Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Probe Finds Iraqi Troops Killed Two American Soldiers

AP via KABC(L.A.)

SAN FRANCISCO. June 20, 2006 - Two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil-defense officers patrolling with them, military investigators have found.

The deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004.

But the Army's Criminal Investigation Division found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the military did not plan to release the report until Wednesday.

Soldiers who witnessed the attack have told her that two Iraqi patrolmen opened fire on her son's unit. The witnesses also said a third gunman simultaneously drove up to the American unit in a van, climbed onto the vehicle and fired at the Americans, she said.

"Nothing is clear. Nothing is clear," she said. Her son was shot eight times by bullets of various calibers, some of which penetrated his body armor, she said. She believes he bled to death.

"I really want this story to come out; I want people to know what happened to my son," she said. "There is no doubt to me that this (ambushes by attached Iraqi units) is still happening to soldiers today, but our chain of command is awfully reckless; they don't seem to give a damn about what's happening to soldiers."

It must be a strange feeling to go on patrol knowing someone's probably gonna shoot at you, but not knowing exactly which way to point your rifle.

Since we've trained over 260,000 Iraqi trigger pullers of various types, I think they've been 'stood up'. It's time for us to 'stand down'. Now. Let 'em fight their own goddam fight and let the chips fall where they may. Let 'em kill each other instead of our guys.

I've said this before and you just know I'm about to say it again: Fuck Iraq. The whole goddam sand pile isn't worth one drop of American blood. Our guys joined up to defend America, not Iraq.

Our troops are being injured and killed, and our coffers are being plundered, in the service of lying criminals, corporate profiteers, and satanic Hitlerian cryptochristofascist ideologues. Notice how I didn't say 'crimes, profits, or ideology'? This is not about ideas or philosophy. It's about the evil PEOPLE who espouse them.

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