Death From The Skies

If/when the USer/Bushevik regime deems it politically expedient to start to reduce the number of 'boots on the ground' in Iraq, one may safely anticipate that this will NOT reduce the amount of havoc and mayhem delivered upon the innocent Iraqis. It will merely change the source of the devastation, from the Abrams, Bradleys, and HumVees in thir streets to A-10s and F-16s in their skies.

In this respect, the Busheviks will be repeating the plans of the Nixon cabal, which withdrew ground troops from 'Nam in '73, but kept up a constant, bloody, murderous campaign of air attacks up until the very last day of the USer presence there, in April, '75.

That pattern is likely to be repeated in Iraq, as ground operations are incrementally superceded by air attacks against 'insurgent' targets. Air strikes in Iraq are daily occurrences, but are almost never reported. Meanwhile, because--no matter what the military propagandists say--air-fired ordinance is not appreciably more accurate, and surely no less deadly, there are frequent instances of what the military likes to call 'collateral damage': deaths and injuries caused incidentally to the targeting of 'real' objects.

Tom Engelhart provides the meaty details in this recent TomGram. I got it off Truthdig.com, Robert Sheerer's vital blog.

FYI: The following block of text accompanies the photo at the top of this column:

The Haj Musheen Abdul Aziz Az-Kubaysi mosque complex in Fallujah was the sight of an intense and deadly battle in the initial days of the seige of Fallujah. Marines were searching the city for those responsible for the murder and mutilation of four American contractors. Heavy resistance was encountered in this neighborhood and gunfire and RPG's were observed coming from the mosque comlex. Permission was granted to assault the mosque, no longer protected by The Law of Land Warfare, and a laser guided bomb was directed to the eastern wall. The 500 lb. bomb took the wall out, the Marines stormed the compound, and all enemy forces were killed.

It is worth noting that the person 'responsible' for the deaths of the four mercenaries killed that day in fallujah--the proximal casus belli for the all-out assault on the place in 2004--was a venal, profit-driven company man from Blackwater Inc., who sent the patrol into Fallujah without normal precautions and with an under-manned vehicle in the first place.