Haditha: "Democracy assassinated the family that was here,"
In November of last year, in retaliation for the death of a comrade by an improvised explosive device, a Marine squad murdered 24 innocent people--many were women and children trying to shield their male relatives from gunfire. Remember the town, Haditha. It looks like this is the case that will finally get the attention of the American public--our "boys" in Iraq are engaged in combat: deadly, mean and often inhuman.
When our military gets bogged down in conflicts with no demonstrable way to win, often fighting insurgents using guerilla tactics, we face this fact: stressed out soldiers take out their frustrations on innocent non-combatants in murderous and vile ways.
This Memorial Day, say a prayer for the innocents of Haditha slaughtered by American soldiers in a barbaric afternoon of hatred and blood lust. Our military is put in a no win situation: a war they can't win, a foe that can't really identify and stress and depression from the loss of comrades. Haditha is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Haditha makes it impossible for me to pretend that Memorial Day is anything but hypocritical. The draft dodgers and other chicken hawks in power place our troops into the kind of moral morasse in which there are no winners--just dead innocents and newly minted murderers.
Remember Haditha when you sanction the use of your tax dollars for use by our military. This mission was allegedly undertaken to free a country from dictatorship and establish democracy throughout the region.
When our military gets bogged down in conflicts with no demonstrable way to win, often fighting insurgents using guerilla tactics, we face this fact: stressed out soldiers take out their frustrations on innocent non-combatants in murderous and vile ways.
This Memorial Day, say a prayer for the innocents of Haditha slaughtered by American soldiers in a barbaric afternoon of hatred and blood lust. Our military is put in a no win situation: a war they can't win, a foe that can't really identify and stress and depression from the loss of comrades. Haditha is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Haditha makes it impossible for me to pretend that Memorial Day is anything but hypocritical. The draft dodgers and other chicken hawks in power place our troops into the kind of moral morasse in which there are no winners--just dead innocents and newly minted murderers.
Remember Haditha when you sanction the use of your tax dollars for use by our military. This mission was allegedly undertaken to free a country from dictatorship and establish democracy throughout the region.
