HADITHA: Heroes are Human
18 May 2006 6:02 am by Taylor Marsh
UPDATE: Billmon discusses Haditha, adding some important points, including his speculation on exactly why Murtha went public.
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It's not My Lai but it's now being reported as a massacre. Rep.
Murtha talked about it today on “Hardball,” which brought the wingnuts
out wailing. “Traitor!” one cried, who won't be the last. It's
wrong, the smear against Murtha misplaced. What we're talking about
is pure tragedy.
The American forces sent into Iraq were too few, ill equipped,
with no real plans or objective, never to be shored up in the numbers needed.
It's not that the generals and leaders on the ground didn't request it. Perhaps
it stopped somewhere along the chain. An understanding laid down that there
was a limit. Rummy's lean, mean fighting machine to be tested in the desert
land of Mesopotamia. The civilians in Washington in charge.
The results have
been nothing short of catastrophic, for Iraq, for America, for the U.S. military. Proof now spread out in slaughtered civilian corpses.
As Abu Ghraib claimed victims of soldiers, put in positions because
their commanders hadn't a clue. So it looks like soldiers asked to perform tour
after tour after tour, or maybe just mission after mission after mission, in
a land where the enemy cannot be quantified, has finally made war a true horror for our heroes.
Every day in hell bringing our mission closer to the memories of
Southeast Asia, though much smaller, so far, but so what?
On Wednesday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the accounts are
true.Military officials told NBC News that the Marine Corps' own evidence appears
to show Murtha is right.A videotape taken by an Iraqi showed the aftermath of the alleged attack:
a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and
bullet holes on the walls.(snip)
“This one is ugly,” one official told NBC News.
Three Marine officers — commanders in Haditha — have been relieved
of duty, and at least 12 Marines in all are under investigation for what would
be the worst single incident involving the deliberate killing of civilians
by U.S. military in Iraq.Lawmaker: Marines
killed Iraqis ‘in cold blood’
Navy conducting war crimes probe into November violence in Haditha
The war in Iraq is no longer worth it and hasn't been for a very long time.
Hillary Clinton should be ashamed, John McCain too, President Bush relegated to his own personal pergatory for what he's wrought.
At least Democrats with a conscience and humility, who voted for the Iraq war, have come out and
said it's time to leave. The ones who don't have no business leading. We should
make sure they never have the chance.
Rep. Murtha said redeploy long ago. Senators Feingold and Kerry joined in,
so has Edwards and others.
But the human cry at Haditha didn't just come from the innocent Iraqi victims and
the family members who watched the slaughter. It came through the muzzle of
the rapid fire weapons the U.S. soldiers held on their way into battlefield
hell. Enraged when one of their own was felled, they couldn't hold the rage
inside any longer. No excuses, but reasons to make the unfathomable understandable and ultimately forgivable.
Save our U.S. military from a war that is no longer
honorable and no longer ours to fight. They've done their job and then some. Get our troops out of Iraq. Get them out now.
