Thursday, October 05, 2006

24 Troops Killed since Saturday


I have to wonder if the GOP has been deliberately cranking up the heat on Foley's PredatorGate to take the awful focus off of this bloody tragedy (via WashPost): "13 US soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest 2 day death toll for US forces in the capital since the start of the war. The latest losses -- 4 soldiers who were killed at 9 am Weds by small-arms fire -- are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against US forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday, the military said. The number of planted bombs is "at an all-time high," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, a military spokesman, defying American efforts to stanch the vicious sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad that threatens to plunge the country into civil war." Threaten to plunge the country into civil war? Is Gen Caldwell smoking crack? CBS News has obtained a US military intelligence report that outlines a sickening horror show that is going on in Baghdad's hospitals. Muqtada al-Sadr's militia now controls the hospitals and morgues and is turning them into torture chambers and killing fields... but wait... it gets even better: Hospitals have become command and control centers for the Mahdi Army militia. Sunni patients are being openly murdered; some are dragged from their beds. The militia is keeping hostages inside some hospitals, where they are tortured and executed. They're using ambulances to transport hostages and illegal weapons, and even to help their fighters escape from US forces. The dead's loved ones are often too frightened to set foot into morgues to claim their dead, so mass graves are overflowing. And just what is being done about the death squads that are operating in the Iraqi govt and among the Iraqi Police brigades, since it was announced just Weds that the Iraqi govt had to pull a brigade of around 800 or more policemen that have ties to death squads, you ask? Why, Gen Caldwell is "re-training" them, of course:" Caldwell disclosed that some 800 to 1,200 officers would be removed from posts in northwestern Baghdad and sent to a US military forward operating base for "anti-militia and anti-sectarian" training." Ah, I see. They will be re-trained at a US base... WTF does that even mean and how the hell do you retrain people to stop being members of a militia's death squad? As Iraqi blogger NZ suggested: "Can someone send your senators what this guy doing there. He should execute them, not give then more training. They are killers and should sent to court with Saddam and should be punished." I guess since our own govt so frowns upon habeas corpus and following the Geneva Coventions, charging these guys with crimes and trying them in a court of law and then punishing them according to that court of law is NOT high on the "Things to do to prevent utter chaos and descent into hell" list in Iraq. But hey... as cold blooded reptilian Neo-Con/ Patriot Act- mastermind John Yoo said on NPR's Morning Edition on Weds: "Well, habeas corpus proceedings... do impose a cost, it's not free." Funny... but the Repukes didn't give cost a single thought when they happily set aside a desperately needed $20 MILLION for an "Iraq is a Roaring Success" party, now did they?
Posted by Tina :: 1:34 AM :: 8 Comments:

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