Quotes of the Morning: Getting Ahead in Iraq

“Bad news in Iraq. Apparently the three month death toll of U.S. troops is at an all time high.”
-Skippy

“The violence is also causing American deaths. U.S. military officials said a soldier was killed during combat operations Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in eastern Baghdad. Four soldiers were injured. On Tuesday, a Marine was killed in combat in al-Anbar Province west of the capital, the military reported Wednesday.
Those deaths brought to 92 the number of U.S. troops killed so far in June. There have been 322 U.S. casualties in Iraq since the beginning of April, making the last three months the most deadly period for U.S. forces since the war began in March 2003.”
-Washington Post, June 28, 2007

“Our allies aren’t feeling that good about things either.”
-Skippy

“Three British soldiers have been killed and another seriously injured by a roadside bomb after they dismounted from their armoured patrol in southern Iraq.”
-Guardian Unlimited (UK), June 28, 2007

“And the Iraqis caught in the middle of the fighting are getting a little beaten up.”
-Skippy

“A massive car bomb exploded at a street-side bus depot during Baghdad's Thursday morning rush hour, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 40 others in a tremendous explosion that set fire to scores of vehicles, Iraqi police said.
[…]
Arabia TV showed a huge crater in the street where the car bomb exploded. The Associated Press reported that as many as 40 empty minibuses were incinerated in the blast and subsequent fires.
The attack followed a late-night car bombing on Wednesday that killed at least 14 people near a major Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiya neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police reported.”
-Washington Post, June 28, 2007

“But we need to look on the bright side. Sure there are problems with the Shiites and the Sunni, but the Kurds are much, much better off than they were under Saddam.”
-Skippy

“The head of Turkey’s powerful armed forces reaffirmed on Wednesday his view that a cross-border operation into northern Iraq was needed to crush Kurdish rebels based there.”
-Daily Times (Pakistan), June 28, 2007

“Um.. For now.
Despite all of this, America sees progress…”
-Skippy

“America's second-ranking diplomat in Iraq predicted progress by fall on bringing together Iraq's feuding factions as violence claimed more lives yesterday, including 14 people killed in a late-night car bombing near a Shi'ite shrine in the capital.
In all, at least 60 Iraqis were killed or found dead across the country, most of them in the Baghdad area, according to police reports. Also yesterday, one American soldier was killed and four were wounded in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad, the US command said.”
-Associated Press, June 28, 2007

“…and you should never forget that we are working hard there to re-build the country and create new infrastructure.”
-Skippy

“One of Baqouba's main thoroughfares is so packed with IEDs that the U.S. military is considering declaring it ‘irrevocably mined,’ said Col. Steve Townsend, commander of the Army's 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
U.S. forces would then build their own road - right alongside the mined one - and guard it 24 hours a day, said Townsend, 47, from Griffin, Ga.
[…]
On May 6, a deep-buried IED killed six U.S. soldiers from Townsend's brigade serving in Baqouba, along with a Russian photographer embedded with them. The blast flipped their Stryker vehicle -- an eight-wheeled, 37,000-pound troop carrier -- upside down and tore out the interior, killing everyone inside except the driver.”
-Associated Press, June 27, 2007

“Just remember that rebuilding a country takes time. We definitely shouldn’t lose our heads about all of this.”
-Skippy

“Twenty beheaded bodies were discovered Thursday on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad, while a parked car bomb killed another 20 people in one of the capital’s busy outdoor bus stations, police said.”
-Associated Press, June 28, 2007