Richard WarnickJust Another Day in Iraq
I’m not in the habit of quoting at length from other blogs, but I haven’t got the ability to say this any better. The following is straight from CTuttle on the excellent site Main and Central.
“I’d like to indulge in a little exercise, let’s take a gander at several news reports on the same incident and then decide which is more accurate…
Here’s one version…
Meanwhile, Iraqi officials said a U.S. airstrike killed four members of a family north of Baghdad early Wednesday. Iraqi and U.S. officials provided conflicting accounts of the incident.
Capt. Ahmed al-Azwawi, a police official in Samra, a village about seven miles south of Tikrit, said U.S. troops were conducting an operation in the area when a man fired shots in the air with an AK-47.
Azwawi said the man, who sold propane gas for a living, was afraid thieves were in the vicinity.
U.S. soldiers then retreated and called in an airstrike, Azwawi said, killing the man, his wife, and two of their children.
Here’s another version from the ‘official’ MNF-I web site…
A U.S. military statement said troops opened fire after an armed man refused to surrender and began “to move quickly with his weapon into a confrontational position.”
Same incident, different versions…
Here’s another take on it…
BAGHDAD: Six members of a family were killed yesterday when a US jet destroyed their house in Iraq.Four children, aged between four and 11, were among the dead in the attack near the northern town of Tikrit, Iraqi police said. However, the US military made no mention of the civilian deaths and said the house was attacked after troops took small arms fire.
It is truly sickening that we can’t seem to acknowledge our f*ck-ups…”
Note: this incident is an apparent violation of the law of land warfare, which is by definition a war crime. War crimes are being committed every day in Iraq. I do not like to write about this, it breaks my heart. The only way to end it is to tell the truth about what’s happening.
In anticipation of the comments: Yes, war crimes are committed every day in Iraq. It doesn’t always make the American news, but you can check Iraq Body Count or Iraq Today. I do think more atrocities can be attributed to insurgents and militias in Iraq, however none of this would be happening if the USA hadn’t invaded and occupied the country. Regardless of the actions of others, the U.S. military is responsible for its own actions.
Related One Utah Post:
US soldiers deployed in ‘atrocity producing situations’ (June 9, 2008)
