In Fallujah, Iraq, today, five soldiers and four civilians were killed. The Soldiers were killed when their vehicle ran over a bomb some 12 miles to the northwest of Fallujah. And the four civilians were killed in an attack on their SUV's. This sort of thing happens all the time in Iraq, so why does this get special treatment? Because the citizens of Fallujah, according to MSNBC, "After ambushing the vehicle carrying the civilian contractors in Fallujah, jubilant Iraqis burned and mutilated the dead, then dragged two corpses through the streets and hung them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.
That's going to provide plenty of footage and pictures for both sides to use.
The left gets to comment that these attacks wouldn't have happened if President Bush hadn't put us in Iraq. Some on the left will also comment that our sorrow over these three or four American civilians will be much much greater than our sorrow for Iraqi civilians dead.
The right gets to use this to demonize the Iraqi resistance (not too hard a feat considering) and, by extension, all those who oppose President Bush's programs.
The whole thing makes me sick to me sick to my stomach.
That they died is bad ; but, frankly those are the risks they take (speaking of the Civilian Contractors). Presumably they felt they'd be compensated for the risk they were incurring. From the MSNBC story - "Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said at a briefing in Baghdad that it was not known what the coalition contractors were doing in Fallujah - apparently without a military escort - when the attack occurred." So we don't know what they were doing, but one can assume they didn't go to Fallujah on a whim.
What's worse is the mutilation of the bodies, which is already being compared to what happened on Mogadishu. We all remember Mogadishu, when President Clinton cut and run, which the Right has always portrayed as proof to the Middle East that we are a weak nation. So this action makes it more likely that we will stay in Iraq; there will probably also be calls to pacify Fallujah.
And of course there were five American soldiers who died as well. Unlike the civilians they didn't have a choice about being there. And they don't have much hope of coming out of this situation with the kind of compensation that the civilian contractors would have presumably recieved. It's sad that such events have become unremarkable.
Anyway I wish those familes of the deceased well.
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