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Iraq
U.S. Troops Kill Iraqis in Falluja ; Guerrillas Attack Rasheed Hotel
2003-09-27
EFL/FU - Iraq Roundup via Rooters - watch the spin
Iraqi police said U.S. troops shot dead four civilians in the volatile town of Falluja, and guerrillas fired grenades at a Baghdad hotel on Saturday housing senior officials with the U.S.-led occupation forces.
Okay. That's two facts...
U.S. reconstruction efforts have been hampered by persistent guerrilla attacks and, after an appeal for foreign help fell on deaf ears, Washington activated 10,000 National Guard troops on Friday for Iraq duty and put another 5,000 on standby.
That paragraph has nothing to do with the corpses in the first paragraph...
The U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said it was too early to know how much other countries would help in rebuilding Iraq, devastated by two wars and more than a decade of economic sanctions. President Bush has asked Congress for about $20 billion for the job but some lawmakers and aides suggested foreign countries might donate only about $2 billion. "Let’s wait and see what we get," Bremer told reporters in Washington. A donors conference is set for Madrid in October.
Nice to know, but nothing to do with corpses and there won't be any facts until sometime next month...
Since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fell in April, guerrilla attacks have persisted on U.S. and British troops, and Iraqis have complained of the slow pace of restoring basic services.
Two statements of the obvious. If you want to make a real intellectual jump, you might try connecting the two...
The turmoil was expected to fuel protests on Saturday in cities around the world, with demonstrators angered over the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction, cited by the United States and Britain as the reason for the pre-emptive war.
Which turmoil? The corpses in Fallujah? Or the background noise of guerrilla attacks? Why are the demonstrators so angered over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction? Aren't they the same ones who were saying their either weren't there or that they weren't dangerous?
It would be the first major protest in Britain and most of the other cities since the war ended. In London, up to 100,000 demonstrators were expected to march, organizers said, and vowed more protests when Bush visits in November.
Here's an item that'd make an interesting news story: how many of the demonstrators, especially the organizers, are involved with each and every similar demonstration everyplace? Where do they get the money to fly from country to country and operate papier machè puppets?
In Iraq, more than 150,000 U.S. and British soldiers have struggled to bring stability to the country’s 26 million people.
Okay. That's even more than the number of people expected to demonstrate in London. What's it have to do with them? What's it have to do with the corpses in the first paragraph?
Explosions were heard across Baghdad early on Saturday and residents near the al-Rashid hotel said they were woken by three thunderous bangs.
"Fatimah! What was that?"
"It was a thunderous bang, Mahmoud. Go back to sleep."
The hotel is part of a large complex on the west bank of the Tigris river that has been taken over by the U.S.-led occupation authority. U.S. officials said three grenades were fired at the hotel, one hitting a wall, but there were no casualties. The hotel houses U.S. military and civilian staff.
Bet the bad guys beat the hell out of that wall, though...
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, police said three men and a woman from the same family were killed when U.S. soldiers fired at their car on a road just outside the town.
Now we're back to the corpses in the first paragraph...
The U.S. military confirmed the Friday night incident but said two Iraqis were killed when their car ran a checkpoint.
Falluja’s burned the "free run thru a checkpoint" goodwill
Angry residents chanting anti-American slogans flocked to a nearby hospital where Reuters television footage showed four corpses and several wounded. Falluja is about 50 km (30 miles) from Baghdad, in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" where resistance to the occupation is strongest.
Presumably the Iraqis know that, even as they load Mom and the kids and Grampaw and the puppies and kittens and baby ducks into the car for a midnight drive, speeding past checkpoints with gay abandon...
Guerrilla activity across Iraq has killed 80 U.S. soldiers since Washington declared major combat operations over on May 1.
How many Iraqis has it killed? How many Syrians, Yemenis and Paleos has it killed?
U.S. officials have said foreigners coming to Iraq to fight U.S. and British forces had become a major "terrorist" problem
But they weren't the ones bumped off running the checkpoint at Fallujah. Or were they? Rooters never gets around to saying...
Posted by:Frank G

#10  And that was just the stuff that was planned for a wedding celebration!
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-9-27 5:09:19 PM  

#9  ? Fox news has it, including info on teh biggest weapons cache find:
U.S. troops also unearthed one of their biggest weapons caches to date near the village of Uja, Saddam Hussein's birthplace near Fallujah

The raid on the farm near Uja was the second in as many days. On a tip, troops dug near a river bank to find 1,000 pounds of explosives used to make the homemade bombs that have killed numerous American soldiers.

The cache also turned up 23 Russian-made surface-to-air missiles; four rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 115 rockets; a mortar and 40 mortar rounds; 1,300 blasting caps and 423 hand grenades.

Posted by: Frank G   2003-9-27 4:48:48 PM  

#8  I've gone through five different online papers, and there's nothing on this in any of them. Wonder if Rooters has unburied a story from last week, and are using it. Par for the course for that limp rag... And they used to be an organization one could be proud of. The shame of it all! Must have a new muslim editor.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-9-27 3:56:46 PM  

#7  U.S. Troops Kill Iraqis

Wow, nice inflammatory headline. Of course, this is probably par for the course for Roto-Reuters.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2003-9-27 1:17:39 PM  

#6  My dad was part of the 4th Armored Division during World War II. He said that they were pinned down once, and called for air support. Sixteen twin-engine bombers dropped their load. Half landed on the US side, half landed on the German side. Dad said they lost over 100 guys from that one incident. Don't have a clue how many the Germans lost, but Dad was so angry when he told me this he could chew railroad spikes and spit out thumbtacks.

World War II lasted four years, and killed about 300,000 US troops (millions of Brits, French, Italians, Greeks, and others, plus Japanese and all the people of the Pacific. Russia lost 20 MILLION). We've been at this for less than six months, and have lost around 300 to combat. While each soldier's loss is a tragedy, it isn't unexpected, and it isn't 'a quagmire'. I do believe it's about time to declare open war on SOME reporters, though.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-9-27 1:16:19 PM  

#5  Various U.S. media have reported that several thousand U.S. citizens have been slaughtered since January 1, 2003, on U.S. highways while travelling in evil imported automobiles, while the Bush Administration gloated over its victories elsewhere. This shocking figure dwarfs the 80 military casualties resulting from the operations of activists practicing their honest and traditional Jihadi trade in Iraq, and several Big Media executives are expected to resign before sundown in shame at failing to use it as another club to beat the evil Republicans.
Posted by: Gospodin Polopodsky   2003-9-27 1:14:47 PM  

#4  Guerrilla activity across Iraq has killed 80 U.S. soldiers since Washington declared major combat operations over on May 1.

This is equivalent to deaths at the Battle of Natural Bridge. Never heard of it? A two hour desultory firefight in the swamps south of Tallahassee.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-9-27 12:47:01 PM  

#3  Closer examination of the so-called "deaf ears" reveals them to have been covered up with the listeners' hands. Furthermore, the listeners were discovered to be humming and muttering "I'm not listening, la la la la la la" under their breath.
Posted by: snellenr   2003-9-27 11:59:12 AM  

#2  Even worse, Fred, I edited out the not-on-topic stuff LOL
Posted by: Frank G   2003-9-27 11:50:18 AM  

#1  The "checkpoint run" must be the local sport amoung the local yutes. Somebody needs to eliminate their access to Vin Diesel movies.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-9-27 11:21:06 AM  

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