Women and children hit by "random shooting"

[gottaB]

Women and children hit by "random shooting"

Many civilians killed, witnesses claim

Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
Monday April 19, 2004

Dozens of civilians, including children, are among the 600 or more Iraqis who have been killed and injured in the past two weeks of bombing and ground operations by the US marines trying to retake Falluja, doctors and witnesses say.

US commanders insist that their attacks are precisely aimed at resistance fighters.

Last week Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, accused the Arabic television station al-Jazeera of "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable" reporting for suggesting that hundreds of civilians had died there. "It's just outrageous nonsense," he said.

But the accounts of witnesses in Falluja and nearby villages suggest that many have been injured and killed.

***

[walldude]

1. Unbelievable..

[gottaB]

3. Massacre in Fallujah

I don't know what the truth is.

The Guardian is generally critical of US claims about the killing of civilians, and has documented the deaths of civilians from eye witnesses and medical experts. I don't recall them using the word "massacre" in recent reporting, and I searched some of their articles from the last two weeks. Perhaps it was an editorial that you recall, or a wire story in which a person was quoted describing the violence in Fallujah as a massacre.

At this time the only claim of "massacre" in Fallujah that has been objectively examined in any detail is the massacre of protesters last year. (See the Human Rights Watch report, Violent Response: The U.S. Army in Al-Falluja.

What is a massacre? According to Webster's (via dict.org), as a verb it means:

"To kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher; to slaughter; -- limited to the killing of human beings."

As a noun:

"The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people."

Large numbers of civilians were killed in Fallujah. That is a fact. Has the killing been indiscriminate? There is evidence that strongly suggests that. It must be looked at.

Uncivilized? That kind of talk pains me. Even in words, the barbarism eminating from the New York Times, rivals the militant xenophobia of, I don't know, Islamic Awakening. So I plead agnosticism on the question of whether civilization exists, whether it is, in the final analysis, distinguishable from barbarous cruelty. I suppose there's always the law, but international law has seen brighter days, and justice brighter still.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Cases from the article are unfathomable.........

(snip)
In the intensive care unit at Medical City hospital in Baghdad Yusuf Fayar Ali said his son Mohammad, 12, was shot through the mouth when troops attacked gunmen in his village, al-Na'amiya just south of Falluja, last week. The boy, seriously ill, is on a ventilator.

"The fighting lasted for an hour and we tried to take our women and children away out of the house," he said. "We were hiding in the trees by the Euphrates. My son was hiding in a small furrow between the trees. He lifted up his head and suddenly a bullet hit him through the cheek. I am sure it was an American bullet."

In the next bed a young girl called Iftihal has a bullet lodged inside her skull. She was injured in the same attack when US troops crossed the river to her village, Amariya.

"The Americans were just shooting, there was no specific target," her father Ismail Obaid, 51, said. "We were inside the house ... the bullet came through the door and hit her in the head."
(snip)

This is so terribly sad. They have NOWHERE they can go to get away from this, either. Obviously, begging for mercy doesn't help. What a shame.

[izzie]

4. Well the people in Iraq feel it is true, read the blogs.

That maybe more important than if we believe it. There are people in hospital hurt and they have put alot of people in the ground. So something has happened.Since the news men could not get in we will have to look at the army and people for the story.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

5. This is how they are covering up civillian casualties in Falluja...

They have been saying 600 killed in Fallujah since at least the 11 of April (8 days ago).

We know the fighting has continued, yet the number always remains the same. Why? Well, it is pretty obvious - they are trying to cover up the true toll in Falluja.

[gottaB]

6. For sure, it gets covered up

It could be laziness, or not wanting to cite a number that can't be verified. They could, for instance, go from saying "as many as 600" to "at least 600" and keep saying that without having to do major fact-checking.

Early last week I recall hearing much lower counts of fatalities for instance on NPR. Of course, we knew it was higher, but some outlets would not confirm that.

CENTCOM and the Viceroyal Elephant Spin Machine have most definitely downplayed the killing of civilians, as well as promulgated rationales and cover stories, in full knowledge that many innocents had been killed. So you're right to be suspicious, I agree. We should be asking about the death toll. I have read numbers as high as 700 reported for Fallujah. Could it be more than that?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Whenever Rummy says something, the opposite is usually true....

...yes, Rummy, shooting civilians, particularly women and children, is definitely "outrageous nonsense".

Sounds like the Israelis have coached Rummy on how to answer questions about massacres, doesn't it?

[gottaB]

8. Oh yeah, Rummy was over the top, methinks

That's a big clue.

But that General Pace was chilling with his "In Fallujah what you have is the United States Marines applying very precise application of combat power."

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040415-secdef0622.html

I mean, wtf? These people are lying. Their incoherence betrays their true beliefs.


And check out General Sanchez from another briefing:

Q: Hi. Toby Zakaria with Reuters. Could you describe a little more about the tactics that the U.S. military has been using in Fallujah? How do you go about separating who is an insurgent from who is part of the general population? And is it a matter of you're sort of waiting for them to fire first, or are you going in and taking a more aggressive stance?

Sanchez: (To General Abizaid.) Want me to take that?

Abizaid: Yeah.

Sanchez: The tactics being used in Fallujah are fairly straightforward. We've been attacking to secure the city of Fallujah, and we're running into active resistance. It is very clear where we're taking fire from, and where we're taking fire from we're applying the appropriate, proportionate combat power to eliminate that resistance. We are being very deliberate and precise in the application of that combat power to prevent any wounding or injuring of noncombatants in the area.

Again, it's the insistence that rings false. Verily. So the words have the veneer of the benign--an application gone awry is a misapplication, whereas eternal swordful vengence gone awry is like what, the Rape of Nanking?--but their application is vicious.