The Haditha Killings: Rotten to the Corps

[babylonsister]

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/5/6/12723/90141

The Haditha Killings: Rotten to the Corps
by Jeff Huber
Sun May 06, 2007 at 12:07:23 PM EST

Here's another story that illustrates the true "core values" of the U.S. military under the Bush administration and its woebegone wars: 1) deny, 2) deny, 3) deny.

This story involves the Haditha incident, where U.S. Marines allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians in violation of standard procedures and established rules of engagement. It turns out, according to Paul von Zielbauer of the New York Times, that a cover up of the story was attempted at higher levels of the Marine Corps chain of command.

Recently unclassified documents suggest that senior officers viewed the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in late 2005 as a potential public relations problem that could fuel insurgent propaganda against the American military, leading investigators to question whether the officers' immediate response had been intentionally misleading.

Colonel R. Gary Sokoloski of 2nd Marine Division commander Maj. General Richard A. Huck's staff released a press release about the killings that investigators later suggested was "intentionally inaccurate" because it asserted, contrary to the facts available, that the insurgents had been killed by an insurgents' bomb.

more...

[msongs]

1. are the marines still looking for a few good men, or did they find one? nt

[mike_c]

2. I dispute that this failure of leadership had anything to do with Bush....

I think it is systemic in the U.S. military, which for decades has been used as an instrument of an imperialist foreign policy-- in short, as thugs for the interests of the military-industrial complex, the politically powerful, and other U.S. "business" interests.

Case in point: I'll bet every single one of the officers involved in the Haditha coverup received their training well before Bush took office. They reflect a broader military culture with considerable inertia. The White House might change the perception and expression of that culture, but no change of administration can wipe the slate clean and start a new one. The same is true of torture and prisoner abuse, IMO-- all the Bush White House did was sanction it. Military officers did not, by and large, object that such conduct violated their scruples. They just took it out of the closet.

Remember when Clinton tried to change the course of military culture's response to homosexuality? What makes people think Bush would be successful at perverting an honorable military culture that would be offended enough by the Haditha killings to react to them forthrightly? My Lai, anyone?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. If you weren't in someone elses country looking for non-

existant weapons, you wouldn't have a chance to create a situation that could fuel insurgent propaganda. Just a thought.