From My Lai to Haditha

Every Iraqi is considered a potential threat by the U.S. military, so every Iraqi is a potential target--that is the logic of occupation that leads inevitably to massacres and war crimes.

Socialist Worker, June 10, 2008

Editorial

Every Iraqi is viewed as a potential threat by the U.S. military (Ahmad Al-Rubaye | AFP)

IN NOVEMBER 2005, U.S. soldiers went on a three-hour shooting spree in Haditha, just west of Baghdad. They attacked a taxi and shot the passengers, including women and children, at point-blank range, and they swept through homes. By the end of the assault, 24 people were dead.

Nine-year-old Eman Waleed described the scene as the Marines came to her family's house. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she told Time magazine, "and we heard shots." Then they entered the living room. "I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head," Eman said. "Then they killed my granny."

The adults tried to shield the children and were killed while doing so. "We were lying there, bleeding, and it hurt so much," said Eman. "Afterward, some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting, 'Why did you do this to our family?' And one Iraqi soldier tells me, 'We didn't do it. The Americans did.'"

Two-and-a-half years after this horror, Lt. Andrew Grayson became the sixth U.S. soldier cleared of any wrongdoing at Haditha; he was found not guilty of all charges last week by a military court. Not a single solider has pled guilty or been convicted on any charge related to the rampage.

When they are uncovered, incidents like Haditha are painted by the military, the government and the media as aberrations in an otherwise benevolent occupation. The individual soldiers responsible for the violence, we're assured, will be punished.

Continued . . .