Careening To Nowhere, and Out of Control


I came across this story last night at Rising Hegemon. This morning I see Billmon has a few choice things to say about it, too:

A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.

From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children.

One young Iraqi girl said the Marines killed six members of her family, including her parents. “The Americans came into the room where my father was praying,” she said, “and shot him.”

On Wednesday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the accounts are true.

Military officials told NBC News that the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to show Murtha is right.

A videotape taken by an Iraqi showed the aftermath of the alleged attack: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.

The video, obtained by Time magazine, was broadcast a day after town residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes on Nov. 19 and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

On Nov. 20, U.S. Marines spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that on the previous day a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gunbattle, U.S. and Iraqi troops killed eight insurgents, he said.

U.S. military officials later confirmed that the version of events was wrong.

Sadly, I'm reminded of my own encounter with folks who condone the shooting of children: in my case, it was following a 2003 peace march in New Orleans. A person in Jackson Square let me know in so many words he'd have no problem at all with shooting the young child depicted on the poster I carried.

That was probably mere tasteless bravado, but I've thought about it a bit over the last three years, especially as it's become tragically, painfully obvious that the leadership of this country pretty much sanctions this sort of thought, if not behavior...both over there, AND at home...where the tragedy along the Gulf Coast is magnified by the cynical political games played in the aftermath, e.g., Chris Matthews asserting that political considerations should take precedence over doing the right thing.

We've got a little more than two years of this particular habit...and lord knows what will follow. But how can ANYONE--that is, anyone with a conscience--feel good about anything "accomplished" by this administration?