http://voanews.com/english/2008-09-19-voa11.cfm

<quote>

The U.S. military says seven Iraqis, including three women, were killed
during a raid targeting a suspected al-Qaida operative north of Baghdad.

Local Iraqi officials say the victims were all civilians from the same
family.

A U.S. military statement says coalition ground forces surrounded a house in
the Tikrit area and killed an armed man suspected of being a bomb expert.
The military says when others in the building did not come out, forces
called in an air strike that killed three additional suspects and the three
women.

The statement says a child was pulled from the rubble and is receiving
medical attention.

</quote>

I guess it's a tough call. Comply and hope those who have just killed a
husband / father won't kill you or stay where you are and die anyway.

On Sep 21, 10:44 am, "The Happy Hippy"
 wrote:
> http://voanews.com/english/2008-09-19-voa11.cfm
>
> <quote>
>
> The U.S. military says seven Iraqis, including three women, were killed
> during a raid targeting a suspected al-Qaida operative north of Baghdad.

And each other!:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/52737.html

U.S. soldier in iraq shoots 2 American sergeants
By Nicholas Spangler	 | McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — An American soldier shot and killed two U.S. sergeants
Sunday morning at a base southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military
spokesman said Thursday.

The shooter's name and rank haven't been released, and the military
would say only that the soldier is being held pending a review by a
military magistrate. The dead men are Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, of
Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley Durbin, of Dallas.

"It was a useless, bizarre, terrible thing," Dawson's stepmother,
Maxine Mathis, said Thursday.

Dawson was nearing the end of his third tour, she said. He'd been home
on leave a few months ago and said he didn't want to return to Iraq.
"He was telling me about these nightmares he'd have," Mathis said.
"He'd wake up in a cold sweat, seeing the things he was seeing over
there. It really was messing with my son's mind."

"I don't want to go," she said that he told her. "I just want to stay
home awhile."

"Baby, I know," she said that she replied. "But you got to go back."

Dawson had a wife, two little boys and two little girls. When this
tour was up he planned to go to the Army recruiting school and move
his family to Mobile, Ala.

"You hurry up with that," Mathis said she told him.

"Momma, I can't make them give it to me no faster," she said that he
told her.

They talked for the last time a week ago Monday. Mathis asked him
whether he was keeping up with his prayers and going to church; he
said that he was. "I want you always to be watchful and mindful," she
said that she told him. He told her that he was.

He didn't watch the men who were supposed to be his comrades, however.
He trusted them.

"I'm hurt to my heart," Mathis said Thursday. "I want to know what
happened, why my child was killed."

No one answered the phone at Durbin's Springfield, Ga., home. The
profile he shared on MySpace with his wife, Brandi, says, "We live a
very happy but quiet life," with three cats and an 8-year-old
daughter.

(Spangler reports for The Miami Herald.)


>
> Local Iraqi officials say the victims were all civilians from the same
> family.
>
> A U.S. military statement says coalition ground forces surrounded a house in
> the Tikrit area and killed an armed man suspected of being a bomb expert.
> The military says when others in the building did not come out, forces
> called in an air strike that killed three additional suspects and the three
> women.
>
> The statement says a child was pulled from the rubble and is receiving
> medical attention.
>
> </quote>
>
> I guess it's a tough call. Comply and hope those who have just killed a
> husband / father won't kill you or stay where you are and die anyway.

On Sep 21, 10:44 am, "The Happy Hippy"
 wrote:
> http://voanews.com/english/2008-09-19-voa11.cfm
>
> <quote>
>
> The U.S. military says seven Iraqis, including three women, were killed
> during a raid targeting a suspected al-Qaida operative north of Baghdad.
>
> Local Iraqi officials say the victims were all civilians from the same
> family.
>
> A U.S. military statement says coalition ground forces surrounded a house in
> the Tikrit area and killed an armed man suspected of being a bomb expert.
> The military says when others in the building did not come out, forces
> called in an air strike that killed three additional suspects and the three
> women.
>
> The statement says a child was pulled from the rubble and is receiving
> medical attention.
>
> </quote>
>
> I guess it's a tough call. Comply and hope those who have just killed a
> husband / father won't kill you or stay where you are and die anyway.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI20Ak01.html

headline:

ep 20, 2008



BOOK REVIEW
'We blew her to pieces'
Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan by Aaron Glantz

Reviewed by Dahr Jamail

Aside from the Iraqi people, nobody knows what the United States
military is doing in Iraq better than the soldiers themselves. A new
book gives readers vivid and detailed accounts of the devastation the
US occupation has brought to Iraq, in the soldiers' own words.
Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan is a gut-wrenching, historic
chronicle of what the US military has done to Iraq, as well as its own
soldiers.

Authored by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and journalist Aaron
Glantz, the book is a reader for hearings that took place in



Silver Spring, Maryland, between March 13-16, 2008, at the National
Labor College.

"I remember one woman walking by," said Jason Washburn, a corporal in
the US Marines who served three tours in Iraq. "She was carrying a
huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us, so we lit her
up with the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher, and when
the dust settled, we realized that the bag was full of groceries. She
had been trying to bring us food and we blew her to pieces."

Washburn testified on a panel that discussed the rules of engagement
in Iraq, and how lax they were, even to the point of being virtually
non-existent.

"During the course of my three tours, the rules of engagement changed
a lot," Washburn's testimony continues. "The higher the threat the
more viciously we were permitted and expected to respond."

His emotionally charged testimony, like all of those in the book that
covered panels addressing dehumanization, civilian testimony, sexism
in the military, veterans' health care and the breakdown of the
military, raised issues that were repeated again and again by other
veterans.

"Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink and
nudge, was to carry 'drop weapons', or by my third tour, 'drop
shovels'. We would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if
we accidentally shot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the
body, and make them look like an insurgent," Washburn said.

Four days of searing testimony is consolidated into the book, which
makes for a difficult read. One page after another is filled with
devastating stories from the soldiers about what is being done in
Iraq.

Everything from the taking of "trophy" photos of the dead, to torture
and slaughtering of civilians is included.

"We're trying to build a historical record of what continues to happen
in this war and what the war is really about," Glantz told Inter Press
Service. ... (cont)

"chatnoir"  wrote ...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/52737.html

U.S. soldier in iraq shoots 2 American sergeants
By Nicholas Spangler | McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — An American soldier shot and killed two U.S. sergeants
Sunday morning at a base southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military
spokesman said Thursday.

====

This war, and the way it has been executed, has caused some very terrible
things to happen. The Adminstration, DoD and all those involved cannot
escape their share of the blame.