US forces to 'flatten Falluja' before Iraq's first vote

[DoYouEverWonder]

3 Oct 2004

WHILE all eyes are on the US presidential election on November 2, the White House is also concerned with another poll planned for January.

Iraq?s first free and democratic elections early next year drive US military policy in the region and the war on terror as much as President George Bush?s battle against Senator John Kerry next month.

As the insurgency in Iraq intensifies and the conflict dominates the political agenda, US military strategists aim to have quelled all rebel controlled parts of the country before the January election.

<snip>

Faced with the most ferocious fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Bush faces a tricky strategical balancing act in the run-up to the election.

more...

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1154282004


So is this how Bush is bringing democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people? By planning to flatten a city of over 200,000 civilians? I know W wanted to get rid of Saddam, I didn't know he want to get rid of every other Iraqi too?

[ogradda]

1. did you hear that saddam wants to run in their jan election?

i laughed my ass off.

[jmowreader]

6. And he'd win, too

Mark my words: if Saddam Hussein is on the ballot in January, every Iraqi will vote for the SOB just as a smackdown to Bush.

[pa28]

26. You are absolutely right.

That's why he'll never be allowed on the ballot.

[napi21]

2. If they flatten Falluja, this WILL be an unwinnable war.

I suspect flattening this city will mean irreparable damage to the ancient muslim temples. That is definately the wrong thing to do in any country, but worse in the country where the beginning of all religions is. (That didn't sound right, huh?)

The Garded of Eden is there, all different religions started there, and it seems to me, Shrub is trying to start the crusades all over again!

[0007]

12. Falluja is being flatten as we speak

[California Griz]

3. Safe for who

Is what I thought when I first heard the rhetoric about making Iraq safe for elections. Safe for a Bush puppet win. We've got to kill all the opposition and make the country safe for democracy,Bush style.

[TrogL]

4. Why don't the just nuke it and get it over with

You know Dubya wants to.

[MatrixEscape]

5. Bremer failed!

So that means the plan to turn Iraq into a free-for-all market for American Corporations failed. If they violence had not erupted, the plan would have gone ahead full speed.

So, we must consider adding the idea of "resistance" to the items missing in the meager reportage about the real situation in Iraq.

News like this makes me feel seriously sad about our impact on that country and how we are now only managing to throw tons of salt into an already gaping wound.

One could actually see that a viable, but horrible option is to wipe-out large numbers of Iraqi's in order to make it a safe pie for Corporate slicing someday. Enough is enough!

I am starting to agree with President Carter about serious consideration of pulling out with our tail between our legs while maintaining other kinds of support for the Iraqi people as they sort out the mess we have made there. Were we trying to make Saddam's regime look bad? Cha ... right.

[RebelYell]

7. There's at least 2 Iraqis that have a sense of humor

Although, I would have lost my sense of humor long ago if I were them.

[MatrixEscape]

9. That was good! Thanks!

So, we share a common view with them! Cool. A solidarity point.

Tyranny marches on?

[Bo]

10. WOW!!! The Chimpster is in IRAQ

[Judi Lynn]

22. Bless their hearts. They look like very decent people, too.

No wild-eyed, bomb tossing, out of control fanatics there.

God only knows how many Americans would hold up in their situation.

[devinsgram]

34. That is a priceless picture.

It should be on the front page of every newspaper in the US.

[RebelYell]

36. I wish I could remember where I found it n/t

[auntAgonist]

8. So what do I say to the

IDIOT who is arguing with me that " It was the citizens of Falluja who dragged the burnt corpses of those contractors through the streets and hung them from the bridge. Teens and children dancing in the streets and pumping their fists in the air.

I'd say they have it coming.

So be it... "



geeez .. now I think I'll :puke:

[Disturbed]

11. Bomb them into submisssion.

This will continue for the next 6 months. The objective is to crush the spirit of the Iraq people and force them to accept US Colonization. The really sad part is that most Americans wouldn't give a damn if a million Iraqis were slaughtered.

If al Sadr, who now has the blessing of al Sistani, runs for PM al Sadr will win.

[MatrixEscape]

15. But ...

You have to hand it to the spirit of the Iraqi people and admire their tenacity after the mind-numbing "shock and awe" of the first assault on them, combined with horrible conditions and lack of services they have endured.

I think many of us are seeing just what a short end of the stick they have now that "freedom" has arrived. It is deplorable and makes one feel like they deserve an apology, not a blitzkrieg -- Oh, the Humanity!

While the situation is obviously enough to incite uprisings, they are showing their strength and determination, no matter how much has been visited upon them both by Saddam, and now by Bush who is using our military for his own devices.

Will somebody give these people a break? I think of all the children who have had to listen to bombs, guns, and viloence, since the US invaded. The trauma and stress is going to have a generation of negative impact as it is. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

[shanti]

24. the iraquis are fighting for their lives

they have nothing more to lose now. wouldn't you do the same if it happened here? i know i would.

[MatrixEscape]

27. Precisely

When I speak with people, they often agree that only a fool would be a passive sheeple in certain scenarios. It is not hard to find empathy if you try the walk in somebody else's moccasins.

[tblue37]

41. Wouldn't it be funny if they had elections and al-Sadr did win?

Karma.

[Aidoneus]

17. I'd say this guy you're talking to has it coming

so.. :shrug:

[auntAgonist]

20. you see...

I feel so inadequate to argue with such stupidity. I'm told I'm too 'emotional' "it's war" "people die" ... blah blah blah ..

well hell yes people die, but THEY didn't have to dammit!!

ok ..sorry ..

I'll shut up.

[NNN0LHI]

21. Ask him what kind of "contractors" come to his house with assault rifles

All the "contractors" who have worked for me were carrying lunch pales and had ladders and tools with them. Abu Ghraib Prison is right near Falluja. Just exactly what kind of contracting were these "contractors" doing if you happen to know?

Don

[Arianrhod]

23. Death is very liberating. n/t

[Carolab]

25. Did you mention to the idiot

that these people were retaliating for their own innocent civilians being killed--and did you also mention that these were contractors who are being paid 10 times what U.S. military are getting paid

[Voltaire99]

28. Save your breath

The totalitarian mind is closed, firmly, against alternatives.

[NoPasaran]

35. I'd say that step one in getting out of a hole is to quit digging

What does your idiot think our goal is in Iraq? "Getting even" for 9/11? Well, we already invaded the place, destroyed their infrastructure, threw loads of them out of work, and killed maybe ten or twenty thousand of them so far. So I say that score has been more than settled---leaving aside the embarrassing fact that it wasn't Iraq that attacked us in the first place.

Ultimately, the US needs to find a road out of Iraq. Everything we do needs to contribute to victory (whatever "victory in Iraq" means these days. The fact that we don't seem to have defined realistic war aims is one of the reasons we're currently losing.) Will reducing a city of 200,000 and its people to a pile of smoldering rubble help us get out of Iraq? Or does it just dig us in deeper?

Your idiot friend might want to Google "Lidice".

[SOS]

40. Suggest that they

research the Noor letter in re Abu Ghraib.
Then check the dates closely.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

42. US troops killed 17 civilians at a protest. That's why the 4 mercs got it.

The people of Fallujah were outraged at the US slaughter of unarmed protesters that week.

Yes, the US started it with larger atrocities. This was not reported in the US.

So the visual effect of burned mutilated mercenary's bodies as their small retaliation was a major propaganda tool for Rumsfeld.

[Mountainman]

13. We had to destroy the village in order to save it ....... Vietnam 1968

[pleiku52cab]

14. unfortunately

we had to either kill or relocate the whole towns populace to do this wonderful task

[Disturbed]

16. Most American support this slaughter.

It will last at least for another six months. If Kerry/Edwards win will the slaughter continue with them in charge?

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. No, because Kerry is willing to consider a political solution

for solving the problems Bush created by invading Iraq. Bu$h refuses to negotiate or to consider any solution other than brute force.

[Voltaire99]

29. Who the hell knows? The neoliberals are imperialists, too

Under Bush, we know what lies ahead: more slaughter in Iraq. Under Kerry, there is an outside chance of change. But the neoliberal strategy for world domination is every bit as determined as the neocon version. Kerry's plans for Vietnamization and potluck-style shared suffering are fantasies--the Iraqis aren't going to settle for US puppets, nor are other nations foolish enough to clean up the mess for which the US and UK are to blame.

If Kerry wins and does not rapidly change troop levels in Iraq, I expect anti-war protests in the US will increase.

[VegasWolf]

19. Some missles miss and take out Fla's West Palm and Dade counties n/t

[illuminaughty]

30. Gotta rant a little

My anger skyrockets daily as I see the feed from Iraq that has not been censored by our corporate media. This morning there was once again video clip of children pulled from the rubble from our latest Fallujah strike. And then a clip of a citizen saying "Mr. Bush, is this your terrorist? This was just a family living here."

Then CNN whores run the same video and cut out the children and simply say "Iraqis say that two children were killed. There were children in the video but this has not been confirmed" It was the exact same clip! It is obvious they are deceased. And virtually no pictures are coming out of Samarra, where they say 100 "insurgents"
were killed. So you can imagine what is happening there. Atrocities.

Someone mentioned the Garden of Eden and Iraq's historical sites. This is another sickening and ongoing operation. An operation of systematically destroying their culture. There is a video showing before and after shots of hundreds of archaeological sites. They have been pillaged, gutted, destroyed. Not just the Baghdad museum as we saw in the beginning of the war. But, ancient sites all over the country. About a half hour ago they said the Great Mosque of Samarra was in danger. (It is that beautiful winding minaret from year 847)
They have set up a permanent base next to the Ziggurat of Ur and have found graffiti such as "Semper Fe" spray painted on the buildings.

Yeah, the insurgents just hate our freedom. We need an exit strategy and a new Marshall plan.

[leftchick]

31. omg? They really did that???

I had heard they showed the dead children yesterday. I can not believe their audacity to edit what they have already shown! It is time to e-mail those whores Agin at state run television!!! :grr:

[illuminaughty]

44. Sorry for the confusion

Al Jazeera showed the dead children. Then an hour later CNN showed the same video (I believe it was provided to both stations by Al Manar out of Lebanon) but CNN only showed the people walking around the rubble and cut the part showing the children.

Since I knew it was the exact same video feed I thought it was disgusting that CNN simply said the video showed two children but implied they only had heard from the Iraqis that children had been killed. In other words, not confirmed, so we're not going to admit to it.

On the subject, though, it is not unusual to see stories marched out early in the morning and have them disappear all together later.I am a night person so I always see news at 4am. Stories will be reported and then you won't see them again. I saw this happen so often over the last few years that I started following everything on line and now I have satellite. Guess the technical term for removing a story or editing it later is called "redacting". For a great look at a lot info that has been redacted go to the memoryhole.org. I'd give you the link bur the page isn't coming up. That's strange because this is the site the gov't shut down over showing the caskets of the soldiers. It was working fine a couple of days ago. Freedom of the press. Sure!

[lazarus]

32. 200,000 people

Montgomery, AL
Scottsdale, AZ
Fremont, CA
Ft Wayne, IN
Des Moines, IA
Shrevesport, LA
Grand Rapids, MI
Yonkers, NY
Chesapeake, VA
Richmond, VA
Spokane, WA
Tacoma, WA
Madison, WI

All cities in the US with populations of right at 200,000.

Pick one of those cities and imagine that foreign forces "flatten" it. Imagine how you'd react.

[NNN0LHI]

37. PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION! N/T

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DoYouEverWonder]

38. Normal people see a young boy with horrible wounds

Bush only sees a terrorist who hates our freedom. If this poor kid didn't hate us before, he sure has a right to hate us now and he will bear the scars of our agression for the rest of his life.

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. WTF?

Why did #33 get deleted?

[Aidoneus]

43. That makes for clarity

The sadistic and genocidal beasts participating this, at every level, must be destroyed. This goes beyond mere politics, or "the election". Mass murderers acting inside this country are severely punished; when they act outside of it, they are given medals and good salaries. Fuck them. If it's a war they want, they should get one everywhere and let those who give the orders from comfy chairs in the rear be the ones to feel it for once.

[Polemonium]

45. Now this is the way to spread Democracy

Your either with us or dead. I suppose terror organizations won't need to put up recruitment flyer's this month either.:eyes:

[truthisfreedom]

46. chimpy should run for president of Iraq and see if he beats saddam hussein

because he's going to lose here.

and Kerry should use that. 8^)