U.S. Military Denies Wedding Party Attacked

[TacticalPeek]

Different Accounts

U.S. Military Denies Wedding Party
Attacked


May 19, 2004— Arab television networks
reported today that a U.S. helicopter had fired
on a wedding party in western Iraq, but the U.S.
military denied it.

snip

Kimmitt said coalition forces did conduct an operation
about 15 miles from the Syrian border at 3 a.m., and
that ground troops found 40 bodies after the attack. He
declined to say whether there were any children
among the dead.

Kimmitt said coalition ground troops were investigating
a suspected "rat line" — a route used by anti-U.S.
insurgents and criminals such as smugglers — when
they came under fire.

The troops called in air support, Kimmitt said, and
coalition planes attacked the site. He said the ground
troops afterward recovered "numerous weapons, 2
million Iraqi and Syrian dinar, foreign passports, and a
SATCOM radio."


more
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/WorldNewsTonight/iraq_wedding_040519.html

[billybob537]

1. $2,000,000 dinar

Oh boy lets split a Coke!

[Kinkistyle]

38. $1390.00

Around $1400.00 U.S. dollars.

[markses]

42. Less than I got at my wedding

in cash, anyway. But not by that much.

[Just Me]

45. My parents spent 4X that on my sister's wedding. Geez. *eom*

[phantom power]

2. more headline spin

they didn't deny it, they "declined to say".

[Just Me]

41. How many "deaths" does it take to fill vengeance?

I feel like I am a stranger,...in my own country. Yet, I comprehend how my people's loyal and trust are being manipulated by the most evil-hearted of leaders.

Our people are not fundamentally "bad". To the contrary,...they really relish in their role as being a good influence upon this world. Their relished "role" is being horribly manipulated by a handful of truly evil people.

[leftchick]

3. "Is this the democracy and freedom that Bush has brought us?''

Yep, this would be the chimpass* aWol* Democracy at work....

From the AP....http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_9


''This was a wedding and the (U.S.) planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that (President) Bush has brought us?'' said a man on the videotape, Dahham Harraj. ''There was no reason.''

Another man shown on the tape, who refused to give his name, said the victims were at a wedding party ''and the U.S. military planes came... and started killing everyone in the house.''

In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. An investigative report released by the U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was justified because American planes had come under fire.

[pinniped]

4. That means there were dead children present...

"gen. Kermitt declined to say whether there were any children
among the dead."

Bizarro calculator analyzed the above statement from Kermitt.

I seem to recall not to long ago in AFG there was a house (well, remnants of what used to be a house) full of bombed out dead women and children which the military denied but then sort of retracted.

[daleo]

15. Yes, "declined to say" is a dead giveaway

Sorry about the pun.

[Just Me]

5. BAH!!! Are they really THAT incompetent?

Bullshit! I don't think so.

How the f*ck can Kimmit dispute what is shown on a d*mn video?

He,...he,.... :grr:

:argh:

[rumguy]

6. I will not forget how the military at first denied the torture.

The offical story is always bullshit.

[geek tragedy]

7. I'm new here . . .

is there a "barf" emoticon?

Edited to add:

Never mind.

:puke:

[DRoseDARs]

8. Yes

: p u k e :

Take out the spaces for :puke:

Edit: I'll see your 'nevermind' and raise you a 'Doh!'

[burrowowl]

49. Welcome to DU, geek tragedy!

:hi:

[minkyboodle]

51. get ready to use that icon a lot

with the way things are going around the world... :puke:
Wecome to DU

[leftchick]

9. Hmmmm, whom to believe Krazy Killer Kimmitt or....

Hospital personel? I go with the Iraqis who have proven time and again to be much more honest than the US Occupiers. Suspected foreign fighters MY ASS!!!!....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040519/ts_nm/iraq_us_bombing_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

"We received about 40 martyrs today, mainly women and children below the age of 12," Hamdy al-Lousy, the director of Qaim hospital, told Al Arabiya. "We also have 11 people wounded, most of them in critical condition."

Arabiya showed pictures of several shrouded bodies lined up on a dirt road. Men were shown digging graves and lowering bodies, one of a child, into the pits while relatives wept.

"The U.S. planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on Al Arabiya. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they leveled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added.

Guests and relatives at Arab weddings often fire guns in the air in jubilation.

[cal04]

10. Slaughter of 42 People in Wedding Party: Accident or Intentional Act of 'B

BBC" A US military helicopter has opened fire on a wedding party in western Iraq killing over 40 people, reports say. The US military could not confirm the reports, but said an investigation had been launched. A police official in the desert town of Ramadi told AP news agency between 42 and 45 people were killed by US fire in the incident near the Syrian border. The incident apparently happened after wedding guests started firing in the air in celebration." Accident? An identical incident occurred in Afghanistan in summer 2002 when a US helicopter opened fire on a wedding party. The military covered with the same excuse (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2079565.stm). That this has happened again, & near the Syrian border, a country Bush is trying to antagonize into a conflict, smacks of systematic, Sharon-style terrorism - or, as they might say at Abu Ghraib: "imposing stressful conditions."

http://www.democrats.com/

[Just Me]

60. So, are they simply "provoking" the world war that they envision?

Have they bothered to ask whether the rest of humanity wants their "armageddon"?

No. Of course not. They are fucking crazy!!!!

[progressivebydesign]

11. Umm yeah, they had weapons..

I thought they said it was the celebratory gunfire after the wedding that drew the military there in the first place? Hmmm.. so if the military blows up my house and kills my family, and if I own guns, and a passport, and have money in the house, it makes me a criminal? Or does it make my family worthy of slaughter?

[gratuitous]

12. Depends, Caliphoto -- do you have brown skin?

Cause if you do, it's pretty clear you don't understand or appreciate democracy. In which case, it is the solemn duty of the United States, through its military, to blow you and yours to Kingdom Come so that you will understand and appreciate democracy, freedom and human rights.

[atreides1]

17. Not Brown Skin

I don't think it's so much having brown skin. It's all about getting that body count.

The more Iraqis you kill, the less likely you'll be attacked by them.

It's the US adoption of the Israeli policy

[Just Me]

24. I'm "pale-skinned",...and I'll betcha' I'm on some kinda' enemy list,...

,...just 'cause I OPPOSE and DISSENT the actions of this neocon-led, PNAC bred administration.

Power-mongering death-traps only USE "discrimination" as a means of achieving their ends. But, truth be known,...their aim for power and willingness to kill anyone in their way,...in non-discriminatory.

[lumpy]

68. IDF tactics

Bait, fire and deny.

[bahrbearian]

19. It's the Satelite Phone that makes you a Terrorist !

[lumpy]

69. Same thing happened in Afghanistan

Wedding party in a small village straffed by US military.

[maddezmom]

13. so what is Kimmitt denying...it was a wedding party?

cuz evertything else fits the description...over 40 dead including women and children.

[saigon68]

39. MOTHER FUCKER KIMMITT BETTER DEAL W/ THIS FIRST

SABRINA POSES WITH DEAD CORPSE WHICH WAS JUST BEATEN TO DEATH

[Just Me]

62. He lies about anything which proves him wrong!!! n/t

[ptsmknhipy]

63. Prision abuse question

Let me ask you guys a question that I've been asking myself for the last week or so. If you had to rate the two events, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being mind boggeling bad. Assuming you are familiar with the My Lai massacre and the actions of Lt. Calley;

How would you rate the Prision abuse scandal Vs. My Lai?

Just curious.

[asjr]

14. It just keeps getting

worse and worse. And we get these insulting excuses for what happens. If the military would study the mores of the Iraqi people maybe they would understand. We had better get out of Iraq as soon as possible. Iraq couldn't be any worse off than it is now. The shame this administration has brought to our country will live on for decades.

[Wind Dancer]

18. asjur,

Well said, my heart aches for them and my blood boils at this WH gone mad!

[phoebe]

16. The US has become so compromised over this situation that

the propaganda coming from all sides has left us spinning our heads as to what is true and what is not. A realistic policy that deals effectively with the Israel/Palestine problem, with moderate voices, trusted by all sides, is the only solution to this nightmare.

[SpiralHawk]

20. How to whip up the Jihad

which stands against your Crusade, Mr. Bush.

The actions of your army betray your heart. Give us back America, and give us back our tradition of nobility in defending the United States of America.

The people ask this of you now. As you well know, soon they will demand it.

I encourage you to do the right and honorable thing, Mr. Bush: resign now.

[Greyskye]

21. The value of 2,000,000 Iraqi Dinars:

$1,367.99

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=2000000&from=IQD&to=USD&submit=Convert

Wow! That must prove that they were 'terra-ists'!
/sarcasm

:eyes:

[maddezmom]

22. check this headline: U.S. Says Killed 40 in Raid on Iraq Foreign Fighters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it killed around 40 people in an attack on suspected foreign fighters in Iraq (news - web sites) near the Syrian border on Wednesday, but disputed reports the victims were members of a wedding party.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=11&u=/nm/20040519/ts_nm/iraq_dc

[Mountainman]

23. "the military would investigate"

Boy, I sure feel good about that. They are investigating the hell our of the prison abuse and so far they have 6 or 7 bad apples.

[doni_georgia]

25. No denial, just a refusal to confirm - VERY different n/t

[Pastiche423]

26. Hey Kimmet

if the US military did not bomb those Iraqi men, women and children, how come they got dead?

My heart is so heavy w/sadness for the innocent Iraqis.

[maddezmom]

27. no, no, no

they did bomb and kill them all, but it wasn't a wedding party it was "foreign fighters"....that's the story and they're sticking to it. :eyes:



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=11&u=/n...

[Jim__]

28. "Suspected" foreign fighters

See, it makes all the difference in the world. We didn't just kil them. First we suspected them; then we killed them. Hell, what do you expect us to do? Ask them for ID?

It is way past time for us to pull out of Iraq. We had no business there in the first place. We have no understanding of their culture. Any good that might possibly have come of this has long ago been pissed away.

[UpInArms]

29. conflicting report: U.S. Says Killed 40 in Raid on Iraq Foreign Fighters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5197441

excerpt:

"We conducted an operation...against suspected foreign fighters in a safe house. We took ground fire and we returned fire," said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

Kimmitt said the attack 15 miles from the Syrian border had been carried out within the military's rules of engagement and that Syrian passports, satellite communications equipment and a large amount of money had been found afterwards.

Dubai-based Al Arabiya television quoted witnesses as saying U.S. warplanes had bombarded the village of Makr al-Deeb near the Syrian border while families were attending a wedding party, killing 41 people.

Arabiya said casualties included women and children and showed pictures of several shrouded bodies lined up on a dirt road. Men were shown digging graves and lowering bodies, one of a child, into the pits while relatives wept.

"The U.S. planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man, who said he was from the village, told the television station.

"They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they leveled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he said.

...more...

Kimmitt is a war criminal.

[llmart]

30. Oh my God!

What the hell else could we possibly do to these people before our country wises up and calls for this mad administration's impeachment? I am sick of what our military does - lies and coverups. This is outrageous!

[kymar57]

31. securing freedom for Iraqis

Death- the highest level of freedom.:cry: :cry:

[UpInArms]

32. a picture of the "foreign fighters"

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10026

"This was a wedding and the (US) planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that (President) Bush has brought us?" said a man on the videotape, Dahham Harraj. "There was no reason."

[Media_Lies_Daily]

33. What do we know so far...

1. The first thing the U. S. command does in this kind of situation is deny everything. They have a track record of being 100% wrong;

2. Most, if not all, Iraqis have weapons of some sort from pistols to automatic weapons;

3. Foreign passports means that at least some of the people came in from one or more countries to participate in the wedding;

4. Even Americans are using SATCOM radios because the Iraqi telephone system is STILL screwed-up from the bombs we've dropped over the last 12+ years;

5. 1 dollar is equal to 1491 Iraqi dinar, so 2 million dinar is equal to $1,341.38. There were probably 30 adults present, so that's an average of $44.71 per person in U. S. dollars. I wonder how much of that money represented wedding gifts?

And how many more children are now dead because of the failed policies of the NeoCons?

[susu369]

34. Several were children, one of whom was decapitated.

http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=7&aid=D82LU3881_story

The horror - cannot find words.

[sofa king]

35. Did Sky News report this first?

That's what our friends over at FR are saying.

Recall that only yesterday Rupert Murdoch's Sky News reported the arrest of four out of five of Nick Berg's killers, and continues to run the uncorroborated story without comment.

[Spazito]

36. Here is an article on the Afghanistan wedding party "incident"..

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/07/01/afghanistan.bombing/

Some similarities in the response, imo.

[struggle4progress]

37. WP link

40 Reported Killed in U.S. Attack in Western Iraq
U.S. Officials Dispute Iraqi Claims That Aircraft Targeted a Wedding Party

BAGHDAD, May 19 -- U.S. ground forces and aircraft attacked a village in Iraq's western desert before dawn Wednesday, striking what Iraqi witnesses said was a wedding celebration but U.S. officials called a way station for foreign infiltrators. More than 40 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed, according to witnesses, Iraqi police and provincial health officials.

Video footage from the scene showed fresh graves and the corpses of several children. A man in a red-and-white head scarf told the Associated Press Television Network: "The planes came in and shot the whole family. They kept shooting until the morning, until they destroyed all the houses. They didn't leave anything."

<snip>

Regarding Wednesday's attack, "our sense is that this was a legitimate military target," said a U.S. military official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We suspect that this was a smuggler or foreign-fighter" route, the official said. "It's our estimation right now that the personnel involved in this matter were part of the foreign-fighter safe house."

<snip>

The body of a boy, who appeared to be four of five years old, was shown wrapped in a brown blanket, flies buzzing around his head. People around him identified him as Hamza Rikad. "Come here, help us," a man said on the video as they lifted the boy. "Take him by the hand."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40848-2004May19.html

[IggleDoer]

40. How the Crusaders could justify this:

"Well yes, it was a wedding, but it was a wedding between a gay Muslim and a Catholic, so it was justified."

[Just Me]

43. *sigh* How many My Lais will it take to END this nightmare?

Mass graves in Falluja,...tanks over graves in Najaf,...we only get inklings of tidbits of stories concerning the rest of the country,...as the egos allow.

I swear my soul,...that, I oppose this futility for corporatists,...and mourn the extraordinary losses.

"JUSTICE" is a complete sentence!!!!

[Darranar]

44. Why do I doubt this? n/t

[scarface2004]

46. bush is smirking...

so some irakeez got lit up...so what! the prez sneered.

[struggle4progress]

47. Not clear whether world press believes the denials:

Celebrations turn to panic as US helicopter bombs wedding
IT WAS a day of celebration, according to Iraqi officials, and the wedding guests marked it in a way familiar to most people in Iraq - by joyously firing shots into the air.
However, their exuberance appears to have brought tragedy to the remote village in the western deserts of the embattled country.
According to Iraqi officials, US military helicopters or warplanes launched a deadly attack that killed more than 40 people, apparently after some of the bullets arcing up from below got too close to the aircraft.
But the US military was insisting last night the casualties followed an attack by its forces on suspected foreign fighters, and disputed reports the victims were members of a wedding party.
<snip>
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=573482004

Forty killed after American helicopter opens fire on wedding party, claim Iraqis
An American helicopter fired on a wedding party in a remote village yesterday, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials claimed. If the reports are true, the mistake could prove disastrous for US forces as they try to stem rising Iraqi anger and fight off resistance to the occupation.
The Associated Press television news agency obtained a video tape which showed bodies piled in the back of a pick-up truck - allegedly those killed in the attack. One of the bodies was without a head. About a dozen were clearly visible, but the bodies were piled on top of each other and those underneath could not be seen clearly.
<snip>
But Dr Salah al-Ani, a doctor at Ramadi hospital, claimed that American soldiers had visited the village to find out what the shooting was, and that the helicopter fired after they left. It was not clear how Dr Ani knew this if the incident took place near the border, a long way from Ramadi - although the injured may have been brought to Ramadi hospital. Anbar province, a vast area of largely empty desert in western Iraq, is the scene of some of the fiercest resistance to the US occupation. In the city of Fallujah, four contractors were lynched in March, prompting a heavy-handed US response in which hundreds of civilians are believed to have died. Most of the Sunni tribes in Anbar are implacably opposed to the occupation, and heavily involved in the insurgency.
<snip>
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=523055

Dozens killed as U.S. fires on Iraqi wedding
The U.S. Army in Iraq is confirming it killed at least 40 people in an attack but disputes the victims were members of a wedding party.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told Reuters the early Wednesday attack was within the rules of engagement and that those attacked were suspected foreign fighters.
<snip>
Lt.-Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people died in the attack. He said the casualties included 15 children and 10 women.
<snip>
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1084987394551_23/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

[The_Casual_Observer]

48. numerous weapons, 2million Iraqi and Syrian dinar, foreign passports, and

a partridge in a pear tree.

Tonight Fox news let "us" decide whether it was a wedding party OR foreign fighters.

Just a wild guess of course, but I would put my money on a wedding party.

[abracadabra]

50. The pictures don't Lie--Deny deny deny--but the pictures don't lie

My local news here in Los Angeles had a smug little non concerned stance as they ran the piece on this U.S military air strike.
I can't believe the non-chalant smirking little attitude of the newscaster!!!!
This idiotic news organization had the nerve to show the video footage as the anouncer firmly stated that this WAS a safehose for "terrorists" and a "legitimate "target".
Saying this while the video was showing the dead being burried and the survivors WAILING in tears and grief.

HOW the hell does a news anchor cop such a smug little attitude when the footage he is showing is absolutely heartbreaking no matter who you support in the government. These leather hearted media puppets are working for one group and one group only.
The truth is of no concern to them.

We are now in a modern day combination of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Russia, & Castro Cuba !!!!
The news is ALL Lies--The Administration are ALL liars,
and the news media is an strong arm for their facist control.
WE ARE ALL REALLY IN TROUBLE NOW !!
Just wait til the next 911 and martial law is implemented.
These guys are going to round up all the opposition and no one will be able to stop them. The news media will say whatever they have to to cover for them.

THIS is serious and we are all helpless to do anything about it.
We let it go too far..

[Looking Further]

67. So sad ...

... but so true.

This is a SAD commentary ... SAD, sad commentary!

I am ashamed to be an American.

:puke:

[minkyboodle]

52. I love it when they lie to our faces

just makes me feel all tingly inside :(

[leftchick]

53. MSRNC: Military says those bodies were "staged"!!

I just saw the newsreader say the US Military says those bodies in the video were staged! omg... could they be any more desperate?!?

[Ripley]

54. How do you "stage" a decapitated child?

Is this the newest location for Hollywood film producers to make movies on the cheap? Maybe they left some props lying around and the Iraqi's stole them to "stage" dead children sans head. :shrug:

[leftchick]

55. well, this is clearly meant for the kool-aid drinkers....

who the hell else would believe it?!?

[Ripley]

57. I'm getting a little worried...

It seems like everyone is a kool-aid drinker nowadays. The people who refuse to pay attention to the news because "it's so depressing" are just as bad as the propaganda makers.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

65. If everyone was drinking the Kool-aid, the poll numbers for the...

...Fratboy Fuhrer would never have moved this far downward and so quickly.

[BiggJawn]

56. Kimmit's right, wasn't a wedding...

No big white cake, no annoying wedding singer with his Karaoke machine...Nope, couldn't have been a wedding, didn't look like any wedding Kimmit's been at...

Heard this line on morning Hate Radio today. They were "hiding behind a wedding to fire at our airplanes"...

Pity Kimmit will never stand in the dock at The Hague, eh?

[Art_from_Ark]

58. This is why Colon Bowel

had the UN cover up Picasso's Guernica when he "made his case" for war at the UN

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0209-04.htm

[Walt Starr]

59. The U.S. military also claimed there was no torture going on

and claimed they had found WMD, several times, which later turned out to be nothing.

The military cannot be trusted. In fact, since they made this claim I am 99.44% certain it had to be a wedding party.

[struggle4progress]

61. No hurry to buy the official line

Target Of U.S. Air Attack Disputed
A U.S. air strike near the Syrian border killed more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said, and while the U.S. military said the target was a suspected safehouse for foreign fighters from Syria, Iraqis said a helicopter had attacked a wedding party. <snip>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/20/iraq/main618656.shtml

US under fire for 'wedding party massacre'
<snip>
Members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council openly condemned the coalition following the helicopter missile strike in Makr-al Deeb on what witnesses say was a wedding party.
The Pentagon is maintaining that it attacked "a suspected foreign fighter safe house" in the strike yesterday and has denied killing civilians.
But Mahmoud Othman said: "Their story does not look very convincing. I think they have made a mistake."
As Iraqis held the first funerals for those who died, mourners said that an Iraqi wedding singer was among the dead. <snip>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/20/uiraq.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/20/ixportaltop.html

U.S. Defends Desert Air Strike, Iraqis Say Wedding Hit
<snip>
An opinion poll found that only 7 percent of Iraqis now viewed U.S. troops as "liberators," compared to 45 percent six months ago. It was conducted by the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies in April, before pictures of soldiers abusing prisoners drove another wedge between Americans and Iraqis.
Forty-three percent said they would feel more secure if U.S. troops left now. Just 29 percent would feel less secure, though many Iraqi leaders fear instant withdrawal could mean anarchy.
<snip>
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5208632

U.S. Insists Strikes Did Not Hit Wedding Party
<snip>
Maj. Gen. James Matthis, commander of the 1st Marine Division that operates in western Iraq, expressed incredulity that the site could have been a wedding party and said he saw no need to apologize for the conduct of his troops.
"How many people go into the middle of the desert 10 miles from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?" he told reporters in Fallujah. "These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."
The generals' accounts conflicted with those of Iraqis who said they witnessed or had knowledge of the attack, which took place shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday in the remote desert region. An Iraqi police official and a doctor in Ramadi, a town about 250 miles east of the scene that is known as a stronghold of Sunni Muslim opposition to the U.S. occupation, said that as many as 45 people were killed in the raid.
Lt. Col. Ziyad Jbouri, the deputy police chief of Ramadi, said the dead included 15 children and 10 women, the Associated Press reported.
<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42537-2004May20.html

U.S. airstrike may have hit wedding revelers
<snip>
A report released afterward by the U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was justified because U.S. aircraft had come under fire.
In Iraq, it was impossible to sort out the conflicting claims late Wednesday.
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05202004/nation_w/168239.asp

[Art_from_Ark]

64. That's quite a quote

"How many people go into the middle of the desert 10 miles from the Syrian border to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?" he told reporters in Fallujah. "These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive."

Has this...person... ever considered that maybe these people held the wedding where they did because they freakin' wanted to get away from all the violence and death that's plaguing the rest of the country???

[struggle4progress]

70. On the other hand, they seem to have been in a town ...

"in the middle of the desert 10 miles from the Syrian border," and maybe the people live in the town do things like celebrate weddings (even if the Americans can't understand why those folk would bother to do any such thing). I also wonder if the townsfolk perhaps regard their town as civilized, not as being "80 miles from the nearest civilization," regardless of the sneery official putdown.

[Nihil]

66. "Kimmitt said ..." "Kimmitt said ..."

It's getting to the stage that if a car-bomb (or other "IED") took out
Kimmitt, it wouldn't just be the Iraqi people celebrating.

No-one wants to see any of the "other ranks" hurt or killed (be they
regular, reserve or National Guard) but the sympathy for the likes of
Kimmitt, Bremer/Negroponte, Wolfowitz et al would be very sparse.