IRAQ WAR

Baghdad Burning

A U.S. attack on Iraqi bankers puts a damper on talks about the future status of American forces.

By Larry Kaplow | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jul 7, 2008 | Updated: 5:26 p.m. ET Jul 7, 2008

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Discuss

Posted By: denniswalker @ 08/10/2008 11:27:09 PM

Comment: this is a sad commentqary on the stae of the U.S. military and their feeling of invulnerabilty when it comes to actions not in keeping with the standards of combat contact. Instead of simple honesty we are faced with yet another coverup. The car sverved toward their position and they overreacted and once again the innocent are the victims. I served during Vietnam and nothing changes. I wish I could believe the story associated with this tragedy but I think I know better...and so do most of us. D. Walker Merced Ca
Posted By: rocketboy65 @ 07/10/2008 10:39:06 PM

Comment: Posted By: rangerone314 @ 07/08/2008 7:21:02 AM
Comment: Step 1: Invest $500 billion over 5 years into solar power and battery powered vehicles.
Step 2: Pull out troops from the Middle East (permanently)
Step 3: Upon next major situation with Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc (take your pick) don't send troops: send a few ICBMs.

Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/08/2008 09:41:20
Comment: BINGO!

Posted By: rocketboy65 @ 07/10/2008 22:31:14
Comment: ICBM's ??????? That's,the insane cowboy mentality that got us into this war. You better hope that the Chinese, Russians, British, and French don't take on that mentality towards the U.S. Innocent civillians are just trying to take care of their families worldwide. Should they get vaporized for the stupidity of their presidents? When I hear people talking about nuking other countries, I am truly ashamed. We're all brothers and sisters living on this spinning ball together. If I don't like one of my neighbors, I just ignore them. I don't burn their house down while they're sleeping. SHAME ON YOU AND MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL.
- Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 14:42:31
  
  Comment: .....................THERE IS NO GOD (OR ALLAH....MUHAMAD)
  
  NO SUCH THING AS A SOUL, EITHER!
  
  DON'T LET THE "BLEEDING HEART" TAKE ALL THE BLOOD AWAY FROM YOUR BRAIN, YOU MAY NEED IT TO HELP YOU DECIDE WHICH WAY TO RUN TO GET OUT OF THE WAY (WHILE YOUR FAMILY IS BEING DESTROYED)!
  
  THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MANY TYPE OF MEN ON THIS PLANET........................
  THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CONCIENIOUS OBJECTORS..................................
  THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWARDS............................
  
  BUT THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN REAL MEN WHO DON'T LET A DREAM OF THE FAR OFF FUTURE OF AN EVOLUTION INTO TOTAL PEACE....................................SO THAT THE PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE TO FLAP YOUR GUMS ABOUT THE DREAM...............
  
  WHEN YOU ARE FIGHTING A FOE THAT DOESN'T BELIEVE IN OR FOLLOW GENEVA CONVENTION RULES ........IT IS BOTH STUPID AND SUICIDAL TO GO GANDI AND MENTALLY EVOLVE INTO SOME MAN-WOMAN HYBRED!
Posted By: Farmerbob @ 07/10/2008 1:17:29 PM

Comment: I wonder did the US military take the blood alcohol content of the dead driver? With Baghdad residents enjoying new freedoms of being able to purchase and consume alcohol, there will be those Iraqi subjects who will consume too much of our Tennessee fire water. Look at the Native American and how they abused our liquor. The State department wants us to believe this is the best kid of freedom their Iraqi subjects have experienced after 6 years of US occupation. If our US soldiers are killing bankers then lets bring them home ASAP so they can cure our economic woes.
Posted By: Farmerbob @ 07/10/2008 1:16:37 PM

Comment: I wonder did the US military take the blood alcohol content of the dead driver? With Baghdad residents enjoying new freedoms of being able to purchase and consume alcohol, there will be those Iraqi subjects who will consume too much of our Tennessee fire water. Look at the Native American and how they abused our liquor. The State department wants us to believe this is the best kid of freedom their Iraqi subjects have experienced after 6 years of US occupation. If our US soldiers are killing bankers then lets bring them home ASAP so they can cure our economic woes.
Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/10/2008 12:28:57 PM

Comment: hello Observer101: Afghanistan war is the right war to fight. They hide Bin Laden, whose organization was resonsible for 9-11. Now almost all of our allies in the Mideast are dictators, except Turkey and Israel. We want to spread democracy in this region. Do we threat their foundermental interest -dictatorship? Do they really want to see a stable Iraq? Since we are the only super power left, those dictators don't pose a direct threat to us. Those Islam terrorists do. The Sadam did not take any action to threat us since the first Gulf War, except killing his own people and some big talks...
Posted By: panhandle @ 07/10/2008 11:17:52 AM

Comment: Get out of Iraq now. Nothing more can be accomplished, just more horrible deaths like these. End the suffering on both sides. Let the Iraqis conduct their own affairs. Obama was right the first time.
Posted By: observer101 @ 07/09/2008 5:08:08 PM

Comment: Hong: We are fighting a war....Be it Afghanistan or Iraq.(which by the way would have gotten involved one way or another)Saddam couldnt leave well enough alone...He wanted to make an impression on his fellow dictators and stand up to a Super power thinking it would turn into another Russian-Afghan war...He probably figured we would never Actually dare to come into Baghdad, and if we did then his fellow Thugs in Iran and Syria would help...Boy did he miscalculate...Other Dictators she take notice at how we handled Saddams ass..Cause there likely next.
Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 3:17:00 PM

Comment: We are always the outsiders there, the first to be blamed... And they didn't ask us to go there at the first palce.... We removed a dictator, not terrorists. They are different: dictators live in palaces, don't pose a threat to us becasue we overpower them. They only care about their power. They will kill their people to stay power. Basically islam extremist /terrorists want to overthrow them to create islam state. So, dictators and terrorists are ememy... What were we doing????
But we should always support our troop! This is not their fault. They are our Children. It is the politian who sent them there!!!
Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/08/2008 9:47:25 PM

Comment: Where are the war brides? This is the first war that I can remember, starting with WWII, where I have not heard of one war bride. Why are our soldiers not finding brides in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Posted By: onepoker @ 07/08/2008 1:54:25 PM

Comment: Nice slanted article. The reason very little comes from investigations is because our military doesn't prosecute its members for reasonable mistakes that result in the death of civilians or even other military people.
In a situation where any car could contain a bomb you can understand the soldiers reacting to a car that suddenly veers towards them. They have no way of knowing if the car is avoiding a pot hole or begining an attack. This situation warranted action on the soldiers part.

The reason most of the investigations don't result in actions against the soldiers is because most of the shootings are justified or explainable. It is a tragedy but it is not a crime. Our sodiers will study the situation and try to prevent future tragedies of this sort but this is a war where people are trying to kill our soldiers I would rather they err on the side of preserving their lives and the lives of those around them. Support our troops even when they make mistakes they are good people in a tough situation.
- Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 14:57:14
  
  Comment: We are always the outsiders, the fist to be blamed... And they didn't ask us to go there at the first palce.... We removed a dictator, not terrorists. They are different: dictators live in palaces, don't pose a threat to us becasue we overpower them. They only care about their power. They will kill their people to stay power. Basically islam extremist /terrorists want to overthrow them to creat islam state. So, dictators and terrorists are ememy... What are we doing????
Posted By: sparky716 @ 07/08/2008 12:42:00 PM

Comment: Ask your self a few questions: is America better off today as it was in 1999?What is the price of gas today? Are you paying more for food?Is your job safe?how many people have been layed off this year?what does the world think of us today?did the president lie us into a war?is the surge in Iraq really working or is Al Sadar truce working?Do we have a Federal budget surplus as we dis in 2000? do we need 4 more years of the same?...now you can see why Obama will be elected on November....We as a nation can't take 4 more years of McSame
Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/08/2008 11:45:46 AM

Comment: NEWSWEAK is running out of ''quagmire'',''Vietnam-style''--stories I see. Utterly unable to manufacture ''failure''in Iraq,it sifts through the sands and comes up with such gems as we observed in several AP and NY Times stories in 2006-2007 relating ''atrocities''that later turned out to be false. From the larger movement of American forces in campaigns designed to confront al Qaeda and Sadrists[which have all been successful at this point in the Surge],the media[which continues to shrink in Iraq with more and more bureaus pulling out],will focus on more isolated incidents such as this one to make their case for withdrawl. As they have been defficient with the facts in all too many examples before[the ''failed offensive in Basra''being one of the more recent],we can only conclude that NEWSWEAK ,for its own partisan purposes,is engaging in shark-jumping before all of the facts have been revealed[as they did in the interview with,of all persons,the Iranian foreign minister telling NEWSWEAK that its nation is not trying to pull anything in Iraq,which is like interviewing Stalin on the plight of starving people in Russia]. We will observe here that the Palestinian man who bulldozed his way through several innocents in Israel last week was by all accounts,a decent,hardworking family man right up to the moment that he exacted his form of revenge and was thus not viewed as a threat by any of the border security forces manning Gazan checkpoints. In yet another of these ''safest places in the country'',Taliban infiltrators detonated a car bomb which vaporized over 40 people just two days ago in Kabul in yet another of these ''presumed safe zones''. At this point a ruling should not be either for or against either the soldiers or the Iraqi party,especially as presented by plainly partisan NEWSWEAK .
- Posted By: interactidiomas @ 07/08/2008 13:21:20
  
  Comment: Let's see if I can rewrite the this article from a perspective that might make more sense to you: "Jimmy Clark watched as his father's body burned inside a car surrounded by Iraqi occupation forces. Clark's father, Tom Clark, was killed along with two female co-workers, Jane Houston and Mary Motter, during their routine commute to Citibank near Washington DC's airport. Iraqi soldiers claimed that shot's came form Clark's car. President Howdy Doody promised an investigation, but investigations into numerous similiar incidents that have occurred during the five-year occupation by Iraqi forces have yielded few results. President Doody faces mounting political pressure from the American public that has suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties in factional fighting between democrats and republicans, and among Canadian-backed American insurgents. Doody has demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of Iraqi Forces, although the Iraqi's have not indicated if they will accept that demand. Iraqi forces have been unable to completely secure the United States capital and install a theocratic government in this secularly-dominated region, after Sadaam Hussein invaded the United States because of The U.S.'s weapons of Mass destruction, which Hussein claimed was a threat to the security of the Muslim world.
  - Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/08/2008 14:39:07
    
    Comment: You need not utilize fiction in order to create a more patent reality insofar as such debate is concerned,or do you forget what happened to the NYPD with their ''41 shot revolvers''in the killing of a black man reaching for his wallet several years ago?[they all got off scot-free]. Or what happened to LAPD officers in a beating case that sparked one of the nations most devastating riots because they too,got off? The point here is that there is conjecture,rather than established facts. The soldiers state they were fired upon and retain Army vehicles with bullet holes in them. The Iraqis claim that the victim was an unarmed saint. NEWSWEAK decides to act as its own jury and go after the troops they venally claim ''to support'',without factual evidence,testimony,and trial or hearing being convened in order to get to the truth of what actually occurred.
Posted By: Miguel G. @ 07/08/2008 10:46:49 AM

Comment: I'm outraged at Larry Kaplow and the vile essential liars, the journalistic criminals, who run Newsweek. This story, if true, is a terrible tragedy, senseless deaths in the war, cherry-picked for reporting. The slanted and lying coverage of this war is highlighted by my Iraqi students I've had teaching in Sacramento, Ca., who tell first-hand of Saddam's mass-murder of entire villages, men, women and children, all buried with bulldozers by noon. Newsweeks' lying reporter/editors NEVER tell of the Positive, Good efforts of the Americans, as they service the marxist god of their journalism school professors.
- Posted By: loriw @ 07/08/2008 20:44:27
  
  Comment: Please have some of your students tell their experiences on these blogs. If Newsweek and other MSM won't tell their stories then they can tell their stories themselves without editing by the author of the article.
Posted By: Trooper101st @ 07/08/2008 8:01:48 AM

Comment: Wat the hell do you want from guys who have been deployed 3 times at 15 month a clip? Maybe they did overreact, maybe they were afraid for thier lives. There are such things as accidents, and if the Bush Ad. ran the war right, these guys would be home. Better yet, we should not have invaded at all. It was lies, all lies.
Posted By: rangerone314 @ 07/08/2008 7:21:02 AM

Comment: Step 1: Invest $500 billion over 5 years into solar power and battery powered vehicles.
Step 2: Pull out troops from the Middle East (permanently)
Step 3: Upon next major situation with Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc (take your pick) don't send troops: send a few ICBMs.
- Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/08/2008 09:41:20
  
  Comment: BINGO!
  - Posted By: rocketboy65 @ 07/10/2008 22:31:14
    
    Comment: ICBM's ??????? That's,the insane cowboy mentality that got us into this war. You better hope that the Chinese, Russians, British, and French don't take on that mentality towards the U.S. Innocent civillians are just trying to take care of their families worldwide. Should they get vaporized for the stupidity of their presidents? When I hear people talking about nuking other countries, I am truly ashamed. We're all brothers and sisters living on this spinning ball together. If I don't like one of my neighbors, I just ignore them. I don't burn their house down while they're sleeping. SHAME ON YOU AND MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL.
    - Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 14:47:25
      
      Comment: .....................THERE IS NO GOD (OR ALLAH....MUHAMAD)
      
      NO SUCH THING AS A SOUL, EITHER!
      
      DON'T LET THE "BLEEDING HEART" TAKE ALL THE BLOOD AWAY FROM YOUR BRAIN, YOU MAY NEED IT TO HELP YOU DECIDE WHICH WAY TO RUN TO GET OUT OF THE WAY (WHILE YOUR FAMILY IS BEING DESTROYED)!
      
      THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MANY TYPE OF MEN ON THIS PLANET........................
      THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CONCIENIOUS OBJECTORS..................................
      THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWARDS............................
      
      BUT THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN REAL MEN WHO DON'T LET A DREAM OF THE FAR OFF FUTURE OF AN EVOLUTION INTO TOTAL PEACE....................................SO THAT THE PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE TO FLAP YOUR GUMS ABOUT THE DREAM...............
      
      WHEN YOU ARE FIGHTING A FOE THAT DOESN'T BELIEVE IN OR FOLLOW GENEVA CONVENTION RULES ........IT IS BOTH STUPID AND SUICIDAL TO GO GANDI AND MENTALLY EVOLVE INTO SOME MAN-WOMAN HYBRED!
Posted By: cpmondello @ 07/08/2008 5:58:33 AM

Comment: One word:

Haditha !

Corey Mondello
Boston, Massachusetts
www.CoreyMondello.com
7-8-08
Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 8:19:12 PM

Comment: This war was born bad. It lives bad and will die bad. Legitimacy never had a chance. We are just about to get rid of the worst leadership that this country has ever experienced. Hold your breath that they don't start another wrong war before their time is up.
- Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 15:12:05
  
  Comment: THE WAR WENT BAD, AS YOU SAY, WHEN THE IDEA OF KILLING SADAAM AND FAMILY WAS CHANGED TO THE GIFT FREEDOM AT ANY COST TO THE BACKWARD PRIMATES OF IRAQ..............................WHEN SADAM AND FAMILY WERE KILLED AND IN CUSTODY..................WE HAD ONLY LOST ABOUT 60 SOLDIERS IN BATTLE......................IF WE GOT THEN WE WOULD BE SAYING IT WAS A GOOD IDEA!
Posted By: expatincebu @ 07/07/2008 5:57:39 PM

Comment: Imperial occupations turn soldiers into nothing more than lowly paid thugs. That is what US soldiers are, low paid thugs enforcing the profit making of the wealthy elite. This is why I do NOT support the troops. IF they are not smart enough or moral enough to realize what they are doing is evil then to hell with them they deserve what they get. Nuremberg set the standard that "following orders" is no excuse.
- Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 15:15:31
  
  Comment: We are always the outsiders there, the first to be blamed... And they didn't ask us to go there at the first palce.... We removed a dictator, not terrorists. They are different: dictators live in palaces, don't pose a threat to us becasue we overpower them. They only care about their power. They will kill their people to stay power. Basically islam extremist /terrorists want to overthrow them to create islam state. So, dictators and terrorists are ememy... What were we doing????
  But we should always support our troop! This is not their fault. They are our Children. It is the politian who sent them there!!!
- Posted By: Miguel G. @ 07/08/2008 13:50:03
  
  Comment: You are a complete ***. You care nothing for the good of the Iraqi People. You seem happy to ignore the many hundreds of thousands of mostly not reported mass-grave-dwelling Saddam generated mass-murdered Iraqis utterly freely done as you and your marxist led monsters cheerfully looked away hoping you could get some of Saddam's blood money as the euro-weaklings did along w/the cynical Russians and Chinese who've state-sponsored more mass-murder than even people as stupid as American university professors can't so easily ignore.
- Posted By: loriw @ 07/07/2008 22:04:20
  
  Comment: The incident is still under investigation and US citizens are blaming our troops and calling them thugs?
  My son-in-law is currently serving in Iraq. He is not a thug. He joined, as an 18 year old, because of 9/11.
  The Army provided him education that will serve him well as a civilian when he comes back from Iraq. Are there some trigger happy soldiers, perhaps so, but not every soldier is a "thug". We have the highest educated Army in the history of the US. If you want to find thugs look to all the undisciplined street gang, high school drop out kids with guns- those are your thugs! If we were to let Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia escalate the violence in the Middle East after we abruptly pull out as the post below suggests, we will be begging for oil at prices that make today's look like a gift!
  - Posted By: millerm84 @ 07/08/2008 08:35:45
    
    Comment: As far as blaming these troops, based on the information in this article, they are seemly guilty. Being an American does not make you right, being an American soldier does not mean every shot fired and death blow given was the right choice. Our government is capable of the same atrocities as any other in history (case in point is the Asian Concentration camps during World War Two) , our soldiers are capable of horrendous acts (see Abu Ghraib prison). We are all human, even the Iraqies, and should be treated as such. As to the price of oil, that has more to do with those who price oil futures then those who sell it. In fact Middle Eastern countries don't want us to pay more for oil. They have seen that as national gas price has risen so has the national interest in alternative energy. In the last 4 years alternative energy has went from the taboo language of the ultra liberals to one of the most important issues in the US. Thats bad news for the Middle East, and they know it.
- Posted By: PoliticAl @ 07/07/2008 20:33:32
  
  Comment: These kids were brainwashed, just like the US Military likes to do, at the ripe old age of ... what? ... 17! Get these kids the hell out of Iraq, let Saudi Arabia and Iran fight for Iraq, and send Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc. & the military generals who continue to support this clusterf**k to The Hague.
Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 5:38:53 PM

Comment: Powell tried to warn Bush about broken pottery. Go to war. Just like the pottery store. If you break it, you bought it. Add all of it up. Abu Ghraib, et al. We broke it. We bought it. It's enough to make a grown person cry.

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Baghdad Burning

Discuss

Posted By: denniswalker @ 08/10/2008 11:27:09 PM

Posted By: rocketboy65 @ 07/10/2008 10:39:06 PM

Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 14:42:31

Posted By: Farmerbob @ 07/10/2008 1:17:29 PM

Posted By: Farmerbob @ 07/10/2008 1:16:37 PM

Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/10/2008 12:28:57 PM

Posted By: panhandle @ 07/10/2008 11:17:52 AM

Posted By: observer101 @ 07/09/2008 5:08:08 PM

Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 3:17:00 PM

Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/08/2008 9:47:25 PM

Posted By: onepoker @ 07/08/2008 1:54:25 PM

Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 14:57:14

Posted By: sparky716 @ 07/08/2008 12:42:00 PM

Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/08/2008 11:45:46 AM

Posted By: interactidiomas @ 07/08/2008 13:21:20

Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/08/2008 14:39:07

Posted By: Miguel G. @ 07/08/2008 10:46:49 AM

Posted By: loriw @ 07/08/2008 20:44:27

Posted By: Trooper101st @ 07/08/2008 8:01:48 AM

Posted By: rangerone314 @ 07/08/2008 7:21:02 AM

Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/08/2008 09:41:20

Posted By: rocketboy65 @ 07/10/2008 22:31:14

Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 14:47:25

Posted By: cpmondello @ 07/08/2008 5:58:33 AM

Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 8:19:12 PM

Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 07/16/2008 15:12:05

Posted By: expatincebu @ 07/07/2008 5:57:39 PM

Posted By: hongwang69 @ 07/09/2008 15:15:31

Posted By: Miguel G. @ 07/08/2008 13:50:03

Posted By: loriw @ 07/07/2008 22:04:20

Posted By: millerm84 @ 07/08/2008 08:35:45

Posted By: PoliticAl @ 07/07/2008 20:33:32

Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 5:38:53 PM

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