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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Through Haditha Darkly....

In the wake of the Haditha killings, I would expect to see alot more reports of questionable killings by US forces. Take, for instance, the horrible killing yesterday of the two Iraqi women at a checkpoint, one pregnant and on her way to the hospital for delivery.

Questionable killings at checkpoints have been going on since day one in Iraq and have been largely underreported. Now, looking through the filter of Haditha, these events are going to be presented very differently.

Also, other allegations of questionable killings will start coming out.
SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces denied on Wednesday a new accusation, from Iraqi officers, that American troops killed unarmed civilians in their home this month.

And, every action will now be reframed.
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 31 -- U.S. military officials acknowledged Wednesday that American troops had fired at an angry mob that surrounded the scene of a traffic accident in the Afghan capital Monday morning. Officials previously had said the troops fired only into the air.

My point is this. What happened in Haditha was absolutely horrible, and those involved should and will be punished, but that event may act to reframe alot of the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan that has been going on for a long time.

I'm just a bit fearful that Haditha may broaden to stain the honorable service of so many men and women. There's certainly some bigger questions of overall policy and strategy that need to be addressed, but, as these reports pile up on the front pages, I'm just hoping that it doesn't turn into the kind of situation that touched almost every vet from Vietnam.

Let's not let that happen.

(Elsewhere, William Arkin has an interesting post on Haditha and the broader picture. I don't know if I agree with him point by point, but I found it very thought provoking.)

5 Comments:

  • I pray to all thats holy to spare out service personnel the pain that was suffered by the 'Nam vets. I think people are better educated this time, at least I hope they are. The radical left might equate this but I hope not.

    The whole thing is for me, the long tours of duty...over and over and over again. I would snap in a heartbeat..and I think most people would..its unfathomable what they have to deal with..and they are ill-equipped both mentally and physically to deal with the onslaught of pain,misery and fear.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:11 PM  

  • I don't think we're there, but it's just this creeping fear I've had over the last couple of days where every questionable action seems to lead to a discussion of Haditha.

    And, on the second point, there are systemic problems leading to stresses, but I haven't been there and I don't know. I certainly see the possibility that I could snap under that stress. That's why you won't really read me condemning some of this as harshly as others. I do believe that if the reports about Haditha are true, that the marines involved should be punished, but I don't feel qualified to really sit in judgement. I'll leave that up to those who have been there.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:13 PM  

  • The analogy of Vietnam just keeps getting stronger. If so there is a lot of ugly stuff to surface yet.

    By Blogger Cartledge, at 2:20 PM  

  • Let's not forget napalm. That stuff is nasty. Remember Sgrena?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:31 PM  

  • There was the white phosphorus incident which I classify very differently because that was a decision made behind a desk.

    http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-on-white-phosphorus.html

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:46 PM  

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