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The raid, which was carried out without informing Kurdish authorities, sparked a military standoff between US and Kurdish security forces that led to the evacuation of several US soldiers via helicopter. The attack was a blow to US-Kurdish relations at a time when Kurdish forces have been one of the few US allies in the occupation.
It is unclear at this point whether this provocation of Iran, which has been compounded by the announcement that an additional US carrier battle group will be deployed to the region, is the first step

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, or simply part of an effort to blame Iran for US difficulties in Iraq. In the worst case it could represent both, with the attempt to blame Iran for bolstering the Iraqi insurgency serving as an additional rationale for war, alongside the Bush administration's threatening rhetoric over the Iranian nuclear program.

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Popeye can you find out what that mentioned "next scheduled deployment" will be?

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By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 19 minutes ago

A Pentagon review of Iraq has come up with three options _ injecting more troops into Iraq, shrinking the force but staying longer or pulling out, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The newspaper quoted senior defense officials as dubbing the three alternatives "Go big, go long and go home."

The secret military study was commissioned by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and comes as political and military leaders struggle with how to conduct a war that is increasingly unpopular, both in the United States and in occupied Iraq.

The postelection debate over Iraq is intensifying as members of Congress from both parties pose remedies and the Bush administration hunts for answers.

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record) of New York proposed a military draft, which the administration has repeatedly said it doesn't need.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said more troops should be sent in and that the soldiers there now are "fighting and dying for a failed policy."

Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said troop withdrawals must begin within four to six months.

"I believe the consequences of failure are catastrophic," said McCain. "It will spread to the region. You will see Iran more emboldened. Eventually, you could see Iran pose a greater threat to the state of Israel."

Taking the opposite tack, newly empowered Democrats pressed their case for a phased withdrawal of American forces.

They hope a blue-ribbon advisory panel led by Bush family friend and former Secretary of State James Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, would propose a way ahead for Iraq, while making clear the U.S. military mission shouldn't last indefinitely.

Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he'd like to see the commission assert that U.S. troop commitments are not open-ended; propose a clear political road map for Iraq; and recommend engaging Iraq's neighbors in a political and diplomatic solution.

The United States should "begin to let the Iraqi leadership know we're not going to be staying," he said Monday on NBC's "Today" program.

"Over the next four months let them know we're going to start to phase out, force them to have to address the central issue. That is not how to stand up Iraqis, but how to get Iraqis to stand together," Biden said.

"The idea that we're going to have 140,000 troops in Iraq this time next year is just not reasonable," he said.

McCain, a front-running GOP presidential hopeful for 2008, said the U.S. must send an overwhelming number of troops to stabilize Iraq or face more attacks _ in the region and possibly on American soil.

"The consequences of failure are so severe that I will exhaust every possibility to try to fix this situation. Because it's not the end when American troops leave. The battleground shifts, and we'll be fighting them again," McCain said. "You read Zarqawi, and you read bin Laden. ... It's not just Iraq that they're interested in. It's the region, and then us." He was referring to Osama bin-Laden and the late al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

With about 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq more than 3 1/2 years into the war, the American military has strained to provide enough forces while allowing for adequate rest and retraining between deployments.

Rangel, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Sunday "there's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft."

In a speech Monday at Baruch College, Rangel said he wants to hold hearings into current troop levels and future plans for Iraq and other potential conflict regions, noting that the administration has said more troops may be needed.

If they are, the congressman said, it is impossible not to ask where more troops would come from _ making the draft an egalitarian way to meet those demands.

"If the country's in danger, everyone should share in the sacrifice," Rangel said.

Speaking with reporters afterward, Rangel said, "You cannot increase the military without raising the possibility of the draft."

He said the purpose of a hearing would be to ask questions, such as, "Mr. President, share with me what is victory, and if you have any clue what you're talking about, who is the enemy ... who do we negotiate the victory with ... who sets the agenda in the Middle East?"

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) said Monday that restoring the draft will not be on that list and was not something she supported. "The speaker and I discussed scheduling and it did not include that," said her top deputy, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record).

Rangel spoke Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," McCain appeared on ABC's "This Week," Levin on CNN's "Late Edition," and Biden wrote in Sunday's Washington Post.

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BLUEJACKET said:

So, which one is going to be picked in the end?

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Oceana jets safe from relocation for now
By DALE EISMAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 26, 2007

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon official formally closed out efforts Thursday to move hundreds of Navy jets from Oceana Naval Air Station to a former Navy base near Jacksonville, Fla.

In a letter to President Bush, Thomas F. Gimble, the Defense Department's acting inspector general, declared that Florida has failed to meet requirements set by a base closing commission in 2005 for acquiring more than 200 F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets now stationed at Oceana.

The long-expected decision ends an 18-month-old threat to Oceana, but leaves the base's long-term future up to the Navy. About 12,000 people work at the sprawling facility just west of the Oceanfront, making it Virginia Beach's largest employer.

"This doesn't get us out of the woods completely," cautioned U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake, R-2nd District, a prominent Oceana booster. She urged city officials to honor commitments to limit residential and commercial growth around the base.

Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf called the announcement "very good news for the city." She added that the struggle for Oceana has "taught me that when you have a military installation within your city limits, you have to continue to be vigilant to protect it."

Navy officials had no immediate comment.

Alarmed by mushrooming development in "accident potential zones" around Oceana, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission threatened in August 2005 to have the planes relocated to Cecil Field, which was closed in the mid-1990s.

The decision sparked a drive by Virginia Beach and state leaders to meet commission demands that they block new development near Oceana and acquire homes and businesses judged incompatible with the base.

But after the city refused to condemn the property of those unwilling to leave, Gimble declared last May that the planes could go to Cecil Field if Jacksonville met other conditions set by the BRAC panel.

Jacksonville residents had split over the plan soon after it was announced, and city officials decided in late 2005 against pursuing the jets.

Voters affirmed that decision in a referendum last November, making Gimble's letter Thursday a foregone conclusion.

Drake warned that, despite Gimble's decision, Oceana's "jets could move at any time" if Navy officials conclude that Virginia Beach is not keeping promises to control growth

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US officers in Baghdad were telling reporters last September that they opposed doing battle with the Shi’ite militia. Col. Joseph DiSalvo, commander of the US 3rd Infantry Division in eastern Baghdad, told Tom Lasseter of McClatchy News Service in December that it would be all but impossible for the US military to defeat the

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. "You'd have to have more manpower than is feasible," said DiSalvo.

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The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days.

Iraqi guards at checkpoints waved them through Saturday afternoon because the men wore what appeared to be legitimate U.S. military uniforms and badges, and drove cars commonly used by foreigners, the provincial governor said.

Once inside, however, the men unleashed one of the deadliest and most brazen attacks on U.S. forces in a secure area. Five American service members were killed in a hail of grenades and gunfire in a breach of security that Iraqi officials called unprecedented.

The attack, which lasted roughly 20 minutes, came on a day when the United States lost at least 20 other troops, including a dozen in a helicopter crash, making it the third most lethal day for American forces in Iraq.

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BAGHDAD Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away.

In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted the four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in Karbala and then shot them to death.

The U.S. military confirmed a report earlier Friday by The Associated Press that three of the soldiers were dead and one was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound.

The new account contradicted a U.S. military statement on Jan. 20, the day of the raid on an Iraqi governor's office, that five soldiers were killed "repelling" the attack.

The security breakdown and the dramatic kidnapping and murder of four soldiers leaked out just as President Bush faces stiffening congressional opposition over his plan to flood Baghdad and surrounding regions with 21,500 more American troops. Two of Congress's most vocal war critics, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha, were in the Iraqi capital as the news broke.

In a statement issued late Friday, the military said two of the soldiers were handcuffed together in the back seat of an SUV near the southern Iraqi town of Mahawil. A third dead soldier was on the ground nearby. The fourth soldier died on the way to the hospital.

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The_Zergling said:

Supplementing the above post, taking it into more detail. It's unclear who was ultimately responsible for the raid... The AQ? Mahdi Army? Revolutionary Guards? It's certainly disturbing, and highlights the US vulnerability in the area, especially now that after the escalation troops are now starting to hold and defend positions.

Obviously, somebody had time to spare (indicated by the uniforms at least). If the Mahdi Army is this good, then US troops are in even more danger than originally feared.

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Some later news reported that the Five Americans may not in fact have been killed while repelling the attack...

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