An Enemy Ever More Brutal (BARF ALERT)

TIME ^ | Sunday, August 7th, 2005 | DOUGLAS WALLER, MICHAEL DUFFY

[MinorityRepublican]

An Enemy Ever More Brutal

Despite best efforts to defuse them, the rebels keep building deadlier bombs. Here's why American soldiers keep dying

The view through the camera is dusky, jerky and terrifying: a platoon of U.S. Marine snipers trudges up a barren hill with nothing--not a rock, not even a shrub--for cover. Unaware that they are being watched, the Marines think they are on the hunt. An Arabic scrawl across the screen explains that the Marines are laying a trap for insurgents. The video cuts to a pickup truck, supposedly carrying jihadi fighters, racing along a dirt track through some palm trees. It quickly becomes clear that the trap being set is for the Marines, not the other way around. The next scene shows the Marines on the hill falling and dying, dust kicking up around them from the spray of enemy bullets. Then the video shifts to a hand with a knife, reaching down and cutting the dog tags off one of the fallen. The scrawl finishes the story: WE KILLED THE CRUSADERS AND CAPTURED THEIR LOOT.

The deaths of those six Marine snipers outside the Euphrates River town of Haditha, 150 miles northwest of Baghdad in the trouble-plagued Anbar province, was only the start of a terrible week for Lima Company of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Two days later, 14 Marines, nine from that outfit, were killed by a triple-strength antitank bomb that flipped their amphibious assault vehicle into the air, igniting the fuel and ammunition inside and incinerating all but one of the occupants. The two attacks brought the death toll for U.S. troops to 29 in the space of a week and served as a grisly reminder of how brutally efficient and adaptive the insurgents are.

[wretchard]

Last I heard a platoon had three squads, more if there was a support platoon.

[MinorityRepublican]

Last I heard a platoon had three squads, more if there was a support platoon.

Well, what do you expect from TIME. An article two weeks ago in Washington Times mentioned that 50,000 Insurgents (Islamofascists) have been killed. We would not hear about that from MSM.

[Enchante]

"Said an American involved in the negotiations: "The more it looks like the U.S. is gonna leave, the harder it is to get a deal that will enable them to leave.""

Which is another reason why the treacherous MSM and lib DemocRAT cries of "casualties, casualties, the sky is falling, we must withdraw" has so badly served our great soldiers and Marines who have been doing such a good job while defeatists weaken our resolve and embolden our terrorist enemies.

[endthematrix]

"the insurgents, as they proved last week, have never given up their objective of killing Americans when and where they can."

And this will continue even if we pack up and leave Iraq this very minute. The central front is in Iraq. Withdraw, and it shifts killing Americans In Cairo, Ankara, London and even LA and NYC.

[Iris7]

"Surrender Now!! Run Away!! Run Away!! The whole thing is bad anyway!!!"

Those people said the same thing back in the Viet Nam days. They just want to make sure we lose. Treason. Give every single last one of them the needle.

Give each one a fair trial, first. Should take about three minutes.

[PhilDragoo]

Give Ted the same trial he gave Mary Jo.

[ncountylee]

With reporting by....

Hey Time...reporting is for news...this trash is an editorial hit piece hating America and Bush.

[injin]

I think we have to start ignoring the borders .
Hot pursuit and bombings in both Syria and Iran , anything that looks like it is unauthorized and sneaky .Pakistan too.
Give the civilians of these border regions 1 week to move out and then call is a free fire zone . The Iraqi Gov. should pass a death penalty law for anyone that harbors or assists the terrorists , enforced summarily and without exception.

[Ajnin]

Marine snipers do not deploy in platoon size units.

[ChristianDefender]

The next scene shows the Marines on the hill falling and dying, dust kicking up around them from the spray of enemy bullets. ...disturbing for me... ...with that situation it is indeed difficult to secure yourself, aside from the fact that the enemies' guns are already "zeroed" on you.. but i bet with the kind of Marines we got it must have been frightening on the part of the terrorists not to assure a direct hit gunfire, because you wont gonna like any U.S. Marines' return fire... ...lucky strike for the towelheads, but they need to watch themselves from now on,,,

[endthematrix]

Scout sniper platoon leader earns Silver Star

[MinorityRepublican]

bump

[AngelesCrestHighway]

When in the f'ing hell is our stupid government going to stop sending our guys out as sitting ducks?...when will the fighters with all the high tech that all taxpayers have been paying for come in low over over the horizon and strike the fear of God into these bastards???...never happen cause it's not P.C......Where is the American Eagle?...only in the hearts of those fighting and dying...not in the hearts of our left/right politicians...... for sure.

[TomasUSMC]

strike the fear of God into these bastards???

---

Exactly. Why are we fighting with snipers? Are we afraid of civilian casualties? In WW2 we weren't afraid of civilian casualties AND THE ENEMY NEW IT.

Our Marine snipers were betrayed by supposedly friendly Iraqis in this case. But if we remember Falluja, the Marine snipers were a great success. Yet, they weren't necessary. Aircraft could have leveled the town quickly. No casualties and the message would have been one that sent the warning: Fight America - Lose and Die.

[MinorityRepublican]

Our Marine snipers were betrayed by supposedly friendly Iraqis in this case. But if we remember Falluja, the Marine snipers were a great success. Yet, they weren't necessary. Aircraft could have leveled the town quickly. No casualties and the message would have been one that sent the warning: Fight America - Lose and Die.

Different kind of war back then. We are not fighting a total war in Iraq. We are trying to rebuild the country, not to destroy it.

[TomasUSMC]

We are trying to rebuild the country, not to destroy it

---

Germany and Japan were rebuilt in an outstanding manner, to such extent, that they out do us in many things today. But before we started rebuilding we had to win the war. Rebuilding under fire is throwing money and lives away. You spend 6 months building something and it is blown up in one day.

Destroy enemy first, then let the rebuilding begin.

Semper Fi

[MinorityRepublican]

Germany and Japan were rebuilt in an outstanding manner, to such extent, that they out do us in many things today. But before we started rebuilding we had to win the war. Rebuilding under fire is throwing money and lives away. You spend 6 months building something and it is blown up in one day.

Where do we blow up? The Kurds in the North are peaceful. The Shittes in the South are stable at this moment. It's only that foreign terrorists and some die-hards are causing the trouble within the Sunni Triangle. What needs to be done is to seal the border and go after nations (Syria) if the need arises.

An overwhelming majority of Iraqis participated in the election in January. We are making magnificient progress, MSM would not allow us to know about it.

Meaningless statistic is this. 42,000 Americans are killed in car accidents every year with over 100,000 injuries. Just under 2,000 Americans were killed in Iraq since 2003.

But of course ABCBSNBC won't report that.

[TomasUSMC]

What needs to be done is to seal the border and go after nations (Syria) if the need arises. The Shittes in the South are stable at this moment.

---

The shiites are not our friends, they are more radical than the Sunnis. They are quiet because they have taken over southern Iraq and turned it back to the 7th century. They recently killed that writer Vincent because he exposed it.

You say seal the border. EXACTLY. Tell that to President Bush. Apparently he has an aversion to doing anything at or near any borders. But, geez, in a time of war, with terrorist coming back and forth from Syria to kill our troops and innocent civilians, why does Bush allow it.

Hit Syria Mr. Bush, HIT SYRIA!

If President Bush doesn't want people to say this is another Nam, then don't allow the enemy sanctuaries, like we did with Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam war. Tagline:

[MinorityRepublican]

The shiites are not our friends, they are more radical than the Sunnis. They are quiet because they have taken over southern Iraq and turned it back to the 7th century. They recently killed that writer Vincent because he exposed it.

I did read about that. Well, as long as shi'ites are part of the political process even though I may not agree with their ideas, it is their freedom to turn it back to the 7th Century.

If President Bush doesn't want people to say this is another Nam, then don't allow the enemy sanctuaries, like we did with Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam war.

Agreed. It is time to unleash the Angels of Death (AKA U.S. Marine Corps) into Syria.