I just noticed the chociest quote in all the wedding party massacre coverage:
Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, was scathing of those who suggested a wedding party had been hit. “How many people go to the middle of the desert … to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilisation? There were more than two dozen military-age males. Let’s not be naive.” When reporters asked him about footage on Arabic television of a child’s body being lowered into a grave, he replied: “I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don’t have to apologise for the conduct of my men.”
I take two things from this that pretty much sum up the unsurprising and historically mundane colonial arrogance of Major General James Mattis. The first is that people who live in tiny hamlets such as Mukaradeeb (with all of 25 houses) are indeed far from civilised, and probably up to no good and should not expect to indulge their uncivilised traditions. And the second is that any gathering of 20+ “military-age males” in Iraq is now fair game for artillery barrage and aerial attack, not to mention ground troops liquidation after the fact. For a country where half the population is under 25, this means pretty much every city, town, or even tiny village is a “legitimate” target.
“I saw something that nobody ever saw in this world,” said Mr Nawaf. “There were children’s bodies cut into pieces, women cut into pieces, men cut into pieces.” Among the dead was his daughter Fatima Ma’athi, 25, and her two young boys, Raad, four, and Raed, six. “I found Raad dead in her arms. The other boy was lying beside her. I found only his head,” he said. His sister Simoya, the wife of Haji Rakat, was also killed with her two daughters.
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