sunday mirror--iraqi surrender

SADDAM'S SOLDIERS SURRENDER

Saddam's Soldiers Surrender [Prematurely]

Mar 9 2003

Mike Hamilton reports from Camp Coyote in Kuwait

TERRIFIED Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces - because they thought the war had already started.

The motley band of a dozen troops waved the white flag as British paratroopers tested their weapons during a routine exercise.

The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country telling them it was too early to surrender.

The drama unfolded last Monday as the Para batallion tested mortars and artillery weapons to make sure they were working properly.

The Iraqis found a way across the fortified border, which is sealed off with barbed-wire fencing, watchtowers and huge trenches.

TESTING TIME: British Marines are preparing for war

A British Army source in Kuwait contacted me to explain how the extraordinary surrender bid unfolded. The source said: "The British guys on the front-line could not believe what was happening. They were on pre-war exercises when all of a sudden these Iraqis turned up out of nowhere, with their hands in the air, saying they wanted to surrender.

"They had heard firing and thought it was the start of the war.

"The Paras are a tough, battle-hardened lot but were moved by the plight of the Iraqis. There was nothing they could do other than send them back.

"They were a motley bunch and you could barely describe them as soldiers - they were poorly equipped and didn't even have proper boots. Their physical condition was dreadful and they had obviously not had a square meal for ages. No one has ever known a group of so-called soldiers surrender before a shot has been fired in anger."

Last night the Ministry of Defence officially denied the incident had taken place, but the story was corroborated by an intelligence source.

Meanwhile Saddam Hussein has ordered thousands of troops back to Baghdad as he turns the city into a fortress.

It is believed that two rings of steel are being established around Baghdad. The outer one consists of regular Iraqi army soldiers and the inner one is made up of Republican Guard fighters - thought to be the only troops that will put up fierce resistance.

why did they send them back, it looks like they won, this is just what Bush wanted, or too good because he won't be able to wage war on surrendering armies under international law, but what does he care after all.

Do you think even after the war starts that these British or American professional soldiers are going to "massacre" surrendering Iraqi troops? Be real, why waste the ammo? All they want is Saddam, and if the humble Iraqi conscript surrenders, then his problems are over. Whether the Republican Guard will surrender remains to be seen, but these knuckleheads are just in the way. Let them surrender, so you can get a clear shot at any who shoot back.

It always amazes me how some Americans can't empathize with other humans.

This isn't a video game...

However our bombers are another matter. Its not that I think they're any less human than our infantry, but they're more disconnected from the immediate results of their actions, and thus more likely to actually drop that MOAB or whatever the hell they're trying to distract us with these days...

Our boys know what's right though. Do not lose faith in your army, they know what they're doing.

Unfortunately, regardless of what our army does, if they are actually given their orders to attack, the worst of the damage has been done on a geo-political scale, as we will have officially established our global perogatives.

So please, politicians of america. Do your damn job. End this madness now before its too late. We put you in office under confidence that you would do the right thing when this very moment was at hand, and here it is. Do the right thing.

And to the popular media vendors of america... You disgusting selfserving pigs make me sick. You are as personally responsible for the deaths we're planning as the poor misguided fools who actually drop the bomb on target. Repent now. Abandon Bush and his mafia and you will be supported despite the threats his administration level against you. Please. Do not wait for your employers to approve of your action. Abandon Bush now, independantly and completely.

Let us deal with saddam as an international force, not a group of half-cocked meddling westerner cowboys.

I can empathize with humans just fine, jackass, just not when they are shooting at or trying to harm Americans, for example, myself. All these Iraqi troops need do is DROP THEIR WEAPONS, and they'll be fine. I also realize it's not a video game. What a remarkably stupid thing to say.

What of the children? How do they drop weapons they don't have? Or will our bombs magically know not to kill them? Read between the lines man. Our government has said it's prepared to take out the guns saddam has placed in civilian areas, that means they're willing to kill the nearby civilians.

"Well saddam shouldn't have put them there then" is, I'm sure, your next response, so lets address that now. There are better ways to deal with saddam than bombing these poor bastards further into the stone age. And despite what the media might lead you to believe, the people of Iraq will not welcome our cleansing flame with open arms. They will, in fact, cook, burn, and dissolve as we liberate them from tyranny directly into death.

We should be doing this as an international force, we should come in from all sides at the same time, and give people the choice of surrender or oppose and die. That would be reasonable. That is not whats on the table though. "Shock And Awe" will just kill a lot of innocent people, and everyone that survives and subsequently surrenders would have done so anyways to a cameraman with a watergun. If they would have fought us before the bombing, they *definately* will afterwords. No question, we will have just killed their family, destroyed their home, and given complete conviction to their cause as they stand there with gun in hand and american troops moving in.

We are strong enough to do this right, instead we going at it in a cowardly, weak fashion that has no regard for human life.

And "put their weapons down" is only applicable if there is someone to give them too. Bombs have no compassion.

"I can empathize with humans just fine, jackass, just not when they are shooting at or trying to harm Americans, for example, myself. All these Iraqi troops need do is DROP THEIR WEAPONS, and they'll be fine. I also realize it's not a video game. What a remarkably stupid thing to say."

I don't remember hearing that Iraqi troops were surrounding our borders...