Hate to say we told you so....

ALLUJAH, Iraq, April 30 — United States soldiers opened fire on Iraqis at an antiwar demonstration here, and according to local hospital officials killed 15 people and wounded about 75. An American officer said today that the troops opened fire after being "intentionally" shot at by some of the protesters, a claim disputed by residents.

Local people said the firing by the Americans was unprovoked as about 200 to 300 demonstrators late Monday night roamed between the United States Army headquarters and in front of a local school, which the Americans took over a few days ago.

The demonstrators "intentionally engaged American soldiers," said Capt. Mike Riedmuller, commanding officer of an Army troop with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Well, of course we fired! They deliberately enraged us. What else do you do when somebody, whose country you've just bombed to rubble and whose (grammar?) school you've just occupied, deliberately enrages you by holding a peace demonstration?

Riedmuller claimed that American soldiers only fired shots on people with weapons, yet at least one 15-year-old 9th-grader, Ahmed Mohammed Awad, was wounded in the clash. I know, a 9th-grader is plenty old enough to aim and fire an AK-47. Still, it looks bad, and in this situation, appearance matter as much--or more--than truth. Al Jazeera and other worldwide media outlets are running with the graphic footage of wounded and dead Iraqis and the incident is inflaming already virulent anti-American sentiments throughout the Arab world.

This story illustrates perfectly what people opposed to this war feared beforehand. We never doubted that the might of the U.S. military would easily roll over Iraqi defenders. That was a foregone conclusion. What we worried about was the aftermath.

The U.S. grunt on the ground in Iraq, now in charge of traffic control, aid distribution, restoration of utilities and services, maintenance of civil order, etc. does not speak Arabic, doesn't have the first clue about Iraqi culture, mores, or religious, ethnic and gender divisions--and doesn't care to! He most likely thinks all Moslems are terrorists and blames them for 9/11. Armed-to-the-teeth and trained to kill, these soldiers are unfit to control the civilian administration of an embittered nation, particularly while the vast majority of the rest of the world looks on, willing the U.S. to fail.

Inevitability, no matter what we do--even if, as will eventually occur, it is justified in the name of the self-defense of beleaguered and outnumbered American soldiers--will be misconstrued and used as propaganda against us.

Moreover, in this era--and especially in this part of the world--propaganda against us often leads to, god forbid, more attempted 9/11's.

Full story here.