US strikes raze Falluja hospital

[cbacon 0]

That'll teach them terrorists!

 

US strikes raze Falluja hospital

 

A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

 

Witnesses said only the facade remained of the small Nazzal Emergency Hospital in the centre of the city. There are no reports on casualties.

 

A nearby medical supplies storeroom and dozens of houses were damaged as US forces continued preparing the ground for an expected major assault.

 

UN chief Kofi Annan has warned against an attack on the restive Sunni city.

 

It is the third time since the end of the US-led war that US and Iraqi forces have tried to gain control of Falluja.

 

They say militants loyal to top al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are hiding there.

 

Zarqawi's supporters have been behind some of the worst attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces as well as dozens of kidnappings. Some of the hostages - foreigners and Iraqis - have been beheaded.

 

'Ruined'

 

US troops using 155mm howitzers pounded a number of pre-planned targets in Falluja on Saturday.

 

Along with air strikes - one of the heaviest in recent days - this is all part of what appears to be a steadily increasing pressure on the insurgents, says the BBC's Paul Wood, who is with US marines outside Falluja.

 

Overnight, a column of armoured vehicles and humvee jeeps carried out attacks in the outskirts of Falluja designed to draw out the rebels and provide fresh targets for the air power and artillery.

 

These are the kind of preliminary operations which would be carried out before a full-scale assault on Falluja, our correspondent says.

 

The air strikes reduced the Nazzal hospital, run by a Saudi Arabian Islamic charity, to rubble.

 

Hospital officials quoted by Reuters news agency say all the contents were ruined.

 

More people were preparing to flee the city - more than half of the city's estimated 300,000 people have already left.

 

US marine officers say the full-scale attack will go ahead only once Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has given the order.

 

"The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement," Mr Allawi said on Friday after meeting EU leaders in Brussels.

 

In a letter to the leaders of the US, UK and Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that the use of force risked alienating Iraqis when their support for elections was vital.

 

But Mr Allawi called the letter "confused".

 

He said if Mr Annan thought he could prevent insurgents in Falluja from "inflicting damage and killing", he was welcome to try.

[Justice 0]

Very sad news indeed.

 

The bodies of 12 Iraqi civilians who had been kidnapped and then shot in the town of Latifiya were discovered Friday, Iraqi police sources said. Latifiya is about 30 miles south of Baghdad.

 

Praise be to those freedom fighters!

 

Militants have struck three police stations near the city of Ramadi, with Iraqi authorities saying at least 21 people have been killed, many of them officers.

 

Fight the evil Americans! Make them pay!

 

Sources: CNN

[Guest INXS]

The Americans haven't learnt a single thing since 'shock and awe'. Blanket bombing cities is NOT the way to bring peace and stability to Iraq, simply because stuff like this happens. Hospitals and other amenities get destroyed not to mention civilians (by civilains I dont mean those 'insurgents' I mean everyday, normal, Iraqi men, women and children).

 

Destroying all of Fallujah and most of it's population is ONE way to end the 'uprising' there, I guess.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I think most of the civilian population has been evacuated from Fallujah.

[2GOLD 0]

I think most of the civilian population has been evacuated from Fallujah.

 

You'd be correct.

[cbacon 0]

Fallujah and the Reality of War

by Rahul Mahajan

 

The assault on Fallujah has started. It is being sold as liberation of the people of Fallujah; it is being sold as a necessary step to implementing “democracy” in Iraq. These are lies.

 

I was in Fallujah during the siege in April, and I want to paint for you a word picture of what such an assault means.

 

Fallujah is dry and hot; like Southern California, it has been made an agricultural area only by virtue of extensive irrigation. It has been known for years as a particularly devout city; people call it the City of a Thousand Mosques. In the mid-90’s, when Saddam wanted his name to be added to the call to prayer, the imams of Fallujah refused.

 

U.S. forces bombed the power plant at the beginning of the assault; for the next several weeks, Fallujah was a blacked-out town, with light provided by generators only in critical places like mosques and clinics. The town was placed under siege; the ban on bringing in food, medicine, and other basic items was broken only when Iraqis en masse challenged the roadblocks. The atmosphere was one of pervasive fear, from bombing and the threat of more bombing. Noncombatants and families with sick people, the elderly, and children were leaving in droves. After initial instances in which people were prevented from leaving, U.S. forces began allowing everyone to leave – except for what they called “military age males,” men usually between 15 and 60. Keeping noncombatants from leaving a place under bombardment is a violation of the laws of war. Of course, if you assume that every military age male is an enemy, there can be no better sign that you are in the wrong country, and that, in fact, your war is on the people, not on their oppressors,, not a war of liberation.

 

The main hospital in Fallujah is across the Euphrates from the bulk of the town. Right at the beginning, the Americans shut down the main bridge, cutting off the hospital from the town. Doctors who wanted to treat patients had to leave the hospital, with only the equipment they could carry, and set up in makeshift clinics all over the city; the one I stayed at had been a neighborhood clinic with one room that had four beds, and no operating theater; doctors refrigerated blood in a soft-drink vending machine. Another clinic, I’m told, had been an auto repair shop. This hospital closing (not the only such that I documented in Iraq) also violates the Geneva Convention.

 

In Fallujah, you were rarely free of the sound of artillery booming in the background, punctuated by the smaller, higher-pitched note of the mujaheddin’s hand-held mortars. After even a few minutes of it, you have to stop paying attention to it – and yet, of course, you never quite stop. Even today, when I hear the roar of thunder, I’m often transported instantly to April 10 and the dusty streets of Fallujah.

 

In addition to the artillery and the warplanes dropping 500, 1000, and 2000-pound bombs, and the murderous AC-130 Spectre gunships that can demolish a whole city block in less than a minute, the Marines had snipers criss-crossing the whole town. For weeks, Fallujah was a series of sometimes mutually inaccessible pockets, divided by the no-man’s-lands of sniper fire paths. Snipers fired indiscriminately, usually at whatever moved. Of 20 people I saw come into the clinic I observed in a few hours, only five were “military-age males.” I saw old women, old men, a child of 10 shot through the head; terminal, the doctors told me, although in Baghdad they might have been able to save him.

 

One thing that snipers were very discriminating about – every single ambulance I saw had bullet holes in it. Two I inspected bore clear evidence of specific, deliberate sniping. Friends of mine who went out to gather in wounded people were shot at. When we first reported this fact, we came in for near-universal execration. Many just refused to believe it. Some asked me how I knew that it wasn’t the mujaheddin. Interesting question. Had, say, Brownsville, Texas, been encircled by the Vietnamese and bombarded (which, of course, Mr. Bush courageously protected us from during the Vietnam war era) and Brownsville ambulances been shot up, the question of whether the residents were shooting at their own ambulances, I somehow guess, would not have come up. Later, our reports were confirmed by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and even by the U.S. military.

 

The best estimates are that roughly 900-1000 people were killed directly, blown up, burnt, or shot. Of them, my guess, based on news reports and personal observation, is that 2/3 to ¾ were noncombatants.

 

But the damage goes far beyond that. You can read whenever you like about the bombing of so-called Zarqawi safe houses in residential areas in Fallujah, but the reports don’t tell you what that means. You read about precision strikes, and it’s true that America’s GPS-guided bombs are very accurate – when they’re not malfunctioning, the 80 or 85% of the time that they work, their targeting radius is 10 meters, i.e., they hit within 10 meters of the target. Even the smallest of them, however, the 500-pound bomb, has a blast radius of 400 meters; every single bomb shakes the whole neighborhood, breaking windows and smashing crockery. A town under bombardment is a town in constant fear.

 

You read the reports about X killed and Y wounded. And you should remember those numbers; those numbers are important. But equally important is to remember that those numbers lie – in a war zone, everyone is wounded.

 

The first assault on Fallujah was a military failure. This time, the resistance is stronger, better-armed, and better-organized; to “win,” the U.S. military will have to pull out all the stops. Even within horror and terror, there are degrees, and we – and the people of Fallujah – ain’t seen nothin’ yet. George W. Bush has just claimed a new mandate – the world has been delivered into his hands.

 

There will be international condemnation, as there was the first time; but our government won’t listen to it; aside from the resistance, all the people of Fallujah will be able to depend on to try to mitigate the horror will be us, the antiwar movement. We have a responsibility, that we didn’t meet in April and we didn’t meet in August when Najaf was similarly attacked; will we meet it this time?

 

Rahul Mahajan is publisher of the weblog Empire Notes (http://www.empirenotes.org), with regularly updated commentary on U.S. foreign policy, the occupation of Iraq, and the state of the American Empire. He has been to occupied Iraq twice, and was in Fallujah during the siege in April. His most recent book is "Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond." He can be reached at [email protected].

 

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1106-22.htm

[Vern Gagne 0]

You don't even try to find a unbiased prespective do you?

[cbacon 0]

Nothing to do with bias.

 

There's no real redeeming qualities in this situation. We can put on a happy face and pretend that strikes like this are making slow strides towards real democracy and human rights. Evidently many have.

[bob_barron 0]

You don't even try to find a unbiased prespective do you?

Remember Verne- this is the fuckhead who thought Election Day was a bigger tragedy then 9.11

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Nothing to do with bias.

 

There's no real redeeming qualities in this situation. We can put on a happy face and pretend that strikes like this are making slow strides towards real democracy and human rights. Evidently many have.

Considering 90% of the living people there right now are Terrorists what's the problem?

[bob_barron 0]

Nothing to do with bias.

 

There's no real redeeming qualities in this situation. We can put on a happy face and pretend that strikes like this are making slow strides towards real democracy and human rights. Evidently many have.

Getting rid of the people who supported and kept Saddam in power will help make a stable democracy. Don't you get that?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Nothing to do with bias.

 

There's no real redeeming qualities in this situation.  We can put on a happy face and pretend that strikes like this are making slow strides towards real democracy and human rights. Evidently many have.

Getting rid of the people who supported and kept Saddam in power will help make a stable democracy. Don't you get that?

No, he'd rather just whine about stuff and ignore reality.

[Murmuring Beast 0]

And Mike isn't biased???

 

Get off your biased high-horses.

[2GOLD 0]

And Mike isn't biased???

 

Get off your biased high-horses.

 

Least Mike admits to it and doesn't toss out crazed theories. Well, as often.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

And Mike isn't biased???

 

Get off your biased high-horses.

 

Least Mike admits to it and doesn't toss out crazed theories. Well, as often.

Mike at least backs his arguments up and doesn't post anywhere near the shit that C-Bacon or INXS does on here.

[Guest MikeSC]

And Mike isn't biased???

 

Get off your biased high-horses.

Wow, way to (not) bring the content.

 

Just checking, if somebody was to empty your cranial cavity, could you tell the difference?

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

I'm not going to bother aruging, Mike, because your embarrassing lack of human emotion continually drives you to flaming others for disagreeing with you.

[Guest MikeSC]

I'm not going to bother aruging, Mike, because your embarrassing lack of human emotion continually drives you to flaming others for disagreeing with you.

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

 

Resume murmuring, because your writing and thought are inept.

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

I'm not going to bother aruging, Mike, because your embarrassing lack of human emotion continually drives you to flaming others for disagreeing with you.

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

 

Resume murmuring, because your writing and thought are inept.

-=Mike

Sorry Mike, totally forgot that you were Mr Genius 2004. You should run for office, seeing as you're far more intelligent than us all.

[Guest MikeSC]

I'm not going to bother aruging, Mike, because your embarrassing lack of human emotion continually drives you to flaming others for disagreeing with you.

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

 

Resume murmuring, because your writing and thought are inept.

-=Mike

Sorry Mike, totally forgot that you were Mr Genius 2004. You should run for office, seeing as you're far more intelligent than us all.

Not us all. Just far more intelligent than you --- but outside of fungus under a rock, C-Bacon, and INXS, who isn't?

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

-=Mike

You said you were a Bush supporter?

[Guest MikeSC]

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

        -=Mike

You said you were a Bush supporter?

A man, who unlike you, is relevant, intelligent, and capable of a thought that doesn't generate mass snickering.

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

        -=Mike

You said you were a Bush supporter?

A man, who unlike you, is relevant, intelligent, and capable of a thought that doesn't generate mass snickering.

-=Mike

Priceless Mike, priceless.

 

Oh sure, he's not bad when people are thinking for him and working him from behind.

 

You see Mike, that's why I can't take you all that seriously. You blame and flame people like me for having an opinion against a government which apparently is ok with free-speech, whilst also judging people's intelligence quite freely and also whilst you back the worst president in American history, a puppet who only got the gig through association.

 

Incidentally, God bless the Black Watch, doing a job that Bush's America didn't fancy attempting.

[Guest MikeSC]

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

        -=Mike

You said you were a Bush supporter?

A man, who unlike you, is relevant, intelligent, and capable of a thought that doesn't generate mass snickering.

-=Mike

Priceless Mike, priceless.

 

Oh sure, he's not bad when people are thinking for him and working him from behind.

I hope the rest of the left thinks like that. It might take a few more ass-slaughterings before you get the hint.

You see Mike, that's why I can't take you all that seriously.

Similar to an ant not caring for me. Somehow, its impact on my life is minimal.

You blame and flame people like me for having an opinion against a government which apparently is ok with free-speech, whilst also judging people's intelligence quite freely and also whilst you back the worst president in American history, a puppet who only got the gig through association.

No, I don't take you seriously because you are no more than a cliche of talking points. I would hate to live life with no thought of my own --- but in your case, it's your only hope.

-=Mike

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

No, my utter disdain for twidding idiots makes me unwilling to deal with inferior examples of carbon-based lifeforms.

        -=Mike

You said you were a Bush supporter?

A man, who unlike you, is relevant, intelligent, and capable of a thought that doesn't generate mass snickering.

-=Mike

Priceless Mike, priceless.

 

Oh sure, he's not bad when people are thinking for him and working him from behind.

 

You see Mike, that's why I can't take you all that seriously. You blame and flame people like me for having an opinion against a government which apparently is ok with free-speech, whilst also judging people's intelligence quite freely and also whilst you back the worst president in American history, a puppet who only got the gig through association.

 

Incidentally, God bless the Black Watch, doing a job that Bush's America didn't fancy attempting.

When are you going to break out the "I'm rubber and you're glue" and "liar, liar pants on fire" statements?

[Murmuring Beast 0]

I do have thoughts of my own!

 

I'm outspoken on this board, am I not? If I had no thoughts of my own, I'd lick your backside constantly whilst making Michael Moore jokes (see Barron, et al).

 

It's a shame it'll be another four years before Dubya stops playing Star Wars with the rest of the world, showing about as much concern for life as you do for ants.

 

As a Scot first and a Briton second, I'm distressed by the way things are going at the moment. I can only hope America can see sense and go for a proper president in the future and not a cliche man who doesn't care for anyone but himself and likes to rule the world, by merely hovering his hand over the 'war' button.

[Guest MikeSC]

I do have thoughts of my own!

 

I'm outspoken on this board, am I not? If I had no thoughts of my own, I'd lick your backside constantly whilst making Michael Moore jokes (see Barron, et al).

 

It's a shame it'll be another four years before Dubya stops playing Star Wars with the rest of the world, showing about as much concern for life as you do for ants.

 

As a Scot first and a Briton second, I'm distressed by the way things are going at the moment. I can only hope America can see sense and go for a proper president in the future and not a cliche man who doesn't care for anyone but himself and likes to rule the world, by merely hovering his hand over the 'war' button.

Ah, you're not even American?

 

Then I can DEFINITELY ignore you as bitchy whiner.

 

BTW, thank the Guardian for making Clark County solidly Bush. Great move!

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

Sucks having empathy for the rest of the world, don't it?

 

Easy making judgments on the world from your safe surroundings where you'll never have any fear of having a bomb dropped onto your computer.

 

 

 

Edit: America isn't safe at all, silly me! Buy your war rations soon!!

[Guest MikeSC]

Sucks having empathy for the rest of the world, don't it?

 

Easy making judgments on the world from your safe surroundings where you'll never have any fear of having a bomb dropped onto your computer.

 

 

 

Edit: America isn't safe at all, silly me! Buy your war rations soon!!

Actually, we are the ones ACTUALLY protecting people, not just paying lip service to it. Must be nice to have had our protection for decades.

-=Mike

[Murmuring Beast 0]

Sucks having empathy for the rest of the world, don't it?

 

Easy making judgments on the world from your safe surroundings where you'll never have any fear of having a bomb dropped onto your computer.

 

 

 

Edit: America isn't safe at all, silly me! Buy your war rations soon!!

Actually, we are the ones ACTUALLY protecting people, not just paying lip service to it. Must be nice to have had our protection for decades.

-=Mike

Don't need your protection at all, Mike.

 

Unlike America, no one has a beef with Scotland or Britain for that matter in a serious sense. We let millions of immigrants in in recent years and it's generally considered a good place to live. And what exactly are the Black Watch doing at the moment, other than helping America in Iraq? That's not lip-service; that's genuine support.