U.S. Commander Gen. John Abizaid Not Hurt in Mideast Attack (Iraq)

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040212/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq&cid=540&ncid=1480

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, escaped injury in a gun battle Thursday at a local headquarters of a U.S.-sponsored Iraqi security force.


No U.S. soldiers and no one in Abizaid's traveling party were injured.


Just moments after a convoy carrying Abizaid and his party pulled inside the cinderblock walls at the headquarters of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps in this city west of Baghdad, an explosion rang out.


Seconds later, two more explosions were heard near the rear of the compound, and U.S. soldiers responded with a barrage of rifle and machine gun fire.

more

[leftchick]

1. .... this time.

I hope it scared the shit out of him.

[LostInTheMaise]

7. Why?

At least they didn't hurt the Mosque where the attackers fired from.

[jmcgowanjm]

2. It's just strange

THE Commander of USMiddleEast is attacked. And we
don't know if the attackers were killed. Were they even captured?

And locals refuse to enter mosque... to do what?

Three RPG's are shot, and one soldier is scratched?

[jmcgowanjm]

3. 1188 USsoldiers KIA/15000 WIA in Iraq

See Landstuhl, Dover, WalterReed, for details.
The Pentagon officer explained
it like this:

The split-second that soldier is removed from contact
, he is officially listed
as 'wounded', regardless of whether he then dies 3
seconds or minutes or hours or days or months later,
as a direct result of injuries sustained in the contact.
Deaths in transit to the U.S., or after soldiers return
home are also excluded completely, or become
'accidental deaths'.

We already have Bush, Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz,
Rumsfeld, Rice and a few others to share the limelight,
to be followed into the dock by lesser criminals on both
sides of American politics, i.e. every single American
politician who illegally 'approved' this murderous
invasion of a sovereign country, in stark violation of
all international protocols and international law.

The resistance is obtaining more sophisticated
weapons, improving the ones they already have,
and learning how to use both more effectively against
the United States. US aircraft and armored vehicles are
being destroyed with increasing frequency. The world is
watching and learning
as the resistance to the US
occupation perfects tactics and strategies that are
increasingly able to neutralize the United States Armed
Forces

[Barrett808]

4. Interesting figures -- got a link? n/t

n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. You won't find the figures in one single link...

...but the official figure of 536 dead from wounds suffered in Iraq doesn't include those that die from wounds some time after being airlifted to Germany.

A good rule of thumb when considering the ratio between KIAs and WIAs is approximately 12-15 troops wounded for every death. So, using that ratio we can arrive at approximately 6432-8040 wounded to 536 dead. The most critically wounded should be about 10-15% of the total wounded, or approximately 643 to 1206. Of that number, 15% are probably dying of their wounds at some later date. That adds another 96 to 181 to the death count. That means more than 600 Americans have died in Iraq with the possibility that the number is actually as high, or higher than, 700.

And we have no idea what's happening in Afghanistan, but it can't be very good. My guess is that we've probably lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-300 lives in that place.

That comes close to the number quoted in the post above, doesn't it? Sad, very sad. And for what?

By now we should all know why Junior's Junta is refusing to allow photographers to take pictures of the incoming flag-draped caskets...they're afraid that someone will finally come out with the real Middle Eastern casualty numbers.

[Mr. Brown of MD]

5. At least some of those are listed officially

The Lunaville database - http://www.lunavile.org - which is the single best place for casualty info for all nations coming out of Iraq, keeps track of the place where all of the fatalities have died.

At least a few of the deaths are listed as places that are obviously not in Iraq - a January 29 fatality was someone who died of wounds from a sniper attack, and the place is listed as Lakenheath Medical Facility. Go back a little earlier and you can find a fatality on January 5 of a man who died from wounds received in an IED attack, place of death Brooke Army Medical Center, TX.

While it's not a large number, and the possibility still exists that casualties are being under-reported, it's also not accurate to say that the wounded are 'never' reported dead later.

I don't think they could hide that many people having died. If there are a supposed 650 more killed as a result of wounds sustained in Iraq, there is no way they could keep that many families quiet. I'm skeptical enough that they could keep one family quiet. You think anybody who knows that their son or daughter, or husband or wife, or brother or sister, or mother or father, was killed and isn't even officially listed is going to agree to go along with that?

By trying to make the case that there have been more fatalities in Iraq also seems to me to indicate that it's OK to have the number of casualties that we have now, but it's only this greater number that is the tragedy. Myself, I think 538 killed and 3029 wounded (and that's only counting US soldiers) is too much as it is.

-CollegeDude
One fight at a time

[w4rma]

6. Whatever is going on over there doesn't sound good. (n/t)