Video: Iraqi Shiite soldiers put the boots to Sunni insurgents
posted at 8:37 pm on January 25, 2007 by Allahpundit
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…while U.S. troops sit by and gawk. You’re seeing the cancer of Iraqi sectarian violence play out before your eyes, and you’re also seeing three filthbags who were caught with mortars get a taste of rough justice. It’s impossible to watch without feeling ambivalent — unless of course you’re a practitioner of the “conservatism of doubt,” in which case your heart will swell with ache and your only doubt will be how best to express your fulsome, bloodless, tendentious sanctimony about the affront here to the rule of law.
If you haven’t read INDC Bill’s post about recruitment day in Fallujah, scroll through it before you watch. The boy on the bed about two-thirds of the way down is the victim of a mortar attack. It wasn’t a direct hit, thankfully, so he only lost part of his knee instead of part of his head. Just a little background “nuance” to bear in mind when the poor naif in the video gets the business end of a rifle butt.
You might (but probably won’t) recognize the cryptkeeper at the beginning of the clip. It’s Jon Snow, who was last seen in these parts putting on a show of anti-Israeli bias so astonishing that even now it remains a benchmark for the rest of the Palestinian apologists in the British media. Don’t bother pointing out to Snow the dangers of mortar attacks; if Hamas rockets blowing Israelis to pieces don’t faze him, Iraqi shells won’t either.
You’ll be glad to know, incidentally, that the Iraqi parliament convened this afternoon to talk about security, and that the debate turned into a complete and total fiasco live on national television. The Sadrists seem pretty psyched about the Baghdad battle plan, too. What could go wrong?
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The only “shocking insight” discovered here was the cryptkeepers’ questionable taste in ties. None of this was new news – just another opportune moment for another snotty British newsman to engage in stultifying liberal “group think” with regard to terrorists and insurgents. If the American soldiers had intervened you can bet the story would have portrayed them as the aggressors in this mis-treatment of innocent freedom fighters. * cough *
thedecider on January 25, 2007 at 8:55 PM
I think you nailed it Allah.
I feel ambivalent. Part of me is sure I should feel disgusted and outraged. However, I know that I wouldn’t be too keen on people that were caught attempting to kill me and mine.
As for the US soldiers “whooping”, they were probably excited to see the Iraq soldiers doing….something (if the NYT article can be believed).
I thought it was interesting that they showed Alpha company praying at the beginning of the clip. I don’t know how common it is for US soldiers to pray before they go out on patrol. I do know that is the first time I’ve ever seen any depiction of them praying.
JadeNYU on January 25, 2007 at 8:56 PM
From the above link:
Looks like Maliki grew a spine.
thedecider on January 25, 2007 at 8:58 PM
War is ugly.
Zorro on January 25, 2007 at 9:03 PM
Just got done watching a bit more of the video.
If I’m not mistaken, he implies that US soldiers are getting draw into the ethnic cleansing.
Perhaps I’m wrong on this, but, allowing a beating is a far cry from allowing ethnic cleansing and I think it’s irresponsible to imply otherwise.
His tie is also irresponsible. Whoever is in charge of dressing him should be fired.
JadeNYU on January 25, 2007 at 9:06 PM
It may be messy, but if Iraqi Government troops crack down on insurgents, then it is progress. It is even more progress if the Iraqi Government troops crack down on insurgents whether the insurgents are Sunni or Shia.
Phil Byler on January 25, 2007 at 9:06 PM
What’s up with that tie? Talk about atrocities.
spmat on January 25, 2007 at 9:14 PM
Yes, but your version doesn’t put the American soldiers in a negative light – hence Mr Snow’s sole reason for entering journalism school and continuing to breathe.
thedecider on January 25, 2007 at 9:26 PM
Can we get Iraqi National Guardsmen to patrol Compton or East L.A.?
Truly, if the guy finds this “shocking” and “distressing” he should be forced to watch endless videos of gas attack victims rotting in the streets of Kurdistan.
Bah.
dostrick on January 25, 2007 at 9:28 PM
Let’s see…….
Iraqi soldiers stepping up and taking charge of their country, treating terrorists in civilian clothes, caught with mortars that fill the hospitals, as they should be treated to thwart the swelling of the ranks, is not a good thing…
But….
News coverage of how Saddam treated his people for 30 years and the untold tortures, rapes, and deaths….. non-existent?
A single rebuilt school, the thriving economy of the North, mulitple victories in battle, and the number of terrorists killed in this campain…….. never reported?
{crickets chirping again}
No wonder I feel ambivalent. Except for the tie.
PinkyBigglesworth on January 25, 2007 at 9:28 PM
I’m supposed to feeeeel somthing while watching that? I don’t get it. Poor Sunni babies.
Editor on January 25, 2007 at 9:33 PM
Judging this from the comfort of our malls and coffee huts.
We watch expecting to see an episode of ‘Cops’.
Now some sergeant in the 1stACR is a private. We sit here and don’t give a flying frig about him, we only feel guilty about the a**hole getting gobsmacked.
Leave war to the warriors. I’ll watch the re-runs after it’s over.
Limerick on January 25, 2007 at 9:37 PM
I didn’t see one beheading….
d1carter on January 25, 2007 at 9:41 PM
am I supposed to care?
EnochCain on January 25, 2007 at 9:49 PM
That makes for some frustrating viewing. The reporters use lines like “violence that has engulfed the city” and say that killings are happening on an “unimaginable scale” when neither is the case. Violence has not engulfed the whole city. Some neighborhoods, but not the whole city. And after World War II, we can imagine a scale of killing quite a bit higher than anything that is happening in Baghdad right now. There is more loaded language in that report than anyone should be able or allowed to pack in a TV wrap-up.
Bryan on January 25, 2007 at 9:56 PM
Awe come on. This is the first video I have seen of a loyal well trained Iraqi patrol doing their job, and a supurb one at that! This should be lauded as progress toward a self sustaining democracy in Iraq. The cryptkeeper is a fitting moniker to Jon Snow. Gloom and Doom personified, the freak! Here’s one from Frank Zappa “Watch out where the huskys go. Don’t you eat the yellow Snow!” I don’t know what to be more pissed at, the belittleing of the troops or a meddeling Brittish media zombie creating negativism and taking cheap shots from across the pond. Talk about a Sniper!!!
sonnyspats1 on January 25, 2007 at 9:59 PM
Terrorists were using little old ladies walking down the street as target practice for lack of Americans.Leaving love notes say we will cut out your tongue,behead you,and go after your families in the name of Allah the compassionate the merciful? The beating that terrorist got instead of cutting out his tongue and beheading him was merciful.
As for the tie;What brand of neopolitan ice-cream is he shilling for?
spazzmomma on January 25, 2007 at 10:12 PM
Well, at least we know what Andrew Sullivan is going to write about for the next few weeks.
Heart-ache.
Slublog on January 25, 2007 at 10:19 PM
Oh, my goodness; he calls that a beating? That YouTube vid of three junior high girls beating another girl was significantly more violent.
Snow needs to get out of Highgate now and then for a football game at Old Trafford. The drunk hooligans in Manchester beat their friends worse than that…
Jaibones on January 25, 2007 at 10:21 PM
Why are ANY journalists allowed!
The Saudi’s better not hear about their fellow Muslims using an “X.” They might think they’ve gone Christian.
Dude… nice tie.
Mojave Mark on January 25, 2007 at 10:32 PM
What this very stupid reporter repeatably fails to comprehend is that he is witnessing IRAQI soldiers policing IRAQIS. Guys like this are one of the biggest reasons we can’t get things done faster. Iraqis obviously can not comprehend western ideas of fairness or justice. What they do understand is the kind of justice these Iraqi soldiers are shown dishing out. I don’t see a problem here. If anything I see the beginning of hope that the Iraqis are finally standing up. Another thing worth noticing is how quickly the bad guys were spotted by the Iraqi soldiers and picked up. American soldiers may have driven right by them without a thought and later been on the receiving end of those mortars. The Iraqi soldiers can spot the bad guys in a second and the bad guys know it. It has already been stated on many insurgent websites and videos that the terrorists fear the Iraqi government much more than the coalition forces. Let the Iraqis deal with the Iraqis. That IS what we are working for is’nt it?
Guardian on January 25, 2007 at 10:32 PM
Puh-lease….
Mortars in his car, case closed.
I hope Maliki better make do on his threat….
I second the call for the Iraqi natl. guard to patrol Compton; the can stop by Oakland on their way!
liquidflorian on January 25, 2007 at 10:52 PM
I imagine the Brits are still baffled as to why the Dirty Harry movies did so well in America.
The irony of it all is that the leftists contend that the sectarian violence will somehow lessen if we leave. It’s not even at Bosnia levels now, but if we leave, the Sunnis will be on the business end of a Rwanda style ethnic cleansing, and few rifle butts to the back will seem like good times.
Dudley Smith on January 25, 2007 at 10:52 PM
Who ever said they were Iraqis? {MSM not reporting most of the violence is from outside foreigners}…
A journalist in an air conditioned office, thousands of miles away of what is actually going on?
Ohhhhhhhh, I get it, ………. Nuanced, again.
PinkyBigglesworth on January 25, 2007 at 11:01 PM
Oh, by the way, the bag contained mortars. But that’s not as important as the “savage” beating of the men who had them.
Troy Rasmussen on January 25, 2007 at 11:04 PM
A shocking insight. Unreal, is every reporter with a British accent a complete tool? So bloody dramatic.
Whoever said war is ugly is right, and cameras have absolutely no place in war. Get all the reporters out of Iraq and let people do what needs to be done. Man, this makes me so mad… investigations, blah, blah… I’m so glad I served before the age of imbedded reporters and the ultra-America hating journalistic community. This pompous ass makes my blood boil.
You can’t fight a PC war, that beating was nothing, nothing. I don’t know what to think anymore, basic training and boot camp has been watered down so much the DI’s can’t even swear at you anymore, all because of the friggin’ camera, and melodramatic idiots doing these sob stories…
reaganaut on January 25, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Whaddaya mean JadeNYC? His “Mommy, Dearest” dressed him! :-)
I tried to imagine Jon Snow as the Sunni with the Shia wife. Hard as I might, all I could see was whimpering fool grasping at that soldier’s ankle pleading for him to take them to a safe place, “Please, please, I’ll go right now and get my teapot!”
Dusty on January 25, 2007 at 11:21 PM
Stupid lib (I despise all moonbats be they Brit or US or martian.) I despise them all because they are stupid, deangerous and waste my time.
I mean, come on…they are upset about that beating yet they want us to pull out so that ethnic cleansing can begin? Liberalism is a mental disease.
JustTruth101 on January 25, 2007 at 11:23 PM
I wonder how many innocents those guys had killed before snow decided to come to their defense?
csdeven on January 26, 2007 at 12:04 AM
I could only watch about half of it before the moral posturing became unbearable.
You’ll have to excuse my French, but I don’t feel ambivalent about it. Until you’ve had incoming mortar rounds screaming over your head or exploding around you I don’t want to hear anything. Jon Snow, fuck you. If you had a tape of American soldiers running into a burning building you wouldn’t have run it.
I get so sick and tired of civilians commenting on this war without the least bit of context. Guess what people: war is hell. People get hurt and die. It brings out the worst in all of us. That’s what makes it so bad. That’s why when we fight a war, we fight it to win so we don’t have to do it again 20 years later.
JasonG on January 26, 2007 at 12:08 AM
How do you say “Please sir may I have another” in Arabic?
Theworldisnotenough on January 26, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Guys, Snow is the one who introduced the clip. He’s not the reporter.
Allahpundit on January 26, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Frustrating indeed. All that needs to be shown is a shot of the Iraqis doing their job, and add in a little holier than thou British commentary, and the whole country is in chaos.
Who knows why they treated the mortar carriers badly. I don’t think it was out of line at all. They were still alive when they were thrown into the truck, which is more than you can say for many of the people they were targeting.
R D on January 26, 2007 at 12:28 AM
WOW! What an observation. You can see more violence every day on utube or whatever cyber video store you frequent. The British are turning into French pussies. Which I understand are pretty smelly do to the not bathing thing.
R D on January 26, 2007 at 12:36 AM
This douche bag seems to forget the part just before they started filming as the mortor crew probably just shredded small children playing in a street somewhere. Nothing said about what was being done with those mortors found.
Egfrow on January 26, 2007 at 1:33 AM
So was it today or yesterday Allah linked to the NY Times story on US-Iraqi joint patrols claiming that Americans were doing all the work and Iraqis were just goofing off.
This report, which sounds like it involves the same patrols in the same or very similar neighborhoods, blames the US for standing by and doing nothing.
We’re simultaneously doing too much and not enough. I guess any way you slice it, it comes up failure for the US.
John on January 26, 2007 at 1:55 AM
The Iraqis just need to label these as “honor beatings” and the left will fall in behind them in support since it’s an integral part of the “culture” to kick the crap out of people trying to kill them in order to maintain their “honor”.
Faith1 on January 26, 2007 at 7:28 AM
What the hell is he talking about, calling this ’sectarian violence’? The man had mortars on him? That was violence against a terrorist. It’s hard to feel bad about that.
Kevin M on January 26, 2007 at 7:51 AM
Is “Snow” French?
Jaibones on January 26, 2007 at 9:08 AM
I don’t understand the point either. If cops in America found men armed with mortars, intent on using them to kill us, I’d be cheering on a beating as well.
And in Iraq, a country that’s had a long history of violence, I don’t really see how simply arresting the bad guys will make the kind of difference a few beatings will.
But even if you agree the beatings were wrong, why can’t you at least agree the men with the mortars were scum? Why can’t you spend more than a second mentioning the mortars?
Esthier on January 26, 2007 at 9:09 AM
My kid gets a worse whupping for not putting away my tools.
How anyone can call that a beating is beyond me. I didn’t see any blood, no bruises on his face, even.
The reporter obviously never had a wedgie before either. Otherwise he would have recognized that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach was actually his head up his ass.
Subsunk
Subsunk on January 26, 2007 at 9:16 AM
Honestly, my high school gym teacher put a worse whipping on me for giving someone the finger in his class.
My personal fav moment came in the last minute of the broadcast- for those who could make it that far without losing their lunch-…the warning note from one whack job religious group to the guy who married the broad from a different whack job religious group, “Leave the neighborhood or we’ll cut out your toungues, and kill your entire family, signed by Allah, the Compassionate One”
Priceless.
Alden Pyle on January 26, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Maybe we could learn a few things from our friends in Iraq!
Dread Pirate Roberts VI on January 26, 2007 at 10:52 AM
See the report again at there usual address:
http://www.BBC-BS.uk/allthetime/
Dread Pirate Roberts VI on January 26, 2007 at 10:59 AM
I’d cry a river, but I’m dehydrated….
Tim Burton on January 26, 2007 at 2:58 PM
I’d like to have seen this video spliced into a video of Saddam’s torture, killing and such….for context….
Tim Burton on January 27, 2007 at 2:20 PM
Amen. The military should remove all embeds, or at least those who produce the slanted crap we’ve seen in the MSM. One warning and you’re out.
BTW, is that tie used for their TV test pattern?
IrishEyes on January 28, 2007 at 4:06 PM
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