Military gives money to Non-Combatants...

[insein]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto.../marineswalksoftlyandcarryabigstack&printer=1

Marines Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stack

2 hours, 18 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo!


By Tony Perry Times Staff Writer

AL BO ALI DAKEL, Iraq (news - web sites) — In accordance with the brutal accounting of modern combat, cash payments were made Thursday to people in this small village who suffered during recent fighting between U.S. Marines and insurgents in nearby Fallouja.

The village leader received $15,000 on behalf of residents in compensation for dead livestock, uprooted trees, damaged fields and other losses. The Marines tried to bargain him down to $10,000, but he stood firm.


The son of a man killed by gunfire while driving in a battle zone received $2,500. And a man who said his 7-year-old daughter was killed as she tended the family's sheep also received $2,500.


Now that the fighting between Marines and insurgents has tapered off in the area, the U.S. military is attempting to make amends with noncombatants who suffered. The Americans hope cash will win friends and help bring peace in this part of the volatile Sunni Triangle.


Under Marine rules, a payment for a death goes directly to the family. Payments for community losses can be funneled through an elder, sheik or village leader.


"I know we cannot replace your loss, but we would like to offer a small apology in the form of $2,500 so we can move on in friendship," Capt. Kevin Coughlin, judge advocate general for the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division, told the man who said his daughter had been killed.


"I accept your apology," said Saady Mohamed Abdala.


Whether his daughter was killed by fire from Marines or insurgents — or whether the man even had a daughter — was not entirely clear.


"There's really no way to verify these accounts," Coughlin said. "It's really irrelevant. In making these payments, the U.S. is not taking responsibility for the loss, only offering an apology for a loss that occurred as a result of combat operations."


With a Marine disburser carrying a satchel with more than $80,000, Coughlin and a civil affairs team spent the afternoon combing rural villages just north of Fallouja, where Marines battled insurgents for weeks until handing over security in the city to an Iraq army unit early this month. Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed.


Under Marine Corps rules, the top payment a battalion can make for the loss of a family member is $2,500. There is no limit to the amount that can be paid for loss of possessions and livelihood, but the $15,000 paid to village leader Almas Tirkeq was considered on the high side.


That's a lot of cash to average Iraqis, in a land where unemployment is high, a private in the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps makes about $60 a month and a colonel less than $200.


Tirkeq, a large, ebullient man with a wide grin and ingratiating manner, had come prepared with an itemized list of losses, including two cows, five sheep, two donkeys, seven trees, several buildings and acres of farmland in this village of several thousand person.


"I hope this will better the lives of him and his people and we will be able to continue to work together," Coughlin told an interpreter, who passed on the words to Tirkeq.

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Money doesnt make up for the loss of a loved one, but its better than just throwing a blind eye to the situation. Just another example of how America goes out of its way to satisfy people. No one has ever repaid civilians for their casualties or property losses in past wars.

 

[The Worried One]

"The Americans hope they can pay cash to win friends..." True its better to make up for what we did by payin them, but that's a waste of money to settle the small claims that might have never happened. That just shows that we don't have a good foreign policy, all we have to do is buy people off, so we can have military bases there (coughTurkeycough). But that's the American way...

 

[insein]

Originally posted by The Worried One
"The Americans hope they can pay cash to win friends..." True its better to make up for what we did by payin them, but that's a waste of money to settle the small claims that might have never happened. That just shows that we don't have a good foreign policy, all we have to do is buy people off, so we can have military bases there (coughTurkeycough). But that's the American way...

We could have just said fuck em. Collateral Damage. Insetad of repaying the government and having it trickle down over years, they went right to the source and cut out the middle man.

 

[The Worried One]

Lets pay the entire globe so that we can have world peace...that's a better plan than invading everyone in the first place!

 

[cptpwichita]

or tighten security at home and recall all military overseas.stop all foreign aid and secure our borders and say "go ahead and kill each other,but if you mess with us it is certain annihilation."

 

[The Worried One]

I dunno bout all military overseas, but lets bring some home...as for tightening security, what for??? Anymore and we're infringing on the people's rights...like habeas corpus for instance...o wait...we're already doing that! However, i think we should be more focused on domestic affairs and less focused on takin over the middle east, i mean we've already got afghanistan and iraq, what do we need the rest for?

 

[Annie]

Lets pay the entire globe so that we can have world peace...that's a better plan than invading everyone in the first place!

Do you really doubt that Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Ford, Carter, weren't attempting to do just that????

Why the hell do you think we keep paying the Saudis, Palestinians, Egyptians? Damn! Because we like them???

 

[The Worried One]

That's my point...we pay everyone, and we wonder why our foreign policy isn't working too well...

 

[dilloduck]

If it is truly "not going well" what do you suggest we do about terrorists , worried?

 

[dmp]

Originally posted by The Worried One
Lets pay the entire globe so that we can have world peace...that's a better plan than invading everyone in the first place!

The only way to ensure peace is by having superior firepower - and using it.

 

[The Worried One]

Using firepower to create world peace...sounds like an oxymoron to me

 

[JIHADTHIS]

Hey Worried,

I notice you didn't answer dilloduck's question about what to do.

Even if you gave these fuckers all the money in the world they would STILL WANT TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

I really really can't understand why people don't realize how simple this is. World peace is a pipe dream. Ain't never gonna happen again.

 

[5stringJeff]

The money being used to pay local Iraqis is money that was captured in 2003 that was once held in Saddam's treasury. It's money that, in the eyes of the Bush admin., should have gone to the Iraqis anyway. So local military commanders are authorized to spend portions of this money in the best way that they see fit in order to build stability in their areas of operation. A good program, IMO.