Anybody besides me getting sick of reading stuff like this everyday?

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
Three soldiers were killed in a gunbattle while enforcing a curfew in Karbala. In Baghdad, a military policeman was killed by a roadside bomb.
 
Yeah. Sick that it's happening, and sick of how/that it's being reported. It's almost gleeful.
 
Occupations are always like this. I'm sure some of us remember Vietnam (I'm a little too young). When I was in Israel in 1984-85, the Israelis did their pull out of Beruit but still occupied part of Lebenon. The buses had the radio playing all the time, when a news report came on everyone would be silent and listen to find out how many soldiers had died that day. I learned the enough Hebrew to figure that out before I left. Reports like that had been going on before I got there and continued after I left, as far as I know they are still silently listening to death tolls on the buses.
 
Yep, and that's all it is. Getting to the point where it's almost not news, just a footnote. "Oh, and by the way, somebody died today."

Honestly, I hope that everything turns out for the best with regards to the future of Iraq, because the guys on the line are paying a high price for it.
 
When the Brits were policing the world in the second half of the 19th century, they too had a constant trickle (Not if its you or your loved ones; then it's a flood.) of casualties. Funny that there are vistually no reports in the "popular media" of what is happening to the other guy.

TAL
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Three soldiers were killed in a gunbattle while enforcing a curfew in Karbala. In Baghdad, a military policeman was killed by a roadside bomb.
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It may be that's the price we pay for this effort and the relatively unilateral way the US govt chose to remove Sadaam. The gunbattle one sounds like a complete cluster****, but the roadside stuff may be the sort of low-intensity attack that will be impossible to totally prevent until there are no US troops driving in Iraq. It's easy for a small gang to do, even when the general populace does not support such attacks.

Overzealous counterattacks/arrests/intimidation on the civilian populace in the effort to root out the bombers is fraught with the perils of antagonizing people who were either previously supporting the US or were "on the fence," so the US response to the attacks must be carefully designed and implemented. The sooner Iraqi infrastructure is improved, the better chance there is of the Iraqis helping to stop such attacks.

It doesn't mean we have to like it, but we'll have to accept it as the inevitable result of putting our troops in harm's way. I would rather hear about the attacks daily than think I live in a society where the truths of conflict are hidden from the voting populace.
 
"I would rather hear about the attacks daily than think I live in a society where the truths of conflict are hidden from the voting populace."

Me, too, but it's so damned frustrating. I'd like to see an Iraqi super police force organized to beat down this kind of stuff. Snuff it out before it starts.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
" I'd like to see an Iraqi super police force organized to beat down this kind of stuff. Snuff it out before it starts.
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Iraq used to have such an organization, it was run by a guy called Sadam Husein.
 
It's a big mess. Guess it has been too long since WW2 for the Gov't to remember what occupation involves, too long since Vietnam, and not long enough since Gulf War. I think the Defense Dept's postwar scenario was maybe a little too rosy. What would happen here if the same thing happened? If the LA riots (King Verdict) were any indication then it would be even worse.
 
Iraq used to have such an organization, it was run by a guy called Sadam Husein.
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Even then we would probably see an increase in the death toll. This stuff is just noise; unfortunate, but no more meaningful then any other occupational hazard. We probably lose more police officers every day domestically through work accidents or routine crime. It is not all that different from what what we would be losing were this just a peace time military exercise.

n2s
 
One day there was only one American soldier killed in Vietmam. It was a friend's brother. He didn't appreciate the "only one" comment, even if he did get a trip out of Nam as the only surviving brother. Lieutenant giving him a lift on his way back home made that comment. Different I guess when the one is your brother.
 
If in the furure the Iraqi people will appreciate what really is being done on their behalf. I feel that If the US pullled out right now Sadam would be back in power in less than 30 days.:)
 
Originally posted by Pappy
If in the furure the Iraqi people will appreciate what really is being done on their behalf.
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If you substite the words "African people" or "Indian People" for "Iraqi people" that same statement was made many times by the British Colonist of the last century.

If you substitute the words "native Arab tribes" you have what the British said when they created the country of Iraq.
 
Unless the US forces kill him soon, Saddam may well become an Arab Ho Chi Minh.

Threre are just too many people there that don't want us there. For the US to stop the fighting and 'win', they will probably have to kill up to maybe a quater of the population, maybe even more. If they unwilling to do that, they need to pack up and leave.

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I don't know why we don't just let the Kurds take care of it.
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because this meant war between Turkey and northern Iraq...

It is not that "easy" as it was in postwar Germany in the late fourties when there was at least roughly the common occidental culture, the common hatred against war after six years of suffering and - maybe the most important thing - a common enemy in the east.
This time in Iraq the US is the "common enemy" if you ask the arabs - and they see the US linked too closely to Israel which will never and under no circumstances be their allies.
When Bush referred to postwar Germany as a model for postwar Iraq (that was before the war really started) he showed he had no sense to understand history (just my personal opinion).
Being a "foreigner" on this forum maybe I should not comment on this. The US has my condolences for the soldiers sacrificed to the noble idea of bringing democracy to the world - even if this is sometimes mixed up with othe interests the US has become a kind of "globo-cop" and as the last remainig super power does a lot to make things better.
Andreas
 
I hear people all the time comparing the current situation to Vietnam or Germany post WWII. However I still believe you'd do better to compare this to the Phillipines after the Spanish-American war.

In Germany we had a country that been completely knocked on their ass. Way too young to have been there, but the pictures and numbers are scary.

Vietnam we were fighting insurgents that had protected safe areas to work from. What was the phrase, "Won every battle, only to lose the War"?

The Phillipines we took as booty from the Spanish, we suddenly controlled an area that was full of people that didn't really like us, and didn't (don't?) want us in their country. but they also hadn't been defeated before we took control. Remember in Iraqi we were trying to free the people of Iraqi. We deliberately avoided unneccessary destruction.

Something else. Our soliders aren't as cynical sounding as my fathers friends that were veterans from Korea and WWII. THEY had gotten to the point that any None American was best off dead when encountered in their minds.

Anyway that's my thoughts.

Now since I have to go to work Bill will post 3 or 4 15in sirupti blems, 2 or 3 12in ak's, and a partridge in a pear tree!! (LOFLMFBO)
:D
Y'all have fun and think of those of us that make sure you all get fed!!

:p
 
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