US troops begin slaughter in Fallujah

[RBHam]

By James Cogan, wsws.org
9 November 2004
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/iraq-n09.shtml

excerpt:
There is no reliable estimate of how many Iraqi fighters and civilians, or US soldiers, are already dead and wounded. Apart from scattered and limited reports, there will be virtually no independent media coverage of the offensive or the conduct of the American forces. Few journalists are inside or near the city. The bulk of what is being published in the printed media is based on US military press releases and statements, or the censored reports of journalists embedded with American units. The bulk of what is being broadcast consists of what the US military has permitted to be filmed.

Censorship was the primary motive for seizing the Fallujah hospital before the major operation began. The American military wants to be able to prevent Iraqi doctors from speaking to the media about how many civilian casualties they are treating.

The Bush administration, along with its puppet Iraqi interim government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, claim that Fallujah is being stormed in order to “liberate” the city from “terrorists” and “foreign fighters” commanded by Al Qaeda-aligned extremist Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi.

These claims are crude slanders and deserve contempt. After months of US officials declaring they had firm information, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replied to a direct question yesterday as to whether he knew Zarqawi was in Fallujah with the answer: “I have no idea if he is there.” Iraqis have consistently denied Zarqawi is in the city. To the extent men from neighbouring Arab countries have come to Fallujah to fight, it is overwhelmingly to assist the Iraqis defend themselves against the real foreign invaders—the US military.

In the areas of Europe that the Nazis occupied during World War II, the type of homicidal policy guiding the US assault on Fallujah was called “exemplary punishment”. The Bush administration, with the support of the Democrats and the American media establishment, intends to reduce the city to rubble, and to kill or imprison its defenders, in order to make Fallujah an example to other rebellious areas of the consequences of opposing the occupation.

more...

[eleonora]

1. I don't know what to say.

I've got this feeling 2003 and 2004 were a joke compared to what's looming ahead.

[m berst]

2. not sure I can handle it

Seriously.

All day fighting with the smug "de-bunkers" on the vote fraud issue (Democrats!!! Explain that!) and reading the pseudo-intellectual "how do we re-make the Dem party" arguments with no one mentioning that we might have run an anti-war candidate - if I can even say that without being jumped on.

It is madness all around us. We have to stop the madness any way we can.

I am deeply, deeply disappointed, saddened, and angered tonight.

[LibertyorDeath]

3. More "Democracy" for the Iraqi's

This is a War Crime

"Michael Shupp ordered his troops to shoot Iraqis attempting to surrender"

This makes Shupp a War criminal.

more https://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/iraq-n09.shtml


Marine commander Major General John Sattler dehumanised Fallujah’s defenders as “mugs, thugs, murderers and intimidators”. Colonel Michael Shupp ordered his troops to shoot Iraqis attempting to surrender, “because of the threat of suicide bombers”. Army Colonel Pete Newell declared: “We’re going to start at one end of the city and we’re not going to stop until we get to the other. If there’s anybody left when that happens, we’re going to turn around and we’re going to go back and finish it.”

Marine Colonel Gary Bradl made the most chilling call for mass murder, couching it as Christian fundamentalist duty. He lectured his troops: “The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He’s in Fallujah and we’re going to destroy him.”

The battle now underway is being directly compared by marine officers with the 1968 battle for Hue city in Vietnam. The comparison may prove to be accurate. In the course of 26 days of combat, over 600 US and allied troops were killed and 3,164 wounded, killing an estimated 5,000 Vietnamese fighters in the city. More than 10,000 houses were destroyed and 40 percent of the city reduced to rubble.

[mr blur]

5. "Kick some butt!"

The Guardian, today:
"Troops have been told to think of the fight in historic terms, as another Inchon or Iwo Jima, even with occasional references to Vietnam and the 1968 Tet offensive. "You're all in the process of making history. This is another Hue city in the making," Sergeant Major Carlton Kent, the most senior enlisted marine in Iraq, told the forces. "I have no doubt if we do get the word that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done - kick some butt."

(The Iraqis aren't people - it's a game)

[UL_Approved]

7. Post these quotes

A link to these quotes would be nice for reference.

[RBHam]

4. As Mike Malloy would say...

This is being done in your name...

[UL_Approved]

6. Just like Vietnam

We didn't lose many people at the beginning of the war. Only a few a week. Then a dozen. Then 20. Then 50. Then 100. And so on and so on. This war will be a disaster of epic proportions under Bush. We will have a draft after they run out of troops. We also will have a police state in this country to enforce the draft.

[LibertyorDeath]

10. The police state is already here just watch & see the display

they put on at * inauguration.

[RBHam]

8. Jerry Falwell told Paula Zahn that he was behind this assault...

How Christian of him. What would Jesus do, Jerry? Gran an M-16 and join in the fun?

[eleonora]

9. Jesus would fire a few rounds and say HASTA LA VISTA BABY

-pukes-

[izzie]

11. I think Bush likes it.

And how many Dem. went with this war. If you re-call it was voted for Bush to go to war by Congress. I am sure these people were also voted back in to Congress. What can one say about this?This country wants the war it is us, on sites like this, that does not. Guess who controls the war?