The Interior Ministry is the real problem hear it needs to be totally reformed. It is almost as responsible for as many deaths as the insurgency itself. with these prisons and death squads.

I am an American. A natural-born US citizen. I am amazed at the short-sighted opinions of the cut and run folks who take this fabrication and run with it. If we did this for oil, where is it? Why do we have a shortage with high gas and heating oil prices? If we did this for world domination, why have we made no claim for Iraqi land or money? If oil, land or money are not the reasons we are there, maybe we should accept the obvious: we did it because we could not gamble on the chance Saddam was hooked up with terrorists. Even with yesterday's reports that old WMDs have been found and acquired, those weapons were still posed a danger to us if they had been sold or stolen and sold on the terrorist market. Since our military actions have taken place, we have not been attacked on US soil. Instead, the terrorists know we are not kidding around anymore and we will kill them if we are given the chance. No wonder they have hidden like roaches from light. No matter you opinion of President Bush, if he had played this out taking the safe way out by doing nothing more after Afganistan (the democrats' standard game plan), he would have been able to sit on his hands, coasted and enjoyed his tremdously high popularity, and took the calculated chance that Saddam would not try to screw with us by collaborating with the terrorists for an attack on the US. Instead, President Bush undertook a gamble to make sure that Saddam would not be a real threat to us on US soil by taking Saddam out. Sure this gamble has cost him, but it has taken the constant harping of the news media to brainwash the non-thinkers that the price for security is took high. If we were told upfront before the Iraqi invasion that it would cost us 10,000 US soldiers killed to eliminate Saddam as a threat, everyone's conventional wisdom would have lined-up to say that was an irresponsibly too low an estimate and to get real. We are still way below that number.
Count your blessings when you go to sleep tonight that the terrorists are in hiding and won't be bothering us. Our soldiers have willingly sacrificed to make our lives so much more safer. They know if we don't draw a line in the sand over there, the terrorists will be trying to draw a line in the sand over here. For all their false bravado, the terrorists now FEAR the US as they know we will kill them if they give us a reason to do so.
Remember, President Bush could have played it like a democrat and hid from his responsibilities, hoping no more attacks would be coming. He could have enjoyed great approval ratings and popularity. Instead, he choose to travel down the road that took the fight right to the terrorists and forced them to expend their efforts, suicide bombers, and resources fighting us on Iraqi soil, not US soil. Are you guys so blind that you don't see this?

Saddam was the right man for the job. He ruled Iraq with an iron fist and things ran fairly smooth. These people do not know what is freedom nor will they benefit from democracy. Thing were better for them before we came. They had woman's rights and 0%illiteracy. We the American's are the real terrorists in the world. We expect the whole world to live by our ideals and those that don't are forced to or killed. Bush and the rest of the republicans needs to go to hell and burn!!!!

U.S. political philosophies and more over, U.S. culture and values cannot be transplanted and grown in this Iraqi quagmire. I used to be very empathetic regarding this whole mess now I just want our soldiers home. Let the politicians go over there and try to effect change if they so desire it.

People need to remember this is a process and will take time. There are bad things going on in Iraq, but we need to focus on the insurgents that are killing people both civilian and military. If we can stop the insurgency then we can focus on the other problems taking place.

What is the real reason we are in Iraq in the first place? First it was WMD, then it was Regiem Change, now it is to bring Democracy. What right do we have to invade another country to impose democracy? We have never been given a clear reason why were there in the first place.
There has to be a bigger picture to all this somehow. But as generations of countries have found out that the Middle East is a brutal place. This story describes what daily life is like. Maybe it is better than before under Saddam, maybe it is worse. How would we even know?
I just hate to see our troops sacrafice their lives for such a poorly defined and unclear objective.

RCB San Diego

Why doesn't anybody talk about all the good in Iraq now. Schools are being rebuilt, people are going to work making a living to support their families. Sure tech is violence there still, but I bet a great majority of the Iraqis are happy we liberated them. The main stream media never reports on that and it make me sick they don't.There is a long road ahead for peace, but Rome wasn't built in a day

The Middle East is an area filled with illiterate, religious fanatics who spend their time hating, dwelling on hate, nurturing hatred and teaching their children to hate. They need something else to occupy their time. Maybe if we sent them a hundred million "X-Boxes" and piped in MTV...their youth would have something else to do with their time besides trying to figure out ways to kill each other.

I feel sad when I hear stories like this about Iraq. I always thought it was a bad idea for Bush to invade Iraq and based on what is going on, I was right. Now, I understand why Saddam governed the way he did. He had no choice.

korea viet nam laos somalia bosnia beirut iraq problems that were never solved militarily

How in the world could you possibly know what is REALLY going on in Iraq? Oh wait, you watched Bill Mahr, listened to Rush or sat through more semi-coherent rhetoric from Kerry or Mirtha? Check their sources please! After the latest leak, American media outlets like The New York Times might as well be called "Al Jazeera II". In my opinion, most journalists covering Iraq are just as guilty as American politicians - both Liberal and Conservative alike - THEY ONLY REPORT WHAT FURTHERS THEIR AGENDA! People please! It's neither as bad or as good as it is being reported. My brother spent a year in Iraq in Balad and he said that good things are happening in Iraq everyday; however, there are groups who do not want the country to succeed for their own selfish political/religious/socioeconomic reasons - NONE of which have anything to do with the U.S. troops being there. These problems existed before we showed up and are being magnified because it is finally being reported. The U.S. Government has been in awkward relationships with clandestine governments for a variety of reasons for decades. This has nothing to do with Bush II. He is a convenient scapegoat for bad U.S. policy that has existed for a very long time. Before you have a knee-jerk reaction to every word your favorite news outlet or politician is spewing at you - take into consideration their AGENDA, be skeptical, and take the time to check out the real story for yourself. Who knows if these "blogs" from Iraq are true? Just because some journalist says it is????

I get a kick out of some of the post saying that we are there for the oil. If that were true, why is our oil at an all time high. With us being there we would just take what we wanted and forget it. My brother in law has come back and he worked with the people in rebuilding some of the infrastructure of the cities. But we don't hear about that do we. We only hear of the nasty things that go on over there because it is considered news worthy. WRONG. Some people have water to their homes that never did before and electricity too. Some more schools have been built where schools have never been giving education to the children of Iraq.
As for being better when Saddam was in control. Ask the Kurds that he gassed in the community to the north. That is genocide, just as bad as Hitler. All you have to do is look at Saddams childhood to adult story and you will figure out if it was better while he was in power. Do some research.
Remember out of caos comes order. We are just in the caos right now.
As one post stated, the US has always come to the rescue and that is history too. Give our guys the support they deserve.

I believe in a democratic society,we let the Iraq people vote for a government,so now let them vote for our departure,if the vote was on the up&up the people will speak.

Having read many of the comments on Iraq and the cynical politics which planted the American army there, I would like to point out that the word
'democracy' did not exist in Iraqi Arabic until it was borrowed as a loan word. If the US is supposedly 'bringing liberty and democracy' to Iraq as Bush keeps claiming, might I suggest it be brought to places like Florida, Ohio & New Hampshire as well.
If the elections in 2000 were truly democratic, this war would not exist. Tens of thousands of Americans, Iraqis and other nationals would be alive and the Treasury would have $400 billion that could be devoted to health care, education, housing, etc.

The state of affairs in my country is steadly on the decline, however when i read these stories i feel more for these people and wonder if this is the Fate of the entire world. Everywhere the people in power (be they polititions or men with guns) abuse their power. Deaths are always the results of the quest of greed.
Thank you MSNBC for publishing some of the truth ...
If there is a God may he help us all.

As a British engineerI lived and worked in Iraq for an American company in the early eighties.I've since been back a few times including during and shortly after Desert Storm. I see little difference between then and now except now there is a plethora of journalists reporting what always went on and will go on long after our troops have left. Killing, like lying, is not considered immoral by an Arab. Simply a means to an end. Regardless of what Islam expounds in the mosques. Much like the attitude of the politicians who took us to war in the name of 'freedom and democracy' then had a closed conference on how much money would be made rebuilding Iraq. Theres a laugh. They can't even provide temporary water lines to villages reduced to ruins by our liberating troops. Now our own are decending into a bottomless pit of brutality, torture and murder that will only provoke a more murderous response by the 'insurgents'. If it is possible for them to be more murderous. There's talk of the death penalty being sought for US troops convicted of murder. If so we will then be killing our own. It can't get any worse than that.

When the Bush and the rest were planning this war I turned to a friend and said that Iraq will be basic training for the terroists. I see that my prediction has come true. Whar makes us so hollier than thou that we feel that we can just create democratic governments.

I think the United States Military should be unleased with every tool available and take care of the problems once and for all

Tom, Fresno.
The US lost it's war in Vietnam because they underestimated their enemy. As always. They're doing it again in Iraq. It never finished it's war in Korea. Ran out of steam in Desert Storm. It cut and ran from Lebanon, Somalia. Had big problems fighting a few hundred bricklayers in Granada and fell on it's ass in Haiti. Bin Ladens declared aim was to remove U.S. Troops from Saudi Arabia. They're gone. (He won?) I'm no historian but I can't think of a 'war' that the US has fought on it's own. With all of this in mind, do you really think the US has any hope at all of improving the lives of the Iraqis? Even if they wanted it. Get out now. They don't want us there and ninety days after we're gone a new Saddam will be in place and the carnage will be hidden again.

our troops have done what they can, its time to get them out, they have familes too, and love and miss them. the Iraqi people will revert back to their own ways as soon as we leave there, god, let them come home, asap. we've lose too much already. where is the line?

Folks,
Been there three times. Met the people of Nasiriyah, Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi in thier homes, mosques and city centers. These people are conditioned to act in this manner by 35 years of state run murder squads and eons of similar "strongman" iron fist rule. This is both an expected way of doing business in this country and the result of years of one side doing it to the other without authorized retribution. You and I are not going to change this for most, but we have to beleive that over time (alot of it), some enlightened individuals can bring the others into the light. This ain't no overnight solution and that was the critical flaw in the plan, because our society lacks the stomach for what is required here. I have seen our nation's finest young men in the worst places in the world, eating mud, soaked in thier buddies blood and still not lose hope or heart. Try to meet them halfway.....

As someone who spent a few months in Iraq, it is galling to read all of these comments from people who listen to biased reporters whether they are for or against the war. When reporters want you to feel a certain way, they may not say how they feel about it but the way they portray a picture and the slant they put on it is enough. The truth is, no one knows the truth! Even when you see things with your own eyes you don't know the whole story. I saw enough while I was in that country to believe that the core of the Iraqi culture is so fundamentaly different that our way of thinking is as foreign to them as theirs is to us. I understand that force must be used to stop the insurgents, however, it is rather like spanking a child because the child hit someone else. For the most part the Iraqis are seeing an outside group doing the same thing that Saddam did while he was in power by forcing their way on the people. All of that being said, if we don't finish what we started we will be in worse shape than before because to "cut and run" would be a sign of giving up. Hopefully before we leave we will try to rebuild and educate so the people there will see Ameicans as representatives of a country that really does care about other people, regardless of what the politicians are doing.

Yes, there are ulterior motives to U.S. involvement in the Middle East, but is everyone forgetting the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil? The Muslim and Islamic holy book, the Qu’ran, is filled to the brim with hatred and violence. The book says that all non-believers should be punished. At this moment, U.S. troops are mainly acting as regulators and are there to try and stabilize the country, and the world knows that the troops will be withdrawn when stability is reached. The insurgency claims that they are just defending against the occupiers… so why wouldn’t they lay low and draw up their plans for when the occupiers leave. It seems more like they consider U.S. troops Catholic infidels and are killing for religious reasons. To the U.S. this is a political war, to the insurgency it is their Jihad (holy war). To me, it is murder... just look up “Juba” the Baghdad Sniper and listen to him chant “Allah Akbar” (god is great) after he snipes U.S. soldiers as they stand among Iraqi children. I wish a quick and graceful end to the war, and a settlement among the religions

A large percentage of people are saying to get the U.S. troops out of Iraq ASAP, but do they realize what ASAP means...As Soon As Possible, and it is not possible right now, so support for our men risking their lives DAILY is more important than repeatedly laying the blame on the U.S. Gov't and saying that the troops need to leave now. We have gone too far to withdraw now, we can't make all the losses from all involved parties for naught.

Americans it makes me cry as I watch Rome burn. Everyone thinks we will be on the trash heap of the world forever. There will come a time that we as Americans will pay for our arrogance and our failure to pay attention to what's really going on in the world. Consolidation of resources by any means neccesary. Bush is just a product of his environment
and we beleive what he says because he's just like the majority of americans. Lazy and uninformed about the world, and not really caring unless it affects america. Such a waste....