British soldiers killed in Basra

[shockingelk]

BASRA, Iraq -- Three British servicemen have been killed and another seriously wounded in Iraq's second city of Basra, a British military spokesman said.

Local people at the scene said a British vehicle had come under fire from another car, veered off the road and crashed.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/23/sprj.irq.brit.attack/

[paper chase guy]

1. yikes, now the brits?

looking worse every day.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Just tonight, Tony Blankley was saying that the Shiites were happy

Just tonight, on the McLauhglin Group, Tony Blankley was saying that the Shiites were happy and Southern Iraq was peaceful. McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan took issue with him.

Welcome to Vietnam boys!

[alcuno]

4. The Shiites are waiting. When the time is right, they will rise up

and revolt. It doesn't matter how much food or electricity they have; they will revolt.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Here is the BBC version of this story.

Tony Blair is responsible for their deaths for him, and him alone, was responsible for sending troops to Iraq in this ill-advised adventure of his.


British troops have sealed off the area of the attack

Three troops killed in Basra attack

The deaths bring to 10 the number of British soldiers killed by hostile action in Iraq since US President George W Bush declared major combat operations over on 1 May.

A British soldier, Captain David Jones, died in Basra just over a week ago after a bomb attack on the ambulance he was travelling in.

The attack followed rioting over the lack of utilities in Basra as temperatures soared, but the city had been reported to be relatively quiet in the last week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3175557.stm

[joshcryer]

5. May not be 'our' boys, but f* you Bush* (and Blair)!

Fuck you both. Fuck each other in the ass. Fucking fucks.

[rjbcar27]

6. Eloquently put sir.

And I agree totally.

[Mari333]

7. It will only get worse

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3175557.stm

The UN isnt going to help, as long as Bush/Blair continue to refuse to allow the UN to run the show.
Our kids will die everyday.
Im too angry to breathe.

[teryang]

8. The British are the weaker link in the occupation

politically. Their domestic constituency initially showed more opposition percentage wise to the invasion. Their media are more courageous and truthful.

Their country can ill afford a long and costly occupation with casualties. They are in Basra because the Shiites were supposed to be more manageable. If they become more violent, the inherent weakness of British popular support for the expedition may cause greater trouble at home. The Shiites have the key to breaking the "coaliton" occupation in their hands. Will they use it? If so, when?

Countries considering sending troops have got to be having second thoughts after this past weeks events.

[legin]

12. Good succint post teryang

Some people have posited a over-arching political high command to the resistance, and one that knows what it is doing.

I hummed and hared over the UN strike, I thought on balance that it might be a mistake. I expected bush* to push a line "Now you see that terrorism knows no borders, we are all in this together", and countries, reluctantly sure, might start falling in line behind the u.s.

But this hasn't panned out, it looks like the strategy is to isolate the u.s., leaving just them alone in Iraq facing the resistance, which appears to be working, which shows that the UN strike was quite a well-tuned political judgement.

Of course it still could be just oppotunistic strikes that are very lucky.

I suppose the intelligent reply from the u.s. would be to say "right sod the u.s. trying to control Iraq on its own, let's get everybody involved UN, NATO, Arab League, whoever.

But the neo-cons are running things.

[Barrett808]

9. "Always been expected"!?

Former Army officer and defence expert Michael Yardley said a terror campaign against occupying forces had always been expected.

So they forgot to mention this while making the case the war. Right.

[IndianaGreen]

11. I don't remember Bush saying that in the State of the Union speech.

Neither Bush nor Rumsfeld said anything about terrorism being "expected" once they toppled Saddam. As a matter of fact, Rumsfeld had great difficulty in even accepting that we are in a guerrilla war.

Good point, Barrett808! "Expected," indeed!

[IndianaGreen]

10. BBC: 3 dead MPs, 1 wounded; 2 adult civilians and 2 children wounded

The Western press barely mentions the wounded civilians! The Brits are nowhere near as bad as the American press, but to be accurate, one should have said: 3 dead soldiers, 1 wounded; 4 civilian wounded, including 2 children. It is almost as if Iraqis are as meaningless as slaves were to American Southern plantation owners.

The BBC is reporting this morning that they were military police whose mission was to train the new Basra police.

Here are more details the BBC posted this morning:

The killings came after a string of attacks on British soldiers this month, and two days of rioting in Basra over power and fuel shortages.

<snip>

The wounded soldier has been taken to hospital where his condition has been described as "stable".

Major Poole said the soldiers had been on a routine patrol in two vehicles - a military Land Rover and a 4X4 - when they came under fire.

He said they had been wearing body armour and that force protection measures were "constantly under review".

It is thought an Iraqi woman and two children were also injured when one of the British vehicles ambushed lost control, and that an Iraqi man was caught in the crossfire.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3175557.stm

[Pert_UK]

13. Peace to the soldiers,sympathy to the families and a pox on Bush

I REALLY hate the position that Bush and Blair have put our military in, not to mention the country itself.

P.