Iraq (1 Viewer)

[billygannon]

Right... here's a sticky thread on Iraq.

(in response to this thread - seems like the sensible option)
http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=15724

 

[Latex lizzie]

Thanks billy.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13221313,00.html

 

[pete]

At least 13 people were killed and about 60 others we wound by US helicopter fire as they milled around the burning wreckage of an American armoured vehicle that had been ambushed by insurgents early in the morning.



News footage shows a few dozen curious Iraqis standing around the Bradley Fighting Vehicle just before the missile strike. In the foreground, Mazen Tumeisi, a Palestinian working for two Saudi-own TV networks, al-Arabiya and al-Ikhbariya, is preparing to be recorded on camera as he describes the scene.

Suddenly a big explosion engulfs the street in smoke. Tumeisi collapses. The lens is spattered with his blood.
As the camera swings around wildly, the fatally wounded journalist can be heard groaning his last words: "I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Seif [his cameraman]. Seif. I'm going to die."



...


The official US military statement significantly shortens the timescale of events as reported by separate international news agencies.

Instead of three hours after the ambush, when the people on the scene were mainly curious locals and journalist, the US says the helicopter strike was at 0730, 40 minutes after the Bradley was attacked at 0650.

In the first explanation of events offered by the US military early on Sunday evening, the helicopter was said to have blown up the wrecked Bradley "to prevent looting and harm to the Iraqi people".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3652174.stm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.daralhayat.com/arab_...3394b4-c0a8-01ed-0003-e35b59e001c4/story.html

U.S.-Turkish Relations Strained
Reuters 2004/09/13

The United States reassured Turkey over a military operation in northern Iraq which has reportedly claimed the lives of ethnic Turkmen civilians, but Ankara appeared unimpressed.

U.S. troops mounted a major offensive last week in the town of Tal Afar, a suspected haven for foreign fighters near the Syrian border.

Turkey views northern Iraq as part of its sphere of influence and has close ethnic and linguistic links with the Turkmen minority.

"We are carrying out a limited military operation and we are trying to keep civilian losses to a minimum," U.S. ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman said in comments broadcast by NTV television which were dubbed into Turkish.

"We cannot completely eliminate the possibility (of civilian casualties)... We believe the operation is being conducted with great care," he said after briefing Turkish officials.

Last Friday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry urged the United States to halt its offensive. The Turkish military also said it was monitoring the situation closely in Tal Afar.

Turkish officials say Turkmen representatives put the number of Turkmen civilians killed in the violence as high as 500, but they quote U.S. sources as putting the death toll at less than 50. No independently verifiable figures are available.

"There should not be any civilian casualties. Even a few casualties is unacceptable," a Turkish official told reporters.

He said Turkey planned to send a large consignment of humanitarian aid to the region but gave no further details.

Developments in northern Iraq have put a strain on traditionally warm ties between Turkey and the United States, both NATO allies, since the ousting of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Turkey is especially worried that greater autonomy for the region's majority Kurdish population could fuel separatist demands in its own mainly Kurdish southeast.

Ankara keeps a small number of troops in northern Iraq to monitor Turkish Kurdish rebels holed up in bases there.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3652174.stm

the photographs in the Guardian (paper not online ) in the G2 section are the most fucked up in the war so far. There is a guy dying right before the camera. I was quite upset by this..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1303827,00.htm

 

[spiritualtramp]

the photographs in the Guardian (paper not online ) in the G2 section are the most fucked up in the war so far. There is a guy dying right before the camera. I was quite upset by this..

is that in todays G2?

 

[Latex lizzie]

Right on the cover. Horrific. Not particularly gorey or anything but the sequence of shots shows the man in an upright position..to slumped, to dead in three colour shots. Cant get the look on his face out of my brain. The maddening part is that this will be "explained away" By the U.S. forces and they will become just another set of victims among the thousands.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1304735,00.html

aftershock and awe. Civil war it is then.

 

[pete]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A highly classified National Intelligence Estimate assembled by some of the government's most senior analysts this summer provided a pessimistic assessment about the future security and stability of Iraq.

The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation in the war-torn country and determined -- at best -- the situation would be tenuous in terms of stability, a U.S. official said late Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

At worst, the official said, were "trend lines that would point to a civil war." The official said it "would be fair" to call the document "pessimistic."

...

Hagel, Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and other committee members have long argued -- even before the war -- that administration plans for rebuilding Iraq were inadequate and based on overly optimistic assumptions that Americans would be greeted as liberators.

But the criticism from the panel's top Republicans had an extra sting coming less than seven weeks before the presidential election in which President Bush's handling of the war is a top issue.
"Our committee heard blindly optimistic people from the administration prior to the war and people outside the administration -- what I call the 'dancing in the street crowd,' that we just simply will be greeted with open arms," Lugar said. "The nonsense of all of that is apparent. The lack of planning is apparent."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/16/us.iraq.ap/index.html

 

[SheHadShakes]

The irony is that you would have never seen those pictures if that man hadn't died, he was there to show us the horrors that we're blinded to because were a neutral country and we can talk about it all we like and critisize all we like coz were safe. Most people look at those pictures and their remorse lasts bout ten minutes until they turn the page to the horoscopes to find out about their own pathetic lives. I believe the world works like a continuous chain of tiny occurances and coincidences that cuase a domino affect, if that man died so compassionate people like you could be alerted by his journalism then hes served his purpose and its a good thing and now youll serve your purpose by spurring disscussion on the internet, which'll effect someone who'll and in turn effect someone else and it will eventually cause a positive reaction somewhere and the wheel will turn and the world will move a small bit more.so dont feel so down baby girl, hes done his job and u do yours...

 

[Latex lizzie]

Er.."baby girl" ? anyway..I think your wrong.. that journalists job was not to be blown up by a missile fired by a U.S. helicopter. His job was to report the news. Justifiying it by your little coincidences idea is just silly.Sorry but it is.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx

http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/casualties.htm

contrast and compare.

 

[broken arm]

"Free societies in the Middle East will be hopeful societies, which no longer feed resentments and breed violence for export.... The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear—and they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march."

"It was discovered that freedom in this land is not ours. It is the freedom of the occupying soldiers in doing what they like...abusing women, children, men, and the old men and women whom they arrested randomly and without any guilt. No one can ask them what they are doing, because they are protected by their freedom.... No one can punish them, whether in our country or their country. They expressed the freedom of rape, the freedom of nudity and the freedom of humiliation."

..........................................................

 

[spiritualtramp]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3673028.stm

if it all goes pear shaped and this hostage is killed I can see Blair getting a lot of shit over this.

 

[sarah]

http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx

http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/casualties.htm

contrast and compare.

That's sweet they call them Freedom Fatalities in period two the average
was only 1.89 Fatalities that's not too bad at all.

 

[pete]

In hindsight, was it a mistake for the U.S. to invade Iraq without the backing of the U.N. Security Council?

Yes 63% 125108 votes

No 37% 73237 votes

Total: 198345 votes

from CNN.com

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0805-07.htm

the handover that never was. Bremner and the Bush admin and the way they have financially carved up Iraq. 2 million unemployed at the moment and rising. Enjoy your "freedom".

 

[taubstumm]

this is a funny one...

i did a 'view source' on the frontpage of www.cpa-iraq.org (old site of the coalition provisional authority in iraq)...

some curious meta tag content... the description is standard bush-speak, with a few weird variations. the keywords read like a description of the last year or so by a news announcer with tourettes...

<title>Iraqcoalition.org: Homepage of The New Iraq

<meta name=" description" content="The Coalition Provisional Authority, called CPA, is the name for the temporary government of Iraq. It is composed of a coalition of more than 40 nations from around the world which represent every continent and race on earth. All of these countries are united in the purpose of achieving a free and stable Iraq which respects the rights of its citizens and is at peace with its neighbors. Once a constitution is in place and democratic elections are held, the CPA will have accomplished its mission and will go home, leaving behind it, God willing, an Iraq that is a decent place for peace-loving citizens to live and exercise the freedoms given to all men by their creator.">

<meta name=" keywords" content="Coalition, Saddam, Hussein, War, Iraq, Oil, army, health, Gulf War, military, humanitarian, operations, Medical, assistance, mass, destruction, Military, medical, news, Bremer, forces, RPGs, national, guard, defense, DoD, security, war, contracts, contracting, civilian, KBR, Bechtel, Halliburton, electricity, baghdad, Iraqi, Iraqis, Sunni, Shiite, kurds,, defense, bombing, missile, weapon, weapons, WMD">

 

[Latex lizzie]

thats pretty interesting.