You think applying some more "Shock and Awe" to the Iraqis will help out?

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031108/ts_nm/iraq_dc&cid=564&ncid=1478

US Pounds Saddam Hometown; Red Cross Exits Baghdad

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes and armored vehicles battered suspected guerrilla hideouts in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Saturday after six soldiers were killed in the shooting down of a Black Hawk helicopter.

The U.S. response was swift.

After dark on Friday, F-16 fighter-bombers swooped over Tikrit, dropping 500-pound bombs near the crash site. Then raids were launched around the town -- a hotbed of anti-U.S. attacks.

Troops backed by armor and attack helicopters destroyed several abandoned houses which the U.S. military believed had been used by insurgents.

Major Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division said the U.S. action was a "show of force" designed to destroy hiding places in the area for guerrillas.

more

[Kamika]

1. well good thing theyre using their money wisely

Why have health insurance when you can blow up abandoned buildings with $2million bombs

[Mikimouse]

2. You should have added one more category

PPFFFFFFFFfffffftttttt!

[kayell]

4. Or another category

Sure it will help....terrorist* recruiting


Terrorist used in the modern american sense to mean anyone who violently (or maybe nonviolently) opposes our fearful leader AWOL.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Help?

You mean help inflame more hostility among the Iraqis? Then, my vote is yes. BTW, I voted no.

[Don_G]

5. If I Had Armor And Attack Helicopters Outside My Front Door

I would abandon my house too.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. It will help reduce the population and facilitate seizure of the oil

Good news for investors!

[Drifter]

7. Seems like it will actually ...

strengthen their resolve.

Cheers
Drifter

[Nlighten1]

8. I hate to say this but....

a real "shock and awe" in Saddam's hometown might just send a message to the rest of the resistance. Pull all of our troops back and send B-52's over this area for a week or so just carpet bombing the place. Keep our troops at a distance but have a perimeter set up to catch people fleeing the carnage and confiscate any weapons found.

It sounds brutal but that is war.

[DUreader]

11. Bombing Civilians, what a wonderful strategy

[Nlighten1]

17. It worked in WWII

I'm not advocating it I am just saying it would work.

[DUreader]

22. Yes it did work in WWII, I am glad you are not advocating it

[DuctapeFatwa]

12. Is the Resistance in Iraq only?

:)

[Aidoneus]

14. stellar idea--that's what Saddam would've done

and it worked so well when he tried it..

[Nlighten1]

18. When did Saddam carpet bomb people?

[Minstrel Boy]

20. "Genocide with Dignity"

It worked great in Vietnam, so hell yeah! :eyes:

"It sounds brutal but that is war."

Please, don't let this conflict become self-justifying. It must not be perpetuated. Stop treating Iraqis like a reluctant prize. Get the troops out, get a multinational force of genuine peacekeepers in with a limited mandate, and let the Iraqis rule themselves. For Christ's sake, let them.

The only war Americans need be fighting, peaceably, is a civil war, to end their own occupation.

[jobycom]

9. Obviously it will. "They make a desolation, and call it peace."

The question isn't whether we can kill or cow every last Iraqi into submission-- we can. We have the technology, the money, the soldiers. The question is what are we fighting for.

Bush has not given the same answer twice to that question. Even he has all but admitted there are no WMD when he pulled back the search for them (this was somewhat buried under the ferry/wildfires stories). There was no al-Queda link, and there was no terrorism in Iraq until after we invaded. Bush's biggest point so far has been that Hussein was a brutal dictator, and needed to be deposed for the good of the Iraqis.

Now, in the name of liberating the Iraqis, we are using similar methods Hussein used to squelch all opposition. We have used house to house searches, arrests of dissenters, no doubt torture and private executions, military attacks on civilians, armed gaurds on every corner, etc. Now we are resorting to firing into civilian houses from the air to kill "suspected" terrorists. In short, we are no better at it than Hussein, and at least he provided a modicum of peace to his land.

When we reach the levels of control Hussein exercised, we will achieve the same peace he had achieved. What a glorious time that will be for America. We will have risen to his level, and only killed hundreds of thousands of people to do it.

America died December 12th, 2000. The body still twitches, but that is all.

[BeFree]

15. America died December 12th, 2000. A response

I like to think it's more like America got a real bad case of cancer.

I like to think we can cure it.

Going around blaming our problems on an Iraqi resistance, however, is like a bad case of remission.

The question remains: What are we fighting for?

Either you are for a pro-human and peaceful America, or you ain't.

Either Iraq is now Free, as * says, or it ain't.

[LeahMira]

16. It's certainly dying...

I like to think it's more like America got a real bad case of cancer.

A cancer starts small and eventually eats up the host. The cancer in the U.S. started with the Pilgrims, with their sense of entitlement and mission and superiority to everyone else.

What we have now cannot go on expanding into the future. We may have to learn to live with less, but better than living with nothing which is what might happen if the rest of the world unites against us.

[BeFree]

19. Not quite in the hospice, yet

What we have now cannot go on expanding into the future.

Yeah... but don't tell the Sheeple that. They may not vote for the revolution. </sarcasm> Oh wait, the Sheeple don't vote, do they? Hell, most of the sheeple probably think more Shock and Awe is just what the Iraqis need.

The cancer IS growing pretty fast these days. I hope it doesn't lead to a massive removal of organs. Knowing these guys*, they'll take out the wrong ones, leaving the cancer behind. Methinks we need a good Doctor at the head of operations.

[jobycom]

21. Cancer?

I don't think of it as an organism, so much as an entity that can be killed, but revived later. When the Supreme Court ruled that there were votes that had not been counted but that the election could be decided anyway, what that meant was that all future elections only count if those in power say they count. They may never pull votes like that again, but they did it once, and that means they can. So when they don't, it is only because they decided not to. In other words, we can't throw the bums out, because the bums won't let us if they don't want to leave. That's the death of what we had.

There are parts still alive. It's even possible that in the next confrontation the people will rise up and stand down the Supreme Court, or whatever other entity stands in our way. But it will take such an uprising before we revive the country they killed, and until such a confrontation, neither side is sure what will happen.

One thing is sure-- the government now, especially Bush, doesn't care what we think. He goes to war on completely false grounds and does not fear us, because ultimately we have nothing to do with whether he remains in power or not. He does not fear us, and that is unique for an American leader. Until he does, until they do, we remain under a tombstone.

[BeFree]

23. Tombstone

Your's are fine words Jobycom, and I don't disagree. Revived later, eh? That works for me.

Interesting and truthful take you have about how the squatter in the Whitehouse shows no fear of the people, er..., Sheeple.

As for the Felonious Five.... methinks they realize they screwed up big time and they won't get away with it again. Hell, even I kinda sat on my ass in 2000, the next time, if it happens again, I'll be raisin' Holy hell.

[RuB]

10. They must be more afraid of us than those killing our soldiers.

[Cat Atomic]

13. The quote I heard was "to show them we have teeth and claws

and that we will use them". I don't recall whether it was an administration official or a military representative, but it's tragically Israelesque, either way.

It will not work. Kill one partisan and you create many new sympathisers. Surely they must know this by now.