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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Sadrites have won a great victory |
| 2004-08-28 |
| We desperately need for them to win more victories like this one. Since fighting began in early August, as many as 1,000 guerrillas may have been killed, U.S. commanders say, along with 11 U.S. Marines and soldiers. More than 100 soldiers have been wounded, including dozens of serious injuries. About 3,000 U.S. soldiers took part in the fight, battling somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 guerrillas, a number that varied as Iraqis joined or quit the battle. For every shot they took, U.S. soldiers returned scores or hundreds. For every mortar round the guerrillas lobbed, the gunners at the Marine base here responded with a 100-pound artillery shell. The insurgents had donkey carts loaded with rocket-propelled grenades, the soldiers 70-ton tanks that can survive direct hits from mortars and grenades. The U.S. advantage was especially large at night, when night-vision goggles allowed soldiers to see in the dark. |
| Posted by:Zhang Fei |
| #18 I thought that was Cornwallis? Ah well. |
| Posted by: N Greene 2004-08-29 12:16:52 PM |
| #17 Sodomites have won great victory? |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-08-29 1:04:55 AM |
| #16 As King Pyrrhus of Epirus said after the bloody battle of Heraclea in 280 BC: "One more such victory and we are ruined." |
| Posted by: Anonymous6202 2004-08-28 11:28:23 PM |
| #15 RMcLeod: And what about his funders? Are they still going to back such an obvious loser? I sure hope so. They've got to back someone, and if they're going to do so, my hand-picked candidate is Sadr. This is why killing Sadr is a bad idea. The guy's a proven loser, yet stands in the way of anyone better at this business. And that's all to the good. It's also funny how Sistani "opposes armed resistance" against Uncle Sam when he can't even protect his people against getting killed by Sadr's henchmen. Talk about getting a lemon and making lemonade. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-08-28 8:12:31 PM |
| #14 Heh, Zhang Fei, I like the way you think ! Can anybody confirm what the "11 US deaths" means ? Does that mean in all of Iraq (my guess, but cannot seem to find confirmation), or is it only for the Najaf fighting ? |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2004-08-28 7:49:24 PM |
| #13 I am rooting for Sadr to stay alive in the same way that the French are rooting for Kerry. We all know someone's going to get the cash from Iran. Might as well be a proven loser like Sadr. (Is this guy a deep-cover American agent, such that he lures so many fine, upstanding jihadis to a horrible death?) |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-08-28 7:44:31 PM |
| #12 quit trying to cheer me up, dammit! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-08-28 5:32:12 PM |
| #11 Ed: OTOH, a lot of US soldiers are armed with a carbine version of the M-16, that's worse than the normal M-16 at producing fatal wounds at long range. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-08-28 5:30:46 PM |
| #10 ZF, I don't think Sadr's wounded is that high. The US can sustain 5:1 wounded/death or higher ratio given our medical care and that a lot of the injuries are on the arms and legs due to shrapnel from 60mm mortars, RPGs, and AKs. Sadr's cannon fodder are being sniped with well aimed large caliber rifles, shelled by 120mm and 155mm cannons and bombed from the air. That and poor medical care leads me to believe wounded/dead ratio is < 1:1. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-08-28 5:23:26 PM |
| #9 I would venture many of them we a burden on their families all their lives before this ass kicking. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-08-28 5:20:46 PM |
| #8 ZF: Note that the NY Times dwells on the number of American wounded, but not on the number Sadrites wounded - probably a few thousand with serious wounds that include losing limbs, losing their eyesight and being crippled, given that their standard of medical care was far lower. That should have read: Note that the NY Times dwells on the number of American wounded, but not on the number of Sadrites wounded - probably a few thousand with serious wounds that include losing limbs, losing their eyesight and being crippled, given that their standard of medical care was far lower. The point here is that potential jihadis need to have hammered into them that war isn't merely martyrdom and paradise - it can also mean being a burden to their families for the rest of their lives. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-08-28 5:13:09 PM |
| #7 Mike, you might want to think about what the phrase "to dwell on" something means. They didn't even try to give a total number, or an estimate of scale. They mentioned some casualties in passing, and tried to conflate civilian and Sadrite casualties -- not exactly legitimate reporting, no matter how you want to spin it. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-08-28 4:38:37 PM |
| #6 And the Lord smote the Sadrmites. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-08-28 4:34:14 PM |
| #5 Re #1 (Zhang Fei) Note that the NY Times dwells on the number of American wounded, but not on the number Sadrites wounded ========== The NY Times article: On Friday afternoon, the decomposed bodies of insurgent fighters lay in houses in and around the Old City, which surrounds the shrine. One house at the western edge of the city held four blasted corpses, missing arms and legs. .... Dogs had been at the bodies overnight, ... The two sides have caused uncounted civilian casualties .... Just before the noon prayer call, a reporter was accused of being a spy and set on by a crowd just west of the shrine, then briefly taken captive by al-Sadr's guerrillas, blindfolded and tied up, and threatened with death ... ========== Those damned reporters deserve to die, especially if they work for the NY Times and fail to report about Iraqi casualties! . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-08-28 4:10:22 PM |
| #4 72 virgins that you can't do anything with... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-08-28 3:17:10 PM |
| #3 How many virgins for a limb? |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-08-28 3:00:07 PM |
| #2 ZF: These people will serve as living, breathing deterrents to those who want to risk it all for Allah. What if a jihadi becomes a paraplegic? Is there a special place in Allah's paradise for paraplegics? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-08-28 2:19:20 PM |
| #1 Note that the NY Times dwells on the number of American wounded, but not on the number Sadrites wounded - probably a few thousand with serious wounds that include losing limbs, losing their eyesight and being crippled, given that their standard of medical care was far lower. These people will serve as living, breathing deterrents to those who want to risk it all for Allah. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-08-28 2:17:19 PM |