The US military initially reported al-Haditha as just one more bloody incident. “Fifteen Iraqi civilians and a Marine were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in al-Haditha,” said Captain Jeffrey S. Pool, a Marine spokesman.
It later suggested the Iraqi civilians had been caught in the crossfire of a battle between the Marines and insurgents. Lieutenant-Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing, a spokeswoman for the multinational force in Iraq, said that the insurgents “placed non-combatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves”.
But a video made by a trainee Iraqi journalist was passed to Time magazine. It showed bloodstained bodies, bullet and shrapnel marks inside the Hassan family home, and walls spattered with blood. There was no evidence of a skirmish on the outside of the buildings. Doctors said that most of the victims had been shot from close range in the head or chest.
Sources familiar with the investigation say that 24 Iraqis were killed that day. Seven of the victims were women and three were children. Five men were apparently shot in a taxi at a checkpoint.
I have posted about this incident twice before but the more I learn the more horrified I am at the brutality of these Marines. The excuse that I just don't understand what it is like to be in combat does not wash in this case. They executed children!
And then they lied about it. If not for the video would we have ever learned the truth? Are there other incidents that we do not know about? If I had to guess I would say yes, there must be.
We are destroying the reputation of America the longer we stay there. How does this make our world safer? How?
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.