Full Version: Iraq War and Occupation
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I heard on the news this morning that the insurgency is spreading across all of Iraq and is becoming worse by the day. While this may not be news to everyone else here, I wasn't aware that it was spreading across the entire country. Is this really the case? The administration would have you believe it is just in the sunni triangle. What's the truth?
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/11/12/arab_media/
Fallujah anticlimax
Fallujah anticlimax
Al-Jazeera's subdued coverage reveals some ambivalence in Arab views of the showdown.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert
Nov. 12, 2004 | Just as the assault on Fallujah may not be the pitched military showdown some analysts were predicting, so has the Arab press's battle for public opinion over Fallujah also been more restrained than expected. The fighting "is not generating the same intense, emotional response we saw in April" during the first U.S.-led siege of the city, says Marc Lynch, a political science professor at Williams College and an expert on Arab media.
In part, the coverage of Fallujah has been eclipsed by the passing of Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a story that has dominated Arab and Muslim news for the past five days. Also, with the constant stream of bloody images being broadcast in the Arab world -- unrest in the Palestinian territories, bomb attacks against Iraqi civilians, and fresh videotapes of the beheading of kidnap victims -- "it becomes harder and harder for things to stand out and have an impact," Lynch says. "There's a numbing effect on Arab viewers, so it's hard for Fallujah to fight for space. Arabs right now are trying to regroup from the U.S. elections, Arafat's [death] and Osama bin Laden's reemergence on videotape. There's also a sense that the attack on Fallujah was talked about for so long, and that the jihadists are all gone, so it's not going to solve anything. It's been anticlimactic."
The realization that the outcome in Fallujah is not likely to stand as a crowning U.S. military achievement is being expressed worldwide. In Thursday's New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman, who had been a proponent of the Iraq war, wrote in a piece titled "Groundhog Day in Iraq": "Iraq has still not been fully liberated. In fact, as the fight for Falluja shows, it hasn't even been fully occupied."
The BBC took note of the "restrained way the [Fallujah] attack is being handled in the Arab media": "The images shown in the most respected Arab newspapers like Al-Hayat and Al-Sharq al-Awsat have been relatively anodyne."
Some complain that the Fallujah coverage has been too restrained. Angry al-Qaida jihadists, posting on their Web sites, have lashed out at Al-Jazeera, accusing the Arab news network, based in Qatar, of failing to highlight the heroism of the Fallujah insurgents, reports As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus. He notes that militants have mocked Al-Jazeera as "Al-Khanzeera," or "the pig," and urged Muslims to boycott the network and its popular Web site because of its insufficiently sympathetic coverage.
That's quite a turnaround from April, when Al-Jazeera was subjected to intense, high-level criticism from another direction -- U.S. officials -- for emotional and allegedly misleading coverage of the fighting in Fallujah. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt even said the network had served "as the catalyst for increased attacks on coalition forces." Secretary of State Colin Powell brought up the network's Fallujah reporting during a springtime meeting with Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim, suggesting relations between the two countries were being harmed by Al-Jazeera's coverage.
This time there are no such U.S. complaints. "Without a doubt, Al-Jazeera is more cautious in how they're covering things," says AbuKhalil, who suggests the change in tone is connected to President Bush's reelection. "They are trying not to antagonize the United States."
"Al-Jazeera is struggling with how to portray what's going on in Fallujah," agrees Adel Iskandar, coauthor of a recent book on the news network.
The network's subdued approach may also stem from logistics, such as its lack of reporters in the dangerous Fallujah battlefield. In April, one of its star reporters, Ahmed Mansour, broadcast live updates from the besieged city. "Al-Jazeera had the only reporter on the ground, and his reporting [about civilian deaths] was different than the coalition forces' narrative," says Lynch, who is writing a book titled "Iraq and the New Arab Public." "The Americans were saying no civilians were dying, and Al-Jazeera was pointing the camera at dead people in Fallujah. It was the perfect story for them, and they got a lot out of it." (U.S. officials complained that Al-Jazeera had incorrectly reported that American soldiers were deliberately targeting civilians.)
Despite Al-Jazeera's newfound reserve, coverage by Arab and U.S. news organizations continues to be dramatically different in emphasis, dwelling on almost completely opposite aspects of the fighting. "U.S. stations illustrate military success and forging ahead -- night vision, securing territories, images we've grown familiar with -- while Arab satellite TV reports on the sense of loss and complete destruction of Fallujah, that the entire city has been reduced to rubble," says Iskandar, who teaches communications at the University of Kentucky.
That persistent variation was highlighted on the Web sites of CNN and Al-Jazeera two days after the start of the U.S. assault. On Al-Jazeera's English-language site, the top headline read, "Mosques bombed as fighting rages in Falluja." Iraqi journalist Fadil al-Badrani, reporting from Baghdad, was quoted as saying, "Almost half of the mosques in the Iraqi town of Falluja have been destroyed, with U.S. warplanes launching air strikes and fierce fighting on the ground continuing." Citing a U.S. sergeant, the story suggested the resolve of the Muslim insurgents was high: "They opened up on my tank. They don't look like they are going to cave in." Additional stories featured on the site included "Scores of civilians killed in Falluja" and "U.S. losses mount."
CNN.com's top story at the same time stressed that the resistance from insurgents had been surprisingly light. Military officials, CNN reported, said that two mosques had been "searched." Even the photo captions stood in stark contrast. From Al-Jazeera.net: "Residents say scores of civilians have been killed." And from CNN.com: "Aid workers at the Iraqi Red Crescent Society in Baghdad load a truck with relief supplies for Falluja."
Many Arab and Muslim news consumers have watched the Fallujah battle unfold with conflicting emotions, unsure whom to root for, Iskandar says. "Iraqi civilian losses [at the hands of the Americans] are astronomical, even compared to U.S. and coalition forces. But it's hard for the Arab audience to see the insurgency as legitimate. [Jihadist extremist] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is considered to be incredibly radical, beyond any conceivable understanding of most Arabs or Muslims. The idea of the underdog exists nonetheless. If it were a local, generalized populist uprising [in Fallujah], the Arab audience would be more supportive. There is sort of a subtle desire to see America be embarrassed in some way -- the 'I told you so' mentality."
That same ambivalence emerges in the Arab press coverage of Fallujah. "In the aftermath of the [Iraq] war, Americans were so unpopular, resistance became popular. But some of the romance has worn off," Lynch says. In light of recent terrorist attacks on Iraqis, including the massacre of 49 unarmed trainee policemen, "there's total frustration. Nobody can see any clear way out. They know who they're against -- the Americans -- but they don't know who they're for."
salon.com
Fallujah anticlimax
Fallujah anticlimax
Al-Jazeera's subdued coverage reveals some ambivalence in Arab views of the showdown.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert
Nov. 12, 2004 | Just as the assault on Fallujah may not be the pitched military showdown some analysts were predicting, so has the Arab press's battle for public opinion over Fallujah also been more restrained than expected. The fighting "is not generating the same intense, emotional response we saw in April" during the first U.S.-led siege of the city, says Marc Lynch, a political science professor at Williams College and an expert on Arab media.
In part, the coverage of Fallujah has been eclipsed by the passing of Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a story that has dominated Arab and Muslim news for the past five days. Also, with the constant stream of bloody images being broadcast in the Arab world -- unrest in the Palestinian territories, bomb attacks against Iraqi civilians, and fresh videotapes of the beheading of kidnap victims -- "it becomes harder and harder for things to stand out and have an impact," Lynch says. "There's a numbing effect on Arab viewers, so it's hard for Fallujah to fight for space. Arabs right now are trying to regroup from the U.S. elections, Arafat's [death] and Osama bin Laden's reemergence on videotape. There's also a sense that the attack on Fallujah was talked about for so long, and that the jihadists are all gone, so it's not going to solve anything. It's been anticlimactic."
The realization that the outcome in Fallujah is not likely to stand as a crowning U.S. military achievement is being expressed worldwide. In Thursday's New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman, who had been a proponent of the Iraq war, wrote in a piece titled "Groundhog Day in Iraq": "Iraq has still not been fully liberated. In fact, as the fight for Falluja shows, it hasn't even been fully occupied."
The BBC took note of the "restrained way the [Fallujah] attack is being handled in the Arab media": "The images shown in the most respected Arab newspapers like Al-Hayat and Al-Sharq al-Awsat have been relatively anodyne."
Some complain that the Fallujah coverage has been too restrained. Angry al-Qaida jihadists, posting on their Web sites, have lashed out at Al-Jazeera, accusing the Arab news network, based in Qatar, of failing to highlight the heroism of the Fallujah insurgents, reports As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus. He notes that militants have mocked Al-Jazeera as "Al-Khanzeera," or "the pig," and urged Muslims to boycott the network and its popular Web site because of its insufficiently sympathetic coverage.
That's quite a turnaround from April, when Al-Jazeera was subjected to intense, high-level criticism from another direction -- U.S. officials -- for emotional and allegedly misleading coverage of the fighting in Fallujah. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt even said the network had served "as the catalyst for increased attacks on coalition forces." Secretary of State Colin Powell brought up the network's Fallujah reporting during a springtime meeting with Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim, suggesting relations between the two countries were being harmed by Al-Jazeera's coverage.
This time there are no such U.S. complaints. "Without a doubt, Al-Jazeera is more cautious in how they're covering things," says AbuKhalil, who suggests the change in tone is connected to President Bush's reelection. "They are trying not to antagonize the United States."
"Al-Jazeera is struggling with how to portray what's going on in Fallujah," agrees Adel Iskandar, coauthor of a recent book on the news network.
The network's subdued approach may also stem from logistics, such as its lack of reporters in the dangerous Fallujah battlefield. In April, one of its star reporters, Ahmed Mansour, broadcast live updates from the besieged city. "Al-Jazeera had the only reporter on the ground, and his reporting [about civilian deaths] was different than the coalition forces' narrative," says Lynch, who is writing a book titled "Iraq and the New Arab Public." "The Americans were saying no civilians were dying, and Al-Jazeera was pointing the camera at dead people in Fallujah. It was the perfect story for them, and they got a lot out of it." (U.S. officials complained that Al-Jazeera had incorrectly reported that American soldiers were deliberately targeting civilians.)
Despite Al-Jazeera's newfound reserve, coverage by Arab and U.S. news organizations continues to be dramatically different in emphasis, dwelling on almost completely opposite aspects of the fighting. "U.S. stations illustrate military success and forging ahead -- night vision, securing territories, images we've grown familiar with -- while Arab satellite TV reports on the sense of loss and complete destruction of Fallujah, that the entire city has been reduced to rubble," says Iskandar, who teaches communications at the University of Kentucky.
That persistent variation was highlighted on the Web sites of CNN and Al-Jazeera two days after the start of the U.S. assault. On Al-Jazeera's English-language site, the top headline read, "Mosques bombed as fighting rages in Falluja." Iraqi journalist Fadil al-Badrani, reporting from Baghdad, was quoted as saying, "Almost half of the mosques in the Iraqi town of Falluja have been destroyed, with U.S. warplanes launching air strikes and fierce fighting on the ground continuing." Citing a U.S. sergeant, the story suggested the resolve of the Muslim insurgents was high: "They opened up on my tank. They don't look like they are going to cave in." Additional stories featured on the site included "Scores of civilians killed in Falluja" and "U.S. losses mount."
CNN.com's top story at the same time stressed that the resistance from insurgents had been surprisingly light. Military officials, CNN reported, said that two mosques had been "searched." Even the photo captions stood in stark contrast. From Al-Jazeera.net: "Residents say scores of civilians have been killed." And from CNN.com: "Aid workers at the Iraqi Red Crescent Society in Baghdad load a truck with relief supplies for Falluja."
Many Arab and Muslim news consumers have watched the Fallujah battle unfold with conflicting emotions, unsure whom to root for, Iskandar says. "Iraqi civilian losses [at the hands of the Americans] are astronomical, even compared to U.S. and coalition forces. But it's hard for the Arab audience to see the insurgency as legitimate. [Jihadist extremist] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is considered to be incredibly radical, beyond any conceivable understanding of most Arabs or Muslims. The idea of the underdog exists nonetheless. If it were a local, generalized populist uprising [in Fallujah], the Arab audience would be more supportive. There is sort of a subtle desire to see America be embarrassed in some way -- the 'I told you so' mentality."
That same ambivalence emerges in the Arab press coverage of Fallujah. "In the aftermath of the [Iraq] war, Americans were so unpopular, resistance became popular. But some of the romance has worn off," Lynch says. In light of recent terrorist attacks on Iraqis, including the massacre of 49 unarmed trainee policemen, "there's total frustration. Nobody can see any clear way out. They know who they're against -- the Americans -- but they don't know who they're for."
salon.com
From Amnesty International, an accusation on US forces and insurgents to violate human rights in Falluja's fighting:
QUOTE(Amnesty International @ November 12 2004)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 14/056/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 287
12 November 2004
Iraq: Fears of serious violations of the rules of war in Falluja
Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the rules of war protecting civilians and combatants have been violated in the current fighting in Falluja. Dozens of civilians have reportedly been killed during the fighting between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents. Amnesty International fears that civilians have been killed, in contravention of international humanitarian law, as a result of failure by parties to the fighting to take necessary precautions to protect non-combatants. The humanitarian situation in the city is said to be precarious.
Twenty Iraqi medical staff and dozens of other civilians were killed when a missile hit a clinic on 9 November, according to reports from a doctor who survived the strike. It is not known whether the missile was fired by the US-led forces or by insurgents. Also on 9 November, according to press reports,a 9-year-old boy reportedly died after being hit in the stomach by shrapnel. His parents were unable to take him to hospital because of the ongoing fighting. He died a few hours later as a result of blood loss and was buried by his parents in their garden because it was too dangerous to go out. One woman and her three daughters were reportedly killed when their house was bombed.
On 11 November a British television programme, Channel Four News, broadcast footage in which a US soldier appeared to have fired one shot in the direction of a wounded insurgent who was off screen. The soldier then walked away and said "he's gone". Under International humanitarian law the US forces have an obligation to protect fighters hors de combat. Amnesty International calls on the US authorities to investigate this incident immediately.
Amnesty International is concerned that US military spokespersons have provided estimates of the number of deaths among insurgents -- said to be in the hundreds -- but not of civilian fatalities or injuries. The organization urges all sides involved in the military confrontation to take every possible precaution to spare civilians.
Insurgents are also reported to have violated rules of internaitonal humanitarian law. In one incident, some Iraqis are reported to have come out of a building waving a white flag. When a Marine approached this group, insurgents opened fire on the Marines from different directions. A US military official in Iraq also accused insurgents of storing weapons in mosques and schools. Insurgents were reported as firing from a mosque on 10 November.
All violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law must be investigated and those responsible for unlawful attacks, including deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, and the killing of injured persons must be brought to justice.
More than 10,000 US marines and 2,000 Iraqi security forces launched, on Monday night, an attack on Falluja which has been under insurgents’ control since April 2004. At least half of Falluja’s residents reportedly left the city before the attack. However, according to press reports tens of thousands of civilians are still inside. There are concerns that a humanitarian crisis is looming with acute shortages in food, water, medicine and with no electricity. There are also many wounded people who could not receive medical care because of the fighting. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society stated that it had asked the Iraqi interim government and US forces for permission to deliver relief goods to civilians in Falluja and to send a medical team to the main hospital but had received no response.
In a statement published on 4 November, Amnesty International reminded the United States of America (USA) and the interim Government of Iraq that they are legally bound to observe at all times the rules of all applicable human rights and humanitarian law treaties to which they are states parties, as well as rules of customary international law binding on all states. The organization also urged armed groups in Falluja to respect the legally binding rules of international law.
For more information please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140542004
Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140562004
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 14/056/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 287
12 November 2004
Iraq: Fears of serious violations of the rules of war in Falluja
Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the rules of war protecting civilians and combatants have been violated in the current fighting in Falluja. Dozens of civilians have reportedly been killed during the fighting between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents. Amnesty International fears that civilians have been killed, in contravention of international humanitarian law, as a result of failure by parties to the fighting to take necessary precautions to protect non-combatants. The humanitarian situation in the city is said to be precarious.
Twenty Iraqi medical staff and dozens of other civilians were killed when a missile hit a clinic on 9 November, according to reports from a doctor who survived the strike. It is not known whether the missile was fired by the US-led forces or by insurgents. Also on 9 November, according to press reports,a 9-year-old boy reportedly died after being hit in the stomach by shrapnel. His parents were unable to take him to hospital because of the ongoing fighting. He died a few hours later as a result of blood loss and was buried by his parents in their garden because it was too dangerous to go out. One woman and her three daughters were reportedly killed when their house was bombed.
On 11 November a British television programme, Channel Four News, broadcast footage in which a US soldier appeared to have fired one shot in the direction of a wounded insurgent who was off screen. The soldier then walked away and said "he's gone". Under International humanitarian law the US forces have an obligation to protect fighters hors de combat. Amnesty International calls on the US authorities to investigate this incident immediately.
Amnesty International is concerned that US military spokespersons have provided estimates of the number of deaths among insurgents -- said to be in the hundreds -- but not of civilian fatalities or injuries. The organization urges all sides involved in the military confrontation to take every possible precaution to spare civilians.
Insurgents are also reported to have violated rules of internaitonal humanitarian law. In one incident, some Iraqis are reported to have come out of a building waving a white flag. When a Marine approached this group, insurgents opened fire on the Marines from different directions. A US military official in Iraq also accused insurgents of storing weapons in mosques and schools. Insurgents were reported as firing from a mosque on 10 November.
All violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law must be investigated and those responsible for unlawful attacks, including deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, and the killing of injured persons must be brought to justice.
More than 10,000 US marines and 2,000 Iraqi security forces launched, on Monday night, an attack on Falluja which has been under insurgents’ control since April 2004. At least half of Falluja’s residents reportedly left the city before the attack. However, according to press reports tens of thousands of civilians are still inside. There are concerns that a humanitarian crisis is looming with acute shortages in food, water, medicine and with no electricity. There are also many wounded people who could not receive medical care because of the fighting. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society stated that it had asked the Iraqi interim government and US forces for permission to deliver relief goods to civilians in Falluja and to send a medical team to the main hospital but had received no response.
In a statement published on 4 November, Amnesty International reminded the United States of America (USA) and the interim Government of Iraq that they are legally bound to observe at all times the rules of all applicable human rights and humanitarian law treaties to which they are states parties, as well as rules of customary international law binding on all states. The organization also urged armed groups in Falluja to respect the legally binding rules of international law.
For more information please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140542004
Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140562004
"Al-Jazeera is struggling with how to portray what's going on in Fallujah," agrees Adel Iskandar, coauthor of a recent book on the news network.
I wonder if it ever occurred to them to simply tell the truth?
I wonder if it ever occurred to them to simply tell the truth?
As far as Amnesty Intl is concerned, I prefer to stand behind our troops and support them. They need all the support they can get from us. They deserve it. 
Just from our small county, we've lost three young men and we've got a bunch over there now.
To support US troops means also to investigate human right's incidents, if they happen. AI is very reliable because of it's 'superpartes' and it accuses either US military either insurgents to violate human rights. This is the sad reality, obviously I support US troops, but I cannot stay silent, if there're widespread human right's violations...
Remember John Kerry, a true patriot, in the front of the Senate in 1971 denouncing US violation of human rights during Vietnam war...
Remember John Kerry, a true patriot, in the front of the Senate in 1971 denouncing US violation of human rights during Vietnam war...
QUOTE(karo @ Nov 12 2004, 10:13 PM)
As far as Amnesty Intl is concerned, I prefer to stand behind our troops and support them. They need all the support they can get from us. They deserve it.
This is the sad result of George W. Bush's wars
My condoleances to the family of these victims
My condoleances to the family of these victims
QUOTE(karo @ Nov 12 2004, 10:16 PM)
Just from our small county, we've lost three young men and we've got a bunch over there now.
QUOTE(putino @ Nov 12 2004, 03:45 PM)
This is the sad result of George W. Bush's wars
My condoleances to the family of these victims
My condoleances to the family of these victims
Putino,
Thanks. In a county this size, you know nearly everyone. I knew all three of those guys. One was married and he was killed last December before Christmas. He had become a father of a beautiful son in September, but never saw his son (except in pictures). They sent our local unit over there last month. I know most of them, too. I hope they'll be OK. One of the guys is a really good friend of ours.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/344...0C6F5EDD5CA.htm
Falluja plunges into humanitarian crisis
Falluja plunges into humanitarian crisis
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/2004...14240-9074r.htm
Outside View: Fallujah not Stalingrad, but Vietnam?
Outside View: Fallujah not Stalingrad, but Vietnam?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nati...57_mosul11.html
Mosul may be the next Fallujah, officials fear
Mosul may be the next Fallujah, officials fear
http://yahoo.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/...raq_x.htm?csp=1
Iraq sends troops to key city of Mosul to quell uprising
Iraq sends troops to key city of Mosul to quell uprising
Why are they there at all?
QUOTE(karo @ Nov 12 2004, 05:13 PM)
As far as Amnesty Intl is concerned, I prefer to stand behind our troops and support them. They need all the support they can get from us. They deserve it.
QUOTE(DrWolfy @ Nov 13 2004, 05:32 AM)
Why are they there at all?
You need to ask?
Snuffysmith - thanks for posting this!
I started another thread, and wondered why no one here is discussing this..
It was reported last nite that the US military used chemical weapons in Fallujah, that people are walking around with their skin melting off, and the medical facilities have been bombed!
The US military planners are out of control!
I started another thread, and wondered why no one here is discussing this..
It was reported last nite that the US military used chemical weapons in Fallujah, that people are walking around with their skin melting off, and the medical facilities have been bombed!
The US military planners are out of control!
QUOTE(JILLinaz @ Nov 13 2004, 11:21 AM)
Snuffysmith - thanks for posting this!
I started another thread, and wondered why no one here is discussing this..
It was reported last nite that the US military used chemical weapons in Fallujah, that people are walking around with their skin melting off, and the medical facilities have been bombed!
The US military planners are out of control!
I started another thread, and wondered why no one here is discussing this..
It was reported last nite that the US military used chemical weapons in Fallujah, that people are walking around with their skin melting off, and the medical facilities have been bombed!
The US military planners are out of control!
If that is true, why have the embedded reporters not noticed?
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/12/1518224
read third and fourth topic
I don't know why this is not being reported!
Probably because the media doesn't want us to know! Just like showing the fallen soldiers coming back....
I'm heartbroken!
read third and fourth topic
I don't know why this is not being reported!
Probably because the media doesn't want us to know! Just like showing the fallen soldiers coming back....
I'm heartbroken!
QUOTE(karo @ Nov 13 2004, 11:30 AM)
If that is true, why have the embedded reporters not noticed?
A Distant Mirror of Holy War
by Norman Solomon
The conflict in Iraq has become a holy war. In both directions. On the surface, the most prominent headline on the New York Times front page Nov. 10 was simply matter-of-fact: “In Taking Fallujah Mosque, Victory by the Inch.” Yet it’s not mere happenstance that American forces have bombed many of Fallujah’s mosques.
For public consumption, U.S. military officers -- like their civilian bosses and American journalists -- usually discuss this war in secular, even antiseptic terms. When the Times quoted Marine battalion commander Gary Brandl in another front-page story, on Nov. 6, the lieutenant colonel sounded straightforward: “We are going to rid the city of insurgents. If they do fight, we will kill them.”
However, on the same day, the Associated Press reported that the same Lt. Col. Brandl said: “The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He’s in Fallujah, and we’re going to destroy him.”
That statement by Brandl -- an officer with 800 soldiers under his command -- caused a bit of stir in some Internet circles. But mainstream U.S. media outlets scarcely noted his holy-warrior declaration. Most news outlets ignored it entirely. Providing a fuller, more revealing quote from Lt. Col. Brandl, the Sunday Times of London included a lead-in sentence: “The Marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy. But the enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan....” In other words, Satan started this conflict. And we -- the anti-Satan forces -- fully intend to finish it by destroying him.
Sounds very fundamentalist. Sounds a lot like Osama bin Laden. In public-relations terms, the colonel was a tad off-message. Except for occasional lapses, the rhetoric from Washington stops short of proclaiming a crusade against Islamic devils. And the U.S. news coverage rarely fails to detour around the American side of the jihad equation.
During a real holy war, of course, the fire and brimstone is not just figurative.
Dominating the top half of the New York Times front page on Nov. 10 was a full-color picture with stunning hues and brilliant composition, over this caption: “Marines tried to take cover after a phosphorous round, set off to help provide cover for tanks, rained down on the unit. No one was seriously hurt.” An article inside mentioned that the phosphorous broke “into a hundred flaming pieces ... burning backpacks and gear but seriously hurting no one.” Reassuring.
Meanwhile, a Washington Post article provided more graphic -- though sketchy -- information about phosphorous. “Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water,” the Post explained more than 20 paragraphs into the story. “Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.”
The Post quoted hospital physician Kamal Hadeethi: “The corpses of the mujaheddin which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted.”
But such melting of human flesh is an abstraction in U.S. media, as it is apt to be for holy warriors. On NBC’s “Today” show Nov. 9, a network correspondent in Baghdad mentioned phosphorous shells just long enough to say that they are “meant to burn through metal bunkers.” Presumably a description of effects on human beings would not have gone well with viewers’ breakfasts.
A live report from a CNN correspondent in Fallujah, on Nov. 8, was similarly circumspect: “Tanks have been blasting away inside the city, and shells filled with phosphorous -- shells to hide the movement of the Marines inside the city -- have been exploding overhead.”
The CNN reporter added that, along with gunfire from the city, “We have also heard, even from our distance about two kilometers away, chants of ‘Allah Akbar’ going up from the insurgents, the chants of ‘God is great’ going up from the insurgents.”
Lt. Col. Brandl, like his commander in chief, would doubtless scorn such prayerful chants as satanic. The holy warriors from America are blessed with superior military strength, which includes the capacity to melt human flesh ... and to drop large quantities of cluster bombs -- one of the most inhuman weapons on the planet -- from sleek A-10 jets flying over Fallujah. Children often pick up not-yet-exploded cluster bombs because they look like toys.
At the outset of the new assault, U.S. forces captured Fallujah’s general hospital. “In terms of the information war, the hospital was indeed the most strategic of targets,” international correspondent Pepe Escobar writes. “During the first siege of Fallujah in April, doctors told independent media the real story about the suffering of civilian victims. So this time the Pentagon took no chances: no gory, disturbing photos of the elderly, women and children ... the civilian victims of the relentless bombing.”
From Fallujah, on Nov. 9, journalist Fadhil Badrani -- a resident of the city who reports for the BBC World Service -- said that “a medical dispensary in the city center was bombed.” He added: “I don’t know what has happened to the doctors and patients who were there. It was last place you could get medical attention because the big hospital on the outskirts of Fallujah was captured by the Americans on Monday. A lot of the mosques have also been bombed. For the first time in Fallujah, a city of 1,200 mosques, I did not hear a single call to prayer this morning.”
While the U.S. media are downplaying the available information about Iraqi people suffering in Fallujah, many Arabic-language outlets have a different news agenda. Escobar reports in the Nov. 11 edition of Asia Times Online: “The main story playing in the Arab world in the past 24 hours is that of Mohammed Abboud -- who saw his nine-year-old son bleed to death of shrapnel wounds when his house in Fallujah was hit because he could not venture out to go to a hospital. Abboud had to bury his son in his own garden.”
As the United States government terrorizes and murders in the name of fighting terrorism and murder, the message from Washington is that its holy war of might is unquestionably right. On the Nov. 10 front page of the New York Times, a dispatch from Fallujah reported: “Nothing here makes sense, but the Americans’ superior training and firepower eventually seem to prevail.” Americans are encouraged to understand that Allah may be great, but the red-white-and-blue God is surely greater.
DefeatBush - thank your for posting this -
even tho I hated what I read!
even tho I hated what I read!
In Baghdad, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud proclaimed the Fallujah assault -- code-name Operation Al-Fajr, or "Dawn" -- was "accomplished" except for mopping up "evil pockets which we are dealing with now."
"The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000," Dawoud said. "As for the detainees, the number is 200 people."
However, Dawoud said al-Zarqawi, whose al-Qaida-linked group was responsible for numerous car-bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, and the main Fallujah resistance leader, Sheik al-Janabi "have escaped." The United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n...1541EST0515.DTL
Trusting foreign fighters as comrades was Iraqi error
By HANNAH ALLAM
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAKHLAWIYA, Iraq — The fighters came to Fallujah last year with piles of cash, strange accents, and a militant vision of Islam.
The vision was at once foreign and fearsome to residents emerging from nearly 30 years of Saddam Hussein's secular regime.
Yet out of custom and necessity, tribal locals offered their Arab guests sanctuary, and were repaid with promises to help keep American forces out of the town.
This week, with U.S. troops battling their way through the Sunni Muslim stronghold, several Fallujah residents said it had been a grave mistake to trust the foreigners who turned their humble stand against foreign occupation into a sophisticated terror campaign.
Once admired as comrades in an anti-American struggle, foreign fighters have become reviled as the reason U.S. missiles are flattening homes and turning Iraq's City of Mosques into a killing field.
Their promises of protection were unfulfilled, angry residents said, with immigrant rebels moving on to other outposts and leaving besieged locals to face a superpower alone.
The fact that Iraqis are turning away from foreign terrorists, however, doesn't necessarily mean that they're turning toward the United States and Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government.
“We didn't want the occupation and we didn't want the terrorists, and now we have both,” said a Fallujah construction worker who gave his name as only Abu Ehab, 30.
“I didn't think the Arabs would be so vicious, and I never thought the Americans would be so unmerciful.”
How foreign jihadists came to make Fallujah their base is a cautionary tale for other Iraqi cities that might receive fighters in search of a new place to plot bombings and beheadings. The most notorious foreign rebel, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is still at large despite a $25 million price on his head.
The violence that has rocked several other Sunni areas since the Fallujah battle began also suggests that insurgents are broadening the battleground now that they have lost one of their havens.
American-led forces launched Operation Dawn, so named to signal a new day for Fallujah residents, to wrest control of the dusty city 40 miles west of Baghdad from rebels.
U.S. military officials thought the insurgents' leaders were foreign fighters who earned their stripes in Afghanistan and were importing their guerrilla war to Fallujah.
Within the first hours of battle, top military officials predicted that most foreign insurgents, including al-Zarqawi, had left the area. So far, the military has confirmed only a handful of foreign nationals among the 600 fighters it estimates have been killed in Fallujah.
The Bush administration has faced criticism that it overstated the presence of foreign fighters in Fallujah to justify a prolonged occupation of Iraq, minimize Iraqi resentment of the American presence in Iraq, and tie its war in Iraq to its battle against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.Likewise, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has blamed much of Iraq's mayhem on al-Zarqawi and other foreigners, minimizing homegrown opposition to his government. He has drawn condemnation from prominent Sunni politicians and clerics who have withdrawn from his government and announced a boycott of national elections set for January.
Fallujah residents, most of them now displaced by the fighting, said there were hundreds of non-Iraqi Arabs in the city before the offensive began Monday. However, they added, the ties of brotherhood had mostly unraveled, and the remaining foreign fighters had tried to intimidate residents into staying as human shields.A rebel-allied cleric who goes by the name Sheik Rafaa said that Iraqi rebels were so infuriated by the disappearance of their foreign allies that one cell had “executed 20 Arab fighters because they left an area they promised to defend.”
Other residents said that foreign militants wore out their welcome months ago, when they imposed a Taliban-like interpretation of Islamic law that included public floggings for suspects accused of drinking alcohol or refusing to grow beards.
Women who failed to cover their hair or remove their makeup were subjected to public humiliation.
Those accused of spying for Americans were executed on the spot, residents said.
The turning point for a young man named Hudaifa came the day he saw a Yemeni fighter whipping an Iraqi in a public square.
He recalled his humiliation this week in a conversation with other Fallujah residents now in Baghdad. Still fearful, the men asked that their last names not be published.
“An outsider beating an Iraqi in his own town?” Hudaifa asked, outrage still in his voice. “It's such a shame for us."
What a mess.
"The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000," Dawoud said. "As for the detainees, the number is 200 people."
However, Dawoud said al-Zarqawi, whose al-Qaida-linked group was responsible for numerous car-bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, and the main Fallujah resistance leader, Sheik al-Janabi "have escaped." The United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n...1541EST0515.DTL
Trusting foreign fighters as comrades was Iraqi error
By HANNAH ALLAM
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAKHLAWIYA, Iraq — The fighters came to Fallujah last year with piles of cash, strange accents, and a militant vision of Islam.
The vision was at once foreign and fearsome to residents emerging from nearly 30 years of Saddam Hussein's secular regime.
Yet out of custom and necessity, tribal locals offered their Arab guests sanctuary, and were repaid with promises to help keep American forces out of the town.
This week, with U.S. troops battling their way through the Sunni Muslim stronghold, several Fallujah residents said it had been a grave mistake to trust the foreigners who turned their humble stand against foreign occupation into a sophisticated terror campaign.
Once admired as comrades in an anti-American struggle, foreign fighters have become reviled as the reason U.S. missiles are flattening homes and turning Iraq's City of Mosques into a killing field.
Their promises of protection were unfulfilled, angry residents said, with immigrant rebels moving on to other outposts and leaving besieged locals to face a superpower alone.
The fact that Iraqis are turning away from foreign terrorists, however, doesn't necessarily mean that they're turning toward the United States and Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government.
“We didn't want the occupation and we didn't want the terrorists, and now we have both,” said a Fallujah construction worker who gave his name as only Abu Ehab, 30.
“I didn't think the Arabs would be so vicious, and I never thought the Americans would be so unmerciful.”
How foreign jihadists came to make Fallujah their base is a cautionary tale for other Iraqi cities that might receive fighters in search of a new place to plot bombings and beheadings. The most notorious foreign rebel, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is still at large despite a $25 million price on his head.
The violence that has rocked several other Sunni areas since the Fallujah battle began also suggests that insurgents are broadening the battleground now that they have lost one of their havens.
American-led forces launched Operation Dawn, so named to signal a new day for Fallujah residents, to wrest control of the dusty city 40 miles west of Baghdad from rebels.
U.S. military officials thought the insurgents' leaders were foreign fighters who earned their stripes in Afghanistan and were importing their guerrilla war to Fallujah.
Within the first hours of battle, top military officials predicted that most foreign insurgents, including al-Zarqawi, had left the area. So far, the military has confirmed only a handful of foreign nationals among the 600 fighters it estimates have been killed in Fallujah.
The Bush administration has faced criticism that it overstated the presence of foreign fighters in Fallujah to justify a prolonged occupation of Iraq, minimize Iraqi resentment of the American presence in Iraq, and tie its war in Iraq to its battle against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.Likewise, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has blamed much of Iraq's mayhem on al-Zarqawi and other foreigners, minimizing homegrown opposition to his government. He has drawn condemnation from prominent Sunni politicians and clerics who have withdrawn from his government and announced a boycott of national elections set for January.
Fallujah residents, most of them now displaced by the fighting, said there were hundreds of non-Iraqi Arabs in the city before the offensive began Monday. However, they added, the ties of brotherhood had mostly unraveled, and the remaining foreign fighters had tried to intimidate residents into staying as human shields.A rebel-allied cleric who goes by the name Sheik Rafaa said that Iraqi rebels were so infuriated by the disappearance of their foreign allies that one cell had “executed 20 Arab fighters because they left an area they promised to defend.”
Other residents said that foreign militants wore out their welcome months ago, when they imposed a Taliban-like interpretation of Islamic law that included public floggings for suspects accused of drinking alcohol or refusing to grow beards.
Women who failed to cover their hair or remove their makeup were subjected to public humiliation.
Those accused of spying for Americans were executed on the spot, residents said.
The turning point for a young man named Hudaifa came the day he saw a Yemeni fighter whipping an Iraqi in a public square.
He recalled his humiliation this week in a conversation with other Fallujah residents now in Baghdad. Still fearful, the men asked that their last names not be published.
“An outsider beating an Iraqi in his own town?” Hudaifa asked, outrage still in his voice. “It's such a shame for us."
What a mess.
“The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He’s in the White House, and we’re going to unmask him.”
QUOTE(JILLinaz @ Nov 13 2004, 10:39 AM)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/12/1518224
read third and fourth topic
I don't know why this is not being reported!
Probably because the media doesn't want us to know! Just like showing the fallen soldiers coming back....
I'm heartbroken!
read third and fourth topic
I don't know why this is not being reported!
Probably because the media doesn't want us to know! Just like showing the fallen soldiers coming back....
I'm heartbroken!
Maybe the fact that no chemical or biological weapon known to have been in any weapons stockpile causes the skin to melt off is part of why it isn't being reported. When you read things you need to ask yourself if the claims are even possible.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d=564&ncid=1478
Islamist Groups Vow to Spread Fight Across Iraq
Islamist Groups Vow to Spread Fight Across Iraq
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d=574&ncid=1478
Baghdad Airport Closed Indefinitely - PM Offiuce
Baghdad Airport Closed Indefinitely - PM Offiuce
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=1521&ncid=1473
Fallujah offensive not ove yet, but city has been wrested from insurgent control: Rumseld
Fallujah offensive not ove yet, but city has been wrested from insurgent control: Rumseld
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/internat...html?oref=login
For Iraqi Leader, Political Risks of Falluja Attack Grow
For Iraqi Leader, Political Risks of Falluja Attack Grow
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1...DqtE&refer=home
Bush Says Violence May Mount as Iraqi Elections Near
Bush Says Violence May Mount as Iraqi Elections Near
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1...DqtE&refer=home
Bush Says Violence May Mount as Iraqi Elections Near
Bush Says Violence May Mount as Iraqi Elections Near
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...3/ts_nm/iraq_dc
Aid Convoy Reaches Falluja, Gunmen Stay in Mosul
Aid Convoy Reaches Falluja, Gunmen Stay in Mosul
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...aq_x.htm?csp=15
US Shifts from Fallujah to Mosul, Ramadi
US Shifts from Fallujah to Mosul, Ramadi
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d=564&ncid=1478
US Launches Fresh Strikes on Falluja Rebel Targets
US Launches Fresh Strikes on Falluja Rebel Targets
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d=540&ncid=1473
Report: Captors Release Allawi Relatives
Report: Captors Release Allawi Relatives
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ir...-home-headlines
US Looks Ahead to City's Reconstruction
US Looks Ahead to City's Reconstruction
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto.../International/
Fighting sweeps Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=253504
Fighting Kills at Least 16 in Iraq
Fighting sweeps Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=253504
Fighting Kills at Least 16 in Iraq
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=252925
Falluja Rebels Fight On; Clashes Across Iraq
Falluja Rebels Fight On; Clashes Across Iraq
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticl...57§ion=news
US troops fight rebels on strets of Iraq's Mosul
US troops fight rebels on strets of Iraq's Mosul
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1351446,00.html
Iraq is not Bush's Vietnam. But it is becoming Blair's
Iraq is not Bush's Vietnam. But it is becoming Blair's
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10181847.htm
Fallujah battle may carry heavy political price for Iraqi government
Fallujah battle may carry heavy political price for Iraqi government
Occupation Watch Bulletin
www.occupationwatch.org
November 14, 2004
By Assaf Kfoury
PUTTING FALLUJA TO THE TORCH
The conduct of US troops in Iraq has been a combination of extreme
brutality and wholesale destruction. Brutality towards Iraqis has
routinely come with systematic pillaging, if not wrecking, of the
country's civil institutions and productive capacity. As if, when the
time will finally come for US troops to go, they are determined to leave
behind a landscape of ruins and carnage. Events in Falluja this past week epitomized this conduct once again.
American troops started their offensive against Falluja on November 8
by occupying the main city hospital. According to the embedded New
York Times reporter, soldiers "eagerly" kicked in the doors of
Falluja General Hospital, and patients and hospital employees were
forced to lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their
backs. Although the NY Times reporter did not call it by its name,
this was a war crime, turning a medical facility into a theatre of
combat:
Early Target of Offensive is a Hospital
by Richard A. Oppel Jr.
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7642
Two days earlier, another hospital in the city center had been razed to the ground by massive US air raids:
US strikes raze Falluja hospital
BBC News
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7798
What followed was an orgy of killing and destruction, pitting warplanes, tanks and armored vehicles against insurgents armed with Kalashnikov rifles. Even when embedded reporters revel in the killing efficiency of US marines, they still describe the scene for what it is, a "sliver of apocalypse" -- not the scene of a movie set but of a real massacre, however casually described:
Will Meets Resistance in Deadly Logic of War
by Dexter Filkins & Robert F. Worth
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7782
Terrified civilians trying to flee the city were pushed back, to face
almost-certain death:
Rights Lawyers See Possibility of a War Crime
by Michael Janofsky
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7769
By the end of the week, the US war machine had swept through most of
the city, leaving behind shelled buildings, bullet-riddled cars and
rotting corpses:
Breaking a City in Order to Fix It
by Edward Wong
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7784
Ten days ago, commenting on the re-election of US President Bush on
November 2nd, former British foreign secretary Robin Cook wrote:
Bush will now celebrate by putting Falluja to the torch
by Robin Cook
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7800
Put Falluja to the torch, he did indeed. The logic is to put Iraqi
insurgents on notice that they can expect horror in exchange for
daring to resist a foreign occupier. Events of this past week bear
witness to this criminal policy. The US government and its puppet
regime in Baghdad will undoubtedly claim victory after laying waste to
Falluja. This may turn out a Pyrrhic victory. As Patrick Cockburn
notes, "it is likely to be as disappointing in terms of ending the
resistance as the capture of Saddam":
The Crushing of Fallujah Will Not End the War in Iraq
by Patrick Cockburn
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7687
Former UN arms-inspector Scott Ritter observes that, "far from facing
off in a decisive battle against the resistance fighters, it seems the
more Americans squeeze Falluja, the more the violence explodes
elsewhere. It is exercises in futility, akin to squeezing jello."
Squeezing Jello in Iraq
by Scott Ritter
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7697
Violence erupts across Iraq and aid agencies warn of disaster
as US declares battle of Fallujah is over
by Kim Sengupta
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7774
New insurgency confronts US forces
by Rory McCarthy and Michael Howard
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7737
The overwhelming majority of the world remains opposed to this
ruthless occupation. While Iraqis continue to pay its terrible price,
they may take some comfort from world-wide sympathy for their
agony. Several opinions from around the world were collected by the
Toronto Star:
'What did Falluja do to deserve this?'
Toronto Star
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7799
www.occupationwatch.org
November 14, 2004
By Assaf Kfoury
PUTTING FALLUJA TO THE TORCH
The conduct of US troops in Iraq has been a combination of extreme
brutality and wholesale destruction. Brutality towards Iraqis has
routinely come with systematic pillaging, if not wrecking, of the
country's civil institutions and productive capacity. As if, when the
time will finally come for US troops to go, they are determined to leave
behind a landscape of ruins and carnage. Events in Falluja this past week epitomized this conduct once again.
American troops started their offensive against Falluja on November 8
by occupying the main city hospital. According to the embedded New
York Times reporter, soldiers "eagerly" kicked in the doors of
Falluja General Hospital, and patients and hospital employees were
forced to lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their
backs. Although the NY Times reporter did not call it by its name,
this was a war crime, turning a medical facility into a theatre of
combat:
Early Target of Offensive is a Hospital
by Richard A. Oppel Jr.
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7642
Two days earlier, another hospital in the city center had been razed to the ground by massive US air raids:
US strikes raze Falluja hospital
BBC News
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7798
What followed was an orgy of killing and destruction, pitting warplanes, tanks and armored vehicles against insurgents armed with Kalashnikov rifles. Even when embedded reporters revel in the killing efficiency of US marines, they still describe the scene for what it is, a "sliver of apocalypse" -- not the scene of a movie set but of a real massacre, however casually described:
Will Meets Resistance in Deadly Logic of War
by Dexter Filkins & Robert F. Worth
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7782
Terrified civilians trying to flee the city were pushed back, to face
almost-certain death:
Rights Lawyers See Possibility of a War Crime
by Michael Janofsky
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7769
By the end of the week, the US war machine had swept through most of
the city, leaving behind shelled buildings, bullet-riddled cars and
rotting corpses:
Breaking a City in Order to Fix It
by Edward Wong
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7784
Ten days ago, commenting on the re-election of US President Bush on
November 2nd, former British foreign secretary Robin Cook wrote:
Bush will now celebrate by putting Falluja to the torch
by Robin Cook
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7800
Put Falluja to the torch, he did indeed. The logic is to put Iraqi
insurgents on notice that they can expect horror in exchange for
daring to resist a foreign occupier. Events of this past week bear
witness to this criminal policy. The US government and its puppet
regime in Baghdad will undoubtedly claim victory after laying waste to
Falluja. This may turn out a Pyrrhic victory. As Patrick Cockburn
notes, "it is likely to be as disappointing in terms of ending the
resistance as the capture of Saddam":
The Crushing of Fallujah Will Not End the War in Iraq
by Patrick Cockburn
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7687
Former UN arms-inspector Scott Ritter observes that, "far from facing
off in a decisive battle against the resistance fighters, it seems the
more Americans squeeze Falluja, the more the violence explodes
elsewhere. It is exercises in futility, akin to squeezing jello."
Squeezing Jello in Iraq
by Scott Ritter
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7697
Violence erupts across Iraq and aid agencies warn of disaster
as US declares battle of Fallujah is over
by Kim Sengupta
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7774
New insurgency confronts US forces
by Rory McCarthy and Michael Howard
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7737
The overwhelming majority of the world remains opposed to this
ruthless occupation. While Iraqis continue to pay its terrible price,
they may take some comfort from world-wide sympathy for their
agony. Several opinions from around the world were collected by the
Toronto Star:
'What did Falluja do to deserve this?'
Toronto Star
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7799
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff11132004.html
The Ruins of Fallujah
Statistics Don't lie; ButThey Don't Tell the Story, Either
David Lindorff
The Ruins of Fallujah
Statistics Don't lie; ButThey Don't Tell the Story, Either
David Lindorff
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D8B...70A45FCAEF8.htm
Iraqi Shia leaders condemn Falluja attack
Iraqi Shia leaders condemn Falluja attack
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6403689/
Iraq fighting spreads far beyond Fallujah
spate of attacks, clashes throughout Sunni triangle; Mosul 'tense'
Iraq fighting spreads far beyond Fallujah
spate of attacks, clashes throughout Sunni triangle; Mosul 'tense'
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