Nine American Troops Killed in Iraq

[louis-t]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed seven U.S. soldiers in northwest Baghdad and two Marines were killed in western Iraq (news - web sites) on Thursday, the deadliest day for American forces since a suicide attack on a U.S. base last month.

[Coventina]

1. It's amazing what a few "dead-enders" can do!

Yeah, I've posted the same before, but I'm continually amazed!

[ausiedownunderground]

25. Oz Media reporting both Fallujah and Tal Afar on Fire!!

Looks like a "huge" fighting day today in Iraq. Oz media and a lot of Arab media are reporting that major US offensives are happening in Tal Afar and Fallujah. Both cities are reported to be on Fire. In Fallujah the US Marines have begun a major offensive into the "Southern Suburbs" which appear to be still under Guerilla control. This push could be related to the upcoming "Must have" election at the end of the month. Arab media are reporting that it appears to be a "fight to the death" offensive. US forces are throwing everything bar the "kitchen sink" at the Guerillas. Massive amounts of US Warplanes pounding areas of both cities. In probably a bad sign for the US forces guerilla resistance in Tal Afar is being lead by Turkmen fighters. Arab media is reporting that Guerilla commanders are saying that the US forces have breached their lines and set up a "Beachhead" in a suburb of Fallujah that up until now was controlled by the Guerillas. Heavy casualties are being taken on both sides it has been reported. Guerillas in the "Triangle of Death" are mobilising to increase their attacks on US supply lines in the rear in an attempt to slow down what is appearing to be a very major US offensive. This could get really ugly!
Also being reported a major ambush on a large US "Merc" column in Samara with many killed and wounded. Looks like Iraq is really heating up! Interesting to see what the US mainstream media reports.

[Monkie]

33. and iraqi resistance reporting wmd use against them in fallujah

clusterbombing,napalm and possible NBC use.

wait..when was it those brave marines with more firepower per square inch than any army ever liberate the city from the "insurgents"?

[demosincebirth]

...and you don't hear any outrage from any r/w'ers

What a waste of young lives.

[NYC]

4. They honestly don't seem to mind.

I don't know why not.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. Because to a freeper, it is a honor to die for your country

....as long as it isn't them or anyone they know.

[NYC]

15. The "as long as it's someone else" part is what's wrong with them.

Such hypocrisy and lack of concern for other people.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. Oh, the outrage is there alright. They want to start getting tough

on the Arabs! Cut off their heads and bury them with pig blood! As if that would solve anything. Freeps are some of the great minds of the Jurassic period I think.

[ananda]

27. Freeptiles

Freeptile dinosaurs they are.

May on their heads a big fartblossom jurassic-size fall.

[qanda]

2. Oh boy, that's terrible

Sorry to hear that.

[daleo]

3. With the upcoming election, this will probably continue

It may even get worse. The Iraqi resistance who do not consider the election to be legitimate will be very motivated to disrupt it. The U.S. forces will have to be very much out of their bases and exposed in order to provide security for this process, not just on election day but on the days leading up to it. The combination of the two will lead to many more deaths.

[goodboy]

5. freepers hate our troops, rated 2.98 I rated it a 5

[teryang]

6. Hands dripping in blood, the general says

"...we are fighting an enemy who cares less who he kills, when he kills and how he kills."

"A delay in the elections just gives the thugs and terrorists more time to continue their intimidation, their cruelty, their brutal murders of innocent people."

[llmart]

7. This is incredible to me......

that the general public doesn't even talk about it, care about it, or demand we get the hell out. I am even becoming numb to these daily accounts because I don't know what to say any more. Part of me thinks I don't care because they and their families may have voted for this asshole, and did they really think he or his minions cared about these soldiers? Are people really that naive? (Rhetorical question.)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

10. Here's the logic.......

.....apparently the American Public is fine with our soldiers dying. They in as much said so on November 3rd. The media doesn't feel they need to talk about it anymore.

[bemildred]

9. Took out a Bradley in one shot, sounds like.

I wonder where all that RDX went to anyway?

[acmavm]

12. Don't know WHERE it went, but I'm pretty sure we can guess WHO

has it now. Why isn't the story of the missing exposives on the front pages of every paper in the country when this happens? It's due to total incompetence that the Iraqis have this stuff. Why the hell isn't Tommy Franks being courtmartialed? Why isn't Rumsfeld in a cell somewhere? For that matter why aren't they all in a cell for lying to Congress about matters affecting the safety of American troops? Once upon a time that would have been called treason.

[leftchick]

17. It would be if a Dem. was running this mess...

instead the media cover the chimps* ass... :(

[DS1]

39. ABC News said it blew up so hard it flipped the tank over into a ditch

across the road.

That's a shitload of explosive right there.

[pinniped]

11. All they need is 100 billion more and the so-called insurgents...

will be cornered.

RIP soldiers.

[Clarkie1]

14. Bush is responsible for thier deaths n/t

[MichiganVote]

16. How much money have Americans raised for these families?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. BushCo doesn't want you pouring money into black holes.....

Don't you know it's more American to hand your paycheck over to Wal-Mart for Babyjebusmas and get that economy going?

[MichiganVote]

26. Oh..that's right. I forgot. For a minute there I thought Americans

could count for something besides which brand of corn flakes we are going to buy or what new disaster we will distract ourselves with.

We have families in America that are in pain because of this war.

Who really gives a shit?

[leftchick]

18. "Deadliest day since, Deadliest day since, Deadliest day since"...

OMG.... please make it stop! :(

[Crunchy Frog]

20. Boy, turning Fallujah into rubble really seems

to have caused us to turn the corner there. I bet we'll be able to leave Iraq and move on to our next invasion just as soon as those elections clean up that last little bit of resistance.

Well, it looks like it's finally made it onto http://www.icasualties.org/oif/.

[snippy]

21. "I am pleased with the progress in Iraq." - - - "Bring 'em on."

[ckramer]

22. "Let's nuke Baghdad!" the freepers would shout!

[ckramer]

23. It's all Bush's fault!

[soup]

24. on course

Last modified Wednesday, November 10, 2004 9:55 AM PST

Franks also said he expected the level of violence in Iraq, as well as the number of American casualties, to begin to decline now that the U.S. elections were over and Bush had made clear that the United States would remain on course.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/10/military/16_07_5711_9_04.txt

--- insanity ---

RIP

[Erika]

40. And our troops die

because Bush and his supporting buds didn't know what the heck they were talking about. Or didn't care...or both.

[Algorem]

28. didn't seem to make the tv news,

knew a coupla alky wwII vets when i was a kid they used to toss their empty and say,not humorously, "another dead soldier",they knew how it really is

[Ilsa]

29. Do the generals really think this will end after the election?

Why would it stop then? I can see where it might diminish, but not stop.

[TheKingfish]

43. Why would it diminish? n/t

[RamboLiberal]

30. Meanwhile the Idiot in Chief only wants the "good news"

Ben Wikler provides us with a choice excerpt from the Nelson report, a long running insider tipsheet generally considered to be quite reliable:

There is rising concern amongst senior officials that President Bush does not grasp the increasingly grim reality of the security situation in Iraq because he refuses to listen to that type of information. Our sources say that attempts to brief Bush on various grim realities have been personally rebuffed by the President, who actually says that he does not want to hear "bad news."

Rather, Bush makes clear that all he wants are progress reports, where they exist, and those facts which seem to support his declared mission in Iraq...building democracy. "That's all he wants to hear about," we have been told. So "in" are the latest totals on school openings, and "out" are reports from senior US military commanders (and those intelligence experts still on the job) that they see an insurgency becoming increasingly effective, and their projection that "it will just get worse."

Our sources are firm in that they conclude this "good news only" directive comes from Bush himself; that is, it is not a trap or cocoon thrown around the President by National Security Advisor Rice, Vice President Cheney, and DOD Secretary Rumsfeld. In any event, whether self-imposed, or due to manipulation by irresponsible subordinates, the information/intelligence vacuum at the highest levels of the White House increasingly frightens those officials interested in objective assessment, and not just selling a political message.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

At least LBJ agonized over Vietnam - AWOL could care less.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

31. But look at all the terrorists they are getting rid of.... n/t

[RamboLiberal]

32. Yeah gotta keep us safe from wearing burqas here in the US

Wouldn't want to have Coulter have to hide that anorexic body in a burqa! :grr:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

34. Coulter is my hero.... n/t

[alcuno]

38. You mean Ann "The troops are getting their hair mussed" Coulter?

When you start a Holy War, as we did, these things happen.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

46. There's nuthin holy about demonizing a people and then comitting

genocide on them.... twice. And this after being their buds, after stating we had no interest in Arab Arab conflicts, ie. Kuwait, the slaughter on the highway of death makes me just as sick as My Lai. There is a special place in hell for those who have engineered just how all this global imperialistic hegemony has played out. There will be no waiting in line for the likes of those.

[mountebank]

35. Once again, Joseph Wilson was right on.

Speaking well over a year ago, just after the Plame-gate story broke, he commented on how U.S. casualties would start at 1 or 2 a day and eventually hit 10 a day. I have to say, although it seemed logical to me at the time, it was still pretty hard to wrap my brain around. Now, here we are.

[Crunchy Frog]

41. Just something interesting that I've noticed

looking at the icasualties site. In the 11 months following "Mission Accomplished", there was only one month where the average daily fatalities exeeded two. From April 2004 on, ie, roughly the 1 year anniversary of our invasion, 10 months if you include this one, there have only been 2 months where the average daily fatalities were under two.

In other words, the situation keeps getting worse and worse, despite all the things that are supposed to make it better. Killing Uday and Qusay, getting Saddam, getting everyone on that deck of cards, handing over "sovereignty", leveling Fallujah.

Now this upcoming election is supposed to be the panacea that will finally make everything fall into place and stop the violence. Yeah, I believe that. I'm also looking for a bridge to buy if anyone's selling one.

[DemoTex]

36. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" ... yet again.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

The old Lie ... Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori: It is good and sweet to die for one's country.

[leftchick]

37. DemoTex... ...

I am weeping...but it was needed.
Do you hear this you fucking freepers?!?

:cry:

[yorkiemommie1]

42. thank you for posting this: i had never read it ....

so sad

[DemoTex]

44. More Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) anti-war poems from WW-1...

http://www.pitt.edu/~pugachev/greatwar/owen.html

Read them and weep. The good and the beautiful die young. Bu$h and Cheney live on and afflict the world. It ain't right.

[leftchick]

45. these are keepers...

they do indeed make a caring person weep. That leaves out neocons and freepers. Thanks again Demo...