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news report
 Wednesday April 30, 2003 17:35 by dataflow4
 by Caoimhe Butterly in Baghdad : 29 April 2003 Its atmosphere, upon entry, is markedly different to that of Baghdad. The American military presence is much less pronounced, there is a marked absence of foreign press. Faluja, it seems, is not bleeding enough to lead. The road to Faluja is strewn with discarded tanks and burned out cars and palm groves whose depth of green contrasts strikingly with the parched earth leading out of Baghdad. Its atmosphere, upon entry, is markedly different to that of Baghdad. The American military presence is much less pronounced, there is a marked absence of foreign press. Faluja, it seems, is not bleeding enough to lead. Passing by children bathing in a river set aglow by the setting sun, “They are sick. They are deeply, deeply sick. Tell the Americans we don’t believe in this freedom” says an elderly man. His comment is one of the many of the crowd that surround us yelling their pain and anger –demanding an explanation, a response – “why?” Later, we move on, to the school occupied by the American military for the past week. It is here that - we are told – a non violent orderly The American troops as we arrive, are packing up. This is not a media stunt – the media have come and gone – a constant traffic, all day, through the hospital. Pictures taken, grief and loss encapsulated into palatable sound bites. This withdrawal is tactical. The public relations campaign of a benign occupation will be difficult to maintain if there is follow-up to this particular massacre. If there are charges pressed by the families, by the brothers who were hit by stray bullets inside their house. If there is investigation into the legitimacy of the official army version of events. It will become difficult, if there can be, in Falluja, a focal center for people’s anger and frustration, an occupied school, snipers pointing guns at people entering and exited the mosque. It is easier for everyone, if the Liberation – an ephemeral, passing phenomena has come and gone in Falluja. It came, sat uncomfortably for a week – without translators, cultural or historical sensibility, brought a temporary horde of journalists to record its only lasting impression on a community; that of violence, and pain, and loss; and left. Falluja, we are told later via a news report by a BBC reporter, has always been “anti American”. This should, and will, nullify or qualm any murmurings of distrust abroad as to what lies ahead.
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Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11[Moved by R Isible to become a comment on this earlier Iraq related story. Note to nolympics: either your URLs or slash.autonomedia is borked, neither this one nor the next one that you submitted to the newswire worked.]
Peter linebaugh recounts May day of 1916. Troops of the British Army revolt in Basra as others face defeat in Kut. Meanwhile Rosa Luxemburg increases the peace in Kienthal, Switzerland.
US army kill more demonstrators in Falluja
by James McKenna Thu, May 1 2003, 8:09am
[email protected]
two die, eight shot
[Moved by R Isible to become comment] For the second time in a couple of days the US army 82nd Airborne division has shot dead unarmed demonstraters in Falluja. The Army claim they were fired on (see Bloody Sunday, Derry 1969) but eyewitnesses say the US started the firing.
Thousands of Iraqis outraged at the shooting dead of 15 people and the shooting of 53 others, some children, marched yesterday to the batallion headquarters of the US army in Falluja. The US in true Animal Farm fashion are in the compound sed by Saddam and the Baath party.
Major Michael Marty said that soldiers travelling in a vehicle convoy opened fire when shots were fired at them from a crowd who earlier had thrown stones. Local eyewitness said a soldier in Saddams compound became frightened and fired into the air in the direction of the US vehicle convoy. Vehicles in the convoy then opened fire on the demonstrators.
A local hospital official said two people died from shots to the head and around 10 others were injures by bullets or shrapnel.
The domonstrators remain defiant against the illegal plunderers and sign after the killings read....
-"Sooner or later US killers we will kick you out"-
and....
_"US army is the killer of innocent people-"
Meanwhle a Belgian lawyer is preparing a case against US commander Tommy Franks on behalf of five Iraqi people. He is to be charged initially with the war crimes the using cluster bombs and the wholesale bombing of civilian areas.
Our own politicians should prepare for a few documents in the mail too. Their complicity in the war or war crimes may be debatable in the Irish kangaroo courts and in their own minds but under international law they too are very clearly war criminals. We will cheer you off from the airport Mary, Bertie, Brian, Michael, and Michael as you head for a cell next to Milosovich in Den Haag.
related link: Al Jazeera TV
add your comments
COMMENTS
That crowd are all Saddam supporters
by Josef Thu, May 1 2003, 9:54am
Iraq is awash with guns, is it wise to fire them in the air in celebration in the presence of troops from an occupying power? Duh!
These are all Baathists who never gave a flying f*** about the rest of country and the rest of the country doesn't give a toss about them.
The only ones protesting the US presence are the religious hotheads and the Baathists. The silent majority know that a US pullout immediately would leave a dangerous vacuum which the above mentioned groups are only too eager to fill.
Iraqis are a well educated cultured people, they know they don't want another Iran.
Democracy means killing those who disagree with you
by Josef the fool Thu, May 1 2003, 10:09am
The US is freeing the people of Iraq by killing those who want to choose for themselves how the country should be run. Everyone in Iraq is happy with this except the dead but they don't matter because they didn't agree with the US. Freedom as we all know means the right to do what the US tells us we may do. Otherwise it means we will be shot. This is called democracy
signed
Josef the fool
aged 4 3/4
Stone-throwing children put troops on edge
by Kieran Murray Thu, May 1 2003, 10:35am
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - The love affair between U.S. troops and Iraqi children is turning sour.
As the invading troops pushed north towards Baghdad in the first weeks of the war, it was always the children in every town that came out first to smile, wave, give the thumbs-up and shout the same greeting: "Good, good, good!"
Happy to see a friendly face, the soldiers waved back and many handed out candies from their field rations.
But this correspondent, who has travelled with U.S. troops since the start of the war, has seen more and more of the encounters ending with some children, usually the older ones in their early teens, hurling stones at the soldiers.
It can be a Catch-22 situation for the troops. If they let the children swarm around them, they expose themselves to possible attack from adults who can use the cover to get close and throw in a hand grenade.
But if they push them back, it hurts their efforts to win over the civilian population, and can spark the stone throwing.
"It`s frustrating. They`re like little gnats that you can`t get away," said Captain James McGahey, a company commander of the 101st Airborne Division who says almost every one of the patrols he sends out in the northern city of Mosul gets stoned.
"Everybody loves kids but it`s impossible to love 300 of them when they all want to touch you, talk to you and grab you, especially when there are a few out there who want to chuck stones."
RAINING STONES
In one typical incident this weekend, a group of soldiers on foot patrol attracted an ever-increasing posse of children as they moved past a local fire station and on through a rough neighbourhood of Mosul.
By the time they reached a school building, at least 200 children and a small group of adults were around them, and the stones came raining in from about a dozen of the older kids.
"They were throwing them like they were pitching a baseball," said Sgt John McLean, who was hit on the helmet, in the back and on the heel.
The troops pulled away and took up a defensive position but even then the children and adults only dispersed when a warning shot was fired over their heads.
"Everyone tries to be as nice as we can with them but it does get difficult. They definitely impede the job we`re trying to do because you have to put half your guys on keeping the children away," McLean said.
ROCKS AND PUPPIES
The problem is not confined to Mosul.
Crowds of 250-300 Iraqi teenagers hurled stones at U.S. Marines patrolling the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday, officers said.
In Kerbala earlier this month, a group of children threw rocks and then kicked puppies over a wall and into a compound where U.S. troops were camped. When the soldiers handed the puppies back with a warning, it was only a few minutes before they were kicked back over the wall.
The problems arise once a crowd grows too large. When troops walk through quieter neighbourhoods, the mood is usually good and some soldiers still take pictures of their buddies posing with young children.
When the crowds get bigger, army-hired interpreters ask adults to keep the children at a distance for their own safety. If trouble starts, the soldiers try to pull out of the area by truck and resume foot patrols once the crowd disperses.
And there is much less sharing of sweets or pencils because it encourages more children to swarm in.
"We call them seagulls because if you give one seagull a piece of bread, the next minute you`ll have a whole flock of them," one soldier said.
Pictures at:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1605968.php
Payback time
by kokomero Thu, May 1 2003, 10:53am
7 US soldiers have been wounded in a grenade attack in retalliation for earlier US attrocities ... a far cry from the "cheering" crowds a few weeks ago!
Be careful
by Josef Thu, May 1 2003, 12:27pm
When it's written down it sounds like you're gloating.
Monday, Bloody Monday
by Maubere Thu, May 1 2003, 1:30pm
“And its true we are immune, when fact is fiction and TV is reality,
and today the millions cry, we eat and drink while tomorrow they die”
Sunday, Bloody Sunday. U2
The massacre on Monday night in Fallaja will be eerily familiar to Irish people,
*The crowds initially cheering the "liberators"
*The locals soon realising that the "liberators" are in fact conquerers
*The locals protesting against the occupation
*The occupiing army killing civilian demonstrators
*The excuses the US army are almost identical to the one used by the UK army on Bloody Sunday,
eg, We were fired on first, We took carfull aim and shot only gunmen (which explains why they used a machine gun and killed six children), some of the protestors may have been killed by shots from the "gunmen"
US Commander in Fallaja said to the crowd "We came here to liberate your country"
An Iraqi answered "We don't want your liberation"
The Commander was speechless.
Today's grenade attack is the first post Saddam attack against the US forces as far as I know, the war of liberation may have begun
Any opposition (armed or peacefull) will be said to be
Iranian interferance
Saddam's supporters
Al Queda
"Terrorists"
Any excuse will be given, the one thing they will never say is that the majority of Iraqis don't want them there
from Amerika
by wasichu Thu, May 1 2003, 2:06pm
Josef, Mr. Practical Killing, is warniing someone about gloating? Worry about your own soul, murder apologist.
Josef, we really need you here in the US of A, working for State Department....that is if you are not here already. Someone so in tune with the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people would be invaluble asset.
The word is identify not gloat
by kokomero Thu, May 1 2003, 2:36pm
Josef,
if my friends or family were maimed or killed by an occupying army I dont think I would stand idly by!
In Ireland we have a long history of resistance to colonisation and repression so I like many Irish people identify with others in this predicament independently of their religious and political persuasion.
Perhaps if you had any concept of what it is like to be under colonial occupation you wouldn't be involved in excusing it or carrying it out.
"In Ireland we have a long history of resistance to colonisation and repression so I like many Irish people identify with others in this predicament independently of their religious and political persuasion.!"
Well you didn't do a lot of indentifying with the repression suffered by people under Saddam.
Full of crap, you are.
I am on record on this site as saying the best people to remove Saddam were the Iraqis. I stand by this statement and the negative reaction to occupation is testament to its veracity and entirely predictable.
The Romanians didn't need any help to get rid of Ceaucescu and his secret police so why should the Iraqis need a foreign army to liberate them (from their oil)?
"almost every one of the patrols he sends out in the northern city of Mosul gets stoned"
Hey it IS just like Vietnam
Iraq was a very different situation to Romania. the Sunni minority was the army, the Sunni minority was the government. The Sunni minority benefitted greatly under Saddam at the expense of Shias and Kurds. The Shias and Kurds tried an uprising before but got massacred.
There was no way to shift the Baathists without help from outside.
anyway, too many people had died of sanctios to wait around any longer hoping for a miracle. It wasn't going to happen.
Also, Ceaucescu fell as part of a domino effect throughout Eastern Europe. Totally different circumstances.
Do you see?
Any corrupt regieme requires the support of a clique. This support is usually maintained through the use of favours, jobs in the Army, police or civil service etc.
In this respect Romania was no different to Iraq. As for your domino effect, don't forget that Iraq had long ago run out of friends too so that argument doesnt hold water either.
I believe there was no revolution by the Iraqis because the US/K did not want them to rise up. This is evidenced by the fact that the Iraqi "resistance" and Kurds were carefully stage managed by the US/K and were not allowed to be seen to be the prime movers in the downfall of Saddam, leaving the US/K to decide who will form the puppet government of Iraq.
"Be careful
by Josef Thu, May 1 2003, 12:27pm
When it's written down it sounds like you're gloating."
_________________________________________
Why be 'careful' - USrael Israelzionist supporter?
Am I gloating? Sure. You bet I am. I am gloating that a lying, bullying plutocratic hypocritical government like the US - is being Beautifully exposed by the people whom it has attempted to deceive and exploit - for one thing. Their OIL.
The US lied about "fully substantiated evidence of WofMD" in Iraq that it 'couldn't reveal it's sources on' for fear of 'compromising' them. NO WMD. A lie.
The US lied next about Still having as an Objective of just 'removing Saddam' and then allowing the Iraqis to 'democratically' work out their own politics and government.
The Iraqi people never 'Asked the US to free them from Saddam'. The Iraqi people never asked for their Entire country government building and industry Infrastructure to be bombed to rubble by the US in its Self-assumed 'mission' to free the Iraqis from Saddam. The Iraqis did not agree to pay the US Billions to destroy the infrastructure of their country and then rebuild it US-Israeli style.
The US lied about Iraqis hating Saddam so much that they would be 'dancing in the streets' when the US 'liberated' them from him. The Iraqis hate the USrael liars as much as some of them hated Saddam. The Iraqis hated the US so much that the US had to STAGE the picture of the toppling of Saddam's giant statue in Baghdad with a phony US Iraqi puppet exile group - the US Chalabi group that had feasted and drank in London and the US while some of the Iraqis suffered under US sanctions and Saddam's discriminatory oppression. The real Iraqis wanted no part of their US 'liberation'.They don't want these Fat Cat US-puppets as their government. Who would?
The Iraqis aren't freed - they have been ENSLAVED now by the US and they are telling the US "OK. You got your mission accomplished. You got Saddam out. Now leave our country and let us free to work out our own destiny. We don't want your help in working out our destiny. Because you are ruled by Israeli power groups."
So now US kill-who-ever-they-are-told-to-kil thug troops, the 'liberators' are now killing Iraqis in protest crowds to keep them 'free'.
"War is Peace" "Ignorance is Strength" "Freedom is Slavery" these are American-Israeli 'truths'.
So American soldiers are now killing common Iraqis and their children to 'free' them.
No. Bush - Sharon - Blair are swine and liars. The Iraqis don't want them or their mindless thug soldiers. They don't want US 'liberating' soldiers. And they are cursing them and telling them to get out.
And am I gloating>
You bet - I am gloating.
The chickens have come home to roost right on josef's lips.
You ought to be more careful. Written down like that it looks like you're a raving lunatic.
war or no war, my fellow americans are in Iraq, a country that was once run by a dictator, a killer, a mad man. My firends did not want to go, but like in any country with an army, when they ship you out, you cannot protest. Saddam is gone, the baath party crumbled.. Now every day on American television we see more dead soldiers.. Our friends relatives, brohters, and fathers dying every day while we try to stabilize that shit hole of a country.. yesterday I watched the burned remains of an american security worker burnt and beated on a highway.. That worker was helping a food convoy bring supplies to Faluja.. how terrible.. For years america was looked for to feed starving people, help quell troubled areas around the world. I wish we would stop helping. I wish we would just leave all you other countries to your own problems, and never look back, let people like sadam rule and torment as they had done for years.. All we get out of trying to help is more hatred toward us. I just wish it would all go away..
I feel bad for anyone who has died.. I feel bad for thier families.. what a mess this has become.
I agree with your comments about S. H but who supported him......the USA. As they have supported many wicked regimes when it suited their purpose. There is no morality in this situation......there were no weapons of mass destruction..........just a lot of innocent people ( on both sides)suffering as usual. If Iraq grew bananas instead of oil........America would have ignored the situation. Maybe Blair and Bush will be on trail as war criminals to one day. Wish to God you would stop 'helping' .............the biggest threat to the world peace is the USA!