Marines' fierce firefight in Iraq (25 Iraqis killed)

[ze_dscherman]

US troops say they killed 25 insurgents and captured 25 others in battles in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday.
Fourteen marines were injured in the fierce fighting in the Sunni city, known for its strong anti-US feeling.

The clashes followed an ambush on a marine convoy at about 1500 (1100 GMT), a US marines statement said.

A roadside bomb exploded and about 10 insurgents fired at the convoy, leading to a much larger engagement between marines and up to 100 other fighters.

SNIP

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3916217.stm

[lazarus]

1. Remember those body counts in Viet Nam?

We'd kill 20 or 30 of theirs, no casualties on our side. And yet, bodybags kept coming home...

[Divernan]

3. You just don't declare them dead at the battle site.

It depends on your definition of "wounded". There's some brief period of time, if only a minute, between when a soldier is mortally wounded and his/her vital signs actually cease. Easy enough for the Pentagon to order a "strategeric" policy to declare no soldiers dead until their bodies have been brought back to a base camp hospital. There are no investigative journalists to get a list of the "wounded" and follow up on how many are declared dead very shortly after the battle. How would the American public react to a news story that listed by name and type of injury the 15 soldiers who were wounded?

For all the crap "reality" TV shows being fed to the brain dead American TV audience, what about a reality show filmed live from military actions in Iraq? Or maybe from Walter Reed Hospital of young soldiers struggling to adjust to life without one or more arm or leg or eye.

The current situation brings new depth to terms like horror, nightmare, greed, political corruption, or senseless violence.

[saigon68]

5. WHY ANYONE WOULD "join up" IS BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION

<sarcasm> I guess only those with a death wish or Psychopaths, who want to kill would want to go to a foreign country and terminate "ragheads" </sarcasm>

[Judi Lynn]

2. An AP story on your topic:

July 22, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq
.
U.S. Marines killed 25 insurgents and captured 25 others in several hours of fierce fighting on Wednesday, the military said Thursday.
.
The fighting in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, wounded 14 U.S. servicemen, but none sustained life threatening injuries and 10 have returned to duty, according to the Marine statement.
.
Ramadi shopkeepers were seen shuttering their stores Thursday, apparently in fear of more clashes. It was not immediately clear if fighting had resumed.
.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, insurgents battled with U.S. soldiers on Haifa Street, the scene of another gunbattle earlier this month, according to an unidentified hospital official interviewed by Associated Press Television News. Two Iraqis were reported wounded.
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/530572.html

[izzie]

4. So we really control nothing in Iraq ?

Well the Green Zone. And what I hear our people say is we are better than Saddam as we have cut no hands off. Please tell me this is not an Alice and Wonderland world we live in.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. So, what's our LATEST definition of an "insurgent"?...

Does the definition include ANY non-American in the general area that gets killed, wounded, or captured?

What definition is Rummy using?

Are body PARTS being counted as WHOLE bodies or just part of a body?

What's the age range that's acceptable to the Baghdad Bureau of Body Counts...what age is too old, and what age is too young?

Are captured Iraqis being counted if they "disappear" into the prison system?

Extremely cynical, inquiring minds want to know.