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12/17/2003 Archived Entry: "Capturing Saddam sure cleared things up over there in Iraq."
Capturing Saddam sure cleared things up over there in Iraq.
Robert Fisk chronicles the deteriorating situation in many cities in Iraq. Things are not good, folks.
While Washington and London were still congratulating themselves on the capture of Saddam Hussein, US troops have shot dead at least 18 Iraqis in the streets of three major cities in the country.Dramatic videotape from the city of Ramadi 75 miles west of Baghdad showed unarmed supporters of Saddam Hussein being gunned down in semi-darkness as they fled from Americans troops. Eleven of the 18 dead were killed by the Americans in Samarra to the north of Baghdad.
All the killings came during demonstrations by Sunni Muslims against the American seizure of Saddam, protests that started near Samarra on Monday evening. The first demonstrators blocked roads north of Baghdad when armed men appeared alongside civilians who believed - initially - that US forces had arrested one of Saddam's doubles rather than the ex-dictator of Iraq. But their jubilation turned to fury when the Americans opened fire in Samarra a few hours later.
[...]
The Americans were yesterday trying to smother news of the deaths with further statements about the capture of Saddam. After journalists were taken in circumstances of great secrecy to Baghdad airport for "a story you won't be sorry to cover", General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted it would take "some time" before there were any military effects of Saddam's arrest. "When you take this leader, who is (sic) at one time a very popular leader in this region, and you find him in a hole in the ground, that's a pretty powerful statement that you're on the wrong team."
This kind of statement, however, could not obscure the continuing decline in security. In Mosul, for example, a policeman working for the American-organised local Iraqi security forces was killed and another wounded during a pro-Saddam demonstration. Further south, near Saddam's home town of Tikrit, a roadside bomb wounded three American soldiers, two of them seriously. Occupation security documents - which were not publicly released - show there have been 30 attacks on US forces around Baghdad alone in the past 24 hours.
A disturbing new phenomenon in this environment of growing military violence has been the appearance of hooded and masked gunmen - working for the Americans - on road checkpoints north of Baghdad. Five of them now check cars on the Tigris river bridge outside Samarra, apparently fearing their identities will be discovered if their faces are not concealed. They wear militia uniforms and, although they say they are part of the new American-backed "Iraqi Civil Defence Corps", they have neither badges of rank nor unit markings. The same hooded men are now appearing on the streets of Baghdad.
Replies: 5 people speak up
Hooded gunmen? Sounds like we replaced the Fedayeen Saddam with the Fedayeen Bushani. Oh well, maybe if bush could grow a moustache he could be president of Iraq after we fire him from his current job.... he seems to want that oil so bad, let him move there.
Posted by justin @ 12/17/2003 10:06 AM NY
I really wonder what Americans would think if they saw news as its reported in other countries? They would probobly just scoff and call it the liberal media.... On the BBC last night i saw soldiers firing tracers into a crowd at night, probobly what the article talks about... as well as a cargo train on fire with iraqis looting food meant for the occupation force. It should be interesting to see if the news ever catches up with reality....
Posted by justin @ 12/17/2003 10:12 AM NY
During the Saddam celebration you had civilians shooting in the air. Imagine if they all decided to shoot at US troops? The ingredients for a massacre are all in the pot and it's on slow boil right now, how much longer till an explosion?
Posted by salvage @ 12/17/2003 11:31 AM NY
Someone explain, please (and don't give me that "If Bush didn't go to war in the first place"), what you would expect to happen, from here on out, in Iraq?
What brilliant and wonderful magical candy-coated princess pony dreamscape can you imagine that would immediately send all our troops home, floating across the Atlantic on fluffy clouds on marshmallow, while all the Iraqi's set aside there eon's-old religious and racial bloodfueds, to then hammer their swords into plowsheers?
We are there, now, and the job to do is to keep pressing forward, to bring peace and order to a nation that has suffered under a brutal murderer for 35 years.
Jeez, you guys, Clarke, and Dean. Get yer heads out of the marshmallow.
Posted by Ed @ 12/17/2003 08:39 PM NY
Hey, Ed -
Howzabout we just get the hell out of their friggin' country and let them run things for a change? Hmmm?
Posted by Tog @ 12/19/2003 09:03 PM NY
