Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	11/12/2004

What day is it?

Yeah, I know the posting dates are garbled here. An unforeseen problem in switching over my blog software to my new notebook computer that is running the Japanese version of windows XP. Might take a few days here to figure out a work around.

If you look real hard you will at least see an "11" (November) and a 12 (Friday) there.

10:54:34 PM

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What is wrong with this picture?

ABC

(The Military) has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55.

"We assume they'll go home and just wait out the storm or find a place that's safe," one 1st Cavalry Division officer, who declined to be named, said Thursday.

"Tell them 'Stay in your houses, stay away from windows and stay off the roof and you'll live through Fallujah,'" Formica, of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade, told his battalion commanders

Telegraph-UK

Tactics handed down from years of urban warfare in Israel mean that troops sometimes search rows of buildings by punching holes through walls with high velocity bullets rather than moving from house to house through doors, thus reducing the risk of booby traps and increasing the element of surprise.

"It's extremely dangerous right now because the insurgents have nowhere to go. They are just sitting in houses waiting for us to come in. I'm supposed to shoot into the houses before our troops go in," said Marine Cpl Will Porter...Some battalions are pushing through the city and others are clearing it. Battalions like ours are coming from behind, going house-to-house killing guys," said a US marine, Lt Michael Prato.

10:51:25 PM

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What the hell are we doing?

What am I missing here:

"As it believes many of Fallujah's men are guerrilla fighters, it has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55...On Wednesday, a crowd of 225 people surged south out of Fallujah toward the blocking positions of the Marines' 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion. The Marines let 25 women and children pass but separated the 200 military-age men and forced them to walk back into Fallujah...Once the battle ends, military officials say all surviving military-age men can expect to be tested for explosive residue, catalogued, checked against insurgent databases and interrogated about ties with the guerrillas."

Question: Why not conduct the tests and database checks on the unarmed men walking up to US forces BEFORE the battle ends?

Until further data is forthcoming it sure seems to the unenlightened here that the objective is to simply kill as many men in the city as possible in order to cut down on the amount of testing and checking required AFTER the battle is finished.

Cross-check of numbers in this story:

The population of the city is given as 200,000 to 300,000. That's 250,000 give or take 20%. "Many" have already fled, but 1,200 to 3000 fighters were believed to be in the remaining population of the city. 600 of these fighters are estimated now to be killed. Now, 225 people tried to flee. 25 women and children were allowed to pass and 200 unarmed males somewhere between the ages of 15 and 55 were turned back and told to hide in their homes until the battle was finished. A potential death sentence. This might almost be murder.

10:30:16 PM

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