Winning Hearts and Minds

Raed has a post and some pictures about the ongoing battle in Fallujah, as well as a particularly annoying troll / war appologist moral reletavist by the name of Jeffrey. According to Raed, the American / Kurdish forces have operational control of the north side of the city, while the insurgency has control of the south.

Fighters in Fallujah seem to be still fighting, in spite of the US announcements of the fast expected victory. It seems that we are reaching to the deadline that the US army put for itself. It is tonight!
Let's see what will happen tomorrow anyway...

The last military maps shows that the US army is controlling the Northern parts of the town, while the Iraqi fighters claim they are taking the southern parts of the town as their base.

This picture was released by the US army from Fallujah today. Humilating more Iraqis isn't the way to make things better, believe me

Meanwhile ABC seems to confirm the situation, and I wonder if Wha-a-Mole, has not turned into a game of Duck Duck Goose. Apparently we have detained some of the foreign fighters, out of 151 captured 15 have been identified as Foriegn Nationals.

Iraqi insurgents are holding out in the city of Fallujah despite a four-day assault that the United States has killed about 600 rebels.

The US military in the city says the rebels are being cornered in the south of the city.

However, correspondents embedded with US forces say the marines are continuing to come under fire in other areas of the city.

The US military says 22 of its soldiers have died in the offensive, with 170 more injured.

The BBC's Jennifer Glasse, who is with one unit of US marines in Fallujah and whose reports are subject to military restrictions, reports that US and Iraqi military officials say 300 people are holed up inside a Fallujah mosque and have asked to leave the city.

US and Iraqi troops are evaluating the group to see if any are insurgents.

They say civilians will be allowed to leave, suspected insurgents will be detained.

US forces already have about 151 detainees, including 15 non-Iraqi fighters. They are from Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

There is one French-speaking militant whose nationality has not been determined.

The commander of the offensive on Falllujah, US Lieutenant General John Sattler says his troops control 80 per cent of the city and have killed about 600 insurgents.

However, troops are still encountering fierce resistance, with a number of insurgents hemmed in in the south of the city.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Brandl has described his troops' progress: "The enemy's, we're in his backyard.

"We came in here to reduce this enemy sanctuary and we're doing that.

"We're crushing his back one vertebrae at a time and he's trying to take advantage of any opportunity he can get. We're not giving it to him."

It is a small sample to be sure, but I am certain that they would like to be able to lay claim to much higher numbers of captured foreigners in Fallujah, 1 in 10, tends to make it difficult to buy the current spin, that these are not Iraqi's behaving like the kids in that rediculous '80's movie "Red Dawn". Or in other words, Freedom Fighters.
Having dealt with an inundation of Kool-Aid Drinking Moral relativity (we're not as bad as Saddam) embracing Trolls on various boards, I am not suprised to see an infestation on Raed's blog. In fact I think the man is quite generous with what he does not choose to remove. Lets take a look at "Keyboard Commander" Jeffrey.

Fuck the deadline. A couple more days of turkey-shooting terrorists sounds DAMN GOOD to me. Who in their right fucking mind would claim victory because they were killed a day after a nebulous "timeline"?

Get real, numbskull.

Jeffrey -- New York
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[in response to having a couple of his comments deleted is the following]
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---MEET THE NEW BOSS

SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

YOU'RE JUST LIKE SADDAM, RAED

CUT OUT THEIR TONGUES IF THEY SAY SOMETHING AGAINST YOU

Jeffrey -- New York
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>Wow man, you are some psycho sicko American.

This is hands-down my favorite so far. I can't describe how much pleasure it gives me to called a "psycho sicko American." Really. Thanks.

And you've only encountered the thinnest outer layer of my depravity.

Better buckle your seat-belt tight, Nugget. The ride could take a few unforseen twists and turns. Bring a barf-bag, to be sure. I will slowly walk you down into the evil core of the American soul.

What? You think we cleaned out the yellow-bellied Taliban and pulled Saddam from his spiderhole through DIPLOMACY?

He he.

Riiiiiiiiight.

Jeffrey -- New York

Next, we will take a look at some comments from that cesspool of humanity known as Little Green Footballs. I don't know what other than illumination we can expect from the examination of those that reside or adhere to the cult of Bush / Zionism.

By the way did I mention how swimmingly things are going in Iraq? I believe Bush gave glowing reports during one of his fireside chats on the radio this morning.

11/13/2004, 10:06 a.m. PT

By JENNIFER LOVEN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush painted a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq, claiming significant progress Saturday in the U.S. military's battle in an insurgent stronghold.
..............

Our forces have made significant progress in the last several days. They are taking back the city, clearing mosques of weapons and explosives stockpiled by insurgents and restoring order for law-abiding citizens," Bush said in his broadcast.

He said "support continues to grow" internationally for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, even though the multinational force will see some reductions in the coming months.
....................
"Ultimately, Iraq must be able to defend itself, and Iraqi security forces are taking increasing responsibility for their country's security," Bush said.

Well that seels it Things Are Just fine, we are "restoring order for law abiding citizens"
(by killing them) "support continues to grow" (a tree grows in Brooklyn) and "Iraqi forces are taking responsibility for their country's security" (we can't trust the iraqi soldiers any farther than we can throw them, so we are using Kurds instead, and that certainly won't cause problems down the road). It's all good. Hey look over there Scott Peterson has been convicted.