AgPete
03-23-2003, 06:30 PM
No matter how many American casualties we suffer, no matter if U.S. troops are fighting in self-defense, and even if Saddam Hussein is responsible for civilian deaths, the repetitive footage of dead Iraqi civilians on Al-Jazeera is going to stick in the Islamic world's minds for years. We are going to make A LOT of enemies with this war. I hope our leaders know what they're doing. Bush may be warning us now that it could be a long war but we need to win this war quick to avoid civilian casualties. Only if Saddam Hussein starts using WMD will international opinion turn in our favor and even then, many factions that already hate us will look at it as self-defense if Al-Jazeera continues to show this type of footage. When this war is over, if there is one thing we underestimated, it will probably be the PR battle. We didn't have to deal with this type of coverage in the first Persian Gulf War.
Jazeera shows grisly pictures of dead Iraqis (http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=1713217)
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Al-Jazeera television, quoting Iraqi medics, say that 50 people have been killed in U.S. bombing around the
southern Iraqi city of Basra and it has aired grisly footage of dead and wounded civilians.
Among the scenes, beamed across the Arab the world by the Qatar-based satellite channel, were a child with the back of its
head blown off -- it was unclear if it was a boy or a girl -- and bloodied people being treated on the floor of a hospital.
"It's a huge mass of civilians," one angry woman told al-Jazeera, standing among the wounded. "It was a massacre."
The report could not be independently confirmed. U.S. and British forces have been in action around Basra. U.S. Marines
defeated Iraqi forces in a battle on the outskirts of the city on Saturday, and took many prisoners, a U.S. officer said.
It was not immediately clear who controlled Basra and there was no other immediate confirmation of the bombings.
Asked about whether U.S.-led forces had bombed Basra, a military spokesman in Qatar declined comment, saying: "That is
considered an ongoing operation and until it is over we're not going to go out there one way or another on that."
U.S. and British forces say they are intent on keeping civilian casualties to a minimum in their war to overthrow Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
Jazeera quoted hospital sources as saying a total of 50 people were killed -- including one entire family and a Russian citizen --
when U.S. F-16 warplanes planes bombed the city.
Jazeera shows grisly pictures of dead Iraqis (http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=1713217)
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Al-Jazeera television, quoting Iraqi medics, say that 50 people have been killed in U.S. bombing around the
southern Iraqi city of Basra and it has aired grisly footage of dead and wounded civilians.
Among the scenes, beamed across the Arab the world by the Qatar-based satellite channel, were a child with the back of its
head blown off -- it was unclear if it was a boy or a girl -- and bloodied people being treated on the floor of a hospital.
"It's a huge mass of civilians," one angry woman told al-Jazeera, standing among the wounded. "It was a massacre."
The report could not be independently confirmed. U.S. and British forces have been in action around Basra. U.S. Marines
defeated Iraqi forces in a battle on the outskirts of the city on Saturday, and took many prisoners, a U.S. officer said.
It was not immediately clear who controlled Basra and there was no other immediate confirmation of the bombings.
Asked about whether U.S.-led forces had bombed Basra, a military spokesman in Qatar declined comment, saying: "That is
considered an ongoing operation and until it is over we're not going to go out there one way or another on that."
U.S. and British forces say they are intent on keeping civilian casualties to a minimum in their war to overthrow Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
Jazeera quoted hospital sources as saying a total of 50 people were killed -- including one entire family and a Russian citizen --
when U.S. F-16 warplanes planes bombed the city.