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| Iraq-Jordan |
| VIOLENCE BURNS ON IN IRAQ |
| 2004-11-20 |
| US forces have faced fierce fighting with rebels near Baghdad airport following a day of attacks in the Iraqi capital. Earlier, the US military found the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers in northern Mosul. All nine had been shot in the back of the head and seven of them were decapitated, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings. He said the bodies were found in south-central Mosul off a major road about a mile from the Tigris River. US troops made the discovery after getting a tip from the Iraqi National Guard. The men, who were not in uniform, have been identified as part of the Iraqi regular army based at the al-Kisik military base. US-led forces have attempted to expel insurgents from Mosul this week after a recent uprising in support of guerrillas in Fallujah. Some 30 suspected guerrillas were detained during multiple raids on Friday. Meanwhile, rebels have killed three policemen in a dawn strike on their station in Baghdad's Sunni Aadhamiya district. An American soldier was killed and nine wounded when a patrol was caught in an ambush in the Iraqi capital. The attacks came as a US general acknowledged it was hasty to claim this month's offensive on Fallujah had broken the back of the insurgency. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 I've noticed that about the Marine al-Anbar press releases. They give no details on daily fighting and if there is a casualty all they say is that information is being withheld for security reasons, which is the way it should be I also agree with this supposed end of the world reporting that the press is doing to be nothing but anti-war propaganda. There's no more violence now, and overall might be less if you take out the offensives of our side, then there was before Fallujah. |
| Posted by: BillH 2004-11-20 9:47:28 PM |
| #2 Every time I see "widespread" in such reports I relax and think, oh, OK, there was some shooting in a few places that someone bothered to report, probably because it involved foreign troops and not just the normal issues (local gangster activity). Every time I see "fierce fighting" in such reports I get excited, because of course every time there actually is any real fighting, the enemy is slaughtered. The USMC general who used the "break the back" phrase should be forced to drop and give us all 50 push-ups. He may well be right, but he knows with today's dysfunctional media you never, never say such things, even AFTER they've been proven correct. Having said that, I support him and his troops all the way, and think they're the best things the US (or Iraq) ever had going for them. A friend who's with the USMC in al-Anbar denied -- sort of half-heartedly -- that the Corps had adopted a "blackout" press strategy in that region. But aside from Fallujah, think back to how many times the news of US casualties was accompanied by almost any detail on the engagement involved. That's right, never. I think the USMC's unspoken blackout strategy is the right one -- just win the war, achieve your objectives expeditiously, and let the media in the dark to wonder what's going on. I think the innacuracy, lack of integrity, and lack of comprehension characterizing most media coverage of Iraq may have introduced a new wrinkle in all the homilies about war requiring cultivation of public support in a democracy. I know many folks who trust the military and administration to get the job done, who know enough that they'll sense if that trust is misplaced, and in the meantime mostly ignore the gross distortions and selectivity of the media. In that context, a blackout makes sense. No video of US "war crimes" coming from Tel Afar and other hot areas, is there? |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2004-11-20 9:04:23 PM |
| #1 Someone explain to me again why the Marine that dispatched that turd is being investigated??? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-11-20 8:11:51 PM |