News Log for March 2003

'The most horrible thing I've ever seen'
U.S. troops shot and killed at least ten Iraqi civilians – five of them small children – in a vehicle at checkpoint Monday in southern Iraq near Karbala, the Washinton Post reported today. The account by an embedded reporter is absolutely chilling: "As an unidentified four-wheel drive vehicle came barreling toward an intersection held by troops of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed...."

From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat.

"Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"

That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.

"Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"

So it was that on a warm, hazy day in central Iraq, the fog of war descended on Bravo Company.

Fifteen Iraqi civilians were packed inside the Toyota, it turned out, along with as many of their possessions as the jammed vehicle could hold. Ten of them, including five children who appeared to be under 5 years old, were killed on the spot when the high-explosive rounds slammed into their target, Johnson's company reported. Of the five others, one man was so severely injured that medics said he was not expected to live.

"It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and I hope I never see it again," Sgt. Mario Manzano, 26, an Army medic with Bravo Company of the division's 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, said later in an interview. He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. "She didn't want to get out of the car," he said.

Road to Baghdad via Jenin
The Pentagon is turning to the Israelis for advice on urban warfare based on their experience in invading Palestinian cities like Jenin last year. As the Independent notes, that's not good news for the Iraqis: "If the US army believes the road to Baghdad lies through Jenin, there is reason for Iraqi civilians to be concerned. During fighting in the Jenin refugee camp last April, more than half the Palestinian dead were civilians. There was compelling evidence that Israeli soldiers targeted civilians, including Fadwa Jamma, a Palestinian nurse shot dead as she tried to treat a wounded man."
Posted on March 31, 2003 @ 5:54PM.

The bridge of death
U.S. Marines killed 12 civilians trying to flee the city on a bridge at Nasiriyah – an incident that marks the beginning of a new attitude among the troops. Times (U.K.) reporter Mark Franchetti's eyewitness account traces the transformation of young jittery soldiers into angry killers: "The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy," said Corporal Ryan Dupre. "I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."
Posted on March 31, 2003 @ 4:05PM.

Slovenia, Slovakia
The tiny republic of Slovenia got a bit of a shock last week when the Bush war budget listed the nation as one of the beneficiaries of grants allocated to "coalition of the willing" – prompting hundreds of Slovenians to take to the streets. Prime minister Anton Rop promptly protested: "We are a part of no such coalition. We are a part of a coalition for peace." Perhaps the Bush administration was thinking of Slovakia which is one of the willing. A pity geography isn't a required course for all would-be imperialists.
Posted on March 31, 2003 @ 2:29PM.

The patriotism witchhunt continues
NBC unceremoniously canned Peter Arnett today for an interview on Iraqi TV, where he said the Pentagon war plan for the invasion of Iraq had failed. MSNBC vice president Erik Sorensen said, "It's just inappropriate and arguably unpatriotic for an American to be communicating these things to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people." A contrite Arnett called the interview my "stupid misjudgement" and said he plans to leave Baghdad: "There's a small island, inhabited in the South Pacific that I will try to swim to."
Posted on March 31, 2003 @ 2:00PM.

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