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Author Topic: Iraqis cheer as British helicopter crashes
unionist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11323

posted 06 May 2006 04:03 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
From CBC.ca

quote:
A British military helicopter crashed into a two-storey house in the southern Iraq city of Basra on Saturday after it was hit by a rocket, police said...

A crowd of Iraqis set fire to at least one armoured vehicle that rushed to the scene. Others cheered and threw stones at British forces as they tried to seal off the area.

Police said at least 250 men had gathered and many chanted, "we are all soldiers of al-Sayed," a reference to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an ardent opponent of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.

The helicopter burst into flames after it went down in a residential district in the centre of Basra. Television video footage showed a plume of thick smoke rising into the air from the crash site.

The footage also showed a Warrior tank being hit by homemade gasoline bombs.

After soldiers shot into the air trying to disperse the crowd, shooting broke out between the British and Iraqi militiamen, said police captain Mushtaq Khazim. He said at least four people, including a child, were killed and 31 wounded.

Two of the fatalities were adults shot by British troops while driving a car in the area, Khazim said.


Richard Coeur-de-Lion would have been proud! Time to send Canadian troops in to do some "rebuilding".


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
siren
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7470

posted 07 May 2006 01:49 AM      Profile for siren     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Oh, I don't imagine this can be playing too well in merry old England. I recall reading through many of the first few years of occupation that the Brits were doing so much better than the Yanks -- in terms of respecting the local population, working with them and not being heavy handed.

quote:
Despite the tensions, few believe southern Iraq is on the verge of an explosion. Deadly attacks against U.S., British and allied troops in the region appear to have increased in recent weeks, but the U.S. military says assaults there on allied forces still average less than one a day except in Basra, which has about two a day.

Any call to violent jihad, or holy war, Shiites say, would come only from the senior level of the clergy, the marjaiyah, as it did in the 1920s, when Shiites here rose up against Iraq's British occupiers. For now, the clergy is watching and waiting, perhaps convinced that it will get what it wants without having to sacrifice more Iraqi blood.

"The marjaiyah is calculating things and counting things according to the benefit of the Iraqi street," said Najafi, a mid-ranking cleric. "It wants independence with a minimum of losses and a maximum of profit. The marjaiyah has not ruled out the option of calling for jihad, and the Americans and their allies best not forget that."

LA Times



History is for suckers, right Tony?


From: Of course we could have world peace! But where would be the profit in that? | Registered: Nov 2004  |  IP: Logged
unionist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11323

posted 07 May 2006 04:29 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
You really have to wonder what Bush did for Blair to make him forget history so completely.

Anyway, it's heartening to see the Iraqi street hasn't lost its spirit, even in "safe" Basra. Saddam Hussein feared and hated them, and now it's Blair's turn.

Here's my private dream: The U.S. and British people finally decide to try Bush and Blair for war crimes -- but Iraq, which has brought down their helicopter and captured them alive, refuses the extradition request until they've tried them first.

On nights when the dream gets really wild, Chrétien, Martin and Harper make similar cameo appearances.


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
skeptikool
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11389

posted 07 May 2006 05:32 PM      Profile for skeptikool        Edit/Delete Post
Iraqis cheer as British helicopter crashes

Such headlines are designed to appeal to our sensibilities in gauging our revulsion at this ugly side of human nature. How can one possibly applaud death, is what the media is asking.

Yet we must try to put ourselves in the place of the occupied and give consideration to the crimes they have suffered, and are suffering, at the hands of the invaders.

In applauding death there is little justification for sanctimony from either the U.K. or the U.S.
Who can forget the celebrating aboard a U.S. warship when it downed an aircraft - later to be found a loaded passenger aircraft?

And who can forget the celebration of British seaman at the sinking of an Argentinian battleship
crewed mainly by young cadets?

[ 07 May 2006: Message edited by: skeptikool ]


From: Delta BC | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
S1m0n
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11427

posted 07 May 2006 06:18 PM      Profile for S1m0n        Edit/Delete Post
If I was under occupation, I'd cheer too. I'm surprised it doesn't happen in Iraq more often, frankly.
From: Vancouver | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged

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