Just amazing how much chaos this war has caused

[ShaneGR]

Some of this is just unbelievable.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/14/iraq.main/index.html

(snips)
The weeklong assault on the city -- 30 miles west of Baghdad -- has killed 1,000 to 2,000 insurgents, Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler said.

In addition, 38 U.S. troops and six Iraqis have been killed, with 275 Americans wounded since operations began November 7, the U.S. military said in a statement. More than 60 of the wounded have returned to duty.


----------------------------------


"As of late last night, we have been in all parts of the city," Sattler told reporters. "We have liberated the city of Falluja."

"The enemy is broken," Sattler said, but troops "have to go back to still isolated pockets" of insurgents.

"If they are trapped and want to fight till death, we have no choice but to accommodate," the general said.



-----------------------------------

It's unclear how many civilians have been killed or wounded in the airstrikes or heavy ground battles that have gripped the city. Military officials said at least 14 civilians were wounded.

The London-based humanitarian group Amnesty International issued a statement Sunday, saying it feared a "failure by parties to the fighting to take precautions to protect non-combatants."

CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with the Army, said the city was heavily damaged but that little was leveled, with many houses repairable.

Overnight, U.S. forces dropped four 2,000-pound, bunker-busting bombs on an underground complex used by insurgents, military officials said Sunday.

[tuvor]

1. I've asked this before, but what exactly is the difference between

an insurgent and an Iraqi citizen who's against being told what to do by a foreign power?

[Cary]

4. Nothing

That's why the body counts didn't matter in Viet Nam, and why they won't matter in Iraq.

[DireStrike]

9. Explosive residue on hands = insurgent

So basically if you live in Iraq and haven't washed your hands in the last 5 minutes...

And if you fired one of those AKs we let people have? Game over man.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. You didn't expect this???

n/t

[billyoc]

3. Jane Arraf is completely shellshocked.

She's been in combat longer than most of the soldiers there and she's totally out of it by now. A 1,000 yard stare case. :crazy:

[alcuno]

8. I think you're right. She looks totally beaten down by events.

She ought to be the highest paid reporter on CNN.

[mike_c]

5. 1000 to 2000 Iraqi patriots murdered...

...for defending their country against occupation. Actually, it's more likely that a few hundred in the resistance were killed, and the rest were civilians.

[aquart]

7. Yep.

Did I mention that they are not a forgiving people?

[roguevalley]

6. look at those boys faces. this is so sick. those are guys down

the block.

[mike_c]

11. they're mass murderers now....

Here's some more boys from down some block.

[DELUSIONAL]

12. Same sort of look

Oppressors -- Occupiers -- killers of anything that moves. Trained to hate the "other".

Oh yes -- the lying propaganda German media was represented in the war crimes trials at the end of WWII and -- and one individual was hung. Someone who remembers the War Crimes trial history a bit better than I do might remember the name of the media owner who was hung.

Now I do NOT believe in capital punishment -- but the over paid talking heads who don't bother to verify what comes out of their mouths and who repeat the bush mafia propaganda should lose their jobs and have their bank accounts, homes, cars etc confiscated and then tossed out onto the street to survive.

bush is not the legitimate prez now nor will he ever be. He is a legitimate criminal -- and he should be tried for crimes against humanity.

[Mira]

10. I've read a lot of propaganda but this link beats most of it

The other reports about Fallujah are not exactly focusing on how much we have brought liberation to them.
They focus on lack of food, water, electricity, ability to find medical aid to children bleeding to death, people being shot in the river Euphrates, no ability to even be in the street, utter and non compassionate warfare.
They deal with nebulous figures of the dead, 1000 - 2000, what kind of callous count is that vs. "31 Americans dead". And our wounded, I believe, actually are overrunning the hospital in Landstuhl, at 400 this past week.
We achieved next to nothing. Did not get the guy we were after, and in the manner of squishing jello, with the advance warning of our invading Fallujah, and waiting until after the election to do it, we simply allowed them to get out and regroup. And they left the civilians to be killed by us.

I so worry about our soldiers, when they return home. Their horror, their experience of it, their mission to stay alive above all else to keep our count of the dead down. And what it means to them to pre-emptively kill and have that memory in their minds forever. Do we have enough of an army of psychiatrists? Do we realize the impact of the mentally damaged, and physically ruined, on our society?

My heart bleeds.