# Operation Iraqi Freedom Jumps the Shark: Super primo top General gunned down **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 7, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364 "2006-03-07T12:46:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/1 "2006-03-07T12:46:45Z")
BAGHDAD, March 6 – The top commander of the Iraqi army division in Baghdad was killed Monday when his car came under small-arms fire while traveling through the capital, the U.S. military said.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600798.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600798.html) After all the spin, after all the planted news, after all the happy talk. Can’t we agree that this particular drive-by snuff is evidence that the the current iraqi ( puppet) regime is beyond moribund? This particular Dulaimi, btw, is the \*third Dulaimi this week to be the unlucky object of an assassination attempt. (talk about your bad-luck names) This guy, however, was the really BIG Dulaimi. It’s like someone shot the chairman of the joint chiefs while he was on his way to the pentagon. In other words, this was a guy who you really should have been able to keep from being whacked. It is, shall we say, evidence of a total collapse of any hint of order. Or am I too vulnerable to despair?–Is this merely a speedbump on the road to a flourishing, multicultural democracy? \*Gunmen in western Baghdad on Thursday attacked a convoy carrying top Iraqi Sunni Muslim politician Adnan al-Dulaimi. He said one of his guards was killed and four others were wounded. Al-Dulaimi escaped injury.[http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:kwDaCiWwYvUJ:www.cnn.com/rssclick/2006/WORLD/meast/03/02/iraq.main/%3Feref%3Dyahoo+Dulaimi+shot+at&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=opera](http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:kwDaCiWwYvUJ:www.cnn.com/rssclick/2006/WORLD/meast/03/02/iraq.main/%3Feref%3Dyahoo+Dulaimi+shot+at&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=opera) , … •A senior Sunni cleric, Sheik Khalil al-Dulaimi, was killed in eastern .[http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060223/a\_mosque23.art.htm](http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060223/a_mosque23.art.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/2 "2006-03-07T14:36:26Z")
Not to worry, “He leaves behind a professional and capable fighting force that will continue the fight for Iraqi freedom.” But of course! Thanks, Maj. Gen. Pangloss! ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/3 "2006-03-07T14:58:09Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Not to worry, “He leaves behind a professional and capable fighting force that will continue the fight for Iraqi freedom.” But of course! Thanks, Maj. Gen. Pangloss! [/QUOTE] Well, with verbiage like that we only need two or three more dead Iraqi Generals and the US can finally cut and run! -Joe ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/4 "2006-03-07T17:49:23Z")
Alaric! I’m startled by your lack of appreciation of the subject. The western way of war is such that no one man is pivotal. We could have lost MacArthur, we could have lost Patton, and the troops would still fight on. To quote the honorable Senator Blutarsky, “Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!” ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/5 "2006-03-07T18:53:55Z")
[QUOTE=alaricthegoth] This particular Dulaimi, btw, is the \*third Dulaimi this week to be the unlucky object of an assassination attempt. (talk about your bad-luck names) [/QUOTE] No coincidence. The Dulaimi are a large and notoriously bellicose Sunni tribe/tribal confederacy in and around Anbar province ( i.e. such oases of peace and tranquility as Fallujah and Ramadi ). Everyone from the British to Saddam Hussein to the U.S. has had trouble with them. Courting their members makes good sense for the U.S. government, just as it did for the SH. Killing them is not so great for stability. The Dulaimi are apparently particularly ardent about their old bloodfeud customs. When SH executed a Dulaimi officer it provoked an ugly revolt in Ramadi in 1995. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/6 "2006-03-07T20:20:38Z")
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath] We could have lost MacArthur, we could have lost Patton, and the troops would still fight on. [/QUOTE] And maybe would have fought _better_, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/7 "2006-03-07T20:36:58Z")
I chose _all_ the names in my post carefully, Elvis. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/8 "2006-03-07T21:11:36Z")
[QUOTE=Tamerlane] No coincidence. The Dulaimi are a large and notoriously bellicose Sunni tribe/tribal confederacy in and around Anbar province ( i.e. such oases of peace and tranquility as Fallujah and Ramadi ). Everyone from the British to Saddam Hussein to the U.S. has had trouble with them. Courting their members makes good sense for the U.S. government, just as it did for the SH. Killing them is not so great for stability. The Dulaimi are apparently particularly ardent about their old bloodfeud customs. When SH executed a Dulaimi officer it provoked an ugly revolt in Ramadi in 1995. - Tamerlane [/QUOTE] Hmmm. So, in whose interest would it have been to kill General Dulaimi? (The article linked in the OP mentions no suspects.) ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/9 "2006-03-07T22:31:51Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Hmmm. So, in whose interest would it have been to kill General Dulaimi? (The article linked in the OP mentions no suspects.) [/QUOTE] Good point. And the answer is likely to be: just because we can’t know doesn’t mean we can’t speculate and start wild rumors. In the inflamed situation of Iraq today, that fact alone is troublesome. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/10 "2006-03-08T03:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Good point. And the answer is likely to be: just because we can’t know doesn’t mean we can’t speculate and start wild rumors. In the inflamed situation of Iraq today, that fact alone is troublesome. [/QUOTE] not merely no suspects, but as described it was a remarkably surgical hit–the guy is in a car, surreounded by troops, but barring modification of the account, he’s the one shot. huh??? ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/11 "2006-03-08T03:35:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Good point. And the answer is likely to be: just because we can’t know doesn’t mean we can’t speculate and start wild rumors. In the inflamed situation of Iraq today, that fact alone is troublesome. [/QUOTE] I’ll put fifty pre-invasion dinars on the Badr Boys–when we finally come to our senses and beg saddam to take the country off our hands, they’ll be worth big money.,… ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/operation-iraqi-freedom-jumps-the-shark-super-primo-top-general-gunned-down/347364/12 "2006-03-08T05:18:59Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Good point. And the answer is likely to be: just because we can’t know doesn’t mean we can’t speculate and start wildts it out rumors. In the inflamed situation of Iraq today, that fact alone is troublesome. [/QUOTE] Juan lays it out: The Iraqi general in charge of Baghdad security was killed by a sniper on Monday. I suppose it doesn’t need underlining that this is very bad news for Baghdad security. The assassinated commander, himself a Sunni Arab who led men during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, was almost certainly the victim of an inside job. The Iraqi military is deeply infiltrated by guerrilla supporters. > **[Informed Comment](https://www.juancole.com/)** > > Shedding light on how war, globalization and climate change are shaping our world