I have seen several reports of soldiers firing on a vehicles that refused to obey signals to stop, forcing the soldiers to fire, only to find that they had killed unarmed men, women and children. The soldiers were devastated. Many have children of their own and saw their children in the faces of the children they killed. It's hell, and soldiers will spend the rest of their lives agonizing over it. Why did the driver not obey the stop signs in multiple languages and symbols, the shouted orders, the warning shots? Why did he speed up as he approached? Why?
Unfortunately, this is a frequent tragedy without a ready answer. Is it a "gross and disgraceful act"? No. In a war where car bombs are a weapon of choice, soldiers have no choice to shoot vehicles that, for whatever reason, refuse to obey orders to stop when approaching checkpoints.
If one reads carefully, it Massey stated the troops fired only after the vehicles failed to stop.
I was and remain a firm opponent of this war, and admit that American troops have made mistakes during the fog of war, but I object to your characterization of them as brutal savages who kill "unarmed women and children, indiscriminately".
On several occasions, his soldiers pumped hundreds of bullets into cars that failed to stop at U.S. military checkpoints, killing all occupants - who were later found to be unarmed, Massey said. |
