Article

2008-05-06 Iraq

Casualties mount in Sadr City as U.S. troops press ahead with attack

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-05-06 04:24|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top
File under: Mahdi Army

#1 random shelling by U.S

We DO NOT engage in 'random shelling' - we aim at stuff, and we hit what we aim at. Sounds like some militia 'projection' going on here - the writer figures random shelling is 'normal because that's what HIS guys do.

Posted by Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-05-06 07:49|| 2008-05-06 07:49|| Front Page Top

#2 More than 532 people among them women and children have been killed in the past two weeks, hospital sources in the city said.

Will Miz Rice take time from her busy schedule of facilitating Paleo terrorism to save them like she saved Hizballah?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-05-06 08:18|| 2008-05-06 08:18|| Front Page Top

#3 If we indulged in "random shelling" of these enemy infested areas, there wouldn't be two boards left nailed together there by this time.

If the media would quit using innocent insurgents as human shields, we could have finished off the real enemy by now.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-05-06 09:45|| 2008-05-06 09:45|| Front Page Top

#4 So much cow pucky.

Posted by JohnQC 2008-05-06 09:46|| 2008-05-06 09:46|| Front Page Top

#5 If the morons had watched what happened elsewhere in Iraq starting with Fallujha they would never had picked a fight with the US troops. They really need to spend more time on that situational awareness survival trait.

Posted by 3dc 2008-05-06 10:39|| 2008-05-06 10:39|| Front Page Top

#6 U.S. snipers are also responsible as many of the hits are in the head, chest and legs, the sources said.

Shots to the feet must be blamed on Hezbollah operatives.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-05-06 11:00|| 2008-05-06 11:00|| Front Page Top

#7 So far no action in the Iraqi legislature to restrict the Sadr City offensive.

However, I'll bet that in the Iranian legislature some people are asking the republican guard why their agents have performed as poorly as they have.

Posted by mhw 2008-05-06 11:00|| 2008-05-06 11:00|| Front Page Top

#8 Actually, hidden among the horse pucky is some potentially usefull information:

It sounds like ~3,100 people have been killed and wounded in Sadr City. Of that number 74% are adult males (~2,300).

Hospital sources say 532 people have died. Bill Roggio reports the US and ISF have killed at least 502 criminals. Thus it appears that 95% of the dead are bad guys.

I conclude that very few children and women have been killed. Virtually all of the women and children casualties have been wounded.

It goes without saying that, except the 502, all other casualties could have been hit by us, by the JAM or debris.

I think we come out looking pretty good.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al">Frozen Al 2008-05-06 11:57|| 2008-05-06 11:57|| Front Page Top

#9 Not to disagree, Al, but you did a fair amount of reading between the lines.

Prolly the AP will pick this up and run with it...

Posted by Bobby 2008-05-06 12:27|| 2008-05-06 12:27|| Front Page Top

#10 The problem is that we have gotten way too good at avoiding civilian casualties.

War shouldn't be clean. It should be messy, ugly, nasty.

If war becomes too tidy people might forget to avoid it when possible.

Posted by Iblis 2008-05-06 13:34|| 2008-05-06 13:34|| Front Page Top

#11 "due to random shelling by U.S. warplanes and helicopter gun ships"

We learned a long time ago that "random shelling" is the way to go. Sometimes we end up killing a camel in the desert, sometimes we get fluffy bunnies, and once in a while we get a terrorist's grandmother. Ya just never know.

But whoever is posting that crap from "iraq updates" can stop now. The only purpose I can see to posting it here is to push emotional buttons. Why would anyone want to publish Iranian propaganda here?

Posted by crosspatch 2008-05-06 13:49|| 2008-05-06 13:49|| Front Page Top

#12 The only purpose I can see to posting it here is to push emotional buttons. Why would anyone want to publish Iranian propaganda here?

Because one should always know what the other side is passing out as 'information'. It's a requirement for us professionals; it's advisable for Rantburg readers.

If you want nice comfortable articles that support your viewpoint, there's plenty of places to look. Or you can look away. Your choice.

Posted by Pappy 2008-05-06 13:59|| 2008-05-06 13:59|| Front Page Top

#13 Bobby,
I agree about reading between the lines. Add salt as needed. However facts remain:
1) number of dead claimed by hospital is close to number of bad guys intentionally killed by U.S.
2) Bill Roggio admits his is an underestimate because it doesn't include DOW etc.
3) This doesn't leave very many left over for kids,women, fluffy bunnies etc.

Feel free to disagree.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al 2008-05-06 14:09|| 2008-05-06 14:09|| Front Page Top

#14 Thanks Pappy, you took the words out of my mouth. That's the very reason I posted the article. This type of crap is on Arab Satellite TV 24/7.

I always say if you know what bullshit looks like and smells like you can avoid stepping in it. Knowledge is power.

We have to be really cleaning the Mahdi Army's clock. They and their Iranian handlers are doing everything to get us to stop. Note the Iranian decision to not talk to the US while we are defeating their proxy fighters in Iraq.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-05-06 14:16|| 2008-05-06 14:16|| Front Page Top

#15 I agree with postponing the talks. We should just say: "We'll get back to you. We're busy right now. Killing Iranians"

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-05-06 15:06|| 2008-05-06 15:06|| Front Page Top

#16 Thanks Pappy, you took the words out of my mouth. That's the very reason I posted the article. This type of crap is on Arab Satellite TV 24/7.

Exactly. Consider the source this article came from...

Posted by Pappy 2008-05-06 17:55|| 2008-05-06 17:55|| Front Page Top

#17 Again, nominal "journalists" use terrorists as a source for stories. Wherever there is an attack on jihadis, they always report large numbers of civilian casualties, while claiming - unless denial is impossible - that their own escaped unharmed.

Do we have an independent media, when they insist on re-spewing terr-prop?

Posted by Jumbo Glineling9721 2008-05-06 18:01|| 2008-05-06 18:01|| Front Page Top

#18 Jumbo,

We do not have an independent media. We have a global media-industrial complex. This is not the free press of the Founding Fathers, it is effectively an unelected, unaccountable shadow government whose only loyalty is to its own interest and to the depraved value systems of its own members and of its characteristic internal culture.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is fond of saying that the "media are the enemy." With certain qualifications (not all media conform to Media-Industrial Complex values), this is nothing less than the literal truth. It is the central fact and the crucial issue of the current global war.

For more on the symbiosis between totalitarian politics and the commercial media, see Thomas Frank's landmark cultural history, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism

Yes, Frank is a major lib, but that fact only makes this damning indictment of media culture all the more credible.

Victory in the current war will be achieved only when an authentic free press is restored in the western world, and the Media-Industrial Complex is discredited and its 50 year reign of cultural terror brought to an end.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-05-06 19:20|| 2008-05-06 19:20|| Front Page Top

#19 My temporary daughter thought we are neglecting Iraq in favour of the next war with Iran. She now understands that is a journalist issue, not a question of the attention span of our Armed Forces. She's learnt a lot of unexpected things since she joined us two weeks ago!

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-05-06 19:56|| 2008-05-06 19:56|| Front Page Top

#20 If she's really smart, TW, she'll try her best to move up to "adopted" from "temporary."

Posted by Chinegum McGurque5166 2008-05-06 21:46|| 2008-05-06 21:46|| Front Page Top

#21 good thread, refreshing insights.. Thanks RBees.

Posted by RD">RD 2008-05-06 23:40|| 2008-05-06 23:40|| Front Page Top

#22 You're sweet to say that, Chinegum McGurque5166, but she's got perfectly good parents of her own, who have some difficulties that need handling at the moment. I've graduated from Mrs. wife to Aunt trailing, though. :-)

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2008-05-06 23:59|| 2008-05-06 23:59|| Front Page Top

23:59 trailing wife
23:56 trailing wife
23:52 JosephMendiola
23:51 RD
23:50 rjschwarz
23:48 rjschwarz
23:46 anonymous2u
23:43 trailing wife
23:40 RD
23:37 Frank G
23:23 trailing wife
23:16 trailing wife
23:15 JosephMendiola
23:09 JosephMendiola
23:07 JosephMendiola
23:03 JosephMendiola
22:56 JosephMendiola
22:54 Barbara Skolaut
22:47 Goober Thising2539
22:30 Ebbatle Protector of the Leprechauns7911
22:27 Ebbatle Protector of the Leprechauns7911
22:25 Redneck Jim
22:22 Ebbatle Protector of the Leprechauns7911
22:22 JosephMendiola