Iraqi’s :“All we were doing was firing our automatic weapons into the air” (where a US war ship was on patrol) "and they shot us to bits"
American reply: No shit!
Record10Ti:
Unfortunately the following also falls into the “no shit” field
Americans: “All we did was return fire on people who turned out to be completely innocent and now the Iraqi people like us even less than before which plays into the hands of those opposing democracy in Iraq.”
**Iraqi response: **" “Nakai Shabib” (this means “no shit” in Farsi)
And obviously, if there were a few minutes between the celebration and the action of the airship, the wedding guests would not have seen the airship when they shot in the air and the airship came from far away. eithe that or you have to believe the airship watched the wedding for a few minutes and then moved it down, which I don’t think makes sense.
And obviously, if there were a few minutes between the celebration and the action of the airship, the wedding guests would not have seen the airship when they shot in the air and the airship came from far away. Either that or you have to believe the airship watched the wedding for a few minutes and then moved it down, which I don’t think makes sense.
Maybe they thought it was the Al Jareeza traffic helicopter?!!!
Good points. It’s not a strictly Middle Eastern tradition. All cultural issues aside, the basic logistics of emptying an AK into the sky in an area populated by your family and neighbors makes it pretty friggin’ stupid, even if you aren’t living in a country occupied by 150,000 foreign soldiers. That’s not a moral/cultural superiority issue, it’s just common sense. Buy some damned firecrackers.
It is, however, sad, and makes a difficult situation even more precarious.
Why such self loathing? Are American citizens the only ones on the planet that see things thru their culturally skewed eyes? Perhaps you might travel more.
Why such self loathing? Are American citizens the only ones on the planet that see things thru their culturally skewed eyes? Perhaps you might travel more.
Aren’t we fighting AGAINST people who want everything their own way, but lack the moral compass we have??? People that go chopping off heads; blowing up schoolchildren; treating women like domesticated animals, second in class to their camels and horses???
Dude, I’ve traveled more than probably 90% of the posters on this forum. Name a corner of the world and I’ve been there. I’m not claiming others don’t think in parochial boxes. But as defacto “world’s only superpower” we have an inherent responsibility to think outside of ours. Doing otherwise is proving dangerous and divisive.
“Are American citizens the only ones on the planet that see things thru their culturally skewed eyes”
Maybe not the only ones but certainly seem to stand out more. Reminds of the guy I met in France who complained that the French don’t know how to cook because they don’t make a good hamburger and fries like they do at McDonald’s.
Or the guy I met in Cuba who was there from the US illegally and told me that if anything bad happened while scuba diving in Cuba he’d sue.
Ahh yes. . .the fallback plan. . .lump ALL Iraqis, Arabs, and Muslims into the bad guy club. That way you don’t have to bother your conscience when you blast the innocent ones into oblivion.
Just out of curiousity, did anyone see a report that they were using automatic weapons? The OP said “fired” which I thought to mean something like a shotgun (probably very naive of me).
First of all, the vast majority of Iraqi’s want peace. I also believe that the majority of the muslim people are good people. But…lets face it…they are all imbreads over there. The don’t know how to liberate themselfs.
While this is wedding bombing is unfortunate, I am not surprised. You see, the insurgents (imbreads) are all over the place there. They hide in mosques, and store arms in hospitals and schools. They dress like ordinary civilians and take cover behind human shields. This is the enemy we deal with.
This is the ugly face of war. This is what we are facing.
“Such celebration is widely practiced in the USA.”
That is exactly my point, which makes arguing that it is a “cultural tradition” ludicrous, and likening it to legitimate cultural traditions fallacious.
The clothes you wear, the god you worship, and how you adorn yourself are cultural or religious traditions. Shooting guns into the sky is something stupid that drunk people do.(Or, if not drunk, utterly lacking in discretion.)
But hey, I’m just a close-minded troglodyte who thinks that endangering my relatives at a party is stupid. Maybe at my sister-in-law’s wedding next month I’ll unload a few rounds from my Gatt just to celebrate. (That’ll go over real good in Dorcester.) After all, we can’t be judging others…
The AK-47 and its hundreds of variants are ubiquitous throughout the world. Any third-rate metal-smith gun manufacturer can produce them by the thousands for pennies compared to more sophisticated weapons typical of the NATO countries. They really are a beautiful example of both pros and cons of mass-production.
Those are the most likely culprits. Those and some similar stamped metal pistols as well.
Wait, why are we just taking it for granted that there really was a wedding going on? These people are very good at manufacturing lies to further incite anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. I think the Pentagon is claiming they took out a camp belonging to enemy combatants.
There was a similar situation in Afghanistan, but the US military owned up to its mistake there and admitted they fired at a wedding ceremony. In this situation, the US claims they were reacting to hostile fire, and that there was no wedding anywhere around.
And admittedly, I’m no expert on Iraqi traditions, but doesn’t 3:00 am seem a little strange time of the day for such a party?
The initial report that I read on CNN was vague, but said “warplane” and I think it said automatic weapons fire.
The article on cnn.com right now says that it was planes providing support to ground troops who were being fired upon, and the various parties are arguing over whether it was insurgents, as the US says, or a wedding party, as the locals say. About halfway through it starts talking about the Afghanistan attack last year, which can be confusing if you just skim the article.
I think that the specifics are still pretty vague, except for the part about a lot of people being killed.
This was also an area of Iraq that is “mostly shepherds and gun-smugglers” according to one article I read. It’s 15 miles from the Syrian border, and it thought to be a popular place for foreign fighters to sneak in.