The Army announced tonight that seven women and children were killed this afternoon by American soldiers after a vehicle in which they were riding failed to stop after troops waved them down and fired warning shorts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/internat...1WIRE-CIVI.html

It is sad that innocent civilians lost their lives, but what else would you expect U.S. soldiers to do after a weekend in which they had twice been the target of suicide attacks.

more fuel for the anti-war camp and a proganda vistory for Saddam.

:headwall:

Mike it is indeed sad.... it may sound harsh, but rather them die then 1 American Soldier!!

if you dont stop you'll get shot.

marines will not play, to many have died from idiots driving into them:(

In Iraq, maybe firing a gun in the air means 'Go!'

You make it sound as if the kids and children dying are an intentoinal rataliation of the US forces. Did you think it might be a mistake? You know... there is the possibility that it happened by mistake or as an eccident.
Since I am not registered to the times (which is a silly newspaper btw) it would have been nice if you could quote the article since the site is not free to access without signing up.

You make it sound as if the kids and children dying are an intentoinal rataliation of the US forces. Did you think it might be a mistake? You know... there is the possibility that it happened by mistake or as an eccident.
Since I am not registered to the times (which is a silly newspaper btw) it would have been nice if you could quote the article since the site is not free to access without signing up.[/b][/quote]
I did not mean to imply that the death of these civilians was a retaliation.
Far from it.

I meant that the rules of engagement relating to civilian vehicles was likely
more cautious to ensure force protection after the attacks on the weekend.

The soldiers motioned for the vehicle to stop.
It did not stop.
The soldier fired a warning shot.
It did not stop.
The soldiers fired into the engine block in order to stop the car
It did not stop.

The soldiers fired into the passenger compartment.

I can't see how the soldiers could have acted with any more restraint and concern for passengers than they did.

I forgot NYtimes was subscription, I should have picked another site.

Ignoring the women drivers crack :P, how much clearer could the soldiers have been?

The Iraqis can say what they frigging well like, they brought this shit on themselves with their "heroic" suicide bombers. I'm not rejoicing that people were killed, but this is clearly Sadam's fault, not ours.

Fire inside the van one time, ok, but (more than) 7 TIMES?? To me that doesn't seem logical next to what they said happened.

i'm not seeing the point stressed as much on my tv that american soldiers asked repeatedly for the car to stop ... there's that propaganda at work, same story but twists aimed at each country ...


an aussie friend just made this joke to me in a conversation ... i dont think its funny at all when people are killed no matter who they are, but jokes often mimic popular opinion ....



fear and guns are a bad mix, but what do we expect them to do? there was a substantial chance those 7 women and children could have been loaded up with weapons.

its easy to sit in our chairs and issue judgements

It was free when I signed up 5 minutes ago...