We shoot them down like the morons they are

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 4-7-03 | Lindsay Murdoch

[antaresequity]

'We shoot them down like the morons they are': US general

By Lindsay Murdoch Herald Correspondent south of Baghdad
April 9 2003, 11:05 AM

Hundreds of Muslim fighters, many of them non-Iraqis, were putting up a stronger fight for Baghdad than Iraq's Republican Guard or the regular army, a top United States military officer said yesterday.

"They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them," Brigadier-General John Kelly said.

"But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are."

General Kelly, assistant commander of the about 20,000-strong 1st Marine Division, said US intelligence indicated that there might be anywhere between 500 and 5000 of the fighters, whom he described as terrorists.

"They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour," he said.

General Kelly said a captured Syrian fighter who had his leg blown off had refused medical help. "They are arrogant. They are determined," he said.

The fighters were armed with AK47 rifles and hand-held rockets, he said.

"We are finding them more dangerous than the conventional Iraqi units."

General Kelly said pockets of the Republican Guard and Iraq's regular army were engaging thousands of US marines who had entered Baghdad from the north-east after seizing control of bridges across the Tigris River.

The resistance was unco-ordinated, he said.

"There's no shifting of forces ... there are no reinforcements ... there is no cohesion to the whole thing."

Any rational military command would have surrendered by now, he said.

"There can be no escape."

General Kelly said marines were about to seize buildings and land in Baghdad that were of strategic importance.

"Once we take ground we tend not to give it up."

[section9]

Marines aren't quite as easy as taking down an unsuspecting stewardess in the middle of making coffee...

Precisely. The upshot of the presence of jihadi is that they tend to run right into Marines screaming bloody murder. This means that a lot of them will get killed. Less of a problem for you, less of a problem for me.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[alphadog]

"Well so much for 2nd amendment being able to help us now, if gov't goes rogue..."

Standing in the back of a pickup with a short range AK-47 in the middle of flat and almost treeless battlefield is not a true test...I could go on

[antaresequity]

Either from us or the Iraqis themselves

Look Here :

"freedom earned endures...freedom given is squandered like a christmas toy"

[lavaroise]

I just hope Saddam is not going to let them have chem weapons and claim he was not in control.

[dfwgator]

I keep thinking of Indiana Jones and the crazy Arabs waving their swords and Indiana just shooting them.

[demlosers]

That would be nice and neat, wouldn't it?

You don't suppose George W. Bush has used Iraq as a trap, do you?

I have a feeling that went into Bush's Stategery.