Another only-liberal news outlet takes a crack at undermining the American people's resolve.
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Do you think the U.S. has control in Iraq?
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Total Votes: 45,944
Note on Poll Results
[ * ]
In less than three months, the U.S. is set to transfer power to the Iraqis. But fighting in Iraq has been intense and bloody in the past few days. Some lawmakers say the violence should delay the transfer. Still, the Bush administration is sticking to the June 30 deadline and says the U.S. has control of the country. Do you feel we're in control?
[ * "NOTE: Poll results are not scientific and reflect the opinions of only those users who chose to participate. Poll results are not reflected in real time."]
A
OL may as well stand for "Aljazeera OnLine" or "Always Onthesideof Liberals" when it comes to the selective way it presents the news on its welcome screen. Always the most negative reports it can find about Iraq, the economy, or anything else involving the president specifically or Republicans in general. Being that Assinine Press and Roto-Reuters jazeernalists are the ones eagerly doodling out such reports, it's no wonder AOL invaribly selects no other sources for them.
The report below is the one that originally appeared early Wednesday evening at
this AOL link. Later that evening AOL/AP changed the text some, editing out the most blatant speculations and unconfirmed assertions which were in the original, and inserting others. Then yesterday it substituted a new report by a completely different reporter (Alistair Lyon of Rubesters), entitled "U.S. Allies Under Pressure in Iraq," while retaining the lead-off above, the six "Struggle for Iraq" photos, and the three side polls.
U.S. Attacks Mosque Compound in Fallujah
By BASSEM MROUE and ABDUL-QADER SAADI
FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 7) - U.S. Marines battled insurgents for control of this Sunni Muslim stronghold Wednesday, calling in airstrikes against a mosque compound where witnesses said dozens were killed in six hours of fighting. An anti-U.S. uprising led by a radical Shiite cleric raged for the fourth day in southern cities.
We're destroying mosques! The places where followers of the Religion of Peace® worship. How terrible! I thought we were there to help these people—not show our typical intolerance by attacking their religious buildings and holy men. No wonder they're so anti-U.S. Shows why we're to blame for all that hatred they harbor toward us. (Did I miss anything, AOL?)
Insurgent essentially means rebel—a traitor. Seems it also includes those who directly participate or assist in the attack, murder, and mutilation of non-combatant civilians. Yeah, the kind of people AP or Reuters wouldn't mind seeing in control of
the whole country that stronghold.
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Watch VideoThe Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque was hit by U.S. aircraft that launched a Hellfire missile at its minaret and dropped a 500-pound bomb on a wall surrounding the compound.
The U.S. military said insurgents were using the mosque for a military fire base. Iraqi witnesses estimated 40 people were killed as they gathered for afternoon prayers. U.S. officials said no civilians died.
As everyone knows (i.e, what AP wants everyone to know), Muslim prayers involve aiming weapons at soldiers who liberated the country from its former brutal dictatorship, and pulling the triggers.
How dare we intrude on their religious practices like that.
For anyone who doesn't know exactly what a minaret is, it's "a tall, slender tower on a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer" (or to weapons firing—take your pick).
An Associated Press reporter who went to the mosque said the minaret was standing, but damaged, apparently by shrapnel. The bomb blew away part of a wall, opening an entry for the Marine assault. The reporter saw at least three cars leaving, each with a number of dead and wounded.
Carrying out dead and wounded prayers, no doubt, whom the Marines assaulted just because they were merely praying at them.
The heavy fighting against the Sunni insurgency coincided again Wednesday with attacks on coalition forces in southern Iraq led by militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. For the first time Wednesday, Shiite militiamen battled Americans in the central city of Baqouba.
AP wants to say "uprising" here so bad it can't stand it. Let's see how much self-control it has.
Who Is Al-Sadr?
AP
Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have battled U.S. troops this week. He wants Iraq controlled by Iraqis not connected with the U.S.
·
Details |
Main Shiite Leaders
Video: Profile (Broadband)
Sources: AP, CNN
How concerned are you about al-Sadr?
[Add Your Vote(s)]
53%
Very
26%
Somewhat
21%
Not at all
Total Votes: 23,230
Note on Poll Results
Since Sunday, 34 Americans, two other coalition soldiers and more than 230 Iraqis have been killed in fighting. The Iraqi figure did not include those killed at the mosque. Since the war began, at least 630 U.S. service members have died.
Marine Corps spokesman 1st Lt. Eric Knapp said the American force besieging Fallujah has killed more than 30 suspected insurgents and captured 51 since Tuesday night. Fifteen Marines were reported killed in fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi since Monday.
But the U.S. figure conveniently includes non-battle related deaths and accidents. Just the lamestream media pulling out its one-side War Scoreboard™, showing only U.S. deaths. Not how many bad guys and evil-doers our forces killed, wounded, or captured. If instead of Terrorists 630/Goodguys ?, it showed Terrorists 630/Goodguys 23,420, AP probably wouldn't want to keep bringing it out so often.
The Pentagon ought to tell reporters that they won't receive any more press announcements regarding U.S. casualties unless their news organizations also state how many bad guys we got too. Betcha they'd stop keeping score like that, as if this were some game and lives were mere points but for only one team.
The Army said two more soldiers died Wednesday in separate attacks in Balad, a Sunni Triangle town north of Baghdad, and in the capital.
Yeah, but how many scumbags did our forces get there? AP only mentions our soldiers' deaths because it wants to say that the unmentioned "uprising" is spreading.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon news conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, discounted the strength of the al-Sadr force, which appears to have been bolstered by disgruntled, unemployed young men.
U.S. officials estimate the al-Sadr force at about 3,000 fighters.
Don't you need more fighters than that to be considered an "uprising"—"widespread" or otherwise?
"The number of people involved in those battles is relatively small," Rumsfeld said. "There's nothing like an army or large elements of people trying to change the situation. You have a small number of terrorists and militias coupled with some protests."
Myers said the fighting came in two broad categories. West of Baghdad in cities such as Ramadi and Fallujah, the main opposition is "former regime loyalists," including supporters of former president Saddam Hussein, and anti-American foreign fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist believed linked to al-Qaida.
Mainly the same bad guys who would be trying to kill Americans, especially defenseless civilians, elsewhere. Including in New York and San Francisco, were it not for our brave defenders ensuring that record benefits are being paid out on the Seventy-Two Virgins life insurance policies of these so-called martyrs over there.
The Marines said they waged a six-hour battle around the Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque before calling in a Cobra helicopter which fired the missile at the base of its minaret. An F-16 dropped the laser-guided bomb, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.
During fighting elsewhere in Fallujah, U.S. forces seized a second place of prayer, the al-Muadidi mosque. A Marine climbed the minaret and fired on guerrilla gunmen, witnesses said. Insurgents fired back, hitting the minaret with rocket-propelled grenades and causing it to partially collapse, the AP reporter said.
Who's destroying whose mosques? The
insurgents prayers themselves? Thought it was just us attacking and seizing all these religious buildings for apparently no reason other than people praying in them.
Self-Rule by June 30?
AP/Getty
President Bush stands by his June 30 deadline to transfer power to the Iraqis. But John Kerry says it's an arbitrary date that's been "affected by the election schedule."
·
Bremer Says Iraq's 'on Track'
·
Kerry Questions Deadline
Sources: AP, Reuters
When do you think sovereignty should be returned to Iraq?
[Add Your Vote(s)]
44%
No date should be set
30%
Now
26%
June 30
Total Votes: 22,281
Note on Poll Results
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, said the Marines did not attack the mosque until it became clear enemy fighters were inside and using it to cover their attacks.
Kimmitt told CNN that from photos of the mosque he had seen, "the actual mosque structure itself" was not damaged.
He said the mosque was protected under the Geneva Conventions but the insurgents nullified that by attacking from the holy place.
Only a Demobackstabberat like al-Qerry would call a promise "arbitrary": "I know I didn't come through on the
middle- working-class tax cut I agreed to," he told reporters while dreaming he was president. "But that was an arbitrary cut that was affected by the elections."
Also seems we did have a reason for all that attacking and seizing. Bad guys cowardly hiding behind the real prayers in those mosques and using them as shields so they can fire at us and hope we wouldn't fire back. Believe that violates the terms of the 72V Life-Insurance Policy as well.
At Camp Fallujah, Byrne said the Marines now control 25 percent of Fallujah.
As opposed to AOL News controlling 0 percent of itself.
The military gave widely varying casualty counts.
Marine Capt. Bruce Frame, in a statement issued from U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said: "One anti-coalition force member was killed in the attack. There is no report of civilian casualties."
Byrne said those in the mosque were rebels, and "We believe we killed a bunch."
Kimmitt said, "I understand there was a large casualty toll taken by the enemy."
No need to worry about causing a depletion of the virgins supply, however. Although the demand for eternal sulfur and brimstone will see an sharp increase from these mosque-cowering cowards.
Rumsfeld said the United States knew risks would increase with the approach of the June 30 date for the handover of power to an interim Iraqi government.
Forcing the bad guys to pack themselves all inside a relatively small triangle at the same time before that date means there won't be much of them coming out of it afterwards—courtesy the United States Marine Corps. That's a whole lot better than letting them scatter themselves across the country and pinpricking it to death over a period of several years.
U.S. commanders also fear violence could escalate during the religious ceremonies this weekend for al-Arbaeen, when millions of pilgrims gather in Shiite cities to mark the end of the mourning period for a 7th-century martyred Shiite saint.
Because the terrorists are wont to attack defenseless civilians whenever they peaceably assemble in such large numbers.
The number of U.S. troops in Iraq is up, Rumsfeld said, because of the planned rotation of forces.
"The United states will stay the course. We will stay until the task is complete," he said, warning that some U.S. troops ready to leave the country might have to stay a while longer.
Seeing how this "widespread uprising" is all but over after only a few days, those troops won't have to wait even that long before they leave.
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Muhammed Muheisen, AP
Sunni insurgents patrol Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (1 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
Hey, that's exactly what
Ted Kennedy said! Funny how the terrorists and Demonicrats always seem to wind up talking from the same page. (
Similar pages.)
Photo 1 of 6: What prayers do when they aren't praying from mosques. The rest of the photos are below.
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Spencer Platt, Getty
U.S. soldiers man a checkpoint in Baghdad's outskirts.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (2 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
Notice the total lack of the womanish head coverings seen in Photo 1. Perhaps those prayers had to cover up their faces so Allah wouldn't see their cowardly faces.
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Ahmad al-Rubaye, AFP / Getty
Members of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's militia chant anti-U.S. slogans Wednesday in Baghdad.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (3 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
You'll have to take AP's word that
that is what they were chanting.
"Hey, Bassem, I bet those prayers jumping up and down on that car are chanting anti-U.S. slogans." "How do you know, Abdul? Perhaps you're just projecting your own views, again." "No, no, I think they're really chanting anti-U.S. slogans!" "OK, we'll write that's what they're chanting. Who's going to say otherwise unless they have a recording and speak the language?" "Right!"
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Cris Bournocle, AFP / Getty
U.S. Marines move against insurgents in Fallujah.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (4 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
Ooh-rah! Don't give them a chance to start praying in your direction.
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP / Getty
Men guard radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr's office Wednesday in the Sadr City area of Baghdad.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (5 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
Not "
Gunmen guard..."? That's the usual descriptive AP uses when referring to people who're toting around guns. Maybe the reporter thinks those aren't guns, but plastic AK-47s. At least it was nice of him to call them "men."
Al-Sadr, meanwhile, said Iraq would become "another Vietnam" for the United States.
The Struggle for Iraq
Akram Saleh, Reuters
A U.S. soldier watches vehicles Wednesday on a highway in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib.
Video: Violence Spreading Across Iraq (broadband)
[<] (6 of 6) [>]"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army..." he said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."
One of the few and the proud, who's only "occupying" those hood-wearing terrorists (as in keeping them occupied with that mounted .50-caliber). That's the only real occupying they're doing over there.
God bless all Marines and our other extraordinarily brave soldiers.
Al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army launched heavy gunbattles with coalition forces in the streets of at least six cities Wednesday and, for the first time, in the north.
Iraqis protesting the Fallujah operation clashed with U.S. troops outside the northern city of Kirkuk. The battles left eight Iraqis dead and 10 wounded.
Differentiate, AP. Were those 18 just sitting around drinking beer or were they "praying" at our Marines? But that's not important to the reporters. They just want to convince you that the "uprising" is spreading.
Al-Sadr fighters battled American troops in the town of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, hitting a U.S. helicopter with small arms fire. The OH-58 Kiowa chopper was damaged and forced to land, but the two crew members were unharmed.
And Shiite gunmen drove Ukrainian forces out of the southern city of Kut - raising concerns over the ability of U.S. allies to combat al-Sadr's uprising.
At last, the reporter got to say the U-word again. (Feel better, Abdul?)
Anyway, those Ukrainian good guys are now back, taking a huge bite out of the uprising's widespreadingness.
After overnight fighting in which 12 Iraqis died, the Ukrainians withdrew from Kut with about 20 coalition officials, and al-Sadr followers swept into their base, seized weapons stores and planted their flag on a nearby grain silo.
Black flag, to match the black burka-like hoods they're draping over their cowardly mugs.
The black-garbed gunmen of the al-Mahdi Army also had virtual control of the Shiite religious centers of Kufa and Karbala, where Iraqi police were laying low, allowing militiamen to move freely.
Militiamen in Karbala clashed with Polish patrols, and a cleric who was a senior official in al-Sadr's office was killed.
Cleric is a head prayer who leads others in praying from mosques at our Marines.
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Al-Sadr and his militia are unpopular among most of Iraq's Shiite majority, and there was no sign that the Shiite public in the south was rallying to their side to launch a wider uprising.
[ But... But... But... ]
But the week's fighting showed a strength that few expected from the al-Mahdi Army.
"The week's"? More like seven
hours than seven days. But don't let that stop you from declaring it a "wider uprising," AP. You can print a correction later (not!).
As far as a clear plan on how to win this. Already done and already won. There were even rumblings of them not wanting to fight anymore when this report was originally published (after they got a good look at those Marines coming after them and quickly came to the realization that they were biting off much more than they ever would be able to chew):
The country's most respected Shiite leader was silent until Wednesday, when he called for all sides to stop fighting.
"Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani condemned the methods used by occupation forces in the current escalating situation in Iraq.
["]We also condemn assaults on public and private property, and any action that disturbs order and prevents officials from carrying out their duties," said a statement from Sistani's office.
Keeping the terrorists occupied with .50-caliber rounds
was the order of the day. But we appreciate the GA coming to his senses anyway, if only for the sake of the real law-abiding, freedom-loving Iraqis.
But there were signs of sympathy for the Sadr revolt among Sunni insurgents, who have been fighting the U.S.-led occupation for months and have often chided their Shiite countrymen for not joining in.
Portraits of al-Sadr and graffiti praising his "valiant uprising" appeared on mosque and the walls of government buildings in the Sunni city of Ramadi. Peaceful protests in support of al-Sadr occurred in the northern cities of Mosul and Rashad.
Monday night in Baghdad, al-Sadr gunmen went to a mainly Sunni neighborhood to join with insurgents in firing on U.S. Humvees - the only known instance so far of Sunni and Shiite militants combining forces.
"But we want you to help us kill Americans before we start killing you, 's all. How come you won't? Look, we even spray painted 'valiant uprising' on our own mosques just to show you we're sincere. Really."
("How do you know it says 'valiant uprising,' Abdul?" "'Cause I just feel that it does, Bassem—and, besides, I know no one's going to be able to check out whether it does or not. See?" "Now I know why AP wanted to hire you so bad.")
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Also in Kut on Wednesday, an AP photographer and his driver were detained by armed al-Sadr militiamen who accused them of being "traitors." They were bound, blindfolded and taken to the al-Sadr office in Kut. There they were well-treated and given food.
That sadomasochism stuff was the "well-treated" part, according to the photographer. Getting food on top of that was just a bonus.
The accusation of treason was quickly dropped after the prayers discovered which news organization the photographer worked for.
The photograph knew a cleric in another city who vouched for the pair when called by their captors. The Sadrists then took the two, in the drivers' car, to a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, where they were freed.
An AP stringer in Karbala, meanwhile, was told to leave the city by al-Sadr's militiamen on Tuesday, and he has not been allowed to return.
04/07/04 18:10 EDT
The Associated Press.
"Hello, Grand Ayatollah? We got some traitor joooo-loving Zionist reporter-looking types tied up here. Do you want us to hold them as hostages for any of our crazy demands?" "Ask them if they hate the U.S....No, wait! Just ask them if they work for AP." "'Yes!' and 'Yes,' they say." "Then let them go, you burka-hooded dolts! Do you want the AP to stop loving us, too?" "They seemed to like the tying up part a lot." "Good, good. Tell them we knew they'd liked it and that's why you did it." "OK. Bye." "(Phew! that was close.)"
That stringer wasn't wanted because the terrorists didn't see any point in tying him up.
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