Tuesday, April 1, 2003 10:13 a.m. EST
Hero GIs Kill Car Full of Suspected Iraqi Terrorists
"SLAUGHTER."
That's the front page headline invoked by the New York Daily News today to report that seven suspected Iraqi terrorists were killed Monday at a checkpoint in Najaf, where just three days earlier four GIs died in an Iraqi terrorist car bomb attack.
"Jittery U.S. soldiers mowed down an oncoming van full of women and children," the News helpfully explained, before divulging the key bit of information that renders much of the rest of the paper's report inaccurate: "... when its driver ignored orders to stop."
In fact, though it's still not clear whether the car loaded up with women and children were part of a second terror operation against the same unit that was attacked on Saturday, the U.S. media is replete Tuesday morning with reports that paint the shooting as an atrocity.
"American troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle. ..." [The New York Times]
"U.S forces shot at a van full of women and children. ..." [The Wall Street Journal]
"U.S. troops killed at least seven Iraqi women and children. ..." [CBS News]
"Despite the killing of seven Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops at a checkpoint. ..." [ABC News]
Reporters are certain, of course, that the dead Iraqis were innocents, despite Central Command's account of the incident, which suggests behavior that was highly suspicious and very similar to past terrorist car bomb attacks on U.S. targets.
According to GIs on the scene, "soldiers motioned for the driver to stop but were ignored. The soldiers then fired warning shots, which also were ignored. They then shot into the vehicle's engine, but the van continued moving toward the checkpoint."
Not surprisingly, the Washington Post, which has taken the lead among the prestige press in second-guessing the Pentagon's war strategy, offers a different version of the incident, with one of its embedded reporters quoting Division Capt. Ronnie Johnson. Capt. Johnson, at least initially, believed that no warning shots had been fired.
The Post downplayed the account of the GI who was actually charged with stopping the van, saying that others at the scene "accepted the platoon leader's explanation to Johnson on the military radio that he had, in fact, fired two warning shots."
Warning shots or not, why did the suspected terrorist vehicle, in the Post's own words, come "barreling" toward the Najaf checkpoint in a manner unlike "others who approached the intersection"?
The Post, as well the rest of the "blame America first" press, offers no clue.
But this much is clear. When U.S. soldiers opened fired on that Iraqi van on Monday, its driver and occupants were acting very much like terrorists.
And that makes the GIs who shot in self-defense not killers of innocent civilians - but instead, very much genuine heroes who were acting to thwart another potentially deadly terrorist attack.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias
War on Terrorism
Editor's note:
Breaking on FOX... First Suicide Bomber was forced to set off bomb at check point that killed 4 soldiers. They threatened to kill his children and the money paid out to his family was hush money. The van full of women and children were also forced and threatened.
Hero GIs Kill Car Full of Suspected Iraqi Terrorists
"SLAUGHTER."
That's the front page headline invoked by the New York Daily News today to report that seven suspected Iraqi terrorists were killed Monday at a checkpoint in Najaf, where just three days earlier four GIs died in an Iraqi terrorist car bomb attack.
"Jittery U.S. soldiers mowed down an oncoming van full of women and children," the News helpfully explained, before divulging the key bit of information that renders much of the rest of the paper's report inaccurate: "... when its driver ignored orders to stop."
In fact, though it's still not clear whether the car loaded up with women and children were part of a second terror operation against the same unit that was attacked on Saturday, the U.S. media is replete Tuesday morning with reports that paint the shooting as an atrocity.
"American troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle. ..." [The New York Times]
"U.S forces shot at a van full of women and children. ..." [The Wall Street Journal]
"U.S. troops killed at least seven Iraqi women and children. ..." [CBS News]
"Despite the killing of seven Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops at a checkpoint. ..." [ABC News]
Reporters are certain, of course, that the dead Iraqis were innocents, despite Central Command's account of the incident, which suggests behavior that was highly suspicious and very similar to past terrorist car bomb attacks on U.S. targets.
According to GIs on the scene, "soldiers motioned for the driver to stop but were ignored. The soldiers then fired warning shots, which also were ignored. They then shot into the vehicle's engine, but the van continued moving toward the checkpoint."
Not surprisingly, the Washington Post, which has taken the lead among the prestige press in second-guessing the Pentagon's war strategy, offers a different version of the incident, with one of its embedded reporters quoting Division Capt. Ronnie Johnson. Capt. Johnson, at least initially, believed that no warning shots had been fired.
The Post downplayed the account of the GI who was actually charged with stopping the van, saying that others at the scene "accepted the platoon leader's explanation to Johnson on the military radio that he had, in fact, fired two warning shots."
Warning shots or not, why did the suspected terrorist vehicle, in the Post's own words, come "barreling" toward the Najaf checkpoint in a manner unlike "others who approached the intersection"?
The Post, as well the rest of the "blame America first" press, offers no clue.
But this much is clear. When U.S. soldiers opened fired on that Iraqi van on Monday, its driver and occupants were acting very much like terrorists.
And that makes the GIs who shot in self-defense not killers of innocent civilians - but instead, very much genuine heroes who were acting to thwart another potentially deadly terrorist attack.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias
War on Terrorism
Editor's note:
Breaking on FOX... First Suicide Bomber was forced to set off bomb at check point that killed 4 soldiers. They threatened to kill his children and the money paid out to his family was hush money. The van full of women and children were also forced and threatened.
