Iraqi Family Executed: The Stench of Truth

The stench of truth: a life for a life, to be kind is to be unkind.
~ Fire by Kitchie Nadal

The report out of Iraq that U.S. troops executed an eleven member family, including a 6-month old child, just smells truthful to me. The story goes that American forces decended from helicopters onto a house in the little town of Abu Sifa, north of Baghdad, seeking an Al-Quada member. After arresting the man they wanted, the household was handcuffed and killed with shots to the back of their heads. They then destroyed the house with rocket fired from the helos. The official version says that the house was destroyed in a firefight and the Al-Quada man was the only one left alive in the rubble.

• The odds that the only survivor would be the only one they were looking for are long, 12 to 1. I have a motto - There is no such thing as a coincidence. Its corollary is - This kind of luck is always suspicious.
  
• The report of the executions came from a dry Iraqi police report, believable because it is not propaganda.
• The hospital autopsies comfirm the police report.
  
• It is the kind of thing that happens when unit cohesion is still strong but morale is broken. 'Punish them that were hiding the bad guy.' 'There is no justice but my justice.' This the mindset of a besieged soldier just trying to survive his own terror.
• Why even the children? James Mitchner in his epic novel Centennial explained a similar incident where a cavalry troop massacred an indian encampment. "Nits grow into lice," the commander said.
  

From this distance, I can't know the facts. I can only guess. I can pray again, as I have so often with this war, that I am wrong. Problem is, I haven't yet been wrong.