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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   Haditha Killings   
      
   Something truly tragic happened in Haditha on last Nov. 19. On the face of   
   it, 16 more deaths - 15 of them Iraqi and one American - do not loom large   
   in the scale of butchery and destruction that has followed the US-led   
   invasion three years ago this week. But the killings in this western Iraqi   
   town could very well be among the most significant in the whole wretched   
   conflict. They could indeed mark the moment when Washington finally lost its   
   battle for Iraqi hearts and minds.   
      
   The US military is now mounting a proper investigation into what happened   
   but the evidence is already tragically clear. On that November night, after   
   a roadside bomb killed one of their unit and injured two of their comrades,   
   a dozen Marines went on a vengeful rampage. They burst into nearby houses   
   and gunned down 15 people, including seven women and three children. They   
   later reported these civilians were also victims of the roadside blast and   
   claimed to have killed eight insurgents. However, video footage taken after   
   the US Marines moved out seems to make it clear that most of the dead   
   civilians were wearing night clothes.   
      
   There has been enough evidence of jumpy US soldiers wildly opening fire on   
   targets, as in the Fallujah siege, the slaying of a pregnant woman as her   
   husband rushed her to hospital or the killing of an Italian secret agent   
   accompanying freed kidnapped journalist Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad airport.   
   But not until now have there been cogent allegations that US troops have run   
   amok among civilians.   
      
   This apparent atrocity has grim echoes of the 1968 My Lai massacre in   
   Vietnam, when angry and scared US troops murdered over 300 civilians in cold   
   blood. The death toll in Haditha was not as horrific but as happened with   
   the Vietnamese, it may well be the moment when decent people, in Iraq,   
   America or elsewhere, who tried to believe US promises about its mission to   
   bring peace and democratic justice to Iraq, finally gave up.   
      
   It will of course be argued that US troops are under immense strain as they   
   seek to confront the insurgents who wear no uniforms and who melt back into   
   the civilian community after their attacks. This is, however, no excuse for   
   the berserk retaliation against the nearest Iraqis. What is worse is that   
   the men responsible for this vindictive bloodletting were Marines, one of   
   the elite units in America's armed forces.   
      
   The American military failed to build upon the early euphoria at Saddam's   
   overthrow. The grunts on the ground understood little about Iraq and most   
   probably cared even less. They relied on their leaders, including their   
   commander-in-chief in the White House to do what was best. In the event   
   President Bush and his neocon advisers have invariably done exactly what was   
   worst. Thus US soldiers have become marooned and easy targets. Angry and   
   afraid, they have come to see all Iraqis as the enemy, just as in Vietnam   
   every Vietnamese became a "gook." Haditha may thus be the place where   
   America finally surrendered its last patch of moral high ground.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)