The reporting of this supposed Ishiqa massacre was proven false.

When the US ground troops went to search this house in Ishiqa, they came under fire from a man inside with an ak-47 (which was later found inside the building when Iraqi police came to do an after-action report). To avoid unnecessary risk to US troops, they brought in air support who used their 30mm machine guns and 2.5 inch hydra rockets on their apache helicopters to “soften-up” the target. Before they could enter the house, it collapsed.

A 30mm bullet WOULD inflict wounds to people even after it penetrated the outer brick layer of the house, but would have been fragmented from penetrating the brick to the point that the injuries to the occupants would look like small caliber bullet wounds. Also, Hydra rockets contain thousands of little BB’s that act as a swarm of bullets when the rocket explosed, to the untrained eye the wounds inflicted by this weapon would also appear to be bulletwounds.

The police officers that supposedly witnessed “US troops coming in and shooting people” werent even at the scene, they were simply repeating what they heard from civilians. BBC edited the video interview of the policeman to cut out the part that he said “reports from civilians said that US Troops...” instead they made it appear as if the Iraqi policeman witnessed the supposed massacre himself rather than simply telling the interviewers what he heard.

The BBC also left out the fact that the bodies sat in the house for more than a day before the officials came to pick them up and take them to the morgue. Thats plenty of time for American- hating sunnis to tamper with the evidence in hopes of creating a media uproar.

Bottomline: The BBC conveniently left out ALL the information that contradicted the claims of the sunnis. They left out 3 facts:

1. The US troops were shot at from the building by a man with an AK-47. This man intentionally endangered his family who were in the house with him.

2. US troops used heavy machine guns to neutralize the threat, not knowing the man who shot at them had his entire family in the house.

3. When US troops searched the wreckage of the house it was in the middle of the night and they left quickly without doing a thorough investigation for fear of being attacked (Ishiqa is FILLED with Sunni insurgents).

These 3 crucial facts disprove the allegations that the US troops went inside and just shot people

If the BBC, the source for almost all the information of this story, even cared to mention these facts. I guarantee half of the people who actually believed the Sunnis’ story would think again before using this as some sort of metaphor for the entire US Military, US Government, or the US war effort in general.

This is all just another example of how the incredibly biased media gets hold of something and turns it into political ammunition before taking in all the facts. People in the media didn’t care to research the fact bullets had the capability of going through the building, and that these bullet wounds were probably not inflicted at short range with small arms fire. The media therefore used the ignorance of their viewers to present an out-of-context glob of information that could ONLY be interpreted in a certain way after having been distorted and presented in a deceitful way. Some people who don’t believe this story, WANT to believe this story. Even some liberal Americans whose countrymen are dying in Iraqi WANT this story to be true so that their anti-war political views will be legitamized in public thought.

The news coverage of this story is definately biased against America. Of COURSE it is! Consider the source of this story: Sunni Arabs who hate America, BBC who is owned by British liberals who hate America, and CNN, a news agency owned by a corporation that is owned by wealthy democrats and liberals who were against the war from the beginning and will do anything to turn Americans against it, even if they know what they are reporting on is misleading.

P.S. About the Haditha story, it was only 4 marines all younger than 20 years old who engaged in this supposed massacre, their squad leader had just been killed and they had no leadership. So take that into consideration before you come to the conclusion that “the US Military is committing genocide.”

I haven’t heard comment on the fact that the victims, presumably even the babies, were cuffed.  That implies that the murders were not done in the heat of rage.

Although horrifying (or to borrow a word, terrorizing) this kind of anonymous vengeance is exactly what our troops have trained for, and drilled for in all those life affirming months of boot camp.  How can it be said that actions such as these are a surprise?  Or even inhumane?  Look here: these troops we so unwaveringly support with little magnets on our trunks bought in line at Wallgreens are trained to kill, mindlessly.  With great efficiency.  Without asking why, or attempting to understand the kill order.  Or the corporate motivation behind the kill order.

That’s the beauty of troops.  They kill whomever, whenever, and sometimes they don’t stop killing when the clear and present danger is neutralized. 

Another surprise: The Army is lying about how their troops are performing.  John Kerry, for god’s sake was part of a “free fire” combat mission in Vietnam, where all parties other than US Troops were obliterated.  Children, Grandparents, Men, Women, Dogs.  Killing is fun, apparently.  The only trouble is that when bad words like ‘accountability’, or ‘video footage’ come into play, the military brass are forced to lace up their tap shoes and whistle a while until the next atrocity of foreign affairs supersedes this one.

It makes one ponder what the goal is of our men and women in uniform, if indeed their first task as new recruits is to take on a John Wane Gacy mask, and don assault rifle. ("This is my dick, this is my gun.  One is for killing, one is for fun.” So the marine march hymn goes.) Which one is for fun again?

Let’s please pull the collective blinders off, and realize that these poor people who’ve joined the military, for whatever reason, are no less culpable in their actions than were the Nazi storm troopers, or for that matter, the Spaniards when they invaded what’s now called Haiti, so long ago.  What was then justified by deeming the “Haitians” as worthless pagans greatly assisted the butchering philosophy of the time:

“The Spaniards ‘thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices of them to test the sharpness of their blades.’ La Casas tells how ‘two of these so called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots, and for fun, beheaded the boys.” -Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, see http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Columbus_People sHx.html.

Where does this leave us?  Right where we started, 500 years ago.  Imperialism breeds contempt and murder.  It’s really pretty easy to see.