Cause:
"There is only one traffic law in Ramadi these days: when Americans approach, Iraqis scatter. Horns blaring, brakes screaming, the midday traffic skids to the side of the road as a line of Humvee jeeps ferrying American marines rolls the wrong way up the main street. Every vehicle, that is, except one beat-up old taxi. Its elderly driver, flapping his outstretched hand, seems, amazingly, to be trying to turn the convoy back. Gun turrets swivel and lock on to him, as a hefty marine sergeant leaps into the road, levels an assault rifle at his turbanned head, and screams: "Back this bitch up, motherfucker!"
"The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: "Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied". In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching within 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: "If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them," says a bullish lieutenant. "It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people."
"And not all of them were in cars. Since discovering that roadside bombs, known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), can be triggered by mobile telephones, marines say they shoot at any Iraqi they see handling a phone near a bomb-blast. Bystanders to an insurgent ambush are also liable to be killed. Sometimes, the marines say they hide near the body of a dead insurgent and kill whoever comes to collect it. According to the marine lieutenant: "It gets to a point where you can't wait to see guys with guns, so you start shooting everybody...It gets to a point where you don't mind the bad stuff you do."
From:
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news3/economist.html
Effect:
"There are more rebels and sympathisers in Iraq than US forces to fight them, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's intelligence chief said yesterday.
It is the bleakest assessment to date of the armed revolt waged by some sections of the Sunni population.
"I think the resistance is bigger than the US military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people," General Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani said."
From:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...55E663,00.html
"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation."
--- George W. Bush, July 2003
"There is only one traffic law in Ramadi these days: when Americans approach, Iraqis scatter. Horns blaring, brakes screaming, the midday traffic skids to the side of the road as a line of Humvee jeeps ferrying American marines rolls the wrong way up the main street. Every vehicle, that is, except one beat-up old taxi. Its elderly driver, flapping his outstretched hand, seems, amazingly, to be trying to turn the convoy back. Gun turrets swivel and lock on to him, as a hefty marine sergeant leaps into the road, levels an assault rifle at his turbanned head, and screams: "Back this bitch up, motherfucker!"
"The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: "Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied". In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching within 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: "If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them," says a bullish lieutenant. "It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people."
"And not all of them were in cars. Since discovering that roadside bombs, known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), can be triggered by mobile telephones, marines say they shoot at any Iraqi they see handling a phone near a bomb-blast. Bystanders to an insurgent ambush are also liable to be killed. Sometimes, the marines say they hide near the body of a dead insurgent and kill whoever comes to collect it. According to the marine lieutenant: "It gets to a point where you can't wait to see guys with guns, so you start shooting everybody...It gets to a point where you don't mind the bad stuff you do."
From:
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news3/economist.html
Effect:
"There are more rebels and sympathisers in Iraq than US forces to fight them, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's intelligence chief said yesterday.
It is the bleakest assessment to date of the armed revolt waged by some sections of the Sunni population.
"I think the resistance is bigger than the US military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people," General Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani said."
From:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...55E663,00.html
"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation."
--- George W. Bush, July 2003
