US forces roll back into battle-scarred Iraqi holy city

[maddezmom]

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - A US armoured column entered the center of Karbala, residents of the Iraqi holy city told AFP, hours after the troops and militiamen loyal to a firebrand cleric deserted the area following weeks of heavy fighting.


"About 40 tanks and military vehicles advanced on the city centre by three roads," into the area around the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the world's holiest spots for Shiite Muslims, said resident Ghazwan Turki Juburi.


The US soldiers then ordered residents in Arabic by loudspeakers mounted on Humvees "to not go on their porches, not to approach windows and not open their doors," added another resident, Ali Hussein.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20040522/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_karbala_040522213400

And HeadlineNews just reported that the US Military was re-entering Kufa.

[bemildred]

1. Gee, I predict more dead soldiers. nt

[Just Me]

2. A column of 40 tanks and military vehicles.

WTF are they seeking to win??

They are taking over a holy city. What the fuck are they going to win by doing this?

Goddamnit!!!

The neocons attempted to compare Saddam to Hitler. How are they somehow comparing less to him, right now?

God, I feel sick. The neocons are waging their own "holy war". It has become way too obvious. Please let us somehow get through this election and unseat these bastards.

[Zhade]

3. WHAT election?

Do you honestly think these men are going to concede power?

Even if there IS an election, they won't leave the White House without a literal fight - not even if Kerry wins in a landslide.

[Just Me]

5. You know, Zhade, I don't even pretend to be able to tell the future.

But, I do confess that these "people" scare me,...what they are capable of,...scares me. Nevertheless, I'll stick with believing that there are combined "forces" that will swing this pendulum back. Those "forces" are at work every single day. Until those "forces" actually fail to overcome this challenge,...I refuse to operate in an forecasted position of "lose".

[Zhade]

8. Hey, I agree.

My point was not that we can't win, but that it will take a fight.

I mean, let's be clear, these people:

1. Stole their way into power...

2. Immediately began planning to illegally invade and occupy Iraq...

3. Looked the other way to allow 9/11 to happen - at BEST...

4. Began eviscerating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights...

5. Murdered thousands of innocents in Afghanistan, based only on evidence that they claimed they would provide proving the Taliban's and al Qaeda's involvement in 9/11 - which they never provided...

6. Launched an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, seized its oil fields, and allowed the country to plunge into chaos...

7. Set up a system for allowing war crimes...

The list goes on and on.

The men and women in the b*sh administration, and their willing enablers in Congress and the USSC, are traitors. Cut-and-dried.

Looking at what they've done so far, it's pretty obvious we will have to fight to bring America back from the brink of a fascist police state. This year is crucial to all of humanity. I believe people right here in America will die before these traitors are removed from power. We should acknowledge and accept this probability.

Also, while the CIA and the corporate media may indeed be fighting these traitors, let's not forget that they both have blood on their hands, and have been enabling treason for decades, not just the past three years. They may be against b*shco, but this does not instantly mean they are FOR us, the little guy. We'd be wise to remember that.

I'm ready to fight (and may wind up in Gitmo or dead before I see America restored). The question is, how and when, and who else in this country is ready?

If they suspend the Constitution and enact martial law, that's the utter red line for me. That's when I pick up a gun and fight, because without the Constitution, the social compact is destroyed, and I owe no allegiance of any kind to the government or its arbitrary laws.

[daleo]

4. Lunaville has U.S. military deaths at 799, coalition at 909

It sounds like these numbers could take a significant jump very soon. Maybe the military wanted a more conventional battle in the news, to take the prisoner torture and wedding massacre stories off the front pages. It sounds like someone is spoiling for a fight.

I notice there is hardly even a news release about military casualties any more. I suppose Viet Nam got that way too.

[bahrbearian]

6. We've gone from light Armor to Heavy Armor to keep our

casualties down. What about the Iraqi's hearts and minds? Are they Impressed by our might?

[paulk]

7. stupid is as stupid does

Sounds like Sadr is obeying Sistani's order (and the local tribal chieftain's) to lay down weapons.

The US should do the same - not occupy the city!

Now is the time for diplomacy - a word that doesn't seem to be in Bush's vocabulary.

[Robbien]

9. So the US military is going back on their word

They made a deal with al Sadr that they would pull out and then al Sadr would withdraw his troops.

Liars. They pulled out, al Sadr kept his end of the bargain and now the US military rolls back into town in their mighty tanks.

[maddezmom]

10. U.S. Forces, Iraq Cleric's Militia Battle in Kufa

BAGHDAD (AP)--Fighting flared anew in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf and nearby Kufa between U.S. soldiers and the Shiite militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, with bursts of heavy mortar and machine gun fire heard about midnight.

A live report on Al-Jazeera television from its correspondent in Najaf was punctuated by strong explosions near a downtown hotel.



A U.S. patrol moved into the center of another Shiite holy city, Karbala, late Saturday but found no sign of al-Sadr's militia. Residents told the soldiers that the militiamen fled the area the night before.

In Najaf, south of Baghdad, fighting broke out Saturday between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's militia near the city's police directorate and the governor's office. At least 10 people were injured in the Saturday clashes, which erupted again about midnight, according to Radhi Kadhim, a nurse at al-Hakim Hospital.

Residents of Najaf reached by telephone said they could hear the sounds of automatic weapons fire and explosives late Saturday coming from Najaf's twin city, Kufa, but efforts to reach anyone there were unsuccessful.

In Karbala, 10 people were arrested during the late night raid but there were no firefights during the incursion. Earlier, al-Sadr said both militiamen and U.S. forces had agreed to withdraw from the city.

~~~~~
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/international/middleeast/23WIRE-KUFA.html

[Barrett808]

11. Ah - surrounded - brilliant! n/t

[Dover]

12. Clinton - "..."I dont think Iraq was about oil and imperialism but it was

about unilateralism"???????

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D61622A9-3CF6-4F38-9C38-1B84E81C8BEE.htm

HUH ????? Who does he think he's kidding?