"Two dead soldiers, eight more to go, vow avengers of Iraqi girl's rape"

[leftchick]

damn!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/09/wirq09.xml

<snip>


Now, however, residents of the neighbouring town of Mahmoudiyah have told The Sunday Telegraph that their kidnap was carried out to avenge the attack on a local girl Abeer Qassim Hamza, 15, and her family. They claim that insurgents have vowed to kidnap and kill another eight American troops to exact a 10-to-one revenge for the rape and murder of the girl.

<snip>

Saba Shukr, 44, a Sunni sheikh at al-Aziz mosque in Mahmoudiyah, said: "We knew about this crime but the mujahideen brought revenge when they kidnapped two American soldiers in Yusufiyah. They are still waiting to kidnap and kill another eight soldiers, as the price of the death of the girl should be the death of 10 Americans. "I am sure about this. The mujahideen promised us revenge."

One of the family's neighbours, Abu Hazem, 51, said: "We went to visit the cousin of the family who lived about half a mile away to tell them the news. He said, 'Please keep it secret and we will take revenge on the Americans the quiet way'."

<SNIP>

Residents of Mahmoudiyah claim that they had long been alarmed by the way some US troops took an interest in their womenfolk. They said that Abeer, who lived in an isolated farmhouse less than a mile from a US checkpoint, had caught the attention of the troops as she did daily chores in the garden.

"She had been told by her parents not to go to school any more because of poor security," said her neighbour Mr Hazem. "She spent most of her time at home cleaning and in the garden so the American forces saw her many times. She was a beautiful girl, and my wife told me that the Americans kept watching her. When I told her father, though, he said it was no problem and that she was just a small girl."

[leftchick]

1. the truth eventually come out...

<snip>

Military officials initially thought the abduction of the soldiers in Yusufiyah, about five miles from Mahmoudiyah, was an opportunist strike carried out when the troops became separated from their unit during an insurgents' ambush. Their bodies were found dumped three days later, showing signs of torture. However, the complexity of the ambush - and the level of preparedness required to have manpower to take them away alive - suggests that the kidnap was planned.

[magellan]

3. It has made sense all along

Horrible as it is, if the positions were reversed Americans wouldn't respond any differently if the soldiers of an occupying force did this to a neighborhood girl and her family.

K&R.

[leftchick]

5. I am sure many would respond as Mr. Humadi here...

this is just scary shit... Bring Them Home!

<snip>

Izzat Humadi, 29, a local taxi driver, said: "They started to bother us by winking at our women and we thought that something bad would happen. Now it has. The mujahideen will get more revenge for us and this small girl. We await the capture of another eight American soldiers."

[bemildred]

2. I don't expect we will get to see this on CNN anytime soon .. nt

[DemonFighterLives]

4. Both sides of this issue are disgusting

The 2 soldiers were used as martyrs as though there weren't another 2600 dead Americans and 100,000+ dead Iraqi's.

Such a shame for all involved. The poor girl and her family will never be the same and neither will the troops.

Thank you Georgie- all the blood is on his hands.

[tavalon]

18. The poor girl and her family will definitely never be the same

They're dead. And the last few minutes of her life were horrific. I suppose I have to give up my Democratic cred now, but I think the military should try these soldiers and if found guilty, dump them in the streets and let the Iraqi people exact their revenge on the correct people. I am not able to muster a bit of sympathy for the monsters who did this and I suppose this brings me down to their level but it disgusts me that they are still breathing and have the potential to contribute to the gene pool. Disgusting.

[TNMOM]

6. The iraqis don't want our "help" -- there was no reason to be

there in the first place. And, now, there are many reasons to leave. I can't understand why the Bush administration is so enamored with fighting a hopeless, needless war.

[leftchick]

7. because

they are making a LOT of money and building a permanent presence in the MidEast!

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. I understand it.....

it makes them money and doesn't cost "them" anything. We stay until the money and/or the oil and money making possibilities run out. The administration cares NOTHING about the cost in human lives and suffering....american or otherwise.

[mom cat]

9. To those who think that the ten to one ratio seem harsh, just

remember that we are killing 100 Iraqis for every one of the "coalition" forces that they kill.
If this kind of slaughter were going on in our country by a foreign occupier, I'm sure that we would have our version of insergency and revenge cropping up.

[NNN0LHI]

10. If this was happening here heads would be flying off

I kept asking over the past three and a half years to the war supporters here how they would like to have a bunch of armed foreign soldiers smoking and joking on their street corners eying up our womenfolk every day.

All they could see in their minds was baby faced Americans soldiers passing out candy to the little Iraqi kiddies.

I knew better.

Don

[Turbineguy]

11. The 10 to 1 ratio

was the "standard fare" exacted by the Nazis during WWII as well.

[frylock]

14. the us seems to maintain that ratio as well..

3000 dead Americans on 911 to 30,000 (reported) dead Iraqis.

[leftchick]

13. more like a 1000 to one

and the loss of life in an Arab society like this begs for retribution. It is in their culture. I guess Green and his comrades were not aware of that little fact.

[Cocoa]

12. she couldn't go to school because of U.S. troops

:mad:

[uppityperson]

15. damn. k&r nt

[Pachamama]

16. Make that another 38 troops to be kidnapped & killed - there were 3 other

family members killed that day...

This war will never end....

[leftchick]

19. true that

:(

[me b zola]

17. Broken hearted, I

How will the families of Menchaca, Tucker, and Babineau take the news that their beloved sons, brothers, husbands, died in such a horrible manner as retribution to crimes comitted by their brothers in arms--possibly because one or more of them were going to blow the whistle on their comrades? Here's maybe a larger question; to what lengths will rumdum's propaganda machine go to manipulate the fragile emotional state of those family members so that he (rumsfeld) can work damage control?


This is all so fucking tragic. Bring our men and women home now.

[VelmaD]

20. This is such bullshit excuse

It's not like they actually valued that girl as a person while she was alive.

The whole situation is sad...but this pretense at valuing the life of a woman is complete garbage.

[Skidmore]

23. Have you ever lived in the ME? I find your comment

insulting and belittling. My experience has been that children are very much loved and held in the bosom of the family, even in the poorest and most rural settings. Now I agree that the cultural trappings assign lesser status to women and girls, but that does not translate that they are not loved and valued by their families or that they are seen as garbage.

BTW, in our enlightened western culture, we have people who treat women as debased objects for ridicule and to be abused. Garbage, if you will.

[Skidmore]

21. Well what the heck does America expect in an area of the world

which still practices revenge killings? Civil suits? Short jail sentence with time off for good behavior? A copped plea?

The cultural stupidity that goes into calculations of how to treat others in this world by our citizenry and government is just breathtaking.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.

Fallujah, Haditha, now this.

But, of course, the Iraqis should understand the "stress" our troops are under.