Winning the Hearts and Minds, Shock and Awe style

[AC]

US forces boast of successful "blitz" as Iraq mourns 500 civilians killed
Tue, 01/22/2008 - 13:54 - Wire Services

US forces boasted of successfully completing the aerial bombing "blitz" which flattened the Baghdad suburb of Arab Jabour, as Iraqis mourned the more than 500 civilians killed when 114,500 pounds of bombs rained down for ten days on the residential area home to more than 120,000 people.

While Iraqi politicians, both Sunni and Shiite, condemned the air raids which also forced thousands of other civilians to flee their homes, the US commanders justified the aerial bombardment on the grounds that "drop was designed to eliminate al Qaeda’s tactical advantage," ahead of a ground assault to flush out militants from the area.

“The strikes that we concluded (Jan. 20) were focused on IEDs and caches that we have targeted, that will allow us to get our ground troops further into the zone,” Army Col. Terry Ferrell, commander of 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, with responsibility for the Arab Jabour portion of Multinational Division Center, said.

But Iraqi authorities in the area said described the bombing was "random and indiscriminate", and claimed that at least 500 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by the air raids in the Sunni majority town.

Ferrell rejected the claim, saying that great care was taken in selecting targets, as the Army worked side by side with the Air Force to prevent collateral damage to civilians and property.

“The process that we go through to orchestrate an event of this magnitude, or any targeting cycle that we work together with the Air Force, is a very detailed, deliberate process,” Ferrell said. “We identify the targets, and they sit beside us, and through detailed and thorough analysis, we target it, they help analyze it, describe what effects we want to achieve, and then they work back through the Air Force system to get the desired effects.”

"This heinous crime show to the whole world the extent of the viciousness of the perpetrators who are targeting lives of the people, and not to respect the rights and honor of the human being having a place in all heavenly religions," Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI), the highest Sunni authority in Iraq, stated last week.

The scholars called upon the international community, Arab League and all human right organizations in the world, requesting them to "get out of the circle of silent killers, and to have a role even if at minimal degree to stand against the perpetrators of these crimes."

US forces carried out a similar massacre in Fallujah in November 2004, which killed more around 3,000 civilians, in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq war.

[Gunit Hussein Sangh]

Wanna bet that out of the thousands of people who survived the attack there are now some *new* aq terrorists cuz they hate us for our freedoms?

Let me beat grumpy and homie to the punch -- tough shit. It's WAR dammit.

I wonder how they would feel if someone dropped 40,000 lbs of bombs on their neighboorhood and killed their family and friends. 

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

it is just this kind of whining that brought us this small imprint approach in the first place.  this is war and people will die.  our failure to prosecute this war completely, vigorously and totally has cost all involved more lives not less.  should have moved in with twice the force structure, marshal lawed country, closed the borders and given iran, syria and the saudis one chance and one only at securing their borders.

[AC]

Why?

Because Saddam was a big meanie?

[AC]

"small imprint approach "


LMFAO!

Assfacts are a Republicant specialty.

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

why?  because that is our oil and they're just squatters. 

[AC]

I had hoped you might stop trolling, but Republicants have trouble with self-restraint, no?

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

I had hoped you might stop trolling, but Republicants have trouble with self-restraint, no?

you cannot deny that i am telling you what you believe.  we have gone down this dusty road that is iraq and we are not going to persuade each other.  now we are there!   what do we do and what lessons do we take from this?  likely we will not agree on this either but i think it is a more worthy discussion.   

[AC]

Grumpy,

Did you watch the video I linked earlier titled "Why we fight"?

[AC]

No?

How about this...

Can you address the influence of Leo Strauss on the Neoconervative leaders of our country, or are you content with your FoxNews and history Channel perspectives?

[AC]

Are these questions too difficult or unreasonable?

[AC]

No?

How about this...

Is intellectual ambivalence a neccessary component of Modern Republicanism?

[AC]

"it is just this kind of whining that brought us this small imprint approach in the first place."

Are you suggesting that the concerns of ordinary Americans influenced Rumsfeld's war planning?

[AC]

Grumpy would have us all believe that questions such as those above are meritless, and undeserving of answers.
This is not to suggest that the questions themselves are profound, but that they have at least as much merit as his own repeated talking-points regarding the "realities" of war.
He might instead imply that I missed his point entirely, and that I was avoiding his question regarding our obligation to Iraq; forgetting on purpose it would seem that I have already stated my position on this issue, more than once and in response to his own inquiry.

Chickenhawks must avoid real analysis, because thinking is unpatriotic.


("Martial" Law)