|
U.S. casualties mount in heavy fighting in Iraq
For comparison. More of the same "balanced" reporting. Or perhaps wishful thinking? From the For a third day fierce battles raged in and around Fallujah, with U.S Marines pounding suspected Sunni rebel positions. "Suspected"? Could be Sunni rebels. Could be baby ducks. You never know with those Marines. But U.S. forces are still far from pacifying the city where four American civilians where killed and their corpses mutilated last week. There are also grounds for skepticism about U.S. claims. Really? Iâm all ears... "What I would say is that this fight is happening on the Marine Corpsâ terms right now, and we are winning the fight," said Maj. Joseph Clearfield. But the fighting appears to be escalating. Street battles raged in various parts of the city overnight and into Wednesday morning. A U.S. Cobra helicopter fired a missile on a mosque compound in Fallujah. Witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Many wounded were sent to the already crowded local hospital. Um, the grounds for skepticism...where are they? But the casualty count is a shocking one for the Americans as well. There have been 30 U.S. casualties since Monday and more that 130 Iraqis. Um, the grounds... Ukrainian troops pulled out of the Iraqi city of Kut on Wednesday in the face of mortar and infantry attacks by Shiite militia fighters. ...skepticism?? The occupation forces are now trying to deal with a war on two fronts: attempting to pacify the area known as the Sunni triangle, as well as in cities to the south where a Shia militia spurred on by a crackdown on cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attacked coalition troops in five cities on Tuesday. The militias, known as the Mahdi army, say they will turn Iraq into another Vietnam for the Americans. I guess they watched T.Kennedy the other day. "Either they withdraw, or they will die here," said one man. Yay, we found the grounds for skepticism!! This one man...he says...well...um...grounds for skepticism...there he is!!! ... Some analysts are noting evidence of co-operation between the Shia and Sunni fighters and are saying there is a real possibility of a much wider rebellion against the occupation. "We are at, I believe, a tipping point for events in Iraq and I am not convinced that the United States has the capability to tip this back the other way in our favour," said Charles Pena of the Cato Institute. Yes, wishful thinking indeed. Posted by: Rafael 2004-04-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=30003 |