One Wedding and Forty-Two Funerals

While the folks at the Washington Post pore over a new raft of pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib, the Guardian reports on a fresh instance of "collateral damage":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1221658,00.html

In a replay of one of the more heartbreaking moments from the Afghanistan campaign, American forces bombed a wedding taking place in a remote Iraqi village by the Syrian border. The U.S. military and the Iraqi witnesses can agree on one thing: about 40 people were killed. They disagree on just about everything else. For instance, while witnesses maintain that about half the dead are women and children and that everyone at the wedding was sleeping peacefully when the planes roared overhead at 3 a.m. local time to start the bombing, the U.S. military insists that this gathering couldn't possibly have been a wedding:

"Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, was scathing of those who suggested a wedding party had been hit. 'How many people go to the middle of the desert ... to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilisation? These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive.'"

Just for fun, let's see if we can unpack the bogus assumptions that power this amazing piece of denial:

1. Nobody holds a wedding in the middle of the desert.

Well, they do if that's where they live. The bombing took place at the village of Mukaradeeb, which admittedly is "a small village of just 25 houses," but which, to its inhabitants, probably counts as "civilization." My guess is you could find a lot of towns in the U.S. that are that small and that remote--and that no matter how small and remote they are, each of these towns has a church suitable for holding a family wedding in.

2. Any time two dozen military age males gather in one place, it's an insurgency.

You can find two dozen "military age" males on any given day in half the college classrooms in this country. You know, another place where you see a lot of men of "military age" in one place is at sporting events. So why focus on weddings? Why not bomb some schools and soccer stadiums too?

3. It's "naive" to question the necessity of destroying two extended families by stealth, in the middle of the night, in a stunning display of unimaginable violence.

Because God knows that we've never been given ANY reason to suspect that the U.S. military might EVER go into ANY military engagement based on faulty or insufficient intelligence.

Ah well, why worry. Major General Mattis certainly doesn't:

"When reporters asked him about footage on Arabic television of a child's body being lowered into a grave, he replied: 'I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologise for the conduct of my men.'"

Yes, indeed, bad things do happen in wars. And no, Mattis doesn't have to apologize for the conduct of his men. Responsibility has been in short supply for a long time in both Rumsfeld's army and Bush's government. No reason to start taking it now.

You know, it will always bother me that incidents like this never caught public attention the same way the photos from Abu Ghraib did. Would it help if after blowing 42 civilians into bits and pieces, the American soldiers then rearranged the bits and pieces in sexually suggestive positions and posted pictures of them on the Internet?

What the hell is the matter with us, I ask you,

The Plaid Adder

I'll add another to your analysis:

"Two dozen men of military age" at a wedding? Go to any wedding here, or abroad. You'll find a lot more that two dozen men of military age. Marriage is a celebration of youth, by youth and for youth...... evidently the general doesn't get it.

from the WH

The Butcher of Makr-al-Deeb, and the murdering 1st MarDiv.

...but of course we are forgetting that we cannot afford to think about those "brown skinned people" as if they are ordinary human beings because they are the ENEMY! EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!

Sigh,

The Plaid Adder

I have a few "brown skinned" people coming to my wedding, along with about two dozen 20 something males. It too is being held in the middle of nowhere. I hope they don't mistake us for freedom-hating traitors.

This isn't grief. He's crying because "we" bombed some guns.



Hey, Kimmit - this child, now without a leg, was really an "insurgent".

What have we become?

Sadly, our troops have earned that name.

:cry:

massacre first, ask questions never.