Rumsfeld defiant,

US troops face extended Iraq duty

By Kim Pilling and Emily Pennink, PA News - 08 April 2004

US defence chief Donald Rumsfeld played down rebel resistance against coalition forces in Iraq today, despite several days of serious violence. He discounted the strength of radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr's force, which is thought to have been swelled by disgruntled, unemployed young men to about 3,000 fighters.

Speaking in Washington, the US defence secretary said: "The number of people involved in those battles is relatively small. "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."

Mr Rumsfeld said some American troops due to leave Iraq soon might have to stay longer, although the commander of American forces in the region, Gen John Abizaid, and his deputies had not asked yet for more troops or an order delaying the departure of any soldiers.

"You can be certain that if they want more troops, we will sign deployment orders so that they'll have the troops they need," Mr Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon. Delaying the departure of existing troops would give the US the advantage of thousands of extra forces to deal with the upsurge in unrest.

IndependantNews

Coalition Forces in Iraq Don't Control Najaf, Kut

BAGHDAD 4-8-4 (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces do not have control of the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kut, where Shi'ite militiamen have seized control of key buildings in the center of town, the top U.S. general in Iraq said on Thursday.

Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez said coalition troops in the cities -- who include Ukrainian and Spanish soldiers -- were in their bases on the outskirts. Ukrainian forces pulled out of Kut's city center on Wednesday after clashes there. Shi'ite followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr began an uprising on Sunday and have clashed with foreign troops in several Shi'ite areas of Iraq.

Reuters

The crude and cruel truth about Iraq

George Bush's freedom and democracy is translated into horrific statistics about human casualties, the people he said God had told him to save. The "great care" taken by Washington to reduce civilian casualties included the dropping of brightly-coloured, shiny cluster bombs into civilian areas for children to mistake as sweets, only for the explosive fragments to blow up, blowing away their faces, their hands, their legs, their eyes or even their lives. UNICEF estimates that at least 1.000 children - one thousand children - were mutilated for life in this way.

Independent estimates point towards a civilian death rate of between 7.500 and 9.500 and a further 20.000 wounded, including women and children, the elderly and babies, blasted through their roofs by George Bush's freedom and democracy and by the great care of his murderous forces. As for Iraqi soldiers, the estimates are between 13.500 and 45.000 dead and between 40.000 and 135.000 wounded. PravdaRU

Transmigration of Iraq

September 4 2003

Transmigration - The act of removing to another country;
the passage of the soul after death to another body

Transmigrate - To pass into another body

The true meaning of what is happening in Iraq, if you consider the above definition, is much more than each of us imagines it to be. Yet this one word "transmigration" describes every level of the occupation of Iraq and its people. If we humans ignore this, and sort of hope that it will get better . . . what is happening in Iraq will soon happen in every country. All of us, you and I, will be the Iraqi civilians. Without hope, without an income, without a stable social infrastructure to build upon. The people in Iraq are being denied the right to reconstruct their towns and cities, their society and their lives. This makes no sense! Are the banks in Iraq without money? Is there a problem with Iraqi oil? Who is denying these people the right to reconstruct their lives? It seems they are being treated like tiny children. They are not allowed to repair the infrastructure that was so clinically taken apart by the American bombs.

BlueStarPeople

ARGONAUT Commentary : The US administration continue to claim that there is no real opposition to the US occupation of Iraq and yet they are forced to delay the departure of existing troops. Lies? Incompetance? The fact not being relayed in media reports is that the resistance is highly organised and is being carried out by well trained military personel.

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