nicky g
05-20-2004, 05:48 AM
Blunders dog US troops (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1220797,00.html)
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Thursday May 20, 2004
The Guardian
Last night's reported attack on an Iraqi wedding party was the latest in a string of blunders in Iraq, from misconceived air raids in the days before last year's war began to various "friendly-fire" deaths during the war itself and a series of damaging postwar incidents.
The US military, especially its pilots, has a well-established reputation for being trigger-happy, and the reported attack on the wedding in western Iraq raised memories of a similar incident in Afghanistan in July 2002, when 48 people were killed after celebrating a marriage by firing into the air.
US planes opened fire with cannon after members of the wedding party fired into the air, a traditional form of celebration. The US refused to apologise, and the incident came to symbolise US mismanagement of the war.
In Iraq, there have been many blunders, all of which have raised the sense of hostility that has steadily grown.
The US military, as British diplomats, soldiers and politicians admit in private, is trained to exercise maximum force, not maximum restraint: it is built for war, not peacekeeping.
Like the Israeli military, the US prefers to fight from the air to minimise its own casualties. But airpower tends to be indiscriminate in the urban warfare in which Israel and the US are engaged. Civilians are often casualties.
A pattern was established even before the Iraq war.
A shepherd family was apparently killed in an attack by US planes patrolling the no-fly zone, the northern and southern parts of Iraq from which Iraq's air force was banned. The US denied responsibility but western journalists independently found evidence backing Iraqi claims.
During the raids on Baghdad in the early stage of the war, US pilots were twice blamed for hitting marketplaces. Western film crews showed the carnage but the US refused responsibility, saying the damage could have been by anti-aircraft fire.
US and British soldiers, as well as journalists, were killed in a series of "friendly-fire" incidents involving US forces. The BBC caught one on film, a US attack on a convoy of journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan that included the BBC world affairs editor, John Simpson.
US troops on the ground have often shown themselves just as trigger-happy. In the weeks after the war, US soldiers garrisoned themselves in a schoolhouse in Falluja, then a relatively little-known town west of Baghdad.
Residents demonstrated against the US occupation of the school and the US soldiers shot 13 dead. The US claimed some protesters were armed and had opened fire first, though there was little evidence of bullet-holes on the school walls the next day.
There has been a series of revenge attacks in Falluja since, a steady escalation leading to the recent US assault on Falluja that left some 600 dead.
The US says its forces are not trigger-happy but that conflict is messy and the US forces are bearing the brunt of the fighting.
They admit some mistakes. Last year, the US paid out £907,000 after a wave of negligence and wrongful death claims filed against American soldiers in Iraq.
The US military confirmed that, up to November, 10,402 claims had been filed. There have been many more since.
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Thursday May 20, 2004
The Guardian
Last night's reported attack on an Iraqi wedding party was the latest in a string of blunders in Iraq, from misconceived air raids in the days before last year's war began to various "friendly-fire" deaths during the war itself and a series of damaging postwar incidents.
The US military, especially its pilots, has a well-established reputation for being trigger-happy, and the reported attack on the wedding in western Iraq raised memories of a similar incident in Afghanistan in July 2002, when 48 people were killed after celebrating a marriage by firing into the air.
US planes opened fire with cannon after members of the wedding party fired into the air, a traditional form of celebration. The US refused to apologise, and the incident came to symbolise US mismanagement of the war.
In Iraq, there have been many blunders, all of which have raised the sense of hostility that has steadily grown.
The US military, as British diplomats, soldiers and politicians admit in private, is trained to exercise maximum force, not maximum restraint: it is built for war, not peacekeeping.
Like the Israeli military, the US prefers to fight from the air to minimise its own casualties. But airpower tends to be indiscriminate in the urban warfare in which Israel and the US are engaged. Civilians are often casualties.
A pattern was established even before the Iraq war.
A shepherd family was apparently killed in an attack by US planes patrolling the no-fly zone, the northern and southern parts of Iraq from which Iraq's air force was banned. The US denied responsibility but western journalists independently found evidence backing Iraqi claims.
During the raids on Baghdad in the early stage of the war, US pilots were twice blamed for hitting marketplaces. Western film crews showed the carnage but the US refused responsibility, saying the damage could have been by anti-aircraft fire.
US and British soldiers, as well as journalists, were killed in a series of "friendly-fire" incidents involving US forces. The BBC caught one on film, a US attack on a convoy of journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan that included the BBC world affairs editor, John Simpson.
US troops on the ground have often shown themselves just as trigger-happy. In the weeks after the war, US soldiers garrisoned themselves in a schoolhouse in Falluja, then a relatively little-known town west of Baghdad.
Residents demonstrated against the US occupation of the school and the US soldiers shot 13 dead. The US claimed some protesters were armed and had opened fire first, though there was little evidence of bullet-holes on the school walls the next day.
There has been a series of revenge attacks in Falluja since, a steady escalation leading to the recent US assault on Falluja that left some 600 dead.
The US says its forces are not trigger-happy but that conflict is messy and the US forces are bearing the brunt of the fighting.
They admit some mistakes. Last year, the US paid out £907,000 after a wave of negligence and wrongful death claims filed against American soldiers in Iraq.
The US military confirmed that, up to November, 10,402 claims had been filed. There have been many more since.