(no subject)

[mrph]

From the BBC Iraq news, here.

Peter Hunt :: Doha, Qatar :: 2130GMT

This afternoon, a vehicle, possibly a van, approached a military checkpoint near Najaf.

Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division signalled for to stop. It didn't. They fired warning shots and then fired into the engine.

The vehicle continued moving towards them. As a last resort, according to a Central Command spokesman, they fired into the passenger compartment.

There were 13 women and children inside. Seven of them were dead.

I just don't have the words to respond to this.

Comments

[mrph.livejournal.com]

From one point of view, I'd agree. But the embedded reporter who witnessed this reports a furious commander yelling at the troops "you killed a [expletive] family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough"... so maybe it's not quite that clear cut.

And did anyone hail them in a language they understood? One of the recurring statements I hear about the US army is that they have hardly anyone who speaks Arabic...

It's a fuck-up, and in the short term it's only going to get worse.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Well, the embedded reporters were the Pentagon's own idea.

And, bottom line... bottom line there didn't have to be a war at this point in time, and there didn't have to be checkpoints. Simple as that.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. To some extent. But still.. as you say, it's a democracy. For me, that means holding the government to account now. History will indeed judge. But the government should, here and now, be able to justify their course of action to the people and the parliament.

We wouldn't (and don't) accept "trust us, we know what we're doing" as an excuse on transport policy, taxation or healthcare. Yes, some things have to be withheld for security reasons, but that can't be a blank cheque. The specialists still have to persuade the laymen that they're right.

Perhaps they have - support was above 50% for the first time when the troops went in. But I've read a lot about this, including the text of Resolution 1441. And I still think Blair's interpretation is... questionable.. at best.

Still, we're there now. I don't think we can back out, and the best we can do is do the job, help rebuild, get the army out swiftly and leave the place better than we found it. Without American corporations running the show...

[Interesting sidenote: today I discovered that VP Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton, has the contract for the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. They kept that quiet...]