Marines massacred civilians in Haditha, Iraq

In the first year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq some voices, even within the U.S. anti-war movement, argued that a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops would leave Iraq victim of civil war, general chaos and random murders. Some presented this as an argument that U.S. military forces should stay.

Now, after more than three years of continuous U.S. military occupation, Iraq is plagued with general chaos, seemingly random murders and massacres, and something resembling civil war.

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are commending the new Iraqi government that finally formed after bickering for five months after the election. It would be ridiculous if it weren’t such a crime.

The electricity still doesn’t work. Oil is pumped at lower levels than before the war, with much of it sold illegally.

Iraqi police themselves carry out mass murders while serving narrow political parties or religious sects—or simply their own corrupt interests. And educated Iraqis who have the chance are trying to emigrate, according to reports both from Iraqis and in the May 21 and 22 New York Times.

On top of this, the U.S. military, supposedly the most disciplined force, carries out wanton slaughters of Iraqi civilians. According to the latest exposure, U.S. Marines slaughtered at least 16 Iraqi civilians, including children, in the city of Haditha last November.

Iraqi sources consider the Haditha massacre a normal Pentagon operation. That’s why so many Iraqis join the resistance. What makes it stand out, however, is that not only did Iraqis complain, but the U.S. media and U.S. Rep. Joseph Murtha, a retired Marine colonel and veteran of the Vietnam War, exposed this war crime.

The Marines who killed the civilians had claimed they were in the middle of a battle when it happened. Murtha, who has been briefed on an ongoing military investigation of the incident, said May 18: “There was no firefight. There was no IED [improvised explosive device] that killed those innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

Time magazine had reported earlier that “eyewitnesses cast doubt on the military’s claim, saying four of the Iraqis had been pushed into a closet, then shot.”

Occupation troops
commit war crimes

Murtha is a pro-military member of Congress who has begun to oppose the Iraq occupation for tactical reasons. Speaking for a section of the Pentagon officials, he states his fears that the mili tary will self-destruct if the occupation continues.

Murtha understands the situation U.S. troops are in, based on his own experience in Vietnam. Where occupation troops face a popular resistance and fear everyone, they shoot quickly, in fear and anger. They commit war crimes.

Murtha wouldn’t agree, but under those circumstances, the only honorable thing for U.S. troops to do in Iraq is to refuse to fight against the resistance. Otherwise these massacres of civilians will continue to take place, just as they did in Vietnam. Some will continue from the air, where bombing raids against suspected “insurgents” hit homes in villages.

Such a raid just happened in Afghan istan. Maj. Scott Lundy, speaking for the “coalition,” reported a big success in killing “80 Taliban fighters” with a May 21-22 strike on the village of Azizi in Kanda har province. This claim was then cut to 20 fighters plus 16 civilian villagers, including children, and another 15 wounded.

Blair sneaks in

It was one sign of the new Iraqi government’s weakness that Blair’s trip to Iraq had to be carried out in secret. It was another that the three major ministries handling security—Interior, Defense and the National Security Council—had no appointments, as the new Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliky couldn’t find people acceptable to all the battling parties.

Al-Maliky had promised a month ago that the government would form in 24 hours. Now, after creating enough government ministries to give posts to every party with a few people elected, and proclaiming a new government, he had to appoint himself and two aides to the most important posts on a temporary basis.

He proposes to fill the rank and file of the security forces with the militias of the different parties and sects—that is, with those forces accused with good reason of being “death squads.” Every post is carefully appointed with an eye on which party and sect people belong to.

Nevertheless both Blair and Bush extolled the new government as a victory for democracy in the Middle East and especially a victory for their unjustified and criminal invasion of Iraq.

Despite the two imperialist leaders’ praise, they don’t expect any quick results. According to an Associate Press report, the White House expects no quick troop withdrawals. “We’re not going to sort of look at our watches and say, oop, time to go,” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said May 23.

Gen. Peter Pace, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had put it even more succinctly a week earlier when a Senate committee asked him whether troops could withdraw completely from any of Iraq’s 18 provinces within the next three months.

“No, sir,” Pace replied.