Hell in Haditha

I’ve known for several days what commentary I wanted to post next; but I’ve held back because there’s little chance that I will clearly and completely convey what I mean to convey. I’m conflicted on the topic and I haven’t worked through that conflict. This will be a two-part posting, so those who want to comment might want to wait until after tomorrow’s posting.

The topic is Haditha. Hell broke through under a group of Marines in Haditha on November 19, 2005, and the fires continue to burn, threatening to consume anyone they touch. War is hell, indeed; and on the morning of November 19 it appears that Haditha became the latest hellhole in the history of war. It’s not the first; it won’t be the last. War tears holes in the fabric of human decency and brings men and women to the brink of a fire that can destroy the values of the combatants and tear down the lofty ideals being pursued on the battlefield. Every war has its Haditha analogs.

It appears that a small group of Marines may have intentionally killed up to two dozen innocent Iraqi civilians in retaliation for the death of another Marine in an IED explosion. The dead include a 76-year old blind man in a wheelchair and his 66-year old wife; the dead include several other women; the dead include at least a half dozen children in two nearby homes; the dead include four university students in a nearby taxi.

The dead also include a 20-year old Lance Corporal from El Paso, Texas, who was just trying to do his duty and return home to his family and friends. Along the way, he had made new friends in his Marine unit; friends who saw him die a violent death in a flash from nowhere that was detonated by an unseen enemy.

I say “it appears” that this “incident” happened as alleged by a large number of Iraqi witnesses because at least one Republican and one Democrat in Congress who have been briefed by the Defense Department, along with a couple of leaks from the DOD, appear to confirm the allegations. Because of the severity of the allegations, essentially everyone involved is resisting a rush to judgment. That’s good because this is the kind of “incident” that can rain judgment down on many heads. (It’s odd that a word like “incident” gets used about something that has nothing “incidental” about it.)

If these killings happened as reported, then they're not just killings, they're murders under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and crimes under the laws of war. The hard and cold purpose of war is to kill the designated enemy consistent with the laws of war and the rules of engagement set by military leadership for each campaign or mission. The murder of noncombatants has no place in war and the laws of war and the rules of engagement are designed to draw the boundary between killing and murder. Crossing that line is unacceptable – not just to the critics at home, but to the military in the field, as well.

Murder on a battlefield is a failure of discipline and character in those who commit the murder. It can also be a failure of responsibility in those who “stand by” and watch and do nothing. It is also a failure of leadership and training. Everyone from the president on down has appropriately made it clear that if these deaths are determined to be unjustified, then those who are responsible for them will be held accountable and that the disciplinary action and penalties will match the crimes. That’s as it should be; anything less would be a disservice – to the families of those killed; to the Iraqi and American people who support our presence there; and to the hundreds of thousands of Marines, soldiers and sailors who have been there and have performed their duty with irreproachable honor consistent with the highest traditions of our Armed Forces.

But the accountability cannot stop with the five to ten Marines who pulled the triggers. An occurrence like this uncovers failures up and down the chain of command and in the training processes that prepare men and women for combat situations like this; therefore, the accountability must reach those levels as well. That may not include criminal accountability, but it certainly includes professional accountability. Accountability for acts like these can’t be laid solely at the feet of the ground-pounding enlisted grunts who carry the M-16s.

And, we cannot lose sight of the fact that accountability for a horror like the one that appears to have happened in Haditha must also extend to the enemy. The destructive energy that flows from their terrorism and their insurgency was made manifest in Haditha that morning. Our Marines weren’t there in a vacuum. They were there in response to others who are intent on killing and murdering; who are intent on destroying any semblance of peace or security in Iraq; who are intent on bringing down any government other than their own; and who are intent on perpetuating the conflicts that have torn up that land and its people for centuries if not millennia. Every man or woman who has contributed from either “side” must be held accountable for the whirlpool of hate, anger and rage that spun out of control that morning.

Tomorrow I will turn to the GIs who drove into hell that morning and to the dominos that are falling as I write.

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HOTS Milestone

This is the 100th posting on this blog. It’s been up and running for 136 days, which equates to a posting rate of almost 74%. Not bad; certainly more than I anticipated at the outset. Without a question I never anticipated the postings would be as long as they have been. I envisioned something more in the “half a page” category, with the wordy ones being a full page, at most. But, postings twice that length have been the norm.

I’ve felt the posting energy wane a little in the last few weeks. I’m not sure why that is. It may be because I’m saying too much on too many topics; it may be because too many of the topics have been controversial or contentious or had some other form of negative spin that produces more wear and tear than uplifting topics or positive spin.

It will be interesting to see what comes from the next 100 postings.