Should the People of Fallujah Have Gone After the Contractors?

[JCMach1]

I don't think it has ever been clearly answered what the contractors were doing there.

Was it justified retaliation for torture or humiliation?

Could this be an additional reason for the Fallujah pullout?

Is there more to come out about this?

Has your opinion changed due to recent revealations?

[slinkerwink]

1. the contractors might've provoked violence by shooting at Iraqis

[bluestateguy]

2. Fallujah

I don't know if those private security guards were engaged in hostile acts or not when they were killed, so I'll leave that question unanswered. Would the citizens have a right to defend themselves if they were attacked? Of course. But I don't really know much about the circumstamces of this episode.

Burning their bodies to a crisp and then publicly hanging them, however, is a clear violation of the rules of warfare.

[JCMach1]

3. Was it in response to another violation though?

[aquart]

4. "Should"?

I'm sorry. Are we playing by Marquis of Queensbury's Rules here?

A sovereign nation invaded by a foreign power has the right to free itself.

This is not a boyscout jamboree.

You want rules? Here's a good one: The people who start a war don't get a say in how it ends.

ANYTHING they do to us is earned. ANYTHING. We INVADED. The fate of invaders is ours. We've been having trouble grasping this. ANYTHING they do is justified. They are burying their families in mass graves in their SOCCER field. ANYTHING they do to us is justified.

Now we can respond with equal brutality, yes we can. But then we would finally have to face what we are and what we've done.

"Should." Please. The only relevant "should" is WE SHOULD NOT HAVE INVADED IRAQ.

[Carolab]

5. It was retaliation

A bunch of civilians had been shot shortly before. I believe it was in connection with a wedding celebration. The official story was that someone fired a gun and some US soldiers thought someone was firing on them...

[Must_B_Free]

6. I'm sure there was something we didn;t hear about

that triggered it, but there are no justifications to the attacks.

[VolcanoJen]

7. Does anyone recall a "Private Contractors" clause in the IWR??

I'm baffled... I don't recall the president being forthright and honest about the secret, corporate, no-chain-of-command military...

[clyrc]

8. quite a question, JC

I think I would have phrased it differently. No one should ever do those things to another human being. But it is highly possible that it was provoked.

[murielm99]

9. How many of them really stop to think about the difference

between the soldiers and the contractors?

Not that they are stupid, but they are all hated Americans to the insurgents. They might want to kill the closest convenient American. It demoralizes and angers the enemy either way.

[JCMach1]

11. Note, a good % of the contractors are foreign nationals

Also, the role of such people is ambiguous under the Geneva convention...

Thus, they offer deniability to the powers that be.

[Kremer]

10. From what I heard, the contractors were not to be in Fallujah at all! They

were warned to stay away b/c Fallujah has been a hot spot ever since our boys shot and killed 17 civilians during a protest in Fallujah last April. These contractors were in big Chevy/GMC? suv's w/ armed security guards inside w/them. They were in a convoy going back to Baghdad. One suv in front, then two 18-wheelers and another suv behind them. For some unknown reason, they decided to cut through Fallujah (shortcut)? Anyway, Fallujah only has one main road in/out of the city. They came down that road and were ambushed. The first suv was shot-up and had no chance. While they fired on the first suv, one or both of the big rigs were able to drive off and escape. They then proceeded to shoot and kill the people in the 2nd suv. Sounds like it was wrong place/wrong time.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. "Should the People of Fallujah Have Gone After the Contractors"

No the contractors were there because of a pack of lies!

[western mass]

13. The "people of Fallujah" didn't go after the contractors.

The insurgents did. The "people of Fallujah" were merely the recipients of the wholesale slaughter doled as collective punishment.

[KG]

14. if you're a foriegner in iraq and you don't wanna get shot at

then get the fuck out of there.

no sympathy for the capetbaggers, of any stripe, in that country to make money off of the occupation the iraqis suffering.