Bestial Acts in Fallujah Shouldn't Obscure Iraq Gains

American Forces Press Service ^ | 4/2/04 | Jim Garamone

[Dubya]

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2004 – The "horrible, bestial" acts of a few people in Fallujah shouldn't obscure the significant gains the coalition has made in Iraq, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt during a phone interview from Baghdad today.

"It is important to remember that Fallujah is a small part of the country, and the people who did this are just a very, very small part of the population there," said Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7.

The general said the vast majority of the Iraqi people have expressed their "outrage and shame" about the mutilation of four American contract employees March 31. "They say it is not representative of the people of Iraq," Kimmitt said.

The coalition will not rush into Fallujah in response to the atrocities. Kimmitt said the coalition will give Fallujans a chance to "turn over the bad elements in their midst." There is no deadline for the city, he said, and indicated that coalition forces will begin operations when it's deemed best from a tactical sense.

Kimmitt said the city of roughly 300,000 still harbors a number of Fedayeen Saddam – the former regime's terrorist militia. "We believe some former regime elements were responsible in the planning and execution of the attack," he said. The city was a center of support for Saddam Hussein, and many of the thugs that propped up the regime melted back into Fallujah after the coalition campaign last year, officials said.

The coalition will respond to the murders by "the iron fist in the velvet glove," he said. "For those who want to move toward better Iraq, we are here to help them. For those who choose violence, we will respond."

Kimmitt said the attacks, as bad as they are, shouldn't take away from the progress the coalition has made in the past year. "Millions of people know freedom now," he said. Officials in Baghdad have pointed out that the infrastructure is recovering from Saddam's neglect.

The political process in Iraq is moving toward a return of sovereignty June 30. And the security situation is improving as more Iraqis volunteer to protect their country, officials said.

[Dubya]

The coalition will not rush into Fallujah in response to the atrocities. Kimmitt said the coalition will give Fallujans a chance to "turn over the bad elements in their midst." There is no deadline for the city, he said, and indicated that coalition forces will begin operations when it's deemed best from a tactical sense.

How much time you going to give them Gen Sir?

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[A CA Guy]

Enough time to get the faces of all in the picture and to make sure the forces don't run into a trap that could kill any additional forces.

Greatest victory with preferable no US and allied forces casualties is something I am willing to wait for, aren't we all?

[Dubya]

The photos I have seen of it showed everyone around including the children in on it. If we blow away the town we shouldn't have anyone Americans hurt or killed.

[microgood]

Greatest victory with preferable no US and allied forces casualties is something I am willing to wait for, aren't we all?

[microgood]

Greatest victory with preferable no US and allied forces casualties is something I am willing to wait for, aren't we all?

Well said. Bears repeating. Sorry for the last post i was attacked by my wife and dog.

[Cindy]

Those people in Fallujah gotta be sweating.
So, will there be another shock and awe?
Do they want to die now and go to hell
or do they want to go to hell later?

Yep. Should they turn over the suspects
who killed the Americans or should they
all be treated as the enemy?

Sweat, sweat, sweat dripping down their
arm pits as they think about their options.

Tick. Tick. Tick.
Time is slipping away.

So what will the Fallujans do?

Tick. Tick. Tick.
Why are the Fallujans sweating?

Only time will tell.

[Valin]

If we blow away the town we shouldn't have anyone Americans hurt or killed.

Kill 400,000 people?

[olde north church]

Yeah, what makes Fallujah so sacred? The way I look at it, city full of @ssholes...HEY!... I have a wicked excellent idea! There were these two cities in the Bible, Saddam Supporters and Gomorrah and they did bestial things there. Why not take a page from the Good Book and have a blond-haired, blue-eyed (only for contrast to population) Coalition soldier, walk down the main street and stand on the steps of the grand mosque and warn the populace they have 4 hours to leave the city.
When the second hand sweeps past the fourth hour, the city and all those lest within its walls will be annihilated..

[metesky]

More people posting from emotion, which, thankfully, is why they don't run things.

They mean well.

(As if I don't often post from emotion myself. lol)

[McGavin999]

The people of Falluja (the decent ones, and yes, there are some who are decent) have to be made to understand that the entire world views them as little more than beasts. The longer they wait to turn over the perps the more that view of them will be entrenched. Their entire future and the future of their children will depend on how rapidly they expel the creeps who were responsible for this. These beasts have brought humiliation down on the heads of all residents of Falluja.

The shieks must be made to understand that if they don't resolve this rapidly the people of Falluja will not be able to travel anywhere outside the city without being spit upon.

[pending]

Zot for you sweertheart. If there is some humor or sarcasm in your voice, I dont see it.

Emotions run deep here, somethin about charred american bodies you dont get?

If we were the fascists you suggest, We would be building pipelines on a vast unoccupied field of glass.

Why don't you on the left protest the Muslim treatment of women, or the child abuse of blowing children into little pieces?

Who do you think are the bad guys?

Who do you think you are dealing with?

[olde north church]

Excuse me? How could I have said it with more clarity? I think the entire 'sunni triangle" should be turn to cinders and plowed with salt. Maybe then it would sink through some of the thicker heads in the region that those who are allied with us shall be allowed to draw breath for another day.
How's that?

[olde north church]

Change "How's that" - "Don't EVER question my ferocity in protecting American lives and giving a swift and deadly response"

[pending]

I read you wrong, heard your words as mocking kind of satire of a caricatured "religious right".

Are you are seriously advocating genocide in the name of
your chosen religion?
are you serious?




****

[olde north church]

I advocating self-defense.
Sometiimes the best way to act in self-defense is to prevent an event from occuring.
Any fool will die if they believe they are going to Heaven.
It takes a greater sense of duty to die for an idea.

[olde north church]

[edit] I advocating self-defense.
I am advocating
Thanks
Respectfully
ONC

[Dubya]

4th Iraq Mutilation Victim Is Identified

[Dubya]

Posted on Sat, Apr. 03, 2004

Final victim of Fallujah attack identified

By Janis L. Magin The Associated Press

HONOLULU - The last victim identified in the attack on four civilians in Fallujah, Iraq, this week was a native of Hawaii who joined the military out of high school and returned to his home state several years ago after a career as an Army Ranger.

Wesley J. Batalona, 48, was one of the four American contractors killed in Fallujah, his older sister, Uilani Shibata, said Friday.

Batalona; Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, 32; Michael Teague, 38; and Scott Helvenston, 38, were killed in an ambush Wednesday. Their charred bodies were mutilated and dragged through the streets. The contractors were working for Blackwater Security Consulting when their vehicle was hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

Shibata said Batalona's wife, June, was told of her husband's death while at work late Thursday.

Batalona was one of 10 children, and Shibata said that she and her husband raised him until he joined the Army in 1974 after graduating from Honokaa High School, where he was student body president.

Batalona was stationed for much of his career in Georgia, where his daughter now goes to college, Shibata said.

"He loved his family very much, his wife and his daughter," she said.

Helvenston, of Oceanside, Calif., served 12 years in the Navy, then started a career as a fitness instructor and worked as a trainer and stuntman for such movies as Face/Off and G.I. Jane.

But after years out of the service, the former SEAL left the comfort of his life in California behind and headed for Iraq.

"That's what, in a time of need, true American warriors like Scott would do," producer Mark Burnett of the reality show Combat Missions said Thursday.

Zovko, from Ohio, always wanted to save the world, his mother said. He joined the Army at 19 and spoke five languages fluently -- English, Croatian, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

"He was the most self-motivated person," Zovko's brother Tom told ABC's Good Morning America. "He grew up a skinny, little guy but wanted to be big, and he became big. He had desire and motivation and never gave up."

Teague, of Clarksville, Tenn., was a 12-year Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada, said his wife, Rhonda Teague. She said he received a bronze star for his service in Afghanistan.

Rhonda Teague called her husband a "proud father, soldier and American."

Blackwater Security, based in Moyock, N.C., provides security training and guard services to customers around the world. Company President Gary Jackson and two other company leaders are former Navy SEAL commandos.

A statement on the company's Web site said officials were grieving for the employees.

ONLINE: Blackwater USA, blackwatersecurity.com