On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:03:45 GMT, Gunner
wrote:
On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 08:51:26 -0500, Jake Nichols
wrote:
On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 16:20:26 -0700, "Dan"
wrote:
A military has few compunctions about firing on armed
combatants, but is more reluctant about doing so on unarmed
civilians.
Kent State University
And in the middle of the Turbulent 60s, with bomb throwers, mass
riots, takeovers and thrashing hundreds of universities, the only one
you can come up with is Kent State?
Four Dead in Ohiiiooo!
Sounds pretty ****ing reluctant to me.
Gunner
We are talking about the USA military and not Militaries in general,
yes?
******************
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C55B163B5
BAGHDAD - Panicked by the relentless Iraqi resistance attacks that
target them day in and day out, trigger-happy U.S. troops shot dead
pointblank an Iraqi father and three of his four children, one of them
only eight years old, a leading British newspaper reported Sunday,
August 10.
*******************
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L1D9513B5
IT started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a US jeep - it ended
with two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously injured.
I watched in horror as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000
unarmed people here yesterday.
Many, including children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of
automatic gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13
protesters at the Al-Kaahd school on Monday.
***************************
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B21A233B5
(While the information on this link hasn't been proven or sufficently
disproven, the allegation remains, IIRC)
All of this has informed at least the establishment reaction to the
news that Lt. j.g. Bob Kerrey and the six Navy SEALs he led into the
Mekong Delta village of Thanh Phong on the night of Feb. 25, 1969,
killed--murdered, it has been alleged--at least 13 unarmed women and
children
******************
Behind Colin Powell's Legend
After a brief mention of the My Lai massacre in My American Journey,
Powell penned a partial justification of the Americal's brutality. In
a chilling passage, Powell explained the routine practice of murdering
unarmed male Vietnamese.
"I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male,"
Powell wrote. "If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked
remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire
in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of
hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him.
******************
http://travel.hubcom.net/vietnam/mylai.html
In one of the greatest attrocities of the whole war 504 unarmed
civilians were murdered by American soldiers in the village of My Lai
on the morning of 16th March 1968. The site has been carefully
preserved both as a memorial to those who died and as a museum.
****************
March 31 - US soldiers kill 10 members, all women and children, of the
same family at a checkpoint near Najaf, Iraq.
April 1 - US Marines kill a driver and wound his passenger as he
approaches a checkpoint near Shatra, Iraq. No weapons or explosives
were found.
April 11 - US Marines fire on two cars approaching a checkpoint in
Nasiriyah killing two children and wounding nine others. No weapons or
explosives were found.
April 28 - April 30 - US soldiers kill 20 unarmed protestors when they
fire into crowds in Fallujah, Iraq. Human Rights Watch accuses troops
of excessive force. Ninety civilians wounded.
May 24 - US soldiers kill three teenage boys celebrating a wedding in
a motorcade at a checkpoint in Samarra, north of Baghdad. No weapons
or explosives were found.
May 26 - US soldiers fire on a truck that failed to stop in time at a
roadblock in Samarra, Iraq. Two children are killed.
June 18 - US soldiers fire into a protesting crowd of 500 outside US
Civilian Authority headquarters. Two Iraqi civilians killed.
June 26 - US soldiers on patrol fire on a Baghdad house rooftop
killing a12 -year old carrying a blanket.
June 30 - US soldiers fire on separate cars at checkpoints. Four Iraqi
civilians die. No weapons or explosives found.
July 3 - An Iraqi civilian tells Agence France Presse that he was
handcuffed, gagged and later beaten by a US soldier who found a
handgun in his car.
July 9 - US soldiers atop the Durah police station in Baghdad fire on
an Iraqi civilian fixing a car at a repair shop. Soldiers mistook the
car’s ignition distributor for a grenade.
July 22 - US forces fired into a crowd of 40 to 50 rock-throwing
protesters gathered in Karbala seeking entry to the Imam Hussein
Mosque. One man is killed.
July 26 - The Pentagon announces that four US soldiers will be put
under investigation for beating Iraqi prisoners at detention centers.
July 27 - US soldiers of Task Force 20 kill 11 civilian passers-by
while raiding the home of Prince Rabiah Muhamed Al-Habib in search of
Saddam Hussein. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez admitted at a Baghdad press
conference that “up to five” might have been killed, but refused to
take responsibility. Eyewitnesses tell reporters that four of the dead
were cremated in the car they were riding, which came under heavy US
gunfire.
July 30 - Two Iraqi civilians on foot shot dead by US soldiers in the
Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq. No weapons or explosives were
found.
August 8 - US forces fire on a car carrying an Iraqi family at a
checkpoint north of Baghdad. Five Iraqis, including three children,
were killed, and two others wounded.
August11 - US soldiers kill six Iraqi civilians at three different
checkpoints in Baghdad, Iraq. No weapons or explosives were found.
The above list is by no means comprehensive. Other stories of
civilians murdered in Iraq continue to go unreported.
Hoping to stave off the incensed anger of a threatened Iraqi
population, US military officials paid $262,263 in compensation as of
August13 . However, most of the money was for property damaged during
botched raids. US military personnel have refused to comment saying
only that an Iraqi family has to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that
US servicemen erred in killing an Iraqi civilian. In most cases, US
military officials said that soldiers fired because they believed they
were threatened.
It remains to be seen whether US forces have been held accountable for
the above deaths, and others.
Human rights organizations have blamed US forces, as the occupying
power, for the high number of civilian deaths. In most cases, Iraqi
eyewitnesses have told this writer that soldiers just scream at
confused Iraqi drivers in English. The Iraqis, who know of the deaths
at checkpoints, panic and often do something wrong in their bid to
avoid being shot or beaten.
* Firas Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage. H