no matter what -

i'm guessing these CIVILIANS would still be alive today (not even mentioning our 2,400+ dead and tens of thousands wounded) IF we were not in iraq. WE DO NOT BELONG THERE.

are the powers that be shoveling shite? i think they just may be - i hope and pray they are NOT but it sure looks like they are.

Press Accounts Suggest Possible Military 'Cover-up' in Ishagi Killings

By Greg Mitchell Published: June 03, 2006 1:40 PM ET updated Sunday
NEW YORK The U.S military said Saturday it had found no wrongdoing in the March 15 raid on a home in Ishaqi that left nine Iraqi civilians dead. But, as with the apparent massacre in Haditha, will a military "coverup" in this case come undone?The Iraqi police charge that American forces executed the civilians, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old baby. The BBC has been airing video of the dead civilians, mainly children, who appeared to be shot, possibly at close range. Photographs taken just after the raid for Agence France-Presse, and reports at the time by Reuters and Knight Ridder, also appear to largely back up the charge of an atrocity.After the attack, American officials said that they had demolished the house in an airstrike after insurgents fired from the building. One insurgent, two women and a child were killed in the attack, they said.After the Haditha killings, the military said all of the Iraqis had been killed in an explosion or a firefight."Allegations that the troops executed a family living in this safe house, and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an airstrike, are absolutely false," today's U.S. military statement said. It did not explain how so many children had been shot and killed.A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said Saturday's report, which cleared the U.S. soldiers, was unfair and rushed. The government will demand an apology and compensation, the spokesman said, if it's own probe turns up something different.More than two months ago, E&P covered the account by a Knight Ridder reporter who had obtained a police report on the incident. Here is our March 20, 2006, story, followed by a followup note, and the reporter's statements on a popular U.S. radio program........