Well, This Takes the Cake

They hate us because of our freedom—our freedom to act like vicious thugs and think nothing of it.

Dahr Jamail: How Massacres Become the Norm:

"On the 23rd of that month during Ramadan, US soldiers raided a home where a family was just sitting down together to break their fast.

Three men of the family had their hands tied behind them with plastic ties and were laid on the ground face down while the women and children were made to stand inside a nearby storage closet.

Khalil Ahmed, 30 years old, the brother of two of the victims and cousin with a third, wept when he described to me how after executing the three men the soldiers completely destroyed the home, using Humvees with machine guns, small tanks, and gunfire from the many troops on foot and helicopters.

'We don't know the reason why the soldiers came here. They didn't tell us the reason. We don't know why they killed our family members.' Khalil seemed to demand an answer from me. 'There are no weapons in this house, there are no resistance fighters. So why did these people have to die? Why?'

Khalil told me that the day after the executions took place, soldiers returned to apologize. They handed him a cake saying they were sorry that they had been given wrong information by someone that told them there were resistance fighters in their house."