So now Saddam is using suicide bombers. Not surprising, given he pays the families of suicide bombers "reward" money. No, Saddam isn't a terrorist, is he? He doesn't support terrorism, does he? He has no connection with Al Quaeda, does he? Four U.S. soldiers killed in suicide bombing U.S. restricts missile fire over Saudi Arabia Saturday, March 29, 2003 Posted: 11:27 AM EST (1627 GMT) DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- Four U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday morning in a suicide bombing that U.S. officials called a desperate act. Two people, dressed in civilian clothes, set off the explosion at a military checkpoint in the central Iraqi town of Najaf, U.S. military sources said. The checkpoint was operated by the Army's 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. At a Central Command briefing in Qatar, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart said the attack appeared to be "a symbol of an organization that's getting a little desperate." The suicide bombing was the first against U.S. and British forces since the invasion of Iraq began. There have been warnings of such attacks in Iraq. (Full story) Retired Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd, a CNN military analyst, said it could take some time for coalition forces to establish security in Iraq. "The only way to defend against it is to make people get outside of their cars way away from you, open all of the doors and approach it very carefully from a distance," Shepperd said. "If you let someone drive a truck up around a checkpoint where there's several guards, there's almost no defense against that." Renuart said the attack would not change the coalition's operational strategy but added that it was still under review. He also said the United States has restricted the firing of Tomahawk cruise missiles over parts of Saudi Arabia until it can be determined what caused some errant missiles to land in Saudi territory. "It doesn't affect our plan," Renuart told reporters. "We use other routes. We use other systems." Meanwhile, U.S. Marines in the southern city of Nasiriya launched a daybreak attack Saturday, using Cobra helicopter gunships, tanks, armored vehicles, mortars and artillery against Iraqi forces. (Full story) Nasiriya has been the scene of the fiercest fighting the Marines have been involved in since Vietnam, senior Marines told CNN. Marines on Saturday recovered remains from two graves, believed to be two Marines missing since last week's ambush by Iraqi forces on an armored vehicle convoy, military officials told CNN's Alessio Vinci. A day earlier, search teams found the bodies of seven Marines. Twenty-six U.S. service members are unaccounted for in Iraq. (Full story) Elements of the 82nd Airborne have been brought into the area to provide security for supply and logistics lines moving up and down southern Iraq. The 82nd will providing a heavily armed force against paramilitary forces, U.S. military officials told CNN. Farther south, coalition forces trying to secure Basra, Iraq's second largest city, have been engaged in running battles with Iraqi irregulars, some wearing civilian clothes. The British military's main focus is to eradicate Iraq's ruling Baath Party within the Basra province, British military spokesman Col. Chris Vernon said Saturday. U.S. aircraft attacked and destroyed a two-story building in Basra, where an estimated 200 Iraqi militiamen were meeting Friday, the U.S. Central Command said Saturday. Two U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, using laser-guided munitions, destroyed the building, which a Central Command official described as an "emerging target." The men inside were described as "Iraqi regime terror squad members," but it was not clear to what organization they belonged. Coalition forces targeted a number of Baath party headquarters facilities overnight, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at Saturday's Central Command briefing. Also on Saturday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry disputed U.S. allegations that military equipment -- including night vision goggles were being smuggled from Syria to Iraq. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned Syria that the shipments were "hostile acts" and said Syria would be held accountable for them. "All that he's doing in such comments is to try and put the entire region ablaze," said Syrian Foreign Ministry official Bouthaina Shaaban. "He has already started an unnecessary and illegitimate war in Iraq, victims of which are Iraqis, Americans and British and I hope that he will think in a different line, in a line to stop this war."
You know what I can't figure out? Why a guy like you doesn't go over there and teach them gosh darn Iraqis a lesson.
Why don't I go over there? In spirit, and in tax dollars I do. If you were a young soldier in the middle of a war, frightened, suffering the harsh climate of Iraq and the guerilla warfare tactics, following orders, thinking about your loved ones back home, uncertain if you would survive, defending the national interests of the United States of America as laid out to you by your commander and chief.......... and you had a choice to hear that the citizens of your country were behind you 100% and proud of you---grateful for all that you were doing......or a choice of hearing of citizens bickering amongst themselves as to the right course of action, if the war is even the right war to fight, what about the Iraqi civilians, etc., which scenario would you choose?
Why wouldn't this father become a so called "terrorist" and come after you or me or the rest of the US? BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Rasoul Hammed Najeed stood outside his home sobbing uncontrollably for his five-year-old son, killed while playing near a busy Baghdad vegetable market when an air raid struck. "After this crime, I wish I could see (U.S. President George W.) Bush in order to cut him to pieces with my teeth," he cried. Another man, identified as Saad Abd Qasim, stood as if in a trance, unable to speak. Friends told Reuters his wife, his child and the wife of his son had been among the 50 to 60 people Iraqis say were killed in the raid. "We heard a plane flying over us. We saw a rocket coming in our direction, and then we heard the explosion. My shop was shaken but, thank God, I am safe," said Eyad Abadi, 30. The raid took place late on Friday in the run-down, working-class district of Shula in northwest Baghdad, inhabited mostly by Shi'ite Muslims. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2469048 and NO IT HAS NOTHING TO DO with 9/11 No Iraqis were involved. We are creating our own enemies Innocent die and few line up their pockets. That's all
There is more, much more, than is being reported about the suicide bombing that killed four Americans earlier today. And from a very credible source, I have heard enough to convince me I had to correct something I wrote this morning. This suicide attack does represent an evolution of this war to something far uglier than we may be prepared to deal with. The suicider was not, as the Iraqi vice president announced, an Iraqi army officer. He was a member of Hamas--or possibly a Saudi--and one of many terrorists that are embedded throughout Iraq. http://nationalreview.com/babbin/babbin.asp
Trader, the bombs falling on the civilians will create enemies of the US among the Iraqis no doubt, even among those whose family members have been victims of Saddam. If you read carefully the news accounts, the US military has said they "don't believe it was our warhead". Now if you consider that the Iraqis have the latest Russian jamming equipment and if this was a cruise missile, this Russian technology may have been used to alter the course of a cruise missile, hence the US military disavows it as a US warhead, as the Iraqis have exerted some control over it and misdirected it from its intended target. Saddam and his group are doing everything they can to cause atrocities to be committed to Iraqi civilians and attributed such to the US. That is why they waved the white flag, then laid ambush, with the strategy of encouraging the US soldiers to not take prisoners, shoot first, ask questions later. Saddam will sacrifice his own people to no end to fight the US. This is a group that is not defending its country I believe, but is defending its position. Ironically, Iraqi non combatants are expendable to Saddam but not to the invaders. The Iraqi leadership is brutal, but perversely inventive and occasionally diabolically brilliant. The defender has his own scorched earth policy. This is the first war with a Western power of the 21st century and it is being fought on the ground and in the media before the whole world in rapt attention. This fact will continue to influence tactics. Of course the argument remains that had the US never fired that missile into Baghdad (assuming they did) the issue would be moot.
A lot more innocents have died and will die at the hands of Sadaam so long as he and the Baath Party are in power!