U.S. forces stoned as they pull out of town in Sunni Triangle

[NNN0LHI]

http://cbsnewyork.com/international/Iraq--TroopPullout-ai/resources_news_html

KHALIDYAH, Iraq (AP) Thousands of Iraqis cheered and threw stones Tuesday as U.S. Marines handed over positions in this tense Sunni Triangle town to an Iraqi civil defense force.

The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps took over in Khaldiyah, 50 miles northwest of Baghdad, under an agreement with local clerics, said Lt. Col. Hammad Shahir Sarhan of the Iraqi forces.

Sarhan said his division flew the Iraqi flag after U.S. troops moved to their main base in Habbaniyah. People swept into the streets to rejoice, throwing stones as the Marines passed.

The Sunni Triangle, a largely Sunni Muslim area that formed a core of support for Saddam Hussein's former regime, stretches to the north and west of Baghdad, the capital, and is part of the western Anbar province.

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[Nlighten1]

1. I don't know why but...

Bob Dylan just popped into my head.

[Eye and Monkey]

4. Well, I would not feel so all alone -

[mmonk]

8. everybody

must get stoned.

[bemildred]

12. "Everybody must get stoned".

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.
Probably better than getting your ass shot off.

[tinanator]

2. just like Nam

oh wait...

[kalian]

3. "They hate us because of our freedoms..."

:eyes:

Makes one wonder on what side we're on...

[StClone]

5. Our soldiers deserved flowers

But once again Bush leaves things worse than believable.

[Aidoneus]

10. Why did they deserve flowers

?!

[StClone]

14. A soldier

Not just those in this bogus war deserve better.

[Aidoneus]

15. That doesn't make much sense..

You reponded to a post about retreating occupation forces being stoned, saying that they deserved flowers. What of their conduct in this context would you say is praiseworthy?, or was the comment not intended to apply here?

[StClone]

16. My father was on Omaha Beach Bias

These soldiers deserve better than being put in an impossible situation:

1) Ill-equipped

2) Poorly defined mission

3) Ill-defined enemy

4) Stop-lose order

5) Undefined exit strategy

etc.

Just because these guys are looking like monsters due to Bush's twisted Neo-Cromag ideas doesn't mean they deserve stoning .

We need a legitimate military and seeing them degraded hurts us. I am not saying the soldiers are not responsible for some hatred but what has been asked of them has put them in this hard place.

[bemildred]

17. A legitimate military, of appropriate size, and

only put to legitimate uses. And there is only one legitimate
use: defense of one's own territory. Nevertheless, I will agree
that many of those troops would gladly be somewhere else, and are
making the best they can of an ugly situation. Mutiny might
improve the situation, but perhaps it's a bit soon for the
advantages of that approach to occur to them.

[linazelle]

6. Well, we finally got our flowers....

at least that's that way Bushco will try to spin it.

[Gildor Inglorion]

7. Those young Americans should be at HOME getting stoned

instead of posted to a foolish, unnecessary war and BEING stoned. What sad, sad days for our country. We used to be the good guys.

[Alerter_]

9. no, those were flowers, not rocks!

I'm sure of it!

[freeforall]

11. Oh...THAT kind of stoned

Was thinking that getting stoned was probably the only way the troops could handle the fiasco in Iraq.

[Must_B_Free]

13. freeforall or reeferal?l

turn your guns into nugs