Another day in Iraq

By Steve Gilliard

I was watching Rudy Giuliani talk about our "liberation" of Iraq on TV and I said aloud, "hell, he has a 17 year old. My dad joined the Marines at 17, why not Andy Giuliani. Big kid like him would do great behind a GPMG or M249 in a Marine infantry squad. Why, a few weeks at Parris Island and a few more at AP Hill would get him into fine shape. And then he could participate in the liberation of Iraq."

Which of course will never happen.

Because popular GOP politicians sons do not get to do this.

The link takes you to a collection of pictures of Americans wounded in Iraq. No one famous in these shots. They go to war every day and other people don't. While Paul and Dick and Condi lie to our faces, those pictures depict our day in, day out war in Iraq.

A translated article from Der Speigel gives you a hint of the happy happy joy joy attitude of our fighting men in Iraq.

The mood in the US army camp on the outskirts of the city is no less dismal. "They told us that the fastest way home went through Baghdad," complains First Sergeant Anthony Joseph of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division. "We captured the city, and now we're still sitting here."

First Sergeant Joseph is actually a press officer, and his job is to make sure that the image he projects of Camp "Dreamland" is as rosy as possible. But he isn't terribly interested in that. Like his fellow soldiers, he wants to go home

But then, between the kidnappings, six hour gunfights, and horrid screwups, many Iraqis are feeling a lot more occupied than liberated, no matter what fantasy rolls off of Rudy Giuliani's tongue.

Within two hours soldiers attached to this so-called elite unit had shot and killed at least five people. Their actions have provoked anger towards the coalition in this previously peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood that is likely to simmer for some time to come

............
Fifteen minutes later, a Toyota Corona being driven by a man called Mazin, who was disabled and walked with the aid of a frame, arrived in the area. His wife was in the passenger seat and his teenage son in the back. .... A bullet from the volley of shots fired at the car passed through the windscreen and blew off the right half his head,

But while the prince was taking the raid calmly, elsewhere in Mansur it provoked a reaction that was anything but. "We consider the Americans now as war criminals," said Mahmoud al-Baghdadi, a 32-year-old baker. "They claim to be fighting terrorism, but they cannot defend freedom by killing disabled people."

Every day, more people die and the hate grows. If that's the flypaper theory, then it's working far better than anyone could ever have imagined.

Posted July 29, 2003 03:22 PM