Posted on 05/20/2004 8:18:20 AM PDT by areafiftyone
FALLUJA, Iraq, May 20 (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine general said on Thursday he had no need to apologise for an attack in the remote Iraqi desert that killed around 40 people who witnesses say included women and children celebrating a wedding.
"How many people go to the middle of the desert 10 miles (16 km) from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles (130 km) from the nearest civilisation?" Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, told reporters in Falluja.
"These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."
Asked about witness testimony and footage from Dubai-based Al Arabiya television which showed weeping relatives lowering bodies, one of a child, into graves, he said: "I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologise for the conduct of my men."
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, earlier told Reuters the attack early on Wednesday had targeted "a suspected foreign fighter safe house", 25 km (16 miles) east of the Syrian border.
Witnesses said the attack was on a house where a wedding had been held and killed 41 people.
I am surprised at Paul Harvey on that.
Similar to what democrats do when a republican does something bad.....
NO MORE APOLOGIES TO ISLAMIC PIGS!
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for this incident. For our Marines to have killed only 40 fighters is terrible. We will be going to the range everyday in order to correct the problem."
Followed by a huge gasping for air from the elitists.
"If he is carrying an RPG, AK47 or CNN camera."
LOL. I love it...
Is this typical in the Mohammedan culture? Wedding celebrations in this manner? (We know Mohammedan terrorists surround themselves with children).
"This is exactly the kind of response we need to see from the Military."
IMO, it's also exactly the kind of response we need to see from our President, et al....
Our President, so it would seem, has become a deer in the headlights.
Boot the friggin media out. All they are doing is looking for the big scoop and sensationalism. The liberals and wacco Democrats then beat and hammer the story to death
Coalition briefing this morning aired on Fox, MSNBC and CNN.
At least two female reporters framed questions about "The wedding party".
Kimmitt said flat out this operation was weeks in the planning. That we had been checking out this site on the ground and by other means, and in fact he pointed out that during briefings in that very room over this time they had informed reporters that we suspected traffic from Syria coming in.
I also believe he said that after the operation went down we had numerous forces on the ground to check it out and saw no dead children. Daren Kagen on CNN still commented after the briefing that the fight had resulted in the death of children, so either I misheard him or Daren ignored him.
The reporters seemed reluctant to accept the word of the Coalition and appeared ready to believe the worst. Kimmitt said full and thorough investigations would be done to satify the factual state of the record so there would be no doubt as to what happened.
What I like, it that most of us who served in the military - Navy, Army, and I will even include the Air Force - all joke about the Marines. But when push comes to shove, we all respect them and admire their kick arse, take names manner. Semper Fi!
Hell yeah! Let our President say the same.
As a coastie, we used to bust on Marines, but only when they were not present. We were not dumb, they deserve every damn ounce of respect available.
As it turns out - I read your posts just before Paul Harvey came on our local station.
Fear Not! He spoke up and said words to the effect that "Now, they [Iraqis] are trying to tell us it was a wedding party..." And then immediately, Mr. Harvey repeated the 'naive' quote from the General. I knew he wouldn't side with the enemy. God Bless Paul Harvey.
that is good news.
The way to determine the number of bad guys the Marines killed is to count the number of empty shell casings.
You said: "Don't get carried away."
I responded to that. I don't think I got carried away. Which you probably did with my statement of shoot at the CNN camera man. Well, if that offended you, oh well, so sorry, but I ain't gonna apologize. I stand by the statement. I consider CNN and the rest of them to be nothing better than the terrorists. They support the terrorists by bringing the bad guys story front and center and bashing everything our guys and gals are doing. Screw the media. I don't watch them, read them, or spend a dime on them. They are the enemy plain and simple. That is the way I feel about it. If you don't agree with that, so sorry. You have your opinion and feelings and I HAVE MINE.
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