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Bodies of missing soldiers found in Iraq

June 20, 2006 06:30 AM CDT

Baghdad, Iraq - The bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers have been found, a senior Iraqi military official said Tuesday, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said the bodies of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Army Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were found on a street near a power plant in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad. U.S. Maj. Doug Powell said he could not confirm the report.

The soldiers came under attack Friday at a traffic checkpoint near Youssifiyah. A third soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. All three were from the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

An umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a statement Monday that it had kidnapped the two U.S. soldiers, but it did not name them.

"The news is going to be heartbreaking for my family," Ken MacKenzie, Menchaca's uncle, told NBC's "Today" show.

He said the United States should have paid a ransom from money seized from Saddam Hussein.

"I think the U.S. was too slow to react to this. Because the U.S. did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid with his life."

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5052893&nav=9Tai

"The news is going to be heartbreaking for my family," Ken MacKenzie, Menchaca's uncle, told NBC's "Today" show.

Yes it will be.

"He said the United States should have paid a ransom from money seized from Saddam Hussein."

So it could finance further terrorist activity?

"I think the U.S. was too slow to react to this. Because the U.S. did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid with his life."

Yes, a search using up to 8,000 soldiers is certainly "slow to react".

Here goes the armchair second guessing. I greatly understand this man's grief but I truly hope he does not disgrace his nephew's sacrifice with these "Cindy Sheehan" talking points.