“they will greet us as liberators”
This is grotesque and depressing:
- Iraqi teenagers dragged two bloodied U.S. soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing the killings as a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans.
. . .
Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.
“They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face,” said Younis Mahmoud, 19.
It was unknown whether the soldiers were alive or dead when pulled from the wreckage.
Initial reports said the soldiers’ throats were cut. But another witness, teenager Bahaa Jassim, said the wounds appeared to have come from bullets.
“One of the soldiers was shot under the chin and the bullet came out of his head. I saw the hole in his helmet. The other was shot in the throat,” Jassim said.
I hate to play politics with the deaths of these soldiers, but the fact is our troops are now paying the price for the Bush Administration’s optimism :
- For obvious domestic political reasons, the Bush Administration going into the war had downplayed the scale and duration of a post-war occupation mission. When then-Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki told legislators that such a mission would require several hundred thousand U.S. troops, his assessment had been immediately dismissed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as “wildly off the mark.” Wolfowitz explained that “I am reasonably certain that (the Iraqi people) will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep requirements down.” Six weeks ago, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was still suggesting the U.S. force in Iraq could be reduced to 30,000 by the end of the year. But the prevailing assessment in Washington appears to be shifting to the idea of a figure closer to Shinseki’s.
So here we are now, eight months since the war began, and we’re stuck in a quagmire that’s getting bloodier and bloodier every day. As the old saying goes “Hope for the best, plan for the worst”. Well, as our soldiers are discovering, conducting a war isn’t one of those things you can only do halfway.
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and i just found out that one of my best friends from childhood is being called into duty. he’s an army-reserve. he may be over there for at least a year. i went to his wedding a month ago.
are they still talking about the possibility of a draft?
Comment by tom — November 24, 2003 @ 11:25 am
Last I heard they were still talking about bringing back the draft, but not publically talking about it. They know it’s not something they can push for before the next election cycle, but I wouldn’t be suprised to see it if Bush were to win again. Of course thankfully by that time I would be too old.
Comment by andrew — November 24, 2003 @ 11:41 am
how old is too old?
Comment by tom — November 24, 2003 @ 11:53 am
26 is the oldest you can be drafted. If it works like Vietnam did. You are also exempt if you are in school with a high enough GPA, if you are married, or if you have a job that can be considered important. In other words, if you a rich you can stay home, if you are poor you go.
Comment by andrew — November 24, 2003 @ 12:25 pm
i went to see jerry quickly (host of beneath the surface on 90.7 kpfk los angeles 98.7 california pacifica radio for southern california!) last night in santa ana.
he went to iraq in february and just returned there a few weeks ago and just got back with fresh stories and slides.
the first thing he talked about in reference to his latest trip was prostitution. we all have heard it’s back since saddam disappeared. but did you know the biggest supporter of said prostitution is the us? hundreds of girls every day that should be going to school instead going to base and spending all day with the troops. girls. some of them mabey 14 or younger.
what would that do to an older brother or father?
WHY DO THEY HATE US?!?
Comment by josh — November 24, 2003 @ 1:10 pm
No doubt we’ll hear about how our evil, liberal, permissive culture is to blame for this exploitation. Mission accomplished indeed. I swear, it’s like being controlled by a fraternity.
Comment by The Eligible Ross Lincoln — November 24, 2003 @ 6:29 pm
I heard that this story was BS… Another Jessica Lynch… Has anyone else heard this, that two troops were killed, but that all the rest of the story was a pentagon fabrication?
Comment by mona — November 25, 2003 @ 8:07 pm