(Selective) Human Rights Watch has it's proverbial panties in a bunch:
A U.S. military offensive in Falluja last week in which 600 Iraqis may have died has raised concerns about excessive use of force and needs immediate investigation, a leading human rights group said Tuesday.
Civilians who fled the fighting described the streets of Falluja as being littered with bodies, including women and children, and Iraqi politicians have accused U.S. forces of meting out collective punishment on the city's residents.
Heaven help the the people and city of Fallujah if the United States Marines ever actually do use excessive force. But who am I to doubt the word of insurgents, their families, and Al Jazeera?
"The questions being asked are very legitimate. When you cordon off a town and hear many stories that are very worrisome about civilians being killed it needs to be examined," said Hania Mufti, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group.
Hang out at Free Republic for a while. I'm sure you'll encounter many more questions being asked that are very legitimate, though I doubt you want to hear them.
"There is enough from the footage we've seen and from what has been said about what went on in Falluja to warrant a very serious investigation. We are deeply concerned about the consistent reports we are getting about women, children and unarmed civilians being killed," Mufti told Reuters.
As Penn and Teller say, "Bullshit!".
She stressed that most of the information received so far was anecdotal and said no conclusions could be drawn until a full investigation could be conducted.
But it's the seriousness of the accusations that are important. Hmmm, where have we heard this before?
"I can't say whether any crimes have been committed ... but we'll certainly be looking into whether there was excessive use of force and whether the methods used by the military were acceptable," she said.
Why say it with facts when innuendo does the trick? Covers your ass better when the fact checking starts, I guess.
"We would call on the U.S. military to be as cooperative as possible with our investigation."
Will you at least give them the courtesy of a reach around? Come to think of it, I don't recommend that you try.
Oh yeah, the title was a line by Jeff Goldblum that cracked me up.