"After securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed,"

By what insanity can anyone even attempt to justify this?!!

I know where 5 of the 7 deadly sins can be found!

George W Bush - Pride
Dick Cheney - Gluttony
Paul Wolfowitz - Greed
Donald Rumsfeld - Wrath
Nancy Pelosi - Sloth

I guess Anger is what we're left with and Lust is running interference as a distraction across the front pages of the world media.

Hell's clawing its way to the surface. A little nuclear redecorating and 10 more years of serious climate shift and it'll even look the part.

"I guess anger is all we're left with."

There is truth in this as my mind lacks the language to any longer describe the hateful behavior and people who wage war on all of life.

George, Dick, Paul and Donald have black hearts -- Nancy lacks a heart. The four boys haven't the heart or the minds to transcend hate. Nancy hasn't the heart to transcend her political fears and fear of losing the power she does not exercise.

This country will pay an extremely high price for our unnecessary and immoral war in Iraq. The misery we have already caused is beyond measure, but worse is sure to come and not only in Iraq. Our invasion and occupation was motivated by greed for oil profits and for geopolitical control of the Middle East. In our desperation to try to remain the sole hyper-power we have gone way over the line. We are hated all over the planet now, our military has been nearly ruined in Iraq, our deficit-ridden economy is ready for a big reckoning, and we are a few short years or less away from falling into a second class position on the planet. The fascists here will do everything they can to try to impose their will on the world. They will turn on us dissidents when the going gets tough for them. Depend on that.

We complain about Al-Queda bombs killing innocent people!

Both are acts of terrorism!

How much longer is this insanity going to continue?

greatbear215: This insanity will continue until WW3 starts and the United States looks like Germany and Japan, circa 1945, or until the American people figure out what this government has been doing to them since the 2000 election and everything since then, and are willing to take to the streets in a general strike by walking off their jobs and staying home or fraternize with like-minded people until this regime is changed by We The People.

You shut the country down and this insanity will stop!

The murderous American Marines seem to have a bloodlust that never diminishes and is only paralleled by the chimp-in-chief and his Dick. Any American who thinks we are still 'moral' and 'right' need their head examined. Take a deep, long look at that kids face and tell me we are doing this for the Iraqis !!!

"Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves."

Nothing. Else. Matters.

From the deepest recesses of my soul, I pray that not a single American comes out of Iraq alive...may there be retribution for the tears of this innocent whose life has, obviously, been shattered. One more human being to hate Americans forever.

A thought has just occurred to me: Yes, the soldiers/butchers in Iraq are carrying out these crimes, but what KIND of upbringing have they had? What kind of parents? What kind of society? What kind of MOTHERS? Perhaps this is the result of what we see as a thoroughly immoral society. The US is lost, in every sense of the word.

All I want to know is when is the military going to refuse to serve, and when are the American people going to strike?

How does Bush dare point the finger at Iran or Burma when he is responsible everyday for all this murder in Iraq and Afghanistan ?
I agree with peaceman. It is time to shut down the country in order to save it.

oops

Natalie is right. We still have people in this country that encourage their kids to "defend and serve our country". That this is something honorable- Really? Killing innocent people? This is "serving" our country. The moment one innocent person was killed in Iraq we became no better than any terrorist on the planet- That goes for EVERY SINGLE solider that fights on behalf of the US military. These men are not brave, they are uneducated and for whatever reason, find it easier to kill an innocent person than question their government. Support our Troops? I don't think so. Support those enlightened enough to question and not kill.

"A US attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians". That should read "A US attack killed 19 freedom fighters and 15 civilians" if we use the words chosen by the media during the Afghan resistance to the Russian invasion.

"Why is the world surprised about the mounting slaughter of civilians in Iraq?"
http://www.chycho.com/?q=iraqi_civilian_deaths

It is amazing that the escalating death rate in Iraq still shocks people. War is about spreading death and destruction, and in all wars civilian deaths far outnumber military deaths, so why are people surprised about the slaughter of civilians in Iraq?

In early May of 2006, the president of the United States acknowledged that 2001 was the beginning of World War III. His remarks were confirmed by Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman, when he also acknowledged during a routine UN Security Council meeting on May 30, 2006, that World War III had already begun. If we take the statements made by these two nuclear powers seriously, which I believe is the appropriate thing to do, then we should expect the death rates in Iraq and Afghanistan to rise exponentially. We should also be preparing ourselves, because it is very likely that the wars in these countries will spread, creating more death and destruction, especially now that the United States is labeling Iran's military as a terrorist organization, and selling billions of dollars in military hardware to its neighbors.

By taking the statements made by the United States and Israel at face value, we can now stop being shocked every time an attack in Iraq tops the previous death toll. These records are going to be broken again and again until this conflict is stopped, or until there is no one left to kill.

Just how many more deaths should we be expecting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rest of the world? Well, in the last year I have done some calculations regarding this matter and summarized the estimates in two articles.

United States military officials have already stated that US forces could be needed in Iraq for a decade. The number of casualties expected in Iraq by 2017 is over 8 million. A detailed breakdown of this estimate can be found at: Iraq and American Death Count to 2017.

As for the number of casualties expected if we assume that the United States and Israeli are serious about us already being in World War III. My estimates are that there will be well over 220 million people dead and approximately 1 billion wounded by 2012. For a detailed breakdown of this estimate see: Degrees of Separation, the Numbers Game, and How to Bring Peace to the World.

So my only recommendations is that we should stop being shocked at the number of civilians being slaughtered in Iraq and Afghanistan. By all estimates and predictions, this is just the beginning.

Al-Qaeda is an Arab organization, but not an Iraqi one. Did al-Qaeda members bring their families with them? Or is the al-Qaeda ID false? Or, were these people hostages? Or, has the US trained Iraqis to join al-Qaeda?

The US military story is possibly true, but as in the case of the number of total Iraqi casualties, it is unlikely to be based on actual knowledge. After all, the official line uses the phrase "consistent with". I guess that means they were definitively determined not to be Americans.

of course we should support the military version. an institution with such high integrity, would never lie. they would never fudge the truth. home of the brave.

As this little one weeps
So do I.

How much longer will we brutalize these people before our Democratic "leaders" put a stop to this madness? STOP IT NOW!

These airmen are COWARDS they would rather kill unarmed, innocent men WOMEN AND CHILDREN than show some guts and stand up to bush
When these heroic airmen come home make sure their children are there to meet them, waving a damn flag. Murder'ers You are not wanted back in our town.

I heard on a right wing radio call in show here in South Florida a young man of 19 calling in to say he had signed up to join the war against terror. The radio announcer praised the young man and then asked if he was a homeschooler. The young man was. All I can say is that if we are lucky maybe the radical right will throw enough of their young into the fire to eliminate themselves.

The Tribe of the United States of Israel kills again. Notice that there was no number of men killed who were not terrorists. The inference is plainly said that all adult males (probably over 12 years of age) are terrorists. Thats how they can tell. No indications of numbers of wounded Iraqi as those who were alive but not able to flee were most likely converted into kills by the post strike ground force. The occupying forces are not just being terrorists, in cowardly bringing death from the air. They are doing the evil works of those fundamentalist Christians, following literally the words of their Old Testament Heathen God, which say to "put all its males to the sword" and "take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil". Thus released are their primative instincts of the psyche, regressing to a level below that of head hunter tribes, as they glory in the blood and spoils of their conquest.

Americans soldiers can kill so casually because they are told constantly that the humans they kill aren't really humans at all. CCR and others in the US are rightly going after the Blackwater thugs, but your run-of-the-mill soldier and Marine has been killing without forethought since March of 2003.

We owe massive reparations to the Iraqi people (thanks Dennis Kucinich for being the only presidential candidate to suggest we make amends for our wrongdoings via reparations) for all of the lives we've wrecked, the people we've turned into refugees, and the radioactive waste we've left in the soil.

This is the only way to do some semblance of justice to the Iraqi people...

It's great to find so many like-minded people (americans?) on this site. however, i can't feel like Natalia, who hopes not a single soldier comes out of iraq alive. they're pawns in this sick game, victims of american doublespeak which describes (creates in minds) a world of good (us US) and evil (whoever our shameless leaders choose to hype up). I have to believe most believe they're truly "defending" freedom and democracy. Others are just trapped in the miltary behemoth. The poison of patriotism makes it all possible. Patriotism is america's religion, and it's about as sick and empty as religions get.

I was a trained Soldier, USA. I do somewhat recall that it was a violation of various doctrines to kill civilians, or to attack places of worship and hospitals. It is prohibited to kill or attack civilians according to the Geneva Conventions, the Manual for Courts Martial, US Army Federal Regulations and more I suspect. If you suspect your enemy is hiding in one of these off limit places, you can wait him out. There is just no real excuse for killing civilians who are not a direct or immediate threat to you. Even the pilots who dropped the bombs had other options. They must feel like (fill in the blank). All those years of training just be used as cheap hit men or women. Certaintly no Red Barons. More like failures as human beings. I am glad to say I didn't have to go through the hell of refusing to obey an order. In this case the honorable and courageous think to do is to disobey orders to kill. Oh, by the way. this didn't all start in 2000 or 2001. The US, war and violence have been sleeping together since and before Plymouth Rock.

This MADNESS must Stop. There is NO justification for it. You name it - 7 Deadly Sins - Whatever...it don't cover it. What is going on here? Words elude me for my feelings. Cosmic Criminal seems...somehow...to be woefully inadequate.

Divide 655000 Iraqis killed in the war byt the number killed by 9/11 2819. That makes 232 9/11s
and they did not even do it. You could add the 500,000 children killed by the prior sanctions.
Who is the terrorist? See my Every Day is 9/11 http://peacesource.net/
Iran did not do this. Iran might be forgiven for wanting to stop this carnage and in 2003 tried to get the US to cooperate against Bin Laden. The US continues to maim and kill and the more it is hated for it looks around for more people to bomb and kill.
US citizens must support Kucinich and Paul
and join peacesource.

That picture is absolutely heartbreaking! Our invasion was an atrocity and a war crime. NO ONE in either major party seems willing to stop it. If I could emigrate today to some sane country I would.

Having chosen to leave my country/culture (USA) weeks before the invasion of Iraq, it felt obvious that this evil that is happening eminates from the US. American people are doing this (flying the planes, shooting the guns, killing the people, destroying minds and futures). I cannot return to the US. How could I, in good conscience, and not stand-up to this well-organized and planned manner of living. To be arrested or worse, no doubt. I read of people in the US who are afraid, and so they cry, for the evil being done by their own 'family'. I'm the same, the same wetness of tears, but am perhaps even more a coward, having run away, watching from a distance, not afraid to go most anywhere in the world EXCEPT the US. Except home. Makes me think of the term 'tough love'. Tough indeed to seemingly turn against your own country.

durgaya --"I have to believe most believe they're truly "defending" freedom and democracy"

You dont HAVE to believe anything you dont want to. You should log in and view some youtube clips on what our 'brave' soldiers are doing and actually thinking based on their own videos. They are cowards. We are cowards for not standing up to this administration.

I need to get an honest opinion regarding the issue of education.

Last winter I witnessed a mother and father eagle raising her babies. I saw how both parents educated them survive and thrive. It is of my opinion that our educational system doesn't teaches students to survive and thrive but instead teaches them to be enslaved. Any thoughts.......

gyptian, you may be right, but we should use extreme caution when talking about a population of, what?, millions of men. Some are idiots to be sure, but they must run the gamut. But i will do some searches (you could have provided a link or two!). And how do you propose we "stand up to this administration?" Seems pretty hopeless when america voted it back in after the first four years.

Funny how birds don't need to bug other birds nests to find out what they are up to. Funny how they don't need WMD's. The funniest thing of all is that they seem to get along just fine.

I multiply that photo of a child in absolute grief by the estimate that the invasion and occupation is killing about 600 Iraqis a day. (Extrapolating from the Lancet and other recent studies.) The US is 12 times larger in population. Proportionally, that is 7200. Innocent. Deaths. A. Day. If we add Afghanistan it is much worse. And Congress is discussing the Armenian genocide of 1915.

What happens in one area of the world has an effect on us all. This reminds me of past days when no country came to the defense of the people.

Illegal war,ammunition,rendition and torture etc. etc. etc. and not one country has gone to the UN to put sanctions on this country for it's illegal actions.....NONE!

This picture will haunt me into the next decade. Nothing in this article was more powerful, more direct and more moving than the picture that accompanies this story. The boy's sheer despair, his innocence shattered forever, and his deep and immeasurable loss brought tears to my eyes long since dry with hopelessness.

But that boy's pain hit me in a way bloody war photographs and even gore-filled civilian death scenes have not. I saw in him my son. I was reminded how my heart is pulled into a knot every time he cries -- though his tears are generally over being deprived of seeing his naughty toddler schemes realized. No such light moments of tears for this little boy.

No mother in America could see this image, no matter how racist and narrow-minded she is, even if she were to worship at the Fox News alter of Coulter, and not be moved by the utter anguish in this boy's face. And that is what this war has done. Created a generation of orphaned children, deprived them of their mothers' laps, stolen their childhood and innocence, filled the hole left in their hearts with hate, and changed the future of humanity's global journey forever. Send this image to the fake news anchors at Fox News and all the other catatonic media mushheads. Let all the pundits be silent for a full ten seconds as only this image is aired. Please.

Even as our society obsesses narcissistically over idiotic debates over child-rearing techniques -- filling up landfill after landfill with parenting magazines --- why are we silent about the effect of our actions on the parenting of an entire generation of Iraqi children???

Were the Nazis and the German people moved by an occasional heart wrenching photo of a young boy or a young mother and child? Clearly not. It's still the same old story atrocities and glory, a case of do or die.

democracy..of the PEOPLE..for the PEOPLE..by the PEOPLE...WE THE PEOPLE,MUST BE THE HERO'S..not nancy pelosi..not algore..the PEOPLE..if the people do not get their monsters on a leash..no one will do it for them...we the people are being,tested.

the face of this little child-- i cannot look without crying.. unbearable heartbreak..

--"talking about a population of, what?, millions of men. "

I believe she was talking about 160,000 brave marines !

--"And how do you propose we "stand up to this administration?""

I dont have any magic answers but we still get on the streets and protest , hold signs, hang with code pink, talk to people despite their apathy and whatever else we can. Giving up and doing nothing is the easiest thing to do and it makes us complicit.

--"and not one country has gone to the UN to put sanctions on this country for it's illegal actions…..NONE!"

The U.N., thanks to us, is irrelevant and basically dead since 2003 when the first bombs started raining down on Baghdad. Considering we spend $640 BILLION dollars a year on defense (compared to china=30, India=3, etc) and carry a big fat stick, there is not much anyone in the world can do. So blaming other countries, a favourite american pastime, doesnt hold up.

iraq=genocide

Congratulations! Now American Zionists have enough dead Iraqi children to build a Menorah for Hanukkah. The CIA can make candles from it's rendered hostages. Are we 'safer' now?

This atrocity will not end until the soldiers stop fighting and the rest of us just plain stop everything. Peaceman said it: you shut the country down....

kalia said, "Were the Nazis and the German people moved by an occasional heart wrenching photo of a young boy or a young mother and child? Clearly not. It's still the same old story atrocities and glory, a case of do or die."

I think this fails to take into account a basic component of human nature. What Mencius called the "heart of compassion". No matter how morally bankrupt we as a people may be there is some kind of innate response when we see instances of suffering and despair. The problem that dmerz put so well is that the MSM fails to give even marginal time to the true face of war. As Amy Goodman claimed in a short documentary accessible at democracynow.org, "if for one day the MSM played images of suffering, crying, maimed, and dead childred instead of the video-game like smart-bombs and expert general punditry, then war would be banished on that very day." (my own paraphrase)
Let us allow images of this kind to sink into our own hearts and contemplate our own complicity in this war machine , not just pointing angry fingers at Bush-Cheney and company (no matter how justified our anger is).

Thanks to those above who've expressed deep compassion and sorrow for the depraved *murders* of fellow human beings in Iraq, - courtesy of the truly EVIL leaders in unwarranted positions of power.

Such appropriate, heartfelt compassion is a good first step.

A next good step is to do all in our power (which is a real lot!) to work tirelessly to ensure such DEVILS as those in 'The Grey House' are evicted asap, and for us to be on guard to ensure that never again do such insane thugs get to rule any roost.

It could be said that it was *our complacence* which let them achieve positions of high office, so we need to make sure we are *active and alert* enough never to let the same disastrous events recur...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Meanwhile, we see a repeat performance of how our crazed, poltroon leaders are as silent as the grave when IN power, but then (- too little, too late! -) suddenly find their tongues when OUT of office, but are then less able to do anything much about the disgusting messes they keep creating...

This time it's Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, who is (-only now-) calling Bush & Co "incompetent" and "corrupted". Hooray! ~ Damascus ahoy! the light has finally dawned on him!

Sanchez goes on to say that: "[Bush & co] "...would have faced courts martial for dereliction of duty had they been in the military."
and: "The best the US could manage under the current approach in Iraq was to 'stave off defeat', there is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight..."

Well, maybe we ought be thankful for *very* small mercies? AT LAST the complicit and culpable *fools on The Hill* are beginning to seriously break ranks!
(read the full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7042805.stm )

But then, even as one fool leaves power and spills a few beans, evil still stalks the world: this time in the guise of Anaconda RiceBalls... -she's polluting Russia with her truly odious presence right now.
Wasn't 'Russian affairs' one of her majors at school, an area of special interest? Didn't she study some sort of 'diplomacy' thing? Either way, this sick menace has gone over to Russia to further undo and unpick the good work of previous (more sane) diplomats, and is stirring up worse, not better relations with that nation:

"The US has accused President Vladimir Putin of rolling back democracy and trampling rights, charges he denies. On Friday talks about US plans to base a missile shield in Eastern Europe ended *acrimoniously*.
"Following the tense meetings with Mr Putin and his defence and foreign ministers, Ms Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will pursue their own schedules on Saturday."

-in other words, she is FAILING disastrously in her job, unless, -that is, her sole aim on this planet is to bring further chaos, upset and pain to the human race. If that is the case, then she daily succeeds, and her master, 'The Ponce of Darkness' will be mightily pleased with her efforts...
(full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7042822.stm )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am again reminded here that there are comparatively very few of these ogres called 'leaders' and that there are many, many millions of *US lot!*
-We outnumber them by staggering proportions, and *they only rule because we let them!*

If we decided STRONGLY and FIRMLY enough, they would be gone! - we would snatch the reins of power away from them, and lead our race into a new and more sane / peaceful world, devoid of such menaces as the US (and other) demented leaders.

If we fix that idea firmly enough in our minds, and WILL IT to come to fruition, it will happen! It's OUR vision and willpower which must be in the ascendant now, not *their* contemptible plans...

~ Let's *make it happen*, let's do it!

I submit that "Skull and Bones" is a terrorist organization, and is behind most of our pain and misery in the USA and aboad.

RE: "US Strike Kills Women and Children"

Another blow for freedom.

RE: "'ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed...'"

...Mission accomplished!

Hey this is a good thing right?

We are knocking off those towel head A-rabs like camel flys.

What is wrong with all you unpatriotic dissenters, if we kill their woman and children they cannot breed all those nasty insurgents anymore, right??

It might be a little tough for the faint hearted to tolerate but believe me it will be better in the long run to kill off as many of those type of people as possible.

This is just a matter of collateral damage nothing more, it happens in every war. A small accident like this should not be allowed to besmirch the good name of our fearless brave commander in chief.

Excuse my mocking sarcasm but I am just too furious and too Numb to deal with this massacre realistically.

DENNIS, please save our country from this bush/cheney terrifying nightmare.

I don't think our military has a clue who was killed. It sounds better to say 19 insurgents, 15 terrorist's and two suspected al-Qai'da members were killed. Then it does not have to admit they killed indiscriminately. The women and children were collateral damage and got in the way. It makes the whole exercise go down a lot better at home. These 'so called terrorist's' weren't tried in any court so how do any of us know they were terrorist's except some gung-ho General or Iraqi snitch said they were. It sounds to me like it's gone way past the need to win into the realm of opportunism. If someone wants to get rid of a hated rival just tell the military you think they are involved in terrorism. That will make quick work of the rival. The US military calls anyone who resists them either al-Qa'ada or terrorist's. They appear to be trying to make the victims into 'non people' by justifying their deaths. That makes it sound like they are doing their jobs. Personally I am getting like I was when the Iraq war started again. I could for the first time understand why some American's called returning troops from Viet Nam 'Baby killers' and viewed them with derision. I felt anger at the US military for allowing themselves to be sucked in by a charlatan who told them they were defending our freedom. It seemed to me that they were all for this fiasco in the making. They were complicit in the rape of Iraq. So, I am sorry to say, I haven't looked at the military with much pride since. To many of them took Bush's word for the need for war. Didn't question his motive's and etc. So when I read an article like this, I take all the contents with a grain of salt. I don't believe much that our government has to say anymore.