From: (~ LITTLE HITLER ~)
Horrific Iraq Killings Could Mark Turning Point
02.04.2004
By RUPERT CORNWELL
WASHINGTON - As new violence erupted in Iraq on Thursday, politicians
and commentators are wondering whether Wednesday's horrific murder of
four Americans in Fallujah will prove a turning point in US
involvement with Iraq - just as the similar murder of an American
soldier ultimately led to withdrawal from Somalia 11 years ago.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, US television avoided the
most gruesome images.
But yesterday no less sober a publication than the New York Times ran
a large front page picture of two charred and mutilated bodies hanging
from the bridge, surrounded by a crowd of gloating and jubilant
Iraqis.
Other media outlets followed suit, driving the unexpurgated savagery
of the fate of the four contractors into the consciousness of the
general public.
Yesterday brought no respite to the violence around the city that has
become symbol of resistance to US occupation.
Three American soldiers were injured when a roadside bomb exploded
close to a troop convoy near Fallujah.
In Ramadi, west of the city, a car bomb at a market killed six Iraqi
civilians and wounded four others.
The official line is that the incident has only reinforced
Washington's determination to see Iraq through to a successful
conclusion, and that its perpetrators would be caught and punished.
In Baghdad, Paul Bremer, head of the coalition authority described the
killings as "despicable, inexcusable and barbaric," and "a
violation...of the foundations of a civilisation." The deaths of the
four contractors, he w promised, "will not go unpunished."
Speaking during a visit to Germany yesterday, Colin Powell, the
Secretary of State, declared that the US would not be "run out" of
Iraq.
The US had the ability to fight its enemies and defeat them, he went
on, arguing that in war "it does sometimes take the loss of life to
achieve a noble purpose."
Less openly acknowledged is the fact that the stakes, in terms of
America's credibility and its global diplomatic and military strategy,
are far higher than they were in 1993, when a US peacekeeping mission
in Somalia ended a few weeks after a mob dragged the corpse of a US
serviceman through the streets of the capital Mogadishu.
"Somalia was terrible, but we could walk away," the outspoken
Republican Senator John McCain said.
Then, US national security was not threatened, but "we cannot afford
to lose this".
However the Fallujah episode, coupled with the near simultaneous death
of five US soldiers in an ambush by insurgents, has brought home how
dangerous that part of Iraq has become.
It has also given the lie to claims by the Pentagon that the attacks
which have taken the lives of over 460 US soldiers since the war
ended, were mainly the work of foreign terrorists.
Those who were cheering were manifestly not foreigners, but ordinary
Iraqi inhabitants of Fallujah.
The attacks moreover can only cast doubt on the claim of US generals
in Iraq that this "mild uptick" in insurgent activity is having only a
"negligible impact" on the reconstruction of the country.
Even beforehand, public doubts about the war were growing.
The proportion of Americans who believe it was right to attack Iraq
has fallen to little more than 50 per cent, compared with 70 per cent
or more during and immediately after the invasion.
But a CBS-New York Times poll last month found that by a 51-42 margin,
the public here did not believe the war was worth the loss of American
lives and the financial cost -- $160bn and counting.
Many experts argue that the public is more inured now to violence
since the harsh awakening of Mogadishu in 1993.
But as the election campaign intensifies, the White House must
anxiously be wondering how many more casualties public opinion will
tolerate before the national mood changes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3558555&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
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| User: "Grantland" |
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| Title: Re: Turning Point? |
01 Apr 2004 11:49:15 PM |
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From: "=> Vox Populi ©" <vox@popu.li>
U.S. Vows to Find Civilians' Killers
Marines Move to Seal Off Fallujah; Army Steps Up Patrols in Baghdad
By Sewell Chan and Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 2, 2004; Page A01
BAGHDAD, April 1 -- U.S. officials vowed Thursday to hunt down those
responsible for the killing and mutilation of four American civilians
in western Iraq and acknowledged that ordinary Iraqis, not just
religious extremists, are behind some of the violence against the
American-led occupation.
One day after the incident in Fallujah, in which insurgents killed
four American security guards and enraged townspeople burned and hung
their corpses, the effects of the ambush and its gory conclusion could
be felt throughout the Iraqi capital.
The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq vowed a forceful response by
the Marines, who he said would reestablish control of Fallujah and
pacify its restive population. The Marines set up traffic control
points around the city, restricting vehicles from entering and
leaving.
In a show of force, U.S. troops patrolled Baghdad in numbers not seen
in weeks. Armored Humvees, M1-A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting
Vehicles, as well as soft-skinned troop trucks, coursed through the
city while AH-64 Apache attack helicopters flew overhead.
A four-day international exposition scheduled for next week and billed
as Iraq's largest postwar business gathering was canceled after
diplomats said it would be impossible to protect Americans attending
the event, which would have coincided with the anniversary of
Baghdad's fall. Organizers of Destination Baghdad Expo
said the decision to postpone the event indefinitely was "jointly
made" with occupation officials.
But others said they understood the attack that preceded the
mutilations. "I watched the TV and I disapproved," said Ahmed
Mohammed, a mechanic in Adhamiya.
"But the people who dragged the dead bodies probably either lost a
loved one to the Americans or saw their father arrested and humiliated
by soldiers who put their boots on his head."
--
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our
number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
~ George Bush Jr. 2001-09-13
"I don't know where he (bin Laden) is. I have no idea and I really
don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
~ George Bush Jr. 2002-03-13
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