US Military Attacks Ramadan Game

We can't even blame this on Blackwater.

If you read the NY Times article "Two Different Accounts of Deadly Airstrike in Baghdad " you will see that the two 'stories' actually do not refute each other.

The Shia of the neighborhood say the military attacked a game often played in the streets in the evening during Ramadan.  The US military says it saw rocket launchers in the street earlier and therefore sent helicopter gun ships to the street to kill people there later.  The military does not claim to have seen offensive activity at the time of their attack.

Is that a valid war game? To use retaliatory attacks on whomever is around because someone was launching mortars earlier in the day?

Well, in fact, in Israel it is, I suppose. They use them in Gaza quite a bit lately.

I didn't know that our military thought it was a good idea.

It seems like another Stalinist trick to me. 

And not a good way to win hearts and minds. 

A spokesman said that earlier in the evening American forces had twice observed episodes when two or three men fired mortars into the neighborhood to the north. After the second episode, the military called for an airstrike.

(Emphasis mine)

 I doubt they could say they were halfway certain by the they got back with the helicopters that the same people were in the streets. 

tags: ramadan  iraq  war  retaliation attack  stalinism  

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