Haditha

I should write about Haditha, but it's just too damn depressing. One rumor has it that the evidence against the Marines includes a cell phone picture taken by a Marine of another Marine shooting a woman and her children as she knelt begging for mercy.

So why did he take the picture?

Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."

An image from a videotape shot by a Haditha journalism student Nov. 19 shows what appears to be a morgue after an alleged retaliatory raid by U.S. Marines. (Associated Press)

The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on Nov. 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post special correspondent in Haditha this week and U.S. investigators said in Washington. The girls killed inside Khafif's house were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1, according to death certificates

Comments

  1. CapitalistImperialistPig4:45 AM

    Lee,

    This stuff is all but inevitable in this type of warfare. What I above all resent is leaders who sent these marines to fight this unnecessary war, have left them to fight it without the neccessary manpower and equipment, and covered up the incident when it happened.

    This war was a stupid idea from the get go, and Bush deserves tremendous blame for that. Worse though, is the fact that soldiers and marines have been made to fight it without adequate numbers or resources, and the generals and everybody else who knew that have consistently lied to the American people about it. Bush started this war, but the dereliction of duty has contaminated the entire senior officer corps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:20 AM

    Marine General Peter Pace said that it is critically important to make the point that if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity, they “have not performed their duty the way that 99.9 percent of their fellow Marines have.” He also said, “…there is no way to say historically why something like this might have happened. We’ll find out.”

    Of course no member of the Bush Administration or high ranking officer is responsible for this atrocity. I suppose it’s just those few “bad apples” acting up again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wadard8:19 AM

    As a citizen of a member of the coalition in Iraq, as an Aussie, I am sickened by the lack of ethics, humanity and basic decent values of our US partners. What sort of scum bag trash does the US military recruit, and then what do they teach them? Anyone who has follows Iraq knows that Haditha happens all the time. I can't believe how quickly I have gone from respect for what the US puported to stand for, to contempt but, hey, sickening hypocrisy will do that for you.

    On a positive note, I like your blog, Capopig

    ReplyDelete
  4. CapitalistImperialistPig4:15 PM

    wadard - I'm glad you like the blog, but I'm pretty sure that those who did this have their counterparts in every army. The individuals who did this will likely pay a heavy price, even if they escape conviction, but the true blame belongs to the leaders who put them in this situation without a plan and without a strategy.

    ReplyDelete

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