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Iraq
Video shows mutilated US soldiers
2006-07-11
THE Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda has put on the Internet a video showing the mutilated bodies of two US soldiers kidnapped in June and executed to "avenge" an Iraqi woman raped near Mahmudiyah south of Baghdad. "Here is a film on the remains of the bodies of the two American soldiers kidnapped near Yussufiyah (south of Baghdad). We are showing it to avenge our sister who was raped by a soldier belonging to the same division as these two soldiers," said a preamble by the Mujahedeen Al-Shura Council, an al-Qaeda dominated alliance of armed Sunni groups in Iraq.

When guerillas learned of the rape, "they repressed their sighs to avoid news of the affair spreading but they swore to avenge their sister", the council said on its usual website. "Praise God, they captured two soldiers from the same division as this vile crusader. Here are the remains ... to rejoice the hearts of the faithful," the statement said.

The nearly five-minute film shows the horribly mutilated bodies of the two soldiers, who had had their throats cut. The head of one of them was held high by an armed man, like a trophy. The head of the other was being stamped on by another armed man.

The film is accompanied by extracts of old speeches by the head of the al-Qaeda terror group, Osama bin Laden, and the ex-head of its Iraqi wing Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who was killed June 7 by the US Army. The Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda said on June 20 that it had executed the two US soldiers whose bodies were found south of Baghdad.
Posted by:tipper

#29  Yes indeed! Hope we never lose it Sherry.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-07-11 21:58  

#28  Wonder what this discussion would have been like, a week before that first bomb was dropped on Japan? Dropped because, as many people as it would kill, it would end the war and save more folks lives. It worked then. What is the difference of dropping that bomb then, and maybe, taking out a few of these villages and towns in Iraq and Afghanistan? And maybe a few in Iran and something in NKorea. In Vietnam, we took out villages, and basically, our guys won that war. The press just didn't want to believe it.

Seems, it works when power of force is exercised. And another question, for which I haven't the vaguest idea to the answer, but we keep getting lambasted with the fact that our troops are stretched thin. Yet, never having been in the military, but married to a Marine, I can't help but feel, that our Navy and Air Force aren't being used to their capacity.

If I were a warrior, I don't think I would like sitting on the sidelines, watching soldiers and Marines, ( I do know, we got lots of AF and Navy folks on the front lines now ) knowing, we got some pretty potent power in our other two services. But then, I only watch war movies and the Military channel, and football and basketball and baseball. And when reading our milblogs and their commenters, sheezz, we hear about that million man army NKorea has, I just have to think, we got a million guys and gals, former warriors, sitting and working at home, ready to go, prolly within 72 hours when needed. Talk about experience they would bring to this "Greatest Generation" and what pain they could deliver to an enemy.

See, I believe in the folks of our country. Anyway, I'm back to the All Star game, pulling for the National League because of our Astros! It doesn't get much better than our Star Spangled Banner and jets flying over a stadium! Ever notice, no matter what stadium, what sport, who's singing, when those words at the end of that stanze,
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
begins, the entire stadium cheers? Interesting that.
Posted by: Sherry   2006-07-11 21:52  

#27  SF will make them pay (if they haven't already).
Posted by: Captain America   2006-07-11 18:19  

#26  when is a JDAM gonna hit al ji since they ARE alqueda propaganda wing
Posted by: Greamp Elmavinter1163   2006-07-11 16:23  

#25  "It's also past time to really stop giving a rat's ass what the rest of the world thinks."

Amen, BH6. The only people we have to try to communicate with are the Iraqis. If they get it, fine and dandy. If they don't, then it's well past time to force the issue to our advantage.

The rest of the world can kiss our asses. I liked flyover's Saturday post where he advocated the return of TDR.
Posted by: Wheang Spavirong9833   2006-07-11 16:12  

#24  Beat this one up...

How about we start off in a new PR direction. One that will bring the images they understand in a context that works for Iraq. The closest I've heard of was the Wolf Brigade (?) stuff, but I don't think they took the idea far enough.

At the next shithole we decide to sweep and clear we take the most professional MNF outfit - mixed Shia and Sunni if possible. Definitely not Kurds - or at least not heard speaking... embed the best combat cameramen (is it still 84Charlie?) and cover it - with sound. Edit up several 1 hour segments showing them in action, fighting for Iraq, killing bad guys. Bloody. Ugly. Nasty. Roll the bodies face-up. Take off their rags and show their faces. Make it pretty gory - none of this cleaned faces in a framed pciture BS. Use coalition air power and armor - but NO US or UK faces or voices - all Iraqis, all speaking local dialect. They should be the ones calling in the strikes - at least for show.

Put it on the Government channel with much fanfare. One hour per night. Use whatever descriptive titling would have the desired effect - The Cleansing of Ar Ramadi, or whatever. The ultimate reality show. Your country. Your Home. Your safety. Your men. In action. A completely Iraqi face and voice.

At the end of the very very bloody combat series, you follow up with garrisoning. Show the kids playing in the streets. Show the shops open and the Iraqi MNF mingling and high-fiving or doing sucky-face with everyone. Show the reconstruction. Schools, Water and power facilities. Plenty of gas in the petrol stations. Soccer games in the streets. All Iraqi faces. All Iraqi voices.

Yeah, it's obvious. Simple. Corny. To US. Maybe they can't make all the connections the way we do. Maybe this, or something similar, is the way to make the connections for them. In images and words and places they know and understand.

Just an idea that, as far as I know, has not been tried.

If it doesn't work, if they still don't get it, then we can always still go medieval on their asses.
Posted by: Wheang Spavirong9833   2006-07-11 16:03  

#23  I'm going to shock everyone and call for a unilateral and unconditional, total withdrawal from ALL Middle East countries, including Turkey. Once all US forces, US contractors, and US diplomats are out of all the Middle East (from Libya to Pakistan, from Somalia in the south to Turkey in the north), nuke the entire place until it's one sheet of glazed sand. THAT'S what it's going to take to end this farce. Islam is a "religion" of war. Let them have ultimate war, and be done with it.

As for the dummycrats, the Repuglycons, the MSM and the ACLU, it's time to do some housecleaning at home as well. Be sure to include a few dozen senators, congresscritters, and at least four supreme court justices, plus 80% of the ninth circus.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2006-07-11 14:53  

#22  I do like to think that these soldiers didn't suffer and were dead long before all of the terrible mutilation crap as Oldspook mentioned;

I get angry that they are able to do these atrocities and get away with them, but we are held to a higher accountability this is so very wrong.
There is no such thing as playing fair, we need to level the playing field, and nip this crap in the butt and to do so need to hit them hard. I believe we look very weak to them while being so PC and they will continue to do these horrible acts. They only seem to respond to direct actions, not PC lingo.

Posted by: Jan   2006-07-11 13:24  

#21  Tipper & Mike K. - I concur w/both of your COA's. In fact, I've been one of the biggest advocates on this site for summary execution of captured islamonutz & so called insurgents, but that doesn't go far enough, their co-relgionist enablers need to feel the pain as well. I'd even go for liquidating hate mongering imams via wetwork ops. As for the "moderate" villages I agree that you could give them a notice and then crush'em if they don't want to play ball as we did in WWII wrt the japanese. However, having been there, I've still no problem w/what I've already posted (yes, it would help politically to have the media blackout or not to do it at all) but at this point I don't think the muzzies would consider it desperation - that's what typical westerners would think, the muzzies would see it as the gloves are off. It would also prolly end up saving more U.S. lives. It's also past time to really stop giving a rat's ass what the rest of the world thinks.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-07-11 12:48  

#20  Decimate, decimate, decimate.

It's a lot of stress to put on our soldiers, so perhaps we should begin planting bombs and using death squads in the night as a kind of terrorism unexplained. The unit that tracks down the cells can be the unit that makes that nightly call.
We're looking into it, but we find no clues.
Posted by: wxjames   2006-07-11 11:10  

#19  Long past time to go Roman on the Sunnis in Iraq.

Pour l'encourage les autres.
Posted by: SR-71   2006-07-11 10:44  

#18  We need to stop taking prisoners of illegal comabatants. Taking out villages known to be on the other side works too.

Perhaps the leaflet should say:

"You have been weighted in the balance and have been found wanting."

24 hours before utterly destroying the village.

Kind of fits.... Eventually they will get the message. OTOH the palieos still haven't figured out that cause->effect thing so perhaps not.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-07-11 10:33  

#17  Broadhead6, I don't agree with you.
Doing that is an act of desperation.
The simple way to handle this sh*t is to stop taking prisoners. Just kill them whenever they pop their heads up.
The message will get through better, without handing a propaganda free kick to them.
Posted by: tipper   2006-07-11 10:03  

#16  Broadhead-
There's actually a slightly more humane approach that still gets the message across. In the last year of WWII in the Pacific, when 20th AF B-29s were about to hit a target city or town, leaflets would be dropped saying:

Tomorrow at such and such a time, the United States Army Air Force will attack and destroy this target. THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO PREVENT IT.

And then we'd burn the place to the ground. After a month or three of this, the message changed slightly but with great effect. It now said:

Tomorrow at such and such a time, the United States Army Air Force will attack and destroy this target. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MUST DO TO PREVENT IT.

...And the townsfolk would go to the local military commander and politely ask if he would move his troops or go to the factory and ask that it be relocated. I'm thinking a few of these in Iraq would work quite nicely.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-07-11 10:00  

#15  FYI Lidice
Posted by: Wikikwiki   2006-07-11 09:55  

#14  Sadly, I have no other real solutions on how to deal w/the extremists and their co-religionist sympathizers either. Other then going "hitler" or "genghis" on their collective asses I see no way to effectively end them. As we've noted on the 'burg ad nauseam the only way they understand is through brute force. We need to unappologetically make an example of a known terrorist sympathizing village (I know there's plenty) similar to what the Nazis did to that village in either Czech or Poland early on in the war - not one stone left unturned. Make it so attacking U.S. forces becomes so disadvantageous that they lose their stomach for it. I hate to come to the thought of scorched earth policies but I remember an old master saying often times one needs to meet people on their own level.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-07-11 08:56  

#13  Remember the Phillipines.
Posted by: newc   2006-07-11 08:55  

#12  This means that the guys who we arrested and are investigating for the rape are innocent then right?
They got there revenge. Now lets take ours and send Gitmo prisoners back from 30,000 feet.
Posted by: plainslow   2006-07-11 08:24  

#11  Any word from Amnisty International? Human Rights Watch? The ACLU?

Of course not. And the MSM will condone the mutalization (and focus on the alledged 'rape') since Muslims did it.

It isn't a war crime if comitted by Muslims.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-07-11 08:10  

#10  The brave lions of Islam have reduced themselves to kidnapping corpses and mutilating them.

Well, it's a step up from digging up corpses and mutilating, or bombing 50-year-old war cemeteries.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-07-11 06:47  

#9  Well said, Wheang. I held out for a while -- civility, rule of law, yada yada. F*ck it. Every move they make is a war crime, yet we're the ones under the microscope. And now their propaganda machine is making spurious claims that we will stupidly take seriously, drawing us into the same endless tit-for-tat the Israelis have been putting up with since Day 1. Peace will come only after we crush them. And I'm no longer real concerned with how we get there.
Posted by: Elmeanter Fluns9396   2006-07-11 03:17  

#8  The quandary is encapsulated here.

We can continue to fight our way, and eventually prevail after many many more are killed and mangled, or we can give them what they understand - much more of the Uday, Qusay, and Zarqi images, which they actually understand. Primitive? Of course it is. We are facing primitives - and have yet to fully grasp that fact and use it, exploit it. I can hear the derision and objections, but that changes nothing.

My opinion is we will get a lot "dirtier" before this is over. Or we will lose, clinging to the belief there is some sort of honor in that. I understand, but respectfully disagree.
Posted by: Wheang Spavirong9833   2006-07-11 02:10  

#7  FYI, they were dead before they left the site of the ambush - those were the bodies they captured - the soldiers were already dead.

The brave lions of Islam have reduced themselves to kidnapping corpses and mutilating them.

Posted by: Oldspook   2006-07-11 02:02  

#6  Disgusting.

They're just upholding a proud arab tradition, dating back to at least the 1930s pogroms in british Palestine from what I read, and actually probably a few hundred years before that, back to 7th AD.
This type of ante or post mortem mutilations was so common during algeria independence war that each french soldier (this was a draftee war, though a large part of the meaningful fighting was done by enlisted soldiers) was given a little booklet at his arrival in algeria, chokeful of pictures of mutilated bodies, head cut with gonads in the mouth, forearms flesh cut off to the bone, etc, etc...

This is part and parcel of the arab way of war. And I'd even say it's a very common feature of non-western wars; it's the western soldier who is the exception and actually fights fair and "humanely".
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-07-11 01:51  

#5  Spod, you forgot to mention their families as well.
Posted by: DanNY   2006-07-11 01:39  

#4  No hostages, no prsioners, no survivors.

Kill every last one of them and their coreligionist friends if that is what it takes to stop this death cult.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2006-07-11 01:34  

#3  Butchered to the bone like meat animals. No Mercy for the Arabs.
Posted by: ed   2006-07-11 01:29  

#2  Treat the gitmo folks as chum?
Posted by: 3dc   2006-07-11 01:22  

#1  Fortunately, there have only been 3 US military captives since the Hussein tyranny was tossed out. Rather than speculate on how they were Murdered, we should retaliate disproportionately. Savagery should not be allowed use as a weapon.
Posted by: Anginens Threreng8133   2006-07-11 00:16  

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