more than two-thirds of them during the division's second tour.

Having served in Iraq twice already with the 3rd Infantry, Staff Sgt. Robert Dove knows the stakes. Framed photographs of eight soldiers killed in 2005 from his unit — the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment — hang on the wall outside the office of Dove's battalion commander.

Despite the pace of violence lately, Dove insists the war isn't a lost cause. He recalled arriving in the city of Samarra last year shortly after elections were held for Iraq's preliminary government. Turnout had been poor because residents feared violence at the polls.

Months later, when parliamentary elections were held, troops saw voters swamp the polls in Samarra.

"In some places they had to send voters to other sectors of the city because they ran out of ballots," said Dove, 28, of Blacksburg, Va. "There's progress being made. You saw the transition there in the city from when we first went in to the end."

Butcher said he still feels obligated to finish the job in Iraq.

"Were they to just give up, it would've been a complete waste of a lot of time, effort and people's lives — and three years of mine," he said. "Whether we should've gone or not is irrelevant at this point. There's no other honorable thing to do except to finish it out."

Brisk market for burial shrouds in Iraq holy city by Hassan Abdel Zahra
1 hour, 4 minutes ago



NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Najaf, home to the golden domed shrine of the Imam Ali, is Iraq's holiest Shiite city and has long lived off a constant flow of pilgrims.





Now, with Iraq engulfed in a vicious sectarian war, it also prospers from a never-ending flow of bodies that are brought for burial in one of the largest cemeteries in the world.

Every day fleets of minibuses ferry Shiite corpses to Najaf and the massive Wadi al-Salam (Valley of Peace) cemetery that stretches out from the old city to fill six square kilometers (about two square miles) with some five million graves.

Never has the business of death been more prosperous in Najaf than in the three-and-a-half years since the US-led invasion of Iraq.

As the Baghdad government's authority has slipped away, Sunni and Shiite bombers and death squads have torn into each other's communities in sectarian battles all over the central regions of the country.

"Figure that there are about 150 to 200 coffins arriving in the city every day," said 36-year-old Majid al-Jashami, who runs one of five centers for washing and preparing bodies in the city.

"If we wash about half that number of bodies, we're selling between 75 to 100 burial shrouds a day," he said.

During spikes in violence, such as on November 23 when more than 200 Shiites were killed in Baghdad car bombs, the numbers double, he added.

In fact the steady stream of corpses pouring into Najaf has become so great that a satellite cemetery has been opened in the nearby holy city of Karbala called Wadi al-Jadid (New Valley), to take the overflow.

Burial shrouds are big business in Najaf, not just for grieving relatives looking to bury their loved ones, but for pilgrims visiting the city who take them home for when their own time comes.

"These shrouds are special, they are blessed by the presence of the Imam Ali shrine," said Jashami.

Millions of pilgrims visit the shrine during various Shiite events, such as commemoration of Imam Ali's death, many from countries outside Iraq like Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran.

These pilgrims buy shrouds and then circle the tomb of Imam Ali with them, which adds to their holiness.

While there are only five firms specialising in the actual washing and preparing of the bodies for burial, shrouds can be bought in hundreds of places around the city, ranging from street vendors to large stores.

"The business of selling shrouds is pretty lucrative as buyers, especially the Iranians, can spend a lot," said 35-year-old salesman Odai al-Bahash.

A body is put to rest in a long shirt, which is then wrapped in a 1.5-metre (five-foot) length of cloth known as a "mizara".

"There's been a huge increase in the number of shops selling the shrouds," confirmed Bahash.

"Now there are something like 300 shops and street vendors selling these shrouds -- besides of course the hotels, which have their own outlets."

A basic shroud will run to about 8,000 Iraqi dinars (5.50 dollars, four euros) but more elaborate models made of costly fabrics and embroidered with Koranic verses and the names of the 12 revered Shiite imams and can cost up to 50,000 dinars.

"Those have to be made by special request," explained Bahash.

The basic shroud is made of a rough, cheap cotton fabric that comes from a factory in the city of Hilla, a short distance to the north, and is called a brown shroud.

The more expensive shrouds with inscriptions are white and made of specially imported fabrics, such as the finely woven Hama Yun cloth from Syria.

Business is good.

"The more deaths we have, the more we sell," confirmed Bahash. "Our line of work fits well with the old Arab proverb -- one's man's catastrophe is another man's opportunity."

Iraqi Leader Visits Iraqi Community in Detroit
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Posted GMT 12-16-2006 20:1:19
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Prominent Iraqi leader Sayyid Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim visited Dearborn last Saturday during his first visit to the U.S. Sayyid Al-Hakim's visit was seen as an opportunity to reassess the political situation in Iraq as President Bush is expected to announce a new policy direction before Christmas.

Sayyid Al-Hakim is the brother of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim. He serves as the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), considered one of Iraq's most prominent Shi'a political parties. His visit to Dearborn was welcomed by many in the relatively large and vibrant local Iraqi community.

Prior to arriving in Dearborn, the Iraqi leader was in Washington on December 4 to meet with President Bush and other ranking officials.. The meeting came on the heels of Iraqi Prime Minister Nour Al-Maliki's meeting with the president, and the release of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report last week. The report sent political shockwaves across the country because it included a stinging critique of the Bush administration's foreign policy. Prime Minister Al- Maliki and Sayyid Al-Hakim have drawn political fire back home for meeting with President Bush. Many prominent Sunni and Shi'a Iraqi leaders have blamed the U.S. for insecurity and a lack of progress in Iraq..

Sayyid Al Hakim arrived in Michigan Friday and attended events in the local Chaldean Iraqi communities in West Bloomfield and Southfield. Members of that community expressed concerns about the rapid emigration of Chaldeans and poor living conditions inside Iraq.

On Saturday, Al-Hakim toured Dearborn area institutions including the Islamic Center of America (ICA), Islamic Institute of Knowledge (IIOK), Bint Jebail Cultural Center, and the Karbalaa Islamic Center (KIC).

"I am delighted to be present here with my brothers and sisters of the Iraqi community… Shi'a, Sunni, Kurdish, Turkoman, Assyrian, Chaldean, and all others," he said to a loud welcoming from the crowd of almost 500 people packed in for dinner at the KIC.

As the leader visited, the civilian death toll in Iraq reached unprecedented levels, with almost daily car bombing attacks against Shi'a civilians in Baghdad, followed by reports of retaliation by "death squads" who claim to be taking revenge against "Sunni insurgents."

U.S. casualties continue to rise and the political debate domestically has exposed President Bush's weaknesses as a lame duck policy maker with a dismal approval rating. Criticism has come pouring in from both sides of the aisle, including harsh rhetoric from 2008 presidential hopefuls.

Still, Sayyid Al-Hakim seemed determined to defeat the insurgents and establish a fully functioning and effective central Iraqi government. Amongst talk about splitting the country up, Hakim rejected discord and contention, calling for the U.S. government to do more to help the Iraqis establish security so that the government could begin work on the political disagreements that would need to be dealt with.

"We look forward to the day when all Iraqis can lead peaceful and prosperous lives," he said in Arabic to the Iraqi crowd at KIC. He told the crowd that Iraqis still need help from the Americans with the security situation because the bulk of the violence was being perpetrated by outside forces.

By Tarek Baydoun
The Arab American News

Originally Posted by stik

I'm pretty new to rolclub and don't want to break any of the rules when I post. I've done a lot of lurking in the weeds, so to speak, because I am of a rather shy and retiring nature - mainly accustomed to the groves of academe. I will be glad to furnish my "creds" to any of you who might care to PM me separately...I can claim a doctorate in the hard sciences...but without any economics or political science background whatever.

For many years now I have worked with statistics and probability tables, etc. in order to discern which types of trends are important and how best to weight them - so that I could have a valid means of predicting future events. I believe I have (at least partially) succeeded.

Using the linked, discussed and agreed upon data which I have absorbed here on rolclub - although the parameters and weighting are my own and thus can be seen as MY opinion - I am willing to predict, within short ranges, the amount of the RV we all believe is coming, as well as the probable time of its occurrance.

Basically I guess I am asking whether it would violate rolclub's rules if I were to make such predictions and also whether other members would like to have
me do so?

Yes! Please do...I can't imagine statistics being thought of a "rumour"....

Originally Posted by danny51

Hopefully the second hand information you get will match the first hand information Inscrutable got from his guy and lay the mystery to rest.

Very simple solution.

Here is the word million, مليون if that doesn't suit than download the arabic version of Adobe reader, then copy and paste to google translator. The reason you are getting jumbly translations is because of the arabic font not carrying over correctly.

http://ftp3.winsoft.fr/Public/Tryout...t/AcTR7ARA.exe

Install Adobe arabic at your own risk.

I was referring to the Saddam era fils which are coins and would succeed in providing a currency that would reflect proper cost/price variations of goods and services that larger worth bills or coins could not do.

It doesn't seem like anyone is thrilled that tomorrow is Sunday the 17th. So I guess no RV tomorrow.

Originally Posted by D-Day

Here you go: http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2778

WOoT!!!

Originally Posted by Big Beaut

Yes! Please do...I can't imagine statistics being thought of a "rumour"....

I'll answer you all over time, as I can.

In the meantime, the consensus is that my predictions are best posted on the rumor thread, and I will, of course, comply with that view.

It'll likely save my life!!!

I hate it when this wonderful family of mine seems to be down in the dumps. I am not an economist, polisci buff or even a very good money manager (!).

The mood seems up...and that'll have to be my contribution.

See you over at the rumor thread.

(Remember, when the RV is a done deal...there'l be steaks and beer and so much laughter on the Eastern Shore of Virginia -y'all all come yoohoo over the fence...heah?)!