how is this defense? it sounds like attack to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/2904911.stm

well, theyre going to make suicide bombing look like a big thing, even if theres only isolated incidents so they can jam a few of thier civilian caulties form thier massive bombarding under the "we were defending ourselves from probable sucide bombers" title.

*shrugs* when it comes to fanatics, no one can ever guess who they are or are not, it's sad the family got shot...but why didn't they stop? Unless they were doing something wrong.

You are the most paranoid person I've ever "met"

Actually dont really know what to make of it...
My thoughts are, if this is the 'story' coming out of the
defence dept., I fear what the actual events were...

Probably actually shot up the van, as it actually approached the checkpoint... hence, they never actually got past it, and thus, proably didnt even have a chance to slow down, as they were already under fire.

But then who knows...
It all shouldnt be happening, as the US shouldnt even be there.

It makes no sense to unload on them just because they didn't stop at a checkpoint which they probably didn't even know anything about. In fact, how could they be a potential danger to them if they were driving AWAY?

I t'ink I smella something baaaaad

just like the suicide bomber in the taxi?

Be more specific you luscious wonderful sexy thing that I want to uhh uhh ohoh ohohohhoohohohoh all day long ;p

well i'm sure it's rather hard on our soldiers, they are supposed to be helping the civilians, bringing down a tyrant, the tyran has his soldier dressing as civilians attacking them, suicide bombers blowing them up at checkpoints...i don't think our soldier specifically said "ooh a family, lets kill them" and fire with unabandoned glee...coolition soldiers i'm sure are getting edgy, paranoid and it's hard to know if a civilian is a citizen and not some extreme iraqian patriot wanting to destroy the invaders...children and women have been used for suicide bombings before, do you really think hussein cares for the common iraqi?

just today i read a story about soldier running over to a bridge in the middle of crossfire to safe some wounded old lady stuck in the middle...did they need to do that? How easy would it be to dismiss her as a casuality of war rather than risking their necks to save one old lady?

Why do they even have ground forces in there? We can totally dominate with arial attacks until we're in the mood to move in with ground forces when nothing's left to bother us.

so it's ok to kill them all because they have potential to be suicide bombers?

how many of you have the potential?

that's fucked up. when the first reports came out they said that the soldiers fired no warning shots. now they're saying they're not sure if they did or not.

why did the civilians not stop? maybe they were scared, they didn't understand. here are some foreigners with guns and weapons. they shout at you a bit maybe, wouldn't you try and get away? they have reason to be scared, now more than ever.

this isn't a war on terrorism. if it were, they would be targeting terrorists. not one nation of people. this is an illegal war and this is genocide.

i know my words may seem harsh, but i'm not changing the truth, i'm just wording it differently. you may call the colour of the sky not red or green whereas i'll just call it blue.

I'm not sure how you guys see it but i'm not alone here when in the vision that there is the big country that with a religious leader that has, in his own words begun a crusade against another. a fight of good and evil. this is all illegal remember, how is any of this ok?

Maybe if they were to terrified to stop?

It depends entirely on which story you believe. If the truck refused to stop after several warnings, attempts to stop them, etc., which is the story I heard, then the soldiers were within their rights. If they just shot them because they wouldn't slow down right away, then they acted illegally.

it's sad that you heard that version. i've still to hear that version although versions i've heard have mentioned that this version would become fact soon. what is so controversial about this, is that the first reports say that there was no warning. then followed there was warning, but not sufficient warning, and definately not sufficient to open fire.

but mostly, our news here stays put with the 'no warning' story.

if you think that these people must be guilty because they failed to stop, you're missing any point of view but your own. put yourself in their shoes. these people are scared. they don't understand these americans with guns. they just want to be safe. instead, while they are trying to get away, they are killed instead.

oh there's another thing that's going around. one version is that shots were fired because they were going away, others say they were approaching. i'm not sure which to believe in that case, i've seen reports about 50/50 on that.

i can't even say that i believe that the soldiers were within their rights to shoot them even if they didn't stop.

say you're driving home or to somewhere "safe" while there are scarey people around. even if you ignored the shots, and say they knew that they were warning shots, and not shooting at them, failing to stop doesn't mean it's ok to shoot.

arrrgggh! i'm getting so worked up of this...

If it's you or them, you have no way of knowing what they're up to and they could kill you and or your comrades.

They won't stop when you fire a wanring shot and they keep on comming.

Damn right you blow the shit out of them. Afterall suicide bombs may be isolated incidents, but surely that's what the other victims of suicide bombs said too.

Neon

Masochist, go to an airport sometime. Run past the security gate. Don't stop. They'll yell at you to stop. Ignore them. Keep running past this security. See what happens.

It's the exact same thing. There's no point to a security spot where they decide to only check the people who DON'T feel like rushing past. I'm sure 99% of the people in Iraq can grasp the concept of "People pointing guns and yelling things. Stop driving so they won't shoot me."

I didn't say that at all. I specifically said that it depends entirely on which version of events is true (and I heard the first version, for the record, immediately after this happened, from the frontlines). Are you so recklessly determined to maintain your self-righteous anger that you would ignore what I actually said?

Eh...actually it doesn't hold true to this situation. Going past the checkpoint leads to more desert and open area, whereas running past the guards at an airports leads directly toward civilians and airplanes. See the difference?