Posted on 06/03/2006 7:23:25 AM PDT by bnelson44
BAGHDAD, June 3 (Reuters) - Iraq vowed on Saturday to press on with its own probe into the deaths of civilians in a U.S. raid on the town of Ishaqi, rejecting the U.S. military's exoneration of its forces.
Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government would also demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the victims in several cases, including the alleged massacre in the town of Haditha last year.
"We have from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed," he told Reuters.
The U.S. military had issued a statement about Ishaqi saying allegations that U.S. troops "executed a family ... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false".
It said troops had been fired on as they raided a house to arrest an al Qaeda suspect. They returned fire and called in air support, which destroyed the building, killing one militant and resulting in "up to nine collateral deaths".
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
America's firepower advantage when attacked by insurgent snipers or insurgent forces has always tipped the fight automatically toward US troops.
The liberals, realizing this, have probably led the insurgents in trying to find a propaganda tool to neutralize American firepower.
If America becomes concerned with collateral damage when cleaning out a nest of insurgents, then the insurgents have effectively used civilians as a barricade to prevent American victory.
If we return to insurgent run towns, because public relations concerns scare away American firepower, then the fight in Iraq will result in many more American deaths since buildings will have to be cleared one room at a time.
I think we should pull out. The best advise I heard after 9/11 was to bomb them back to the stone age, with a warning that we'd do it again if they so much as blinked at us. Islam can't be reformed.
Looks like the msm may have found a new angle of attack.Are we now going to be bombarded with bogus accounts of attrocities commited by Americans in Iraq?
We pull out now we hand them over to al-Qaeda and the Baathists, as well as all their oil. How long do you think it will take them to build up a stockpile of WMD and start bombing American shopping centers? One year? Two?
ping for comment
Agree time to get the hell out of there. This is turning into the biggest joke of a war ever. Our soldiers can't kill the enemy anymore without being prosecuted, we spend trillions on military equipment and we have to send Joe Smith down the streets of fallujah to get shot in the face because we don't have the balls to bomb them from the air.
I will never support another invasion again this is INSANE.
First off, I highly doubt Abdullah even exists. His comments are point-for-point exactly the same talking points used by every communist nutcase running around these days.
Why would an Iraqi give a rat's @ss whether the Americans found WMD or not? They were never under the illusion that this war was for any other purpose than to topple Hussein.
BINGO...This was inevitable... The Liberals are intent on making this Vietnam and making Bush the bad guy even though the two wars are worlds apart... This is a nightmare.. John Kerry, Murtha, it is like some weird dream where people don't care if we as a country lose in this fight... If that is truly the way the majority of Americans feel then we deserve whatever happens to us...
You dont even have to go that far. Lets just announce we are pulling our guards off the Green Zone gate for a week of R&R. The Iraqi elite can fend for themselves that long....surely......right?
"This was inevitable."I agree."If that's truly how the majority of Americans feel..."No,i think the majority(like us)support the troops and our goals in Iraq.Remember most people don't get the other side of the story.They see the headlines,and listen to the evening news. Problem is the msm and talking heads like Kerry,Murtha,etc start beating us to death with bogus unsubstantiated reports of attrocities day in and day out,24/7.Over time,it simply demoralizes the public and our resolve to stick it out.
This has been the song screeched on DU since we went into Iraq. The MSM is just now catching up full throtle.
Its hard to beat Pravda and mass hypnosis.
It's also catching on among some of my more "liberal" co-workers.The same crowd who are convinced GW had prior knowledge of 911 and BinLaden was simply a scapegoat.No proof necessary.
My thoughts exactly, let them kill each other. If it gets too noisy, bomb them to the point where they have to worry about scavenging for food instead of killing one another.
My suggestion is that we now restore Saddam to power and allow him to clean up Iraq.
The Iraq equivalent of the American trial lawyer. Show me the money.
If Adnan actually said what is reported here, and you never really know, it would behoove the Iraqi government to put a clamp on things like this. If they start demanding apologies from the US after what we have done and have lost in trying to help them, they will lose the support of the most ardent proponents of this war. Any more whiffs of ingratitude coming from that direction will be more deadly to this effort than anything else could be.
"...demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the victims in several cases...."
Actually, this is business as usual. If we do something wrong, we apologize. Often if we damage property of innocent civilians in a raid, we compensate them for it. So this is political spin for the Iraqis. Let them do it be good for setting their authority in their people's eyes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.