Gruesome

This is just getting uglier and uglier:

Attackers killed two U.S. soldiers Sunday as their car
stood in traffic in the city of Mosul, and a roadside bomb killed
another soldier north of Baghdad.
A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division said its men were shot dead
shortly after midday as they traveled from one military compound in the
bustling northern city to another. But several Iraqi witnesses said the
soldiers were stabbed and had their throats slit. Television pictures
showed large pools of blood on the asphalt. Witnesses said locals stole
items from the dead men's pockets, and smashed the windows of their
white, four-wheel drive civilian car. One man was seen brandishing
bloodstained Iraqi dinars he said were taken from the bodies. "People
were taking things from the car. I looked inside and saw two soldiers
with blood all over them," said a local fireman who ran to the scene
after hearing gunshots. U.S. troops quickly surrounded the area, in the
crowded center of the Kurdish city, and interrogated bystanders. "They
hate the Americans in this area," said a man waiting for petrol near
the scene. "They've been doing many raids around here and so it's not
surprising they've been attacked."

If displays like this make it onto American TV news, there's going to
be some serious trouble. In 1993 cheering Somalians dragged the body of
a US soldier through the streets and we immediately pulled our forces
out of the country. All it will take is a few visceral scenes to
convince Americans that Bush's war is a bad idea that's getting worse
by the day, but so far the Administration has been successful in
bending our limp-wristed media to the ground. I'd like to think that
our news agencies will grow a backbone sometime soon and actually start
doing their job, but I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 23, 2003 at 10:14 AM | Permalink