This is the kind of news report that makes you just want to turn off the television for the next few days and pretend you never supported the invasion of Iraq:
military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians, Congressional, military and Pentagon officials said Thursday.
Two lawyers involved in discussions about individual marines’ defenses said they thought the investigation could result in charges of murder, a capital offense. That possibility and the emerging details of the killings have raised fears that the incident could be the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq.
A couple of thoughts:
1.) I intentionally stayed out of the ‘Jack Murtha hates America’ chorus last week, because while I disagree with Murtha on a number of things, the simple fact of the matter is that he does indeed have well-placed sources, and was in a position to know (not to mention it is entirely possible to be wrong about something without being a pinko-communist atheistic flag-burning gay-loving America hater, something a significant portion of my side of the political spectrum can not or will not fathom). Whether or not it was appropriate for him to leak that information or if he was asked to intentionally leak it to soften the blow of the official report is something we can all speculate about.
2.) Jessie MacBeth is still a lying, psychotic douchebag.
3.) It should be pointed out that if you have 100,000 people, a certain number of them are going to turn out to be lawless murderers. Even with Marines.
Add to that the stress of combat, the stress of the asymmetrical warfare and daily terrorism in Iraq, the frustration caused by culture shock and language barriers, and the fact that this report seems to suggest a squad leader was the ring leader, this is not surprising. It is yet another stain on America’s honor, and it makes me sick to my stomach. I hope those, if found guilty, spend the rest of their lives in a military prison.
More here from der Kommissar.