Horrible Report: US Planes Attack Iraqi Wedding Party, Killing 40

Just terrible, terrible news, and potentially the sort of thing that will put Iraq over the edge.

This is one of the problems with "staying longer, doing more." These sorts of incidents are nearly unavoidable. Like rolling snake-eyes in craps, they're not very likely but they will occur given enough rolls. You can hope and pray that snake-eyes won't come up, and, if you're extremely lucky, maybe they won't.

But they usually will. Sometimes at the worst possible time.

The pilot in question probably had ever reason, from his perspective, and acting on the limited knowlege he had, to fire on the revellers, who were, of course, practicing the utterly stupid tradition of firing off their AK-47's in celebration. Not smart during a fucking war.

But the Iraqis, of course, will cut us no slack on that score.

At this point, this is just a "report," and, who knows, it's possible that the pilot actually fired on an enemy position, accidentally killing some women and children, and the PR-conscious terrorists immediately decided to start claiming "wedding party."

Perhaps. But we're sad to say that this probably was in fact a wedding party, and this calamity could cause massive problems in the country.

Our hearts go out to all the innocent dead, and to the pilot in question, who more than likely was confronted with what he believed to be hostile fire and acted appropriately and honorably -- but disastrously and tragically -- given the report of his senses.

posted by Ace at 01:44 PM

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