BBC: Mass grave unearthed in Iraq city

[maddezmom]

A mass grave has been discovered in the predominantly Shia city of Karbala in southern Iraq, police have said.
The bodies appear to be those of Shia rebels killed by Saddam Hussein's army in 1991 in reprisal for an uprising in the wake of the Gulf War.

The Shia revolt was crushed and as many as 30,000 people were killed, many of them buried in mass graves.

Their remains were uncovered by workmen digging a new water pipe in the centre of the city known for its Shia shrine.

They called the police, who cordoned off the area. Police and doctors found the bodies of men, women and children whom they identified by their clothing.

more:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4561872.stm

[RagingInMiami]

1. Weren't we supposed to have backed them up during that uprising?

[maddezmom]

4. yes...and remember this uprising from 8/04

US moves to crush Shia uprising
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3557446.stm

[IndianaGreen]

9. Poppy Bush did not want Iraq to fall into Shia hands because of Iran

Junior has done precisely what Poppy did not want.

[Roland99]

18. Well, they were urged to rebel then Poppy stood and watched the slaughter.

[tritsofme]

2. Killed after being all but assured

they would be backed up by the US from Poppy Bush.

[Flubadubya]

3. Connect the dots...

straight to Poppy Bush... only MSM won't do it. Just another example of that horrible Saddam Hussein and why it was so important that we go in there and overthrow the devil, by God! :eyes:

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Well, we took him out, killed his sons, confiscated his wealth, and

put him on trial......
Let's go home.


I'm not going to be as disingenuous as republicans and pretend that I absolutely LOVE Iraqis, and "helping them regain their country" is worth our treasury, our soldiers lives, or our credibility.

We still should have kept our red, white, and blue noses out of there.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. The remains of dozens of victims were found in the pit

"The remains of dozens of victims were found in the pit - some 500 metres from the mausoleum of Imam Hussein," Abdul Rahman, a Karbala police spokesman, told news agency AFP.

Wow, they found dozens of people in this one. I bet you'll find a lot more then that in the new mass graves around Fallujah.

[xchrom]

7. 41 knew that if he didn't help the shia something

like this would happen.

it's not like saddam was an unknown quantity to the u.s. -- after all it was rumsfeld and bush 41 from the reagan years who sold him bio and chem weapons to use against the iranians{and consequently the the kurds}.

and we certainly don't have a problem with turkey's brutal treatment of kurds.

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Do They Ever Ask Themselves What Would Happen If They Succeeded?

What if Bush came through with this promise of air support? We would have had another bad situation like Saddam crushing the rebel, one we might be dealing with right now. . . oh wait.

[tx_dem41]

10. Well....this goes against the thinking of some here that the mass graves..

previously reported were just anti-Saddam propaganda. Or maybe, some think this is too?

[papau]

13. mass graves at 30,000 have been found, not at 300,000 as claimed

before the war. But no one ever claimed or claims now that Saddam was not evil.

Nor do we discuss the mass graves we built to cover our Iraqi battlefield dead.

Indeed a few reporters died who tried to take photos of our mass graves.

[tx_dem41]

14. You need to read more posts then.

Many posters have played the moral equivalence game. "Your mass murderer isn't as bad as our mass murderer". To me, mass murder is bad, period.

[papau]

16. I totally agree with you.

:-(

Some posts seem to be flame bait only.

:-(

[Adelante]

20. "mass murder is bad, period."

Yes, indeedy :thumbsup:

[liberalpragmatist]

26. Ha! Just a couple days ago I got a defense of Stalin

Claiming that Stalin's mass deaths weren't anywhere near 40 million, for that was just Hearst propoganda. The deaths were probably only something like "300,000." Then I was told that Stalin was better than Bush and that he was comparable to Clinton - not a "perfect" record, but overall decent.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. Do you really think we'll ever find out how those people died?....

...Since when does a grave filled with a few dozen bodies equal a "mass grave"? What's your personal definition of a "mass grave"...more than ten bodies?

We don't even know who really killed those people, do we?

[MrPrax]

17. Look at the source...

I believe nothing from this Administration and neither should you...
but that shouldn't then be interpreted as Pro-Saddam like your implying.

Why don't we just wait for independent confirmation, shall we?

Simple googling shows headlines like:
U.S.-Shiite fighting continues in Karbala
By wire services
Published May 14, 2004 from

or

Iraqi city of Karbala left in ruins by US military
By James Conachy
24 May 2004

After three weeks of destructive fighting, the US military claims to have re-taken control of the city of Karbala from the Iraqi resistance fighters being led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. American tanks and armoured vehicles rolled through the centre of the city on Friday and Saturday nights, close to the holy Shiite shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, without coming under attack. US-controlled Iraqi police are reported to be once again carrying out patrols.

cut

When Kids Are in the Cross Hairs
...It was the kind of ugly, house-to-house bloodbath the U.S. had feared most, especially in Baghdad. But it happened first in Karbala, which before Baghdad collapsed, loomed as a potential stranglehold on the supply route leading to the capital. History had already stamped Karbala in blood....
from Time Mag
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030421/wperry.html



Rem the heady crazy days of 2004?
When Sadr was our enemy and Chabali was under arrest...those were the days

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Just curious, but what qualifies as a "mass grave"?....

...Will this story blaming Saddam's army go the way of just about every single previous story about Iraqi WMDs, links with Osama/Al Qaeda, and gassing his own people?

I bet the 100,000 Iraqis that U. S. forces have put into early graves rivals anything that Saddam may or may not have done.

[leftchick]

12. and the bush deaths are worse because...

he does it in the name of "freedom" and "democracy"... :puke:

[Roland99]

19. Another article I read mentioned 31 bodies. 31 = mass grave?

It's a horrible finding, sure, but one must remember the history behind the slaughter (and the blood on the conscience of Poppy

[spinbaby]

24. CNN now says "up to 20"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/27/iraq.main/index.html

[Roland99]

27. Could even be a family burial site.

Geez...sensationalism.


Journalism? Journalism? Wherefore are thou, journalism?

[chopper]

21. hmmm

30,000 dead iraqis. that sounds familiar..

[Straight Shooter]

22. I'm cynical this morning. Why has this grave just now been discovered?

It seems to me the Shia would have been yelling about this site for a long time. No way they couldn't have known about it, right?

So, just as support for the war is falling fast, another mass grave is "discovered." This is not the first time, and the coinky-dink makes me uncomfortable. The dead are being exploited, but since the Repub party would be nothing without the dead, why am I not surprised.

Again, it's the cynic in me speaking. Saddam is a bad, bad man, but bush is cut from the same cloth. The only thing which restrains him is the society in which he lives, and we're not doing a very good job of it.

[newspeak]

23. actually, at the time it was supposed to have happened

it was estimated to be around twenty thousand, mostly men. I remember the article after Poppy Bush dropped flyers on Shia towns, saying rise up against Saddam and promising support. He left them high and dry. Years back there was a documentary about Iraq after Desert Storm. The civilians interviewed were kind of hesitant to disclose information, but it seems when we were bombing Baghdad, there were a great number of civilian casualties that were put in one big mass grave. Apparently, Saddam was attempting to hide from the US, the devastating results of the bombings. I would say, that this country, with the bombings, the embargo and war, have killed many, many more Iraqis than Saddam has murdered in the twenty-six years of rule. What Saddam did was wrong, but what we have done is also wrong. We have just poured more fuel on the fire.

[bpilgrim]

25. yeah, how many millions are we responsible for? i know... who's counting

bush's numbers in the toilet, cue the evil doer theme music...



peace

[Polemonium]

28. Thank goodness now our evil deeds can be justified

I was worried that Saddam would prove not evil enough to justify the, 2000 boys we've lost or the 30,000 Iraqi casualties * tells me we've inflicted. What a relief.

Two wrongs do make a right, that is just one load off my shoulders.

:eyes: :eyes: