americans more supportive of continuing the war

Poll surprises out-of-touch paper (highly redacted…)

Debra J. Saunders, Thursday, August 2, 2007 

When the New York Times poll found that the number of Americans who think it was right for the United States to go to war in Iraq rose from 35 percent in May to 42 percent in mid-July, rather than promptly report the new poll findings, the paper conducted another poll.

As the Times’ Janet Elder wrote Sunday, the increased support for the decision to go to war was “counterintuitive” and because it “could not be easily explained, the paper went back and did another poll on the very same subject.”

Round Two found that 42 percent of voters think America was right to go into Iraq, while the percentage of those polled who said that it was wrong to go to war had fallen from 61 percent to 51 percent. Elder wrote that growing support for the war seemed odd: “Once in a while a poll finding doesn’t make sense.” It occurred as Congress was debating the war and the Bush administration had to report that Iraq had failed to meet a number of benchmarks for progress.Gen. David Petraeus (was put)…in charge of Iraq and implement(ed)… his nuanced counterinsurgency and no-retreat surge plan.

…the Petraeus strategy does not…bolster the decision to go into Iraq -  the poll did not find a change in voter approval of Bush’ handling of the war -Yet when asked if Washington should wait until September before making major changes in Iraq, 51 percent said yes, 38 percent said no.

With the death toll of U.S. troops surpassing 3,560, Americans have cause to be wary and distressed. They may tell pollsters that they are pessimistic, but that does not mean that they are prepared to lose.

heartbreak

Photo by Marwan Ibrahim/AFP-Getty Images

Mahmud Wagaa al-Juburi (C) grieves the death of his five children in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, 03 August 2007. First Iraqi police found yesterday an eight-year-old boy weeping among the corpses of his murdered elder brothers. The Wagaa brothers were not soldiers or policemen or even rebel fighters: They worked as painters and decorators on short-term government contracts, first in their hometown of Mosul and then further south in Kirkuk.

Heartbreak: Father Buries Five Murdered Sons

update on the war zone, by wapo, arabic TV outraged: child watches murder of five brothers

Suicide Bomber Kills 13 at Iraqi Police Post (excerpt)

By Megan Greenwell Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, August 3, 2007

BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 — A suicide car bomber drove into a police station north of Baghdad on Thursday and detonated his explosives, killing 13 people, police said. 

Hibhib, a small town with a largely Sunni population, is where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by an American airstrike last year, and Hakman said he believes Thursday’s attack was the work of that group. The number of insurgents in the town linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq has risen recently as military operations in Baqubah, Baghdad and western Anbar province pushed them out of those areas, Hakman said.

News of the attack came shortly after the U.S. military announced that the Iraqi army had killed a man in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday who was suspected of leading al-Qaeda in Iraq there.

The military said an Iraqi army convoy had spotted the man, identified only as Safi, as he rode in a pickup truck. Soldiers attempted to pull the vehicle over. The man’s bodyguards opened fire on the soldiers, who shot back, killing the bodyguards and Safi.

On Thursday night, police said, mortar shells hit the Baghdad offices of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the country’s largest Sunni political group. The attack came a day after the group announced it would withdraw five of its six ministers from the government in protest against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s policies. In a public statement Thursday, Maliki formally asked the Accordance Front to reconsider its decision.

Meanwhile, police in the northern city of Kirkuk announced that they had found a young boy crying next to the corpses of his five adult brothers. The five were apparently killed in sectarian violence after they and the boy were abducted Wednesday as they drove south out of the city, police said.

News that a child had apparently been present during the killings created nationwide outrage. Newscasters on Arabic-language television stations spoke at length about the incident, and several prominent politicians and religious leaders condemned the kidnappers.

The U.S. military said two U.S. troops were killed Tuesday in Baghdad by indirect fire, a term that usually means a rocket or mortar attack. The announcement raises the number of U.S. troops killed in July to 80, one fewer than in March. U.S. death tolls exceeded 100 in April, May and June.

u.s. robots will do the killing: three drones dispatched to Iraq

First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq (excerpt from Danger Room)

By Noah Shachtman August 02, 2007 | 5:56:00 PM

Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began.  Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the machines are carrying guns. 

After years of development, three “special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system” (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns.  The ‘bots “haven’t fired their weapons yet,” Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM.  “But that’ll be happening soon.”

The SWORDS — modified versions of bomb-disposal robots used throughout Iraq — were first declared ready for duty back in 2004. But concerns about safety kept the robots from being sent over the the battlefield.  The machines had a tendency to spin out of control from time to time.  That was an annoyance during ordnance-handling missions; no one wanted to contemplate the consequences during a firefight. 

So the radio-controlled robots were retooled, for greater safety.   In the past, weak signals would keep the robots from getting orders for as much as eight seconds — a significant lag during combat.  Now, the SWORDS won’t act on a command, unless it’s received right away.  A three-part arming process — with both physical and electronic safeties — is required before firing.   Most importantly, the machines now come with kill switches, in case there’s any odd behavior.  “So now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy,” Zecca says.

and a reader’s response:

Wow, this is really a low point in the honor and integrity of our armed forces. The more we remove ourselves from the moral responsibility of taking human life, the more we will be willing to take it without regard to the consequences.

To me this is another reason why we can’t win this struggle against these extremists, they are all to willing to put everything on the line, while we look for ways to get out of the fight and engage from air conditioned command centers.

“If these robots kill an innocent civilian, who will be held responsible?”

Probably no one, they’ll write it off as some sort of malfunction and bad officers will finally free themselves from the responsibility of command.

Posted by: DF | Aug 2, 2007 2:22:47 PM