Posted on 03/28/2003 10:59:11 AM PST by knighthawk
Since Gulf War II began, much has been made of the difference in strength between the coalition's U.S.-led juggernaut and its undergunned Iraqi opponent. But we have been equally struck by the difference in methods. While Allied troops are abiding by civilized rules of engagement and doing everything in their power to protect civilians, Saddam Hussein's catalogue of war crimes grows longer each day.
The Iraqis' use of human shields is particularly obscene. In many cases, Saddam's soldiers have taken local civilian populations hostage en masse for this purpose. According to Emma Hurd of Sky News, "men with guns advance out of [Basra] with civilians in front of them towards the British forces. These civilians are being forced into this. The men are firing on the troops and they are unable to return fire." The Baathist security forces that still control most southern towns seem determined to prosecute Saddam's reign of terror till the very last. This week, a woman in the area waved at invading British troops. Shortly thereafter, she was hanged.
Everywhere, the Iraqis are intentionally blurring the line between soldier and civilian. Many of Saddam's fighters, members of his so-called Fedayeen most notably, don't wear military uniforms. Instead, they dress as civilians and ride in taxis, buses or pickup trucks. Iraqi POWs have told U.S. interrogators that Fedayeen units have forced young adolescents to take up arms, and have set up command centres inside schools. On Tuesday, Marines discovered a tank and 200 guns on the grounds of a hospital in Nasiriya. Later in the week, British troops in Umm Qasr found three classrooms full of grenades and other military equipment.
Fake surrenders have also been observed. Near Nasiriya, a group of Iraqi fighters lured U.S. Marines by feigning capitulation, then levelled their weapons and opened fire. In Southern Iraq, near oil fields that coalition forces have been trying to protect since the beginning of the ground campaign, Saddam's soldiers pulled a similar trick. "We captured five POWs that just drove up, waving a white flag," reported a civilian firefighter. "A little while later, five more POWs drove up to some British soldiers waving a white flag, and when they got close they opened up with machine guns." Saddam's loyalists are using equally barbarous methods to prevent legitimate surrender or defection. Witnesses have described several scenes in which unwilling Iraqi conscripts were forced at gunpoint to stage suicidal charges against well-defended U.S. positions.
But while the Iraqis have been violating the rules of war in hopes of killing Americans or provoking a civilian massacre, coalition forces have been voluntarily restricting their operations at every turn so as to minimize unnecessary bloodshed. Of the thousands of precision-guided bombs that have been dropped since March 19, only two appear to have fallen on crowded civilian targets -- a refugee bus in northern Iraq, and a market area in Baghdad. (In regard to the latter tragedy, moreover, coalition officials say it may have been caused by an Iraqi anti-aircraft missile.) Targets and weapon assignments are double- and triple-checked; and in many cases, legitimate targets have been passed over for fear of killing bystanders. One of the coalition's first objectives was to secure Umm Qasr's port so that food, water and other necessities could be brought into the country. Indeed, the flow of aid has already begun. In Basra, the international Red Cross, under the protection of coalition forces, has been working to restore the local water system.
The coalition's humane approach extends even to the deceased and inanimate. While images of dead and captured U.S. soldiers are luridly displayed on Iraqi television, coalition soldiers have been instructed to discreetly bury dead Iraqi soldiers with their heads pointing toward Mecca. On Monday, U.S. forces reached Karbala and Najaf, two Iraqi cities holy to Shiite Islam, and important to all Muslims. Out of respect for their religious significance, military personnel pledged to protect them from damage. By contrast, when Saddam went to war against his own people after the last Gulf War, the ancient religious libraries in the region were burned, and the Golden Dome of the Shrine of Ali was hit with artillery.
The difference between the two sides' military methods can be traced to their divergent values. While coalition forces are fighting a soldier's war, Iraq's military seems to be drawing its inspiration from the terrorist groups the country's leader bankrolls. Whatever other links may exist between Saddam and Osama bin Laden, the two share an ironclad martial bond: Both seek to intimidate U.S. "infidels" by any means necessary, and are willing to annihilate civilians -- whether Arab, Muslim or otherwise -- in pursuit of that goal. While it is sickening to behold such tactics, the sight at least reminds us why the United States and Britain decided to wage this war in the first place.
If US continues to fight this war in PC style the war will be lost. Ragheads of all kinds and races only understand power and violence, and since their sick cult of death called islam never understood compasion, mercy and other christian and humanitarian values, the only way to deal with them and threat them is the same way they treat the enemies. Dip their corpses in pig fat, don't bother to bury them in any direction, this way they will never go to paradise with 72 virgins. (The best deterrant for the islamic slime)
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