In Retaken Iraqi City, Perils Lurk ("All bad" in Tall Afar)

[Barrett808]

In Retaken Iraqi City, Perils Lurk
Masked Informer Leads U.S. Search For Insurgents
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 15, 2004; Page A01

TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept. 14 -- The Iraqi known as "The Source" slipped the borrowed U.S. military fatigues over his clothes in the back of the armored personnel carrier. He donned a black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.

He stepped out of the back of the vehicle and addressed the interpreter who would in turn address the company commander who would lead the search for terrorists this day.

"The village. He wants you to arrest all the men in the village," the interpreter told Army Capt. Eric Beaty, commander of Company C, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment.

"They're all bad?" Beaty asked.

The interpreter consulted The Source. "Yes, all bad," he said.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21671-2004Sep14.html

[amber dog democrat]

1. soon it will be everyone in a given city

Bad. They're all bad.

[David__77]

2. Masked informers... juse like apartheid South Africa and occupied France.

And just like in those cases, the masses of people will fiercely fight against occupiers... it's a law of society and history: people from freedom and countries want independence. A few puppets and flunkeys wanting payola can't change that.

[jayfish]

5. Why Go That Far Away?

We use masked informants, in the "War On Drugs", all the time. Right here in the good old USofA.

Jay

[Aidoneus]

9. the racist motive is there, as well

The reason those in Telafar are all bad is because they're Turkmen; the Kurds want to take over the area, and they're using the occupation forces to carry out their ethnic cleansing program there.

[UpInArms]

3. taking instructions from Coulter?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20010914.shtml

excerpt:

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

[saigon68]

4. She is a skank

Evil

[atreides1]

6. Tall Afar=Lidice

Wasn't this the same tactic that the SS used throughout WWII. Round up all of the men, and arrest them.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

[Jacobin]

7. "All Bad"

I wonder if the clue phone is ringing for any of the generals or whoever the hell is orchestrating this crap in Iraq. They don't want us there.

They want us to leave

NO WMD, Saddam Arrested, WTF is their current excuse. Please dont' tell me to "establish security" because we are causing most of the bedlam.

Jeeze, this damn thing will drag on for a fucking decades and tens of thousands....hell its going to be hundreds of thousands killed and maimed for absofuckinglutely NOTHING.

[denverbill]

8. OK, now THAT says something about this war.

Clearly, there is no town anywhere in the entire world where ALL the men in the village are 'bad'.

They might all oppose US policy. They might even be committing violent acts against Americans.

But if every man in the village is guilty, then clearly US policy, at least towards that village, is 100% wrong.

In France, during WWII, there were very few Resistance members committing violent acts against Germans. And there may have been whole French villages where most of the men were involved in or at least supported the Resistance.

But would anyone claim that everyone in a French village like that was 'bad'?

[Dhalgren]

10. Welcome to America! We know that we are good,

because the media tells us we are! Don't get bogged down in anguish over this action or that action; did an American do this or do that! Why should you have to worry about what is right and what is wrong? You shouldn't! Let the "Leader approved" media tell you how good we are and how bad "they" are. Then you can go back to enjoying the new fall line-up on you way cool tee vee! I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a deal!