A Sad Story in Iraq (by Charlie Reese)

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

3 weeks old column, but worth reading

For Monday, June 23, 2003

http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030623/index.php

A Sad Story

According to an Iraqi witness, last week an American soldier at a propane tank got into an argument with an Iraqi woman, took her propane tank away from her and tossed it on the ground, and gave her a hard shove.

An Iraqi man driving by saw this, stopped his car, got out and walked back to the two American soldiers there, shot them both with a pistol and then left in his car. He killed one and wounded the second.

If the Iraqi witness is telling the truth, this was not a drive-by shooting, as the American military described it. Nor was it an organized attack by a supporter of Saddam Hussein. It appears to be just an Iraqi man who got ticked off when he saw an Iraqi woman being abused by a foreign soldier.

This is both sad and revealing. .........
(snip)

Every time our soldiers fire into a crowd, every time they kick down a door in the middle of the night and start jerking people around, they will breed bitter resentment. Some of our soldiers recently killed four young Iraqis who were just firing into the air to celebrate a wedding. It's a custom in that part of the world. T.E. Lawrence called them joy-shots. It's also a custom in that part of the world that every wrong must be avenged. But our soldiers aren't given courses in Arab culture, and they are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. Any man who intended to come home in one piece would have to adopt the same practice.

more...........

more..............

[KG]

1. sorry, charlie

when are you gonna start a daily bashing of the chimp, the way you bashed clinton?

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

2. who is this guy anyway, never heard of him b4

I plead ignorance.....who is this Charlie Reese ?

this is the first time I heard of him.

[OrdinaryTa]

3. Sensitive, Caring Clinton-Bashing

I learned during the impeachment that I could tolerate Clinton's enemies taking their best shot. It was crude and inappropriate, but they weren't making more of it than it was: a hatchet job. However, the ones I couldn't stand were the ones who turned it into a great moral crisis. That was completely over the top. I went from mildly disliking Henry Hyde to totally despising him. Lindsey Graham makes me want to barf.