Who Do You Trust, Our Soldiers or Hostile Civilians?

Contradictions Cloud Inquiry Into 24 Iraqi Deaths

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: June 17, 2006
This article was reported by John M. Broder, David S. Cloud, John Kifner, Carolyn Marshall, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, and was written by Mr. Broder.

What really happened in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005?

On that day, marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair. But how and why it happened and who ultimately bears responsibility are matters of profound dispute.

Interviews with marines who were present that day or their lawyers, Iraqi residents who witnessed the attack and military investigators provide broadly conflicting accounts of the killings. This article, based on those interviews, does not resolve those discrepancies. But it does lay bare the task facing investigators as they try to square the accounts with ambiguous forensic evidence, and suggests that the work will be hindered by the passage of time, the tricks of memory and the fog of fast-paced action at several different locations in Haditha, a tense Euphrates River valley city, seven months ago.

Investigators and townspeople have said that marines overreacted to a fatal roadside bombing and shot the civilians, only one of whom was armed, in cold blood.

Marines and their lawyers, who are only now beginning to speak out after months of harsh portrayals of their actions, contend that they believed they were under a concerted attack, and entitled under their rules of engagement to use lethal force against those who they believed were responsible for a roadside bomb that killed a marine.

The 24 Iraqis killed included 5 men in a taxi and 19 other civilians in several houses, where, marines have contended, their use of grenades and blind fire was permitted under their combat guidelines when they believed their lives were threatened.

This may have been a case of uncontrolled battle rage, but I doubt it. I am inclined to trust the words of our highly trained marines over the accusations of the residents of Haditha. I also find it distressing, but not surprising that we are once more being presented with information from "unofficial" sources who have been "briefed" on the investigation.

I distrust un-named sources because without knowing the identity of the source it is impossible to know if their is a hidden agenda involved in the revelation. I certainly don't trust reporters in the Paleo-media to maintain any sort of objectivity.

I much prefer to wait on the results of the investigations. The only concern then is that the military doesn't cave in to political pressures and reaches an unbiased and uninfluenced decision.

Full Story: Wait For the Results, Don't Report from Leaks

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