Whooo!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new..._PK=&HBX_OU=50
Now the Iraqi people can finally live in peace with each other, together working for a true independent Iraq devoid of the oil guzzeling British.
All violence will immediatly cease, for it is only the presence of the invader that causes the bloodshed.
Rejoice!
Just by packing up and leaving won't solve anything in the short term.
It's gonna take a lot of blood, tears and time for the Iraqi's to recover from what the US & UK governments did to them.
Don't forget that they opened the gates of hell, and whether they remain or leave, the damage has been done and it's the Iraqi's who'll suffer the consequences of our misguided actions, even in the long run...
In other words, the presence of the British isn't fueling the violence.
The chief one's to suffer will be the Sunnis..because there will be payback for the decades of repression under Saddam's regime. Of course, if there are any Sunnis left in Basra, I have my doubts about their intelligence. The "gates of Hell" were opened...and the Kurds got out. The Shia haven't quite made their exit as they are busy squabling over the oil money and AQI has it out for them......because of all that annoying idol-worshiping and the like.format_quote Originally Posted by Zman
Just by packing up and leaving won't solve anything in the short term.
It's gonna take a lot of blood, tears and time for the Iraqi's to recover from what the US & UK governments did to them.
Don't forget that they opened the gates of hell, and whether they remain or leave, the damage has been done and it's the Iraqi's who'll suffer the consequences of our misguided actions, even in the long run...
British Soldiers Beating Iraqi Kids In Basra
“Iraqis Are Not As Human As Us!” -- How U.S. Soldiers Devalue Iraqi Lives
"If they don't speak English & they have darker skin, they're not as human as us, so we can do what we want..."The Nation interviews showed that U.S. troops in Iraq would simply accuse civilians of taking part in the resistance in order to cover up unjustified killings. They could even plant Kalashnikov AK47 rifles beside the corpses to make it look like the dead Iraqis were combatants. The irony of it all is the fact that most of these innocent civilians are killed by U.S. troops by mistake.
According to the Independent, Joe Hatcher, 26, a scout with the 4th Calvary Regiment said: “It would always be an AK because they have so many of these lying around.” He also added that 9mm handguns and shovels were also used to imply that civilians died while they were trying to dig holes for bombs.
Ordinary incidents like a hit-and-run happen occasionally as Sgt Kelly Dougherty of the Colorado National Guard admitted that a 10-year-old kid and his three donkeys were ran over and killed by a military convoy. "Judging by the skid marks, they hardly even slowed down. But, I mean... your order is that you never stop”, said Dougherty.
The most outrageous abuses were reported to be the raids on private homes. Usually these house calls take place late at night when the soldiers can catch the civilians off guard. The veterans explain that they have instructions to tear the civilians’ house apart to make sure that they hold no weapons and no anti-U.S. propaganda material. The most disturbing thing ever is that they wish them good night and apologize after they leave innocent civilians with wrecked houses.
Dougherty explains how she suffered from having a mentally disturbed squad leader in 2003 who believed that every Iraqi is a terrorist and therefore should be shot in his own country before attacking him in the U.S. This twisted perception led to many civilian killings back in 2003.
Another dilemma is attacking wrong houses, something that Sergeant Jesus Bocanegra says is common in Iraq. After such raids, the U.S. army offers nothing but material compensations for the death of a family member.
"We were approaching this one house..., and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, cause it's doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it... So I see this dog - I'm a huge animal lover... this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he's running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, what the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I'm at a loss for words”, said 35- year-old, Lieutenant Jonathan Morgenstein, of Arlington, Virginia, Marine Corps civil affairs unit.
Specialist Philip Chrystal, a 23-year-old shared another brutal story with The Nation and said “I'll tell you the point where I really turned... [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little two-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs and she has a bullet through her leg... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me... like asking me why. You know, 'Why do I have a bullet in my leg?'... I was just like, 'This is, this is it. This is ridiculous'”.The soldiers admit that the No. 1 rule is to protect your own back. Therefore, if anything goes wrong, they claim that their life was at risk, and get away with any crime.Such incidents are not rare in Iraq, according to Sergeant Dustin Flatt, who had another disgusting story to share.
“The car was approaching what was in my opinion a very poorly marked checkpoint... and probably didn't even see the soldiers... The guys got spooked and decided it was a possible threat, so they shot up the car. And they [the bodies] literally sat in the car for the next three days while we drove by them”, he said.Veterans admit that the fact that they were unable to get back at whoever attacked them in the first place pushed them to attack civilians.There is a racial aspect too behind attacking innocent Iraqis, according to Specialist Josh Middleton, 23, of New York City, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, who said:
"A lot of guys really supported that whole concept that if they don't speak English and they have darker skin, they're not as human as us, so we can do what we want."
Sergeant Ben Flanders agreed, saying: "I felt like there was this enormous reduction in my compassion for people. The only thing that wound up mattering is myself and the guys that I was with, and everybody else be ****ed."There seems to be no end for the horrible tragedies that Iraqis have been suffering from since the 2003 invasion.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives have vanished. According to the British Medical Journal, The Lancent, the war claimed the lives of more than 601,000 civilians; 31 percent of whom have been killed by mistake.One of the U.S. initial justifications for invading Iraq was to “liberate its people”.
This turned out to be a big lie; there’s no justification for the loss of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Nothing can better describe this other than the words of Sergeant Timothy John Westphal, 31, who told The Nation:
“I just remember thinking, 'I just brought terror to someone under the American flag'."
Source:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=20123
I don't know who Al-Jazeera was talking to, but they were obviously idiots. A large portion of the U.S. military has "darker skin".
yes they were idiotsformat_quote Originally Posted by Keltoi
I wonder what kind of quotes we could find the militants in Iraq not only saying about the value of an americans life but that of a shia, kurd or anyone else who may challenge their authority.
Of course Zman, I would expect nothing less than a one sided bias perspective from you anyways, please go ahead give us an endless spam of ignorant comments made by soldiers who have been in battle for the past 5 years, if a reporter or contractor could get close enough to a militant to get such a comment without being shot or beheaded I might be able to give the same back to you
Just remember that when the heads start rolling and the local population cries for help from the Iraqi government and blames the Brits for leaving them in a crisis situation.format_quote Originally Posted by Haidar_Abbas
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