 The caption for this photo reads as follows:
A young boy riding a bicycle looks across at a newly-erected warning sign put up Wednesday, May 31, 2006 on a road around 100 metres from the maternity hospital which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, a pregnant woman and her 57-year-old cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were driving to for Jassim to give birth when they were killed in Samarra, Iraq Tuesday, May 30, 2006. U.S. forces apparently shot to death two Iraqi women, one of them pregnant, when they fired at a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post in the town, Iraqi officials and relatives said.
[Emphasis added by me, pay particular attention to that figure 100 metres, 100 m = 328' - 1" (feet, inches and tenths-of-an-inch) or to round it off 100 metres is a little bit over 109 yards. - mfi]
Now a few points have to be made:
There's no apparently about it. They've admitted it.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday.
Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.
Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses.
The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings.
[The image below shows the car in which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, who was aged 35 was shot to death, along with her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan. As Nabiha was being raced to the maternity hospital to give birth to her third child.
 "Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."
Jassim's brother, who was wounded by broken glass, said he did not see any warnings as he sped his sister to the hospital. Her husband was waiting for her there.
"I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans. It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped," he said. "God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives."
He said doctors tried but failed to save the baby after his sister was brought to the hospital.
The shooting deaths occurred in the wake of an investigation into allegations that U.S. Marines killed unarmed civilians in the western city of Haditha.
The U.S. military said the incident in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, was being investigated. The city is in the heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle and has in the past seen heavy insurgent activity.
"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said. [Again emphasis added by me - mfi.]
The women's bodies were wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital before being taken to the morgue, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat.
Khalid Nisaif Jassim, the pregnant woman's brother, said American forces had blocked off the side road only two weeks ago and news about the observation post had been slow to filter out to rural areas.
He said the killings, like those in Haditha, were examples of random killings faced by Iraqis every day. [snip]
Now take a closer look at this photo:
How clear is the language on that sign?
How likely is that child to be able to read it?
What has been obscured?
Now take a second look at the photo:
What does this Iraqi boy have on his handle bars?
Do you remember this? I'm starting to wonder when we can expect to read about some kid on a bike being shot dead for failing to dismount, slow down, sing "The Star Spangled Banner" (in English natch) .... Hearts and minds are so important after all. But let's get back to the woman shot dead as she was being rushed to give birth in the local maternity hospital.
You see there are some other things I'm wondering about:
- I wonder if the soldier who shot a pregnant woman dead as she was being rushed to a maternity hospital to give birth would describe himself as "pro-life...."
- I wonder if that soldier's commanders would describe themselves as "pro-life...."
- I wonder if it occurred to those commanders that putting a check point 109 yards away from a maternity hopsital made a killing of a pregnant woman being rushed into that hospital at night inevitable....
- I wonder why it is that these checkpoint "incidents" are always at checkpoints that are very hard to see. In this case late at night by a worried man driving his sister about to give birth to the maternity hospital
- I wonder if they cared, no I don't wonder about that at all ... the US "regrets" the death ... they're not sorry, and they certainly haven't apologised, they merely "regret" the killing of a woman who according to the press statement the emailed to AP "may have been pregnant."
- re·gret ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-grt)
- v. re·gret·ted, re·gret·ting, re·grets
v. tr.
To feel sorry, disappointed, or distressed about.
To remember with a feeling of loss or sorrow; mourn.
v. intr.
To feel regret.
n.
A sense of loss and longing for someone or something gone.
A feeling of disappointment or distress about something that one wishes could be different.
regrets A courteous expression of regret, especially at having to decline an invitation.
- I wonder if they realise what it says about them that the dead woman, one usually refers to female adult humans as "women," that in their press release they used the word "female" which one commonly uses when referring to non-humans … …
No I don't have to wonder about that either … …
- I wonder if her two children, her husband, the husband of her cousin who was shot along with here, and the rest of their families are feeling something somewhat stronger than "regret."
No that's another thing I dont have to wonder about … …
There's something else I don't have to wonder about, I don't have to wonder whether this is what President George W. Bush and his puppet master Richard Cheney mean when they talk about a "culture of life" … … at least when it comes to Iraqi "females" who have two "young" … … (not "children" I mean hey she was a brown person let's keep the language consistent here) … … and who "may" be pregnant.
I don't have to wonder about that at all.
markfromireland |
