***Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - Day 21 - LIVE THREAD***

Multiple ^ | April 9, 2003 | Various

[bornintexas]

MG Brooks looks pumped up today! Just showed a picture of the reporters....they looked down...too bad.

[Kip Lange]

Iraqis have been using civilian hospitals, etc, as forts; Coalition forces are getting these under control and turning them back to civilian use...Spanish Field Medicine arriving soon...now taking questions...on Tikrit...having success in Tikrit, has been some repositioning...still assessing force in Tikrit, believe fighting there would be similar to what we've seen before.

[John H K]

Well, CENTCOM briefing on the radio, just turned to it to hear the first question...

Based on the first question I think the media is going to cling to the hope that there's fanatical resistance in Tikrit...

[Nam Vet]

The Free Iraqis will explain things to incoming thugs in NO uncertain terms. Trust me, they are NOT going to rid themselves of one group of tyrants just to replace them with another group of thugs.

Nam Vet

[kcvl]

Baghdad falls: No sign of police or government authority on streets, looters sack shops, offices

09-04-2003, 10:54


Hundreds of Iraqis cheered, danced, waved and threw flowers as U.S. Marines advanced through eastern Baghdad and into the center of President Saddam Hussein's capital on Wednesday.

People, mainly young and middle-aged men were chanting, blowing horns and throwing flowers, witnesses said, according to news agencies. A Reuters correspondent with the troops said crowds mobbed a Marine convoy as it drove through the suburbs to the Martyr's Monument, just three km east of the central Jumhuriya Bridge over the Tigris river.

http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=246597&lang=e&dir=news

[Kip Lange]

Of course, liberal media slack-jawed and trying to spin...

Yep, in the distance, I can hear it...sounds like a jeep stuck in deep mud...sounds like those wheels are spinning a little fruitlessly... ;-)

[Sir_Ed]

L.A. has tunnels everywhere? I was born and raised there, and I never heard that! Where are they?

Ed

[Kip Lange]

Centcom -- here comes the questions re: spin it towards "anarchy" and "looting".

[kcvl]

Cheers greet troops in Saddam City

12:00 - 09 April 2003

Hundreds of Iraqis cheered, danced and threw flowers today as US Marines advanced through Saddam City, a poor Shiite neighbourhood of two million people in eastern Baghdad.

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=115856&command=displayContent&sourceNode=115854&contentPK=5063216

[Catspaw]

He's not a Major General YET. Vince still only has one star, so he's a Brigadier General.

[Howlin]

I was thinking this morning that these Saddam people aren't going to be that hard to find even though they have tried to blend in with the regular people; they are the ones who had everything, all the cars, all the good apartments, all the good jobs.

I imagine the newly freed citizens of Iraq will be more than willing to point a few of them out.

Vincent Brooks at CENTCOM says that these people are making choices for the first time in years and they think these things will settle down.

[Howlin]

He handled that very well!

[Trust but Verify]

I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to the brilliant military strategery of President Saddam and his generals. Rarely, if ever, does one lose control of an entire country in less than 3 weeks.

The French may be an exception.

[cajungirl]

Agreed!!!

[Nam Vet]

Seems to me the press has been re-directed to the Northern front. The more the better.

Nam Vet

[cajungirl]

Seeing your name made me wish this had happened in Viet Nam,,

[Trust but Verify]

What a picture! I just pray the Iraqi's do the right thing with the gift President Bush, PM Blair, and our brave military have given them.

[InShanghai]

The Beebs are saying the Shi'a are the ones celebrating, no sign of the Sunni... I guess that's the only way they can make sense of whats happening.

[kcvl]

The "reporters" want to make it sound like they are criminals. But, when this happens in others cities it's ONLY "civil unrest".

I have news for them. If I had been treated like they have been treated for so many years, I would be looking for someone to KILL(not just steal what was actually MINE to begin with). Starving people tend to get a LITTLE angry when their food has been STOLEN from them for YEARS.

BTW, did you get my email photo?

[bornintexas]

"Brigader General".....

Whoops! Still have sleep in one eye.