US troops hit by bombs, mortar attacks in Iraq

[bemildred]

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"A roadside bomb went off at about 6:45 a.m. (0335 GMT) on the main road of Barwana town near Haditha city, some 250 km northwest of Baghdad," local residents told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

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Another roadside bomb detonated Monday night near a U.S. patrol in the al-Zawiyah village near Haditha city, destroying a U.S. Humvee, they said, adding the U.S. soldiers surrounded the village and searched houses and detaining two suspects.

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In separate attack, insurgents lobbed three mortar rounds on a U.S. military base in east of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, witnesses told Xinhua.

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Ten minutes later, the U.S. troops fired back with artillery shelling at the source of the mortars, they said.

Xinhua

[Untermonkey]

1. Terrorists!!!

I wonder how many American's would become "terrorists" and "insurgents" if the situation were reversed. If Iraqi Army troops were patrolling the streets of Washington, New York, and Los Angeles how many would take up arms against the invaders? We'd call them freedom fighters and patriots while the Iraqi media would call them terrorists and insurgents.

[brentspeak]

5. Do "freedom fighters" blow up shoppers with car bombs?

Walk into barber shops and blow away barbers because haircutting is against some obscure Islamic law?

Er, just because the Iraq War is wrong does not make the insurgents and terrorists "right".

[daleo]

6. The U.S. military blows up weddings

On the off chance there might be enemies somewhere in the vicinity.

Nobody's right when everybody's wrong.

[saigon68]

10. US Military terrorists smear peanut butter on POW genitals

And then have their dogs lick it off

[Untermonkey]

9. You've pointed out an important difference.

People who attack the military forces of an invading army are freedom fighters.

People who attack civilian targets are terrorist.

Both can exist in the same place at the same time.

[DLnyc]

11. Insurgents are right, terrorists are wrong.

Some attacks are against US soldiers; from the point of view of a nationalist resistance, attacking soldiers who have invaded your country is justified. I feel sorry for the US soldiers who have been put in this horrible position, but I can't condemn the Iraqi resistance for attacking them either.

Some attacks are against Iraqi police and army trainees. I can see how these men would be considered collaborators, but attacking them, it seems to me, serves more to divide Iraqis then to further the chance of successful resistance.

Some attacks are agains mosques and/or market places. It is not at all clear who is behind these attacks. The various militias have condemned the attacks on the mosques. It would be a really stupid policy for any resistance fighters to attack mosques or market places, but it is possible that they have. Many Iraqis have claimed that it is 'foreign fighters' who attack the mosque, by which I think they mean extremist muslims not from Iraq. There are also reasons to believe the US and UK may have been behind some of the attacks. For instance, a recent story about UK agents dressed as arabs caught by Iraqis in a car full of explosives, arrested and then grabbed back by UK army who stormed the jail with tanks.

In my opinion, the meme that treats insurgents and terrorists as one and the same group clouds an already complex situation. I suspect there is a pretty sharp separation between the insurgents (fighting to get the US out of Iraq) and the terrorists (various groups interested in continuing chaos in Iraq, for various reasons, NOT likely to include wanting a democratic Iraq free of American forces.)

[benburch]

2. In Ten Minutes...

The Mortar crew has fled! And all that is left at the site of the mortar is whatever houses and citizens were there before the mortar crew showed up.

And artillery is not a precision weapon to begin with. That is why you need artillery spotters to radio back corrections to the fire.

[bemildred]

3. That struck me too.

It's why I put the story up. Ten minutes is a long time. Why did it take that long? If the mortar crew KNEW they had ten minutes, they could do a fandango all over that base.

[Ian David]

4. Maybe we should have guarded the munitions sites?

It's not like we were busy guarding the art museums or anything.

Oh.

The oil fields.

That's what we were guarding.

I forgot.

[rodeodance]

7. our troops are basically bonkered down last few months, but seems not

good enough. But what good are if constantly just protecting their own? Get them out!

[MadMaddie]

8. But according the * cabal things are looking pretty good

(in his view) in Iraq!!!

[saigon68]

12. The chimp is denying reality

Hey Chimp you motherfucker tell it to this dead guy's mother

"That things are looking up"