This is sick. But with the way the whole war has been marketed by the US government I guess we should expect things like this: Mirror.co.uk – US TROOPS ADMIT SHOOTING IRAQI CIVILIANS
“There’s a picture of the World Trade Centre hanging up by my bed and I keep one in my flak jacket. Every time I feel sorry for these people I look at that. I think, ‘They hit us at home and, now, it’s our turn.’ I don’t want to say payback but, you know, it’s pretty much payback.”
great!
Hmmm … ya think with a name like “Naveed Raja”, the author isn’t just saying what he wants people to believe? No person in their right mind just goes around shooting civilians … and it’s hard for me to imagine that the ENTIRE u.s. army is a bunch of homicidal maniacs.
John, first of all – It sounds to me like racism when you look at someones name and then interpreting what they say from that. Second, I think maybe you at the very least should take a carefull look at how the US press has covered the war in Iraq. And last, I think you should read up on history, especially look into what happend in Vietnam. (You might have heard of that war).
As to the facts. It IS a fact that more than 5500 CIVILIANS have been killed during the war in Iraq by US forces, from where I stand its not hard to believe they are killing civilians. There has also been several reports of civilian kills by US soliders in the press which has been confirmed by the US.
News Flash!! This Just In: Human Head Found On Mars!!!
This is the type of sensationalist perversion of reporting that the mirror is famous for.
Bat Boy born in cave…hangs upside down while sleeping!!!
Elvis Is A Vampire!!!
Well, if Mirror is not good enough for you. Would you believe PBS?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june03/iraq_06-19.html
While not covering the exact case we are talking about here. (Look at sources for that story at Google’s newswatch: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=usa&q=us+troops+iraqi+civilians ) it does go into details about incidents where the US Troops have killed Iraqi civilians.
Jarle,
I’ve got some ocean front property on the moon for sale. I figure it’s worth about twice what you might pay for it here on earth. If you’re interested, jet me an email. I’ll cut you a deal, cause you seem like a really reasonable and intelligent bloke.
…
Believe that many civilians have died at the hands of the US, as this is most certainly irrefutable. But if you believe this horseshit represents the intent of even a minority of the allied force you are really a dumb SOB:
“There’s a picture of the World Trade Centre hanging up by my bed and I keep one in my flak jacket. Every time I feel sorry for these people I look at that. I think, ‘They hit us at home and, now, it’s our turn.’ I don’t want to say payback but, you know, it’s pretty much payback.”
And to propagate this crap makes you no better in my book.
I am so glad I do not live in the remains of the democracy that America was attempting to become a few decades away.. Seems to me this War is all the brown jacket terminal fascists needed to turn the entire nation on its head. Look, what did you do after the fiasco in Vietnam?…what did you do after the 1st Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm?.. Ladies and Gentlemen, a nation *whined* about expenses, taxes and the fallout – social and healthwise – among American professional soldiers who participated. It was a loud professional folk-singer nasal whine, with ooohs-aahhs…and a few o vey`s along the way.. and it lasted long, all the while it were churning until someone spiked the New Year`s celebration punchbowl and tecchies went around like headless chicken half-believing the world would end because of the Y2K.
Now the Brown-jackets have their way… Will Junior finish up what Senior couldn`t and were doomed to be called a witless,spineless wuzzie whose only assets were one ball and poor speechwriters for? Get Real..unless the president actually develops a mental deficiency (…)and starts threatening *the world* with atomic war if they don`t moonwalk with him, like a weasly terrorist or old-school tyrant – type Gadaffy or Kim Jong Il…all you will be having is expensive military campaigns, and something reminding the world of the “glory” of Rommel and his like in Africa..And America.. which should be appreciated,remembered and viewed as something else than that.. will be getting a whole century`s worth of bad PR in the space of one year… You elected a President with initially no, I repeat no – agenda in foreign politics, which should explain his choice of ministers – whose chief objective were repairing the economical situation and level taxes, and make things different after Bill Clinton`s administration, by the Elephants (who seems to have contracted amnesia, nevermind)thought of as 8 years of misrule.. 9/11-01 occured, it was terrible, everyone agrees .. now You get War and screw the economy.. and in a little while, you will re-elect Bush because it is the “american” way… Did I hear property on Mars?…I doubt we can find any more bonds for those properties..you Americans (big A, I mean the patriots like Tim,Joe and John (if thats their real names) are destined to have single one of them.. as well as the dentures of Jesus..
Oh, and Iraq did (according to *admitted* evidence by the Bush-administration itself) not fund,organize or enact the terrorist act against America, a certain Osama Bin Laden and his mujahedeen organization Al-Quida (which incidentally were trained by Americans) did..a man whom you have managed to forget, and therefore might be sipping a Pina Colada in some resort in Florida right now..like you patriots care.. Now the natives are looking restless, how long will you hold the fort? Do I smell the backside of General Custer on fire..or is it just pyrotechnics and a John Wayne pose?
I apologize for the few soldiers(or more) that didn’t understand the rules of engagement. I am pretty sure the Bush admin didn’t tell them to shoot civilians. When the enemy dresses as a civilian how could a soldier tell? How would a hospital know that 1 person was innocent and another was shooting rocket grenades at troops? The individual quoted was obviously not an intelligent man. How could you mistake Al-queda for Iraq? I hope the army finds these men and educates them, because I think they joined up just to kill people. They should be fighting with honor and dignity, but that may be difficult in a guerilla war. If we kill any Iraq citizens needlessly, we are no better then Saddam. Jarle, where do you find the time to find all this stuff? Thank you for keeping my brain functional.
Roy; While I am sure that it must be hard to be a US solider in Iraq these days, and that it must be even harder to see who is your “friend” and “enemy”. But the fact of the matter is that it was the US and their friend UK that invaded Iraq, and they are the ones supposed to be able to handle the situation they have put themselves in.
There are rules for conduct in the situation the US is in now in Iraq, and in my opinion they should do what they can to avoid killing civilians. As far as I can tell from stories from Iraq (See http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ for a good source), they are not doing a very good job. And their eagerness to spray civilian neighbourhoods with bullets and grenades are making them more enemies in Iraq every day. Not to mention making them look bad internationally.
As to how people could think Iraq has anything to do with Al-queda? It could have something to do with George W. Bush having almost said that Saddam and Osama had been having contact for decades, or to quote Dubya directly: “high-level contacts that go back a decade”. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/24/opinion/24KRUG.html?ex=1057460635&ei=1&en=ccf7f0e0cc3cf4ab for context). Can’t blame anyone in the US forces for thinking that Bush actually told them that there was a connection there. And the reasoning for the war in Iraq is quickly becoming a hot potatoe in the US, as I am sure you know.
I agree with you Jarle. We are handling the aftermath terribly. It is alot easier to destroy something than to improve it. Regardless of what our president said, a good soldier should still use his brain. I also apologize for the innapropriate remarks from the other posters. I think it is possible not to agree with someone without name calling. Please do not judge all americans by these few. The soldiers in Iraq may have started out with some noble intent, but it seems to be turning into a “us or them” logic.
Maybe we should also train our soldiers to not kill. Now if we pull out, people will say that we did a repeat of the earlier Gulf war. I do feel that the president mis-represented facts. I am not sure if it was on purpose or bad intelligence.(I am not going to say he was out of control, I have a family:) If the president said the world was flat, I would check some other sources before blindly following that statement.I am sure there is no easy solution to this problem. I ,for one, might like to see the rest of the world someday. This would be easier if americans were not so actively hated by the rest of the world. Keep the information flowing. Roy
Jarle
My Father, my husband , my brother and several cousins are in Iraq Defending this Country that you live in so peacefully. Defending it for all Americans so incidents like 9/11 would not happen again.
The men and women in Iraq should be the most Honored people we should know, to give up their lives and their time to make you safe.
I have been very pleased with the outcome of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and if civilans die (well all I can say is remember 9/11 — they were American Civilans, Firefighters, Police, EMT, children).
ANd personally if you and any one else don’t like it you should purchase this one way ticket I got for sell. (U.S. to Iraq)
GO DELTA DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
124th INFANTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUSH ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all of you please, let me break it down for you
-there is no conclusive link between the sept 11 attacks and saddam. when britan tried to imply a saddam-osama coalition, they were met with accusations of war-mongering due to gross lack of evidence
-looking for wmd’s? try north korea, a country with a confirmed nuclear weapons program, a country ripe with human rights violations, once reffered by lil’ bush as a part of “the axis of evil”… wait a second, i forgot, there are no oil resources to “liberate”, just hungry people. hmmmmm, better put that one on the “maybe” pile
-israel also refuses to confirm or deny a nuclear weapons program and refuses to let un sanctioned inspections to take place
-iraq has more oil than all the reserves in the united states, mexico, canada, new zealand, western europe, russia, and austrailia… combined
-the us was importing 750 000 barrels of iraqi oil daily up until 2002 despite un sanctions.
-profits from oil that is currently exported from iraq is now being put in a trust fund overseen by the us and uk.
-human rights abuses far more blatant than those in iraq are taking place in the ivory coast, as well as a dozen other african countries… but hey it’s not like they have vast untapped oil reserves, right?
-last of all, it seems to me like the iraqi’s are much worse off than before their “liberation”. god help any country the us tries to “liberate” from now on. who appointed lil’ bush as global sherrif anyways?
the americans can do what ever they wish..no one in the world is strong enough to stop them…bow down!theres a new king in town!
Gi Joe, I think you mean “us americans”, since you are posting from an american ip-address…
has anybody seen the video of the wounded iraqi man that got guned down by three very brave marines with their m-16s. kinda summs it all up,
doesn`t it…
Thomas, the wounded Iraqi may have just blown up the soldiers humvee with a rocket grenade. The war maybe was unjustified and innocent people (died as they do in every war)but if you were one of those soldiers? Would you let him kill you because the war was unjustified or would you do your job? I had a mouse jump out at my face when he had nowhere left to go. Do you think the mouse thought he could take me? Anyone who is desperate will do desperate things. The people of Iraq are definitely so and the soldiers over there have a very high suicide rate. One can assume that both sides feel very desperate now. The soldiers are following orders of the Commander in Chief who is ultimately to blame. Those marines may or may not be brave, but that is not to be judged from a sound bite or video clip. All that video clip sums up is that war sucks and bad decisions abound.