Note that this protest took place at night.

Who the heck holds protests at night?

It seems very likely to me that the military is telling the truth, and that this "protest" was actually an intentional provocation.

Following the al-Jazeera link to its story, there is a picture of a funeral and a demonstration. Not being able to read the site, it is not clear if the picture is of the demonstration at which these deaths occurred, but if so I don't see a bunch of children.

But it is likely just a file photo of a generic protest.

So Iran has decided to play its cards now, before the democratic process starts to get results.

What a bunch of assholes. This will cause some anti-American feeling and will be widely reported, but ultimetly I have faith in the Iraqi people, who don't want a theocratic state.

Something needs to be done to these Iranian mullahs, they're like a bad toothache.

Actually I guess it's normal for the Iranians to be panicking at their ultimate demise. However to arm kids and use them to get a deadly response just shows how primitive and screwed up these nutbags are.

State wants to grind the Iranians down, using the natural momentum inside Iran to provoke a revolution. My guess is that there's a level at which Bush will say 'enough' and place responsibility in the hands of the Pentagon. After all it's just a bunch of old priests we're talking about here.

There's a certain point where Iranian mullahs need a message to be sent to them, in the form of a non-religious, secular JDAM. Iranian citizens will applaud us - the Arab world will cower. Perhaps we're reaching that point now.

Protests are better at night. I've noticed that news coverage is better and any banners you have are easier to read with the sky full of flares. Why we don't do protests at night in N.A. has always been a puzzle to me?? So much we can learn from these people and so little information.

I see the press is easily won over. The headlines are all about the numbers killed and the content is about bloody people at a hospital. Note that it's 'Not' about people in the night 'attacking' US forces who are bedding down for the night. Naw - why point that out? Headline should read - " US troops in jammies attack sleepy kids hugging AK-47s".

Just another desperate failed attempt to make the Americans look bad. The Americans have PROVEN their integrity and the enemy has proven their LACK of it.

If there has been a victim of this war, it's the international media. I don't know about you but I trust the blogs more than I do the current crop of journos. Somewhere along the line they forgot that thier job is not to entertain or give opinions but to report the facts and let ME decide.

I am absolutely certain that 99% of their time is spent on 1% of the actual day-to-day of liberated Iraq, and that 1% of thier time is spent on the 99% of things I want ot hear about, like reconnection of Iraqi water and electricity, what the liberated Iraqis are reading and watching, what the majority really think of the Shiite extremists etc. It's not just Al-J but CNN, BBC, Reuters.

Pathetic. Does anyone agree with this or am I the only one ??

Protesters don't carry guns, they carry signs. People with guns who shoot at you are combatants, and should expect to have that fire returned. If they are stupid enough to fire on someone with superior training and equipment they should expect to die...

What kind of idiot reportage are we getting here?

Oh trust me, there are millions that feel the same way, Ted. This war has been a real awakening experience for most Americans, and intelligent people abroad. The overwhelmingly obvious bias from the above mention media was unbelievable! Just like the politicians that behaved so unbelievably pro-Sadam, there is a possibility that they we're also on the take. Eason Jordan, president of CNN, realized the s--- was about to hit the fan, so he fessed up that their reporting had been lies all along, just so they could get along with Sadam! We cannot let this blow over! I will never forget, and will do what I can to see that no one else does either.

Thank god for Fox News....they have been the most responsible media by far. I will never forget that, either.

I know the whiners will pop up now and tell us how wrong we are. They're opinions effect us about as much as the media that we despise so much. Big fat zero.

I agree with Ted and Jeff B.

it occured to me yerterday when i was reading about the money saddam was putting into buying journalists around the world, that this may be the smoking gun for CNN that they dont want the american public finding out about. maybe that is way they went ahead with the story about having to hedge their credibilty.

Gee, I wonder what would happen if they "protested" in SF with ak47 picket signs, and being the SF type of protester, started shooting up the hood, do you think those protestors would get shot by the local police? I would think so

Remember during the ran-Iraq war, the Iranian Mullahs sent thousands upon thousands of children against the front lines of the Iraqis. Most of them were slaughtered. The Iranians were/are brutal.

There is no doubt that this is an Iranian provocation. They can continue to do this for a long time, biasing the population against us and bleeding us with casualties. Sort of like a mini-Vietnam.

If it gets too bad, we need to do what was done in the real Vietnam: bomb the hell out of the source of the problem - Iran.

Hopefully we can topple their government first.

Hey... last time they were playing with us, we shot down am Iranian civilian airliner... no... bad idea :-) But we did take out their coastal oil facilities.

Seriously, we need to destabilize that government. The people hate the Ayatollahs. We should arm *their* demonstrators. We should teach them to sabotage public infrastructure - power, water, etc - to delegitimize the government. We may want to quietly arrange for a death or two in the power structure. When it's time for the revolution to start, we bomb the secret police headquarters and suppress the Iranian air force.

Could be fun. Knock down another from the Axis of evil. Free a far more pro-American population than in Iraq. And scare the hell out of Syria, Korea, and France (if their pants are brown already).

Alright... I added France just for effect.

Ted and Lurch237,

These events were not in a Shiite town. The protestors are Sunni so it is doubtful that Iranian interference played a roll. This is not to say that the Iranians won't realize the potential of demonstrations that get out of hand to advance their political objectives.

These events underscore the benefits of doing these kinds of things through the U.N. or at least relying on professionals to secure the post-combat environment. American soldiers are not trained to police demonstrations. The United Nations would have a more credible policing legitimacy and the member nations would be shielded somewhat from culpability though international mandate. Blaming the French or blaming Bush doesn't change the nature of our dilemma.

The 'truth' of what happened doesn't really matter. If this massacre wasn't 'engineered' by opponents of America, others soon will be. We have to be prepared to face this. Taking the Mosul massacre of two weeks ago, it seems we have allowed ourselves into a position where we can be drawn into killing civilians demonstrators at the will of our opponents.

"Eason Jordan, president of CNN, realized the s--- was about to hit the fan, so he fessed up that their reporting had been lies all along,...
Thank god for Fox News....they have been the most responsible media by far. I will never forget that, either. "

Get a clue. di dyou read Jordan's peice? I doubt it. Indeed it looks like Fox's co-owned Sky did a lot worse in China.

"There is no doubt that this is an Iranian provocation.
Posted by John Moore (Useful Fools at April 29, 2003 03:27 PM "

Err what there is no doubt of is that you didn't read the article and you haven't the faintest idea aobut Iran or Iraq. The town is a sunni stroghold with no Iranian influence at all.

Stop making idiotic comments to suit your own ignorant conclusions, and read just a tiny bit first.