Tanks, officers impose order in Fallujah

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20After%20the%20Push

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) Iraqis line up in straggling columns, waiting to pass through barbed-wire checkpoints that ring this former insurgent stronghold left battered by intense fighting three months ago. Men stand in one, women and children in another. The few cars form a third.

They are returning to a virtually empty city where the 1st Marine Division's rumbling tanks and patrolling riflemen are out in force making sure the guerrillas don't come back.

American officers say only about a tenth of the 250,000 residents have returned since fleeing the weeklong battle in November that drove out insurgents who had controlled the predominantly Sunni Muslim city. snip

Marines handed out military rations for weeks after the battle to help the few families in the city get by, but that stopped after the Jan. 30 national election. ``They have to get back on their own feet,'' said 1st Lt. Sven Jensen, leading a patrol from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.

more

[wtmusic]

1. 'They have to get back on their own feet?'

after we destroyed their homes?????

:grr: Oh my blood pressure :grr:

[shadowknows69]

2. maybe they can plant crops

in the bodies of their slain loved ones and the ruins of their homes. unreal.

[AZCat]

10. Only one crop grows in the blood of loved ones

That crop is hatred, and the Iraqis are harvesting year-round right now.

[VegasWolf]

3. Babies, whining about standing in lines to get into their own cities.

Can't they see how wonderful we are. Jeez.

[peacebird]

21. we gave out rations UNTIL THE ELECTION?

but not since because the peasants who returned had fulfilled our need by voting and giving us a photo op to show fallujah was free.

screw 'em now. they are on their own, can't foster a welfare system or anything.

grrr...
Just HOW are they supposed to feed their families? There is no work - we have destroyed the businesses and the electric and water and sewage so it isn't like work is coming any time soon - and it's hard to grow crops in the dead of WINTER...

i am furious, railing at my poor keyboard... good gawd, and the average amurikan will be watching the new "Pentagon TV" channel on dishnetwork and cooing over the wonders of our freedom operations. aaaaccckkkkkkkk...... :puke:

:wtf:


must turn off computer now - can't take any more this morning.

[cthrumatrix]

22. bush's version of democracy ..... where are the media photo's of this?

[wtmusic]

26. Somewhat ironic that even Saddam handed out weekly food packets

to 60% of Iraqi families during sanctions.

Out of the pan...

[merwin]

4. That is the most repulsive thing I've heard in a long while!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. "only about a tenth of the 250,000 residents have returned"

So the rest are homeless refugees or dead.

Have a nice day.

[DemoTex]

6. At least we didn't level Hue.

Know what I mean, Vern?

[Art_from_Ark]

7. We did practically level Hanoi, though

[DemoTex]

8. I was joking .. sorry.

We leveled Hue, too. In a way (pardon the pun).


Hue .. after. By DemoTex

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I knew you were joking

(Know what I mean, Vern?), although I didn't realize that Hue was also leveled.

[DemoTex]

13. Actually, the damage to Hue was much less than that to Fallujah.

Maybe. Who knows how bad Fallujah was damaged? The world press is barred from that city. IMHO Fallujah might be the next benchmark for wanton war crimes and (as Bertrand Russell differentiated), crimes-of-war. Any way you look at it, Fallujah-2 was a cluster-fuck. What little we know is damning. When the truth is out I fear (hope?) that war crimes will be charged. The defendants should be Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Feith, Wolfowitz, Rove, etc., in order of command and/or control. Then the charge (per Nuremberg) of a war of aggression should be considered. An additional charge of torture vis-a-vis Geneva should be considered. To that dock Ashcroft should be added.
The American electorate is equally culpable, you and me included. We, for some bizarre reason, allowed this to happen. GOD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS. AMEN

Mac

[AZCat]

16. The only reporting I have read from Fallujah...

is that article written by the Iraqi doctor who went into Fallujah. It may have been in the Guardian, but I don't remember.

It was beyond words.


On Edit: I found the Guardian Article.

[DemoTex]

17. Dogs on corpses ...

What can be said? We kill and don't even clean up.

[NYC]

18. I guess that's why we were shooting the dogs and cats.

I never heard anything more about that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Here's are a couple of pics that I found

of the mess we made in Fallujah. I'm not sure if they were ever published in the MSM.

[Redstone]

23. One difference, Hue vs Falluja:

The commies attacked first in Hue, as I suspect you remember (you seem to have a strong grasp of history, which I salute).

Falluja was deliberately and systematically flattened, just like the Russians did in Grozny (anyone else remember that?) in an attempt to show the "insurgents" an object lesson. No real military objective at all, just terrorism applied via artillery.

Didn't work too well, did it?

Not that we'll learn any lessons from it, or anything...

Redstone

[daleo]

11. I wonder how the election went in Fallujah?

Early indications are that turnout was disappointing. Just like Bush planned.

[Swamp Rat]

12. "They have to get back on their own feet" = Now, we'll let 'em starve. n/t

[NYC]

14. That's the way I read it.

[DemoTex]

15. Election American style ...

Rigged. That is all you need to know. Move on, please, nothing to see here. Please!

[leftchick]

19. yep, better check these little babies for booby traps....

[diamond14]

24. recent PHOTOS from Falluja.....

Iraqi primary school boys study for their mid-year exams at the damaged building of their school in the western city of Falluja, February 8, 2005.

[RuleofLaw]

25. What is up with Photo # 5?

Is it me, or does it just look sick to put a dolls head on a stake at a checkpoint?

[makhno]

27. Appalling attitude

Geneva Convention IV, Art. 55: To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.

I guess Lt. Jensen slept through some of his training. And this man is supposed to provide leadership to his troops.