Haditha: The Missing Story

the blog I should have posted last night...

According to initial US military reports, 15 civilians and eight insurgents died after a bomb killed a marine in Haditha, a militant stronghold in Anbar Province on 11/19/06 (my birthday). The military said at the time that the civilians were killed as a result of either the bomb or a gun battle which erupted afterwards, in which the militants were reportedly killed.

But reports from Iraqi witnesses and in the US media allege that marines went on a rampage. Death certificates show all the Iraqi victims had gunshot wounds, mostly to the head and chest.

The American public is generally very supportive of the troops and willing to accept that bad behavior by a handful of soldiers or marines does not necessarily reflect on the whole mission.

Still, this story if true (and it looks like it is) will be devastating to the military, a PR disaster. And where is the coverage?!? These Marines, these kids, lost one of their own and took it out on this small town. John Murtha, a former marine and Vietnam veteran who is now an anti-war Democratic congressman, is helping lead the political pus for an investigation.

I first saw this story on BBC America on 5/31/06. Great coverage. Gave me all the info for the world without the crappy human interest I can’t stand on the majors. Still, it seemed like there was nothing but bad news on a bigger scale. Instead of a child dead in Brooklyn, it was a widow in Zimbabwe with a 2-week old child and no husband to earn a living. It was very depressing… and very English.

This Haditha incident is terrible. I feel like we’re only doing more damage in Iraq. We came in to take out Saddam, and we completed that task. It’s time to give Iraq back and be done with it. Leave a small force to keep some sense of control, but let the country begin to build itself.

I’m reading the Golda Meir autobiography right now, and I’m at the part where Israel is just formed and they are dealing with the business of establishing and implementing a government in a new state. So I’m all about letting this new government grow on its own, making its own mistakes and solving its own problems.