NationStates Jolt Archive

Since the previous thread has turned into a "WW2 America joined who gives a shit" thread before I could have my say, I created this one. Apologies in advance.

Now, I believe the killing of 24 innocent Iraqis is not justified. Period. Its too high of a number for this incident to be "an accident". I don't see how anyone would/could defend those actions. Even Bush has ordered an investigation, and the troops have been given "ethics training". to highlight "the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield".

There is just so much to this story that needs to be told. I respect the fact that people die in war. (duh...) Innocent people die in war, by random crossfire, bombs, missiles, so on... But the claims that some were shot close range, "execution style" just screams injustice. Then I hear people say "The soldiers were "angry" so they shot a few dozen civilians". Just so goddamn frustrating...

Are you saying that someone defended the massacre?

And I thought that kind of inhuman disregard for the victims would at least be kept shamefully silent by those who felt it inside, except by the most prejudiced fanatics.

The test of any ideology or system of action is its humanity. If it fails that test, it is clearly flawed and cannot claim superiority over anything.

The problem is soldiers aren't police. When they're asked to be police they suck at it. It's an unnatural state for them to be in. In war, William Techumsa Sherman had the right idea. This also by in large how things were delt with in previous wars as well. Complications from tribalism aside, in past wars, even WWII, if the populace screwed with the US forces, they got smoked. A story of a grandmother on Okinawa blowing up a GI comes to mind. She was unarmed after she used her grenade. His buddy shot her down in cold blood, and it wasn't a war crime. Technically it'd be murder. Practically, in war, "She just killed my friend, I saw all the proof I needed to see." Shit happens. The difference between then and now is DV cams.

The Marines saw the villagers give their tacit approval to the murder of their brother whom they cared deeply for an no doubt identified with. With the price of a human life set so low, and the Marines with such overwhelming firepower, and literally more than 100,000 people enduring well over 2,000 such incidents, each with the readily available means to realize all the revenge anyone could concievebly wish to exact in a moment of pure rage, how can Haditha surprise anyone. An excuse? Hardly, they've done much to diminish themselves, their unit, the core, the memory of their friend (who's death will be forever overshadowed by the senseless acts that followed it), and even managed to weaken the foriegn policy of their nation. What they've done cannot be undone. But it should be remembered that what they were asked to do was grossly unfair, and if it wasn't them it would have been someone, although it might have been somewhere else the hammer fell. Time and circumstance conspired to reveal in them the flaws we all possess, and detest in ourselves. The rare individual transendence of these common failings are honors of particular distinction long remembered and memorialized.

Some people may say, more training is the answer. It isn't. A penny can be used in place of a fuse in much the same way a soldier can be used in place of a police officer. But there is an associated risk. It is elemental to their differing natures. Do it often enough, for long enough, and their *will* be a fire. Building better pennies, or blaming the pennies, seems a poor aim for a more effective solution.