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September 13, 2004
Blowing Up Hearts and Minds
Today's news includes two incidents of U.S. military firing into crowds or residential areas.
A U.S. military helicopter fired into a crowd of civilians in the capital who had surrounded a burning Army armored vehicle, killing 13 people, said Saad Amili, spokesman for the Health Ministry. Among those killed was a Palestinian journalist reporting from the scene for the Arab satellite network al-Arabiya.The U.S. military said it was trying to scatter looters who were attempting to make off with ammunition and pieces of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which had been hit by a car bomb early in the morning on Haifa Street, a troublesome north-south artery west of the Tigris River.
But witnesses, including a Reuters cameraman who was filming the al-Arabiya journalist when he was shot, disputed that account and said the crowd was peaceful, Reuters reported.
...
In Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad, 10 people were killed and 40 were wounded, including women and children, when U.S. tanks and helicopters opened fire in a residential district, Abdel Salam Mohamed, a doctor at Ramadi Hospital, told Reuters. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Scare off looters? Off an already burning Bradley? This newfound concern for looters is very touching, but do they think anyone in Iraq believes this? Of course not, and I doubt that anyone expects them to. The only audience that matters, the domestic audience, seems to ready to believe we can do no wrong, ever. Our wars are clean.
The New York Times account has it that "American military commanders said the helicopters were returning fire aimed at them from the ground." Who cares what actual footage or Reuters says about the matter. In fact, who cares if they're dead. (An Al-Arabiya correspondent also killed in the attack, his death was captured on film.)
In all, about 80 Iraqis died yesterday between us shooting at them, suicide bombers blowing themselves up at checkpoints and at Iraqi national guard convoys, and bits and pieces of violence throughout the city.
If this goes on in this manner, the people of Iraq may actually start wishing Saddam was still in power. At which point, of course, we can point out that the whole country is composed of regime-remnants and dead-enders and retroactively justify everything we've done.
Posted by zeynep at September 13, 2004 12:37 AM
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Tracked on October 22, 2004 11:15 AM
Comments
They killed a reporter during a live broadcast. That should go over well.
Posted by: seth at September 13, 2004 09:57 AM
It is strange why the US keeps fighting over a dead nation/people. Since its depleted uranium weapons spread the radiation equivalent of 250,000 hiroshima bombs all over Iraq, that country and its people are dead already. Even the oil is likely radioactive -- but they're bring it to California in twisted irony.
Posted by: jazmine at September 15, 2004 01:07 AM