Insurgents set up a "checkpoint" and kill fifty soldiers

[The Collector]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6316493/

Reminds you of something you'd see in the movies. This is not good.

Discuss.

[Retroboy]

It's a master stroke and a brazen act that demonstrates exactly how ineffective the transition process to an Iraqi government can be with the right resistance. Someone on the insurgent planning side is brilliant for staging this.

...but they're also vile. It wasn't necessary to execute all of the soldiers, even IF they consider this a state of war.

-- Retro

[Bonnet]

What can you say, that really sucks. But on the other hand I would imagine the comand is probably going to come up with a method of iding friendlys pretty quick. THe only question is why where they unarmed?

[jetfx]

When you're fighting as guerillas you have to be brillant, otherwise you lose.

Rather clever, sounds like what Colombian guerillas do to catch hostages, they set up checkpoints on roads and wait until the right person stops. So this act is not entirely without precedent.

[SquidDNA]

The soldiers were unarmed because they were going home from training. This is the impression I got from hearing the story repeated five times on CNN while I was online Sunday.

[The Collector]

Darn, I forgot about Colombia.

In any case, I don't recall ever hearing about fifty soldiers dying in a single sitting, even in the Iraq War.

[El Russo]

I think the point should be made that these were not de facto soldiers, ie; in their situation they were just as innocent as what the media seem to permanently refer to as "civilians".

[The5thElephant]

This is horrific but a stroke of genius by the insurgents. It is amazing just how effective they are at killing our soldiers and others with their IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and traps such as this. Guerilla warfare is a scary thing.

[Nurizeko]

it might be brilliant but its still the tell tale sign of two types of men, desperate freedom fighters who feel they have nothing left, and sick mutha ******* who get their jollies out of massacring unarmed men.

either way i think this will only steel the new iraqi forces and government against the insurgents, after all, when men suppousedly fighting for iraqi freedom start slaughtering fellow iraqi's, especially in such a situation, i see no reason why they should be believed.

to be honest, with the state of afghanistan, the US should of cleaned house over there, look ar all the forces tied up in iraq that could have been used in afghan country...that place right now is just a joke, apart from kabul, most of afghanistan is controlled by warlords who are kept in line with money and other incentives, and the afghanistani army isnt large enough to contest most of the warlords own personal malitia's.

[The_Assimilator]

What's to be said, except that this is just another day in Iraq. The Middle East is so FUBAR at this time that I don't think there'll ever be peace there again.

[The Collector]

Update (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20041026/wl_nm/iraq_dc)

From Yahoo News:

"There was an ugly crime in which a large group of National Guards were martyred," Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told Iraq's national assembly.


"We believe this issue was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces)," he said without elaborating.



Ehh? Sounds like the blame game all over again. Ansar Al-Sunna now claims to have abducted 11 Guardsmen.

[Navaros]

@the guy who said they were "murdering fellow Iraqis" - that statement is just spin. they are fighting against USA puppetmen who may happen to be Iraqi. that's not the same as killing innocent fellow Iraqis. they killed men who were going to try to kill them. if those men happened to be killed while they were unarmed; oh well, that's how WAR works.

its not like the USA only attacks when the enemy is "ready" for them. so why should the Insurgents?

and it's not like the Insurgents have the resources to house prisoners, therefore they don't really have much of a "choice" about letting enemy hostiles live

[Gyokuran]

We should have had something set up to make sure that didnt happen. We also need to abandon some things such as this (the graduation I mean), as preplaned out large activities are prime targets for terrorist attacks.

[SquidDNA]

Navaros, I'm not going to say it's unprecedented, but the US doesn't round people up, lay them in rows, and shoot them in the back of the head. The fake checkpoint, RPG, and mass capture of unarmed men, yes, that's something the US would do if it had the opportunity. The execution isn't.

[Nurizeko]

well said squiddy

[Thalasion]

I was reading through this thread with the intention of posting, then Navaros posted, and said everything i was gonna.



@Squid- the US military would execute people like that if they thought they could do it without any cammeras seeing.

[El Russo]

If that is true then what exactly are "we" fighting for? Justice, peace? Give me a break...

[The Collector]

Thalasion-They would make a press statement saying:

"Insurgent forces were caught off guard and eliminated with coalition forces assisting; indicating that force training levels are approaching optimum to the point of being coherent and viable before the elections in January. We remain commited to our Iraqi allies by commiting decisive actions that deprieve the terrorists of personnel and materiel."

Of course, the other side says...you already know what they said. Basically the same, with little mixings of their unique point of view.