THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

Right, and they aren't holding themselves to that standard, and therefore we are justified in killing them and saying that they are the enemies of freedom.

I see the point that you are trying to make, but we can't affect the way the insurgents act, period. We can control our own troops. It is critical that we maintain our control, and our higher standards, if we wish to win in Iraq. Otherwise, we are no different than they!

Cycloptichorn

I see the point that you are trying to make, but we can't affect the way the insurgents act, period. We can control our own troops. It is critical that we maintain our control, and our higher standards, if we wish to win in Iraq. Otherwise, we are no different from they!

... Your "evidence" amounts to the words "indications" "tolerance" and the phrase "may even have helped," in regard to your claims above.

... Do you have proof of your allegation that if we were to wait until we had proof instead of Powell's allegations we'd all be dead certain and certainly dead, or is this merely hyperbole as a pretext for the justification of support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq?

... And because the murder of thousands of Americans was accomplished without WMD, but with box cutters etc. do we plan on invading and occupying all countries with box cutters, and those that would harbor wielders of box cutters and the deadly like?

Syria's murderous role
By Richard Carlson, Barbara Newman and William Cowan

A factor complicating the coalition mission of bringing stability to Iraq is the covert role played by Syria in financing and supporting the present insurgency, and the ineffectual attempts by the United States to counter it or even publicly acknowledge it.

A number of current and former U.S. intelligence officers experienced in counter-terrorism who were interviewedbytheauthors believe that Syria should have been long ago included on Washington's "axis of evil" list although it is still not. But the State Department, acknowledging recent publicly cooperative gestures from Syrian President Bashar Assad (a British-trained eye doctor who "inherited" the presidency and the leadership of the Ba'ath Party from his bloodthirsty deceased father, President Hafez Assad) considers Syria a "partner" in the war on terror. This, in spite of a documented list of Syrian perfidy against the United States that begins with the bombings of the American Embassy and the Marine compound in Beirut in 1983 that killed more than 240 young Marines and sailors. There was no punishment for those murders then or since, even though the bomb-making materials passed through Damascus on their way to Beirut, and Syrian intelligence assisted in the fabrication of the device and in the attacks' operational planning.

The Syrians went on to shoot down two U.S. Navy jets in 1983, again without the slightest response on the part of the United States. By 1985, as Hezbollah began to morph from various radical elements in Lebanon into a full-fledged terrorist organization, Syria provided access for the movement of men, supplies and materials to move freely through Damascus on their way to and from terrorist centers and camps in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and Tehran.

When Pan Am 103 was downed over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, the world soon focused on Libyan intelligence as the culprit. And it was. But the planning for the operation had been conducted in Damascus under the watchful eye of Syrian intelligence.

When the Khobar Towers were bombed in Saudi Arabia in 1996, at a cost of 19 U.S. servicemen's lives, it was Syria which had been nurturing Hezbollah with cash and secret bases.

Yet last year, after a meeting in Damascus with Mr. Assad, Secretary of State Colin Powell held a news conference in Washington to tell the American public he had received assurances that Syria would crack down on terrorists and evict the many terrorist organizations headquartered in Damascus. To date, no terrorist groups have left, and there are no visible signs that Syria has cracked down on anyone.

In the earliest stages of the ground war in Iraq, U.S. forces engaged uniformed Syrians near Baghdad, killing more than 100 of them. Current intelligence reports on battlefield kills, captures and interrogations, show that hundreds of Syrians are fighting alongside insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.

In October of this year, U.S. intelligence sources identified three relatives of Saddam Hussein, who had fled to Syria and were funneling millions of dollars to the Iraqi insurgents through middlemen and front companies.
U.S. intelligence sources have told the authors that Syrian intelligence officials have identified targets for the insurgency, provided its members with logistical support and helped plan operations against coalition forces.
Syrian intelligence officials have allegedly shown visitors a video of the beheading of two American soldiers who were captured in Iraq, possibly in fighting near the airport in the early days of the invasion. They were allegedly beheaded by Syrian fighters working with the Iraqi insurgents. The U.S. government disclaims any knowledge of this, but two sources who say they have seen the video described it in detail to one of the authors. In a meeting with Syrian intelligence officers in which the tape was supposedly shown, said the source, a Syrian official mocked the executions by saying "this is what we do to Americans."President Bush's insistence on not compromising with terrorists has been endorsed by a majority of the citizens of the United States and by the leaders of our global allies. The president's goals in Iraq, and elsewhere in the region, will not be achieved until the Syrians are forced to halt all assistance to our enemies. To win the ground war in Iraq and the larger war on terrorism, we must stop more than two decades of Syrian complicity with terrorists. Failure at this point is not an option.

William Cowan is a retired U.S. Marine colonel and counterinsurgency and terrorism expert. Barbara Newman is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Richard Carlson ran the Voice of America during the last years of the Cold War and is vice chairman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

ican711nm
Are you attempting to justify the torture based upon the actions of the insurgents. That my friend won't wash. Have we turned our detention centers into concentration camps staffed by the Gestapo?

No. As the aggressors of this fight, we have broken international laws in invading another country. We claim to be doing this out of a desire to help the Iraqi people, and our actions must support this claim if we expect the Iraqi people and other ME citizens to back up what we are doing. Otherwise, we are no better than invaders, and should be repulsed from the country.

You see, our moral superiority is critical to the success of the US in the region. Without it, we will lose. That is why our troops are held to a higher standard.

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have."

"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have."

The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the "self-serving hypocrisy" of George W Bush's administration over the Middle East.

On "the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds", the report says, "American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended".

"American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies."

In two years the jihadi message - that strongly attacks American values - is being accepted by more moderate and non-violent Muslims. This in turn implies that negative opinion of the US has not yet bottomed out.