5 Marines Killed as U.S. Pushes Sweep in Western Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/international/middleeast/16cnd-marines.html?ex=1289797200&en=13682a9f7b9b6a61&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

UBAYDI, Iraq, Nov 16 - Five Marines were killed and 11 were wounded this morning while they searched a house on the outskirts of this town in western Anbar Province, officials said. It was the deadliest day for American troops since beginning a wide sweep of several towns along the Euphrates River near the Syrian border on Nov. 5.

Five more families devastated.
I couldn't loathe Bush and cronies more if I tried.

:hug:

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

50 DEAD in 16 days! I wonder if the TV will mention this.

:cry:

What the hell is the difference between a "Marine" and a "soldier?" I see the two different terms mentioned in the same story all the time.

Iwould tell you the difference is the training and mission. Put this way, if the Army has a million troops, the Marine Corps has 100,000. The Marines are trained for initial assualts, shock type missions to secure a foothold and then turn it over to the Army.
Also, every Marine (at least when I was in) is trained as a rifleman. Therefore, when push comes to shove the clerk, cooks and truck drivers pick up a weapon and man a post....

the difference mainly is that soldiers are army, Marines are land/sea warriors. The Marine Corp is a very tough diciplined branch of the military, it would be like comparing them to the Spartans.
Has anyone noticed how fast the dead and wounded ate multiplying?
Either the Iraqis have figured out our game and have adapted, or our men and women are getting worn the fuck out, it's probably a combination.
Let's get the hell out of there let the chips fall where they will and help rebuild what we've fucked up after their civil war.

and all his evil minions and this misbegotten war. At least now I have some glimmer of hope that others are beginning to see the truth and what it means for all of us. Now let us just hope that the truth will set us free. Meanwhile, we can mourn for the continued losses of those who had every right to live, and send our sympathy to those they have left behind to grieve.

Tired Old Cynic

at the Imperial Pig Farm upon Crawford, and so sends regrets that he will be unable to attend these funerals -- just as he has been AWOL from every single funeral and memorial service for our 2,000 soldiers who died in this ugly OIL war.

AWOL. Again.

:rofl:

The great sleeping mass of people in the U.S. have finally been aroused from their slumber and they are pissed.

:cry:

I am so glad that we don't use lions to torture and that the insurgency is in its last throes and that everything is getting better in Iraq what with the locating of a new torture prison that is definitely not one of the USofA's and that Saddam can be slapped around by religious nuts with our guards deciding not to intervene and the hail of flowers and candy at our troops is picking up speed.

:cry:

Let the conservative logic continue: thousands more Americans must die in the sands of Iraq so that the thousands who have already died did not die in vain.

go fight this war for their hero, Bush. Let him lead them in battle. Let the Young Republicans be his Imperial Bodyguards. If conservatives think this is such a "noble" cause, then let them serve.

They won't, of course, because they are cowards, and bullies, and afraid of everything but their own twisted kind. What do they think of their glorious leader, afraid to have day to day dealings with anyone but the four mommy/nanny figures in his life?

My sympathy to the families of the slain, and also to the families of the wounded. They will be facing their own hell, and some of them will never have a chance at a normal life now.

Like their heroes Cheney and Wolfowitz

We are losing American lives at an alarming rate.
Next will probably be contrasting stats like during the Vietnam War.

Like: We lost 4 guys, but they lost 40.

Like scores at a basketball game. And the public will eat it up.

:puke:

not in my name!

while taking a piss break in the pentagon mens room.

...

Notice the wording: "while they searched a house..."

This means that the Iraqis most probably knew the Americans were coming. They have dealt with this before: US troops driving on rickety old roads, easy to booby-trap with explosives. US troops walk in tiny alleyways; easy to rig with a bomb.

US troops typically barge in to homes, they walk in and frisk everyone; including young women, kids and even search around in baby cribs for bombs. I understand this pushes muslims to the point of maniacal homicide.

The American troops were probably expected, and the villagers prepared accordingly. Expect more. R.I.P.

Lure people into the building, then blow it up on top of them. The Germans and Canadians both used this trick in Ortona. I suppose it is as old as war and bombs, though.

:kick:

I will find a link when posted

out of office and put on a front line combat unit for a month. If they survive they get to keep their seat until the next election.

That spiral out from EACH ONE of these deaths. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends, teachers, co-workers. That negativity has got to go somewhere. I am really afraid where the anger is going to go.

cannot even contemplate the idea that their child died because a president lied about WMDs, so they get on the radio with Hannity or Savage, and they talk about how they love Bush, and how these damn Democrats are undermining their child in Iraq.

I bet wives are more realistic, but mothers...I don't know that I could admit my son died so Cheney could make millions and Halliburton could make billions because I don't think I could contain that kind of anger. How do you deal with that??

How many people are simply *not able* to process the staggering lies. I feel for these people, I really do. I have no idea how I would deal with the loss of a loved one in this situation.

saying the insurgents were getting weaker and weaker, that they were entering the political arena, and that deadly days like this are just temporary.

I feel so much better now - I bet that the families of these killed soldiers do, too.

(sarcasm)

follow FAUX News will give Rumsfeld any credibility.

you bet!! sneered rummy

A young man was killed today. He was among the five whom were killed in Iraq. He was the youngest son of a couple I know. I cannot imagine the grief his mother is going through. She is a guidance counselor in our local high school. Her ex-husband is a former judge. Their son was the valedictorian of his high school graduating class and a graduate of William and Mary College in Virginia. He hadn't been in Iraq long. When I heard the news, I felt sick. Then I felt even sicker because I hadn't felt this feeling of utter sickness even though 2078 soldiers have died before him. The anger and loathing I have toward Bush is something I can't put into words. When he ran for the presidency in 2000, I saw him for the first time on television. He was the epitome of evil. He was then, and even more now. We have to get our troops out of Iraq; no matter what the cost. Please pray for our troops because they are our children. They do not deserve the recklessness in which their lives have been put.

Nov. 17, 2005, 12:43AM

5 Marines die in sweep of house
Squad was hit by explosion, then small arms fire and grenades from insurgents inside
By KIRK SEMPLE
New York Times

OBEIDI, IRAQ - Five U.S. Marines were killed and 11 wounded Wednesday in an ambush at a farmhouse while hunting for insurgents on the outskirts of this rural town, Marine officials said. It was the deadliest day for the Marines since beginning an aggressive sweep near the Syrian border early this month.
(snip)

The sequence of events on the Syrian border was not clear, Marine commanders said, but testimony by survivors indicated that a squad had just entered a farmhouse in Obeidi when an explosion occurred, possibly from a hand grenade or a homemade bomb planted by rebels.

The blast inflicted at least one casualty, and as squad members struggled to extract the fallen Marine, insurgents hiding in the house attacked them with small arms and "a lot of grenades," said Col. Stephen W. Davis, commander of Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division.

The dead and wounded were recovered from the farmhouse, and 16 rebels in the house and its vicinity were killed in the gunbattle, the commander said.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3466897
(Free registration required)

When will it be enough? When?

:cry:

This is just horrible.

How much longer will this go on? :cry: