General’s Report on Haditha Condemns Marines
WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army general concluded the Marine Corps chain of command in Iraq ignored “obvious” signs of “serious misconduct” in the slayings of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.The report by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell, obtained by the newspaper, also found that commanders fostered a climate that devalued the life of innocent Iraqis to the point that U.S. soldiers considered their deaths insignificant.
Bargewell’s investigation found officers may have willfully ignored reports of the civilian deaths to protect themselves and their units from blame.
The investigation covered enlisted personnel through the two-star general commanding the 2nd Marine Division at the time.
Bargewell found no specific cover-up, but he concluded there also was no interest at any level in investigating allegations of a massacre, the Post reported.
Bargewell’s report, now unclassified, focuses on the reporting of the incident and the training and command climate within the Marine Corps leadership. It does not address the November 19, 2005 incident in detail.
On that day, a roadside bomb exploded and killed one Marine in a convoy of Humvees. In reaction, a squad of Marines raided several homes and killed 24 Iraqi civilians.
The Marines have told investigators they believed they were taking small arms fire from the houses and were following rules of engagement when they responded.
The investigation began in March 2006 after an initial inquiry found the Marines did not intentionally kill innocent civilians.
A Marine Corps spokesman declined to comment, the Post reported. Marine officials have generally not discussed the incident because it is under investigation.
© Reuters 2007.
Weve basically become the beast weve been trying to slay. Haditha came out into the open and its heartening to see a semblance of justice being meted out to these killers. Im pretty sure this trial would never have been held in for instance Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany or even PolPot’s Cambodia. So yeah, we are better off.
How many Hadithas are brushed off under the carpet ? I guess we will never know. I suppose after 650,000 dead Iraqis later its easy enough to assume there were/are hundreds of Hadithas and Fallujahs. There is no question our ‘marines’ intentionally target innocent Iraqis in their frustration. The veneer weve been hiding under all these years is beginning to wear off.
yes we are better off than stalinist russia and nazi germany and pol pot’s cambodia - we are also better off with the atmosphere we have than the atmosphere on jupiter - and if we think that our climate is hotting up then at least we can console ourselves with the knowledge that it is much hotter on mercury.
the important sentence in this story:
“The report by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell, obtained by the newspaper, also found that commanders fostered a climate that devalued the life of innocent Iraqis to the point that U.S. soldiers considered their deaths insignificant.”
Not only are we responsible for the horror and devastation brought on the poeple of Iraq, but the important sentence quoted by Momemerrick, “U.S. soldiers considered innocent Iraqi deaths insignificant” truly makes us war criminals. Of course, since we’re only there for their oil, it’s understandable that whether they live or die doesn’t matter at all, but it’s a shame we will live with as the Germans have had to live with following WWII. It isn’t just our leaders who need a comeuppance. We all do.
Sorry, Montemerrick. Didn’t mean to misspell your name.
For those of you that are not aware of it, our military, as are all others, simply tools of the ruling classes since time immemorial. Their primary purpose is to protect the rulers and their property (booty, profits, swag or whatever else you may wish to call it!). Their secondary purpose is to keep the populace in check. They may employ many methods to bring this about. The rulers use “education” bribery, “public relations” and if everything else fails….brute force. It has always been this way. The only difference historically is that they have more sophisticated means at their disposal(media)just to mention the biggest elephant and more firepower (force) than the world has ever seen.
So anarcho , are you suggesting that nothing has really changed at all in terms of warfare in a thousand years ? So going by your logic the beheading of americans by AlQaeda can also be fully justified. Its just how its always been right ? You are right that the military is the tool/fist of the ruling class. But that doesnt give them the right to not observe basic human rights whatever the justification.