U.S. Forces Kill Seven Iraqi Women, Kids

[rock jock]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...p/20030331/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_us_military_369
I'm sorry to see it happen, but these folks had more than ample opportunity to stop. Bet the protestors are gonna have a field day with the story nonetheless.

 

[Gary H]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16229

What do our guys do when a vehicle's driver refuses to stop and suicide bombers are hailed as brave warriors?

 

[P95Carry]

Just had a newsflash email on this ..... tragic in one respect but .... unavoidable in another.

Once we can see the potential for suicide bombing then regretably ... any failed or suspicious ''stop'' must be treated as suspect.

It is to be hoped that, whilst many will make a very big deal about this ...... the news will get back very quickly to the Iraqi prospective suicide bombers, as well as non hostiles. Let em know what the score is .. after which, they know what to expect.

They want to fight dirty ......... payback is hell.

 

[Sean Smith]

Stupidity is a terminal disease.

 

[Dannyboy]

This was totally avoidable. All that a'hole driver had to do was stop. Did he really think they wouldn't shoot at him after what had just happened?

 

[DeltaElite]

What part of STOP didn't those morons understand?

 

[4Truck]

Hey driver.....Your village called, and they want their idiot back

 

[cuchulainn]

Sad, but the soldiers were 100% justified.

 

[OF]

The blame for this rests fully and squarely on the shoulders of the Iraqi military and their pathetic leaders. If they didn't routinely fake surrenders and then murder those who are in the process of showing them mercy, fight out of uniform so as to be indistinguishable from innocents and blow themselves up posing as citizen truck drivers going about their business we wouldn't have to be so trigger happy when some crazy woman fails to stop her van.

We were perfectly willing to give the Iraqi's the benefit of the doubt and let our guard down a little in the pursuit of mercy, in spite of our own increased peril, but now we are forced into this position where things like this will happen. It is most certainly not our fault and we revoke the Mr. Nice Guy patina with regret. It is the Iraqi people who bear the suffering for the treachery of their cowardly "military". But what else is new over there.

I would pray for Saddam's slow agonizing death if I didn't think he was already dead.

- Gabe

 

[Atticus]

IMHO it was a suicide bombing - they didn't have a bomb so they did the next best thing. Twas a far more destuctive act than simply blowing themselves up. It's just too bad that the kids were used as props.

 

[dance varmint]

Atticus nailed it.

 

[Coronach]

Also, there was some discussion (possibly just wishful thinking), that everyone in the car was already dead except the driver. As Atticus said, it is a powerful message.

We'll see how it pans out. Either way, it is tragic...but I blam Saddam, not the "US War Machine."

Mike

 

[Standing Wolf]

Bet they won't try that again.

 

[longeyes]

Yes, that was a "propaganda bomb," every bit as effective as a real bomb.

Maybe it's time to bring out the pictures of the pulverized day care center inside the WTC that we refuse to show the world?

 

[Gary H]

Unless some of you have much more information than I could find, you are all just blowing smoke. We don't have a clue what was going on. Maybe this and maybe that. It is a bad situation and people died. Perhaps combatants and innocents and perhaps innocents.

All I know is that Saddam's forces will do everything that they can to make us wish that we had never put reporters with the troops. He will force us to kill many civilians and the world will watch. He is betting that this will be another Vietnam, where we win on the field, but surrender to the press. The press will do everything that they can to help him out.

 

[Blackhawk]

Gary's right.

We don't have all the pertinent information.

Let's reserve judgment at least until the survivors are interviewed... separately.

 

[cool45auto]

I don't blame our guys at all.

Its pretty simple really. Stop means stop.

 

[Gary H]

cool9mm:

What language are you going to use? Do these folks read? Did they hear the shots..see the shooter? I suspect that they were at a good distance and going a bit fast when the warning shots were fired. I believe that this was the language used...warning shots. I don't know how this is typically done. Perhaps someone that has actually manned such a checkpoint in a hostile area where suicide bombings were underway could help out here. Any IDF guys?

 

[chaim]

Gary is 100% right, and what he said deserves to be repeated:

All I know is that Saddam's forces will do everything that they can to make us wish that we had never put reporters with the troops. He will force us to kill many civilians and the world will watch. He is betting that this will be another Vietnam, where we win on the field, but surrender to the press. The press will do everything that they can to help him out.

 

[seeker_two]

When a bunch of guys w/ rifles aimed at you tell you to STOP, (unless you're driving a tank) YOU STOP!!!

...or things like this happen. :banghead:

It was a good shoot. I hope this incident doesn't cause our soldiers to hesitate, or even more could die next time...

 

[MeekandMild]

Unless some of you have much more information than I could find, you are all just blowing smoke. We don't have a clue what was going on. Maybe this and maybe that.

Well, we can still analyse it and come up with probabilities.

Think about this. The Iraqui planners and officers aren't Arabs, they're Persians, they're not Shiite, they're Sunni. So they have spent the past thousand years estranged from not just Christians and Jews but Arabs and Shiites as well. They recently refreshed this dislike with a long war against the Shii in Iran, plus they have had pograms where they killed tens of thousandes of rebelious Shii in the last 10 years. In fact the only way they've been keeping Iraq together is by regularly killling Shii.

But they listen to the news and read the papers and the know Americans 1) don't know the difference between them and their hereditary enemies, 2) have an affection for women and children and 3) have a peculiar open mindedness so they don't just kill the Arabs for fun like the Persians have been doing for 3000 years.

So what follows is both logical and reasonable for them, from their perspective. Load up a van full of otherwise worthless Untermenschen and drive up to the sappy Americans with guns.