Iraqi People Cheer Allied Liberation Forces
Charles Farley
Article excerpts:
Associated Press
March 21, 2003
SAFWAN, Iraq -- U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of
Saddam Hussein in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling
nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."
Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes
on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up,
peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame.
Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.
"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New
York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared
to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time
we're here, and Saddam is done."
"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."
Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"
An old woman shrouded in black -- one of the very few women outside --
knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman.
Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a
dinner invitation from townspeople.
"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf
War.
"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"
Full article follows:
Associated Press
March 21, 2003
U.S. Marines Rip Down Saddam Portraits
By Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press Writer
SAFWAN, Iraq -- U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of
Saddam Hussein in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling
nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."
Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes
on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up,
peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame.
Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.
"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New
York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared
to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time
we're here, and Saddam is done."
The Marines arrived in Safwan, just across the Kuwait border, after
Cobra attack helicopters, attack jets, tanks, 155 mm howitzers and
sharpshooters cleared the way along Route 80, the main road into Iraq.
Safwan, 375 miles south of Baghdad, is a poor, dirty, wrecked town
pocked by shrapnel from the last Gulf war. Iraqi forces in the area
sporadically fired mortars and guns for hours Thursday and Friday.
Most townspeople hid, although residents brought forth a wounded
little girl, her palm bleeding after the new fighting. Another man
said his wife was shot in the leg by the Americans.
A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on
their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.
"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."
Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"
Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised
their hands, begging for food.
A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the
U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."
An old woman shrouded in black -- one of the very few women outside --
knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A
younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by
sliding his finger across his throat.
In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died after prematurely
celebrating what they believed was their liberation from Saddam after
the Gulf War. Some even pulled down a few pictures of Saddam then --
only to be killed by Iraqi forces.
Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a
dinner invitation from townspeople.
"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf
War.
"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come
up there then, and we never did."
The townspeople seemed grateful this time.
"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"
David
It's not going very well for the liberal anti-war cowards is it? : )
*********************************************************************************
Dear Skywalker:
You might want to adjust your aluminum foil hat--too many Zeta rays
are getting through.
Joe S. alt.politics 3/4/03
**********************************************************************************
goldenm...@yahoo.com
> >Article excerpts:
> >
> >Associated Press
> >March 21, 2003
> >
> >SAFWAN, Iraq -- U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of
> >Saddam Hussein in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling
> >nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."
> It's not going very well for the liberal anti-war cowards is it? : )
/S/ DAVID
No, it isn't. But, they continue
to support Saddam's SHREDDER.
GM
March 18, 2003 London Times
See men shredded, then say you don't back war
By Ann Clwyd
"There was a machine designed for shredding plastic. Men were dropped
into it and we were again made to watch. Sometimes they went in head
first and died quickly. Sometimes they went in feet first and died
screaming. It was horrible. I saw 30 people die like this. Their
remains would be placed in plastic bags and we were told they would be
used as fish food . . . on one occasion, I saw Qusay [President Saddam
Hussein's youngest son] personally supervise these murders."
This is one of the many witness statements that were taken by
researchers from Indict — the organisation I chair — to provide
evidence for legal cases against specific Iraqi individuals for war
crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This account was taken
in the past two weeks.
Another witness told us about practices of the security services
towards women: "Women were suspended by their hair as their families
watched; men were forced to watch as their wives were raped . . .
women were suspended by their legs while they were menstruating until
their periods were over, a procedure designed to cause humiliation."
The accounts Indict has heard over the past six years are disgusting
and horrifying. Our task is not merely passively to record what we are
told but to challenge it as well, so that the evidence we produce is
of the highest quality. All witnesses swear that their statements are
true and sign them.
For these humanitarian reasons alone, it is essential to liberate the
people of Iraq from the regime of Saddam. The 17 UN resolutions passed
since 1991 on Iraq include Resolution 688, which calls for an end to
repression of Iraqi civilians. It has been ignored. Torture, execution
and ethnic-cleansing are everyday life in Saddam's Iraq.
Were it not for the no-fly zones in the south and north of Iraq —
which some people still claim are illegal — the Kurds and the Shia
would no doubt still be attacked by Iraqi helicopter gunships.
For more than 20 years, senior Iraqi officials have committed
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This list includes
far more than the gassing of 5,000 in Halabja and other villages in
1988. It includes serial war crimes during the Iran-Iraq war; the
genocidal Anfal campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in 1987-88; the
invasion of Kuwait and the killing of more than 1,000 Kuwaiti
civilians; the violent suppression, which I witnessed, of the 1991
Kurdish uprising that led to 30,000 or more civilian deaths; the
draining of the Southern Marshes during the 1990s, which ethnically
cleansed thousands of Shias; and the summary executions of thousands
of political opponents.
Many Iraqis wonder why the world applauded the military intervention
that eventually rescued the Cambodians from Pol Pot and the Ugandans
from Idi Amin when these took place without UN help. They ask why the
world has ignored the crimes against them?
All these crimes have been recorded in detail by the UN, the US,
Kuwaiti, British, Iranian and other Governments and groups such as
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Indict. Yet the Security Council has
failed to set up a war crimes tribunal on Iraq because of opposition
from France, China and Russia. As a result, no Iraqi official has ever
been indicted for some of the worst crimes of the 20th century. I have
said incessantly that I would have preferred such a tribunal to war.
But the time for offering Saddam incentives and more time is over.
I do not have a monopoly on wisdom or morality. But I know one thing.
This evil, fascist regime must come to an end. With or without the
help of the Security Council, and with or without the backing of the
Labour Party in the House of Commons tonight.
The author is Labour MP for Cynon Valley