| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Iraq-Jordan | |
| US, Iraqi forces victorious in Samarra | |
| 2004-10-04 | |
| Bloodied by weeks of suicide bombings and assassinations, Iraqi security forces emerged Sunday to patrol Samarra after a morale-boosting victory in this Sunni Triangle city, and U.S. commanders praised their performance. American and Iraqi commanders have declared the operation in Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, a successful first step in a major push to wrest key areas of Iraq from insurgents before January elections. But locals were angered by the civilian death toll.
| |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 RMcLeod: We've learned our lesson: We MUST completely, and unequivocably, destroy all resistance. I think you're missing the point. We cannot take a city until we have reliable Iraqi troops available to garrison the place. Fallujah failed, but it was a useful experiment because it provided an answer to the question of whether we could rely on former Iraqi army troops to garrison Iraqi cities - the answer was no. It does not make sense for Americans to garrison these cities because we don't have the manpower to do this and fight the insurgents at the same time. In South Vietnam, it was always South Vietnamese forces that acted as garrison troops while US forces sought out the enemy. Locals are far better at distinguishing between friend and foe. Garrison troops also take a lot of casualties. South Vietnam lost 250,000 troops compared to our 58,000. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-10-04 11:56:42 AM |
| #4 Aunty Beeb was screaming 'massacre' and baby ducks this morning but little is featured on their website. I notice there have been no pictures on British T.V. of the battle for Samarra or its aftermath - Good. We need the same in Fallujah - complete press black-out and hit it extremely hard. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-10-04 5:43:49 AM |
| #3 We've learned our lesson: We MUST completely, and unequivocably, destroy all resistance. Failing to do so will inevitably lead to a real "quagmire" No negotiations and absolutely no interest in the caterwauling of the defeated. Screw them. The locals will ALWAYS be angered. That's not the point. We don't care if they're angry. All we care about is that they are frightened to death of what will happen if they continue to resist. That's all they understand. That's all ANYONE "resistance" movement ever understands. |
| Posted by: RMcLeod 2004-10-04 3:12:18 AM |
| #2 The media should replay what the wonderful people of Fallujah did to Americans, and keep showing it. How soon so many forget. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-10-04 1:38:52 AM |
| #1 To mis-quote Colonel Whats-his-name at Omaha Beach: "There's only two kinds of people in Fallujah - those that are dead, and those that are gonna die." Get out now. Walk if you have to. Go to the roadblocks and be processed through. Fallijah is a tougher nut than Samarra, and it will be treated harsher before it's pacified. Leave now, or take your chances. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-10-04 1:35:29 AM |