Losing Battle for City's Heart

[DuctapeFatwa]

Adnan Maher held up a yellow plastic bag bulging with 6 pounds of rice, lentils, flour and sugar. "This is Mr. Bremer's Ramadan gift to the people of Samarra," he said, grinning...Capt. David Johnson looked pleased. "We're trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis,"...Less than half a mile away, at a soccer field riddled with American bullets, few Iraqi hearts were won...

Akram Shouk is just the kind of person that the Americans could have won over in Samarra...But Shouk turned against the U.S. occupation after troops raided his home one night last month...broke down the metal door, took him and his two teenage sons outside, put sacks on their heads and tied their arms with plastic handcuffs. The soldiers then spent two hours searching the three-room house for weapons and pro-insurgent material."They broke some of my dishes, damaged my furniture and they dragged mud all over my floor," said Shouk's wife, Nabiha, pointing to a broken wooden dresser.Shouk thinks the Americans were tipped off by a neighbor who holds a grudge against him. "They didn't find anything, so they just left," he said. "They terrorized us and they didn't even apologize."..


"All the mosques here talk about fighting the Americans," said Hassan, 28. "No one in Samarra has anything good to say about the Americans, unless he's a collaborator."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-wosama303564745nov30,0,7304598,print.story?coll=ny-nationworld-headlines

[madrchsod]

1. samarra

the town that lost at least 8 civilians dead and unknown wounded,many buildings damaged,and at least 40 some bank robbers dead. yes it was a bank robbery, the us troops were delivering new iraqi money to the bank.

[sistersofmercy]

4. Hey do you have a link for that story? I have heard the bank

robbery part.

[sistersofmercy]

2. There are so many stories such as this, they have dishonored a proud

people repeatedly, daily, with no apologies. What population could withstand such actions, Americans would fight tooth and nail under these circumstances if the situation was reverse.

[bread_and_roses]

3. We kill their children

uproot their fields, terrorize ordinary people, kill kill kill and this after ten years of sanctions that accomplished nothing but the death of thousands and thousands of children...words fail me.

[redqueen]

5. Yeah, but it beats 'cutting and running' right?

Shouldn't we stay for a year or two (or more)? You know, so our troops leave 'with dignity'?

:mad: