Iraqi Trainees Executed, While Isreali's Rattle Sabre

The "Lert-Behind" Rapture Fundies must be beside themselves with glee as they witness the unfolding of the blueprint for the second coming of Jeebus. Iraq is becoming increasingly untenable, and Isreal is threatening to attack Iran. With the occupent of the white house convinced that he will shake hands with Jesus soon, don't expect him to back Sharon down. After this I can only wonder where we are going to find Iraqi's to fill uniforms in the Iraqi security force.

BAGHDAD. Oct. 24--The bodies of 49 freshly trained Iraqi army recruits were discovered on a roadside about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad, lined up and executed by insurgents, Iraqi officials said early Sunday.

In a separate attack, a State Department security officer was killed when a rocket or mortar landed in a U.S. military base at 5 a.m., according to a spokesman for the American embassy.

The killings of Iraqi recruits occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday near the army's main training base in Kirkush, which the recruits had just left aboard three buses to begin a leave, according to officials and news service reports. The buses stopped at a checkpoint manned by insurgents clad in uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard, according to the al-Aribyia satellite news channel.

The recruits appeared to have filed off the buses, lined up in four rows and laid down before being shot. The first 37 bodies were discovered Saturday night. Another 12 were found after daybreak Sunday.

"After inspection, we found out that they were shot after being ordered to lay down on the earth," said Gen. Walid Azzawi, commander of the provisional police in Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, according to the Associated Press.

It was unclear what kind of security, if any, accompanied the recruits, who apparently were unarmed. The victims were said to be largely from Iraq's southern provinces, and were traveling toward home on a road that hugs Iraq's border with Iran. The bodies were found near Mandali, a town on the road leading south and east from Kirkush.

These guys were unarmed, and executed by a well informed resistance. John Kerry suggested that we should train the Iraqi forces outside the theatre if necessary, and he's right. Who is going to sign up now? How many bricks fell in how many pairs of trousers worn by soon to be former members of the IDF.
Now Isreal has to up the ante and threaten Iran with a unilateral strike against its Nuclear infrustrucure. Sweet, bring on the four Horsemen.

JERUSALEM — Increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear program, Israel is weighing its options on a military strike to prevent the Islamic republic from gaining the capability to build atomic weapons, according to policymakers, military officials, analysts and diplomats.

Israel is watching U.N. and European efforts to forge a diplomatic agreement to shut down Iran's uranium-enrichment program, but if it concluded that Tehran was approaching a "point of no return," it would not be deterred by the difficulty of a military operation, the prospect of retaliation or the international reaction, officials and analysts said.

Iran, which is rich in natural-gas and oil resources, says its nuclear program is for energy purposes only.

Now I'm not an Idiot, but there is little doubt in my mind that the plants primary purpose is energy, and weapons grade uranium producted a nice side effect. And given that they are surrounded by Nuclear Powers, and possess a large quantity of a desireable resourse, I can't blame them for a second for wanting to have the bomb. Lets see who our neughbors are; China, Pakastan, India, Isreal, Russia and Kazakstan, oh and lest I forget a buch of US boats in the Gulf. Nice neighborhood, lots of dark allys and possibly more dark motives. I am by no means a fan of nuclear weapons, and feel their proliferation a very ominous threat, but respecting the concept of national soveriegnity, they got every right.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper last month that "all options" were being weighed to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear-weapons capability. The army chief of staff, Moshe Yaalon, declared: "We will not rely on others."

Iran presents "a combination of factors that rise to the highest level of Israeli threat perception," said analyst Gerald Steinberg of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Israel.

"Nuclear weapons in a country with a fundamentalist regime, a government with which we have no diplomatic contact, a known sponsor of terrorist groups like Hezbollah and which wants to wipe Israel off the map — that makes stable deterrence extremely difficult, if not impossible," Steinberg said.

I Think that Bush might be able to keep this is a bag until the election, but it will likely represent yet another flaming bag of crap left on the porch of the whitehouse for Kerry to clean up, after commander one and done has left the place.