[CanadianFella]

Morale among troops is already low. You alienate the natives and you've got yourself another Vietnam.

[King Prout]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The night air hung like a hot wet blanket over the north Baghdad suburb of Slaykh. At 9 p.m., an electrical transformer blew up, plunging the neighborhood into darkness.

Miss Sheherezade seems to have gone to the Bulwer-Lytton School of Prose

[Palladin]

Can we say "Propaganda?"

[prairiebreeze]

There is a whole lot of commentary and description of this "incident" from the Iraqi perspective. And hardly more than one sentence from the American side.

Sense any agenda here?

Prairie

[Terriergal]

Morale among troops is already low. You alienate the natives and you've got yourself another Vietnam.

So let's help lower it some more by blaming them huh?

People that use women and children to deliver ordnance should expect accidents to happen.

[Consort]

The night air hung like a hot wet blanket...

It was a sultry and humid night....

[cyborg]

You got that right. Jitters is no excuse for blowing innocent people away. You signed up for the military, take military lumps. What would these jittery soldiers do in WW2 or a Vietnamese POW tiger cage? Sheesh...

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

BS, BS, BS. The Iraqi's know the rules of engagement better than the soldiers. You don't keep approaching a checkpoint when told to stop.

If you think otherwise, try it at the WH, Pentagon, a airport during an alert, your neighborhood cop manning a checkpoint during a all points bulletin for a murdering perp.

[BrooklynGOP]

you were saying?

[Ditter]

"It was a dark & stormy night" Oops, what was I thinking..... this is a news report.

[NewRomeTacitus]

What are you people talking about? You have to put yourself into the boots of the person handed the responsibility. It's not Vietnam, it's an experiment.
I say cut to the chase, tell America the truth about Islam and go from there. Baby steps to reality. They want us dead.

[dwd1]

I was trying to figure out what does not sound right...If the family started a half a mile before the checkpoint, they must have been accelerating toward the checkpoint. This would have most likely given the soldiers at the checkpoint the impression that they were being charged....Sounds like some drivers ed might be in order. I am very sorry for the loss of this family but I also know that there is clearly more to this story. I also find it interesting that no member of the unit manning the checkpoint had a chance to make a statement....Very interesting....

Vietnam no....More like Somalia where our soldiers get dragged through the streets as thanks for trying to help...

[frostbit]

The Iraqi loyalists have already shown some skill in manipulating the press in the propaganda war. What better way to stir things up than to dress in US/UK uniforms and ambush civilians?

Never saw the checkpoint? US troops 'jittery' and shooting willy nilly? Murdering innocents en masse? Just doesn't ring true for me. Methinks something sinister is afoot.

If a US soldier was really shot and injured by another trooper, I've got to believe the press would have been all over it.

The allies already recovered bunches of US & UK uniforms stashed by the Fedeyeen in the sand early on in the war. Willing to bet they recovered them all?

[shaggy eel]

Yahoo ^ | Aug 10th 2003 | SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI

,,, is this guy a tea boy for Robert Fisk? One thing, war gives parasites like Faramarzi and Fisk better bank balances too.

[skr]

Some aliens intend to be alienated.

Some things don't make sense in this story, but I don't know what the procedures are. Are checkpoints conducted without any lighting at night? When a shooting occurs at a checkpoint, do our soldiers just disappear, without checking on the suspects? Why would a soldier bother with pulling the child out and then not do anything for the others?

[RLK]

A no win situation. Let's get the hell out.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

Up your canadian SARS vacation Fag Boy!

I love your home page.

[rebel_yell2]

You forgot to use the codeword "quagmire". Didn't you get the memo from the DNC? Can you say TROLL? LOL!

[montag813]

"We kept shouting, 'We're a family! Don't shoot!' But no one listened. They kept shooting,"

A little tip for ya: Try shouting it in English next time.

[clamboat]

So let's review our possible explanations, just from this thread alone.

Several people point note that the report is one-sided, implying that the reporter is at fault. No one seems willing to speculate the reporter may have sought a military response, but none of the commanders wanted to comment about such an obvious atrocity.

Terriergal suggests it was the civilians own fault for getting shot, because some Iraqies are attacking troops, so it should be OK to shoot civilians as a sort of payback.

Ursus arctos horribilis apparently didn't read the story, and again blames the victims (some of them dead) for running into the bullets. Ursus missed the part of the article where it was explained that the victims ran into unannounced, mobile roadblocks at night before curfew, and they didn't even know it was a checkpoint until it was too late.

dwd1 suggests "drivers ed" to solved the problem of our troops shoting unarmed, innocent Iraqi civilians. dwd1 casts doubt on the report because none of the shooters were willing, or perhaps allowed, to talk about it.

But the winner has to be frostbit, who actually suggests that it was Iraqis who shot the civilians, Iraqis in US uniforms driving US Humvees. Just can't get his head around scared, trigger happy troops who have been in the field too long. Can't imagine any US tropps perpetuating such an atrocity, so it must be those crafty Iraqis shooting their own people again.

The reality is someone screwed up, badly, and now commanders on the ground are going to scurry around to make sure there are no repercussions. The families will get $2500 per dead family member, $500 per injured family member (can you imagine getting $2500 in compensation if someone shot your daughter?). And we wonder why they attack our troops.

[nightowl]

This is a bunch of propaganda crap. The writer on more than one occasion writes with certainty about what the dead was thinking. HUH?? For example, one didn't see a checkpoint & was killed. How do they know he didn't see it? It appears that he was alone. I don't believe a word of this. The very end of the article gives the whole thing away when one says they wish Saddam would come back and the statement about drinking Bush's blood. Don't believe this. Our soldiers wouldn't drive off & leave dead or injured kids in a car.