So, the military paid out $20m for killing civilians in Iraq

[bigtree]

but, they don't regard that as an admission of guilt.

US Military Paid Almost $20 Million to Compensate for Deaths of Iraqi Civilians

By VOA News
10 June 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-10-voa9.cfm

A leading U.S. newspaper says the U.S. military paid out nearly $20 million in compensation for deaths of Iraqi civilians caught in the bloody fight against insurgent forces.

The New York Times says more than $9 million of that money was paid by U.S. Marines fighting in Iraq's violent Anbar province.

The newspaper says the figures were contained in a recent U.S. Defense Department report submitted to lawmakers.

The report does not include $38,000 in payments to relatives of dozens of Iraqis allegedly killed by Marines in Haditha last November. That incident is currently under investigation by military authorities.

Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli says the payments are not an admission of guilty, but are an effort by the U.S. to make amends to civilians who end up in the crossfire on the battlefield.

Question is, they're paying out $20m. Don't they have any interest at all in finding out who was an insurgent and who was a civilian after they bomb? No one is expecting our soldiers to get all of the identities of those killed by their bombs and bullets, but if they can drag terrorists out to show their bodies off to the world, they should be able to provide someaccounting of who they kill when they bomb in these residential areas.

The U.S. view seems to be that the violence commited by our soldiers is justified by the mission, and that everyone else in Iraq who violently resists is a terrorist. That shouldn't square with Americans as these troops continue muckraking with their guns and bombs.

Just calling the piled-up bodies, 'insurgents' and moving on won't square with the residents of these towns who lose their loved ones. Neither should $20m, passed out as hush money without any accountability for those killed.

[izzie]

1. And I guess Congress thinks it is OK? Bush's piggy bank is

our pocket book. The Gulf is in the pits and we give money to Iraq? Give me a brake.

[bigtree]

7. Maybe it should come out of the Marines' share of the budget

Iraq compensation payments up, especially by Marines

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060610/pl_afp/usiraqmilitaryjustice

NEW YORK (AFP) - Nearly half of the more than 19 million dollars that the US military paid out last year to compensate for killing or injuring Iraqis and damaging property reportedly came from Marine-led units in Anbar Province.

"The 9.5 million dollars in 'condolence payments' by the Marines reflects the persistent fighting against insurgents in violent Anbar, but it also provides a reminder of the heavy toll that the conflict has taken on civilians, mostly from insurgents but also from American units," said the New York Times report, which cited Defense Department records.

"The total does include millions paid to residents of Falluja after the marines cleared the city in block-by-block fighting in late 2004, as well as hundreds of smaller payments, from 50 to 50,000 dollars, broken by down by city and date," the Times said.

For the first six months of 2006, condolence payments provided to Iraqis totaled 4.9 million dollars, it quoted a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Maka, as saying.

full report: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060610/pl_afp/usiraqmilitaryjustice

[malaise]

2. Like money can

bring back people's family. To the fugging Hague.

[lonestarnot]

3. Like money is more important than lives.

[bigtree]

8. like money was 'condolence'

[Solly Mack]

4. You can't buy "hearts and minds" when you're blowing the heads off

people.

"Oops!Our bad! Here's a few thousand for your troubles"

I don't think so.

[bigtree]

5. but, but, we really didn't do anything

that would require an admission of guilt

[bigtree]

6. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked the Government Accountability Office

to determine how much of the money was given to families of victims of wrongful deaths, not accidents.

The nearly $20 million in 2005 was a significant boost from the $5 million given out in fiscal year 2004.

Newly released Defense Department figures show $9.5 million of "condolence payments" were given to innocent victims of Marine-led operations in Iraq in fiscal year 2005, the New York Times reported Saturday.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060610-093429-6257r.htm