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| Iraq |
| Civilian Deaths Are Why US Can't Stay in Iraq |
| 2011-12-11 |
| Just like Afghanistan. Too many fluffy ducks and baby bunnies. HADITHA, IRAQ -In the accounting of what was won and lost in America's Iraq war, this sleepy farming town deep in the western desert will rank as a place where almost everything was lost. The WaPo puts eight years of war into an afternoon. And half-a-dozen comments. It was here, on Nov. 19, 2005, that a group of Marines went on a shooting spree in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed. Their patrol had been hit by a roadside bomb and one of their comrades was dead. They ordered five men out of a taxi and gunned them down. Then they went into three nearby homes and shot 19 people, including 11 women and children. On those facts, U.S. and Iraqi accounts agree. On just about everything else -- why it happened, whether it was justified and how it was resolved -- they do not. Well into the article, you find out it has not yet been resolved. Charges were dropped for six, a seventh was acquitted, and the eighth has yet to stand trial. I'm sure that looks like immunity to everyone except those sitting in the brig. And in those dueling perceptions, over the killings in Haditha and others nationwide, lay the undoing of the U.S. military's hopes of maintaining a long-term presence here. When it came to deciding the future of American troops in Iraq, the irreconcilable difference that stood in the way of an agreement was a demand by Iraqi politicians for an end to the grant of immunity that has protected on-duty U.S. soldiers from Iraqi courts. The soldiers who killed Iraqi civilians did not hide behind immunity, they were prosecuted by US forces. Some went to prison. "The image of the American soldier is as a killer, not a defender. And how can you give a killer immunity?" said Sami al-Askari, a lawmaker who is also a close aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. So, Sami, we should have left before the Sunni death squads came to your house? How many US troops are dead because they hesitated to shoot? So the troops are going home this month, leaving a question mark over what had been one of the chief goals of the war -- to nurture a strategic ally in the heart of the Middle East. All is lost. WaPo front-page "news". An e-mail address, for your reference: ombudsman@washpost.com |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #2 "What can I use to relieve the soreness of so much handwringing?" "Dove!" "Dishwashing liquid?" "You're soaking in it!" |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2011-12-11 17:00 |
| #1 The Washington Post is only exceeded by the NYTs. Look for lots of civilian deaths in Iraq once the U.S. Forces are gone. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-12-11 15:13 |