This is a very good link to a New York Times article.
The victims lie in a huddled group, some thrown backward, some to the side, others collapsed atop one another, their legs buckled beneath them, with telltale rips in their clothing showing where bullets struck their chests and stomachs, others with leg bones shattered by gunfire.
Some, including the Blue Man, who had rips in his clothing at one shoulder and in the chest, had bullet holes in their skulls as well, as if they might have survived the first volley and been killed by follow-up shots to the head.
The frayed remains of blindfolds, some fashioned from torn swatches of colored cotton, some from checkered, Bedouin-style headdresses known as kaffiyehs remained wrapped around skulls still matted with tangled hair.
Among most of the fully unearthed bodies, the wrist bones met together behind the victims’ backs, with fragments of rope and cloth used to tie them mingled with the earth-stained bones. The forensic experts say still more bodies, lying beneath the visible ones, may be exposed when the remains of the 28 men at the pit’s surface are lifted into body bags and taken away.
Ms. Grant, the Australian expert, and Mr. Juhi, the Iraqi judge, said there were signs that the victims were hurriedly seized at their homes, possibly at night, and given no time before being taken to their deaths. Heavy jackets and layered clothing ” including one man’s sweater beneath his flowing dishdasha robe ” pointed to the killings having occurred in the early days of the uprising, in March 1991, when there was still winter weather in this part of Iraq, they said.
A scattering of plastic flip-flops and sandals, and the fact that some victims arrived here barefoot, was further evidence that the men were surprised by their killers, they said.
Mr. Trimble, the leader of the mass graves team, said little he found here surprised him after a lifetime of studying violent death. “I believe most human beings operate on a least-effort basis, and murderers certainly do,” he said. “The men who killed all these people came down this road, and they did what all mass murderers do ” they dug deep, they killed their victims quickly, they covered them up and then they left, as quickly as they came.”
Heavy jackets and layered clothing ” including one man’s sweater beneath his flowing dishdasha robe ” pointed to the killings having occurred in the early days of the uprising, in March 1991, when there was still winter weather in this part of Iraq, they said.
But…Saddam really wasn’t that bad! George Bush is the real problem, and America is wrong. At least that’s what we are being told by the Left.
I remember the Bosnia/Kosovo conflict during Klinton’s watch. NO U.S. interests whatsoever there, no threat to the U.S., no real reason at all for the U.S. to get involved other than we are members of NATO. It was in Europe’s backyard. But we were told all about the genocide, and what the evil Serbians were doing to the poor, defenseless Muslims who were just trying to get by. We were treated to phony stories of atrocities by the MSM, complete with hugely inflated reports of genocide by the Serbs.
But went in we did and bombed the hell out of the Serbs, also killing civilians (collateral damage) which happens in every war to some degree (and of course we had to pay to rebuild it all after it was over). And as I recall except for a very few anti-war activists, the MSM, the Democrites, 95% of the Left had no problems whatsoever with that war. They loved it; they crowed about how we were stopping the genocide, how wonderful Klinton was for taking action.
Why, the “genocide” alone was enough to justify and in fact compel our action!
Fast forward to 2003. Now you have Saddam, who presented a very real threat to the region, supported terrorism, had and used WMD and was developing more, known to have murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis (orders of magnitude more than died in Bosnia), important U.S. interests involved on several levels. You’d think that by the same set of criteria applied to the Bosnia war, that the Left would be leading the charge.
But logic, reason, reality, sanity have never been useful or applicable to the religious Left.
Exactly Robert. Klinton was a coward and this was his way of making himself (and his crony liberal friends) feel good. At the same time Rwanda was happening but who cares about that.
It sure does make one wonder what on earth is in their minds.
So good to see George W Bush so motivated to stop the very same thing currently going on in Darfur…
..Chuck..
Chuck, do you think the looney left would support our going in Darfur and cleaning the mess up? Or would the left turn on our troops there?
4- I don’t know. How much did the loony left turn on our troops when we went in to Rwanda?
Side Note: An Army buddy of mine served in Rwanda. I have first hand knowledge of the events that occurred there, but I do not recall much opinion either way from the anti-war crowd.
..Chuck..
5- Correction, that would be “second hand knowledge”. I did not serve in the Army and have never set foot in Rwanda.
..Chuck..
Chuck, what country did your friend serve. The US? I know the UN had a mission during the latest slaughter in Rawanda. The Canadian commander wanted to prevent the slaughter, however, the UN refused to allow him to assist. And Chuck, you KNOW that if the POTUS supported us going into Rawanda or Sudan, the LEFT would oppose it, no matter how right it is to take action. That is the nature of regurgitated communism.
7- John, yes he was a part of the US Army. The mission was carried out under the Clinton Administration.
I wonder what mass graves from the 2003-2006 era will be turned up in the future…
8. Yeah, Clinton like to say we were going to help, like somilia, and pull out when things got tough. He did zip, internationaly to help others.
10 – John, I’m very sorry, I was mistaken. My buddy served in Somalia not Rwanda. When you mentioned Somalia in your post it jogged my memory. I’m sure that was a bit confusing.
..Chuck..
Roger, Rawanda was a UN Charlie Foxtrot, Somalia was a clinton Charlie Foxtrot. Charlie Foxtrot = Cluster F**K
I am sure we have had operators, Spec Ops, in Rawanda, but I didn’t recall any regular troops.
One little note on the Darfur predicament. The leader of Sudan has REFUSED to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur to stop the killing. He just doesn’t see any need for the UN to stop his fellow muslims from exterminating the non muslims in Darfur.