U.S. Troops Kill Iraqi Girl On Roadside

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Military Says Shot Meant As Warning; Deadly Car Bomb Blast Wounds Dozens In Baghdad

(CBS/AP) U.S. soldiers shot and killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a woman who "appeared to be signaling to someone" along a stretch of road where several roadside bombs had recently been found, a military official said early Thursday.

...

The girl appeared to be "around 10 years old," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a military spokesman.

There has been an increase in the use of women as suicide bombers in Iraq.

...

Leighton, however, said preliminary reports indicated that soldiers didn't believe the woman posed a threat of being a suicide bomber, but rather "they were afraid she was signaling to someone that the convoy was going by."

In its statement, the military said that "coalition forces fired a warning shot into a berm near a suspicious woman who appeared to be signaling to someone while the soldiers were in the area. A young girl was found behind the berm suffering from a gunshot wound."


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/13/iraq/main3933530.shtml

[TooBigaTent]

1. Our brave heroes in action. Nothing to see here. Move along. And certainly, do NOT

dare criticize our defenders.

[cornflake_31]

3. I wouldn't go so far as to

Blame the troops as much as blame the whole fucking situation. Imagine being there, who do you trust? We just need to bring them all home now.

[wtmusic]

11. "Who do you trust"?

So shoot first, ask questions later? Don't EVEN try to justify this bullshit.

[Upfront]

18. Doubt you have been there.

If you had you would know how stupid you are to say such a thing. It is hell in that place and sometimes you have to act to stay alive. I don't always blame the troops, in fact almost never.

[wtmusic]

22. Bullshit.

Killing a girl motioning from behind a berm is going to help keep someone alive.

What nonsense. You should be ashamed of yourself and your country.

[CRF450]

67. How are our troops suppose to know what exactly the girl is doing...

In the heat of a battle, or after some major shit has happened in that spot? Children have been used as human bombs to kill our men and women their, that part, is very REAL! Two of my best friends who have been to Iraq witnessed this many times. Its very unfortunate she had to be another victim in this illegal war, but because of her actions, they couldn't tell if she was an enemy combatant, or an innocent bystander. As said below by another member, When soldiers are in a situation where women and children have been used as weapons are they supposed to wait until their limbs have been blown off by a suicide bomber before they shoot?

[bitchkitty]

24. A 10 year old is not shaped like a man or a woman.

They killed a 10-year old. Ten years old. That's what, 4th, 5th grade? I used to play Barbie dolls in the 4th grade. I had Alan and Skipper and Midge too. What dolls did this child play with? I was never in any danger of being shot while I played outside. If I made a gesture, there was never any danger of someone seeing me make the gesture and shooting me dead because they thought I might be signaling someone.

There is no justification for the death of this child, and there is no justification for this war. The child is dead because of one thing - because we are in Iraq, uninvited and illegally.

On edit - reading further, they did not shoot "at" the girl but claim that she was hit by the warning shot that they fired? Mistake or no, I stand by the second paragraph in this post.

[saigon68]

46. Shoving plastic Flashlights up children's rectums OK too ?

Yes support these War Criminals

I was only following orders is a Nazi- Thug excuse

[alarimer]

64. There is NO justification for this

Monsters.

A fucking 10 year old. Just disgusting.

[pokercat999]

56. Don't blame the troops after all they only

1.enlisted of their own free will
2.Obeyed illegal orders to report to an unlawful war
3.loaded their weapons
4.aimed and fired those weapons

They only made those and a lot of other free will choices all along the way to this girls death and hundreds of thousands of others. So please, don't blame our fucking killers....errrr troops.

Cry me a fucking river, I'm sick of this constant whine about our "troops" who are at best, mercenaries.

[OwnedByFerrets]

7. No sex for sale here???? Dont expect ANYTHING

to be reported on this in the MSM. Besides, you are a traitor if you dare to say the "liberators" there would do ANYTHING wrong.:puke: :puke:

[L0oniX]

10. The moral individual decision would have been to refuse be in the military...

unless a COUNTRY / NATION attacks us. A police covert action is what was needed to take out Osama and his leaders just like the nazi hunters did. What Americans did was a stupid knee jerk reaction lead by the fear monger and lying leaders in our government. Note that the military always says that if it weren't for them we wouldn't have freedom and free speech but since the beginning of this crap we have lost freedom of speech and privacy and now have full body searches and strict requirements for travel. I don't care who hates me anymore...I hate the military.

[wtmusic]

16. One good sign

is that this was even reported. Two years ago it would have never seen the light of day.

[OwnedByFerrets]

31. You arent the only one......

however, it gets more dangerous all the time to voice those feelings.;-)

[Ian David]

2. Maybe she was signaling, "Mommy, help me!" ??? n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. The girl wasn't the one who was signalling.

It was a woman at the side of the road. Probably waving at the girl to keep out of sight of the soldiers because soldiers are dangerous. They fired a warning shot at the woman, and hit the hidden girl.

That's how I'm reading it.

[wtmusic]

9. They're elevating the girl to adult status to shield the criminality of it

is how I'm reading it.

[Maine-ah]

15. they did the same thing with the 15 y.o. girl that was raped

funny how if it's a 10 y.o. in the U.S. she's a child, but if it's an Iraqi 10 y.o., she's an Iraqi woman.

Someone above said we have to blame the whole situation and not the soldiers, well, I have family there, and they aren't out there killing 10 y.o. girls, nor are they throwing puppies off a cliff to "blow off steam". I'm blaming the soldiers who committed the act, not all soldiers.

[raebrek]

33. Me too.

In its statement, the military said that "coalition forces fired a warning shot into a berm near a suspicious woman who appeared to be signaling to someone while the soldiers were in the area. A young girl was found behind the berm suffering from a gunshot wound."

Raebrek!!!
forgot to close out my bold.

[wtmusic]

4. So the "suspicious woman" turns out to be a 10-year-old girl

"Warning shots"...yeah, right. The US military is a bunch of fucking wimps.

[jberryhill]

12. That's not what it even says

The story seems to say that there was an adult woman, whom the soldiers did not intend to shoot, and instead they fired a warning shot.

The warning shot hit a ten year old girl who was out of view.

It then jumps to saying:

"Soldiers gave the girl medical attention and called for an evacuation. The girl died on the way to a medical facility, the statement said."

So they were apparently alerted to the presence of the girl that was shot, after NOT shooting the adult woman.

If it was their intention to shoot the girl, then why on earth would they call to have her evacuated for treatment?

[atreides1]

19. "...then why on earth would they call to have her evacuated for treatment?"

Witnesses? The woman was still alive, but I guess they could have killed her too!

[RaleighNCDUer]

34. But...but... everybody is saying the girl and the woman were the

same person!

How can I put my hate out there if I don't know who I'm supposed to be hating?

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. No, the woman and the girl were two different people.

Geeze, learn to read.

[wtmusic]

14. Geeze, don't believe everything you read.

A "warning shot", fired AT a person? What a crock.

Here is what happened: a little girl was playing behind a berm and some trigger-happy yahoo thought it was someone signalling that a convoy was passing. He drilled her, then a soldier with a trace of morality tried to save her life and failed. Higher-ups got wind of it and created the cockeyed story you just read.

[Judi Lynn]

27. All our media did that for days and days following the rape and slaughter of the Iraqi girl

and her small, 5 year old sister, and her parents by the group of American soldiers who had been planning to get them for days.

It was maddening to have learned in a foreign paper that Abeer Qassim al-Janabi was only a 14 child while our own media shouted that she was a "26 year old woman." As if being an adult somehow made it all o.k. Well, she was hardly a woman. She'll never be a woman, now.

I hope _{George W. Bush} has nightmares about what he has done every single night.

[Bigmack]

5. Maybe it was this girl....

"Ten-year-old Salee Allawee lost both of her legs in a U.S. air strike last year. The same attack killed her 13-year-old brother and her best friend. Salee’s sister was also injured and lost part of her foot. Salee is learning how to walk again thanks to the organization No More Victims. The group brought her here last December to receive a pair of prosthetic legs."

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/19/ten_year_old_iraqi_girl_receives

or this one....

"n Iraqi girl whose face was disfigured when a missile struck her home will return to Iraq later this month when she finishes a series of surgeries at UCLA to rebuild her nose.

Marwa Naim, 12, was injured in April 2003 when her family's home in the Mada'en district of northern Baghdad was shelled. The home was destroyed, and Naim's mother was killed."

http://cbs2.com/local/Marwa.Naim.Nose.2.517862.html

or this one...

"Fatma Abdul Aziz was born with life-threatening heart defects that could not be treated in her own war-torn country. With the aid of 2nd Lt. Todd Wilson, along with a number of groups and individuals who wanted to help, Fatma was brought to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in August 2004 to undergo heart surgery."

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/about/patient/heart-defect-fatma-aziz.htm

or this one....

"A local woman inspired by an Iraqi girl severely burned by a roadside bomb organizes an effort to get the girl medical treatment in the U.S."

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f40_1187391777

There certainly is no shortage of dead or injured little girls to help... or kill... in Iraq.

How can anyone who believes in a just god want to continue any war - and especially this war?

[L0oniX]

6. Murderers.

:mad: :grr::puke:

[Xenotime]

44. Exactly. And once this is over other countries will make us pay for our crimes.

[gaspee]

17. Support the troops! (n/t)

[OwnedByFerrets]

32. You forgot this...

:sarcasm:

[gaspee]

35. Hmmm

I didn't think it was needed.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. Too many just don't get it - the USA invaded and occupied a country that was no threat

.
.
.

The USA has already identified the perpetrators of 911 to be Arabs, but the Arabs that were in the country were the only ones allowed to fly OUT of the USA after 911 - no action was taken against Saudi Arabia

Afghanistan was a staging point to go after Iraq, a political target long before the Boy-King got selected.

EVERY death of an Iraqi at the hands of the USA's War-Machine is an abomination.

I think the USA is an sick country, thinking guns and bombs are the answer to everything.

And I am increasingly disappointed with my own country being involved in unsolicited wars.

No one attacked us, so why are our Canadian troops in Afghanistan?

It's our Harper/Conservative government kissing PNACer's ass.

When a REAL threat happens,

Will we be ready?

I doubt it.

[JohnyCanuck]

42. "Too many just don't get it - the USA invaded and occupied a country that was no threat"

That's what the fucking Nazis did.

[WinkyDink]

21. Bringing God's gift of freedom. No child left behind.

[daleo]

23. They shot at a "woman" and killed a "girl"

The story is vague - did they miss the woman or did the woman turn into a girl while the bullet was in flight?

[ContraBass Black]

26. Sounds more like a woman was beside a berm and they saw her waving

They fired a warning shot at the berm rather than at the woman, and later found that the bullet penetrated the berm and struck a girl that they did not see behind it.

[daleo]

29. The story is quite vague

I think it was written in a rather elliptical fashion. That's often the case when journalists are trying hard not to state the obvious, or when a military press release is trying to cloud the issue. Greater clarity is needed on this matter.

[SpikeTss]

25. Bush, Rice, Powell et al. are the greatest mass murderers of the century

How long does it take to send them to The Hague?

[Pavulon]

41. Sadly, not by a long shot.

the death caused by our iraq policy is a terrible thing. But pales in comparison to that in the Congo. If by the century you mean the last 8 years.

If by the last 100 years, the numbers are exponentially larger in other wars and mass murders.

[tuckessee]

53. Do you have those numbers?

Tally all the US caused civilian dead from the Philippines to Banana Wars to WW2 Terror Bombing to Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and every little thing in between.

I'd guess the US ranks as a close fourth in mass murdering raw numbers behind China, Russia and Germany.

But hey, we're trying hard to get our body count up.

Maybe someday we'll pass the others. May already be ahead of Germany.

The other guys have slacked off recently but the US is still plodding along leaving a trail of broken countries and smashed bodies in its wake.

[Pavulon]

68. Which numbers, Genocides

google it. Then you can pick your own source.

However WW2, started by Europeans, accounted for many tens of millions of deaths. Attributing casualties there to the same "column" as those in iraq is dishonest.

But comparing Iraq to WW2 death requires a logarithmic scale. There were single battles that killed more people than this entire war to this point in time. Shooting battles, not bombings.

Trying to compare things that do not relate here is bad. It detracts from the simple point.

US actions in Iraq are not and have not served US interests. They caused death and destruction with NO return for Iraqis or Americans.

Adding complexity is not required.

[saigon68]

47. Here's one in need of a Prison Jumpsuit

[The Stranger]

28. Where did we end up on the thread about supporting troops and atrocities?

[coalition_unwilling]

30. Gee, I guess that would make the soldiers 'baby killers,' now

wouldn't it?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

36. No. It makes Bushco baby killers.

The soldiers will come home suffering from PTSD for which they will receive inadequate treatment. Some will commit suicide. Some will become homeless. Some will live with their families, permanently emotionally disabled.

Others will manage to get by...maybe some will even be unaffected because they were somehow able to detach themselves from their job. But I suspect more will bury the incident deep inside them, and not speak of it.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Thank you for that. I sometimes need a verbal slap to get myself

to focus on the true "perps". You're absolutely right in this regard. I am finding it increasingly difficult to feel pity for U.S. soldiers. But that is no excuse, as we should all pity the soldiers who are mere executors of the genocidal policies initiated by BFEE.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

49. I understand what you mean...

It makes me realize exactly why people were so down on the vets who returned from Vietnam. These slimebuckets who are responsible will never accept responsibility for their crime, nor will they be held accountable; so people will tend to blame those who are most vulnerable...those who feel guilt when they were simply following orders.

We can only hope that someone will have the guts to prosecute the orchestrators of this bloodbath before people forget who is really to blame.

[pokercat999]

57. NO you are wrong. Not after the brave souls that have

refused to become murderous thugs for this country by walking away and risking their personal freedom for what is right. The troops in Iraq are there by choice now, no other way to spin it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

59. They are not all there by choice.

I have the utmost admiration for those who can bravely walk away. But how can you judge those who don't feel they can? How about those who have been lied to just to keep them in line? How about those who have children at home depending on their service for food and shelter? What's it like trying to get a job when you're arrested for desertion or dishonorably discharged?

If you can walk away when they come for you, great. More power to you. But don't expect everybody to live by your standards of martyrdom.

[pokercat999]

60. I expect everyone to be honest enough to say

This was MY CHOICE, maybe they were in what may seem like an impossible position but none the less they made a choice. Their choice may have been to do the NORMAL thing and obey orders but that doesn't make them less guilty.

What would you rather say to a child, "Daddy chose to kill innocent people so you could have good food and a lot of junk we bought from China" or "We have less than others because Daddy refused to kill innocent people like the criminal cabal that was in power at the time ordered him to, we live with a little less so others could just live"?

I can't beleive I have to explain this to anyone that calls themselves a Democrat. One of us has mis-aligned themselves......and maybe it's me.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

61. So basically you're saying that the Vietnam vets who returned to jeering crowds

deserved that sort of homecoming?

Your rationale is coming from a very narrow black/white perspective that leaves no room for the greyscale of the situation. Maybe you need to talk with people who've been there to understand that you do not know what you're talking about.

[pokercat999]

65. Hmmmm let's see from 1972 till 1975 I was in the USArmy

how about you?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

69. Then why didn't you leave?

You think everybody in Iraq should do what you didn't do? Was Dumbyass a hero for being AWOL?

To answer your question, I was a kid. And I've never served in the military. That's why I don't feel I can stand in judgement of those who are in Iraq or who served in Vietnam. But I suspect military service would not make me any more judgemental of them.

[pokercat999]

66. There is more than one way out of this mess. One fast

way is for the military as a whole to lay down their weapons and come home. It WOULD be much easier than you think and then they would be true heroes and would have redeemed themselves somewhat, if not in the eyes of the world at least here at home.

Remember how "don't ask, don't tell" came about? The leading Generals were threating to quit/retire if they allowed G/L to serve openly. The cowardly Bill Clinton knuckled under rather than smile and promote a large number of waiting Colonels. Well turst me they can't fight this war without enlisted, NCO's and low ranking officers. If they would enmass quit there is NOTHING anyone could do to them. Remember the thousands of draftees that fled to Canada, I was there when the were allowed to return home without punishment. There is a history here.

I still say the troops are there by CHOICE!

[tuckessee]

54. One can still be a baby killer and have now or suffer in the future from PTSD.

What kind of logic/rationale are you using in your post?

People who take aim at someone and kill that person bear no responsibility for killing that person because some far off command figure told them (the volunteers) to be in that general area?

If they did murder a person, they're really not murderers because they have PTSD?

WTF?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

58. When soldiers are in a situation where women and children have been used as weapons...

are they supposed to wait until their limbs have been blown off by a suicide bomber before they shoot?

I don't doubt that our armed forces have their share of criminals; but I also don't think we have the right to judge them until we've stood in their shoes.

I submit to you that those of us who are here in our safe little homes are more guilty than those soldiers, because we have not done enough to end this illegal war and hold Bushco accountable.

[subsuelo]

38. You know what is disgusting about this article....

This sentence:
The girl appeared to be "around 10 years old," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a military spokesman.

Is directly followed by this sentence:
There has been an increase in the use of women as suicide bombers in Iraq.


As if there is some correlation.

As if there is some justification.

It's outrageous.

[EFerrari]

39. Dear God.

[Sabriel]

40. My daughter is 9.

Someone needs to do some time in Leavenworth for this shooting.

But I doubt it'll happen.

[tuckessee]

51. The shooters will probably wind up as cops.

Training their sights on us in the near future.

[subsuelo]

43. Eerily similar story being discussed in the Israel/Palestine forum

Israeli sniper bullet takes 12-year-old girl's life

[pretzel4gore]

45. the 'War on Tots'

the idea is, tots can't fight back, so warring on them usually not as terrible as wars on older people...Iraq/Afghanistan has a population, pre junyer bush, that was 50 percent younger then fifteen....thus while pigmedia calls it 'war on terror' that's just for dupes who are also told the Fed Reserve pumped $200 billion into the money markets, causing DOW to jump 400 points (then fall again as the pigs got out) was to help ease the 'credit crunch' iow a good thing, but, in reality it was just another bailout of the pig banks! Everything the people are told by pigmedia serves a purpose. When junyer is finally gone, in a year's time, the soothing 'news' we getting now will be unrecognisable.....just watch

[DCKit]

55. NCLA

No Child Left Behind - and the damage it does - was a test case and precursor to the new * program, No Child Left Alive.

[Doctor_J]

48. The blame for this lies 95% with Bush & Cheney, and 5% with

the soldiers. Their position is untenable.

[FlyingSquirrel]

50. In other news, a soldier threw a puppy.

Oh, wait, THAT was the BIG news.

[slampoet]

52. Wow this gets less recs than the OBVIOUSLY faked puppy vid. Way to go DU.

[Lorien]

63. Not faked. And gleefully killing anything is a symptom of an illness

and a serious illness at that. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the puppy killer marines "thrill killed" other "targets"off camera as well. I doubt if the soldiers here intended to kill the child, but the "warning shot" was reckless to say the very least. They overreacted-those are NOT soldiers who should be there!

The human heart is not so limited that it can't feel compassion or outrage for a million living things.

[Lorien]

62. The AP sure as hell worked hard to spin this one

"girl" instead of "child", and after noting her possible age (I'll bet that she was even younger) they follow it up with "There has been an increase in the use of women as suicide bombers in Iraq." as if that completely justifies it!

God, I hate what America has become! :grr: