Justice and Courage in Occupied Iraq

by Barnet Fair Sat Aug 07, 2004 13:34

Come with me through the Magic Door:

by Pamela Sat Aug 07, 2004 16:12

The magic door? Its a sewer, Im afraid. More of the neo-deranged drivel, who's arguements are on the level of, "you keep banging on about the people we killed, but look at all those who we didnt kill, yet". Hilarious, if one didnt consider, they are dead today and forever.

by Barnet Fair Sat Aug 07, 2004 19:03

Still sore that your hero Saddam is in chains?

Roll on the new American Century! Let Tyrants quake, let Freedom reign!

by PDQ Sat Aug 07, 2004 21:05

A thrilling account of the fighting in Mosul last Wednesday.

The Marines are really kicking their arses these days.

by oneshot Sun Aug 08, 2004 04:20

I had a look at that blog. Looks to me like the marines were panicking and firing wildly at anything and everything:

"I fired and fired and fired and fired and fired. At everything. We were taking fire from all over. I was just 360ing the 50 cal and shooting at everything."

by Devil Dog Sun Aug 08, 2004 18:37

1. He's a soldier, not a Marine.

2. How you can extrapolate "they're all cracking up" from that comment is amazing....

by Mark Kelly Mon Aug 09, 2004 07:03

They shot an innocent dog!! They killed a dog!!

by Caobhin sná Cisteán Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:40

Don't you rightwing throwback disgraces to humanity ever get ashamed of yourselves with your sychophantic drooling over the automated cowardly lickarses that consist of the "us Marines"?

"Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder. "

(Percy Bysshe Shelley)

by Smith & Wesson Mon Aug 09, 2004 14:40

When his enemy is trying to kill him.

Go Marines!!! Bush rocks!!!

by Joe Mon Aug 09, 2004 15:36

The blog of a US infantry machine gunner posted earlier is well worth reading. The pro-war crowd love the excitment but to anyone thinking a bit more it shows why the US is losing in Iraq.

This Mosul account shows not only the massive level of resistance but also the US army using tactics that cannot do anything but deepen opposition to them from the mass of the population. Imagine the account you read was written in the 1970's by a paratrooper in Belfast and you'lll see what I mean.

I simple illustration. He is talking of being the gunner on an APC being ambused in an urban area. The response is " I fired the .50 cal over the place, shooting everything." and " I was just 360ing the 50 cal and shooting at everything. We were taking fire from all over, and every single one of us had our guns blazing."

Now at 175m the .50 cal on the Stryrker will go through 30mm of ARMOUR. It would have no problem going though the breeze blocks most Iraqi houses are made of and killing or injuring those inside. This guy who is one gunner on one vehicle describes firing off hundreds of rounds, some aimed but a lot just as suppressing fire. The Stryker carries 2,000 rounds for the 50cal and he describes returning to base because they are running low on ammo! Many of these must have gone through the walls of the houses in the area and not just the ones beside the road but also houses some distance away.

If the Brits had followed similar tactics in Belfast they would have faced what the US is now facing in Iraq. An insurrection that would have increased in strength every time an encounter like this took place. But the pro-war idiots see in these descriptions not a war that is being lost but one that is being won. Perhaps the IS can indeed unleash so much terror on the population of Iraq that people will just lie down. More likely that every killing that results just means two more taking up arms to avenge their mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers or daughters or sons.

In short the US military is doing what they have the equipment to do, killing enormous amounts of people in a very short time. This might win conventional battles but it loses unconventional wars. And when used in urban areas it produces mountains of civilian casualties.

by Bush Admirer Wed Aug 11, 2004 02:47

These scumbags in Mosul came over from Iran to make "holy war".

They're gittin some now. The Iraqis hate them with a vengeance after all the innocent people who've been deliberately killed by their carbombs.

Joe, you're a typical Lefty, hoping the US will fall on it's face, what a miserable wretch you must be. It ain't gonna happen, Iraq is free and will never again be unfree, come hell or high water.

Go Bush!! Go marines!!! Let freedom reign!!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

by Joe Wed Aug 11, 2004 14:23

I find the story that the insurgents 'came over from Iran' unlikely although I'm sure some probably were trained in Iran as anti-Saddam forces. But thats not connected to the point I was making.

If your idea of 'freeing' a city is to have an armoured column fire off thousands of rounds of armour piercing ammo (with an effective range of 2.5km) on its streets you need to think again. As I explain above these rounds would have been smashing through peoples walls, tearing up their houses and quite probably killling and injuring people for some distance. These are the actions of an army of occupation not one defending the citizens of the country they are in.

This is why the US is clearly losing and why Iraq is not 'free' in any meaningful sense of the word. Indeed to your average Iraqi who is just trying to get by this must have sounded and felt like Saddams brutal crushing of the 1991 Shia revolt.

And that is the second reason why the US is clearly losing. Those they are killing right now include pretty much the same forces which rose against Saddam in 1991. I didn't think Iraq could become 'another Vietnam' because of the terrain but if you know the political history of the Vietnam war that is what it is starting to look like. Once more the US is shuffling puppet governments into power, one after the other and each military victory is alienating more and more of the population.

Kipling explained the victory of British imperial armies over the Zulu people as 'we have the maxim gun'. Later he understood that his imperialist cheerleading was part of the reasons he lost his son in WWI.

So you can admire your Bush all you like, your just digging your own grave while he and his mates (including the bin Laden family) add billions to their bank accounts.