“WASHINGTON - A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines “killed innocent civilians in cold blood,” a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.
From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children.
Full story here
Here’s how Time broke the story back in March:
One Morning in Haditha
U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A TIME exclusive
I wrote about this here:
Children of Abraham - Death in the Desert
A few things need to be said about this disgusting disgraceful barbaric episode:
This crime was committed by a group of men completely and totally out of control - they literally went berserk.
It proves yet again as though proof were needed that American troops are exactly same as anyone else and given the right circumstances they’ll behave as barbarically as everyone else. I am not even slightly surprised by this. I wasn’t even slightly surprised at the time and I’m unsurprised now. Disgusted outraged infuriated yes I’m all those things what I amn’t is even slightly surprised.
This filth is done by soldiers in all wars. It is particularly common in colonial wars and it is particularly common in civil wars. The war being waged by America in Iraq is both. The only difference between this particular act of barbarity and all the other acts of barbarity is that this group of men instead of sub-contracting the murder and mayhem to a mercenary firm or to one of their local hired killers decided spontaneously to do the job themselves. That’s the only difference. NO not quite the only difference:
As to this from Rep. Murtha:
“There was no firefight. There was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed those innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report is going to tell.” [Emphasis mine - markfromireland]
Murtha and everyone else who peddles this line are at best being somewhat naive. This was not an “overreaction” this was the inevitable result of bad training, being on the losing side, and of having been indoctrinated for years that the people who live in the country in which you are fighting, man, woman, and child, are subhumans without honour, dignity, or rights. It is the inevtable result of being taught for years that you are the “good guy” and that you are entitled to behave as you will because you’re the “good guy.” The other difference between this and the other numerous warcrimes being committed in Iraq on all sides is that this pack of murderers got caught. There is one last thing to be said - the blood of the people murdered in Haditha is on those mens hands. But they have American blood on their hands too. Their wantonly savage behaviour has served only to deepen the hatred and the contempt in which the people in whose country American soldiers routinely commit crimes regard all American soldiers. By serving as recruiting sergeants for those fighting against them those men have directly contributed to the deaths of the Amercian and allied armed forces personnel killed in Iraq since the massacre at Haditha.
markfromireland
No tag for this post.
Are any of your regular readers surprised at any of this? No - it’s beyond time for the US to leave!
I am acutely ashamed of this. I was ashamed of My Lai. It is like they (BushCo) are going to drive us down as far as we can go before they are driven out. He will never survive two more years of a failing presidency.
Doc it is part of the logic of empire. Once a country decides to go down that route this becomes inevitable. Every colonial empire does it. It’s the basis upon which they’re built and the basis upon which their prosperity is built. The US behaved like savages in the Philippines, the French in North Africa, the Belgians in Congo, the British in …. OK you get the idea.
Once a country decides that it wants to be either an outright colonial empire by annexing territory the way the European empires did it. Or by hegemonism the way the US does it this sort of filth becomes inevitable. And the reason for it is equally clear in order to achieve empire the imperialists must first decivilise their own society. Armies and police reflect, are a microcosm of, the societies from which they come.
The late J.K Galbraith wrote about “The Predator Society” (you’ll have to google for it I’m up to my ears elsewhere tonight) warning exactly what would happen and its happening both domestically and in Iraq debacle.
But imperialism has a soft white underbelly and it’s this - imperialists have no way of reacting to massively escalating costs, in all senses of that word “cost.” The average American has been perfectly willing to enjoy the benefits and not enquire too closely as to the bill or when the bill will fall due. The bill’s being presented and it’s at compound interest. I don’t think that the US has quite decivilised itself to the point where it can’t extricate itself with some shreds intact - there are a lot of people like you, and a lot of other people are now realising that they’re next and in their own country too. Haul the dirt foreign and domestic into the light and punish those responsible. Really punish them, jail, total confiscation of assets, public contumely, otherwise you’ll just keep spiralling down.
As I keep on saying there’s nothing wrong with enlightened self-interest.
I’ll update the posting later but Knight-Ridder had a great report on all this back in March here
For my American readers I’ve a suggestion - read it and then ask youself this question - why did Knight-Ridder place the following in emphasis:
Three Knight Ridder Newspapers special correspondents contributed to this report. Their identities are being withheld for security reasons.
Then ask yourself from whom are those three people being protected.
You won’t like the answer you come up with but that’s your problem to fix not mine, it’s not my country that’s behaving in this way, it’s yours.
You said it all so well, Mark.
I get extremely frustrated (which is so lame compared with what the Iraqis are suffering) when I hear people like Murtha rightly condemn barbaric behaviour and then largely undo it by saying the barbarians are stressed. SO!!!
It’s only under extreme stress that character is shown or not shown. To say people with no character behaved badly because they were stressed is just so much bullshit.
I’m not singling out American Soldiers here, either. It happens wherever people of little character are given authority and when the responsibility for that authority is not enforced then things slide downhill very fast.
War provides the cover for all manner of creatures that spend their lives under rocks to come out. Talk about Pandora’s Box.
Good on Knight Ridder for shining a light on it and good on you, Mark, for pointing out the risk the reporters are taking (now, that’s character) and from whom (those of NO character)
Billmon’s take on it -
” “This one is ugly,” one official told NBC News.
Ugly? That doesn’t even begin to cover it. Dick Cheney is ugly. The Pentagon is ugly. An Abrams tank is ugly. Executing helpless women and children while they’re huddled on the floor, praying to their God, is a war crime committed by terrorists. It’s Lidice and Rwanda and Srebrenica and, of course, My Lai. The men who committed this crime aren’t really human any more — they shed their humanity like a snake sheds its skin when they walked into those houses and started shooting. All that’s left of them is a dark pit at the center of their reptilian brain stems, a place that knows no pity or remorse or even self-awareness. They’re lost souls — lost to the world and to themselves.”
Too true.
More here-
http://billmon.org/archives/002452.html
I wonder if they really are throwing away their training. Billmon refers to their training and prompted me to think further.
I remember reading that the Marines, concerned about the fact that many soldiers in battle either didn’t fire their rifles or fired them harmlessly, decide to focus training on turning the recruits into killers. The training that I read of, reminded me of deliberate brainwashing and I don’t mean “reminded” in any vague sense, I mean exactly.
So, who isn’t suseptable to brainwashing? I’m not presenting this as an excuse in any way but rather as evidence of a much wider problem.
Griffon - there was an amazing article in Rolling Stone about a month ago about training US soldiers to kill - I’ve been checking the RS website in hopes that it would appear there so I could post a link - but it hasn’t shown up.
They talked about how a low percentage of soldiers actually shoot to kill and how the US has been carefully perfecting psychological methods to get them to shoot to kill every time and the methods used create a very unthinking, “hairtrigger” sort of response, gun as arm, everything that moves is a threat to your life and your buddy mindset.
I’ll dig out the article and try to find a way to pdf it. It was really chilling and points to more and more war crimes as inevitable with this sort of brainwashing.
That would be great, Siun. I regreted I couldn’t remember where I read it. It might have been that same article atlthough I don’t think it was that recent and it wasn’t the first.
I know Australian soldiers are very nervous about serving with them and I think the same applies to the British.
I think it goes to show htat when you try and work against human nature (like turning people into indiscriminate killers) you just create in the end more problems for everybody. But, of course, it’s not the military’s fault.
I’m sure if more parents knew the truth of what the military is really up to, there would be a whole lot less recruits.
Ultimately, this war machine requires boots on the ground and without them everything grinds to a halt. It is one thing that the general populace do control. Realizing that is another matter. If you could find it and link or pdf it, that would be great, Siun.
Pardon the rave.
Pardon the rave