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| MI LI IS NOT IN IRAQ, IS IT? |
paraclete |
05/19/06 |
Proving that nothing has changed in the military psyche in 30 years, the US now has another Mi Li on it's hands. Now come on tell me the buck doesn't stop at the top on this one? And you wonder why I think the attitude of the people is the same as the administration.
US soldiers massacred Iraqis: congressman
By Drew Brown in Washington
May 19, 2006
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A PENTAGON report will show the killing of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in November was deliberate and far worse than first reported, a member of the US Congress has said.
"There was no firefight. There was no IED [improvised explosive device] that killed those innocent people," John Murtha, a Democrat and a former US marines colonel, told a news conference.
"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," he said. "That is what the [US investigators'] report is going to tell." The comments were the first on the record by a US official over the November 19 incident, which is still being investigated by US military authorities.
Mr Murtha is a member of Congress's defence appropriations subcommittee and an opponent of the Bush Administration's Iraq policies.
Mr Murtha said he had not read the report but had learnt about its findings from military commanders and other sources.
"There is an ongoing investigation," said Lieutenant-Colonel Sean Gibson, a US marines spokesman at Central Command headquarters. "Any comment at this time would be inappropriate." Colonel Gibson and a Pentagon spokeswoman, Cheryl Irwin, said the military had yet to decide what, if any action, might be taken against the marines.
Three commanders whose troops were involved in the incident were relieved of their duties in April. The marines did not link their dismissals to the incident, saying only that their superior, General Richard Natonski, had lost confidence in their ability to command. All three were given staff jobs in the military.
The US military in Iraq initially reported that one marine and 15 Iraqi civilians travelling in a bus were killed by a roadside bomb in the western Iraq insurgent stronghold of Haditha. It said eight insurgents were killed in an ensuing firefight.
But Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, the ground commander of coalition forces in Iraq, ordered an investigation on February 14 after a reporter with Time magazine told US authorities of claims the marines had killed innocent civilians.
After CNN broke the news of the initial investigation in March, military officials told Knight Ridder the civilians were killed not in the initial blast but were apparently caught in the crossfire of a subsequent gun battle as 12 to 15 marines fought insurgents from house to house over the next five hours. At the time, officials said four of the civilians killed were women and five were children.
Subsequent reporting from Haditha revealed a different account of events, with survivors describing marines breaking down the door of a house and shooting the occupants.
Mr Murtha said nothing indicated the Iraqis killed in the incident were at fault.
"One man was killed with an IED," he said, referring to a marine killed by the bomb.
"After that, they actually went into the houses and killed women and children."
Knight Ridder |
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/19/06 1:02 pm:
and how unChristian of you to judge them before you know that facts.
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/19/06 4:44 pm:
excon ;
On 'Hard Ball' Murtha concured when Matthews described it as 'cold blooded murder '. Even if the incident went down as you describe it ;it could not be seen as that . But Murhta went even farther and said that there was no IED attack prior to this incident ;that the troops just went house to house killing "because they were stressed out " . So while he is painting the troops in the worse light he is simultaneously taking blame away from them. Sounds more like he is taking cue from Kerry's testimony to the Senate in 1971 .
No ;I do not believe that you would go door to door killing women and children as is being alleged here.
Wouldn't you wish that you or your fellow troops were given the benefit of the doubt by one of their elected leaders ?War crimes do happen of course but at a minimum the troops should be afforded the same presumption of innocence that civilians are supposed to receive .
Clarification/Follow-up by jackreade on 05/20/06 4:49 am:
'clete, the radical Christians and the duo of government/corporations may turn America into a fascist state if the Democrats and people don't stop them; however, the gigantic American ecomony still drives the world.
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