Baghdad bombers prompt debate

[daleo]

Source: Denver Post

A forensic expert says photos can't confirm they had Down syndrome, as the U.S. implied.

BAGHDAD — A top U.S. general said Saturday that the perpetrators of Friday's suicide bombings in Baghdad — the deadliest attacks in the capital in nine months — may have been mentally impaired teenaged girls who carried out the attacks unwittingly.

A British forensic expert cautioned, however, that suggesting the two bombers had Down syndrome based on photographs of their severed heads was "dangerous." He noted that the heads would have suffered massive trauma when the bombers' explosives detonated.
...
Lamburne, who helped open Iraq's National Forensics Institute in Baghdad last year, said that the violent explosion that rips a head from its neck would also affect muscles, bones and arteries and could distort the face. The explosion probably would exert pressure on the face similar to G-forces experienced by pilots, Lamburne said.




Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8152238

[TwilightGardener]

1. Can somebody tell me why this is so important to determine? I mean, in the end, what

diference does it make?

[harmonicon]

2. you don't see what difference it makes?

Whether someone decides, willingly, to blow themselves up in an act of rebellion, or if they are used as a living decoy to murder - you don't see the difference?

[TwilightGardener]

3. No, I don't see what difference it makes, DURING A WAR, whether

desperate idiots are tricked into blowing themselves and others up in the service of a particular group or cause, with the promise of 72 virgins or what-the-fuck-ever, vs. innocent unwitting citizens being used as weapons to kill other citizens in the service of a particular group or cause. There will always be evil people who use the weak-minded and/or the innocent to kill. That's the horror of terror and war. The big story is, a horrific number of people died. Just add two more to the casualty list.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. There will always be evil people who use the weak-minded and/or the innocent to kill

.
.
.

Hmmm

That sounds like the PNACers

And some of the US military ain't so weak-minded, that their guilt turns them suicidal.

And I sort of agree with you regarding your position "what difference does it make?"

After all, if one looks at the structure of the US Military, don't they basically brainwash young people, and I mean kids, to do the killing for their masters?

I've read dozens of articles where the American Soldier that was killed was in their early 20's. Never had a mind of his/her own really, until they die, or come home wounded. Then they start to think . . . .

And implode . . . .

[Barrett808]

5. What's important is that they were women

There are a million widows in Iraq with nothing to live for. If 1% decided to blow themselves up, it would be a whole different war.

[Edweird]

6. I would add: what moron doesn't understand that they BLEW THEMSELVES UP

Of course they're disfigured. No wonder EVERYTHING is going wrong with these dumbasses in charge.

[daleo]

7. It is important in the ongoing propaganda war

If the suicide bombers were unwitting Downs Syndrome women, then I think it very much de-legitimizes the cause for which the bombing was done. If they were willing participants, then it can be spun as martyrdom.

Not that I am in favor of the killing of innocents by either side, by dupes, martyrs, or soldiers. But I don't suppose my opinion matters much, as I the intended audience of this propaganda struggle is mainly Iraqi.

[IsItJustMe]

9. Straight up perception management. You bet. Just like Iran attacking our navel fleet with speed

boats. Just wondering how sad it's gonna get. Could be wrong, but then again, Iraq had wmd, right?

Sorry if I am very very cynical

[tabasco]

8. Who to believe? An ass-kissing US general or a forensics expert?

That's a tough call.