US Holding 200 Iraqi Troops Who Mutinied -Comrades

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040416/wl_nm/iraq_mutiny_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers who refused to take part in a U.S. offensive against the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, their former comrades said Friday.



The U.S. military declined to confirm whether the men were being held. Senior officers play down the significance of such incidents but, asked about reports of mutiny among Iraqi troops, have acknowledged a "command failure" took place during the Falluja offensive.


Soldiers from the Baghdad-based 36th Security Brigade, part of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, told Reuters that last week U.S. commanders took them at night to Falluja, west of the capital, where U.S. forces were massing to crush a growing insurgency.


"They told us to attack the city and we were astonished. How could an Iraqi fight an Iraqi like this? This meant that nothing had changed from the Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) days. We refused en masse," said Ali al-Shamari.

more

[RobertSeattle]

1. The only think I don't get

Is Iraqi's had no problem killing other Iraqi's during Saddam's reign.

The other flip side is that maybe they are starting to have a conscience.

[CaptainClark23]

7. They might hate us

But they had decades of systematic, institutional fear of Saddam.

They aren't scared of us. Thats the differemce, IMO.

[gWbush is Mabus]

8. huh?

that's one giant generalization, isn't it?

[David__77]

10. Saddam Hussein was not a colonialist though...

He was "their" bastard, so to speak. I think that there's a world of difference here. And these people enlisting now were not being told that their mission was to uphold Ba'athism, they were told that they were "defending freedom." How can one defend freedom and annilhilate one's own people?

[arcane1]

11. and...

much of the atricities committed by Saddam were in response to attempts to overthrow him and turn Iraq into a fundie state

overthrowing a dictator is a little different than driving out an invader


and who is to say these are the exact same "Iraqi's"? I would expect that among the millions of them, there are differences of opinion, no?

[ozymandius]

13. united against a common foe

History teaches us that the harshest of circumstances will drive historical enemies toward an alliance. During the (first) Crusades - Jews and Muslims fought side-by-side against the Christian armies. What we see here is of little ideological difference from those alliances of the 13th century.

[daleo]

18. Americans fought and killed each other in great numbers in the Civil War

Virginians killed New Yorkers, and vice versa, but I am sure most of that day would have balked at being ordered to kill fellow Americans by a foreign power, say had the British Empire invaded and taken over the U.S. during the 1860's.

[Columbia]

19. You're thinkin' of the wrong people

The Iraqis employed by Saddam had no problem killing other Iraqis. The ones mentioned in this article are not the same Iraqis. That recognition goes to those they were sent to fight - the Fallujah insurgents.

[arcane1]

2. arrested for not "doing a Saddam" to their own people...

choke on that, freepers! It's ok for Iraqi to kill Iraqi if we say so?

:wtf:

adding this to the mass graves we created in Falluja, and the Napalm we used in the invasion.


We differ from Saddam how? :shrug:

We used chemical weapons

created mass graves

making them kill their own

and of course, invaded a defenseless country in the first damned place

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. The news becomes more and more absurd.

Wonder if we will call them "hostages"?

[Eye and Monkey]

20. BushCo calls them "mutineers". Seems should be "conscientious objectors".

[gWbush is Mabus]

4. go over there and kill your brother "brown people"

what, no?

then you will be held as a terrorist and executed at Gitmo

[IndianaGreen]

5. I wonder if these are the ones the Iraqis want to trade for...

the GI prisoner they got.

[Frangible]

6. can't blame them

Really, what did they expect?

[Coventina]

9. Is this another example of our "success"?

Hey Rummy! I'm talking to you!!!
Answer me!!

[anarchy1999]

12. Every time you start to believe it can't get any worse........

@#$#@$%#)(*&^$#
Many, many bad words used above, self-censored!

What next?

Oh yes, right, just wipe Fallujah, better yet the whole province off the map.

Please forgive us all for our inability to stop this incredible madness.

[htuttle]

14. There had been rumors that peshmerga snipers were at Fallujah with the US

This was mentioned in a couple of blogs that had eyewitness reports from Fallujah. It sounds like the Kurds who were sent there by the Empire refused to fight, however:

Bukhtiar Saleh, a Kurdish soldier, said U.S. heavy-handedness had discouraged him from fighting.

"They were bombing the city with warplanes and using cluster bombs. I could not be a part of this," he said.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Thank you for pointing that out

I had read some rumors that Kurdish soldiers had been dispatched to Fallujah, but until now it had only been speculation. That quote just about confirms it.

Don

[BostonTeaParty04]

16. Ah, I see our future here in the usa....

Let's say a local police force refuses to attack a protest movement (like say after maybe a stolen election in november??). So, the feds lock up those insurgent-friendly enforcement officers. Problem solved. And the 'good cops' move in and take out that unruly insurgence crowd. Oh yeah...

Wow, bush gets a little misty-eyed when he talks about 'freedom and democracy'in the ME. It really IS the utopian view of the neocons that they are creating

I really hate these corrupt fucks.... I really hate them. But, more, I am ired at the american people for not shutting this crap down. We really could, ya know. We could shut this sh*t down TODAY!! We could, but we don't. "we will take care of it in 7 months....at the Election...."

ugh.....

[keithyboy]

17. Our 200 hostages.

Well, well.

[NNN0LHI]

21. General Kermit just said this is not true. Yea sure n/t