Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
““The terrorists stopped the bus at gunpoint and killed 22 men,” said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Hadi Rizayig, the provincial police chief. The highway is protected by the Iraqi Army, he said. Shiite pilgrims have been a frequent target for Sunni insurgents who are trying to revive the sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war just a few years ago. The attack on Monday came less than four months before the remaining United States troops, who surged into Iraq in large numbers in 2007 to stem the sectarian violence, are scheduled to leave the country. In Anbar, a province with a heavily Sunni Muslim population, insurgents have launched many attacks while posing as soldiers or security guards. And on Monday, one of the women who was forced off the bus told officials that four gunmen dressed in military uniforms had stopped the bus at a fake checkpoint……………”
At some point a few years ago, Salafi (and perhaps Ba’athis remnant) terrorists in Iraq discovered the joys of leaving American forces alone. Possibly the fact that these terrorists, also called “insurgents” by more genteel Western people and some delusional Arabs, were defeated in almost every direct military confrontation had something to do with that. Or maybe it were the severe retaliations that ensued. Or maybe they discovered the ease with which to kill Shi’a (and often Sunni) civilians: getting more bang for their bucks donated by neighboring Arab Salafi potentates. Most likely it was a combination of both. And also the fact that many Iraqis stopped sheltering, feeding, and providing them with women.
Now their goal seems odd: on the verge of realizing one of their old ‘stated’ goals, getting rid of the Americans, they are escalating the violence. As the prospects of a renewal of SOFA fade, their attacks get fiercer and bloodier. It is as if they want the American forces to remain in Iraq. If it didn’t sound so ridiculous, I’d suggest that some uber-hawkish U.S senators like McCain, Lieberman (Joe not Avigdor, and wtf is he nowadays?) and Graham are behind these baboons.
Cheers
mhg
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