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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Just_Observing who wrote (5914)	3/31/2003 5:07:19 PM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

CIA abandons defection lure for Iraqi leaders The CIA has stopped trying to persuade Iraqi generals and political leaders to defect after underestimating their "hatred" of America. A three-month campaign using telephone calls, e-mails and face-to-face appeals has failed to convince any help overthrow Saddam Hussein. "We misjudged their tenacity," an American intelligence official has told USA Today. "These guys are driven by a hatred of the US that we may have underestimated." Potential defectors were promised asylum, money and a position in a post-war Iraqi government. Some refused to desert until Saddam was captured or killed because they feared retribution. Others resisted changing sides because they had been rewarded for their loyalty to the regime with promotions, houses and cars. Iraqi Major General Ali Musa Ramadan said: "Iraqi people are ready to fight. We are ready to defend President Saddam Hussein." He and his colleagues "laugh and hang up" on Iraqi opposition leaders when they made the offers, he said. Story filed: 16:22 Monday 31st March 2003 ananova.com

To: Just_Observing who wrote (5914)	3/31/2003 5:56:05 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

U.S. Troops Kill Seven at Iraqi Checkpoint Associated Press Monday, March 31, 2003; 4:47 PM U.S. troops killed seven Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint Monday when the Iraqis' van would not stop as ordered, a military official said. Two other civilians were wounded in the incident at a U.S. Army checkpoint on a highway near Najaf in southern Iraq, the official said. The military is investigating, he said. The dead and wounded were among 13 women and children in a van that approached the checkpoint but did not stop, the official said. Soldiers fired warning shots and then shots into the vehicle's engine, neither of which stopped it, he said. Four Army soldiers were killed at a checkpoint near Najaf Saturday by a car bomb detonated by an Iraqi soldier dressed as a civilian. washingtonpost.com This is a direct result of Iraqi troops dressing as civilians, setting off car bombs, firing from ambulances and hospitals. What would you have our troops do? Sit there with their thumbs up their asses while a vehicle approached and gave every indication of trying to ram them or to get close so a bomb could be set off? Don't answer. I'm sure I know your answer would be yes.