U.S. soldiers shoot 4 Iraqi civilians, one killed

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. soldiers shoot 4 Iraqi civilians, one killed
04 Dec 2007 08:50:38 GMT

BAGHDAD, Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers mistakenly shot four
Iraqi civilians, killing one, during operations against al Qaeda
militants, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

U.S. soldiers had detained a suspected al Qaeda fighter in Tarmiya,
30 km (20 miles) north of Baghdad, on Monday when they were
approached by a car that did not obey an order to stop.

The car continued moving towards the soldiers despite two sets of
warning shots. U.S. soldiers then fired on the car, hitting the four
people inside. One of the passengers died while being taken to a
military hospital for treatment.

"We regret when Iraqis are hurt or killed while coalition forces work
diligently to rid this country of terrorist networks that threaten the
security of Iraq and our forces," U.S. military spokesman Major Anton
Alston said in a statement.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04357402.htm

---

Related: FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Dec 4 - Reuters

[Nostradammit]

1. Who does Major Anton Alston think he is?

To suggest that we, the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=73340

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. picking up where blackwater left off.

making fiends and influencing an entire people.

[Xenotime]

3. Typical.

[SNAKE MAN]

4. What would you have done??

I am confused here. If you were there Xenotime, how would you have handled the event??? I sure would like to know the other way to handle the possibility of a car bomber getting past a check point.

[Tempest]

5. Spike strips

A simple and cheap solution to stop the murdering of innocent Iraqis.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dave420]

21. Want to know the solution?

Don't use roadblocks. Insurgents don't use them - they know about them as soon as they're in place and simply go rouns. The only people who use them are normal folks, who can get pretty spooked out by a bunch of heavily-armed foreigners, who are famed for killing people. They might not be "stupid" or a "terrorist" - they might just be normal people fearing for their lives.

[Tempest]

24. Are you really that ignorant?

Someone who does not stop after 2 warning shots are either stupid or terriorist

So which was the deaf Iraqi woman who was killed at a U.S. road block?

You're a despicable excuse for a human being.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uppityperson]

26. "If not for war you would not be here speaking this freely!!!!" wtf?

Hi snake man. What type snake are you? A viper?

If not for war we would not be on DU? Perhaps if not for mrbush being in the whitehouse, and true, the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq got more people posting, but what do you mean?

[Massachusetts]

6. Why are OUR Troops still manning check points?

"What would you have done?" It really doesn't matter at this point since this has been FUBAR from the beginning, thanks to YOUR fearless leader and his treasonous cabal.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dave420]

22. Why are there still checkpoints?

Apart from the obvious view that if Iraq's so great why are there still checkpoints, the real question is why were checkpoints being used anyway? They only serve to hassle decent folks - the "bad guys" simply go round them. It's disgusting.

[tuckessee]

8. What would you do if

you invaded the home of a Washington Redskins player?

Would you shoot him in the groin if he made a funny move?

Would you kill his child & girlfriend?

Point is, you shouldn't be there to start with.

The Iraqis aren't doing anything suspicious - they're simply going about their daily lives.

It's the Americans who are doing the dangerous, illegal, stupid things.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gratuitous]

11. What would I have done? Practically anything else

Because when you find yourself in a situation where gunning down unarmed civilians seems a defensible action, there's almost certainly one, two or about a kajillion things that could and should be done differently.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[humbled_opinion]

14. The best solution as you have been made aware

IS TO BRING THE TROOPS HOME....

Period, end of story no one else has to die because of an unjust, illegal, ill conceived WAR that is costing U.S. Taxpayers TRILLIONS of dollars that our kids, kids, kids will be paying for.. (WHAT A LEGACY THAT ONE)... Why is that so hard to understand...

People are being killed by the thousands in other countries around the world by their own villagers, tribesmen, families, friends but we the good ol U.S. fighting Force are not in those countries protecting check points and shooting and killing the innocent....

Now that is just one of Kajillion answers but all of the rest are going to be surmised on the Premise that we need to remove ourselves from the situation....

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[humbled_opinion]

17. It doesn't matter

I guess you missed the part about all the terrible atrocities that are committed in the world everyday... but the U.S. does not send the military in to get involved in all of those skirmishes whether or not innocent life is taken, now do they...

So we choose which innocent lives we will save and we also choose which innocent lives that we will destroy.....

So back to your strawman...

I think the U.S. would have been less guilty of taking innocent life if USA and coalition forces never went to Iraq in the first place and I think because we went to Iraq we caused the terror groups to incite violence thus killing the innocent....

Only now after so many hundreds of thousands have died do the Muslims finally see the logic that to help the terror groups inevitably meant more muslims would die and fuel the American committment to be there longer because with Bush logic (WE ARE HELPING) the situation... So to answer you next silly question about did the surge saves lives or some such muck, well you can see by my last statement that the surge has nothing to do with the reduction in violence that we are seeing in Iraq and that the Iraqi people had that quality in them all along as soon as they stop helping the terror groups the sooner the violence will ebb...

and so now is the time to leave... Now we can take the politics out of it and leave Iraq but will we? Bush can claim victory and leave but he won't, the Democrats can hold the line and withold war funding and force us to leave but they won't so this is what we are left with the machine of war that destroy's all and leaves nothing in its wake but emptiness...

[tabasco]

19. In fact, we are killing civilians much faster than Saddam.

Human Rights Watch estimates Saddam killed 250,000-290,000 people in 20 years.

In four years, the US invasion has already killed a MINIMUM of 85,000 Iraqi civilians. So the answer to youer question is clearly, the US invasion.

BTW - when you hear "he gassed his own people!" - they forget to tell you Saint Ronnie Reagan gave him the gas! (nerve agent).

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts38.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/zeese05112005.html

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/16/better_saddam_than_dead.php


I'm a combat vet. Maybe you should sign up and go see reality for yourself too.

www.goarmy.com >>>> ask for "eleven bravo."

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NickB79]

23. Hmmm,you could google the Lancet study on Iraqi casualties

That concluded with a high level of probability that 600,000 Iraqis have died due to the US invasion, and now that number is two years old. Who knows how many have died by now.

BTW, how are Iraqis defending their homeland terrorists? You do realize that Al Queda in Iraq compromises only a few thousand fighters in the entire country, right? And that "foreign terrorists" are nothing compared to the number of native Shiite and Sunni militiamen who are shooting at us, right? Or the fact that there were no terrorists in Iraq UNTIL we invaded it, right?

[gratuitous]

15. Okay, first off . . .

Treat a crime like a crime, not an act of war. Identify the perpetrators, develop the case against them, and bring them to justice.

Next, use the military as a last resort, not a first resort because it feels so good (http://www.unknownnews.net/insanity032003.html) to send other people's kids off to kill. I haven't seen a "necessary" war in my lifetime, and I'm not aware of one life this one has saved, though there are hundreds of thousands that it's snuffed out.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LynnTheDem]

7. "coalition forces work diligently to rid this country of terrorist networks"

If it weren't for all the blood and bodies, the irony would be fucking hilarious.