Burning Bodies, Burning Truth

In the days before the Iraqi people came together to vote on a constitution (September 20, 2005) our military/government sat on a story, of what I guess, they considered to be an "isolated incident". Whether it was squelched to keep the constitution on tract, or because of the approaching Ramadan is anyones guess. Just the same, this was wrong and an injustice to the men who died in this story and their families and the people of the United States and our servicemen who are restrained to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. It is time we were freed from the constraints thrown upon us and give ourselves permission to fight fire with fire. As the story is reported, once more a civilian convoy was attacked and once more Haliburton employees were killed viciously. The incident, occurred in the town of Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad. Via the Washington Post,

The Telegraph said "dozens of Sunni Arab insurgents wielding rocket launchers and automatic rifles" pursued their truck and shot at it.

Two contractors who were not killed in the initial firing were dragged from their vehicle, and one was shot in the back of the head, the newspaper said. The crowd "doused the other with petrol and set him alight. Barefoot children, yelping in delight, piled straw on to the screaming man's body to stoke the flames," according to the report.

The crowd then "dragged their corpses through the street, chanting anti-U.S. slogans," the newspaper reported.

Sharing headlines this week in the Washington Post is the story of American soldiers who are under investigation for

setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains.

As the Post reports the incident happened in a remote area of Afghanistan in the last month. The Post goes on to report,

Specialists in U.S.-Muslim relations warned that the alleged incident could deepen hostility against the United States and further damage an American image already tarnished by scandals over mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.

My reply to that is - you have every right to be offended if this had happened in LA or any other part of a civilized nation, but you do not have the right to invoke your religion or customs in the case of "your people" when they have twice in the past year and a half committed such savagery to the "infidels", reverting to the slash and burn era of the days when the Koran was written. Islamic "culture and sensitivities" prove that the ruthless cutthroats we are dealing with, who encourage their children to torture and mutilate, need to be dealt with on a level they understand.

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