June 23, 2006

Get It Now?

Story:
The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed throughout the morning with attackers carrying rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles in busy Haifa Street, which runs into the Green Zone, site of the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government.

Four Iraqi soldiers and three policemen were wounded, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.

The area was sealed and Iraqi and U.S. forces conducted house-to-house searches.

The fighting was unusual in its scope and intensity. There have, however, routinely been clashes along Haifa Street, making it so dangerous that a sign at one Green Zone exit checkpoint warns drivers against using it.

U.S. and Iraqi forces also fought gunmen in the volatile Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle southeast of the capital, the U.S. military said.
There is no good solution to the situation we have created in Iraq. None.

Get Out Now -- Just Do It.

It's Vietnam all over again, but the consequences will almost certainly be significantly worse. And of course, they don't get it.

They can't afford to.