The New My Lai?

This story haunts me.

May 26, 2006 -- Senior Pentagon officials are bracing for an investigation into the killing of 24 Iraqis last November in the town of Haditha. The officials tell ABC News the investigation will likely result in criminal charges that could range from dereliction of duty to murder.

[...]

ABC News has been told by several senior military officials that investigators have so far established the following :

— Early in the morning of November 19, a roadside bomb hit a small convoy of 12 Marines killing Marine Lance Corporal Lance Terrazas. All of the marines belonged to Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment..

— Shortly after the bomb went off, the Marines saw a car approaching and fired, killing five Iraqi men. Military officials say all of them turned out to be unarmed.

— Some of the Marines entered a cluster of nearby homes from where, they later claimed, they had taken enemy fire.

— In the first house, however, they allegedly found only unarmed civilians. Exactly what happened inside is unclear, but by the time they left, six of the civilians were killed, including a three year old boy.

— In a second house, the Marines allegedly found and killed 8 more unarmed civilians.

— A man was allegedly shot by a Marine as he fled one of the houses.

— In still another house, the Marines said they encountered four Iraqi men , including one armed with an AK-47, and another reaching for a weapon in a closet. The Marines allegedly shot and killed all four men. It's unclear to investigators if the AK-47's were found before or after the shooting.

By the time the dust settled, at least 24 Iraqi civilians, most unarmed, lay dead.

And the coverup:

The military issued a press release that day saying a roadside bomb killed one Marine and 15 civilians and that an additional 8 insurgents were killed in a firefight. It was not until February — when Time Magazine showed a US military spokesperson a videotape of the bloody aftermath taken by a Iraqi journalism student — that the military investigated the incident.

If Bush had not opted out of the International Criminal Court in order to 'protect' his soldiers, these marines would be tried as war criminals. Leaving these cases in the hands of the military justice system practically guarantees that the victims of these crimes will not see adequate justice. The torture victims of Abu Ghraib certainly didn't.