A US soldier came in and shot at us, I pretended to be dead and he didn't notice me
Safa Younis
(from BBC)
imagine this kid growing up now, can you blame her for hating USA?
I know I would hate yanks too if they came to my country, killed my parents and brothers and sisters.
I can't belive these marines killed little innocent kids, that makes me sick to my stomach.
Originally posted by Changed_Man
(from BBC)imagine this kid growing up now, can you blame her for hating USA?
I know I would hate yanks too if they came to my country, killed my parents and brothers and sisters.
I can't belive these marines killed little innocent kids, that makes me sick to my stomach.
No I am not saying that those marines had any right do what they did, but these things happen. They happened in Vietnam and are happening again now. It's a sad terrible fact or war.
Incidentally all these anti-US sentiments are aggravating.
apparently this is only 1 of 4 or 5 separate incidents being investigated involving US troops massacring civilians deliberately
this one being in Haditha...but another was shown last night on the BBC from Ishaqi although the source of the footage was dubious
Originally posted by jaden101
apparently this is only 1 of 4 or 5 separate incidents being investigated involving US troops massacring civilians deliberatelythis one being in Haditha...but another was shown last night on the BBC from Ishaqi although the source of the footage was dubious
I just read that too, here's the article.
U.S. Accused in More Iraq Civilian DeathsBAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A third set of allegations that U.S. troops have deliberately killed civilians is fueling a furor in Iraq and drawing strong condemnations from government and human rights official. "It looks like the killing of Iraqi civilians is becoming a daily phenomenon," the chairman of the Iraqi Human Rights Association, Muayed al-Anbaki, said Friday after video ran on television of children and adults slain in a raid in Ishaqi in March.
Al-Anbaki's comments came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki upbraided the U.S. military over allegations that Marines killed two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha, calling it "a horrible crime." They were his strongest public comments on the subject since his government was sworn in last month.
U.S. commanders have ordered new ethics training for all troops in Iraq. But the flow of revelations and investigations threatens to undermine Iraq's new government and public support in America for President Bush's management of the war.
Iraq's government also began its own investigation of the deaths in Haditha.
In addition to the Haditha case, in which Marines are alleged to have gunned down 24 civilians in a rage of revenge for a bombing that killed a Marine in November, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman could face murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges as early as Friday in the April shooting death of an Iraqi man, a defense attorney said Thursday.
Military prosecutors plan to file the charges against the men, who are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Marine Corps base, Jeremiah Sullivan III, who represents one of the men, said Thursday.
The U.S. military had no additional comment Friday on the accusations stemming from a raid March 15 in the village of Ishaqi, about 50 miles north of Baghdad.
In March, the U.S. military said four people died when they attacked from the ground and air a house suspected of holding an al-Qaida operative. The house was destroyed.
But video shot by an AP Television News cameraman at the time and previously unaired shows at least five children dead. The video shows at least one adult male and four young children with obvious entry wounds to the head. One child has an obvious entry wound to the side caused by a bullet.
Local Iraqis said there were 11 total dead, and charged that they were killed by U.S. troops before the house was leveled.
The video includes an unidentified man saying "children were stuck in the room, alone and surrounded."
"After they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. Later, they struck the house with their planes. They wanted to hide the evidence. Even a 6-month-old infant was killed. Even the cows were killed too," he said.
The video included shots of the bodies of five children and two men wrapped in blankets.
Other video showed the bodies of three children in the back of a pickup truck that took them to the hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's former hometown.
Police Capt. Laith Mohammed said the March 15 attack that hit Ishaqi involved U.S. warplanes and armor.
Riyadh Majid, who identified himself as the nephew of Faez Khalaf, the head of the household who was killed, told AP at the time that U.S. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home.
Khalaf's brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors.
The U.S. military, which said in March that the allegations were being investigated, said it was targeting and captured an individual suspected of supporting foreign fighters of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist network. It had no further comment Friday.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said at a news conference Thursday that "about three or four" inquiries were being carried out around the country, but he would not provide any details.
Iraqi officials and relatives also said U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women - one of them about to give birth - when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings. It said the incident was being investigated.
I know people have been saying that these things are typical of war, but that hardly justifies these instances. Personally, I don't even think we should be there, and now I hear of American troops killing civilians deliberately...on a regular basis?? Are things REALLY better now that Saddam is gone? Are we any better than him?
This kind of thing is really making us look very bad in a region that already hates us. It seems like the more time goes by the more reasons we give the Arab world to hate us; all the more reason for an Arab to grab a weapon and yell "Death to America!". And quite honestly, I can't say I blame them. This country has ruined it's reputation and it will take longer than anyone has even conceived to repair it.
Even if American troops shoot zero more civilians or 100,000 more, they will still hate America the same. The Arab response to this news article is nothing but redundant. America could do [fill in blank of any combination of words in the English language], and they will still hate America. How Arabs feel will never change, so articles like this only serve as stepping stones for some journalist's uprising career.
Originally posted by botankus
Even if American troops shoot zero more civilians or 100,000 more, they will still hate America the same. The Arab response to this news article is nothing but redundant. America could do [fill in blank of any combination of words in the English language], and they will still hate America. How Arabs feel will never change, so articles like this only serve as stepping stones for some journalist's uprising career.
I think you're generalizing a bit much.
Not all Arabs hate us. Well, most of them probably don’t like us very much, but something like this could be the difference between an Arab simply hating us and an Arab shooting at us.
I find it interesting how people are saying that it is not these soldiers' fault, that their victims of the situation in which that they have been placed and that they shouldn't be judged.
I wonder what the reaction would have been if a bunch of desparate muslim men just followed orders and killed a bunch of innocent people for no other reason than they did what they were told by a bunch of others who justified their cause?
Oh, waite, that has happened before.
People say that it may be different, but I guess it's all how you justify murder.
Im kinda torn on this one. I mean, obviously what these soldiers did is wrong, yet at the same time I find it hard to really put them at blame. Soldiers in this war, and all wars before it, are under considerable strain. We've all heard the stories about the soldiers coming home from Iraq and going insane, or suffering from PTSD. So even though these soldiers did something horrible, it is not an isolated incident, and I feel like their is a greater problem that needs to be addressed.