Iraq vowed on Saturday to press on with its own probe into the deaths of civilians in a U.S. raid on the town of Ishaqi, rejecting the U.S. military's exoneration of its forces.
Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government would also demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the victims in several cases, including the alleged massacre in the town of Haditha last year.
"We have from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed," he told Reuters.
The U.S. military had issued a statement about Ishaqi saying allegations that U.S. troops "executed a family ... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false."
I wrote about the possiblity of this happening several months ago. I used the example then of what would happen if our government told us of a foiled terrorist attack and then we received a conflicting report from Al-Qaeda, who would you believe?
That question is still valid in this situation.
What is different however is the fact that the Iraqi's might be aware that many of us have lost faith in our military to tell the truth. It would not take a genius to take advantage of that fact and fabricate incidents to further shake our support for the war.
Having said that I am at a loss to determine who is being honest in this case. This does demonstrate, however, why it is so importnt for our military and leadership to be honest with us. And that includes when they are ashamed or embarrassed by the information.
How can you tell when you are the bad guys? When you have to give your troops special remedial training not to kill babies.
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