Seattle Post Intelligencer: Footage shown of slain Westerners in Iraq
Are the slain (alleged Americans) intelligence agents? Mercenaries? We really don't know. The article leads us to think they're probably "contractors". We are having to "pacify" Iraqi cities because of depraved killings of "contractors". Some of these "contractors" may not even be American citizens...they may be soldiers of (pretty decent) fortune. Our troops risk all for meager pay. What's happening, really?
Yahoo News: Iraqi Civilians Flee Falluja as Truce Takes Hold
Consider the contrasting information between the reported facts and the White House spin:
Grabbing their chance, desperate families fled battle zones in the town of 300,000. Sunni Muslim fighters, who have been battling U.S. Marines from street to street, remained inside. In Falluja, overnight clashes gave way to calm by dawn after intense efforts to arrange a cease-fire. International relief groups say 470 Iraqis have been killed there and 1,200 wounded, including 243 women and 200 children, in the past week.Now information disseminated by the White House:
Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the neo-conservatives maintain that this upsurge of violence was expected, and that the insurgents are a small minority.Americans want to know why we are expending so much blood and treasure on something so illegitimate. Bush spent the Easter weekend on his Texas ranch and officials insisted there is "no major combat" in Iraq.
Charles Krauthammer says Hubert Humphrey was an over-idealistic schlump...the secret to curing hunger and poverty is capitalism and free trade. To hell with human rights, true democracy, UNICEF, the U.N. We see how the Iraqis love the idea of our bastardized gift of "democracy".