NYT: Hard Look at Mission That Ended in Inferno for 3 Women(Marines)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/international/middleeast/20marines.html

The 120-degree June heat and rising tension in Falluja had already frayed the nerves of the Marine women when the cargo truck they were riding in pulled onto the main road and turned toward camp. It was only a 15-minute trip. But the blast took mere seconds to incinerate lives.

The suicide bomber had waited for his victims alongside the road, and then rammed his car into the truck with deadly precision. The ambush ignited an inferno - scorching flesh, scattering bodies and mixing smoke, blood and dirt.

Several of the women lost the skin on their hands. One's goggles fused to her cheeks. After rolling 50 yards on fire, the truck flipped and spilled the women onto the road, where enemy snipers opened fire. With their own ammunition bursting in the heat, the women crawled and pulled one another from the burning wreckage.

<snip>

At the White House the next day, President Bush spoke generally of the insurgents' resolve: "It's hard to stop suicide bombers." Answering questions over the next week about the attack, the Defense Department issued assurances that the women had been adequately protected.

But an examination of the attack, pieced together through interviews in Falluja and the United States, military documents and photographs taken by marines at the time, shows the opposite. The military sent the women off that day with substandard armor, inadequate security and faulty tactics, and the predictability of their daily commute through one of the most volatile parts of Iraq made them an open target.

The injured women were also advised to not speak to reporters.

[NanceGreggs]

1. Another example ...

... of how Bush and his cronies 'support the troops'.

Shameful.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Kicked and recommended

[ninkasi]

3. Our fighting women deal with this...

"substandard armor, inadequate security and faulty tactics, and the predictability of their daily commute through one of the most volatile parts of Iraq made them an open target" while Bush preaches tax cuts to the rich. How much more armor will it take not buying to ensure that the wealthy are pampered even more? Bush is a disgrace to this country. He should be impeached, then sent to answer for war crimes at the Hague.

[Miss Chybil]

4. What a real story about real carnage to real troops?

I'm sure if we buy enough magnetic ribbons, this will all go away.

/sarcasm

[Cha]

5. Stunning that this news is coming

out about how bush lies and then we find out the truth that..LO and Fucking Behold ...the Women Marines were NOT "Adequately Protected"!

[saigon68]

6. Its hard to understand

Why anyone would want to volunteer to be part of this shit

[Erika]

7. None of the Bush tribe chose to be part of it.

Like Rummy said, the military is there to give kids who need educational assistance a foot up with monetary help... Yeah, and they've certainly lost more than their feet.

[saigon68]

9. Some examples

SPC. JOSE MARTINEZ, 20, 101st Airborne, was injured April 5, 2003 in Karbala when the humvee he was driving hit a land mine. Martinez was trapped in the explosion and suffered massive burns to his face, head and body. He has spent the last year in surgery and recovery at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Photographed April 3, 2004 at his home in Dalton, Georgia,while on a brief hospital leave.






Spc. Sam Ross, 21, combat engineer, 82nd Airborne Division, was injured May 18, 2003 in Baghdad when a bomb blew up during a munitions disposal operation. He is blind and an amputee. Photographed in the woods near his trailer where he lives alone in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania October 19, 2003

[MnFats]

8. appalling criminal negligence.

incredible....further grounds to impeach the so-called 'commander in chief.'

[Erika]

10. Never does a right wing site show the maiming of our troops

They want it swept under the rug as they talk about our great economy, etc.

[ngGale]

11. Too emotional for words...

:cry:

[xchrom]

12. fuck.

what else can you say?