"All men between 15 and 50 are forbidden from entering or exiting!"

[Bluebear]

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11327290%255E663,00.html

Two-thirds of the city's population of 300,000 have already fled the city, 60km west of Baghdad. US troops yesterday banned men from entering or leaving the city.

"Attention, attention! All men aged between 15 and 50 are forbidden from entering or exiting," loudspeakers on top of US military vehicles declared in Arabic as they drove around the outskirts of the city.

"If they do, they will become a target," the military warned. "Only women and children are allowed to leave on condition that they do not return until order is restored."

In rousing speeches at various staging posts, US marine commanders told their charges they were about to make history in freeing Fallujah.....
"This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done -- kick some butt."

[Jersey Devil]

1. Did they raise the draft age for Iraqi insurgents?

Yesterday they were reporting the top age as 45. I suppose this means that all men 15-50 are presumed to be insurgents and will be vaporized.

[eleonora]

7. this is going to be victory for the insurgents.

So many wrongful deaths...so many more reasons to *become* an insurgent.

[Jersey Devil]

10. agreed - "Remember Fallujah" will be their Alamo

and it will lead to more recruits than anyone could every imagine.

[PretzelWarrior]

2. it's like in the Old Testament when they wiped out all able bodied men

truly disgusting.

[whistle]

3. This sounds like genocide, the systematic elimination of all Iraqi....

...males who have the potential to fight and resist America's illegal occupation. This is the handywork of John Negroponte's death squads.

[kayell]

34. Exactly. They're getting the women and children with DU and starvation &

the odd bit of "collateral damage".

[whistle]

4. DUPE

...males who have the potential to fight and resist America's illegal occupation. This is the handywork of John Negroponte's death squads.

[VelmaD]

5. Does it make me a bad person...

that I hope the women of Iraq make them really regret this decision?

[pleiku52cab]

6. That idiot is right

It is another Hue and just like Hue we will take it 'back' after killing most of the civilians that live there

[pleiku52cab]

11. OOPS

I forgot to mention that Iraq is not another Vietnam, we are not in a quagmire, and lets not forget that we won that war...

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

19. I've been saying "HUE" since Thursday

Thanks for corroboration

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. what is HUE?

I'm not familiar with that term?

[DemoTex]

27. Hue '68

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

36. Vietnam battle

Featured in "Full Metal Jacket"

[necso]

8. "Hue City"

Let's hope not... "The ARVN suffered more then 380 dead with nearly 2,000 wounded. American casualties were 210 died and 1,360 wounded."

[pleiku52cab]

15. Don't forget all the dead civilians

We need them to bolster the 'body count' of the 'enemy terrorists'

[necso]

38. I don't expect that we will be hearing much about this. n/t

[Garbo 2004]

22. Amazing a Marine would use such a reference, seeing how well

that war turned out.

I recall when the Administration laughed at those who predicted that Iraq could turn into another Viet Nam. And yet as time goes on....

[necso]

39. And, of course, many of those American casualties were Marine.

(I can't be bothered to hunt down the details -- maybe it was all of them.)

Still, it is a historical reference to Marines taking a defended city... in another mistaken war that we lost, of course.

And some might argue that battling for an inland city is an inappropriate use of (primarily) amphibious forces.

But all argument is passe now, everything has become a matter of "faith".

You get what you settle for.

...And we have settled for insanity.

[okieinpain]

9. and they will free fallujah, and just as the after party kicks in

they will look up and see the enemy waving the number one sign from one of the other cities. this is a losing battle.

hell if the governments of the world can't stop drug dealers, then what the hell do they think is going to happen in iraq.

I wish that we had a media, someone needs to tell the gomer's of the USA, that the reason afghanistian is so quiet is because we are letting the herion warlords build mansion's on the villa. man, oh man what a fucked world we live in.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

12. "Heil Bushler"!?!

:cry:

[DinahMoeHum]

13. It doesn't matter anymore. Bush has already LOST Iraq. . .

and NOTHING he does to Fallujah can change it.

If he leaves Iraq, he has "eaten it". If he stays, he's fucked.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam


:nuke:

[pleiku52cab]

20. It DOES matter to

all the dead civilians - not to mention our own troops who are just following orders. As the Robin Williams movie title stated HELLO VIETNAM

[russian33]

14. What if I'm 62, but look damn good for my age? Will they shoot me?

And what if I'm a boy who's 14 yrs old and 11 months, do you want me to carry a birth certificate around?

Will these women and children be carrying flowers?

[Endangered Specie]

16. The beatings will continue until morale improves?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. All men between 15 and 50 are forbidden to enter OR LEAVE?

I'm sorry, but this sounds way too much like the Nanjing Massacre for my taste.

The Nanjing Massacre began with the Japanese army trying to "mop up" the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army who had fled into the city. It then spread to killing any man who was of military age. Then the soldiers decided that they might as well rape a few women while they were at it--and kill them afterwards. And if you're killing young men and women, why stop there? Get the old people and children as well...

I don't care what anybody says. Our troops are committing war crimes. This doesn't mean that they are monsters by nature, but they have been put into an environment where being monstrous is okay.

[pleiku52cab]

25. Don't you get it? We're back in the body count business again.

[Garbo 2004]

28. Yes, that order also struck me as too reminiscent of some WW II events

which I hope will not be mirrored here. Unfortunately, what do they plan to do with a city of men between those ages except perhaps blast it and them all to hell?

[Zookeeper]

18. This makes me sick...

The whole thing is sick, but forcing 15 year old boys to stay there and be slaughtered is unforgivable. I have a 14 year old son, who has 14 year old friends and I'll tell you they are BOYS, not men.

Any chance our "moral values" pResident and the "moral values" voters who elected him will see the immorality of this?

[jgardner]

21. It makes me sick

to think about what we've done to the people of Iraq.

[Fescue4u]

24. Sounds reasonable really.

Otherwise the bad guys will simply leave the city.

Best thing for peaceful folks is to simply stay indoors until things settle down.

Nevermind the fact that Good people in the city would have known this is coming since what April was it?

I say that the truly peaceful men between those ages left long ago.

Regardless. Stay put, don't shoot at our soldiers and they should be fine. The soldiers will have their hands full as it is with people who are attacking.

[Garbo 2004]

29. Some of their precision weapons ain't so precise; i.e. "collateral damage"

[Mandate My Ass]

30. They were dropping 500 lb bombs on Fallujah last weekend

I guess they missed the peaceful folks and just hit the bad guys. Riiiiiiigggghhhhhtt.

[Fescue4u]

31. I would have left last weekend

Cant imagine why I would stick around dodging 500lb bombs.

[DrWeird]

32. But you just said stick in your house and everything will be fine.

I guess that is unless of course they shell your house.

:eyes:

[Bluebear]

33. How about if you were 72, infirm, maybe watching an elderly mother?

Where are these people supposed to go in the middle of a desert? How do they evacuate a city of 300,000? Did the US provide bus service to safer cities? Just asking.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. besides, how would you feel if your whole community was destroyed,

leaving you with NOTHING?

I found out how people react a couple of years ago when my church sponsored a family from Kosovo.

A friend who worked closely with them was at their house once when the phone rang, one of the family members went to answer it, burst into tears, and said something in Albanian, which caused the whole rest of the family (parents and children ages 10 to 22) to scream and sob.

My friend asked the interpreter what had happened, and he explained that the Serbians had just burned and bulldozed their entire town, houses, public buildings, and all, and had killed everyone who had been hiding out there.

That's what the U.S. actions look like. That's what they feel like.

Yes, the insurgents are killing U.S. troops--who should even be there in the first place. It's the Iraqi's country, not ours. We're the redcoats in this war.

[Zookeeper]

45. Ohhhhhh Nooooo!

plastic_turkeys was one of my favorite DU names!

('Sorry to throw that comment into an otherwise very serious thread.)

[Bluebear]

46. Same on inside, different outside!

[vpigrad]

42. No it isn't reasonable!

> Otherwise the bad guys will simply leave the city.

That's the damn point, to get them to leave the city. The Bushie idiots are too stupid and/or drunk to understand the damn point. They're, as always, doing the exact opposite of what they should. They say they want the terrorists to leave the city, but then they don't let them. They have such trouble with easy logic. I guess that's what made them repuks in the first place.

> don't shoot at our soldiers and they should be fine.

That didn't work for the Germans when we invaded and occupied Germany, so why would you think it would work now? Our soldiers hate anyone not like themselves, and I'm ashamed of our history.

[mike_c]

43. there's no contradiction, really....

They don't REALLY want them to leave-- they want a blood bath. They want a slaughter. This is about body counts and kill ratios.

[Mandate My Ass]

26. the crime of being an Iraqi male qualifies for the death penalty

No trial required. The US military is judge, jury and executioner.

[Bluebear]

35. This boy remains in a hospital and CAN'T flee

Or is he 15? Well, he was warned.

[Logansquare]

40. Well, you really want them strong enough

to dig their own graves before execution, right?

I can't believe I just said that.

[Minstrel Boy]

41. Look at this 60 year old anti-Nazi poster.

Apart from the sides, how much has changed?

[mike_c]

44. Fallujah is Lidice, Grozny, and Hue....

God help the people of Fallujah.

[Zookeeper]

47. "...the enemy has got a face....

He's called Satan. He lives in Fallujah and we're going to destroy him." Says Lt.-Col. Gareth Brandl.

Wow! 'Way to further incite a religious war, guy! We are indeed making enemies faster than we can kill them.