{"id":592,"date":"2005-03-02T23:16:33","date_gmt":"2005-03-03T05:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=592"},"modified":"2005-09-25T03:22:01","modified_gmt":"2005-09-25T08:22:01","slug":"recruits-insurgents-in-faceoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=592","title":{"rendered":"Recruits, Insurgents in Faceoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lines are drawn<\/a> in Iraq. On one side, those who want to force their society back to an oppressed time or a medievel, radical Islamist society. On the other, those who want to be prosperous, who want their country to thrive and be free, and who want their country to move forward.<\/p>\n

The insurgent campaign against Iraqi security forces claimed 14 more lives in two bombings Wednesday in what has become a battle of wills between recruits lining up to defend their country and attackers who oppose the country’s democratic direction.<\/p>\n

Better security in Baghdad helped keep the death toll down compared with Monday’s attack in which, according to the top U.S. commander, a terrorist in Hillah exploited weak security in driving a bomb-laden car into a crowd of police and military recruits, killing 125.<\/p>\n

“It was well scouted,” Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told members of Congress in Washington on Wednesday about the Hillah attack. The recruiting center there “showed itself to be vulnerable,” and so insurgents struck, Abizaid said.<\/p>\n

Iraqis continue to line up for jobs in the army and police despite repeated attacks and threats of more. Iraq’s leading fugitive, terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly claimed responsibility for the Hillah attack and at least one of the Baghdad bombings in an Internet declaration.<\/p>\n

“This explosion will never make me leave my job as a policeman, and I will continue<\/strong>,” Ali Ghanim Mijbass, 25, said from his hospital bed in Hillah, where he was wounded in Monday’s attack.<\/p>\n

Army and police recruits say they are attracted by pay, patriotism and the professional challenge. Entry-level police and soldiers generally get more than $200 a month, a high salary by Iraqi standards.<\/p>\n

“I have no regret. I wanted and I still want to be a policeman<\/strong>,” said Ahmed Adil Ridha, 19. He is recovering from eye and arm wounds in the Hillah attack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A country reborn, Iraq is in need of heroes of its own. I suggest that they already have them and just need to start taking pride in men like Ali Ghanim Mijbass, Ahmed Adil Ridha, and hundreds upon hundreds of others like them. Inspiration is there to be found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lines are drawn in Iraq. On one side, those who want to force their society back to an oppressed time or a medievel, radical Islamist society. On the other, those who want to be prosperous, who want their country to thrive and be free, and who want their country to move forward. The insurgent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}