Posted on 04/08/2003 9:55:33 AM PDT by HAL9000
BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 100 children held in a prison celebrated their freedom Tuesday as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians loot weapons from an army compound, a US officer said.Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle approached, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP correspondent travelling with the Marines 5th Regiment.
"Hundreds of kids were swarming us and kissing us," Padilla said.
"There were parents running up, so happy to have their kids back."
"The children had been imprisoned because they had not joined the youth branch of the Baath party," he alleged. "Some of these kids had been in there for five years."
The children, who were wearing threadbare clothes and looked under-nourished, walked on the streets crossing their hands as if to mimic handcuffs, before giving the thumbs up sign and shouting their thanks.
It was not clear who had opened the doors of the prison.
Civilians also took advantage of the collapse of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's authority to grab weapons from an army base, said Group Sergeant Jeff Treiber.
As marines were alerted by radio that civilians had seized weapons, Treiber warned that anyone seen to be armed could be a target of US-British coalition forces.
"With the weapons they are becoming combatants," said Treiber. "If they don't take the weapons they will be fine."
Other residents stole air conditioning units, television sets and furniture from government buildings in an echo of the looting that was seen in the southern city of Basra.
A 19-year-old called Haider said people had been ransacking government compounds since the morning to steal weapons and furniture.
"Since the morning, nine o'clock, they have been looting. They are stealing weapons and I took three doors," he said.
At one stage the marines opened fire after coming under attack from snipers, leaving at least two civilians wounded.
One man needed treatment for gunshot wounds to his stomach and left arm.
But his friend, Abdul Amir Jaffa, said he did not resent the Americans despite the shooting.
"Americans are coming to free us," he told AFP.
The marines became increasingly edgy as crowds of people took to the streets to observe their progress.
"It's a problem with so many people in the area. Its hard to tell if there are enemy forces among them. You have to be careful returning fire with civilians all over the place," Lieutenant Anthony Sousa said.
Troops from the Marines' 1st Expeditionary Force also entered Baghdad on the east of the city Tuesday as thousands of armoured vehicles and Humvees poured into the capital for a showdown with Saddam Hussein's troops.
Their compassion is all one-sided. They have oodles of compassion for criminals but none for the victims. They have tons of compassion for gays but not for those who get AIDS from transfusions or from birth. They fawn over the thieves masquerading as homeless victims, but none for the taxpayers being forced to subsidize their laziness. They have lots of compassion for the jailers of children, but none for the toddlers in chains.
These are real questions, not rhetorical. I suspect the answers, but I'd like to see them discussed.
It's true that we will need Republican presidents for the forseeable future, a fact not lost on the anti-war crowd.
Sure I do. But it would take me mere minutes to pick up the phone and/or grab a gun.
Dissolving one international coalition, organizing another, establishing a new charter, reassigning resources, and moving the entire area of operations into another country is quite another story with a long timetable. Hey, I'm sure GHWB feels even worse than you or I do about the atrocities that occurred. And his administration did take action eventually (establishing the no-fly zones, one at a time). But hindsight is great. The administration started reacting within days, but the damage was done very quickly. Unfortunately.
"Springtime for Hitler and Germany"
Totalitarian regimes are a threat to everyone. Islamic terrorism is a product of totalitarian islamic regimes, and it dealt a blow to the US on 9/11.
But of course, there is a theory out of France and widely supported by certain groups of "Libertarians" that the 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by the Bush administration using remote-controlled planes. You wouldn't happen to fall in that particular little group, would you?
People can argue about what was implied or what wasn't. The President obviously hoped the Iraqi people would rise up against Hussein. So did I. And I expected, after he had served his military up for lunch, that many of his troops would turn on him. Tragically I was wrong.
If GHWB intentionally misled those poor people with no plans to help them, then he would indeed be wrong. But I don't believe he did that. I think given Iraq's poor showing in Kuwait he expected the coup/revolution to succeed. I bet in hindsight he does regret publicly calling for an overthrow.
These people genuinely hate this country. They tolerated Clinton... yes tolerated him... barely, but now that he is gone, their full revulsion of our country is baring it's ugly teeth.
These are some sick people. They genuinely don't care how many people Saddam kills, tortures, has raped etc, if it doesn't help their anti american cause.
Saddam can kill a million people for a quarter of a century, and they are outraged that less than 1% of that number will die in the liberation of these people.
Makes me ashamed to ever consider myself a democrat once. This is not the party of Scoop Jackson and Patrick Moynihan... these are malcontent traitors who feel so guilty by their upper middle class existence, that they enjoy the squallor of other people in that it helps them feel morally smug and superior.
Nice try at a smear btw. How about you stay on topic instead of introducing wacky fallacies and generalizations?
No no no ... I completely agree with you. I was just wondering what people had to say about the question. And I agree with the responses as you may have noticed.
Don't take my question the wrong way.
hawk
Would you care to go into detail? What specifically did Reagan do for Saddam?
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