Dealing with Haditha

[Jugurtha]

From National Review by Mackubin Thomas Owens

In the quest for its own My Lai, the anti-Iraq war faction in this country has had to settle for Abu Ghraib, by far the most hyped stories of the war. But now, allegations of multiple murders in the town of Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in al Anbar Province, may provide them with the incident they need. According to published reports, a number of Marines from the storied 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division are accused killing more than 20 Iraqi civilians in retaliation for the death of one of their comrades by a roadside bomb in November, 2005.

The Marine Corps originally claimed that the Iraqis were killed by an insurgent bomb or during a firefight. But in response to allegations by Time magazine, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began an investigation of the Haditha incident. A separate administrative investigation by Army Maj. Gen. A. Eldon Bargewell should be delivered soon to Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the operational commander of the multi-national force in Iraq, to determine whether there was an attempt to cover up the incident.

It is important to note that the investigation is still incomplete but that hasn’t stopped opponents of the war from using the incident in Haditha to advance their agenda. Last Wednesday, Rep. John Murtha, (D., Pa.), a vociferous critic of the war, broke the story, claiming that Marines in Haditha had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” This incident, said Murtha, “shows the tremendous pressure that these guys are under every day when they’re out in combat.” Appearing Sunday on This Week on ABC, Murtha went farther, claiming that the shootings in Haditha had been covered up. “Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long? We don’t know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command.”

Murtha’s attempt to use the Haditha incident for his own political purposes should be obvious to everyone. But if his description of the event—a cold-blooded killing of innocent civilians—is true, then those Marines committed a bona fide war crime. What, if anything, can be said in mitigation?

WESTERN PRECAUTIONS
Atrocities and war crimes are acts of violence in wartime the brutality and cruelty of which exceed military necessity. They include, but are not limited to, looting, torture, rape, massacre, mutilation of the enemy dead, and the killing of captured soldiers or noncombatants.

The West has placed three constraints on its conduct warfare: proportion, discrimination, and the positive law of war. Proportion means that particular actions must be proportionate to legitimate military necessity and not involve needless suffering or destruction. Discrimination means that direct intentional attacks on noncombatants and non-military targets are prohibited. The incident at Haditha appears to be an example of this last category...

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1 June Washington Post - Probe Into Iraq Deaths Finds False Reports by Tom Ricks.

The U.S. military investigation of how Marine commanders handled the reporting of events last November in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where troops allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians, will conclude that some officers gave false information to their superiors, who then failed to adequately scrutinize reports that should have caught their attention, an Army official said yesterday.

The three-month probe, led by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, is also expected to call for changes in how U.S. troops are trained for duty in Iraq, the official said...

The Bargewell investigation is likely to be explosive on Capitol Hill, because it focuses on questions that have haunted the Bush administration and the U.S. military since the scandal over abuse at Abu Ghraib prison emerged two years ago: How do U.S. military leaders in Iraq react to allegations of wrongdoing by their troops? And is the military prepared to carry out the long and arduous process of putting down an insurgency as part of the first U.S. occupation of an Arab nation?

One of Bargewell's conclusions is that the training of troops for Iraq has been flawed, the official said, with too much emphasis on traditional war-fighting skills and insufficient focus on how to wage a counterinsurgency campaign...

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Men at War

...Well, that was then, this is now. The war in Iraq demonstrates that those who believed that information technology would transform the nature of war were deluding themselves. War is shaped by human nature, the complexities of human behavior, and the limitations of human mental and physical capabilities. Any view of war that ignores what the Prussian “philosopher of war” Carl von Clausewitz called the “moral factors,” e.g. fear, the impact of danger, and physical exhaustion, is fraught with peril: “Military activity is never directed against material forces alone; it is always aimed simultaneously at the moral forces which give it life, and the two cannot be separated.”

In Iraq, our opponents have chosen to deny us the ability to fight the sort of conventional war we would prefer and forced us to fight the one they want—an insurgency. Insurgents blend with the people making it hard to distinguish between combatant and noncombatant. A counterinsurgency always has to negotiate a fine line between too much and too little force. Indeed, it suits the insurgents’ goal when too much force is applied indiscriminately...

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31 May Dallas Morning News commentary Ghosts of Haditha by Mark Davis.

...Anyone with a shred of human decency approaches this with the utmost gravity. Those of us who support the troops and the war they are fighting have a special responsibility not to sugarcoat, minimize or marginalize any wrongdoing by those troops.

But, conversely, those who are exercising their right to speak ill of the war and the Americans fighting it have a responsibility not to allow their anti-war venom to inflame their assessments of bad moments in the war's history.

That track record is forever blemished by the absurd overreaction to Abu Ghraib, a prison scandal that was bad enough if treated objectively. The wheels of justice turned, and prices are being paid for humiliating detainees outside the protocols of interrogation.

But the day Sen. Ted Kennedy equated American misdeeds at that prison with the unspeakable torture that had happened there under Saddam, the reputation of war criticism was deservedly damaged beyond easy repair.

And now we have Mr. Murtha, barely able to contain the spring in his step as he basks in the grisly particulars.

"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," he said this weekend. "And we're set back every time something like this happens."

He should know a thing or two about setbacks, having inflicted so many with his own derisive tongue...

[Bill Moore]

This is a sensitive subject, and I really didn't want to touch it, but feel a need to put this in perspective. We're all embarassed by what may have happened, and if criminal acts did happen, then the criminals will be prosecuted. That is what separates us from the terrorists. The terrorists would reward an act like this, while we're appalled by it. Does it reflect poorly on our proud Marine Corp? Only if you let it. It actually reflects poorly on only those who may have conducted these acts. Both the Army and Marines have high standards and principles, but throughout our history there have been many "individuals" who not measured up to them. That does not make this a systemic problem, but a human one, we don't have perfect human organizations.

While certain comments coming from Congress may not helpful, it would be a mistake to assume those comments are coming from the uninformed. Our Congressional leaders are privy to classified reports as the investigation continues, and there may be a method to the madness of slapping ourselves in public before the potentially bad news is released.

Again while we don't think certain comments from some of our leaders are helpful, though we could be wrong, we are equally wrong to presume nothing happened and to wish the problem away. Most of us are, or have been in the military, so let's focus on letting this issue evolve naturally as the investigation continues and not fan the flames.

I would appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on this event is playing out in the Arab Street, or even in Europe. I haven't seen much from the foreign press, and I wonder if the rest of the world accepts the fact that every Armed Force has bad individuals, and in war terrible things happen? The terrorists do worse to their own people everyday so there is a possibility, perhaps remote, that most of the folks are keeping this in perspective?

[Jedburgh]

I would appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on this event is playing out in the Arab Street, or even in Europe. I haven't seen much from the foreign press, and I wonder if the rest of the world accepts the fact that every Armed Force has bad individuals, and in war terrible things happen? The terrorists do worse to their own people everyday so there is a possibility, perhaps remote, that most of the folks are keeping this in perspective?

Current Poll on Al-Jazeera:

Will the US military investigation into the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha reveal the truth?

Yes: 33%

No: 57%

Unsure: 10%

Number polled: 5,203

Now that was on the English version of their site. On the Arabic site, this was the poll:

Will the Haditha scandal change American policy in Iraq?

Yes: 13.3%

No: 86.7%

Number polled: 16,605

Most Arab news outlets are reprinting over and over the condemnations of the incident and other statements of the Iraq PM, Al-Maliki, such as that his patience was wearing thin with excuses that US troops kill civilians "by mistake." Congressman Murtha's accusations of a massacre and cover-up have also been repeated, with emphasis.

I really haven't had the time to scan op-ed pieces for more detailed opinion...

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2 June Washington Times commentary - Haditha Haste by Michelle Malkin.

...I do not know the truth about Haditha. Neither do Mr. Murtha and the media outlets calling the alleged massacre a massacre before all the facts are in. It would be helpful if they could handle these grave charges without serving as al Jazeera satellite offices.

Sen. John Warner, Virginia Republican, who, like Mr. Murtha, served in the Marines, struck the right tone over the weekend -- refusing, unlike Mr. Murtha, to render a verdict against the Marines before trial and avoiding Bush Derangement Syndrome, but also taking the allegations very seriously.

I do know this. Children are dead. Other children have been orphaned. There are pictures of bullet holes and bloodied homes. There are evolving stories about what happened last Nov. 19 and serious allegations of a possible cover-up.

I also know Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, the Marine killed by a roadside IED (improvised explosive device) that day, followed a proud family tradition of military service. He had received a commendation for bravery on his first tour of duty in Iraq in 2004. One of his fellow Marines said Terrazas' body was split in two by the bomb explosion that rocked his Hummer while on patrol that morning.

And there's this: Haditha is crawling with terrorists. The Associated Press points out that "in just three days last August, six Marine snipers were killed in Haditha and 14 Marines died in nearby Parwana in the deadliest roadside bombing of the war." Most-wanted al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi is said to have lived in Haditha. The Washington Post quoted a military lawyer noting Nov. 19 was the Marine 3rd Battalion's "hottest day" in Iraq.

"In addition to drone surveillance that day, AV-8 Harriers were dropping bombs, helicopters were evacuating wounded, and a large firefight occurred about one-third of a mile from the site of the civilian shootings, said several people familiar with the investigation," the paper reported. Audio of radio traffic reportedly contradicts Mr. Murtha's claim the Marines did not come under small-arms fire after the roadside explosion, a military source told The Post.

We know this, too: Naval Criminal Investigative Service officials have not turned their backs. Time magazine, which initially broke the story of survivors' accounts that prompted the military probe, reports Haditha residents -- yet to be visited by any of Iraq's own officials -- "were gratified by [the investigation's] thoroughness" and "were especially impressed by the NCIS investigators" conducting three separate enquiries.

Finally, this is incontrovertible: There are countless antiwar zealots on the American left rooting for failure. They believe the worst about the troops. They've blindly embraced frauds who have lied about their military service and lied about wartime atrocities. They've allied with socialist kooks and coddled murderous dictators. They look for any excuse to pull out, abandon military operations and reconstruction, and impeach the president...