The streets ran red with blood in Baghdad on Tuesday, literally, as you can see from the photo. A car laden with explosives rammed a Shia funeral tent, then moments later a car bomb exploded. Twenty were killed, and 27 more were injured. It brought the death toll in Baghdad to more than 100 for the day.
Elsewhere, nine United States soldiers and one marine were killed in combat operations. Four died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. One soldier died in northern Baghdad when his patrol was attacked with small-arms fire, and another was killed when his patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. Three more soldiers were killed in the normally calm and stable Diyala province. The marine was killed when he came under fire in western Anbar province.
Does anyone remember the movie Aliens? Remember when Pvt. Hudson says "Is this gonna be a stand-up fight, Sir? Or is this gonna be another bug-hunt?" Every death of an American in this ill-advised pissing contest makes those words run through my mind.
This isn't a stand-up fight, this is a bug-hunt.
Our soldiers and Marines don't know who the enemy is. It is an enemy that can fade into shadows and disappear. They are using the same tactics that Americans developed and perfected in our own War for Independence. They are using the tactics of out-gunned insurgents everywhere.
I lived in the Middle East twice in my life, first as a Navy brat and then as an Air Force wife. The people of the region have a saying - keeping ones enemy in a constant state of aggravation, aggitation and tension is it's own victory. The war in Iraq has proven that adage true.
The U.S. has sustained 70 troop deaths in October alone, with an additional 700 - plus wounded. October is on track to be the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq since November 2004, when 137 troops were killed in the battle for Fallujah, 126 of them in combat.
