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THANKS FOR THE LIBERATION
by JOHN CHUCKMAN
Friday, Mar. 21, 2003 at 10:36 AM
THE BRUTAL TRUTH...
or
by JonUs
Friday, Mar. 21, 2003 at 5:35 PM
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81784,00.html
'Saddam Is Done,' Marines Exult in Captured Town
Friday, March 21, 2003
SAWFAN, Iraq � U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of Saddam Hussein in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."
Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up, peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame. Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.
"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time we're here, and Saddam is done."
The Marines arrived in Safwan, just across the Kuwait border, after Cobra attack helicopters, attack jets, tanks, 155 mm howitzers and sharpshooters cleared the way along Route 80, the main road into Iraq.
Safwan, 375 miles south of Baghdad, is a poor, dirty, wrecked town pocked by shrapnel from the last Gulf war. Iraqi forces in the area sporadically fired mortars and guns for hours Thursday and Friday. Most townspeople hid, although residents brought forth a wounded little girl, her palm bleeding after the new fighting. Another man said his wife was shot in the leg by the Americans.
A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.
"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."
Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"
Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.
A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."
An old woman shrouded in black -- one of the very few women outside -- knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by sliding his finger across his throat.
In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died after prematurely celebrating what they believed was their liberation from Saddam after the Gulf War. Some even pulled down a few pictures of Saddam then -- only to be killed by Iraqi forces.
Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople.
"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War.
"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come up there then, and we never did."
The townspeople seemed grateful this time.
"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"
Or alternatively...
by Rebecca
Friday, Mar. 21, 2003 at 11:05 PM
malekincat@earthlink.net
Oh well if Fox News said this then it must be true...
They bombed Baghdad so hard today that a BBC journalist said he couldn't see a building that wasn't on fire. So... let's all cheer for the "smart" bombs guys... Betcha those Iraqis are getting such a kick out of their liberation experience, George W style. The ones left alive will be bowing down to him in the streets.
A least, they will for Fox News.
yeah.....
by JonUs
Saturday, Mar. 22, 2003 at 11:45 AM
you really are an idiot. Its a war. People die that is reality. You should come for a visit sometime. It sucks but nobody is happy about it. I am happy that saddam is no longer going to be in power. Apparntly your not happy about that. Go ahead and read this article and then tell me Saddam should stay in power. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3284-614607,00.html
hippy goons
by jeffrey
Saturday, Mar. 22, 2003 at 5:37 PM
i guess you didn't see the maps of where all the bombs hit in baghdad, huh? cause they were all in the military and government section of the city... none in the residential area... i can't wait to see the final civilian casualty count after the war is over... cause it's not going to be anywhere near the hundreds of thousands that all you goons seem to say. we could lose some innocent civilians in a war to bring freedom to iraq, or we could sit here and let saddam and his sons continue to execute and torture people for an indefinite amount of time... not to mention try to build weapons to extend his power to all his neighbors in the region...
so how can you say that doing nothing is the better way to go... sounds to me like you're all the insensitive, uncaring ones...
depleted uranium anyone?
by rebecca
Sunday, Mar. 23, 2003 at 10:46 AM
malekincat@earthlink.net
it's not so simple.
to start with, they're not in Baghdad yet and they're already encountering more resistance than they expected in the "easy" area of Southern Iraq.
next, do a net search for "depleted uranium effects" - I would give you some links but you'd say they were biased. Clue though: try some radical institutions like Johns Hopkins or gulf war vets associations and see what they have to say about it. "Civilian casualties" doesn't just mean those killed by the immediate conflict - it also means the thousands who will die in the future - including GW veterans - from cancer and other genetic mutations, not to mention the (extremely, like really extreme) long-term damage wreaked on the ecosystem, and on and on... as a result of DU-coated weaponry.
But then the US/UK authorities said DU was OK, so I guess it must be OK. Right?
oh and read this one...
by Rebecca
Sunday, Mar. 23, 2003 at 11:45 AM
From the - non-radical - UK daily The Independent:
"This is the reality of war. We bomb. They suffer
Veteran war reporter Robert Fisk tours the Baghdad hospital to see the wounded after a devastating night of air strikes
23 March 2003
Donald Rumsfeld says the American attack on Baghdad is "as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed" but he should not try telling that to five-year-old Doha Suheil. She looked at me yesterday morning, drip feed attached to her nose, a deep frown over her small face as she tried vainly to move the left side of her body. The cruise missile that exploded close to her home in the Radwaniyeh suburb of Baghdad blasted shrapnel into her tiny legs - they were bound up with gauze - and, far more seriously, into her spine. Now she has lost all movement in her left leg [.../...]. "
Rest of article: http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=389918
.....
by JonUs
Sunday, Mar. 23, 2003 at 11:49 PM
"Donald Rumsfeld says the American attack on Baghdad is "as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed" but he should not try telling that to five-year-old Doha Suheil. She looked at me yesterday morning, drip feed attached to her nose, a deep frown over her small face as she tried vainly to move the left side of her body. The cruise missile that exploded close to her home in the Radwaniyeh suburb of Baghdad blasted shrapnel into her tiny legs - they were bound up with gauze - and, far more seriously, into her spine. Now she has lost all movement in her left leg [.../...]. "
"
Ok this poor girl is injured. It sucks. BUT SHE IS ONE OF TWENTY FIVE MILLION Iraqi's. People die in war. No one is denying that they do but, the greater good of the Iraqi people is being served. I suppose that you probably think we should never attack anyone because someone might get hurt.
And BTW I have read plenty about depleted uranium and gues what? Its not as horrible as you people make it out to be.
JonUs
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