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Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over 15 Iraqi Deaths

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 02:19:05 PM EST
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Bump and Update: This is big news today. See Time Magazine :

Because the incident is officially under investigation, members of the Marine unit that was in Haditha on Nov. 19 are not allowed to speak with reporters. But the military's own reconstruction of events and the accounts of town residents interviewed by Time--including six whose family members were killed that day--paint a picture of a devastatingly violent response by a group of U.S. troops who had lost one of their own to a deadly insurgent attack and believed they were under fire. Time obtained a videotape that purports to show the aftermath of the Marines' assault and provides graphic documentation of its human toll. What happened in Haditha is a reminder of the horrors faced by civilians caught in the middle of war--and what war can do to the people who fight it.

*****
Original Post 3/16/06

On November 19, 2005, one marine and 15 Iraqis were killed after an explosive device detonated in Haditha, about 140 miles north of Baghdad. Today, defense officials said the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service which has jurisdiction over Marine malfeasance has launched an investigation into the deaths.

The statement said the powerful roadside bomb detonated as a U.S. military convoy was passing through the town. After the detonation, gunmen opened fire on the convoy, and Americans and Iraqi government forces returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another, according to the military statement in 2005. A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha at the time said bodies were left lying in the street for hours after the attack.

This Islamonline article puts a very different slant on the incident, which if even remotely true, may explain the need for an investigation.

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    Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over 15 Iraqi Deaths | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#1)
    by Punchy on Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 04:05:15 PM EST
    Why do they even bother? The military investigating the military? Lemmie take a guess about the outcome: No Marines did anything wrong. Everyone shot and killed was a "terrorist". And so were any women and children that may have been in the area. Meanwhile the commander gets a medal and a promotion.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 05:44:06 PM EST
    My Lai. The next generation.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 02:37:47 PM EST
    From a Wikipedia story about the My Lai massacre:
    Insurgents were sometimes housed and sheltered by civilians in the area, and American soldiers were frustrated with the complicity of the local people. Together with their inability to close with an elusive enemy and pervasive fear of ambush, this resentment made violent reprisals against civilians more likely.
    Its deja vu all over again.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#4)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 02:42:27 PM EST
    Nothing will happen.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#5)
    by desertswine on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 02:46:09 PM EST
    BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.
    I think I have my atrocities confused. This seems to be a different one.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 03:01:17 PM EST
    From CBS News:
    The magazine [TIME], however, said its investigation showed that walls and ceilings in both houses were pockmarked with shrapnel and bullet holes as well as sprays of blood. The video did not show any bullet holes on the outside of the houses - holes that might support the military report of a gunbattle.
    War sucks. Badly.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 03:12:20 PM EST
    JRT wrote:
    Congratulations lefties! You must be thrilled by this story! Happy, happy, joy, joy!
    If you read through all of the various threads on TL discussing this subject, I think that what you will find is that everyone here - with the possible exception of you - is uniformly digusted by the news of what appears to be a massacre of innocent civilians by U.S. troops. That is the topic of this thread.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#8)
    by Repack Rider on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 04:07:37 PM EST
    Congratulations lefties! You must be thrilled by this story! Why should we be thrilled to find that our deepest pessimism wasn't pessimistic enough?

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#9)
    by Al on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 04:18:45 PM EST
    JRT, only a very disturbed person would feel any joy about any aspect of this incident. Similarly, only a very disturbed person would "quip" about any aspect of what's going on Iraq. Please take your sick sarcasm elsewhere.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#10)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 04:41:15 PM EST
    Troll alert.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 04:47:31 PM EST
    Posted by JRT March 20, 2006 04:07 PM
    Seriously, how disappointed would you people be if Iraq settled into stability? Please save the quips about how that will never happen.
    Would you like to see Iraq stabilized or would that be a bad thing, because it would hurt the democrats?
    Hey, don't blame us, sport. This caper wasn't our idea. And as for quips, seein' is believin'. The burden of proof's on your sorry butt. We'll cross the Iraq stability bridge if and when we come to it.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#12)
    by aw on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 09:29:31 PM EST
    Seriously, how disappointed would you people be if Iraq settled into stability? Please save the quips about how that will never happen.
    Iraq can never settle into stability if US soldiers are deliberately, brutally killing civilians and children.

    Re: Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over (none / 0) (#13)
    by jondee on Wed Mar 22, 2006 at 02:20:48 PM EST
    Since the number one priority should be preventing the kind of unnessary suffering that this intervention has precipitated, yes, I want the situation to "stabilize"; you'd have to an inhuman monster (or, an out-of-the-line-of-fire, realpolitik humping neocon) not too. Now answer my question table captain: is Iran next?

    Criminal Investigation of Marines Opened Over 15 Iraqi Deaths | 13 comments (13 topical)