'We Have Been Fighting Nonstop' (NAJAF, Iraq )

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oldcity25aug25.story

'We Have Been Fighting Nonstop'
Some of the most heated clashes in Najaf have shifted to the streets of the Old City.
By Edmund Sanders
Times Staff Writer

August 25, 2004

NAJAF, Iraq — On the top floor of the "Apache Hilton" in downtown Najaf, U.S. Army sniper Paul Buki ended a 24-hour shift by collapsing into a pile of dust, bullet casings and empty military food packages.

From this penthouse perch in a half-built tourist hotel — seized and nicknamed by U.S. troops — the Army staff sergeant has an unobstructed view of Najaf's Old City, a historic district in Iraq's holiest city that over the last week has been transformed into a war zone.

With the gold-domed Imam Ali Mosque in the background, smoke and flames rose Tuesday from a building still burning more than 15 hours after the previous night's fighting. Two Apache helicopters swooped down through a deserted street and disappeared behind a three-story building. Mortar rounds, tank cannons and machine guns boomed and cracked throughout the day as U.S. forces battled followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr.

"It's been intense here," said Buki, covered in a ghostly white dust after a night spent huddled behind a brick wall, firing at militants and reporting hostile positions from his fifth-floor lookout.

In the struggle to remove Sadr's militia from the mosque, some of the most heated clashes have shifted from the cemetery where major fighting began to a neighborhood of the Old City just south of the shrine.<snip>

[Ripley]

1. How can the media justify not covering this war?

Non-stop fighting, soldiers dying daily. The US casualty count is the sixth highest out of 18 months of the war and the month isn't even over yet. So why was it acceptable, ney, competitive to cover the war and fighting and deaths a year ago with huge maps "reporters" stood on and described in detail what was happening, yet...

Today, I have to search my paper for the word Iraq to show up and sometimes it's only in the Sports section.

:grr:

[babylon_system]

3. Warmonger fatigue

Casualties mounting on both sides but Americans don't care as long as their own personal lives are not disrupted.

[leftchick]

4. all of the T V "news" is following the rove memo.....

This is now an "IRAQI" operation... the US soldiers are follwing the orders of Allawi now that Iraq is a "sovereign" nation...

:eyes:

[Ripley]

5. Yeah, I know...

The Marines are on "Security and Stability" missions now. Makes it sound like they're night watchmen at the mall or something.

It's sickening and I still find myself shaking my head thinking there have got to be thousands of people working in the media...TV and print.

Are they all greedy, selfish people or are they fearful? Why don't they form a union of truthseeking journalists. Strength in numbers and all..

[leftchick]

6. look at this Iraqi "policeman"....

They have to hide their faces while doing dirty work for the American occupiers....



A masked Iraqi police officer watches the area from a roadside bunker in Najaf, August 25, 2004. Fierce fighting in Najaf has put everyone on edge but no one is more nervous than the police. Hundreds of Iraqi policemen have been killed across Iraq (news - web sites) since an insurgency was mounted after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) last year. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

[mediaman007]

7. They'll give command of our troops over to the Iraqis, but

don't let any other nations control our troops under the U.N. banner.

(Like the Iraqis really have control of our troops!)

[AZCat]

2. Non-subscription link at "The Union Leader"

SNIPER'S STORY: Check in at 'Apache Hilton'

Note: I don't know if they abridged the L.A. Times article or not, but if you haven't registered you can read the article here.