Fallujah, ‘mission not accomplished’

[leftchick]

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=12033

~snip~

US Marines keeping a tenuous peace in the battered Iraqi city of Fallujah say they expect an explosion of violence as rebels hiding among returning refugees renew their deadly campaign of bombings and ambushes.


They also fear the insurgency will find increasing support from Fallujah residents who return to find their homes and businesses devastated by last month's massive US-led assault on the Sunni Muslim enclave.


"Our assessment is the die-hard guys have gone to ground and are just waiting for the refugees to return so that they can blend in, come back and start their IED (improvised explosive device) campaign," said Captain Tom Tennant of the 1st Batallion, 3rd Marines, who have dug into northeast Fallujah.

~snip~

"Right now it's hard enough, but when you inject a bunch of civilians into this city it's going to be that much harder," Tennant said, warning of a campaign of daily bombings.

"These guys are just going to filter back in".





They won’t be happy to see what the marines did to their city

[54anickel]

1. Again? When will the US be exhausted in the game of wack a mole? n/t

[tk2kewl]

2. Huh?

"They also fear the insurgency will find increasing support from Fallujah residents who return to find their homes and businesses devastated by last month's massive US-led assault on the Sunni Muslim enclave."

You mean they don't understand that we are destroying their country for their own good?

Ungrateful bastards!

[phantom power]

3. Funny, the Vietnamese never got it, either.

What's so hard to understand about destroying a village in order to save it?

[llmart]

5. Yeah, but the idiotic American public.......

buys all the defense department's propaganda hook, line and sinker and isn't that all that matters?

[fertilizeonarbusto]

4. why

those unpatriotic soldiers. HOW DARE THEY SAY ANYTHING CONTRARY TO THE OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE LINE?! EVERYTHING IS PEACHY-KEEN AND HUNKY-DORY, DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!:silly:

[Barkley]

6. Great Post leftchick - thanks nt.

[leftchick]

7. IraqNam!

~snip~

They also say they are confident Fallujah's residents will cooperate with US and Iraqi forces and turn suspected rebels in.


"The people of Fallujah don't want them coming back. We hope they'll identify these bad people when they try to sneak back in with them," marine Major Jim West told a press conference last week.


But some marines in the city say politics are pushing some officers to make dangerously optimistic assessments of the situation in Fallujah.

[hadrons]

9. yeah right, Major Jim West

Fallujah's residents will just passively lick your boots as you screw them in the ass

[KingChicken]

8. 95% of those dead insurgants lived in Fallujah, they are the towns people.

U.S. pretends that there are a few bad eggs and everyone else hates the insurgents. Won't they be surprised to know that just about everyone that lived in Fallujah now has die-hard vengeance against the U.S., if they didn’t have one already.

BTW, how can anyone possibly live in Fallujah now that there is no water, power, medical clinics or supplies, communications lines, and basic infrastructure including passable roadways. How will they clean this up in a couple of weeks, they can't even secure the city and we are in week 4.?

[malaise]

10. Check this out

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/iraqs_silent_dead.php

Iraq's Silent Dead
Jeffrey Sachs
December 02, 2004

November 2004 has the dubious distinction of being tied with April as the bloodiest months in Iraq for American soldiers. In both months, at least 135 U.S. servicemen or women died. But it's anyone's guess as to which months were the bloodiest for Iraqi citizens. No one is counting their deaths—and the American media isn't reporting on it, either. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute goes where the mainstream media doesn't tread: deep into a war where civilians are targets as often as insurgents...
A few days later, a U.S. television film crew was in a bombed-out mosque with U.S. troops. While the cameras were rolling, a U.S. Marine turned to an unarmed and wounded Iraqi lying on the ground and murdered the man with gunshots to the head. (Reportedly, there were a few other such cases of outright murder.) But the American media more or less brushed aside this shocking incident, too. The Wall Street Journal actually wrote an editorial on November 18 that criticized the critics, noting as usual that whatever the United States does, its enemies in Iraq do worse—as if this excuses American abuses.

It does not. The United States is killing massive numbers of Iraqi civilians, embittering the population and the Islamic world, and laying the ground for escalating violence and death. No number of slaughtered Iraqis will bring peace. The American fantasy of a final battle, in Fallujah or elsewhere, or the capture of some terrorist mastermind, perpetuates a cycle of bloodletting that puts the world in peril.Worse still, America’s public opinion, media and election results have left the world’s most powerful military without practical restraint.
More at link.

[leftchick]

16. The US can act with impunity in Iraq....

because we have NO media in this country. Thank you for the link.

~snip~

The study also noted that the majority of deaths resulted from violence, and that a high proportion of the violent deaths were due to U.S. aerial bombing. The epidemiologists acknowledged the uncertainties of these estimates, but presented enough data to warrant an urgent follow-up investigation and reconsideration by the Bush administration and the U.S. military of aerial bombing of Iraq’s urban areas.

America’s public reaction has been as remarkable as the Lancet study—for the reaction has been no reaction. The vaunted New York Times ran a single story of 770 words on page 8 of the paper (October 29). The Times reporter apparently did not interview a single Bush administration or U.S. military official. No follow-up stories or editorials appeared, and no New York Times reporters assessed the story on the ground. Coverage in other U.S. papers was similarly frivolous. The Washington Post (October 29) carried a single 758-word story on page 16.

Recent reporting on the bombing of Falluja has also been an exercise in self-denial. The New York Times (November 6) wrote that “warplanes pounded rebel positions” in Fallujah, without noting that “rebel positions” are actually in civilian neighborhoods. Another New York Times story (November 12), citing “military officials,” dutifully reported that, “Since the assault began on Monday, about 600 rebels have been killed, along with 18 American and 5 Iraqi soldiers.” The issue of civilian deaths was not even raised.

Violence is only one reason for the increase in civilian deaths in Iraq. Children in urban war zones die in vast numbers from diarrhea, respiratory infections and other causes owing to unsafe drinking water, lack of refrigerated foods, and acute shortages of blood and basic medicines at clinics and hospitals (that is, if civilians even dare to leave their houses for medical care). Yet the Red Crescent and other relief agencies have been unable to relieve Fallujah’s civilian population.

... I Hate what AmeriKa has become... :cry:

[Steely_Dan]

11. "Don't Want To Be An American Idiot"

[maddezmom]

12. Fallujah is now the base of operation for US propaganda

check out this recycled headline:

Marines Find Alleged Iraqi Torture Chamber
~snip~

"We had sensed that there was a pure streak of evil in this town, ever since the first days of engagement here," said Maj. Wade Weems.


The basement, discovered while Marines fought fierce battles with Fallujah insurgents last month, is part of the Islamic Resistance Center, a three-story building in the heart of this city 40 miles west of Baghdad.

~snip~

No bodies or human remains — except for the fingernails — were found when the Marines discovered the underground chamber on Nov. 11, but they found "plenty of blood," he said. Marine experts have collected samples for forensic and DNA testing.


"This is tangible proof how horrific they were," Weems, of Washington, D.C., said of the insurgents, shuddering as he gazed at the bloody hand print.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=2&u=/ap/20041202/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_torture_chamber

[NNN0LHI]

13. That is the silliest shit I have ever read

Must be for the consumption by idiots.

Don

[maddezmom]

14. it's for freeper and fundie consumption

anytime I see the word "evil" it's a dead giveaway.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Look how the morons are rating it up

Like that is going to absolve America for what we are doing over there or something? Wonder if Hitler was the same way? Don't look at these ovens over here, look what those guys are doing over there. The US is committing genocide and the US media won't report it. They refused to report when Hitler was doing it too. The NYT was one of the main culprits back then and again now.

Don

[Disturbed]

17. The Good, Bad and Ugly

The U.S. Military defines who falls into which catagory.

[SodoffBush]

18. Solution: kill all the civilians so that the insurgents can't hide

among them.

That is Bush's plan.

[damntexdem]

19. I see that the Dubya policy has worked well in Falluja --

as well as it has in the rest of Iraq, in the U.S., and in the world in general, that is. ;-)