How do you forgive yourself for the checkpoint killing of those parents?

[elehhhhna]

It's so awful I fell sorry for the soldiers too.
Bush is an ugly black-hearted bastard.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. the karma from this spreads widely...

the children, now orphans, and their extended families feel the pain, and probably hatred, of the murderers and the US...the soldiers, realizing their mistake, either become hardened to killing or harbor deep feelings of guilt and remorse-either way, these feelings are brought back to their units, then their families and communities back here in the US.

If I were Bush, I'd be washing my hands all the time to try and get the blood off them, but the blood will remain.....

[brown6004]

2. huh?

Why did they run the checkpoint?

[murielm99]

3. It was dark? They did not see or hear the signals to stop?

They were frightened? They were running for their lives?

They wanted to be butchered in front of their children?

We don't know, because they are dead?

I somehow doubt that a family with five or six children were terrorists. It was just another day of horrors in the Iraq war.

I feel badly for the soldiers, too. But imagine how many hearts and minds we won over this incident.

[brown6004]

9. I just found some of the pics on the net....

words fail me.

[tuckessee]

6. What checkpoint?

There was no checkpoint, roadblock or barricade.

This was a foot patrol.

The soldiers tried to flag the car down by yelling, gesturing wildly and gunfire (warning shot).

[Ms. Clio]

10. It wasn't a checkpoint, it was a patrol

but maybe they just shouldn't have been driving in their own car in their own city in their own country at all, eh?

[Karenina]

12. It wasn't a checkpoint

It was a foot patrol.

[Liberal In Texas]

4. Blame?

You can't blame the soldiers. They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't. If they had hesitated, they could have been killed by a car bomber.

The poor family may have been confused or lost, perhaps didn't even see the checkpoint.

I blame the goddamn administration for putting them all in this situation in the first place.

[SmokingJacket]

16. I blame the guy at the top.

I'll give the soldiers the benefit of the doubt. Surely they didn't want to kill innocent people.

But B** knows that it's happening, and doesn't give a shit.

[yourout]

5. I really feel for the soldiers. I wonder how many future terrorists...

are created by incidents like this?

[DELUSIONAL]

7. since I did NOT vote for bushie -- Nor did I support the war

Nor do I support troops who can kill so easily --

I have not a god damned thing to forgive myself for.

The murder of the children's parents is just one more murder that bushie is guilty of. And Rummy and all the officers all the way down to the soldiers who may or may not have given an American signal to stop -- but not the Iraqi signal to stop. Whoever voted for bushie is also guilty of the war crimes being committed by the "troops". Everyone who voted for bushie should be hit with a 50% tax. I wonder how many bushie supporters he'll have then?

Most US soldiers are ethnocentric slobs -- they are trained to kill/murder -- they are not trained to understand that not everyone understand American English nor American hand signs/signals. (thus the bush gang insulted the Norwegians with their hand signs).

and this mess is probably creating dozens of Timmy McVeighs who will come home and then find a way to keep killing.

[dutchdoctor]

8. Probably just one in a long series of similar incidents..

Theses soldiers must feel horrible. I don't judge them for shooting though, they just can't afford to take any risks..The truth is that *'s failed policies have made Iraq the least safe place in the world and nobody really has a solution.
Impossible to imagine how you can hold elections (one week from now) when families can't drive around without fear of being shot by U.S. soldiers and U.S. troops can't let cars drive by without fear of being bombed.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. If the soldiers who did the killing don't feel guilty they're sociopaths.

I hope they spend a lot of sleepless nights thinking about what they did for "freedom".

[Karenina]

13. I just wish they'd all suddenly have

a spontaneous moment of collective clarity :freak:THIS IS HORRIFIC AND ABSURD:freak: then demand en masse to be airlifted OUTTA THERE IMMEDIATELY. Imagine.

[elehhhhna]

15. You KNOW they will...

Come on! Unles you're a SEAL or Special Forces, etc., the fact is you're not a big fan (not brainwashed and trained) of killing. So many of these men signed up during peacetime--when an unprovoked invasion on our part was unthinkable. The post-9/11 recruits thought they'd be paying Al Quadea back...not occupying an understandably hostile population.


Our guys are sitting ducks and they're scared as hell. Jitters could creep up them when while fearing that everything that MOVES might blow their asses off.

Not excusing--explaining. They need to come home now.

[jazzjunkysue]

14. I work. I protest. I stand for truth. I went to the first war protest in N

NYC on Feb. 15th because I knew I might be able to sleep at night if I went. It helped. I'm going again in March.