Nine more US soldiers killed in Iraq (updated)

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Nine US troops were killed on a single day around

Iraq, the US military reported Wednesday, bringing to 85 the number of servicemen killed in one of the most violent months of the war so far.

All nine of the soldiers and marines were killed on Tuesday in a series of incidents, some of them in an area where the troops were searching for three of their comrades who were captured 11 days ago.

Three soldiers were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb attack south of Baghdad, one was shot dead in the capital and another hit by a booby trap as his unit operated near where the men went missing.

Two more soldiers were killed by another roadside bomb north of Baghdad, while two marines died in action in the restive western province of Anbar, according to statements from US command in Baghdad.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070523/wl_afp/iraqusunresttoll_070523100148

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BAGHDAD, May 23 (Reuters) - Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in four separate attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, most of them by roadside bombs, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

In the worst single attack, three soldiers were killed and two were wounded when their patrol was hit by "multiple improvised explosive devices", the military said in a statement. It gave no location for the attack.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23320938.htm

[Solly Mack]

1. ....

Way to go America!!!

[Vinca]

2. How many will die during this long song and dance that apparently

must take place until September?? It's all such a waste. The American Congress goes on vacation. The Iraqi Parliament goes on vacation. No vacation for troops. They'll continue to die.

[saigon68]

50. Lots more Gold Star Mothers this AssClown will Make.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. The insurgency appears to have lured us into a trap.

The planned kidnapping incuded post kidnapping preparation for the search. This is a pretty sophisticated insurgency we are fighting. They are learning how to hurt us, they are the ones who appear to be agile and adaptive, not us.

[jollyreaper2112]

24. uhoh

[coalition_unwilling]

30. While I agree with your points, I take issue with your language, specifically

"insurgency". I prefer the term "Resistance," as 'insurgency' connotes that there was a time when members approved of the occupation and only rose up against it after growing dissatisfied with the occupation. In other words, "insurgency" downplays the idea of Iraqi nationalism, whereas "Resistance" foregrounds Iraqi nationalism and opposition to the occupation as an affront to Iraqi nationalism (and, to a lesser extent, pan-Arab nationalism).

[Warren Stupidity]

46. Point taken. nt.

[tjwash]

32. So...we are like the old imperial British army was during our revolutionary war.

Marching in large tight formations, in wide open fields, with great big X's on their coats.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. You're giving them too much credit.

If there's blame, it's the utterly incompetent planners that decided to cease all of their normal operations on this poorly thought out "hunt."

[NewYorkerfromMass]

39. No. Warren is correct

The NYTimes frontpage has an account (with photos) of one soldier killed by an IED which was really a pressure activated land mine. The platoon thought they were safer avoiding the roads but only too late discovered the fields had become just as deadly.

[Warren Stupidity]

47. No I think this was in fact the expected reaction.

They analyzed the escalation, noted that it actually weakened our forces outside Baghdad and they have exploited our weaknesses. We are losing this war, we are losing a war of attrition in a foreign land we are occupying for no good reason, and we will leave either on our terms or on theirs. Given that we do not have the political strength or wisdom to accept this defeat, my guess is that we will be leaving on their terms.

[SteveM]

41. Good observations. You will note also they took out a bridge...

...and are attempting to take out more bridges, spanning the Tigris. (The most violent action is east of Baghdad while U.S. soldiers are west of the river.) A small-time guerrilla operation usually doesn't want to or is incapable of blowing bridges. This represents a more "big-time" military approach which says in essence: "we don't need those bridges; you do." I can't help but liken the "Green Zone" and its surroundings to some medieval castle under siege.

I think it is becoming clear that our commanders don't know how to fight this war -- blank check or no -- and are being outsmarted.

The key for Bush is to keep the war going, preferably escalated and with another front opened on/in Iran, so that when (?) he leaves office, his policy of permawar will be sealed and delivered to WHOMEVER wins. In this manner he will have fully succeeded. By the way, permawar means permanent unitary presidential powers (the thin legal justification for this dictatorial outlook). Authoritarian control here at home and rank blow-it-out imperialism abroad is the goal, now and into the future.

[rodeodance]

4. k and r

[Massachusetts]

5. FUBAR!

May OUR Troops RIP.

[Missy M]

6. More soldiers are being killed since the surge.......

so what is Commander Bush's next move?

[ClintonTyree]

8. That just shows that the surge is working..........

:sarcasm: at least in the minds of the right wingnuts who support this cluster-fuck. The more U.S. soldiers die, the more we're succeeding. :silly: You can't argue with logic like that. The Bush administration has a weird way of measuring success. They make stuff up and call it "victory".

[jollyreaper2112]

25. whenever I hear the bushies say surge

I'm reminded of those stupid commercials with the trendy extreme gen-xers screaming "suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurge!"

[SteveM]

40. Whatever he wants.

[babydollhead]

7. Where is the outrage?

[brentspeak]

9. The "surge"? More like a surge in American troop deaths.

You would need, literally, about 1.5 million troops to provide any kind of security in Iraq. There would need to be a near-total saturation of troops at every street corner in every major Iraqi city, at a minimum, to accomplish what the so-called "surge" is supposed to do.

Short of that, the troops and the Iraqi people are simply cannon fodder.

[rodeodance]

10. k

[rodeodance]

11. K for the troops and their families

[rodeodance]

12. this needs two more REC.

[rodeodance]

13. k

[rodeodance]

14. k

[rodeodance]

15. k

[wicket]

16. My god

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Cults4Bush]

17. sorry troops youre there well into 2008 and probably much longer

after september we will capitulate to Little Boots again. We will keep doing it because the party faithful on both sides have real trouble not buying into BS.

[Roland99]

18. 85 so far this month?!?! And timelines were removed and funding still going to be approved?!?!??

:wtf: :mad: :wtf: :mad: :wtf: :mad:

[sanskritwarrior]

19. I'm not trying to be nitpicky but the AP article is wrong

the number is 80 US personnel, now if they mean all countries personnel, then it's not wrong. Icasualties say 80 US, 5 other nations........This is how meme's get started where people breathlessly claim that we are hiding the "REAL NUMBER" of dead if there are two sets of numbers used, it confuses people........

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. I agree

The correct number of US troops killed is 80.

I also despise those stupid memes whereby people project some imagined conspiracy whereby the US government is hiding war deaths. Not only would such a procedure be impossible in practical terms, but this government and military is clearly too incompetent to pull off such a feat should it be possible.

[coalition_unwilling]

35. If anything, U.S. military is more likely to inflate enemy casualties.

See, for example, David Halberstam's "Best and Brightest" for how this obsession with body count manifested itself during Vietnam.

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. True

[info being]

20. Glad to know our party is 100% behind this

Even worse than the Americans, I wonder how many innocent Iraqis died today.

[LibDemAlways]

21. These soldiers are fighting a cause that was lost the

day of the invasion, because the fools in Congress and the neocon warmongers who instigated this clusterfuck were too stupid to understand one simple fact. If you illegally invade and occupy a country, you will not be welcome. And if that country has centuries-old ethnic divisions, you will be pouring fuel on the flames.

Apparently four years later they still don't understand that they lost and that the only course is to get the hell out before many more thousands are dead and those scenes of the fall of Saigon are repeated.

[barb162]

38. Yeah, the helicopters on the roof of the embassy and

people screaming all over the place to get on the last helicopters... really charming. Not.

[tabasco]

22. Wasted lives. Fighting in a war for corporate profits.

Our real enemies got away because Bush and his oil cronies put money over patriotism.

RIP, Troops. You had no control over where you were fighting. You died honorable deaths.

The corrupt Commander In Chief and his insane neocon cronies is where lies the dishonor.

[jollyreaper2112]

23. next verse, same as the first!

This is the war that never ends,
Yes, it goes on and on, my friend
Some assholes started fighting it not knowing what it was,
And they'll continue waging it forever just because—

[lonestarnot]

26. Sitting fucking ducks.

[DemoTex]

28. Bedard best captured the "Sitting Duck" feeling I had in Viet Nam:

"Sitting Duck"
Michael Bedard

[saigon68]

43. Nice one Capt Mac

Remember the ZPU-4 / Type 56

[coalition_unwilling]

29. Apparently, the Iraqi Resistance knows how to "surge" also. -n/t

[0007]

31. Stack em higher and higher junior - YOU fucking asshole!!

Grass Bush

Pile the bodies high in Austerlitz and Waterloo Iraq
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; bush; I cover all.

And pile them high in Gettyburg Baghdad
And pile them high in Ypres and Vedum Mossoul and Al Fallaujah

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?

I am the grass bush.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg


Support the war - Donate a Son a Daughter
The GOP working for a better America
God Bless America

[trogdor]

34. And yet...

...we're giving Bush more money. Swell.

[HughBeaumont]

37. leftofthedial had a point earlier about Dems caving to Mr. 28% -

You think it's collusion and not cowardice?

Or could it be a little of BOTH?

Either way, funding this mass slaughter should be deemed CRIMINAL, with all involved facing consequences for their blatant disregard of our military and the welfare of their families.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

42. K&R - Rest in peace, dear soldiers, May your families find peace.

[saigon68]

44. They will find no peace

I know a number of Gold Star Mothers most in their eighties. they have never found peace.

Ask any parent who has lost a child

The gold star mothers from my war are very very bitter.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

45. I'm afraid you may be right - & the returning soldiers will need help coping.

I know several Vietnam veterans that are still suffering the physical, emotional, and mental effects of agent orange and the horrors of war.

[saigon68]

48. They will get little help "coping"

Used up---- thrown away

The motto of the VA and the military.

[saigon68]

49. "Bring em on" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Xenotime]

51. I'M HOLDING CONGRESS & * RESPONSIBLE NOW!

THEY HAVE ALL LIED!!!