Fallujah: A Tragedy Unfolds

[plover]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041115/REPOSITORY/411150349/1013/NEWS03 :

On Tuesday, the bombing came closer to the city center. The doctors were busy.

"I was doing amputations for many patients. But I am an orthopedic surgeon; if a patient came to me with an abdominal injury, I could do nothing," he said, eyes cast down, close to tears. "We would bring the patient in, and we would have to let him die."

Electricity to the city was cut off. There was no water, no food, no fluids for the patients, Ghanim said. But the patients just kept coming.

"We were treating everyone. There were women, children, mujahids. I don't ask someone if they are a fighter before I treat them. I just take care of them," he said.

Late Tuesday, a bomb struck one side of the triage center. Ghanim ran out of the building.

A second bomb hit, crashing through the roof and destroying most of the facility. Ghanim believes it killed at least two or three of the young resident doctors working there and most of the patients.

"At that moment, I wished to die," he said. "It was a catastrophe."

Afterward, he said, he half-ran, half-wandered through Fallujah, dodging explosions that seemed to be everywhere. He took shelter in an empty house and did not move.

"I saw the injured people on the street, covered in blood, staggering, screaming, shouting, 'Help me! Help me!' but we could not get out and help them because we would be killed."

At one point, he looked out and saw a cousin in the street; he had been wounded. "I could not do anything for him, I could not move," Ghanim said. "He died. There was no mercy."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=251539:

"Destruction was everywhere. I saw people lying dead in the streets, wounded were bleeding and there was no one to come and help them. Even the civilians who stayed in Fallujah were too afraid to go out," he said.

"There was no medicine, water, no electricity nor food for days."

By Tuesday afternoon, as U.S. forces and Iraqi rebels engaged in fierce clashes in the heart of his neighborhood, Hussein snapped.

"U.S. soldiers began to open fire on the houses, so I decided that it was very dangerous to stay in my house," he said.

Hussein said he panicked, seizing on a plan to escape across the Euphrates River, which flows on the western side of the city

"I wasn't really thinking," he said. "Suddenly, I just had to get out. I didn't think there was any other choice."

[...]

Hussein moved from house to house dodging gunfire and reached the river.

"I decided to swim … but I changed my mind after seeing U.S. helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the river."

He watched horrified as a family of five was shot dead as they tried to cross. Then, he "helped bury a man by the river bank, with my own hands."

War crime investigation by Marines over slaying of prisoner (Reuters, ABC) :

The Marine is ... seen on tape shooting one of the wounded men against the wall at close range.

When the reporter informed the Marine that the Iraqis were the same men who had been wounded in Friday's clash and left behind, the Marine said on tape, "I didn't know, sir. I didn't know."

In an interview after the shooting, [Lt. Col. Bob] Miller said: "The enemy — in this case, insurgents who don't pose a threat — would not be considered hostile. Generally, I think that's a fair statement."

Former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jack Keane, now retired and an ABC News consultant, watched the tape and offered his assessment: "The Marines are in a room. There are people who have been hurt in that room. They've been shot, and at least there appears to be one still alive, and that person gets shot again. And there appears to be no threat to those troops in that room. We don't know that for a fact because we didn't see it."

 

[member 5645]

Thanks for posting the reality of the situation. While I support the movement against Falluja, praise the speedy siege and effectiveness from a military standpoint, we cannot forget that war is not something to be idolized.

 

[omin]

The marine who shot the Iraqi is an element that forms this micro sense of the situtation. All the micro elements adds up to from the macro sense. This entire invasion of Iraq is the macro sense and without just cause. It is a collective act of murder.

 

[tumor]

Thanks for posting the reality of the situation. While I support the movement against Falluja, praise the speedy siege and effectiveness from a military standpoint, we cannot forget that war is not something to be idolized.

It is NOT a WAR! it is a wholesale murder of civilians! your so called terrorists are simple Iraqis fighting occupation!

 

[Polly]

Phatmonky i got to hand it to you, you will make a great Whitehouse spokesman.

 

[kat]

It is NOT a WAR! it is a wholesale murder of civilians! your so called terrorists are simple Iraqis fighting occupation!

Gee whiz, thanks...what would I do without the daily dose of hyperbole.

Mujahidin terrorised Fallujah, residents say

Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.



As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week's offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured. (No,they aren't referring to U.S. Soldiers)

Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents' insignia - two Kalashnikovs propped together - and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city's library or face execution. [/B}

The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the "Mujahidin Advisory Council" through which they ran the city.

Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets.

Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the head.

Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels.

It was initially thought to be either the body of Margaret Hassan, the Dublin-born aid worker with dual British and Iraqi nationality who was kidnapped last month, or a Polish woman kidnapped two weeks ago. A Polish official said today there was no evidence to suggest that the body was that of the kidnapped Pole.

Proving once again that it's Iraqi's fighting for freedom:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=4&u=/ap/20041114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sweeping_fallujah

The Iraqi hostage, who had been beaten on the back with steel cables, said his tormentors were Syrian and that he thought he was in Syria until the Marines found him, the Marine said. Other militants came and went, but "The Syrians were always in charge," the Marine said.

 

[member 5645]

Phatmonky i got to hand it to you, you will make a great Whitehouse spokesman.

I find this humorous because I am often told things along those lines- however, could you expand on what in my statement made you say this?

 

[Stanley_Smith]

"It is NOT a WAR! it is a wholesale murder of civilians! your so called terrorists are simple Iraqis fighting occupation!"

What kind of "fighting occupation" is this when people are getting their heads cut off on camera, including UN and non-profit organization volunteers ? Normally when there is a revolution, you need a united front; I don't see any "liberation front" against the "occupier", is it Al Queada ?

Who and what are they fighting and trying to liberate ? Perhap the school/bridge just recently built or the upcoming election ?

 

[Burnsys]

"It is NOT a WAR! it is a wholesale murder of civilians! your so called terrorists are simple Iraqis fighting occupation!"

What kind of "fighting occupation" is this when people are getting their heads cut off on camera, including UN and non-profit organization volunteers ? Normally when there is a revolution, you need a united front; I don't see any "liberation front" against the "occupier", is it Al Queada ?

Who and what are they fighting and trying to liberate ? Perhap the school/bridge just recently built or the upcoming election ?

Atention atention atention... Don't panic.. american forces are destroying the entire city so you can be free... Just DUCK and COVER...

 

[Tigers2B1]

If after investigation the conclusions indicate that there were no mitigating factors, and the soldier murdered the insurgent with the requisite malicious mind, then he should be punished as a murderer. Note however, before this event there was a booby trapped insurgent which had killed a US soldier in a similar incident. Note, that the insurgent in question here, in this instant, was faking dead (this was noted in the tape). Note also that the soldier in question (as I understand) had just been shot in the face. Add at least these circumstances before reaching your verdict of guilt please ---

 

[Burnsys]

If after investigation the conclusions indicate that there were no mitigating factors, and the soldier murdered the insurgent with the requisite malicious mind, then he should be punished as a murderer. Note however, before this event there was a booby trapped insurgent which had killed a US soldier in a similar incident. Note, that the insurgent in question here, in this instant, was faking dead (this was noted in the tape). Note also that the soldier in question (as I understand) had just been shot in the face. Add at least these circumstances before reaching your verdict of guilt please ---

And what about this:

Wounded, another Iraqi writhes on the ground next to his gun. The Marines kill him -- then cheer.

See the video:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm

and god knows how many more cases like this we didn't see... we are shown barely 10% of the images of the war...

 

[Tigers2B1]

What about it?

 

[Burnsys]

What about it?

he shoot a wounded unarmed iraki from the back...

 

[Tigers2B1]

Read my initial post again. I'm not saying this soldier should be allowed to murder. But than again, maybe you shouldn't reach judgments based solely on a 10 second tape.

 

[russ_watters]

It is NOT a WAR! it is a wholesale murder of civilians! your so called terrorists are simple Iraqis fighting occupation!

Its not hyperbole, kat, its an oxymoron: if they are fighting, they aren't civilians.

 

[member 5645]

And what about this:

Wounded, another Iraqi writhes on the ground next to his gun. The Marines kill him -- then cheer.

See the video:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm

and god knows how many more cases like this we didn't see... we are shown barely 10% of the images of the war...

You're going to have to get up earlier to show me some rhetorical propaganda I haven't seen and already dismantled...

Two things about your post and the video you show:
1> 'NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN' :rofl: The video IS from CNN
2> The video is clipped and spliced together (not only is it obvious anyways, take a look at the scrolling at the bottom). Try showing unedited footage.

Come again, thanks.

 

[russ_watters]

That's a really old one too - we've already discussed that video (and the ethics of Rules of Engagement) at length.

 

[member 5645]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/15/marine.probe/index.html

The U.S. military is investigating whether a Marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded insurgent during the battle for Falluja in an incident captured on videotape by a pool reporter.

A Marine approached one of the men in the mosque saying, "He's [expletive] faking he's dead. He's faking he's [expletive] dead."

The Marine raised his rifle and fired into the apparently wounded man's head, at which point a companion said, "Well, he's dead now."

Now, this is super interesting:

About a block away, a Marine was killed and five others wounded by a booby-trapped body they found in a house after a shootout with insurgents.

So, they are booby trapping bodies, he sees a guy playing dead...I would say this case isn't as open and shut as everyone is making it.
Also, aren't there Geneva rules on playing dead to attack someone?



EDIT-

The human rights organization Amnesty International raised concerns about violations of the rules of war last week, after a British news program broadcast video of what it said was the killing of another wounded insurgent by U.S. troops.

Amnesty also noted reports that insurgents have used mosques as fighting positions, and in one incident appear to have used a white flag to lure Marines into an ambush.

hrrrmmmm...

 

[Tigers2B1]

Also there is some indication of evidence that the insurgents had retaken that mosque while this wounded fella was there. Bottom line - that video doesn't tell us the entire story. So maybe, some here need to pull the rope down, get back on their horses, and ride on home.

 

[Tigers2B1]

…They eventually stormed the mosque, killing 10 insurgents and wounding five others, and showing off a cache of rifles and grenades for journalists.
The Marines told the pool reporter that the wounded men would be left behind for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. But Saturday, another squad of Marines found that the mosque had been reoccupied by insurgents and attacked it again, only to find the same wounded men inside...

Bolding mine -

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/15/marine.probe/index.html

 

[studentx]

I saw the video and noticed an old man lying wounded against the wall next to another wounded Iraqi. It looked at some point as if blood was squirting out of his eyes, anyone seen this?

 

[devious_]

Who and what are they fighting and trying to liberate ? Perhap the school/bridge just recently built or the upcoming election ?

Or perhaps the people who are occupying their land?

 

[plover]

The story of the Marine shooting the wounded Iraqi is getting fragmented here. I'll try to summarize.

Friday:

• Marines secure a mosque and an adjoining building, leaving behind 10 dead and 5 wounded insurgents.
• The Marines are accompanied by NBC reporter Kevin Sites.
• The expectation was that the wounded Iraqis would be picked up for treatment. However, this did not happen; the reason for this has not been reported.

Saturday:

• There are reports that the mosque has been "reoccupied" by insurgents. Whether US troops were actually attacked by anyone inside the mosque at this time has not been reported.
• A group of Marines, different from the one who secured the mosque Friday but also accompanied by Kevin Sites, retakes the mosque.
• It is not reported whether any other insurgents were in the building other than the wounded from Friday.
• Four of the five Iraqis wounded on Friday were apparently shot again during this operation, and one of those was apparently killed.
• It is not reported whether the Iraqi apparently killed while resecuring the building is the same one that the Marine shot on the tape.
• "A Marine approached one of the men in the mosque saying, 'He's [expletive] faking he's dead. He's faking he's [expletive] dead.' "
• It is not reported why the Marine thought the Iraqi was "faking", however the Marine was apparently unaware that the Iraqi had been among the wounded from Friday ("I didn't know, sir...").
• According to Kevin Sites, the wounded man "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way."

One detail that has not been mentioned is that the Marine responsible for the shooting had been "shot in the face" the day before, but had been returned to duty. Was his judgement impaired?

Given that the incident took place after the building had been re-secured, the fact that the Marines believed that the building had been "reoccupied by insurgents" seems unlikely to have played a part. I'm not sure what booby trapped corpses could have to do with the situation—shooting someone at point blank range that you think is booby trapped, especially in an enclosed space, strikes me as a good way to get yourself killed.

There are enough missing details and unanswered questions that the situation is not completely clear cut without bringing in imprecise and/or inaccurate side issues.

However, even leaving aside the issue of whether the Iraqi was "faking" or just too weak to move, the main question remains: why should someone be summarily shot for "faking" death, if they are not doing anything threatening?

CNN also notes:

U.S. rules of engagement prohibit American troops from killing any prisoner who does not pose a threat, and commanders say they are worried the video might encourage more insurgents to fight to the death rather than surrender.

If incidents such as the one on the tape are occurring, then news reports or no, word will spread among insurgents.

 

[username]

There was also another similar incident a few days before. The one where the soldier says 'hes done' or something like that after shooting though a window, unless I am getting confused.

 

[tumor]

So.. now after all the possible war crimes have been commited by the US,who is going to the war crime tribunal? or if ever?

 

[kat]

So.. now after all the possible war crimes have been commited by the US,who is going to the war crime tribunal? or if ever?

Countries who have there own functioning legal system to prosecute war crimes do not go before the world court. As you should know, the soldier in question has been removed from duty and the incident is being investigated. IF it is found that there was a possibility of a crime he will be given a lawyer and brought before the courts to be tried.

 

[vanesch]

Countries who have there own functioning legal system to prosecute war crimes do not go before the world court. As you should know, the soldier in question has been removed from duty and the incident is being investigated. IF it is found that there was a possibility of a crime he will be given a lawyer and brought before the courts to be tried.

All this is very nice and well intentioned and so on, but I think it focusses on details while missing the overall picture. It is not First Class soldier Jack Jackson who is risking his own life, sometimes gets a bit stressed and does things you find not correct, easily installed in your sofa watching television. He has 3 seconds (or less) to decide whether he takes a personal risk or whether he doesn't and pulls the trigger. All these dramas with "imperfect soldiers" and so on shouldn't focus on those poor lads. It is the war situation that does this. War has always done that, and will always do so.
That's why, until 2 years ago, "civilised countries" wanted to use a full scale war as the very last means if all alternatives were far worse, and only if there was a large world consensus that this was indeed the least worse thing to do. THAT result, reached after 7000 years of human war misery, is what has been destroyed by the Iraq invation. And it is not the fault of soldier Jack Jackson.

 

[plover]

Middle East scholar Juan Cole on the effect of the Fallujah campaign on the Iraqi elections and on the mosque killing.

Election boycott announced

Forty-seven Iraqi political parties, including many with a religious base, have announced that they will boycott the planned January elections. They met at the Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad under the auspices of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and its allies among Sunni fundamentalists, but they were joined by 8 Shiite parties and one Christian one. The Iraqi Turkmen Front and the People's Union Party (Communist) also joined in the boycott. Mazen Ghazi writes:

'The communiqué . . . said the January election does not speak for the Iraqi people as long as it is “imposed” by the US-backed interim government and rejected by a clear majority of political and religious powers.

'The participants warned that the current wave of massive US raids across Iraq threatened the territorial integrity of the country and would virtually prove as futile the outcome of the upcoming election.

'The US raids against An-Najaf, Karbala, Samarra, Mosul, Baghdad and more recently Fallujah represent an obstacle to the political participation in the occupied country,” read the final statement. The conference further called the US offensive into Fallujah a “genocide”. '
​

Did Fallujah sink the elections?

It seems likely, however, that the Fallujah offensive has so deeply alienated the Sunni Arab populace of Iraq, which is probably 4 million to 4.5 million strong, that it has ensured that they will boycott the polls as American-sponsored. The political goals of the Fallujah campaign, in other words, were foredoomed to failure, even if military objectives were met, with the capture and destruction of thousands of pounds of explosives intended for other cities. (Most of the military goals probably weren't met either, however, since the guerrillas could easily reestablish themselves and the guerrilla war seems likely to go on at much the same pace as before for the foreseeable future. There are after all 250,000 tons of explosives and ammunitions unaccounted for in Iraq, which the US allowed the guerrillas to raid and store).

[...]

If elections are held in January, I see only one way to avoid disaster. This would be some sort of emergency decree by the current government that sets aside, say, 20% of seats in parliament for the Sunni Arabs. This procedure would seat Sunni Arab candidates in order of the popularity of their lists and in order of their rank within the lists on which they run. But the results would essentially be "graded on a curve." In a way, this procedure is already being followed for women, who are guaranteed 30% of seats. This solution is Lebanon-like and is not optimal, but it might be the best course if long-term sectarian and ethnic conflict is to be avoided. Remember, the first thing the new parliament will do is craft a permanent constitution. You want Sunni Arabs sitting at that table, or else.

Iraqi press reaction to Fallujah mosque killing

I was initially a little surprised that al-Hayat (a Saudi-funded daily published from London, which is generally moderate with regard to attitudes to the US) paired the killing of Margaret Hassan with the killing of a wounded prisoner in Fallujah in this way. It seemed to take the edge off the rawness of the murder of the prisoner, to say that there are bad characters on the Iraqi side, as well.

But as I thought about it, it became clear to me that the author had put the marines and the Sunni Arab guerrillas who murder their hostages on the same level. Since I am after all an American, this equation seemed to me eminently unfair. The guerrillas in Fallujah were responsible for a lot of bombings and killings of innocent civilians in Iraq, which involved deliberately targetting and killing, e.g. Shiites. The Marines are, in contrast, a legitimate miliary force that is operating in Iraq with UN sanction. I personally think that the assault on Fallujah was problematic, ethically and politically. But it doesn't put the Marines in Zarqawi's camp!

More on Marine mosque killing

Readers have written me on all sides of this issue. Some have insisted that the wounded guerrillas were not technically prisoners of war, as I had termed them, and that the US marine's action cannot be judged until we have all the facts.

Others expressed surprise that I declined to accept any comparison between the US Marine Corps and the guerrillas who beheaded aid worker Margaret Hassan. (!) I kid you not. They actually wanted to put them on the same plane.

Let me just clarify my comments. First of all, I did not say that the Iraq war was a legitimate war. It was not. It violated the charter of the United Nations.

What I said was that the role of the US military and other multinational forces in Iraq is now legitimate because it was explicitly sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. This is true. Many readers appear to have forgotten all about UN SC Resolution 1546 (2004), which was adopted unanimously.

[...]

Now, I don't like the timing of the Fallujah mission. I don't like all the mistakes made along the way, which produced this operation. I don't like its tactics. I don't like the way it put so many civilians in harm's way. I don't like the violations of international law (targetting the hospital, turning away the Red Crescent, killing wounded and disarmed combatants), etc. ...

But the basic idea of attacking the guerrillas holding up in that city is not in and of itself criminal or irresponsible. A significant proportion of the absolutely horrible car bombings that have killed hundreds and thousands of innocent Iraqis, especially Shiites, were planned and executed from Fallujah. There were serious and heavily armed forces in Fallujah planning out ways of killing hundreds to prevent elections from being held in January. ...

Some of my readers still want good guys and bad guys, white hats and black hats. That's not the way the world is. It is often grey, and very bleak.