Where the F&%#! was our military?

[spinbaby]

I just heard on the radio that the DAY AFTER those mercenaries were massacred in Fallujah, IRAQI POLICE retrieved the bodies.

[markus]

1. Not willing to go there anymore

Most likely for political reasons. They've probably been told to stop the flow of body bags that can be in anyway tied to Bush. So, they send in some of the mercenary security forces, or the Iraqi police.

[Jacobin]

2. The U.S. military has been ordered to stay behind bunkers

during the run-up to elections, to keep the body count down. I lost the link to the news story.

Of course, this isn't political

[beachbum]

3. I just heard that same thing

Things just get worse and worse there every day. It is just making me sick. I have a feeling like we need to finish what we started. But DAMN our people are dying every DAY! Military and non military. the Iraqi's don't want us there. I was just listening to NPR. They were interviewing Iraqi's and only a very FEW didn't think it was right how the bodies were mutilated. They thought the Americans deserved it. They HATE us.

[Jacobin]

4. "finish what we started"?

What did we start?

And how do you "finish it"?

We are there to steal their oil. The "finish" won't be for another fifty years, or until we are run out.

[beachbum]

6. There has to be some completion to it

We cannot leave the Iraqis in a lurch. They certainly were not in a good situation with Saddam. But Bushwack took them from one bad situation into another unstable situation. Pulling out right now will leave them in an even worse situation.

Yes, oil is what it is all about. No doubt about that. But it is lives that are being lost, Americans and Iraqis. Most of them innocents.

I hear what you are saying in regards to the finish, and I do understand that. But I still say, we cannot just leave them in a lurch, so to speak. That would be wrong. Just my opinion. WE DID go over there and start this. Uninvited.

"what did we start"???? Thats funny. April fools joke right?

[Jacobin]

7. Not a rhetorical question at all

What did we start?

We said we were going to disarm Saddam. He wasn't armed.

Then we said we were going to "liberate" the Iraqis and that there would be dancing in the streets. We are now oppressing the Iraqis and in the process of installing a puppet government. They are only dancing on the bodies of burned up american mercenaries.

We are there to steal their oil. That is what we started.

"Leaving them in a lurch" is an amusing way of describing how we get out of their country. It appears that they want us to "leave them in a lurch". The lurch they are in now with us there maladministering their country to steal their oil appears to be more of a "lurch" than the one they would experience if we allowed them their own destiny.

The support for Smirk's invasion by Dems is a tar baby, imho.

[beachbum]

10. Thats right

They <bush admin> Started ALL OF IT and accomplished found nothing.

But how do you do that... go into a country and rip it all to shreds, kill so many of its sons, tear up its infrastructure and then leave it to who knows 'who'. Thats why I feel like they cant just up and leave with out some kind of completion. I know they dont want us there. And believe me, I am so tired of hearing our guys getting killed every day. I WANT them to come home.

By the way,I am certainly not an expert and am learning alot here, from you and others here at DU. Thanks.

[htuttle]

13. If a rapist breaks into a woman's home and then assaults and rapes her...

...Is the rapist obligated to stick around her house, fixing what he broke, trying to make her 'feel better'? I think not. I think the idea that the US needs to 'finish the job' in Iraq is analogous to that of a rapist trying to cheer up his victim.

We have no obligation to keep the people who destroyed Iraq, IN Iraq. In fact, we have an obligation to remove them from Iraq.

We also have an obligation to ensure justice is done, which means reparations for an illegal war, and preferably criminal charges against those who started it.

THAT is our true obligation, though quite honestly I think this sort of honorable action is beyond the capability of the United States at this point. It's simply not in our character anymore.

[kcwayne]

5. They probably want to avoid a Black Hawk Down scenario

If I am the general in charge there, I have to presume the very real possibility that the people that mutilated those bodies want to see the military come out and engage. I would have to be cognizant that once troops arrived on the scene, that planned violence would erupt.

Then they can have video of a massive slaughter taking place as the US pours more firepower in to extract its men, ala Somalia, and in the process kill 1000 Iraqis. That's the last thing the Bush administration wants to see on CNN or Al Jazeera. Its definitely the kind of thing OBL wants to see.

[mainer]

8. This is the most ominous part of the whole event

Four Americans were being attacked on the street, and no US soldiers DARED come to the rescue! No US soldiers DARED make an appearance at all! neither did any Iraqi policemen.

Doesn't this just PROVE how completely hostile and out of control the country is?

This is VICTORY?

[KG]

9. again, i must query - why do armed mercenaries need military help?

mercenaries are scum. no sympathy here.

[spinbaby]

12. They have once been armed mercenaries...

but by the time they came to our attention, they were dead bodies being abused in the street. Dead American bodies. And our "in control of Iraq" military didn't dare go near the scene even a day later. I think things are much worse over there than anyone admits.

[DrWeird]

11. Apparently they were watching.

As for the Iraqi police, at least one was participating in the celebration.