[Chefelf]

Military shrugs off attack on wedding party
May 22, 2004

Falluja: A US Marines general says he has no need to apologise for an attack in the remote Iraqi desert that killed about 40 people, who witnesses say included women and children celebrating a wedding.

"How many people go to the middle of the desert 10 miles [16 kilometres] from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilisation?" Major-General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which operates in western Iraq, said in Falluja.

"These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."

Asked about witness testimony and footage from Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that showed weeping relatives lowering bodies, one of a child, into graves, he said: "I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologise for the conduct of my men."

US military officers said they would open an investigation into the ground and air assault, which has produced sharply conflicting accounts.
Advertisement Advertisement

Witnesses near the village of Makr al-Deeb, in the desert near the Syrian border, told television crews that a US military aircraft strafed innocent people, mostly women and children, at a wedding party. However, US military officers maintain that the target was a way station used by armed foreign insurgents who cross the porous border into Iraq.

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US military in Iraq, said an investigation was "the only prudent thing to do" because of the gravity of allegations made by people interviewed on television.

Among those killed in the attack were "34 to 35 men" and "less than a handful of women", General Kimmitt said in Baghdad. US ground troops stayed at the site "for an extensive period of time", he said, and did not find any dead children among the casualties.

General Kimmitt said the ground forces were attacked and returned fire. He did not directly answer a question about whether foreign fighters were the only people killed.

Witnesses said the attack was on a house where a wedding had been held and killed 41 people.

http://www.smh.com.a...5120121623.html

"These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."
-Major-General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, officially the world's most heartless barbarian.

[Jane Sherwood]

"How many people go to the middle of the desert 10 miles [16 kilometres] from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilisation?" Major-General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which operates in western Iraq, said in Falluja.

I don't know, maybe people that want to get away from shit like this, you brainless trigger-happy bastard!


People like him make me ashamed to be an American.

[Just your average movie goer]

Quite possibly. I thought that maybe that's where those people lived and maybe the Major-General doesn't quite understand that not everybody in the world lives in major cities.

Brainless trigger-happy bastard is a term that not only adequetely describes Major-General James Mattis, but quite a number of people in the US military and the government.

[Emu]

"These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."

oh right, because obviously all military-age males are going to be in the enemy military, so they should be killed even though they're just at a wedding and not doing any harm, because really now, let's not be naive....

:angry:

[Reader]

People like him make me ashamed to be an American.

You're not an American - you're a human living in America. That doesn't always make you "American" by default... after all, isn't 'america' some state-of-mind (trite, i know)? As long as you don't subscribe to the beliefs, or the perversion thereof, than you never were, nor ought you ever be, American/'Nationality-ican'.

Hope that makes you feel better.

[Heccubus]

There is no reason to be ashamed of being American just because your army is run by ass-backwards morons.

[barend]

no, but i am ashamed to be human, fuck it... i no longer catigorise my self as such.

[Just your average movie goer]

Yeah, being human is definitely shameful sometimes (sorry, A LOT OF THE TIME).

[Heccubus]

I think that's generally accepted too. Otherwise, would "I'm only human" be an excuse?

[J m HofMarN]

But wait! There's more reality shrugging fun to be had with this issue (if you don't consider the fact that they ruined a couple's honeymoon and killed a ton of civillians it's almost funny what these people say)


RAMADI, Iraq - The bride arrives in a white pickup truck and is quickly ushered into a house by a group of women. Outside, men recline on brightly colored silk pillows, relaxing on the carpeted floor of a large goat-hair tent as boys dance to tribal songs.

"advertisement

The videotape obtained Sunday by Associated Press Television News captures a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by U.S. planes early Wednesday, killing up to 45 people. The dead included the cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities, which ended Tuesday night before the planes struck.

The U.S. military says it is investigating the attack, which took place in the village of Mogr el-Deeb about five miles from the Syrian border, but that all evidence so far indicates the target was a safehouse for foreign fighters.

“There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday. “There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too.”

PERHAPS THE INHERENT LACK OF EVIDENCE IS DUE TO THE LARGE EXPLOSIONS THAT WERE SET OFF TO BLOW UP THE WEDDING YOU FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[J m HofMarN]

That quote by General Nukem is non-sensical for so many reasons and after being slapped in teh face by it again I just have to say something. Two dozen military age males does not a force of hardened fighters make. And let's not forget that we did kind of invade their country so any rational mind can understand that people are going to shoot at us. And here's another point. We're a highly mechanized and funded professional army. The rebels are kids with scarfs tied to their heads and rocks and old guns in their hands. Trying to make it look like they're picking on us is just not going to work. If they were such a threat to us the casualty ratio wouldn't be well over ten to one. And here's another thing, if our mission in Iraq is so righteous and stuff why are our soldiers afraid to fight for it? They see a guy with a knife and they call in a fragging A10 Warthog to strafe the area. Did they ever maybe consider that carpet bombing gatherings of people is not the best way to make people stop wanting to kill us?

I think I can really see the connection Michael Moore made between government sponsored violence and school violence. I'm assuming that the next guy who gets pushed into a locker and kills his entire senior class is going to start off his defense with "Well don't be naive, these were six dozen military age males... and females..." I'm curious, who thinks our slogan in Iraq should be "Democracy: Either choose it freely or die!" or maybe "End terrorism or we'll blow you up!"

This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 25 May 2004 - 05:03 AM

[Just your average movie goer]

"How many people go to the middle of the desert 10 miles [16 kilometres] from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilisation?" Major-General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which operates in western Iraq, said in Falluja.

Well, maybe not many Americans do that. But you see, Major-General, some people actually live in these places.

[Just your average movie goer]

Hey, you're right, my friend! He did say 'military-age'....

Bloody hell!

In America, there are several million military-aged people, Major-General James Mattis! Aren't you lucky that other people don't think like you do?

Unbelievable.

[J m HofMarN]

This story just can't get any weirder. They now have identified the body of a well known wedding singer as having been killed in the bombing of what the US still maintains was a terrorist way station. This is starting to sounds more like a Monty Python sketch than the actions of any rational army.

"Genereal this civilian is dead and there's forty more of them..."

"No no nonsense he's just pining for the fjords."

"Pining for the fejord? The only reason he's standing up is because you nailed him to a wall!"

"Well of course we had to or he'd have flown away!"

"Well at least admit they were civilians, I mean there was a wedding singer there sir."

"Wedding singers can be terrorists too. Maybe he's a mild mannered wedding singer by day but a bloodthirsty radical by night. Come on, don't be naieve!"

This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 26 May 2004 - 12:03 AM