Kill, No One Punished
Giuliana Sgrena (the Italian journalist) was shot by American soldiers. The poor lady managed to escape being killed by the kidnappers, but she couldn't avoid the Americans. Anyhow, it may draw attention to dangerous conduct of the Americans which became part of our everyday life.
Last week, an uncle of one of my friends was about to be killed by an American soldier. The man is in his sixties and owns a poultry farm at the countryside nearby Baghdad. He was driving his car back home when the American soldier fired at him three shots. His story about the incident says "First I did not see the American patrol, but at the moment the soldier pointed his gun at me, I braked hard and the car, thank God, swerved which caused the bullets to miss me. I jumped immediately out of the car raising my hands up to show that I was clean".
In November or October (I don't recall) 2003, I witnessed a similar incident but without shots. I had just left a friend house, at night, and at the moment I was around the corner, an American soldier was lit by the headlight. He was standing in the middle of the completely dark street pointing his gun at me. I stopped immediately but I did not know what to do. The soldier might shoot me for no reason. Since then I stopped using my car and changed to the public transportation. I try not to leave home at night.
Iraq became a hunting ground for the American soldiers since they are protected against any kind of legal pursuance. Iraqis are killed, nowadays, in a non-organized way. Till the 9th April 2003, Saddam organized the massacre under his control and the Iraqis were killed through rhythmical events. Americans, suicidal bombers, saddamists, baathists, Arabs, ordinary criminals…etc kill Iraqis chaotically. Iraqis are used as a cushion by several sides against each other.
I can assure you that the Iraqis made the greatest number of final sacrifice in this region during the last fifty years. Still, they gained nothing.
Last week, an uncle of one of my friends was about to be killed by an American soldier. The man is in his sixties and owns a poultry farm at the countryside nearby Baghdad. He was driving his car back home when the American soldier fired at him three shots. His story about the incident says "First I did not see the American patrol, but at the moment the soldier pointed his gun at me, I braked hard and the car, thank God, swerved which caused the bullets to miss me. I jumped immediately out of the car raising my hands up to show that I was clean".
In November or October (I don't recall) 2003, I witnessed a similar incident but without shots. I had just left a friend house, at night, and at the moment I was around the corner, an American soldier was lit by the headlight. He was standing in the middle of the completely dark street pointing his gun at me. I stopped immediately but I did not know what to do. The soldier might shoot me for no reason. Since then I stopped using my car and changed to the public transportation. I try not to leave home at night.
Iraq became a hunting ground for the American soldiers since they are protected against any kind of legal pursuance. Iraqis are killed, nowadays, in a non-organized way. Till the 9th April 2003, Saddam organized the massacre under his control and the Iraqis were killed through rhythmical events. Americans, suicidal bombers, saddamists, baathists, Arabs, ordinary criminals…etc kill Iraqis chaotically. Iraqis are used as a cushion by several sides against each other.
I can assure you that the Iraqis made the greatest number of final sacrifice in this region during the last fifty years. Still, they gained nothing.
posted by Ibn_Alrafidain at 6:41 PM
4 Comments:
American soldiers are not subject to Iraqi criminal proceedings. This is absolutely true. They are, however, subject to US military justice system. There have been dozens of prosecutions for war crimes committed by US soldiers now.
... Here is a tip to you: Your new government needs to sign a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) with the United States. Your negotiating power in this agreement will depend on how badly you need the US military to retain your democratic government. ... You may be able to negotiate an agreement where US soldiers are tried under Iraqi criminal law. The Japanese have such an agreement in Okinawa, for example.
... In any case, incidents like the one you experienced are all the more reason for Iraqis to continue to work to provide for their own security.
... I do not know of a single American who wants to "control" the lives of Iraqis. To most Americans, the though of slavery or controlling another person is not enjoyable at all. We value liberty and freedom and want it for everyone. ... The sooner we can leave the policing/internal security of Iraq to your the Iraqis the better off we all are.
The issue in each case is whether it was reasonable for the soldiers to believe that the driver was a threat. These incidents appear to occur in areas where terrorist attacks are frequent. Always the victims say they didn't see the checkpoint. If the checkpoint is not clearly visible especially at night, then the military is at fault.
By the way, I've read about these incidents also occuring when Iraqi soldiers are controlling the checkpoints.
If car bombs weren't being used daily by the terrorists to kill Iraqis and Americans at crowded squares and check points all over Iraq, maybe American and Iraqi troops wouldn't be using deadly force on vehicles that for whatever unknown reasons were failing to stop as ordered.
You stopped as ordered and you're still alive. So maybe the best thing the Iraqi people can do right now is to be paying strict attention while driving and obey all orders of the Iraqi or any coalition troops when approaching check points.
And when any of our soldiers commit any criminal acts against Iraqis or Americans, they should be prosecuted for their crimes.
Well you of all people should be angry of the innocent killings occuring in Irag I can understand why your upset innocent people should not be killed. My question is why do you get so upset over accidents by american soldiers who have no choice but to try to protect themselves and other "Iraqi" citizens by shooting at cars that don't stop when ordered. But you say nothing of the thousands of Iraqi's who have been intentionally killed by the coward insurgents this makes no sense at all, you only say these things because you hate Americans , If you people would just listen to yourselves you make no sense to fight a country that is simply trying to help you .
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