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

Multiple ^ | April 9, 2003 | Various

[smokeyjon]

"Unless of course the gold stuff is hidden under their clothes so it's not looted back from them."

But of course. One must always be wary for the dreaded "counter-loot".

[Kip Lange]

A little bit of blatant heartwarming anecdotal story from the embed in a unit w/ a family friend (it's a day late, but I love the story) -- taken from www.pilotonline.com (as far as I know I'm not violating anything here by posting this, please feel free to take it down if I am, or excerpt, Admin Mod)


Marines receive welcome surprise in ''enemy'' town
By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 9, 2003
Last updated 10:11 PM Apr. 8

AMARAH, Iraq -- The Marines of Charlie Company did not sleep well Monday night.

The next day's mission was their most serious yet -- a probable tank battle with an Iraqi armored division in this city on the Tigris River. That night and the next morning, many Marines talked openly about the possibility of dying.

At dawn Tuesday, the company rolled out, a vanguard of a task force planning to attack the Iraqi tanks. But not much goes according to plan these days, and that's not always such a bad thing.

When the convoy approached this alleged enemy stronghold, the company was hit, all right -- by an army of jubilant children that mobbed the Marines like they were rock stars.

``Mis-tah! Mis-tah! Bush good!'' they shouted at the stunned Marines.

Charlie Company spent the next four hours wading through swarms of children asking for candy and men offering cigarettes -- hardly what the Marines had prepared themselves for in the hours leading up to the assignment.

``This place is a zoo,'' company commander Greg Grunwald said as he tried to make his way through the crowd after they realized he was the leader.

After a little research, Grunwald discovered what had happened.

``There is no enemy,'' Grunwald said. ``The general got shot yesterday and they quit.''

American airstrikes on the tank division outside town had killed or wounded its general and persuaded the soldiers to desert. About the same time, the townspeople apparently had thrown out the ruling Baath party officials.

That left the task force facing a welcoming party instead of a firefight. As the people of Amarah clamored around the light armored reconnaissance vehicles, laughter filled the air.

Among the throng was one boy who knew a bit of English, and how to use it. ``What's your name?'' he would say over and over. His payoff was having a disproportionate number of packs of Big Red and Dentyne gum thrown his way.

Many of the smaller children were nudged out of the way by bigger kids, but the patient ones were rewarded with M&Ms.

Some of the adults offered smokes to the Marines. Others asked for whiskey -- of which there is none, much to the Marines' chagrin.

For the first couple of hours, women and girls hid in the background. But once it was clear that Charlie Company meant no harm, little girls began jockeying for position among the boys and men. Their mothers and older sisters hung back near the doors to their houses, but they waved enthusiastically as the Marines moved through town.

The corpsmen of Charlie Company had come to Amarah expecting to patch up battle wounds, but instead they wound up treating Iraqi residents for conditions such as chicken pox and asthma.

In all, it was a touching scene for many of these tough-guy Marines.

``I was talking to all the little dudes, just teasing them and stuff and laughing,'' said Lance Cpl. Brian Norman, 19, of Troy, Mont. ``There was this cute little girl back there -- she couldn't have been more than 6 or 7. I just waved to her and she got pushed to the front of the crowd, and the next thing you know she's all talking to me in Arabic. I was surprised they let me talk to her.''

For days, some in Charlie Company had been lamenting the lack of combat action. But after Tuesday's surprise ``engagement,'' most of the Marines seemed relieved.


``It was like the kind of liberation scene they show in war movies,'' said Lance Cpl. David Ploughe, 21, of Cloverdale, Ind. ``Stuff like this makes me glad we're here.''



Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with Task Force Tarawa in Iraq. He has been with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marines since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January. You can reach him at dobrien@pilotonline.com

[Sir_Ed]

Fox News just showed cheering looters yelling "No More Saddam!" and "Down with Saddam!" while stripping the UN headquarters bare.

I wonder how they know there'll be no more order for awhile.

Ed

[Tree of Liberty]

One of the anchors earlier said that some of the theives were stealing from other theives in Basrah.

[this_ol_patriot]

By now they probably think of the UN as one of Saddam's agencies. They may have no idea of what it is, only that the UN jumped to Saddams orders. I would not want to be the first UN worker in some of these neighborhoods, there may be an anger issue here.

[fellowpatriot]

The Wizard of Oz - Gulf War II Version

Our fighter pilots are writing ‘Surrender Dorothy’ in the sky over Baghdad while Baghdad Bob is standing outside the Rashid Hotel yelling “PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!” and the media is reporting that Chemical Ali is not merely dead, he’s really most sincerely dead.

The cast:

Jessica Lynch as Dorothy - Both were injured, ended up in a foreign land, were taken prisoner and rescued by their friends.

Barney Bush as Toto - Why? Because we love him!

Anti War Protestors aka Democrats as Scarecrow - No brains! Stupid is as stupid does!

Elite Republican Guard as Flying Monkees - They learned this from the French

UN as Tin Man - No heart, could care less about the Iraqi people

France as Lion - No balls

Coalition Forces as Good Witch Glenda - Came to free the people

Iraqi citizens as Munchkins

Chemical Ali as Wicked Witch of the East - Both died from having a house fall on them

Saddam as Wicked Witch of the West – Ding dong the witch is dead (we can only hope)

Wizard as Baghdad Bob aka Minister of Wishful Thinking – PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

[cgk]

LMAO - You've got me trying to picture a looter stealing a gold toilet seat from another looter.

[smokeyjon]

Yeah, and the non-looters started stoning the ones who were trying to go off with all the food.

[Prince Charles]

Awesome report. Thanks for sharing.

[Aaron0617]

Check out CNN...THIS RULES..I'm so happy for them.

[Kip Lange]

No, but especially if you are using RealPlayer, it's a complete resource hog, and almost always will make your machine run poorly, and cause freaky crashes and what not.

I feel the need to bump this...REALPLAYER SUCKS UP TONS OF CPU, it bogs down internet connections, it spams you, it has a habit of installing itself as a startup application every time you use it (this is the years of Sys. Admin. in me coming back to haunt y'all after my industry imploded :p) so...avoid it unless you absolutely have no choice. It stinks and can foul up your computer badly.

[GOPyouth]

Word is getting around that he's dead. That makes me really wonder about the information that was released yesterday, why it was released when it was, and why so much information given out about the operation.

As we know, this was let out almost 24 hours after the raid. Along with this, military officials were telling our reporters, and Rita, about how this was done. Rita was on talking about what phone system Hussein was using, how he got it, that we cracked the code, where they were located in the building, how far apart they were, and all sorts of specific information like that.

Now, was that released to spread a rumor that he's dead, or are they pretty sure after 24 hours that they got him? I think that 24 hour lapse is very important clue in this.

[cgk]

"Our fighter pilots are writing ‘Surrender Dorothy’ in the sky over Baghdad"

Read right to left, (in Arabic, of course), the flares spell out "Surrender Bob".

[thedugal]

You don't happen to work for Microsoft do you? :)

[BagCamAddict]

"What I want to know is, how come looters always steal doors"

That'd probably be my item of choice if I lived under Saddam and his goons kicking mine in for 30 odd years. :)

LOL... remember the other day, when our troops kicked in the door at a civilian's house... The Father, after welcoming the troops and saying he was glad they were there, said "When this is over, I'll be talking to Bush and Blair about paying for the door."

I'm serious!! He said that!! (or something like it)

[fellowpatriot]

I love it!

[dsmtoday]

They need to put some party music on the "call to prayer" speakers.

[smokeyjon]

I happen to think that he's been reduced to tasty bite-sized chunks. If there are/were tunnels under that building, we had some salty dogs in them to make sure no one got out. Otherwise, the latest I've seen is that we had US eyes on the ground watching that building, and he was seen to go in, but never came out.

[Kip Lange]

That makes me really wonder about the information that was released yesterday, why it was released when it was, and why so much information given out about the operation.

And that makes me confident that PsyOps is doing its job very well -- whether or not the SOB is alive or dead. :-)

[Consort]

Soon the looters will get to Achmed's neighborhood.