U.S. Deaths in Iraq Top 1,000; Aid Groups Eye Exit

Siji · Post by **Siji** » September 8, 2004, 4:38 pm

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&c ... &printer=1

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Dozens of international aid agencies considered quitting Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday following the abduction of two Italian women, and as the U.S. military death toll rose above 1,000.

A coordinator for foreign aid groups said he expected most of the remaining 50 or so organizations to pull out following the kidnapping of the Italians, in Iraq to help child victims of war, from their Baghdad office Tuesday.

Aid groups met to discuss the issue Wednesday but broke off the meeting early for security reasons. Jean-Dominique Bunel, a French aid worker, said all organizations were reviewing their security and considering withdrawing.

The Pentagon announced that the death toll in Iraq had topped 1,000 Wednesday, equivalent to around two deaths a day since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), in a report to the U.N. Security Council Tuesday, said violence in Iraq may threaten elections scheduled for January 2005. Postponing the vote would be a severe blow for the U.S.-backed interim government.

The politically sensitive benchmark of 1,000 U.S. deaths, which could play a role in the U.S. presidential campaign, was surpassed after a surge of fighting in Muslim Sunni areas and Shi'ite enclaves.

In May last year, President Bush declared major combat operations over. Since then more than 800 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action.

U.S. DEATHS SURGE

One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a convoy attack north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said, and another soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb blast in the east of the capital.

In Baghdad's sprawling Shi'ite Sadr City slum -- a powerbase of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- U.S. troops fought battles on Tuesday with guerrillas using rocket-propelled grenades, killing at least 24 Iraqis. At least one American was killed.

Monday, a car bomb attack on a U.S. patrol outside Falluja, at the heart of the Sunni triangle, killed seven American marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen, in the deadliest single attack on U.S. forces in five months.

As well as the 1,003 dead, nearly 7,000 U.S. troops have been wounded since the U.S-led invasion. At the same time, independent analysts estimate that more than 10,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war was launched.

Amid the widespread fighting, Iraq's interim government, which took office from the U.S. administration two months ago, is also grappling with a widening hostage crisis.

In one of the most chilling abductions, two Italian women aid workers, both aged 29, and two Iraqis were snatched in broad daylight in central Baghdad Tuesday.

Witnesses said 20 men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols with silencers stopped vehicles in a busy commercial area of the capital and raided a building housing the humanitarian organization Bridge to Baghdad.

ITALY OUTRAGE

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joined opposition leaders to call for a unified response to the abduction and Pope John Paul prayed for their release at the Vatican.

Italy has the third largest military contingent in Iraq with 2,700 troops. Islamic guerrillas kidnapped and killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in August, and security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi in April.

Since April, people from more than two dozen countries have been kidnapped as guerrillas have tried to force foreign troops and firms to leave. More than 20 foreigners have been killed.

The latest abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who have been held since August 20 despite intense diplomatic efforts to free them.

Confusion has surrounded their capture after a deadline for the payment of a $5 million ransom had been apparently set for Wednesday. But an Internet statement purportedly from the Iraqi militants holding them denied Wednesday they had demanded a ransom or set a 48-hour deadline.

In his report to the U.N. Security Council in New York, Annan said the security environment in Iraq had not improved much since the U.S.-led invasion.

"In addition to severely disrupting everyday life for Iraqis, the ongoing violence could undermine confidence in the transitional political process, making it more difficult to create the conditions necessary for the holding of elections in January 2005," Annan said.

We're making Iraq such a great place.. that everyone's leaving. "Freedom Spaghetti". I kinda like that..

Fat · Post by **Fat** » September 8, 2004, 4:41 pm

Also, General Myers has stated that forces will not be ready to take back the parts of interior Iraq currently held by the insurgents until the end of this year.

This is just going great.

-Alfan Fat

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 8, 2004, 5:02 pm

Yay. Please be ready to post the next morbid death toll for each additional hundred now.

I listened to a radio show the other night about how eager some are to post a certain death toll number. Why not wait until the number is equivalent to the number of citizens killed in the 911 attacks and make a big show of it?

Do you have a list of casualties for various wars and random disaters so we can keep track at home and maybe make a fantasy sport out of it? Don't you liberals get tired of always being negative? Every death matters. There is no magical number that matters more than another. Protest the war, protest Bush but don't be morbid and bodycount. The number could easily be 10,000 but we have an excellent army and equipment, no thanks to Kerry, and are able to keep casualties very low.

I know "nothing is ever good enough no matter what you do" is the democrat way but man that must wear on you after awhile.

Raistin · Post by **Raistin** » September 8, 2004, 5:10 pm

I listened to a radio show the other night about how eager some are to post a certain death toll number. Why not wait until the number is equivalent to the number of citizens killed in the 911 attacks and make a big show of it?

Im going to have to give you a hint in all of this winnow. 9-11 didnt happen because of Iraq. As much as you want to believe it. If it is, then Regan and Bush Sr., and Rumsfeild are just as responsible for it for even having any contact with Saddam.

Oh thanks to Bush a lot of the people serving in Iraq had their pay cut 25%.At least you cant blame Kerry for that fuck over.

miir · Post by **miir** » September 8, 2004, 5:13 pm

Why not wait until the number is equivalent to the number of citizens killed in the 911 attacks and make a big show of it?

I'm not quite getting your point.
What is the correlation between the thousands of deaths in Iraq and the terrorist attacks of Sept 11?

Don't you liberals get tired of always being negative?

Teehee...

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 8, 2004, 5:14 pm

Raistin wrote: Im going to have to give you a hint in all of this winnow. 9-11 didnt happen because of Iraq. As much as you want to believe it.

I'm not saying it did. It would be just another number to compare a bodycount to like comparing the number to automobile deaths, overdoses or anything else you dream up.

miir · Post by **miir** » September 8, 2004, 5:15 pm

Flip flopper!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 8, 2004, 5:17 pm

miir wrote:Flip flopper!

No flip flop! Your liberal clouded mind just interpreted my first post the way that best suited you!

miir · Post by **miir** » September 8, 2004, 5:17 pm

Backpedaller!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 8, 2004, 5:21 pm

miir wrote:Backpedaller!

wtf!? Conspiracy! I was hit with an "edit" note my last post after only 2 minutes! My free edit time has been shortened!

Xzion · Post by **Xzion** » September 8, 2004, 5:23 pm

Winnow wrote:Yay. Please be ready to post the next morbid death toll for each additional hundred now.

I listened to a radio show the other night about how eager some are to post a certain death toll number. Why not wait until the number is equivalent to the number of citizens killed in the 911 attacks and make a big show of it?

Do you have a list of casualties for various wars and random disaters so we can keep track at home and maybe make a fantasy sport out of it? Don't you liberals get tired of always being negative? Every death matters. There is no magical number that matters more than another. Protest the war, protest Bush but don't be morbid and bodycount. The number could easily be 10,000 but we have an excellent army and equipment, no thanks to Kerry, and are able to keep casualties very low.

I know "nothing is ever good enough no matter what you do" is the democrat way but man that must wear on you after awhile.

ehh? numbers do matter. In the real world, 5 people dying in Iraq is nowhere near as bad as 1000 people dying, these "liberals" for the most part were always against an invasion in Iraq, so in my ideal world, the death toll in Iraq would be 0, because 1000 american soldiers isnt worth 1 saddam hussein....if we wanted him gone I would support a secret, long term special forces mission to assassinate him (no more illigal then Bush's Iraqi invasion) then go to the UN and ask for aid on easing the chaos that would come with said situation, which the world would be behind.

Adex_Xeda · Post by **Adex_Xeda** » September 8, 2004, 5:28 pm

Shut up and vote guys.

Bush is good, Bush is bad.

Our minds are made up already.

Raistin · Post by **Raistin** » September 8, 2004, 5:39 pm

If you want to have a lot of Lot ifs.

If they "find" more records of bush being awol. They CAN go back and change his discharge to Dis-Honorable Discharge for having more than 4 National Guard drills AWOL'd.

That just opens a new can of worms! You cant work for the US government if you were Dis-Honorablely Discharged. In any way shape or form. So does that mean all his acts in office become null and void and such!?

Siji · Post by **Siji** » September 8, 2004, 6:50 pm

Raistin wrote:That just opens a new can of worms! You cant work for the US government if you were Dis-Honorablely Discharged. In any way shape or form. So does that mean all his acts in office become null and void and such!?

Isn't he also the first president with a criminal record? And you think a piddly little thing like a dishonorable discharge would stop him? Methinks not.

/sarcasm