Family is wiped out by US

kenmabmcc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:30 am Post subject: Family is wiped out by US

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=221312&Sn=WORL&am...ssueID=

Quote:

Six members of a family were killed yesterday when a US jet destroyed their house in Iraq.Four children, aged between four and 11, were among the dead in the attack near the northern town of Tikrit, Iraqi police said. However, the US military made no mention of the civilian deaths and said the house was attacked after troops took small arms fire.

One dumb smart bomb, more children dead.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR2008...500105.

Quote:

Capt. Ahmed al-Azwawi, a police official in Samra, a village about seven miles south of Tikrit, said U.S. troops were conducting an operation in the area when a man fired shots in the air with an AK-47.

Azwawi said the man, who sold propane gas for a living, was afraid thieves were in the vicinity.
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U.S. soldiers then retreated and called in an airstrike, Azwawi said, killing the man, his wife, and two of their children.
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Azwawi identified the dead man as Afar Ahmed Zeidan. The police official said Zeidan's wife, Khawlah Talab, and two of their children, Noor Afar Ahmed, 8, and Alaa Afar Ahmed, 6, were also killed. Another child in the house was taken to a hospital in critical condition, the police officials said.

ejward · Joined: Jan 06, 2003 Posts: 6521

In a time of war, these things happen. We all wish it didn't. Maybe the guy should have thought twice about firing his gun. I'm not saying they deserved this.

micker377 · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 869

"Guns don't kill people - people kill people"!

seaeagle

Maybe it's just my crazy mind, but does anyone else see the irony in this one?

On a day when people in the USA are cheering the fact that they can keep their personal guns, many of those same people are saying this Iraqi man deserved to die because he had a personal gun. He didn't shoot anyone, but his having that gun was adjudged to present a danger to the public or US Forces. All he did was use his gun to protect his home by scaring off intruders.

Sort of makes you wonder why owning a gun is perceived as a justifiable human right to ensure the safety of loved ones in one country, yet that same country sees it as an "executable" crime in another.

seaeagle

ejward · Joined: Jan 06, 2003 Posts: 6521

clhenry

kenmabmcc

seaeagle

It still shows the futility of keeping guns in the home for personal protection. Even if the man had not fired his gun into the air to scare off intruders, he would still most likely have been shot if he was holding the gun. The soldiers would have seen the weapon and fired immediately upon him.

I can already imagine a similar situation happening in some quiet residential street in the USA. A person hears a prowler and calls the police. The police come and decide to check the yard and have a quiet look around the neighbouring houses to see if the prowler is hiding behind some bushes. Another neighbour hears the police walking around, thinks that he has prowlers, grabs his gun and sneaks quietly onto his balcony holding the gun in front of him. A police officer sees the glint of the gun, decides the innocent neighbour is an armed prowler about to shoot, and takes immediate action. Another innocent life lost.

The man in Iraq was just doing what many good Americans would do if they heard people sneaking around outside their windows. And he paid the ultimate price for doing it. How was he to know it was American soldiers and to hold his fire? He believed there was imminent risk to his safety, and did what many would do - fire his gun into the air as a warning.

clhenry

Had a double post.
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clhenry

Hell, now i got no post. This board is getting terrible.

clhenry

Lets try it again.

seaeagle

kenmabmcc

clhenry

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 887 Location: ann arbor

One more small point. An AK47 is an automatic rifle. Automatic rifles are illegal in the United States unless they have been permanently modified to no longer operate in automatic mode.

So, the Americans were not celebrating the right to own an unmodified AK47 such as this person had. Those of you who have no experience with automatic weapons such as the AK47 (those of us who have served in the military have such experience) cannot appreciate how much different they are than an oridinary rifle that some Americans own. There is simply no comparison.

Therefore, no irony.

louis-the-cat · Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 264

Irony or not, I take your point about the difference between a rifle and an automatic assault like the AK.........by the same token there is a big difference between an AK47 and the air support/attack that was the response and which resulted in the death of the whole family.

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 887 Location: ann arbor

kenmabmcc