US Charges over Haditha

The US military is to lay charges against a group of soldiers for the incident that took place at Haditha in which 24 men, women and children died. The military had originally claimed that the victims were all killed by a roadside blast, but locals insisted that US soldiers had killed the civilians.

It is known that five unarmed men were shot dead in a car when they approached the scene in a taxi and others, including women and children, died in three houses over the next few hours.

Those who died included a 76-year old man, and a three-year-old child. There were also several women among the dead.

An initial marine press statement said that some civilians were killed in the initial explosion and others in crossfire by insurgents.

But local people say that there was no bullets fired other than by the marines.

The marine's defence attorneys are insisting that the soldiers did not take part in premeditated murder, although Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has called the deaths a "terrible crime".

This will bear out the version of events voiced by Congressman John Murtha, who was attacked for saying that a massacre took place at Haditha by the usual right wing loons like Michelle Malkin. According to them, Murtha was a traitor for even voicing what he was hearing from his army sources.

I have long said that the blame for incidents such as this actually lie at the door of the men who put these young soldiers in this stressful situation where people will snap.

Haditha appears to be yet another case of young men under fire eventually coming apart. Of course, as Iraq had no WMD, these young soldiers should never have been anywhere near Haditha in the first place.

I do not in any way condone what they appear to have done, but the blame for them being placed in the situation they found themselves in lies much further up the chain of command.

Here is a timeline of what transpired at Haditha:



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tag: Iraq war, Haditha, war crimes,