U.S. forces claim to have killed 19 insurgents, but also admit that in this action they have also massacred 15 women and children in air strikes north of Iraq's capital in an action thay said was targeting suspected leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, late on Thursday."We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.
"These terrorists chose to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence." The irony of the last statement is only clear when one pauses to consider whether when he is referring to the 'terrorists' he is referring to the insurgents or the US military, it would seem that it is with deadening regularity an increasingly sophist distinction. The U.S. military said aircraft attacked a site in the Lake Thar Thar region, about 120 km (75 miles) north of Baghdad, after intelligence reports indicated senior al Qaeda members were meeting there. Four 'insurgents' were killed, presumably you can identify dead 'insurgents' from a military jet.It said suspects from the initial meeting then moved to another area south of Lake Thar Thar and U.S. forces came under small arms fire from a building. Were the US forces at this stage still airborne? Or were they still half a mile up in the air? "Responding in self-defense, supporting aircraft engaged the enemy threat. After securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed, two suspects, one woman and three children were wounded, and one suspected terrorist was detained," the U.S. military said. How many times have we been assured that Iraqi civilian deaths only occur as a by-product of actions against various Iraqi insugent groups? How many more children will have to die at hands of the US occupation forces in Iraq? How can we possibly trust this version of events to be anything approaching what really happened? The fact of the matter is that the USA has completely failed in achieving anything worthwhile in its occupation of Iraq, and now the US forces are now flailing around in a blood soaked morass, that does not appear to be getting anywhere.Despite the frantic attempt to con the world that things are calming down, it is clear that this latest fiasco belies this claim. The spin to create the impression that the so-called 'Iraqi' authorities are taking charge of the situation is just another lie being issued as a prelude to abandoning the people and the country, which they have been responsible for destroying. This lie about things returning to normality is however contradicted by the obvious lies being issued to explain this massacre. Lies explaining away lies, the only thing certain is that the women and children of Iraq continue to die.
