by James Glaser
October 14, 2003

That was the response Private T.J. Knight got when he asked his interpreter if the Iraqi people are mad at US troops. In a new report by Anna Badkhen for the San Francisco Chronicle, it is reported that new rules of engagement have been given to our troops. "Shoot to kill. No questions asked."

That means that any American soldier can kill any Iraqi they want to and they will not even have to explain why. Lt. Peter Katzfey of the 299th Engineer Battalion gave his troops this order last week. Major Robert Isabella, a public affairs officer of the Fourth Infantry Division elaborated. "This is war. Someone shoots from a window, we're gonna put 100 rounds in it. Somebody runs a checkpoint, we're gonna fire on that vehicle." These are Israeli Army tactics and we know how well they have worked for that country. This is a major reason that suicide attacks are the new weapon of the Iraqi resistance movement.

President Bush keeps telling us things are going better in Iraq, well I have fought a war with these very rules and I can tell you right now, We Have Lost This War."

When the attacks get so bad that all normal rules of warfare are thrown away and the troops are given free run to kill who ever they want, there is no hope to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Soldiers and Marines that are scared, are quick to pull that trigger and that is one of the reasons we don't even keep a count of how many innocent people we are killing. Soldiers and Marines that have lost close friends and have had to place them in body bags develop an extreme hate and fear for the Iraqi people and "Payback" is no longer a Hollywood movie term.

There are veterans from every war that suffer to this day because they too were given that license to kill with no questions asked. We can only kill so many Iraqi people before none will trust us and without counting the dead and wounded, we have no idea of what this rule is doing.

Those running this war from Washington are not going to admit that we are under manned in Iraq. Our troops are under constant daily attacks because we are spread too thin. Raymond Bonner reports from Aghdad, Iraq, "The two most recent suicide bombings here and virtually every other attack on American soldiers and Iraqis were carried out with explosives and material taken from Saddam Hussein's former weapons dumps. Which are much larger than previously estimated and remain, for the most part, unguarded by American troops, allied officials said Monday."

Now think about that for a minute. Washington keeps telling us that Terrorists are pouring into Iraq to attack our troops and those loyal to Saddam are attacking too. Here we are without even enough troops to guard the stockpiles of weapons sitting around for anyone to pick up and use against us. Terrorists don't have to bring weapons with them, they can walk to Iraq and ask those friendly to them where to go and get weapons.

Yes, the Bush administration would have to admit they were wrong, if they sent in more troops, but it would save American lives and Iraqi lives too. Pride stops Bush from doing this and by keeping our manpower so low that we can't even stop the flow of arms to our enemies, George Bush is killing our troops.

When in an occupation, you give your troops free reign to kill whoever they want, you are losing. When you have troops being killed and wounded every day, you are losing. How long can America bleed like this? When will American Corporations give George Bush permission to pull our troops out? How much blood money must they have?

How many Americans and how many Iraqis must die before we end this war? How long do you think Americans would fight an occupying army in our country? We would fight until we threw them out. Why does Washington think the Iraqi people are any different? Every time we kill another innocent Iraqi civilian, every time we kill an Iraqi child in a cross fire, we grow the resistance against us. The more we kill, the more they will attack. We have lost this war and the only decision left is, how many more must die for George and Halliburton?

POST SCRIPT: DEATHS IN IRAQ

Iraqi guerrillas ambushed a US military convoy northeast of Baghdad Monday killing one American Soldier and wounding two others.

In the northern oil refining town of Baiji, a US Soldier was killed when his Bradley fighting vehicle hit a land mine late Sunday night.

In Tikrit, an American Soldier was killed Monday in a rocket propelled grenade attack.