U.S.: 300 Militants Killed in Two Days (AP)

[Nambe]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)

U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed about 300 Iraq militants in two days of fighting in Najaf with militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the U.S. military said Friday. Battles in other Shiite areas of the country has killed dozens more, according to Iraqi authorities.

Two U.S. Marines and an American soldier were killed in Najaf on Thursday, and 12 troops were wounded, the military said. ..

"We estimate we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fighting," said Capt. Carrie Batson, a Marine spokeswoman.

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[Zynx]

1. It's probably nowhere near that.

The military always overstates how many it kills.

[rocktivity]

18. They've been busy little bees lately, haven't they?

Arresting high-level terror supsects, raiding American mosques, thwarting bomb threats in financial buildings, killing hundreds of the enemy at one clip! Bush grabs all the credit--and just in time for the RNC convention, too!

:eyes:
rocknation

[HuckleB]

38. Indeed.

The rebels say they've lost 36, so it's somewhere in between.

[Tight_rope]

44. Did they "BOMB" another "WEDDING"!

They probably killed many poor innocent civilians...I wouldn't be surprised if it was some kind of party or function.

[Cocoa]

2. that means we're winning n/t

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

3. So we are reduced to body counts, eh?

Remind anyone of anything?

If we get more of them than they get of us, can we say we won and go home?

[saigon68]

22. ITS IRAQ-NAM WHERE BODY COUNTS REIGN SUPREME

ITS ALMOST LIKE THE REAL DEAL

COWARDS RUNNING THE SHOW

THE POOR AND MINORITIES DYING FOR CORPORATE PROFITS

I SAW THIS ABOUT 35 YEARS AGO


</RANT>

[struggle4progress]

45. I thought they said they wouldn't do body counts. eom

[Bridget Burke]

4. Why do they call them "anti-Iraqi" forces?

Aren't they all Iraqis?

[Karenina]

19. They're called "military age" targets.

That means LOTS OF 11 (if they're tall for their age) to 16 year old KIDS... :cry:

[LauraK]

5. Prison abuse???? Plan B

Stir them up and kill them. Spreading peace is hard work.

[DBoon]

6. Means 3,000 angry relatives

are now vowing revenge on the US

[JohnnyFianna1]

7. Am I the only one who thinks this is good news?

[missile_bender]

8. What, that 300 Iraqis are killed fighting an illegal occupation force?

I sure hope you're the only one who thinks this is good news.

[vincent_vega_lives]

23. These are al-Sadr's forces.

They would like nothing better than to grab power and install a radical muslim government. So if you think another Taliban in Iraq is a good thing, well then you think this is bad news.

[NickB79]

28. You can provide proof they are all al-Sadr's forces?

And that a large number aren't civilians caught in the crossfire? Recall the invasion of Fallujah, where we claimed to have killed 600 insurgents? Reporters who later went in found a soccer field turned into a graveyard, with many graves filled with women and children.

[DEMonstate]

35. What makes you think they were fighters?

[madrchsod]

11. yes

[Jacobin]

15. Yes, apparently

You have 28 million left to cheer about killing.

That does not make me happy.

Iraqis want us out of their country by an overwhelming majority. Killing hundreds or even thousands a day....what the fuck good will that do?

[vincent_vega_lives]

27. Overwhelming majority?

What makes you think that? It is hardly a monolithic population. Even the ones that don't especially like the US recognize that if the US pulls out now the bloodbath is only going to get worse as groups scramble to take power.

[Zhade]

29. Polling the Iraqi people makes him think that.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-poll-cover_x.htm

Poll: Iraqis out of patience

By Cesar G. Soriano and Steven Komarow,USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Only a third of the Iraqi people now believe that the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5217874/site/newsweek/

Grim Numbers
A U.S.-sponsored poll shows Iraqis have lost confidence in the occupying authorities—and that the majority of Iraqis want Coalition troops out of the country

By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 4:43 p.m. ET June 16, 2004

June 15 - The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately, without even waiting for elections scheduled for next year. An overwhelming majority, about 80 percent, also say they have “no confidence” in either the U.S. civilian authorities or Coalition forces.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4036345,00.html

Poll: Iraqis Want U.S. Out of Country


Friday April 30, 2004 12:01 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite concerns about their own safety, the majority of Iraqis say they want the U.S. and British troops now in Iraq to leave within the next few months, according to a nationwide poll of people in Iraq.

<SNIP>

Almost six in 10, 57 percent, said they would like to see coalition troops leave ``immediately, within the next few months,'' while 36 percent said they would like to see those troops stay longer.


Took me about two minutes to find this out from Google. So Jacobin is correct. The majority of Iraqis want us gone, NOW.

[vincent_vega_lives]

31. Interesting

If thats the case then we should pull out.

[jayfish]

16. It Depends On Whether Or Not You Can...

tell me how this is different than the way Saddam put down Shia uprisings under his watch. I can give you one difference: we are worse because we have no compunction against using air-power against the Shia, insurgents, the general population or anyone who even looks at us cross-eyed. Saddam was prohibited form doing the same (by the US) because it was tyrannical, despotic, genocidal or whatever "Hitler of our time" buzz word you want to use. Our, hypocritical, actions are despicable.

Jay

[info being]

25. Yes. You are also the only one here...

unwilling to backup an opinion with any sort of argument.

[hadrons]

9. "We ESTIMATE we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fi

:eyes:

[madrchsod]

10. well we are up to the ol`e favorite

"body count" who said this wasn`t nam?

[saigon68]

33. IT IS THE NAM----------IRAQ-NAM

Where Death rides a Pale Horse

Sometimes Death travels beyond the boundaries of the combat zone and wreaks havoc on mere bystanders.

Death inflicts the ultimate penalty in no particular order.


The Innocent, The Guilty, The Careless and The Unlucky-- are all targets.

[Az_lefty]

12. So, does this mean we only have 20 million to go?

:shrug:

[leesa]

13. Ahhh...this will make the Fundies smile.

Praise God and kill a raghead.

[Jacobin]

14. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. We now have BODY COUNTS

Channeling General Westmoreland!!!!!!


"We killed hundred times as many Vietnamese today than they killed of us. See? We're 'winning'"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fucking Idiots. All a bunch of fucking idiots.

These fucking idiots just NEVER FUCKING LEARN>

[PurityOfEssence]

24. Charley don't count

300, huh? Guess that just leaves 24,999,700 or so...

You're right: it just reeks of Vietnam reporting.

[Sabriel]

32. Reminds me of The Onion graphic:

The pie chart showing how many Iraq citizens HADN'T been killed.

[scarface2004]

17. kill them all!

let god sort them out!!! war pretzel bush sneered while reading the bible to second graders this morning!!

[Barrett808]

20. Most inflated body count yet

We must be doing very badly.

[ElementaryPenguin]

21. Maybe BushCo's preparing us for a big U.S. soldier casualty figure

I sure hope I'm wrong. It's disgusting either way. These people are being murdered by us for defending their families and country!

:puke:
:puke:
:puke:

[CarinKaryn]

26. How nice. 300 more families who hate the US.

[The_Casual_Observer]

30. Although this is probably inflated and bogus

Any slaughter of those citizens is criminal. Don't the US military personnel know that they are killing rank and file un-uniformed Iraqis?
Why there isn't international outrage about this genocide is beyond me.

[Disturbed]

34. Wasn't Iraq liberated?

If so, can't they chose what type of Govt. they want, even if it isn't what the US Neo Fascists want?

Maybe this is why many Iraqis want the "liberaters" to go home?

Full Sovereignty?

"Throughout the spring, as hundreds died in the spiraling conflict, as Regime bosses applied their hardcore "anti-terrorist" tortures to innocent bystanders raked up in their occupation nets, as Regime mouthpieces prated endlessly of "liberation" and "sovereignty," Bush viceroy Paul Bremer was quietly signing a series of edicts that will give the United States effective control over the military, ministries -- and money -- of any Iraqi government, for years to come, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Bremer has placed U.S.-appointed "commissions" made up of Americans and local puppets throughout Iraqi government agencies; the ministers supposedly in charge weren't even told of the edicts. These boards "will serve multiyear terms and have significant authority to run criminal investigations, award contracts, direct troops and subpoena citizens," the Journal reports. Any new Iraqi government "will have little control over its armed forces, lack the ability to make or change laws and be unable to make major decisions within specific ministries without tacit U.S. approval, say U.S. officials.


Earlier Bremer edicts laid the Iraqi economy wide open to ruthless exploitation by Bush-approved foreign "investors"; dominance of such key sectors as banking, communications -- and energy -- is already well advanced. The latest dictates aim to ensure that this organized looting goes on, no matter what kind of makeshift "interim government" the United Nations manage to piece together. Bush's plans to build a Saddamite fortress embassy in Baghdad and 14 permanent military bases around the country are designed to provide the knee-breaking "security" for these lucrative arrangements."



http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/05/21/120.html

It is a pure sham, a US Puppet Govt. Most Americans may be fooled into the false notion that Iraq now has "full sovereignty" but the Iraqis sure a Hell won't be. They damn well know Colonialism when the experience it. Over 30 years of British Colonialism hasn't been forgotten.

The "new" Govt. will fail and it may not even get to the phony elections of Jan.'05. I predict a Mass Uprising against the Occupation, which remains, in mid July. A Civil War in Iraq may not arise as many predict. Perhaps the various factions will hammer out compromises without bloodshed. The excuse of the US Occupation of staying to prevent a Civil War is most likely another ploy to keep 14 Military bases with 100 K US Troops in Iraq to protect the US and other country's Multi-Corps that are entrenching in Iraq. It's not all about the oil.


Why the US will stay in Iraq

After you read this article you will know why.

The Neo Fascists had no exit strategy because they were not planning on exiting.

Kerry/Edwards don’t have any plans to leave either.

Only the Iraqis have the power to re-claim their own country.



http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0805-07.htm

[daleo]

36. Let freedom reign

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

[number6]

37. the Iraq-nam body count .....

all those 300 had brothers, sisters, moms and pops ...

if that number isn't just made up anyway ...

[gottaB]

39. Sadr's militia defeated

"The Moqtada militia is militarily defeated. We have killed scores of them over the last few weeks, and that is in Najaf alone," Brigadier General Mark Hertling, one of the top US commanders in charge of Najaf, told AFP.

"Over the past several days, Moqtada's militia has lost much of their stomach for fighting," he said, also declaring victory in the central cities of Kut, Diwaniyah and Karbala, dogged by fighting over the past two months.

"We have also destroyed their weapons stores and their offensive capability," he said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=604566

***

If you'll recall, there had been no previous admission by the US that Kut, Diwaniyah and Karbala were under Sadr's control. For certain, one could learn as much from careful reading of select sources, but it was not widely reported. With each passing lie, the media drift farther and farther into irreality. It would be amusing if lives weren't at stake.

[w4rma]

40. This has done no good. Their friends and family will replace them all.

Poor tactics. And it's not only the tactics, its the goal where the GOP leadership is trying to impose power over the Iraqis (while calling it democracy). If the goal was true democracy, then it might be attainable since most Iraqis really do want that.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

41. All that is required is for Cheney to resurrect Westmoreland to join his

war cabinet and begin talking about "light at the end of the tunnel" again.



You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.
Ho Chi Minh

[saigon68]

42. THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

[Tight_rope]

43. Yeah right...

I see the militants doubling into 600 over night. Bring in the reinforcements.