U.S. Curbs Iraqi Civilian Deaths In Checkpoint, Convoy Incidents

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 6, 2006 | Greg Jaffe

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military has cut the number of Iraqi civilians killed at U.S. checkpoints or shot by U.S. convoys to about one a week today from about seven a week in July, according to U.S. defense officials in Iraq.

The reduction in civilian casualties shows that months before the killing of 24 Iraqis in the western Iraqi town of Haditha came to light, the military was pushing to reduce the number of Iraqi civilians killed or wounded at the hands of U.S. forces. The drop since July, however, suggests that hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed at U.S. checkpoints or on Iraqi highways during the first two years of the war.

The shooting of civilians in such instances has angered Iraqi civilians and political leaders. It also likely has helped fuel the insurgency. Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out at U.S. forces for showing "no respect for citizens, smashing civilian cars and killing on a suspicion or a hunch." Mr. Maliki's comments were driven in part by the news that U.S. military investigators had opened a pair of formal probes into the mid-November incident in Haditha in which Marines allegedly killed two dozen unarmed civilians, including several women and children without provocation. Evidence indicates that the Marines tried to blame the incident on a roadside bomb and an ambush from insurgents, say lawmakers and U.S. officials familiar with the probes.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[CBart95]

So.

This is an intentional "plan" to cover up the atrocities that our troops have been committing all along eh?

Good reporting there WSJ.

And here we thought that it was only the NYT "Telling All"...we are grateful for your quest for truth.

[Jeff Head]

IMHO, Iraqi civilians are the ones probably making the greatest changes to keep from being shot. They have figured out that you must apporoach such checkpoints slowly, with caution, and without suspicion.

Speed, and eradicate behavior kills at such checkpoints...as well it should. Our people in such instances, must forcefully stop and disable speeding or eradicately driving vehicles as they approach a checkpoint. They MUST assume the worst in order to protect themselves and the installations and areas they gaurd.

[El Gato]

It couldn't have anything to do with Iraqi civilians, including the ones that are really terrorists, finally figuring out how to act when approaching a checkpoint in order not to get shot?

[untrained skeptic]

Terrorists are by nature often if not usually civilians.

They are not often members of a formal military, and they do not follow the rules of war.

They are criminals, not an opposing military force.

That's something the media keeps ignoring in this conflict.

We aren't fighting an honorable military foe. We are fighting criminals. We can't tell simply by looking for uniforms if they are the enemy, so we have to react based on their actions.

If people try and run a roadblock, we have to assume they are a threat and respond accordingly.

It is not our military's fault if they have to kill people who try and run a roadblock, it's the fault of those who try and run the roadblock.

I suspect that the number of people dying at roadblocks is decreasing because the number of Iraqi's who stupidly try and run such roadblocks is decreasing.