Posted on 06/21/2003 1:10:38 PM PDT by dixiechick2000
'Apocalypse Now' Music Fires Up U.S. Troops for Raid
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops psyched up on a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam war film "Apocalypse Now" before crashing into Iraqi homes to hunt gunmen on Saturday, as Shi'ite Muslims rallied against the U.S. occupation of Iraq (news - web sites).
With the strains of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" still ringing in their ears and the clatter of helicopters overhead, soldiers rammed vehicles into metal gates and hundreds of troops raided houses in the western city of Ramadi after sunrise as part of a drive to quell a spate of attacks on U.S. forces.
A previously unknown group, calling itself the Iraqi National Front of Fedayeen, vowed to intensify assaults on American troops until they leave Iraq.
A man with his face swathed in a red-and-white headscarf read the threat on a videotape received by Lebanon's LBC television. There was no way to verify its authenticity.
"If they want their soldiers to be safe, they must leave our pure land," the man said, disavowing any link to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). He was flanked by three masked men with weapons.
Iraqi assailants have killed 17 U.S. soldiers since major combat was declared over on May 1, three weeks after the fall of Baghdad ended 24 years of Saddam Hussein's iron rule.
U.S. officials blame the attacks on diehard Saddam loyalists. Many Iraqis say the resistance is fueled by resentment at the occupation and the behavior of U.S. troops.
"The Americans are occupiers and aggressors," said Sayyid Ali, one of about 2,000 Shi'ites who protested outside the vast palace compound in Baghdad now used by Iraq's U.S. rulers.
"They were supposed to free us from the oppressor, now they are only occupying us," he said. "We want to form a national government. "We want freedom and justice."
There was no repeat of the violence that erupted on the same spot on Wednesday, when U.S. troops killed two Iraqis during a protest by stone-throwing former soldiers thrown out of work by a U.S. decree dissolving the Iraqi military.
SOUR PERCEPTIONS
"Under Saddam, we had no medicine. It was all in this palace," said Mohammed Obeid, sheltering from the fierce sun. "Now it's the same, except the Americans are in the palace."
The United States and Britain say their forces will stay put until they can restore security, revive the economy and arrange a transition to an elected, sovereign Iraqi government.
However, they have failed to find Saddam or his alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction which they cited as their main justification for going to war on March 20.
President Bush (news - web sites), floating a new explanation for the failure to find banned weapons, said suspected arms sites had been looted as Saddam's government crumbled.
"For more than a decade, Saddam Hussein went to great lengths to hide his weapons from the world. And in the regime's final days, documents and suspected weapons sites were looted and burned," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
A U.S. treasury official attending a meeting organized by the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Jordan for political and business leaders, said world donors must provide aid as well as debt relief to Iraq for postwar reconstruction.
SEARCH FOR SADDAM
The most important Iraqi captured by U.S. troops yet has told his interrogators that the deposed leader and his two sons survived the war, the New York Times reported.
The paper quoted unnamed defense department officials as saying the information came from Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, captured earlier this week, fourth on a U.S. list of most wanted Iraqis after Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay.
They said Mahmud's tips had ignited an intense burst of clandestine U.S. military activity aimed at capturing the trio.
There was nothing secretive about Saturday's robust sweep through Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, by soldiers of the First Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regiment who psyched themselves up at a base on a musical moment redolent of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film about the Vietnam war.
Hit-and-run strikes on U.S. troops have been concentrated in Sunni Muslim towns such as Ramadi west and north of Baghdad.
One unit of troops dragged half a dozen men from their homes as women wailed. They seized weapons and a computer disk.
Officers said they aimed to capture five men from the Fedayeen paramilitary force, which put up some of the fiercest resistance to U.S. troops during their invasion.
The raid was part of Operation Desert Scorpion, launched on June 15 to crack down on militants and befriend civilians by helping with aid and reconstruction projects.
A U.S. military spokesman said on Saturday that 90 Desert Scorpion raids had captured 540 people.
That's good stuff, Sarge. A little music to help set the mood (in this case, sheer horror) can be a beautiful thing.
It wasn't so long ago that it would have been tagged as "Nazi music." In fact, that was what was insinuated by using it in "Apocalypse Now" -- that the troops in Viet-Nam were no better than Nazis.
"...panzers crews were psyching themselves up to the tune of "flight of the Valkiries" playing over short wave radio."
LOL!
I had a close friend ( and VietNam vet) that drove a firetruck out of station #2 in Miami years ago.
During one of the riots down there he borrowed a copy of 'Ride of the Valkeries" from me and played it on the truck's loudspeakers on a call to the inner city .I can picture him blasting down S. Miami Ave., the music blaring.
He was almost fired for it.
You certain Shi'ites want it for you, but not for the majority of Iraqi people.
Was it not someone in Heart of Darkness?
He was almost fired for it."
What a great story! Thanks!
Definately not the same as going into battle, but it got us riled up at 2:00 am during Push.
Speaking of Bonfire, Dr. Gates... get in gear and listen to a little of the General's music and get the plan going for raising Stack at Duncan Field (instead of the polo field) down in God's country (aka Aggieland).
Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88; Law Hall (may it R.I.P.) Ramp 9 Mule; f.u.p.
Yes I am familiar with it :) Another good selection would be Slayer's "Angel of Death"; heck anything by Slayer would scare the crap out of them. Ride of the Valkiries is one of my favorite parts of Apocolypse Now. Totally powerful :)
If you don't have their "Seasons in the Abyss" disk, you're missing out on a true motivating presence... those in anger management classes need not apply.
Trajan88
Followed by the unmistakable smell of the enemy's burning corpses -- just before morning brew...
The gratification is indescribable...
Semper Fi
NO matter how new the add they always use an "oldie" for the music.
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