Pictures and report from Iraq from my nephew

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by raider73
im still wondering what that job is?

You either figure it out by the time you're 18, or you subscribe to the Communist Manifesto.

[LEADPIG]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Reprisal Against Dujail
On July 8, 1982, Saddam Hussein was visiting the town of Dujail (50 miles north of Baghdad) when a group of Dawa militants shot at his motorcade. In reprisal for this assassination attempt, the entire town was punished. More than 140 fighting-age men were apprehended and never heard from again. Approximately 1,500 other townspeople, including children, were rounded up and taken to prison, where many were tortured. After a year or more in prison, many were exiled to a southern desert camp. The town itself was destroyed; houses were bulldozed and orchards were demolished.

Though Saddam's reprisal against Dujail is considered one of his lesser-known crimes, it has been chosen as the first for which he will be tried.


Anfal Campaign
Officially from February 23 to September 6, 1988 (but often thought to extend from March 1987 to May 1989), Saddam Hussein's regime carried out the Anfal (Arabic for "spoils") campaign against the large Kurdish population in northern Iraq. The purpose of the campaign was ostensibly to reassert Iraqi control over the area; however, the real goal was to permanently eliminate the Kurdish problem.

The campaign consisted of eight stages of assault, where up to 200,000 Iraqi troops attacked the area, rounded up civilians, and razed villages. Once rounded up, the civilians were divided into two groups: men from ages of about 13 to 70 and women, children, and elderly men. The men were then shot and buried in mass graves. The women, children, and elderly were taken to relocation camps where conditions were deplorable. In a few areas, especially areas that put up even a little resistance, everyone was killed.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled the area, yet it is estimated that up to 182,000 were killed during the Anfal campaign. Many people consider the Anfal campaign an attempt at genocide.


Chemical Weapons Against Kurds
As early as April 1987, the Iraqis used chemical weapons to remove Kurds from their villages in northern Iraq during the Anfal campaign. It is estimated that chemical weapons were used on approximately 40 Kurdish villages, with the largest of these attacks occurring on March 16, 1988 against the Kurdish town of Halabja.

Beginning in the morning on March 16, 1988 and continuing all night, the Iraqis rained down volley after volley of bombs filled with a deadly mixture of mustard gas and nerve agents on Halabja. Immediate effects of the chemicals included blindness, vomiting, blisters, convulsions, and asphyxiation. Approximately 5,000 women, men, and children died within days of the attacks. Long-term effects included permanent blindness, cancer, and birth defects. An estimated 10,000 lived, but live daily with the disfigurement and sicknesses from the chemical weapons.

Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid was directly in charge of the chemical attacks against the Kurds, earning him the epithet, "Chemical Ali."


Invasion of Kuwait
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops invaded the country of Kuwait. The invasion was induced by oil and a large war debt that Iraq owed Kuwait. The six-week, Persian Gulf War pushed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991. As the Iraqi troops retreated, they were ordered to light oil wells on fire. Over 700 oil wells were lit, burning over one billion barrels of oil and releasing dangerous pollutants into the air. Oil pipelines were also opened, releasing 10 million barrels of oil into the Gulf and tainting many water sources. The fires and the oil spill created a huge environmental disaster.


*****e Uprising & the Marsh Arabs
At the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, southern *****es and northern Kurds rebelled against Hussein's regime. In retaliation, Iraq brutally suppressed the uprising, killing thousands of *****es in southern Iraq.

As supposed punishment for supporting the *****e rebellion in 1991, Saddam Hussein's regime killed thousands of Marsh Arabs, bulldozed their villages, and systematically ruined their way of life. The Marsh Arabs had lived for thousands of years in the marshlands located in southern Iraq until Iraq built a network of canals, dykes, and dams to divert water away from the marshes. The Marsh Arabs were forced to flee the area, their way of life decimated.

By 2002, satellite images showed only 7 to 10 percent of the marshlands left. Saddam Hussein is blamed for creating an environmental disaster.

And all that is America's business how ??

[LEADPIG]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
You either figure it out by the time you're 18, or you subscribe to the Communist Manifesto.

Thank you for assuming if people don't agree with you that makes them Communist...... Uh yeah.

Anyway a HUGE to Spc Jacob. I'm sorry if the people leading him however have sometimes made stupid decisions. Not his fault though. God i hope he comes home safe.

[Reschke]

Rip pass along good wishes and prayers from my end that he and his buddies come home safe and come home soon. I know those guys are doing their job and a large majority of us have no idea what its like over there.

[lazs2]

raider and mt..  I am serious..  don't you think that it would be a horrible thing...regardless of how you felt about us getting involved in the first place...don't you think it would be a bad thing for us to pull out before the government and people of iraq were able to fend for themselves.. to get their military and police up to par and their infrastructure in some sort of working order?

crock-it..  I am also glad that we finally seem to be getting our heads out of our butts their..  I am surprised and pleased to hear you say such a thing tho.  I may have dismissed you to soon.

lazs

[Shuffler]

to all our troops over there.

[midnight Target]

Originally posted by lazs2
raider and mt..  I am serious..  don't you think that it would be a horrible thing...regardless of how you felt about us getting involved in the first place...don't you think it would be a bad thing for us to pull out before the government and people of iraq were able to fend for themselves.. to get their military and police up to par and their infrastructure in some sort of working order?

crock-it..  I am also glad that we finally seem to be getting our heads out of our butts their..  I am surprised and pleased to hear you say such a thing tho.  I may have dismissed you to soon.

lazs

Well duh!

The removal of troops must be done intelligently and with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind. This of course must also be done with the lives of the brave men and women of our military in mind. Either way, it needs to be done as soon as possible. Not according to the whims of our idiotic administration.

[john9001]

relax MT, next year you will have another "idiotic administration" to complain about.

[Yeager]

Have we surrendered yet?

I thought the war was lost?

[FBplmmr]

Originally posted by LEADPIG
And all that is America's business how ??

I guess if you live in an apartment and a women next door is being beaten or raped, the best course of action is to turn up the volume on the television.

[0thehero]

^ Wonderfully created straw man.  Who's up for crusading to Darfur and the Congo?  What about Myanmar?  Can I get a raise of hands, anyone?  Anyone?  Anyone for taking on more foreign policies that don't strictly serve the national interest?  Anyone?  Bueller?

If the guy who designed the RV didn't know what he was doin', I would. No reflection on the hard workers tryin' to make it work anyway. Doesn't make the design a useful one.

Agreed.  You can't blame the guys on the ground for a criminal lack of planning and preparation, though sadly they're the ones getting the cheese end of the stick trying to implement this "policy."

Rip's nephew and those who serve

[midnight Target]

I guess it's OK to break into the apartment and rescue her even if the rape occurred 15 years ago? But wait. Then when her kids start fighting you after you break in, you can shoot them for interfering with your rescue. Sounds logical.

[LEADPIG]

Originally posted by FBplmmr
I guess if you live in an apartment and a women next door is being beaten or raped, the best course of action is to turn up the volume on the television.

Our military and the lives of it's servicemen are not to be used to go around fixing up the situation of every world atrocity we don't agree with. As if we are the Mother Teresa or the Jesus Christ of the world.

The military is only to be used to protect America's resources, properties, and of course it's people. Technically....American blood is not to be spilled over another country's business.

Do you suggest we send American servicemen and women to die and give their lives in the helping of every world atrocity that occurs as a result of a sovereign nations business. I think it's unfair to send our soldiers and ask them to do this, when technically this is not their mission statement.

Now if a country asks for help and we decide to give it, no problem. We should ask a country if they want help first before assuming they want America involved in their business. We would expect the same respect from another nation. It's part of being an individual sovereign country. Why America is so arrogant enough to believe every country wants to be like us i'll never understand. This very arrogant, conceited attitude is part of the problem and why we have created terrorism ourselves and a lot of the disdain we see today. Though some of you seem not to understand this.

It is always respectful to assume another person can handle their own problems and give them the common decency and respect needed as a person to handle their own business. Be willing to lend a helping hand at all times but to shove that helping hand down someones throat is not something most people enjoy..... Understand.

[bsdaddict]

Spc Jacob

I am very happy that things are getting safer for some of our brave men (and women) over there.

[KgB]

Originally posted by FBplmmr
I guess if you live in an apartment and a women next door is being beaten or raped, the best course of action is to turn up the volume on the television.

Nah,its more like..three women are being beaten or raped,otherwise they start killing each other.