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Today's Nuze
Wednesday, April 7, 2004

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN IRAQ

There is intense fighting in several areas across Iraq. Some US Marines say that the fighting is more intense than any they faced last year prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein. Islamic radicals have seized control of at least one city and of a couple of bridges over the Euphrates River.

What's going on? Is this that civil war the detractors have been warning us about?

You could say that there are two new fronts in Iraq. As many as 12 U.S. Marines were killed yesterday in intense fighting in the western Iraqi town of Ar-Ramadi. Coalition officials say the attack was mounted by remnants of Saddam's ousted Baath Party. The insurgents took heavy casualties. This is on top of what happened last week in Fallujah, where four civilian security guards were killed and mutilated.

We also have the insurgency being led by a chubby little radical Islamic Cleric named Muqtada al-Sadr. al-Sadr is the son of an Islamic Ayatollah who was murdered by Saddam Hussein. You would think he would be appreciative of the efforts of the coalition. Not so. al-Sadr isn't quite old enough to have earned respect as an Islamic leader ... so he is determined to claim that position through rhetoric and violence. It was his newspaper that was shut down by coalition forces two weeks ago ... shut down because it was calling for the murder of American civilians and soldiers wherever they could be found.

So al-Sadr has decided that now is the time for him to send his militia out to drive the Americans from Iraq. At the present time, al-Sadr is said to be barricaded in his offices in Najaf. He is surrounded by armed supporters. Isn't it a good thing when these radicals gather together in one place? Are these "supporters," really members of Sadr's private army, not vulnerable to a few well placed laser-guided bombs?

If the coalition shows some guts ... and every indication is that it will .. al-Sadr and his militia will be pretty much history in a few days, as will the remnants of the Baathist regime currently making its last stand.

The radical elements in Iran are afraid. They're there ... and they know much better than most Americans that the war in Iraq has been an incredible success. Most of the country is at peace. People are going about their business, living in freedom for the first time. There is more electricity and clean water than there was before the war. More children are going to school. Businesses are opening left and right. There is more health care available to the average Iraqi than there was under Saddam.

A recent poll shows that Iraqis are overwhelmingly glad Saddam is gone. Oxford Research International reports that that the three most-admired Iraqi officials are all members of the Iraqi Governing Council. This surely is bad news to the Baathist losers and al-Sadr. In fact, only one percent of Iraqis say that al-Sadr is the Iraqi leader they most trust.

Seventy-eight percent of Iraqis say that attacks on coalition forces are not acceptable. And 56% of Iraqis say that their lives are better now then they were under Saddam.

Now this may not get reported in the States. After all, it isn't exactly good news for Democrats. But you can bet those who want to disrupt coalition plans and seize control of Iraq for one faction or another know the numbers. They're getting desperate. They know that power is scheduled to be handed over to the Iraqi governing council on June 30th, and they don't like that one bit. The Islamic terrorists want all the power to rule as they see fit, and they aren't the list bit interested in the freedom of speech and freedom of religion guaranteed in the new Iraqi Constitution. They hate democratic processes. They want it their way, and we're not letting them have it.

Cut and run? Pull our troops out now? Sure ... that would be a wonderful idea, if, that is, you want the entire Middle East to descend into chaos. America cannot be safe from Islamic terrorism if it does not see this through.

Some people hate me saying this ... but this is World War IV, my friends. Fight it over there now, or fight it here later.

AND THIS JUST IN

American Marines are now in Fallujah ... collecting the garbage, so to speak, after last week's attack on four American civilian contractors. One reporter says that this is a rout for the Marines. We're told that the bodies of Iraqi insurgents are being stacked like cordwood. Good. Let them stay there and rot. A reminder of what will happen to those who test American resolve.

http://www.boortz.com