http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/05/iraq.main/index.html True to form, it starts now, as to not give any bad press before election day
Hospitals getting ready http://www.boston.com/dailynews/310/world/Military_hospital_sets_up_morg:.shtml
You think this would have negatively affected Bush's base? I bet their response would have been 'it's about time.'
They've been gearing up for it for a few weeks now, what they're going to do takes time and careful planning. This isn't something they want to just decide to do at 6 am and start at 9 am. We've f'd up enough planning as it is, let's get this one right.
It's possibe but you have to remember, no matter what side you're on... When lots of dead American soldiers start coming out the battle it certainly wouldn't help. I think that's all he might be suggesting.
For the folks that are there, they've been getting "razed," continuously for months now, without pause. This may be an intensification thereof, but what was happening before was certainly no walk in the park. Well, maybe Central Park.
We can't win this war. If we lose militarily again, well, obviously, we've lost. If we level Fallujah, we've pretty much done everything except send out AQ membership cards to everyone between Rabat and Jakarta. And weren't we supposed to be liberating these people, not slaughtering them?
An actual exchange in my daughter's history class, when they were debating the Iraqi war and its effect on the election: PRO-BUSH GIRL: "I don't understand why the Iraqis don't appreciate our efforts to help them." MY DAUGHTER: "Helpl them? We are at war! We invaded their country and we are killing them!"
Dante...what, they've been planning this since we ran away in May, and by the biggest freakin' coincidence ever, it took till 3 days after the election to get everything into place? That's gotta be the most naive thing I've ever seen posted here. That'll be their first response. When we start losing 25 soldiers a week--and we will--that tune's gonna change.
They've been getting 20-30 casualties a day and they're expecting that to double on bad days. not sure though if these are coalition casualties or iraqi casualties combined.
How do they expect Sunni participation in an election after this massacre? It'll be illegitimate. Bush's war is a failure. Yet I suppose a moral victory for the Red Staters.
Yeah but they don't let us see the body bags or the flag-draped coffins. By keeping death abstract, they keep the sheeple placid and calm.
It's relatively simple in concept. You destroy the 5000 insurgents while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. Iraqi security forces patrol and maintain order in the city while the 200,000 displaced residents come home. Set up polls at the end of January. Barb, I think the American public is well aware of the casualties we've suffered in Iraq. Put please do continue to refer to them as 'sheeple'. Let the people vote.
PRO-BUSH GIRL'S DAD: "I don't understand why the Iraqis don't appreciate our efforts to help them." ROEL: "Helpl them? We are at war! We invaded their country and we are killing them
PROFFESOR/MODERATE/REASONABLE Person: "Well. The truth is somewhere in between. Most Iraqis are greatful toward the Americans for liberating them, but naturally resent all the destruction and disruption of their lives. They're looking forward to elections in January and having the Americans leave as soon as possible."
DAUGHTER OF TWIT: Daddy, if we just went there to kill Iraqis, why don't we shoot the ones who don't shoot back? Wouldn't that be safer. TWIT: NAZI COW!!!!!!
As my dad, a former Marine said: "The Marines aren't good occupation, they are good at killing". I have no doubt that they will complete their mission, the only question is if it will have been worth it.
There is a delicate, almost naive, simplicity to the political consciousness of 16 year olds. Both kids showed their simplicity and cut to the chase. I thought it was a very telling exchange.
In April and May of this year when things went all to hell in Falluja the first time around the body count on our side soared and Bush's numbers in the polls went south. The solution? Evacuate the premises, hand over "responsibility" to the ill-equiped, ill-trained Iraqi police or whatever they were at the time, and basically wash our hands of the place. The result? That big stupid idea began biting us right in the butt from day one. The city has obviously been one big arse think tank for the insurgeny and now, suddenly, what do we have? A war that officially never ended, just as soon as we invade Falluja. I hope to God it won't happen, but I fear a bloodbath as the "enemy" has had all year to prepare for this moment. Something tells me the bombardment from the air to "prepare" the battlefield isn't doing jack diddley squat, if it were we wouldn't be in this trouble as we've been bombing the city all year. Nope, this is gonna get ugly, fast. At least the likelyhood of that is extremely high. We're gonna take this one on the chin.
Don't they smell like............................victory? In all seriousness, I have no doubt that the Marines will take the city. But that's the only part I've got no doubts about.