NEWS: Mass Grave Gives Up Its Secrets

Forensic investigators have been studying a mass grave in Iraq for clues to the occupants. They have concluded that those buried were Kurdish. The colorful garb was one hint, and some of the dead still carried their identification cards, which served as confirmation. 63% of the estimated 1500 victims were teenagers and children, according to investigators. They appear to have been killed by bursts of gunfire.



This is a sobering thought. All in the name of efficiency, right? It's sick, and sad. My only hope is that now the relatives of the deceased might be able to retrieve the remains, and hold proper services, if that's their wish.

Some opponents of the Iraq war say that Hussein didn't commit atrocities such as these. I too am an opponent of the war, but I don't doubt the man's brutality, nor his willingness to murder to achieve his goals. If this evidence is accurate, and Hussein is indeed responsible, how can anyone doubt the man's nature?

The victims were dressed in multiple layers of their best clothing, as if being told they were relocating. It brings to memory depressing parallels to the holocaust. My greatest fear is; we may not learn the lesson these graves can teach.

[edit on 30-4-2005 by WyrdeOne]

I have to disagre with the poster AND the news story. I see no 'efficiency' in this BUT more importantly- if this is what is needed to prosecute Saddam then there have been a whole lot os baloney stories being floated about the man.

Good find

You see no efficiency in this? Treating human beings like animals is the height of human efficiency. There's nothing good about it, if that's what you took my comment to mean. Tell me how this isn't efficient. You have a more efficient way of burying the dead? I'm sure the despotic regimes of the world would love your input if that's the case.

Hitler created the camps, the gas chambers, the work gangs, all of it in the name of efficiency. Similarly, Hussein's regime captured, killed, and buried people in the most efficient ways possible, to reduce the monetary cost of genocide, and conceal the crimes in the cheapest, fastest ways possible.

I think you're way off base Joe.

This is a sobering thought. All in the name of efficiency, right? It's sick, and sad. My only hope is that now the relatives of the deceased might be able to retrieve the remains, and hold proper services, if that's their wish.

What is really sad is that Saddam was so efficient in his killing of the Kurds that there may not be any relatives to retrieve the remains. The number they quoted sounds like it is possible that it was an entire village or more than one village.

Wyrde said
You see no efficiency in this? Treating human beings like animals is the height of human efficiency. There's nothing good about it, if that's what you took my comment to mean. Tell me how this isn't efficient. You have a more efficient way of burying the dead? I'm sure the despotic regimes of the world would love your input if that's the case..
.

Efficiency would have been to truly 'treat them like animals and make them PAY for thier own demise.

You think it's efficient to create a huge ditch and fill it with dead people?

That's just opportunistic- efficent would have been:



Have them create their own graves while building something useful.

I think you're way off base Joe

'again'

That's O.K.- what else and MORE important that I was getting at is this:

How can this (one mass grave created years back) provide any linkage that doesn't already exist?

IF more evidence (such as you postulate) was needed to condemn Saddam then what were the other reasons, excuses?




Then you go on to decry 'if this is . . .' Gimme a break. Thousands of Kurds were gassed by him along with Shiites- he destroyed the Marshes for Pete's sake-

This is news, but it is not what you play it to be. This is one more nail in a box full of them. All nails of sadness

Saddam is going to get his just deserves:

Thousands of Kurds were gassed by him along with Shiites- he destroyed the Marshes for Pete's sake-

I believe the incident you're talking about is still being tossed back and forth in the court of blame between Iran and Iraq. Neither one had any compassion for the Kurdish people, and either could easily be responsible for their gruesome deaths.

And in general, you obviously have your mind made up about certain aspects of the world. I don't, I'm open minded. Every piece of evidence I read, see, hear, gets assimilated into the big picture.

So allow me the right to leave myself an out, if in a month's time conclusive evidence should arise implicating Iran in the infamous gas attack, K?

As far as the mass graves, I'm not there, I don't know for a fact what went down, who is buried there, and who is telling the truth about the investigation. I present what I find, but always qualified. It's not my truth, it's their truth. If it ends up being not true, I don't want to be responsible for parrotting it without verification.

It's the only sensible mindset in a medium so clogged with disinformation.

The irony about this story is that if Saddam was responsible it is only because he recieved chemical warfare agents from the US during the 1980's. Even more ironic is that current Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld served as the Special Envoy that created a realtionship with Saddam's regime that allowed the transactions to occur. (- source) Saddam was a monster no doubt. But he was created in part by the short-sighted nature of our own foreign policy.

Delta 38


Thats the real meat here. Bush senior watch these crimes and did nothing. If you look into it a little more you will find US support(Bush and Clinton) for Turkey's war on the Kurds too. Iraqi graves a crime? Yes but there are bigger fish to fry.