Unf'ingbelievable: Rummy says Fallujah strike won't kill "many" Iraqi civilians.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday that large numbers of Iraqi civilians would not be killed, "certainly not by U.S. forces,"* during the siege to retake Fallujah, even as the top U.S. commander there predicted a "major confrontation" between insurgents and up to 15,000 troops in the Sunni Muslim city.

How he can be so certain of this when his own staff admits 30-50% of the civilian population is still there, I have no clue.

*You can bet your ass that any civilian casualties that DO occur** will be blamed on the Iraqi forces - not the U.S. forces. Also note, with Allawi supposedly commanding the U.S. forces - that conveniently gets Shrub & Co. off the hook as far as responsibility, doesn't it?

**Not that we'll ever be able to actually verify the true number of civilian casualties. They've made damned sure of that by targetting Fallujah's main hospital, first. And they fully admit, this is not in an attempt to protect the patients. Per The NY Times, via Body & Soul, the hospital is "considered a refuge for insurgents and a center of propaganda against allied forces." That's right. The goal in securing the hospital is to secure the wagging tongues of the medical staff there, who might otherwise be tempted to count the number of body bags & amputated limbs that come their way. After all, it was those nosy doctors who were primarily responsible for spilling the beans on the 100,000 civillian casualty mark two weeks ago. Certainly can't have that again, can we?

Just to give you some perspective, Riverbend relates the story of actual refugees from Fallujah.