Is there any difference in the U.S. military killings of 15 Iraqi civilians and Blackwater's crimes?

[bigtree]

. . . the Iraqi regime thinks there is.


Iraqi official: Deaths unavoidable

Saturday, October 13, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government said the killings of 15 women and children in a U.S. attack on a Sunni area were a "sorrowful matter," but emphasized yesterday that civilian deaths are unavoidable in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The comments by government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh appeared to be tacit approval of Thursday’s raid northwest of Baghdad. They suggested the Iraqi government holds the American military to a different standard when it comes to assaults against suspected Sunni insurgents.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has complained loudly to U.S. military officials when Shiite civilians have been killed in American attacks against Mahdi Army militants, and tensions have been high about recent shootings of Iraqi civilians by private security contractors protecting U.S. government-funded work.

Yesterday, al-Dabbagh said the area targeted by American forces was a known base for insurgents, whom he accused of hiding among civilians.

"The issue of 15 civilian victims is a sorrowful matter, but confronting al-Qaida is an essential and vital issue," he said in a telephone interview. "They shouldn’t have any place among the civilians."

"We are in a war against those diabolical and wicked groups; therefore, during military operations there might be innocents killed," he added. "The victims are an unavoidable matter in fighting al-Qaida."

The assault targeting senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders near Lake Tharthar, about 50 miles northwest of the capital, inflicted one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in the offensive against the terror network in recent months. The military said 19 suspected insurgents, six women and nine children died; and two suspected insurgents, one woman and three children were wounded.


http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Oct/20071013News015.asp

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. None.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

[L. Coyote]

2. The same reasoning can be applied to bank robbers in the USA. Just bomb them.

Or, a new reasoning can be applied in Iraq. For example, killing people is illegal!

[L. Coyote]

3. On further consideration, bank robbers is a bad example Make that bomb the DEMS.

Since the bank robbers in Iraq are probably not the Iraqis.

A better example would be to bomb the political opposition, like a state campaign headquarters. Then, the new reasoning to apply in Iraq is that bombing people for political gain is not cooool, especially if you kill dozens in the vicinity.

[wtmusic]

4. Spraying a public square with gunfire is probably unavoidable

Pity.

[msongs]

5. YES! US military personnel can be held accountable nt