Haditha
WASHINGTON, May 25 — A military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians, Congressional, military and Pentagon officials said Thursday.
The report is expected to say the killings took 3 to 5 hours and were "methodical in nature."
This is just horrible for everyone. These are things that happen in war, and this is why war should never be entered into lightly.
posted by mikevotes at
9:29 PM
3 Comments:
These are things that happen in war, and this is why war should never be entered into lightly.
Exactly the point I try to make with the "humanitarian warrior class."
It is lost on most people, even the dissisdents who try to spin these incidents into proof that America is evil.
But when war is unleashed, you know going in that these things are going to happen...... At least people with half a brain do.
By
Praguetwin, at 2:30 AM
3-5 hours and methodical in nature? Good god - I can understand (though not excuse) soldiers who snap under the stress and kill innocents. But what does it say that these marines, who "never took what would constitute hostile fire of a seriously threatening nature" killed 24 people, including women and children, in cold blood over a period of 3-5 hours?
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 5:34 AM
I hope I didn't imply that these marines should be excused. What they did was a war crime. And, reality based, I agree with your point that premeditation changes the whole character of it.
But at the same time, I do have to say that things like this have taken place in every major US war this century. Vietnam, Korea, WWII, WWI.
And, this is not a characteristic of America, it is a characteristic of war, and it is usually far more prone to happen in foreign deployments.
I was trying to point out that this evil is one of the costs of war. War does things to both the individual and the national character.
Certainly these marines should face justice for their actions, but at the same time, I'm wary of judging them myself. Frankly, I haven't been in a war, so I just don't feel that I can judge them. I will leave that to those who have been there. And it sounds like from this NYTimes piece that that has worked.
Also, this is a bad act, but I don't want a wave of condemnation tarring all of the soldiers who have served with honor. I want to be very clear that these guys apparently slaughtered children, but I don't want it attached to all soldiers. 99.9% of those who have rotated through Iraq have served with honor. I think that was one of the real "crimes" of the antiwar movement against Vietnam vetrans.
But again, in the bigger picture, this happens in almost every long deployment war. And some of the blame must be attached to those who sent us there, especially considering the circumstances around the start of this war.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 7:23 AM
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