US commander: 'we have turned a corner' in Ramadi

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14216530.htm

US commander: 'we have turned a corner' in Ramadi


WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. commander said on Friday he was confident American and Iraqi troops can take control of the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi without a large-scale offensive like that used to seize Falluja in 2004.

"I think we have turned a corner here in Ramadi. There is still a lot to do, but we're on the right track," said Army Col. Sean MacFarland, who commands forces in and around the Sunni Muslim city of 400,000 people, 110 miles (177 km) west of Baghdad.

MacFarland declined to predict how long it would take to pacify Ramadi, capital of the restive Anbar province.

"Ramadi is one of the active seats of the insurgency. And over the past month, we've conducted a series of operations to clear and then hold and then build in various sections of Ramadi and its immediate environments," MacFarland told reporters at the Pentagon by teleconference from Ramadi.

[Taverner]

1. How many fucking corners are we gonna turn?????

[Posteritatis]

3. Spirals have lots of corners! (nt)

[rusty charly]

13. Mazes have lots of corners, too!

[LaurenG]

4. Sounds like we've effectively gone in circles

several times.

[joemurphy]

5. If you keep turning in the same direction you go in circles.

[Amonester]

9. Like a snake would turn corners to bite its tail.

Maybe they R in their last throes now? :shrug:

[radfringe]

29. a more apt cliche would be

'running around in circles like a chicken with it's head cut off...'

[rosesaylavee]

2. There they go again...

turning corners as they go round in yet another circle.:crazy:

[Theres-a]

6. Turned a corner into hell

Fuckers.Lying rat bastards.Corner my big fat ass.

[ixion]

15. my response exactly

[Virginia Dare]

7. Another corner turned in the Iraqi labrynth...

pardon me if I don't get too overly excited about this little bit of news.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. we at DU should pen a song called "Turned the Corner"

make it rhyme, and fit it to a well-known tune that sticks in your head.

[saltpoint]

10. Peace is at hand. Check's in the mail. Republicans have brains.

[kineneb]

25. light at the end of the tunnel

is an on-coming train...

[leftchick]

11. this is funny! I just started an article about those turns in Iraq!

CLEVELAND, OH, United States (UPI) -- The Bush administration delights in finding 'turning points' in Iraq so often that by now we must have turned our way through a maze.

However, the events in Iraq to which the administration points are nothing more than new acts in the playacting offered by Iraq`s government and security forces. Real turning points would be evidence that a state is coming into being in Iraq. Two recent signposts suggest the contrary -- namely, that any possibility of recreating an Iraqi state is receding.

The first report is from the June 28 Washington Times in a piece entitled, 'Shiite Iraqi militia regroups into `gang of thugs.` The article reports that 'Prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a foe of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, has lost control of his Mahdi Army, which has embarked on a wide range of criminal activity, defense officials said.

'The officials said the Mahdi Army...has become a criminal organization that commits homicides, kidnappings and robberies in the Baghdad area.'

As usual, our 'defense officials' show their lack of understanding of Fourth Generation War, ir 4GW, situations, where 'both/and' is more common than 'either/or.' As to whether al-Sadr, has lost 'control' of his Mahdi Army, control generally being loose in 4GW, time will tell. But like every other militia in Iraq, the Mahdi Army is also a criminal gang, doing what criminal gangs do. The same individual can be and often is a Mahdi Army militiaman, a criminal and a member of the Iraqi police or army. Maybe Americans would get it better if they thought of 4GW as the world`s biggest all-you-can-eat buffet.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1180779.php/Military_Matters_Bad_signs_in_Iraq

[saigon68]

28. LOL what ass clowns

In 67 Wastemoreland predicted that we had turned a corner and victory was in sight.

More propaganda for the sheep

[gasperc]

12. too bad it's in the wrong direction

maybe he should get that new Verizon phone with the built in map feature, yeah that's the ticket

[RobertSeattle]

14. Rummy needs to send out a memo

From: SecDef
To: Field Commanders, Iraq
Re: Do not use "turned a corner" as a metaphor for referring to anything in Iraq.

Thanks.

Rummy

[Robb]

20. No kidding

I can't believe anyone would. It's been mocked so much. :rofl:

[Roland99]

16. Well, considering the number of times the US has laid seige to Ramadi.....

Well, how many more times will US and Iraqi troops work together to liberate Ramadi from terrorists?


Let's count up the previous attempts, shall we?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Roland99/4

[Barrett808]

17. So we can't even control the capitol, but Ramadi's in the bag

Right.

[Solly Mack]

18. It's called a circle....

there are no corners...you just keep going around and around and around...never getting anywhere.

[Javaman]

19. "confident American and Iraqi troops can take control of Ramadi"

no shit, there's no one left there, they all got the hell out or were bombed to pieces.

man they got this washing maching stuck on spin cycle.

[rodeodance]

21. all these turning of corners should make us all DIZZY

[saigon68]

35. Its Dizzy in here.

[shadowknows69]

22. Once more around the block James

n/t

[hadrons]

23. "A U.S. commander said on Friday he was confident " WAS CONFIDENT

headline's a little dishonest, huh "liberal media"

[BarbaRosa]

24. Yup, these are real corner turning times were living in. n/t

[WhiteTara]

26. every time they turn a corner

they run into a brick wall. I must say, this "war" has more corners than NYC.

[VegasWolf]

27. Which corner, Hollywood & Vine?

:popcorn:

[Oak2004]

30. When I was a kid, it was "light at the end of the tunnel" we mocked

Little did I expect that the Pentagon would come up with another ridiculous cliche of a lie for the same damn thing again in my lifetime.

Yep, if you turn too many corners, you've gone around in a circle.

Ugh.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. "A" corner?

Let me know when you turn "the" corner.

Piffle.

[LostinVA]

32. Ramadi has more corners than the Indy 500 n/t

[Neshanic]

33. Kinda like Bugs Bunny. Watch that last step, it's a LULU!

Around the 7th corner, may be the corner that leads to Iran.

[outofbounds]

34. Well If Iran

is supplying the insurgent's with IED's and sending them into Iraq to create havoc (as I have seen discussed before on CNN). Then we should see a slow down in Iraq. If Iran is behind Hezbolla and truly sending people into Syria and Lebanon which they are around the corner from.

[w4rma]

36. I dont think the phase "turned a corner" means what they think it means.nt

[Porcupine]

37. So americans can walk freely in Ramadi? Not likely.

From discussions with Vietnam veterans I know it clear to me that were are in a worse position in Iraq today than at any time during the Vietnam conflict.

I know an Yale classmate of *'s who tells stories of walking through the streets of Vietnamese neighborhoods during the war and watching how people behaved. He was an officer at the time and did not feel the need to wear a helmet or body armor.

There is no place in Iraq today where an american can survive walking through a native occupied urban neighborhood without weapons, helmet, body armor and a platoon of armed troops nearby.

Nobody believes our lies anymore.

[Demeter]

38. ...Into A Blind Alley. With No Escape.

I was standing in line chatting to the fellow next to me--he'd been in Bush Sr.'s Iraq war, and all he could talk about was the heat in Iraq (well, it was pushing 100F and 100% where we were at the time).

No discussion of the horror of war, war crimes, casualties, nothing. Of course, damn few people died that time.

I felt a little sick--and it wasn't from the heat!