Twenty-Two U.S. Troops Killed in Falluja -U.S. General

NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Twenty-two American troops have been killed and 170 wounded in the four-day assault on Falluja that has seen U.S. forces take about 80 percent of the rebel city so far, a U.S. Marine general said on Friday.

Lieutenant General Thomas Sattler, commander of the offensive, said five Iraqis had also been killed in the operation launched in a blaze of artillery fire on Monday. But U.S. forces were still conducting house-to-house searches for insurgents.

"We occupy about 80 percent of the city right now," Sattler told reporters at a U.S. base on the edge of Falluja. "There is much clearing to be done even though we occupy about 80 percent."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=5&u=/nm/20041112/ts_nm/iraq_usa_casualties_dc

Good thing this happened after the election, otherwise people might have thought twice!

eom

Or are we just being fed "we are winning, yea team" facts to make us feel like we are getting something for the blood of our fellow Americans?

I thought they said earlier that it would be very easy until the end, when all the insurgents were in the center of the city.

they are playing whack-a-mole for dummies...

That's right before you Napalm, the rag heads and make cooked blackened bacon out of them.

:puke: fucking fundie freaks....

Orwellian

Freedumb is on the march. :puke:

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

is not to take and hold territory, but to strike at targets of opportunity.

They do need some base of operations, and they had one in Fallujah, so this is taking that away from them. But guerillas tend to be pretty mobil and there are many other areas that will serve, and are serving as bases. We simply don't have the number of troops necessary to hold them all.

It probably won't be possible no matter how many troops we have in there.

Because you know the military guys have studied the war in Vietnam. And just consider that, presumably, the Iraqi insurgents don't have the military infrastructure that the North Vietnamese had and the South Vietnamese sympathizers had. Just imagine if there's an Iraqi version of Giap gaming the strategies.

it isn't all THAT hard to move a base for guerillas, terrorists, insurgents, what have you.

We can't physically occupy enough cities.

And the Iraqis aren't helping.

to fight and how many slipped out of Fallujah before the battle even began, but most admit at the very least all the leaders got away.
Kinda makes this just another bunch of folks on both sides dead or wounded in vain...and one more city to rebuild on our dime.
Real shrewd, bushco.

Who will give their only son to now liberate Mosul?

Don't forget that our government doesn't count as Killed In Action the soldiers whose wounds are so grave, they die en route to Germany or in the hospital in Germany.

I'll wager those numbers are, in reality, much, much higher.

Gee. Our government playing fast and loose with facts. I am shocked.

22 US soldiers killed, from the best trained and equipped military in history. 5 Iraqis killed, from a military that didn't exist a couple of months ago. The Pentagon likes to pretend that this is a shared operation between the two forces, half of the force attacking Fallujah are Iraqis. So why are the caualties so different? are Iraqis not on the front lines? are they not fighting? interesting.

after chimpy had already killed more than 1100 troops in a war that he clearly lied us into, this wouldn't have done it either. More likely just made people rally around their "wartime president" even more.

Still, it's clear that he was just waiting for the election to be finished to begin the bloodbath in Fallujah.

Maybe people will begin to think twice once the draft gets started. Then they will start to have a real stake in it. Until then, it's just a video game for most people.

18 on the first day, and only 4 in the last 3 days?

How many are starving to death, or dying from thirst, or dying from lack of medical attention -- how long will the Iraqi doctors and nurses be prevented from working in Iraqi hospitals?

Seems like the goal is to make the city unlivable.

Now we know what happens when serial killers are put in the white house by psychotic GOPigs.

Will the troops ever regain their humanity? And how many will turn to hunting and killing of US citizens -- after crossing over to the dark side and getting a taste of the forbidden fruit? (Tim McVeigh and the DC sniper come quickly to mind.)

That's over 25% from our state alone.

that we know of. I don't trust them to tell the truth.

F*** you Bush/Blair!!!!!

Our flags will be flying at half staff once again.

how many of our Iraqi "allies" have been killed thus far in the war? I have found these stats to be elusive. It seems important too. How can we accurately assess the success of our campaign if we don't know the actual number of casualties? Bush made such a case about the contributions made by the Iraqis in debate number one but we never hear any hard numbers on their casualties for some reason. To me, it seems like selective perception. We percieve that everything is going well because we don't percieve the actual number of casualties inflicted upon us by the enemy.

and Iraqi civilians, police and recruits are taking huge hits.

The attacks and car bombs are largely targeting Iraqis, as soft targets and as the lynchpin of Bush's strategy.