That was early May of this year. Less than two months later, halfway across the world, another tribal affair was underway. The age of the bride involved is unknown to us, as is her name. No reporters were clamoring to get to her section of the mountainous backcountry of Short Prom Dresses near the Pakistani border. We know almost nothing about her circumstances, except that she was on her way to a nearby village, evidently early in the morning, among a party 70-90 strong, mostly women, "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates". 

It was then that the American plane (or planes) arrived, ensuring that she would never say her vows. "They stopped in a narrow location for rest," said one witness about her house party, according to the BBC. "The plane came and bombed the area." The district governor, Haji Amishah Gul, told Homecoming Dresses Times of London, "So far there are 27 people, including women and children, who have been buried. Another 10 have been wounded. The attack happened at 6:30am. Just two of the dead are men, the rest are women and children. The bride is among the dead." 

US military spokespeople flatly denied the story. They claimed that Taliban insurgents had been "clearly identified" among the group. "[T]his may just be normal, typical militant propaganda," said 1st Lieutenant Nathan Perry. Despite accounts of the wounded, including Discount Pageant Dresses and children, being brought to a local hospital, Captain Christian Patterson, coalition media officer, insisted, "It was not a wedding party, there were no women or children present. We have no reports of civilian casualties." The members of an Afghan inquiry, appointed by President Hamid Karzai, later found that, in all, 47 civilians had died, including 39 women and children, and nine others were wounded. 

Here's another American take on what happened: "The US military has denied allegations that its forces ... killed dozens of people celebrating a marriage ... 'We took hostile fire and we returned fire,' said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations ... He said there Discount Plus Size Dresses no indications that the victims of the attack were part of a wedding party." 

Oh, my mistake. Kimmitt was denying that a different wedding party had been obliterated - in the western Iraqi desert, near the Syrian border, in May 2004. In that case, the wedding feast was long over. The celebrations had ended and the guests were evidently in bed when the US jets arrived. More than 40 people died, including children, women, musicians and a well-known Iraqi wedding singer hired for the event. According to Rory McCarthy of the British Guardian, who interviewed some of the hospitalized survivors, 27 members of one extended family died when the jets arrived. 

In response to reports on that 2004 killing, Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st US Marine Division, asked the following question: "How many people go to the middle of the desert ... to hold a wedding 80 miles [128 kilometers] from the nearest civilization?" And, in an e-mail responding to questions from a New York Times reporter, Kimmitt later offered what was, by US military standards, little short of an admission: "Could there have been a celebration of some type going on? ... Certainly. Bad guys have celebrations. Could this have been a meeting among the foreign fighters and smugglers? That is a possibility. Could it have involved entertainment? Sure. However, a wedding party in a remote section of the Discount Black Prom Dresses along one of the rat lines, held in the early morning hours strains credulity." 

The comments of Mattis and Kimmitt deserve, of course, to go directly into the annals of American military quotes, right next to that Vietnam-era classic: "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."