US strike kills own soldiers in Baghdad

[bemildred]

Source: AP

The US military says an Apache helicopter has accidentally destroyed one of its own armoured vehicles in eastern Baghdad.

The military says the incident occurred yesterday afternoon, when the chopper spotted a group of four militants placing roadside bombs. It says a Hellfire missile hit the group, killing two gunmen.

Sunday's statement says that a second Hellfire was then launched. But it missed its target and struck a US armoured vehicle instead.

Iraqi police confirm that a Humvee was set ablaze in the Mashtal area of eastern Baghdad. They say two US soldiers and three Iraqi civilians were wounded and that American troops immediately blocked off the neighbourhood.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-strike-kills-own-soldiers-in-baghdad-808569.html

[UpInArms]

1. here is a link to a Yahoo/Reuters article (vote it up)

U.S. air strike in Iraq wounds troops and civilians

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A missile fired by U.S. forces at militants in east Baghdad overshot its target and hit a U.S. vehicle, wounding two soldiers and three civilians, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

In a statement, the U.S. military said it had observed four people placing roadside bombs in the district of New Baghdad on Saturday. An aircraft fired a Hellfire missile, killing two of them.

A second missile targeting the two survivors of the first strike "overshot," setting alight a U.S. military vehicle and nearby houses. The U.S. military said it was investigating the cause of the "misfire."

"(These) events are unfortunate and our apologies go out to those innocent civilians who were affected," Colonel Bill Buckner, a military spokesman, said in the statement.

...more...

[pretzel4gore]

2. the 'four people placing bombs' were children setting up lemonade stand

but what's the difference? Please support the bush 'war on tots' Our oil security depends on winning the war....

[indepat]

6. Atta-boy: post is oozing with diabolical cynicism so appropriate to the circumstances

:thumbsup:

[ooglymoogly]

15. There is not one scintilla of a legitimate reason for us to be firing on anybody

in Iraq...period. The shame and oceans of blood from this idiocy will haunt us forever.

[indepat]

26. Sadly tens of millions seem unconcerned about what is being/has been done, most of whom

feel a 'puke president must be allowed to do absolutely everything he wants, damn the law, damn the rule of law, damn the Constitution, damn international law and organizations, damn the illegality and inhumanity of it all, damn the torpedoes: they are of course deadly wrong and fully cupable, but the most lethal arsenal the world has ever known provides an enormously large shield for the perpetrators. :shrug: :cry:

Edited for context

[pretzel4gore]

28. more cynicism here: every dollar accrued on earth seen $100 wasted!

junyer bush is just the trendy taken to its extreme, to the trend's utter embarassment. And the trend's media hass to soft sell it, even as the trend tries to turn away from the most potential hideous aspects (pulling kid's fingernails out to force daddy to confess where the drugs are stashed etc) but the herd (and there is a herd - go outside, punch the first person you meet in the face, and you'll stampede it!) doesn't even know the half of how badly it's been defrauded. Consider the entire cost of the Vietnam War, invested, in 1965 terms! there's about $10 trillion right there. Consider the cost of entire 'War on Drugs' also invested, in mental health, and in green agri practices etc overseas, another $5 trillion at least. ...consider the cost of all the police state shit, the military crap, the vast prison setups everywhere, and whattaya get? $20 more trillion? Undo the damage of 45 years of reactionarky interference with governments all over the world. How much does that allow to accre? $500 TRILLION? Who knows, it's guesswork. But instead, whattaya get? You get georgebushamerica, steveharper canada, and the flat earth society out there, where only heavily armed gunmen allow you to go, and pigmedia shitting on the floor. Not colonies on the moon, Mars and the moons of Jupiter (with names like Lo, Calisto and Ganymede). Not electric car fleets, with electric 18 wheelers delivering necassities, and the gas guzzler a museum item, and the air thus as fresh and sweet as it was in 1749! Not underwater cities where the health of the worlds oceans are carefully monitored by rightwingers a rush limbah-humbug can't even imagine, ie protecting their interests. NOOOOO! You get georgebushamerica, steveharper canada and the flat earth society out there, where only heavily armed gunmen dare to go....

[indepat]

29. So sad man-made horrors are so rampant and ubiquitous as to produce so much cynicism among so many

:cry:

[saigon68]

24. "Bring Em On" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

OOPS

They are still dead however

And rest assured

Freedom and Democracy are on the March.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. "our apologies go out to those innocent civilians who were affected"

From Tom Englehardt's 9 Propositions on the US Air War for Terror:

Our "Strike Weapons" and Theirs

Here's the sorry reality: Such occurrences in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the "arc" of territory that the Bush administration has, in a mere few years, helped set aflame are the norm. Our "mistakes," that is, are legion and, in the process of making them, our planes, drones, and helicopters have killed villagers by the score, attacked a convoy of friendly Afghan "elders," and blown away wedding parties. For us, "incidents" like these pass by in an instant, but not for those who are on the receiving end.

The attacks of 9/11 are usually not placed in such a context. We consider ourselves special, even unique, for having experienced them. But think of them another way: One day, out of the blue, death arrives from the air. It arrives in a moment of ultimate terror. It kills innocent civilians who were simply living their lives.

This happened to us once in a manner so spectacular, so devastating as to make global headlines. But small-scale versions of this happen regularly to people in that "arc of instability" -- and, if there were to be a global body count organization for such events, it would long ago have toted up a death toll that reached past that of September 11, 2001.

Let's remember that, after 9/11, Americans, from the President on down, spent months, if not years in mourning, performing rites of remembrance, and swearing revenge against those who had done this to us. Do we not imagine that others, even when the spotlight isn't on them, react similarly? Do we not think that they, too, are capable of swearing revenge and acting accordingly?

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13979

[Amonester]

4. Oh! But for "some" it is THEM who don't WANT to be...

"friends" with (the) US...

Believe it or not, I saw something like that posted.

Imagine that...

Bombs made by BigMilitaryCorporation & Co, dropped on people who have never done anything wrong to anyone...

And the terrorists in the White House borrowed the money to make those bombs for the 2050 generation (if any) to pay (plus interests).

:grr:

[gratuitous]

8. Nicely encapsulated

Is there no other price to be paid for such reckless (after so many incidents, it's clearly no longer mere negligence) and wanton destruction of human life? Yes, there is. And we'll be paying it for decades after this whole sorry episode is over.

In their lead Sunday editorial today, the New York Times actually calls the administration on its deliberate errors, but can't quite bring itself to call for an end to those errors. No, the wise old men and women at the Times are quite comfortable with this going on for the remaining nine months of the Bush administration. They know they have the capacity to rally public opinion; they claim in their editorial that there will be lots of pressure for the next president to do something about the ruinous policies of the Bush administration, whether that successor is a Democrat or a Republican. But for some reason, they don't see any responsibility on their own part to begin applying that pressure now.

I guess the spirit of Judith Miller lingers on in the editorial offices of the New York Times. Mayber there's still a couple of Elisabeth Bumiller's old weekly valentines to the Bush administration laying around as well.

[bemildred]

9. Precision bombing is an oxymoron.

The whole point of explosives is that you don't need to aim very well.

[heliarc]

14. And to extend this argument, which I make daily to friends and colleagues...

Wouldn't one expect a reverend or a cleric, (of the name Reverend Wright or of another name) to exclaim "the chickens are coming home to roost"???

[bemildred]

5. Baghdad raid leaves many dead

---

Also on Saturday, Muqtada al-Sadr said that Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, would always be his enemy because of the continued US occupation of Iraq.

"You have always been my enemy. And you will always be my enemy till the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in a statement.

Gates had reportedly said that those working "within the political process in Iraq" are not the enemies of the United States, referring to al-Sadr's boycott of mainstream politics in Iraq.

"Which political process do you want to involve me in when you are occupying my land?" Sadr said in his statement.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/493D25F4-8C90-4DAF-9783-1AA274A39C17.htm

[xchrom]

7. recommend -- the perfect metaphor for this mess bushco has got us into.

[SaveOurSovereignty]

10. very sad

very sad indeed, when will this end?
The military is only getting thinner

[MikeNearMcChord]

11. Prayers for the families of those involved.

Jesus!!! Imagine the pain that pilot who fired the Hellfire is going through.

[Bucky]

17. It's weird to think that the military used to not count friendly fire as a combat death

Getting killed by one of your own, or having to live with the split second mistakes that means you've killed one of your own, is as much a cost of going to war as getting killed by the enemy. The Pentagon hires statisticians to calculate how many will die, how many will kill their own, how many will break under the pressure, how many will snap and murder civilians...

When a country decides to go to war, these are the costs we agree to pay. Politicians will talk about honor and freedom, which on the whole are good things worth sacrificing for. But they never talk about the real costs--not when there's power to assume, not when there's a millionaire buddy with a weapons system that needs to be sold to the DoD.

[annabanana]

12. OUT We have to get OUT

Nothing to add to that.

[Keefer]

13. I'm perplexed.

Why does the headline say "US strike KILLS own soldiers in Baghdad," but the story says "Iraqi police confirm that a Humvee was set ablaze in the Mashtal area of eastern Baghdad. They say two US soldiers and three Iraqi civilians were WOUNDED and that American troops immediately blocked off the neighbourhood."

[Bucky]

18. The British headline writer got the story wrong. Yahoo got it right, US troops were injured only

So far, that is. Early reports are always subject to change as facts get sorted out.

[Keefer]

22. Thanks! n/t.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

16. Heckova job!

Fucking end this mindless shit already

[L. Coyote]

19. US kills own soldiers by sending them to Baghdad !!

[lovuian]

20. OMG How sad

I feel so sad for all who are involved

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. "Way to Pinpoint the Fuckin' Enemy"

At dusk, while we were all stretched along the canal bank eating dinner, two Marine gunships came down on us and began strafing us, sending burning tracers up along the canal, and we ran for cover, more surprised than scared. “Way to go, motherfucker, way to pinpoint the fuckin’ enemy,” one of the grunts said, and he set up his M-60 machine gun in case they came back. “I don’t guess we gotta take that shit,” he said. -Michael Herr, Dispatches

[daleo]

23. Dispatches is a great book. n/t

[saigon68]

25. I like the story

No Fuckin Corn-Flakes

[daleo]

27. Or the colonel who thought the Vietnamese could never prevail

Because all the meat they ate were a few grungy fish-heads, and the U.S. troops were brought up on beef.

"Excuse me Colonel, but I think you're insane".

It's that kind of crackpot reasoning that ends up in disasters like Viet Nam and Iraq.

[Haole Girl]

30. omg

I don't know how I missed this story. How terrible.
:cry: