***Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - Day 28/16 APR 03 - LIVE THREAD***

Everywhere! | 16 APR 03 | An.American.Expatriate

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Operation Iraqi Freedom

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Links to the last thread 

Day 27

Good Morning.

This is the Daily Thread of Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.

It is designed for general conversation about the events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.

To all who helped this get started and keep it running, thank you!

[BagCamAddict]

Was Abu Abbas in the deck of cards, or was he a bonus?

[TexKat]

news well is starting to run dry, eh, guys?

Not for me and other parents that have someone still over there in that no man's land. The 4th ID is coming in, plus the rest of the 3rd ID which includes my beloved son. I will still be glued for any and all televised info. I'll probably have bags under my eyes hanging down to my knees.

[BagCamAddict]

Aside from eating scabs, how did they survive?

Ever see the movie "Alive" ?? 600 Kuwaitis unaccounted for.... 123 found..... food for thought.

If there is one prison for every 100 weapons caches... we have alot of gruesome work to do.

[TexKat]

And I can't bring myself to trust any of those people. Plus they wanted us out of their country like last month.

[BagCamAddict]

An excerpt from a CentCom press release on the meeting held today in Nasiriah:

"Before the plane entered Iraq, the crew put on body armor, dumped fuel and began evasive maneuvers in case it encountered groundfire. When we entered the "fence"-the border with Iraq, the plane started defensive maneuvers and dropped down to 200 feet above the desert for the last 30 minutes of the flight. Then, we start weaving. Those who were in the cockpit during landing reported seeing a plane ahead of us-a possible decoy? The pilot had to take a sharp turn upon approach because he was hitting the landing strip wrong. When we dropped on to the runway it felt like we fell out of the sky. Inside the plane, several people threw up into newspapers."

First half of the mostly dry release is here: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/news_release.asp?NewsRelease=200304131.txt

[TexKat]

Syria's oil lifeline cut off

[BagCamAddict]

Don't know if this is a repeat... from CentCom:

U.S. MARINE KILLED

BAGHDAD -- A Marine from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was shot and killed yesterday evening after being mistaken for an enemy soldier. Emergency personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene, but the Marine died on site.

The incident is currently under investigation and the name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

[blondee123]

Was Abu Abbas in the deck of cards, or was he a bonus?

Fox reports he was a "bonus" that the U.S. suspected he was hiding in Iraq, but not in the deck of cards.

[TexKat]

Iraq today" the Massacre of Mosul; mass demonstrations, guerrilla fighting ... : SF Indymedia

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US denies troops fired on crowd

[TexKat]

Gulf states warn US over Syria

[BagCamAddict]

I'm having a hard time not getting mad when I see Iraqi demonstrations saying that the U.S. is no better than Saddam. A huge part of me wants to say "Fine, you want us gone? We're outta here. You can fend for yourselves." How ungrateful can you get? (And you know the uproar that would occur if we DID pull out now!! So as usual, we can't win.)

And all this whimpering about how the US needs to fix the electricity, water, medical situation... that we're not doing it fast enough... that we should have been able to fight a war AND fix all the civil problems at the same time. Gimme a break!

If France came here to liberate us from Clinton/Bush/etc., I cannot IMAGINE we Americans would be griping that France needs to "turn the electricity back on". Heck, we would be griping for them to get out of our way so WE could turn our own power back on.

Furthermore, did Baghdad Bob have that entire country convinced that this war was never going to happen? Weeks before we went to war, my Mother called all of us "kids" and told us to stock up on food, water, radios, batteries, candles, cash, dog food, etc. And that was just in case of any terrorist reprisals. If there was actually going to be a WAR on our soil, she would have had us building bomb shelters, and stocking drums full of food and water! So how can the people of a country that is about to be warred-upon NOT have stocked up on water?

Grrrrrr. The whining is just annoying!

[The Wizard]

Chiraq called because the euro weenies are starting to realize that WE are their success, we have a trade deficit and that means we are who they sell their goods too, and the EU woun't be worth a tin penny if we stop buying.......

The EU will NOT replace the Dollar because they need the American market more than we need them......just look at how trhe ballance of trade has gone from positive to negative......

When I was young, we shipped much more than we bought, and what I didn't realize was we needed them for all that income......

Now we buy more than we shiop, and if we ever stop buyiong, the EU drops in value, sooooooo

Chiraq is very concerned that we aren't buying french products

[The Wizard]

all sorry about the typos, the cat was pushing we to sit in my lap and he's very pushy

[The Wizard]

I hope Greg Kelly is really OK....he seemed to just disapear over night...

[The Wizard]

very calm looking day on the bagland cam, indeed , it's the most calm i've seen it....

[BagCamAddict]

The word of the day regarding Chirac's phone call to Bush: Pragmatic.

Pragmatic: Practical as opposed to idealistic. Pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with… social morality.

Think about that for a moment... Chirac thinks to himself:
"Saddam owes me alot of money. I look like an idiot for not siding with the US on this one. I also look like an idiot because they found all those munitions with my name on them. So I'd better be pragmatic about this if I hope to get paid one penny of what Saddam owes me. The best way to do that would be to suck up to Bush."

"Hello, Bush? This Chirac. Long time no talk. How's it hangin'? I've decided that France needs to be pragmatic about this Iraq thing."

Translation: "I'm going to bend my moral compass once again, just to be sure I get the money Saddam owes me."

[BagCamAddict]

Here's a lovely article:

US Forces Participated in Baghdad's Looting
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=236

Excerpts:

"Iraqis are ready to testify that American tanks destroyed the heavy metal doors at the Museum of Antiquities so the looting crowds could get in and smash and loot the records of the last 7,000 years of human civilization."

"There are Iraqi witnesses who would say that US troops were seen grabbing what they could from palaces, museums and administrative buildings while watching over the crowds they encourage to loot destroy and burn the buildings."

"- During the morning everybody that tried to cross the streets had been fired upon. But during this strange silence people eventually became curious. After three-quarters of an hour the first Baghdad citizens dared to come forward. At that moment the US soldiers shot two Sudanese guards, who were posted in front of a local administrative building, on the other side of the Haifa Avenue."

"- I was just 300 meters away when the guards where murdered. Then they shot the building entrance to pieces, and their Arabic translators in the tanks told people to run for grabs inside the building. Rumors spread rapidly and the house was cleaned out. Moments later tanks broke down the doors to the Justice Department, residing in the neighboring building, and looting was carried on to there."

[Timeout]

BCA: Are there ANY BagCams left... with sound?
__________________

MEG: You said you confessed you didn't know what hugh and series were.

I have to confess I still have no idea who Patti Ann Yum Yum is!

[BagCamAddict]

I want to post an amazingly blind, left-biased article about the "lies" we have been told by Bush, Rumsfeld, and Powell. I would like us to refute it point by point. Would someone please post it wherever is the most appropriate?

Here is the link:
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=210&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Here is just one example from the article:

"The US forces have captured enormous caches of weapons and ammunition from defeated and retreating Iraqi forces, but no evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons."

Counterpoint:
How many times do we have to say - IT HAS ONLY BEEN THREE WEEKS, and we have been BUSY FIGHTING A WAR !! Give it TIME !!


"The liars at the top of the US regime have now moved on and said that maybe the WMD were moved to neighboring countries, particularly Syria. Since US forces have controlled what is going in and out of Iraq since the beginning of the war, this seems to be another lie."

Counterpoint:
The Iraqi-Syrian border is approximately 500 kilometers long. It is porous. Smuggling across that area has gone on for hundreds of years. There is no 20-foot high fence. We can't be everywhere at once. We can't even stop drug smuggling into the US from Mexico, and we have full-time border patrol for that. To expect miracles out of our military is rediculous. Does this author have no concept of SPACE or DISTANCE? 500 Km long porous border that is a professional smuggler's paradise.

And there are plenty more blatantly WRONG statements in this article, such as that Basra was "bombarded" for FOUR WEEKS before the Brits went in. HELLO ??? Four weeks??? Apparently the author has no sense of TIME either.