Bush vows to punish Haditha crime, Iraqis angry

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC154894.htm

BAGHDAD, May 31 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush vowed on Wednesday to punish any U.S. Marine guilty of shooting Iraqi civilians at Haditha but Iraqis, including the prime minister, complain that U.S. troops have killed elsewhere with impunity.

"There is a thorough investigation going on. If ... laws were broken there will be punishment," Bush said in Washington.

It was his first public comment on a scandal that some commentators are comparing to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam that helped turn many Americans against that war.

In the latest instance where Iraqis say U.S. forces have shed innocent blood, relatives and Iraqi police and army officers in Samarra, north of Baghdad, told Reuters U.S. troops killed three unarmed civilians, including a 60-year-old woman and a mentally handicapped man, in their home three weeks ago.

A U.S. spokesman said only three guerrillas were killed.

[Triana]

1. Sure. As soon as he's done punishing all those OTHER crimes he said

he'd punish. Like the outing of Valerie Plame.

HA! Don't hold your breath.

This weaselly little man LIVES for crime. He commits them daily himself. It's his M.O.

[ladjf]

8. Bush doesn't punish anyone except militarily weak countries

that have oil and the American people, who are either old, sick or less than wealthy.

[TayTay]

2. I hope he looks in a mirror then

and accepts his share of the blame for this. I hope he accepts the fact that his stop-loss policies, his abandonment of troops who needed body armor and so forth helped to create some of the conditions under which this happened.

Those who pulled the triggers on this should be punished. Those who helped create the conditions under which this could occur should also be punished, beginning with this moronic president.

[katty]

3. o really?! just like he punished and fired CIA leakers? don't hold breath

[tjwash]

4. Like he punished the price gouging oil companies?

nt

[TomInTib]

5. That's right, hang a few pfc's and specs out to dry.

You know those dumbass kids acted totally on their own.

Right, georgie?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. Wingnut heads explode

If the librul media would just stick to reporting the Good News like we tell them to the Eyerackees would stop getting riled up just cuz their kids and grandpas keep getting shot. :sarcasm:

[ladjf]

7. Bush said that if laws were broken, there will be punishment.

I don't consider that a vow. I interpret the remark to say if, by some unfortunate chain of events,
it appears that the troops broke some law that I haven't wiped off of the books, we might have to moderately punish as few people as possible.

[subterranean]

9. He didn't say those responsible will be punished

He merely said "there will be punishment." Most likely they'll try to punish whoever leaked the story.

[malaise]

10. Is he giving himself up to the judges in

The Hague -nothing else will do. He's a fugging war criminal.

[Justice Is Comin]

11. Why doesn't he crawl under the

corn crib on his ranch and stay there until we throw him out of office? All he's good for is the barf bag business.

[malaise]

12. How I wish

Justice was really comin!!

[BurtWorm]

13. Why don't the Iraqis have jurisdiction over this?

Anyone know the international law? If an American in Okinawa had raped or murdered a local, the local authorities would have jurisdiction. Why not in this case?

[magellan]

14. His lips are moving, it must be another lie

The Commander in Chief of the Morans doesn't punish anyone unless a) they disagree with him or b) they make a handy scapegoat.

What an oafish, unbearable, lying sack of sh*t is our pResident.