CBS: 4 GIs Die Amid Widespread Fighting (MSNBC reporting 6 KIA)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

Separate explosions killed four American soldiers as U.S. troops and Iraqi soldiers stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan this week.

Last year, insurgents sharply increased their attacks against U.S. and coalition forces at the start of the holy month.

One soldier was killed in an explosion about 4:50 a.m. Wednesday in western Baghdad, the U.S. command said. The three others died in a roadside attack at about 10 p.m. Tuesday in eastern Baghdad, a separate military statement said. At least 1,069 troops have died in Iraq.

It wasn't immediately clear if the soldiers were part of Tuesday's offensive, which stretched from Baghdad to the Syrian border.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6095119/

Roadside bombings killed six American soldiers, the U.S. command said Wednesday, as U.S. and Iraqi troops stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before this week's start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The dead included two soldiers killed Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul when a suicide driver plowed into a U.S. convoy and blew up his car, the U.S. military said. The other were four killed in separate attacks late Tuesday and early Wednesday in Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

Five soldiers were also injured in the Mosul attack -- the second suicide operation against American forces there in the past three days.

I guess they keep coming back for more and willing to die too

Geez:mad:

Just saw on Msnbc news page. Four killed late Tuesday and early Wednesday, two killed this morning.

Rest in peace.

Goddamn these people.

"Be afraid, but all is well in Iraq and elections will be held in January. Abortion is bad, tax cuts for the rich are good, screw the enviroment, and be afraid but be resolute and vote for George Bush!"

-"I'm George Bush, and I approve this message"

:eyes:

:silly: ......or not?

That is messed up in so many ways I don't want to think about it.

...things would have turned out much, much differently. As it was, they mostly only had machetes and a few rifles. Not a very good analogy (though I've heard it before).

I'm hitting "Reply" to that email as I type this.

For "Moslem extremist" activities in the period this babble suggests they were absent throughout the world, off the top of my head there is the Rif War in Morocco, Ibn Saud's Wahabis driving north into Iraq and Trans-Jordan, the great 1919 outbreak in Afghanistan, and more subsequent venturings on the "Bloody Nor'west" than history easily recalls, the "Mad Mullah" in Somolia, and doubtless our friend Mr. Aidoneus could provide many more....

"It ain't what you don;t know, it's what you know that ain't so."

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

It sometimes surprises even me, if slightly, that anybody actually believes these things..

prior to the creation of the State of Israel, is it not? And all
thanks to Gen. Pershing.

This is more than an Urban Legend---Its an out right lie.

"thirty-thousand (US soldiers) killed a million" in the Phillipines. And we won the war by offering to negotiate with the insurgent leader, Aguinaldo, then took him captive and killed him.

Does the author really think this tactic will work? Did it even work then? ("Anywhere in the world"? Where else in the world was the US oppressing Muslims in 1924?)

...lived to the ripe old age of 95 (1869-1964). He was captured, though, and forced to swear allegiance to the USA. Short bio at:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/aguinaldo.html

I remember seeing a photo of Aguinaldo in Life magazine shortly before his death--part of their syndication of MacArthur's pompous and self-serving autobiography.

:hi:

I was posing from faulty memory.

That's how come we had to trick him. The little brown
people know better than to trust the word of the USA these
days.

in the sense that the US retained control. Not a very good model for Iraq, however.

I thought they under US control for quite a while after the war. Is that not true?

On Edit: After looking at the web:

Looks like the war officially ended in 1902, and the Phillipines were under direct American control for 14 years. In 1916, they had general elections for Senate but the governor was still appointed by the US president. In 1935, they voted for independence which took effect in 1946.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~vmitchel/fw5.html

Independence was a "reward" for fighting the Japanese in WWII, sort of.
Or so I have read.

But I was talking about the military part of the conflict where
Aguinaldo and his minions gave a rather good account of themselves
until he was captured, and the war became a progressive cause celebre.
They resorted to a ruse to capture him because the war was not
working out militarily. Guerilla wars never do.

It really does fit nicely as the US' "first VietNam". In a way its
unfortunate that we got away with it.

It is a case where "decapitation" seems to have worked to some degree.
They removed Aguinaldo and the scale of resistance declined a good deal.

http://www.historyguy.com/PhilipineAmericanwar.html

http://www.librarylink.org.ph/featarticle.asp?articleid=30

During the Philippine-American War, the main concern of the American invading army was to destroy Filipino resistance to their glorified escapade. And, because General Emilio Aguinaldo was the
driving force behind the Philippine revolution, the Americans? main goal was to capture him and destroy the troops immediately under him. To the Americans, it was clear that as long as Aguinaldo
was enjoying his freedom, the Filipino?s fight in defense of their republic would continue indefinitely, for Aguinaldo stood for independence and democracy. Thus, a plan for a three-pronged
campaign was made.

---

Bloody engagements resulted in this campaign. As Filipino generals defied the Americans, the war lengthened to two more years at the cost of an immense sacrifice of life and money on the part of
the Americans, Aguinaldo was so elusive he was able to dodge the American troops and carried the war farther north. This crafty evasion temporarily paid off.

General Otis, the American military governor, did not know what to make of their continuous failure to capture Aguinaldo. Defending General Wheaton and the others involved in the campaign, he
averted criticisms aimed at them alleging that it was always easy for a small ?guerilla band? to escape apprehension by larger forces. Unknown to Otis, Aguinaldo was retreating with more than
2100 men and that the topography of northern Luzon was as unfamiliar to him as to the Americans.

---

Tal Placido and Segovia set foot in the house where Aguinaldo, unaware of treachery, welcomed them. At a given signal, the Macabebes suddenly opened fire on the guards who, caught by surprise,
were easily overpowered. While the Macabebes turned against their countrymen, Tal Placido grabbed Aguinaldo from behind. The firing, however, unnerved Tal Placido, who promptly fell on his
stomach. Segovia began firing like a madman. Fearing for his general?s life, Colonel Simeon Villa shielded Aguinaldo from the bullets. Aguinaldo, who had whipped his pistol, wanted to fight to his
death. But Dr. Santiago Barcelona held him by the arms, saying ?My general, you owe it to our people to live and continue fighting for freedom.?

It has the quality of an urban legend about it - at least the part about their being no "Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world" in the next 50 years. If we assume that "just before WW1" plus 50 years gets one into the 1960's, the author of this screed has skipped the entire Muslim-Hindu conflict and partition of India, among other things.

and untrue.

The so-called "terrorist" attacks mentioned in this filth were attacks against an occupation force that invaded under ridiculously false pretenses, stuck around to enforce an unpopular colonial regime and just generally slaughtered thousands ... hm, sounds a little familiar. No wonder the propaganda is being recycled & reinvented.

The "terrorist extremists" in question were called the 'Moros' by the first detachment of al-Cracka terror cells to invade and occupy the islands, because they were like the Muslims the Spanish had just genocided out of Iberia, while they were also committing mass murder and enslavement of the natives of the "American" continents. The 'Moros', Malay-speaking polynesian peoples who had been converted to Islam by Indian & Indonesian traders hundreds of years before, had for hundreds of years faced a sustained campaign of genocide on the part of the Spanish, "Filipino Christian" converts and slaves of the Spanish occupation, the Japanese fascists and their proxies, and later American forces and their local proxies (later, also under the dictator Marcos and his "democratic" successors). Today they are a minority on their own homelands thanks to these extended genocide campaigns and still ritually demonized and assaulted.

As for the bit about nothing around the world.. well, Magistrate aptly spoke of a half dozen within just a couple years in, to say nothing of the other decades involved. I'd say it might be a parody, but there actually are people that stupid, so.. :shrug:

The people who create and spread this kind of work are the enemy, it being indicative of their state of mind and designs on the world, and should be fought like one. And laughed at.--But if one, then the other.

for you along with the snopes

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_black_jack_pershing.htm

with the person who sent the email. Boy, was he upset! I told him he should check facts before he blindly follows. If he could have choked me, he would have. Priceless. Thank you, DU'ers. You're the best. I shouldn't believe all I read either. Thanks for setting me straight.

The British also used this in Africa.

....his name is on the Wall.

actually what he failed to mention is that the muslim revolt continues to this day.

I casualties (My source) always requires DOD confirmation.

I'm sure just looking at it ---this probably is right.

Its probably 1082 or 1083

the Mosul deaths from the suicide bombing may have already been counted, as they were from earlier. I don't remember if they're at iCasualties or DoD confirmed as yet, though the reports of them broke around this time yesterday if I remember right, or before. So, 1080 may still be the officially confirmed figure.

I see now from another article,

A suicide driver plowed into a U.S. convoy and blew up his car Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul, killing two American soldiers and wounding five, according to the military. It was the second deadly suicide attack against American convoys in Mosul in the past three days.

So that's that, and it is a new one.

Perhaps you remember the story from the reporter that was
held hostage in Mosul for a week or two? He said he expected
it to self-ignite soon.

:cry:

How many Americans know this? Do they even realize soldiers are still getting killed? Do they even care?

furious george who never risked his ass
for anything accepts these numbers as
worth the cost for downing a 2 bit dictator.

1 a day =365 a year
2 a day =730 a year
3 a day =1,095 a year
4 a day =1,460 a year
5 a day =1,825 a year
6 a day =2,190 a year
7 a day =2,555 a year
8 a day =2,920 a year
9 a day =3,285 a year
10 a day = 3,650 a year
11 a day = 4,015 a year
12 a day = 4,380 a year
13 a day = 4,745 a year
14 a day = 5,110 a year
15 a day = 5,475 a year
16 a day = 5,840 a year
17 a day = 6,205 a year
18 a day = 6,570 a year
19 a day = 6,935 a year
20 a day = 7,300 a year

and on and on and on.......

Think about the reaction for a minute... what if in a training exercise in North Corolina (or wherever in the U.S.) a chopper went down killing 6 soldiers. I can just about guarantee that it would get more air time and more people would know about it than any incident that has occurred yet in Iraq. This is important because in Iraq it is bigger news because these are not "accidents" they are fighting the people we were suppose to be liberating. Depressing.

Enough of my rant...

five car bombings a month in Iraq. "We're keeping the peace quite well," he(she) says.

Idiot.

The anti-occupation forces will be highly motivated in the next few weeks, so there will probably be a lot of death on both sides. But, remember that Bush chose this war.

Hyped up on their Oxycontin whipping up the masses into frantic fear of "libruls" and acting blase about the deaths of some mama's baby. " What are you asking about? Oh, that? The Iraq War? How boring. So some poor slob heathen died over there. He asked for it. But hey, buy a little ribbon from me because you support the troops, don't you? Now, on to what a wench Mama T is......"

until after the November election. I hate it when reality intrudes into my war game.