"When the IEDs went off, the ...practice was to basically shoot up the landscape - anything that moved. That kind of thing would happen a lot."
--Michael Blake, U.S. Iraqi war veteran (BBC airdate: March 29, 2006)
US military prosecutors plan to file conspiracy and murder charges against seven enlisted Marines and one Navy corpsman for the alleged murder of an Iraqi civilian and subsequent cover-up on April 26 in Hamandiya,...
--The Jurist, June 2, 2006
"Keep shovels on your truck, or an AK (rifle). If you see anybody out here at night, shoot him, and if they weren't doing anything, throw a shovel off (like) they were digging an IED or whatever... Shoot him, throw a shovel off, there you go."
--Jody Casey, U.S. Iraqi war veteran, describing his training instructions from other U.S. soldiers upon his arrival in Iraq (BBC airdate: March 29, 2006)
"Criminal investigators are hoping to exhume the bodies of several Iraqi civilians allegedly gunned down by a group of U.S. Marines last year in the city of Haditha, aiming to recover potentially important forensic evidence, according to defense officials familiar with the investigation. The possible evidence was disregarded at first because the slayings originally were not treated as crimes."
--The Washington Post, June 2, 2006
"I scraped dead bodies off the pavement with a shovel and threw them in trash bags and left them there on the side of the road, and I really don't think the anti-war movement is what's infuriating people... The only thing that kept (my morale) up was the fact that people were at home talking shit on the wrongs that I had to commit for this government."
--Joe Hatcher, U.S. Iraqi war veteran (BBC airdate: March 29, 2006)
"...the United States military does everything that it can to avoid civilian casualties, to limit the impact of any military operations on the civilian population and, most importantly, to take action where our soldiers do not follow the rules."
--Tom Casey, U.S. State Department spokesman, June 2, 2006)
"We acted inhumane; and a lot of soldiers down there are very inhumane. Total disregard for human life. That's why they call (Iraqis) Hajji. You've got to desensitize yourself to (the Iraqis). They're not people - they're animals. Then you watch it get covered up and shoved under a rug and you know: 'Oh, that didn't happen'. I seen innocent people being killed. IEDs go off and you just zap any farmer that's close to you... They basically jam into your head: 'This is Hajji, this is Hajji...' You totally take the human being out of it and you make them a video game, a target... If you start looking at them as humans,... how are you going to kill them?"
--Jody Casey, U.S. Iraqi war veteran (BBC airdate: March 29, 2006)
The Ishaqi investigation concluded that the allegations of intentional killings of civilians by American forces are unfounded.
--Un-named Senior Pentagon official, paraphrased by ABC News, June 2, 2006
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3 comments:
I realize this Haditha incident looks pretty bad for the US, Bush, The war effort etc. (not to mention the poor suckers who got shot), but surely this is just a random incident! There is 22mil Iraqis and 150,000 US troops stationed there and yet an incident involving just 24 villagers and an IED is blown way out of proportion, in my opinion.
Here is a quote about the Haditha investigation from U.S. conservative blogger David Limbaugh:
"there are anomalies in the reports that point toward mitigation of the Marines' conduct. There is evidence, not yet conclusive, that Marines received small arms fire from the houses nearby and returned it. Sometime thereafter, the Marines rushed the houses and killed those inside. Previous media reports on Haditha have told of civilian complicity in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. A 12-year-old survivor admitted that she knew in advance of the plot to ambush the Marine convoy with an IED detonation. If she knew, how likely is it that her parents, other family members and neighbors were unaware of the plan?"
Maybe the Marines were set up? Juicy eh?
Maybe the Marines were set up?
Are you kidding me? So the plan was to bait them into entering their homes in the hopes they would get their entire families slaughtered in a hail of bullets, just so the U.S. would get bad press? Boy, have I got a bridge in Brooklyn for you.
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