Mystery shrouds whereabouts of bodies of 54 insurgents said killed by US

AFP via Yahoo News ^ | 12/01/03

[TexKat]

Ok AFP you want it that way?

I also heard this being reported on Fox News this evening.

[SauronOfMordor]

I'm sure we could have thought of a way to deal with the bodies. Hogs ARE omnivorous..

[SandRat]

I suspect that they picked it up from AFP (Agencie Francaise Presse).

[txhurl]

Remember the crowd-control stuff we were developing? Stuns them instantly? Maybe it was a test. Maybe it worked.

Maybe that's the only way to keep marauders at bay. Scare 'em to death of visions of being knocked senseless and tortured.

[Dog Gone]

54 probably isn't accurate. When a bunch of thugs with rifles and RPGs take on eight tanks and a bunch of Bradleys, it's gonna be an estimate unless you want to waste the money on a DNA analysis.

[archy]

With that many killed and so few injured, I suspect that most of the casualties were in a single location, like the room of a building or a bus. If the eyewitnesses were not at that location, they wouldn't see the bodies.

Either that, or some sharp commander was giving two cans of beer for every reported kill.

What's that you say, there's no beer allowed in country? Okey-fine; no beer, no bodies....

-archy-/-

[JSteff]

Every step of this insurgency they have tapped the VC's tactics. Heavy on the land mines and remote controlled directional devices, striking bases at night with lot's of tracers and RPGs, also hitting the public with attacks (besides the military). Now they are carrying away their dead just like the VC used to.
The VC did this and we confirmed latter that they were doing that. They did it for a number of reasons, but mostly to confound our intelligence and our reports to the press. No bodies, no body counts... the military looks bad to the press.

History shows all to those who know and remember history. I think we will find a Russian advisor(s) behind a lot of this. Nice wey for them to make us look bad on the world stage.

[KantianBurke]

Sadly you're right. If they don't have confirmation THEN DON'T CLAIM SPECIFIC NUMBERS!! A war fought with the media in mind. Whoopee.

[roadcat]

"I'm guessing there are some funny numbers being reported by the military...it has happened before."

How hard can it be to round up 54 replacement bodies? Heck, why not "find" 500 more just to be sure. They all look the same.

[Darksheare]

*Laughs*
I'd pay to see that in action.

[Darksheare]

That sounds like a plan.
"What enemy action? Shooting, explosions? Yes, there was some shooting and explosions. Enemy dead? We vaped SOMETHING, but we didn't get a good look at it."

[Looking for Diogenes]

What I don't understand is that it implies that the troops just left after the fire fight with no "mop up" activities to make sure they'd captured all the enemies in the area. On the one hand they are going house to house to try to find the 'insurgents' yet when 60 of them come to them they don't make the effort to bring in more troops to capture them all.

Or course a fire fight which results in 40 or 50 dead is a major deal and pretty chaotic, I'm sure. I'm probably missing something here.

[prairiebreeze]

MSNBC just gave a teaser-lead about the discrepancies in the stories regarding the "counts".

It will be all over the news tomorrow.

Prairie

[MissAmericanPie]

Here's an idea, embed these turkey's, after the firefight they can remain behind and count the bodies. After their done, they can take a taxi back to the hotel.

[Steel Wolf]

From now on, we'll try and kill them less violently. All this haphazard death and destruction is really bad for our stats.

Seriously, folks, it's a desert. 50 guys getting heavily blasted and plowed over by M1A1s and Bradleys aren't going to leave enough to fit in a Ziploc bag. The sand can easily cover what's left over.

Now, I agree that it is kind of amatuerish to make a claim like that to the press. We haven't been giving out enemy casualty information thus far, even when we had the bodies.

[archy]

That sounds like a plan.

"What enemy action? Shooting, explosions? Yes, there was some shooting and explosions. Enemy dead? We vaped SOMETHING, but we didn't get a good look at it."

Step 1. Paint one of these OD, and get a Humvee to tow it behind.

Step2. Hose it out good afterward.

[prairiebreeze]

I actually think (or thought) that reporting occasional numbers that we are killing, wasn't a bad idea. Not weekly body counts, but something to show we are having an effect on the enemy and somewhat counter the media's glee in reporting our casualties.

Now though, I'm not sure especially since the media is more than willing to showcase this new tactic of casting doubt on the count accurracy.

Prairie

[Darksheare]

*chuckles*
Paint US Army deadwood clearing services on it.