Posted on 10/12/2007 7:20:43 AM PDT by freedomdefender
Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.
"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided. His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Unless I misunderstood your two posts, you were Bumping in support of Blackwater and belittling the outrage of our Iraqi allies. So, by definition, you were downplaying or dismissing - or even belittling - the criticism of Blackwater by the US Soldiers who issued this report.
This article appears to be telling the story of the second incident (or the end of the only incident.)
sorry for appearing to be cryptic.
Yes, encroachment. What happened to those men is despicable and sickening, but they were solely providing security services at that point. Now they are actively involving themselves in ongoing military operations with no coordination or accountability to commanders on the ground.
You can speak in generalizations about “the enemy” and people can make comparisons to WW2 all they like, but this is a radically different kind of war. The armed services understand that, but it seems that Freepers don’t. A stable Iraq is our ultimate goal. Guns indiscriminately ablaze in a public square (according to the military report) is counterproductive and will only help to destabilize the region.
But, I guess vengeance and blind violence makes more sense. How very Christian of you.
- you’re calling them “Leftists”? I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.
::::::
Try again. I was referring to the media and their presentation of the issue, as always, politicizing ANY incident, right or wrong. But how do you judge in a war? You cannot. And that is what I object to.
So you don't trust the US troops who investigated and reported?
“Lt. Col.”
I’ll trust a Lt. Col. over a Mr. any day of the week.
Maybe these are the “Phony Soldiers” we’ve been warned about.
[/sarc]
More here than meets the eye.
Our military fired on tens of thousands Iraqis who were fleeing the scene (Kuwait theater) in Gulf War I and everyone understood the action was justified.
I’ll wait to here Blackwater’s account of the event(s).
It appears there were no American military on the scene until nearly half-an-hour after the event.
Sorry, you were saying that critics of Blackwater are Leftists. In this case, the direct quote from the military investigator criticizes Blackwater. You're slamming that criticism as Leftist. You're calling the soldiers who investigate and reported, Leftists.
...er, Hear.
Glad to see you taking an interest in his ANTI WAR activisms.
Sorry, but you said it. You said there’s “excessive” force “only in the minds of the Left.” But the word excessive, here, was used by US military. So you’re calling them Leftists.
Murtha didn't issue the report that is the subject of this thread. Active duty military in Iraq did. And it's interesting how little respect you show for them -- all your robotic admiration is reserved for the [non military] people of Blackwater.
I wouldn’t trust either. The soldier’s observations of the situation is only his own personal observations. That soldier has no idea what intelligence the BlackWaterUSA Contracts were acting under.
Copy and paste where I said issued.
BTTT
The whole purpose of using private contractors in military roles is three-fold:
1. These companies spend a lot of money lobbying in Washington, and they are paid accordingly.
2. Their employees aren't oeprating under U.S. law and are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
3. Once the U.S. military reduces its combat operations in Iraq, nobody is going to hear any media reports about what these contractors do as they work for their "new" employers (i.e., an Iraqi government that is basically just a puppet of the United States).
I don't know what you're asking. Look, if I was wrong and you're not reflexively siding with Blackwater over the US soldiers who reported on this incident, I'm sorry. If you weren't intending to celebrate Blackwater when you wrote "Blackwater USA BUMP", forgive me for misinterpreting.
US Troops didn’t investigate the report. They contributed their observations. There isn’t a report on the ‘investigation’ yet because it is UNDER investigation.
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