Posted on 10/12/2007 7:20:43 AM PDT by freedomdefender
Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.
"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided. His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Guess Blackwater ROE is better safe than sorry. Military ROE is first call in and ask for persmission to unsafe your weapon then ask pesrmission to return fire. Oh yeah don’t kill any bad guy identified as wanted dead or alive either.
Yes. Next question?
Welcome to FR, troll.
Blackwater employees former Special Forces troops, who are the best of the best. Their job is to keep VIPs alive in hostile and uncertain situations. They get the job done. In case you haven't been paying attention to CSPAN, Blackwater has been raked over the coals and they have fired the few of their personnel that have done inappropriate actions.
It is too easy to "Monday morning quarterback" what they should have done now. I doubt that you could stand in their place for more than a few minutes without wetting your pants or soiling yourself, knowing that snipers, IEDs and RPGs may be waiting around the next corner.
Devolve, you use the word, “troll.” Who and what’s a “troll” in this context? Me, because I posted a report on what US military personnel are saying about a Blackwater incident? Sorry, don’t think so. If you don’t want to know what the military personnel are saying about Blackwater, then that doesn’t make me a “troll,” it makes you an “ostrich.”
I guess you need to tell that to the US military personnel who are quoted in this story. Give them a good lecture about "second guessing" civilian contractors. That'll put em in their place!
I have no sympathy for Blackwater after they murderered an innocent little girl in the back seat of a car at that square.
Color me more than troubled. It p****s me off to no end that these guys are mowing down civilians and in the process putting our U.S. soldiers’ lives in danger.
You can think something without actually writing it; I believe he was inferring from your comments to your line of thinking.
If we didn’t have lawyers running this war, we wouldn’t need outside “help”!!!!!
You hit the nail on the head. And there are other incidents Blackwater has been involved in besides the one that is the focus of this thread. Plenty of others. They didn't make big splashes in the news, so I won't go into detail. You may know of some of them.
When they carry on like that, they inflame the public, hamper the diplomatc side of the mission and heighten the security risk for all of us here, even those of us who do not work for a security contractor.
...who arrived on the scene 20+ minutes after the fact.
Save your breath.
Do a search on how you/us are referred to Bush Bots and Neo Cons by this Ron Paul supporter.
Don’t you know that only real conservatives on Free Republic post articles from the Washington Post and Ny Slime and then trash the Freepers who ask what is this?
So jumping to conclusions based on news reports is objective?
Or were you there?
Odd, the Brigade CC I worked for also believed there was such a thing as ‘excessive shooting’...in fact, all 3 Brigade CCs I worked with in Afghanistan understood that killing the innocent helped the TALIBAN.
That didn’t mean they didn’t understand war. 2 of the 3 were on either their 2nd or 4th tour of duty. But you cannot win against an insurgency by indiscriminate violence.
The professionals understand that - just as they also understand that mistakes will be made, and do not call mistakes ‘crimes’.
an example of the phony soldiers Rush was talking about.
So you’re calling the US Soldiers who made this report - and used the word, “excessive” - you’re calling them “Leftists”? I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.
You attack anyone who does not take this treacherous scumbag's word as gospel, and purposely attribute every word of the article to the military, instead of the author of the article, in an attempt to give this asswipe and the roll he fell off of some credibility, and steadfastly refuse to look any further or practice restraint until an investigation has been completed.
The short answer to your question is YES, that makes you a Troll.
The professionals understand that - just as they also understand that mistakes will be made, and do not call mistakes ‘crimes’.
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Which is the professional and appropriate attitude about war actions. But the leftist MSM will not admit that, and will continue working to politicize every issue they can find relative to the war, since it is the ONLY issue they can bring to the table. They cannot enter the arena of normal debate of important political issues since they will lose, hands down. They are socialists, with an agenda that only includes POWER AND CONTROL of America, and has nothing to do with the real issues that face America, what is GOOD for America or what to do to defend and strengthen America.
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