After Leveling City, U.S. Tries to Build Trust

[rodeodance]

I really feel for these soldiers to be in this positon!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-fallouja7jan07.story

After Leveling City, U.S. Tries to Build Trust

In Fallouja, Marines are on a 'hearts and minds' campaign to woo residents and help keep rebels from returning.
By Tony Perry
Times Staff Writer

January 7, 2005

FALLOUJA, Iraq — As he navigated his Humvee through rubble-strewn streets, Lance Cpl. Sunshine Yubeta articulated a question key to the Marines' mission here.

"I wonder," said the 23-year-old from Madras, Ore., nodding toward several sullen-looking men on a corner, "if they hate us or like us."

It's a quandary at the heart of U.S. policy in this city, which was once an insurgent stronghold. Having routed the guerrillas late last year in combat that left much of Fallouja in ruins, the U.S. military needs the cooperation of residents who fled the fighting and are now returning.......

[displacedtexan]

1. Are we sending the mentally disabled to Iraq?

"I wonder," said the 23-year-old from Madras, Ore., nodding toward several sullen-looking men on a corner, "if they hate us or like us."

WTF is wrong with this man?


Note: I know lots of mentally disabled people who are a damned sight smarter than that soldier!

[leftchick]

3. I have to agree....

wtf is wrong with these people??? Though I am sure it is partly the Military's fault for brainwashing them into killing machines with no regard for human life then turning them around and making them "peacemakers"! This is beyond fucked up!

[Jacobin]

4. Jeeze, I hope he was being sarcastic

If not......

[TahitiNut]

6. Madras is missing it's village idiot.

In 12 years, he'll be qualified to be President. :puke:

And here's a VP candidate....
"It's kind of bad we destroyed everything, but at least we gave them a chance for a new start," said Navy corpsman Derrick Anthony, 21, of Chicago.

Ohhhh... the generosity! "we gave them"! Why do I get this image of candy thrown from a sedan chair? They have no water, power, sewers, or infrastrucure of any kind ... all bombed away. But "we gave them a chance"? Unfreakingbelievable.

[DELUSIONAL]

24. "kind of bad" WTF is kind of bad???

People were murdered in their own homes -- these people had relatives who may have survived -- more than likely every single person who survived this genocide knows people who were murdered by the US military or have relatives or relatives of relatives. And they are NOT going to trust the US military to stay the fuck out of Fallujah and not engage in random slaughter -- claiming again that a bad guy has invaded their city.

This is the attitude of abusive husbands -- growing up on military bases I'd see the men beat the hell out of their wives and kids -- to a degree that I have NEVER witnessed in the civilian community. It was considered a fact of life that dad's returned home and some would fly off the handle at any excuse and beat their wife/and or kids. My mind has snap shots of fellow students with belt buckel bruises on their faces and women leaning out windows yelling for help. As a kid there was nothing that I could do -- but as an adult I can sure recognize the symptoms of abusive people in power.

The men had no sense that what they were doing was wrong. Just like this idiot has no sense that what the US military (under the command of Der bushita) did in Fallujah was GENOCIDE.

The Cherokee were taken away from their homes east of the Mississippi River where they had adapted to the white culture and dumped in "Indian Territory" -- ah gee the whites found some land to give the Indians in return for stealing producing farms etc in the east. The only reason the Cherokee survived was because the elders -- old folks remembered the old ways of hunting and making shelter.

But the survivors of the Fallujah slaughter are expected to return to an Urban environment -- without Urban utilities -- and more than likely all distributions systems are in ruin. Food, Water, Shelter, warmth -- clothes, etc etc -- needed by a modern civilized people seem to be non existent in Fallujah.

And some dipshit says what the US military did was "kind of bad" -- what a flaming idiot.

[MisterP]

25. any more chances like that and they'll have no chance whatsoever!

[tibbiit]

11. lol no shit

"I wonder," said the 23-year-old from Madras, Ore., nodding toward several sullen-looking men on a corner, "if they hate us or like us."
"WTF is wrong with this man?"
You gave my exact reply inside my head.

I find myself speechless over his comment in fact.
tib

[LynnTheDem]

2. Sorry but LOL!!!

No need to "wonder", dear. They hate your guts with a passion.

See, you killed their babies. You killed their kids. You killed their wives and husbands and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and grandparents.

You destroyed their city.

You treated them like they were filthy vermin in need of exterminating.

And ya know what's so damn funny about it all???

The people of Fallujah were NEVER "Saddam loyalists". For 30 years, Falluja told Hussein to leave them the fuck alone. He ordered their clerics to say prayers for him in their services...the clerics said N.O.

No dear soldier, there is no need to "wonder".

I wonder though; how would YOU feel if someone did to your family and your city what you've done to Falluja?

[Redstone]

18. Well, said, LynntheDem, but consider...

Your comments were perfect. Great post.

But there might be an explanation of the soldier's statement; given that his parents named him "Sunshine" I suspect that there's a good chance that he was born with a good deal of his parents' residual drugs in his brain.

That's gotta be it. There can't be any other explanation for someone making such an astonishingly stupid statement.

Redstone

[leftchick]

5. CLUELESS......

~snip~

"Any time we can interact with these people is good," said Sgt. James Regan, 29, of San Antonio. "They can see us for what we are. I asked one of them, 'When was the last time the mujahedin gave you water or food?' Never."

hey sarge, the mujahedin didn't destroy their fucking city either.

[saigon68]

7. We have a nice jail where we will shove a plastic flashlight up your ass

[henslee]

20. That cool image real or from a movie, if so what movie?

[TahitiNut]

22. Schindler's List

[leesa]

14. Why would a mujahedin not give them food or water?? Of course they

would. That's a strong tradition in Muslim belief to take care of those in need, is it not?

Utter denial that they are fighting the regular citizens of Iraq.

[neweurope]

8. He doesn't have to keep wondering - he can go for a walk without his gun

and find out whether he's being liked or hated.

:puke:


---------------------

Remember Fallujah!

Bush to The Hague

[jmcgowanjm]

23. HEAVIEST Fighting to date in Fallujah

IRR010605

The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam and eyewitnesses
report that al-Fallujah now is a flaming ball of fire and
smoke, where one can't see anything.

Shaykh Abu Nur went on, “We have lost 132 fighters who were
all martyred in the fighting by aircraft attacks. Four of
the Resistance commanders were among the dead. But
we harvested as much as we wanted of them troops]
and their losses were very heavy.” He added,
“We
shot down a fighter plane with a SAM9. We also downed
three Apache helicopters and five unmanned spy
planes.”

“Right now we are fighting on the edges of the ash-
Shuhada' and al-Jubayl neighborhoods. I don't know
whether they or we will win, because their attack is as close as
it can come to a suicidal assault. They haven't taken losses
such as they've taken today on any previous day without giving
up and withdrawing. The battle today is radically different
though. Our one concern is to preserve the fighters in all
ways, and to kill or capture as many of them as
we want.”

You can see this from the Hotel roofs in Baghdad.
Fuck You, CNN, Fuck You LATimes
Pravada1985 reporting in Afghanistan
has nothing on you.

[Just Me]

9. Stunning. They have completely lost their sense of humanity.

The neoCONimperialists are responsible for creating a couple of generations, at least, of anti-americanism.

[DrBB]

10. Now that is a headline--the entire war in a nutshell

No need to read another word; the whole thing's right there.

[leesa]

12. Duh! "I wonder if they hate us or like us" You've murdered their friends

and families for no reason at all. What do you suppose the answer is, dumb shit!

[AlbizuX]

13. who are they kidding!

god...you level someone's city and then try to win hearts and minds...

level Boston or New York City...and see if we won't try to cut your throats....

how absolutely absurd to think we can recuperate good will from Iraqis...we screwed up already.

[gratuitous]

15. Most folks from Madras are smarter than that

Of course, most of the folks I've met from Madras aren't named "Sunshine" either.

[Nihil]

19. Most things folks from Madras grow in the ground are smarter than that!

Are you guys suffering from a plague of village idiots or something?

[0007]

16. A mentally challenged person now for sure

perhaps okay before going to Iraq?

[hatrack]

17. Well, gollee, Sunshine, if survivalists lived in Madras, OR . . .

And only amounted to 5-6% of the population, and the Oregon State Police & National Guard rolled into town one day, levelled the place and killed a bunch of the survivalists, along with a whole bunch of civilians, and then blocked the survivors from returning, do you think they'd hate or like the Oregon State Police & National Guard?

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this is sarcasm. No one can be that dumb and be allowed to use automatic weapons.

[bobthedrummer]

21. Not too long ago Fallujah had a newspaper that was focusing and

publishing many stories coming from Abu Ghraib. Bremer and the Chalabi gang allowed the military to shut it down. There were protests and US employed mercenaries shot the protestors (mostly women and kids) in the face.

This escalated to the gruesome mutilation killings of Blackwater mercenaries-for which the USMC was ordered to take reprisals in Fallujah and we've been there off and on since:grr:

Bring the troops home.

[jmcgowanjm]

26. There is no evidence of what has transpired-this is AgitProp

save intermittent but very very regular losses attributed
to "pockets of resistance" in the "Anbar Province". And,
yes, reportage on the brand new movie on Fallujah
starring Harrison Ford. 

Now for a moment, consider the substantive anomalies in
the official discourse. Consider one such example-
Satellite Imagery of Fallujah (block by block including
"after action") available to the media till the 15th of
November and carried in graphic detail day by day from the 8th
of Nov. through the 15th stopped abruptly. There are
no explanations.

Or consider that the Red Cross/Red crescent has not
been allowed to enter the city in any substantive manner.
Today is the 20th of Dec (010605) and it has still not been allowed. 

Or consider another break in the regular stream
of consciousness. No reporter has set foot in the city or after
the 22nd of November. 
(This reporter at best is at one of the entrances)

A "Great Victory" like this and no footage?

Fallujah has not been taken. Not only has Fallujah not
been taken, but the coalition forces have staged several
retreats and are now confined largely to the outside of the
city. 

The Iraqi resistance is currently in control of most of the
city
and have forced back at least three (Make that
4&5 as of 010605) of the largest armored assaults in
recent history. 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7529.htm

Hitler admitted November 8 1942
his defeat in Stalingrad.

When will Bush have to step up to the plate.

[Ernesto]

27. Yeah I went through that USMC "heats & minds" bullshit in Nam

Funny thing, dem ignorant Vietnamese just couldn't get it through their heads that we were killing their men-folk because we were trying to help them be "free".
Go figure.......

[Cocoa]

28. proof that the U.S. is determined to make the "elections" a joke

At five heavily guarded entry points to the city, military interrogators are selectively asking returning residents whether they have heard of the upcoming election and, if so, which, if any, candidates they support.