Sometimes the best offense is to retreat..... or not. We are sooooo

[HysteryDiagnosis]

much better than our opponents. Really, I read it on the net.

http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/feb26.html

On a 60-mile stretch of road from Mutlaa, Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq, a convoy of more than 2,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were fleeing. These were people who were putting up no resistance, many with no weapons, leaving in cars, trucks, carts, and on foot. The American armed forces bombed one end of the main highway from Kuwait City to Basra, sealing it off and then bombed the other end of the highway, sealing it off. They positioned mechanized artillery units on the hill overlooking the area and then, both from the air and the land, massacred every living thing on the road. Fighter bombers, helicopter gunships, and armored battalions poured merciless firepower on those trapped in the traffic jams, backed up as much as 20 miles. One U.S. pilot reportedly said, "It was like shooting fish in a barrel." That fateful stretch of road has since been dubbed the "Highway of Death."
John W Whitehead, 'On the Highway of Death' (see below, This Day in History, 1991)

Unknown to journalists, in the last two days before the cease-fire, American armoured bulldozers were ruthlessly deployed, mostly at night, burying Iraqis alive in their trenches, including the wounded. Six months later New York Newsday disclosed that three brigades of the 1st Mechanised Infantry Division – ‘The Big Red One’ – used snow plows mounted on tanks and combat earth movers to bury thousands of Iraqi soldiers – some alive – in more than 70 miles of trenches.
John Pilger on the Highway of Death; Hidden Agendas

[cspanlovr]

1. And we have the nerve to talk about Saddam's mass graves!

[MissWaverly]

2. God, please no more of this

no more of this insanely cruel persecution of the Iraqis, for whatever reason, I don't know.
It is still going on, now we have Iraq Part II, with Abeer and her family murdered as a joke,
Abu Ghraib and Haditha

[lonestarnot]

3. Who is saying they were alive when buried?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Mmmmm let me check around.

[MissWaverly]

5. sadly enough I believe it's true

I don't know how to bookmark the exact spot on this website, you will have to scroll down:

Some Iraqis were able to flee the area -- a significant fact in itself (O'Kane 1995). One Iraqi who did retreat and witness the bulldozing from a safe distance estimated that 300 of his comrades must have been buried along the immediate section of the trench line -- probably constituting a battalion position (or 11 percent of the total). (As we will see, the Iraqi's numerical estimate might actually have reflected the total number of Iraqi troops still alive and present in the area when the assault began.) The Iraqi also claimed that the plows cut down some troops who had exited the trenches and were attempting to surrender. As is made clear in an interview with a sargent who drove one of the plows (either a tank with plow attached or a combat earth mover ), those driving the equipment could see little of what was immediately in front of them (O'Kane 1995).

http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8ap2.html#4.%20Buried%20alive:%201st%20Division%20breeching

[lonestarnot]

8. Unreported numbers in the 100's of thousands. I guess they are just

less than numbers.

[MissWaverly]

9. we have to bring responsibility to our leadership

our leader must use force only as the last resort and must respect international laws as stipulated in the Geneva convention, that you would "waste" countless individuals fleeing the battle is an atrocity. Those responsible should be held accountable. Once again, we have secrecy and no accountability. This all started back then.

[lonestarnot]

13. "Escaping a life of death."

[MissWaverly]

14. escaping life of death does not equal liberation

I am waiting for truth to break out.

[lonestarnot]

17. I was referencing people fleeing from Iraq "democracy" at this point.

[MissWaverly]

18. I know you were, I was too

the liberated are fleeing for their lives, what a sad postscript to Freedom is On the March

[lonestarnot]

19. Spreading that democracy!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Not what you asked for but perhaps something you should check

anyway.


http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html

I refused to participate in the pool system. I was in the Gulf for many weeks as the build-up of troops took place, and then sat out the "air war", and flew from Paris to Riyadh as soon as the ground war began. I arrived at the "mile of death" the morning the day the war stopped. It was very early in the morning and few other journalists were present. When I arrived at the scene of this incredible carnage, strewn all over on this mile stretch were cars and trucks with wheels still turning, radios still playing, and there were bodies scattered along the road. Many people have asked the question "how many people died" during the war with Iraq and the question has never been well answered. That first morning, I saw and photographed a U.S. Military 'graves detail' bury in large graves many bodies.

I don't recall seeing many television images of the human consequences of this scene, or for that matter many photographs published. A day later, I came across another scene on an obscure road further north and to the east where, in the middle of the desert, I found a convoy of lorries transporting Iraqi soldiers back to Baghdad, where clearly massive fire power had been dropped and everyone in sight had been carbonized. Most of the photographs I made of this scene have never been published anywhere and this has always troubled me.

As we approach the distinct possibility of another war, a thought comes to mind. The photographs that I made do not, in themselves, represent any personal political judgment or point of view with respect to the politics and the right or wrong of the first Gulf War. What they do represent is a part of a more accurate picture of what really does happen in war. I feel it is important and that citizens have the right to see these images. This is not to communicate my point of view, but so viewers as citizens can be offered a better opportunity to consider the whole picture and consequences of that war and any war. I feel that it is part of my role as a photojournalist to offer the viewer the opportunity to draw from as much information as possible, and develop his or her own judgment.

Unseen War, do not click if you are squeamish: http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt01.html

[PA Democrat]

11. I was just going to post this link.

Here is one of the few images from the site that are not EXTREMELY graphic.

[MissWaverly]

12. Yes, and each of those was a burning coffin

I looked at the photos, I thought the one very sad with the 3 US soldiers standing at a mass
grave where there is still a arm sticking up out of the ground.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

15. I hope these weren't the mass graves we used to condemn that

other guy.

[MissWaverly]

16. No, he was guilty of atrocities when he wasn't buying

weapons from us

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Thank you Miss Waverly....

http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8ap2.html

4. Buried alive: 1st Division breeching operations

The higher end estimates for the numbers of Iraqi combatants buried alive derive from an off-the-cuff statement by the commander of one of the two brigades who said that "thousands" might have been buried "for all I know." The commander of the other brigade made different estimates at different times: 80-250 and 650 buried. The division commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Rhames, told a press conference that as many as 400 might have been buried. Significantly, none of the officers interviewed seemed especially defensive about the operation. However, a captain who ordered part of the assault (and was quite distraught in its aftermath) estimated later that he could have killed hundreds (Zmirak 2002). A similarly distraught sargent, still troubled ten years later by dreams of being buried alive, thought thousands might have been entombed (Berstein 2001).

A classified (secret) log made by division officers at the time of the incident noted that only 150 enemy soldiers had been buried (Gordon and Trainor 1995, p. 383 and ft. 18-6.). (The log also stated that the division took only 500 prisoners on the day of the assault, although others might have been taken by a neighboring British division.)

Some Iraqis were able to flee the area -- a sign

[MissWaverly]

10. I pray that this comes out, all of it

How will we ever stop doing this if there is no accountability, I remember Zell Miller thumping
his chest over the fact that Kerry called us occupiers in Iraq instead of liberators. I wonder
what Abeer and her family would have thought of the term "liberator".

I have enclosed a snip of Zell Miller's speech at the RNC here. It is very telling because
the Democrats were being to criticize the war and were shouted down by rhetoric and name
calling. I am still mystified at how Iraq involves our national security when it was never
involved in 9-11 and had no ties to Osama Bin Laden.

Zell Miller (Democrat) speech to the Republic National Convention 2004

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54300-2004Sep1.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

20. Well.... if the trenches can be located and I'm sure they can,

the evidence should be aplenty.