(December 21, 2006) -- Haditha is back on the front pages, with the announcement on Thursday that four marines were being charge [sic] with murder in the alleged 2005 massacre of 24 villagers in Iraq, with four officers hit with serious dereliction of duty charges. Since this case has been simmering for many months now, with repeated press references (as other possible atrocities surfaced), it may seem as if the media has bird-dogged this episode from the start.
In fact, the media dropped the ball at the start - helped by a military cover-up -- and it stayed off the radar for quite some time.
Following the killings in Haditha 0n November 19, 2005, it took months for an official investigation to begin. An Associated Press story from Baghdad in June quoted Hassan Bazaz, a Baghdad University political scientist, complaining that strong interest belatedly being shown by Western news media in the alleged U.S. misconduct is only now catching up with common views in Iraq. ``There is nothing new or surprising for Iraqis,'' said Bazaz. ``The problem is that the outside world has been isolated from what happens on the ground in Iraq. What the media says now is only a fraction of what happens every day.''
That's not surprising to those of us who have been following the trail of tortured, dead bodies all along from as many sources as we can. Mitchell notes the worsening security conditions in Iraq as a roadblock to more thorough media investigating along with what had been reported up until this point but he's certainly correct in noting that the outrage in the right-wing blogosphere centered around what Jack Murtha said about the killings - not the actual horror of the incident itself.
And, if you visit a blog like Hot Air right now, you'll notice that they have their 'Jihad Watch' alleged Christmas terror warnings (which have no credibility according to the officials who raised the alarms) displayed at the top of the page while the Haditha story is placed far below the Donald Trump v Rosie O'Donnell scrap.
Comments like these are indicative of why too many extreme right-wing bloggers don't think the fact that a marine was charged with 13 counts of murder matters at all:
Prosecuting a Marine for doing what all soldiers have always done in war since the beginning of history: kill the enemy. Pathetic.
Collateral damage happens. So what. Move on.
Andy in Agoura Hills on December 21, 2006 at 3:38 PM
What a joke. You know what? The people in these Muslim countries are all terrorists at heart. Surah 9:29. These guys probably understood all too well the minds of your average Muslim, and acted as they saw fit. I haven’t been to that hellhole of a country, but I’ve talked to guys that have. Right is wrong and wrong is right over there. How did we even win WWII with attitudes like our Marine brass has now? The UCMJ applies only when the Marine brass wants to apply it. God help us after this war.
PRCalDude on December 21, 2006 at 4:29 PM
No concern for the innocent men, women and children who died. None. They're 'all terrorists'.
From the WaPo article, May, 2006:
Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."
The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on Nov. 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post special correspondent in Haditha this week and U.S. investigators said in Washington. The girls killed inside Khafif's house were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1, according to death certificates.
'Terrorists'...
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