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Our Allies

The story of the Haditha Massacre has been developing for months now, but exactly what happened after a roadside bomb killed a US Marine in the Iraqi town of Haditha now seems clear: Marines went on a vengeful rampage, killing two dozen Iraqi civilians including women, children and babies.

In Memories of a Massacre, Ellen Knickmeyer from the Washington Post relies on witness accounts for the story of the killings:

[O]ne of the Marines took charge and began shouting, said Fahmi, who was watching from his roof. Fahmi said he saw the Marine direct other Marines into the house closest to the blast, about 50 yards away.

It was the home of 76-year-old Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali. Although he had used a wheelchair since diabetes forced a leg amputation years ago, Ali was always one of the first on his block to go out every morning, scattering scraps for his chickens and hosing the dust of the arid western town from his driveway, neighbors said.

In the house with Ali and his 66-year-old wife, Khamisa Tuma Ali, were three of the middle-aged male members of their family, at least one daughter-in-law and four children — 4-year-old Abdullah, 8-year-old Iman, 5-year-old Abdul Rahman and 2-month-old Asia.

Marines entered shooting, witnesses recalled. Most of the shots — in Ali’s house and two others — were fired at such close range that they went through the bodies of the family members and plowed into walls or the floor, physicians at Haditha’s hospital said.

A daughter-in-law, identified as Hibbah, escaped with Asia, survivors and neighbors said. Iman and Abdul Rahman were shot but survived. Four-year-old Abdullah, Ali and the rest died.

When reports first appeared about the massacre, the US military denied them, accusing one reporter of buying into enemy propaganda.

Although this incident is remarkable for its ferocity and its death toll, it is far from isolated. In fact, indiscriminate killings by occupation forces in Iraq are commonplace. The Iraqi ambassador to the US said yesterday that US forces in Iraq killed his cousin in an interview with Wolf Blitzer:

BLITZER: […] you lost a cousin at Haditha in a separate battle involving United States Marines.

[IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO US] SUMAIDAIE: Well, that was not a battle at all. Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them.

His mother, his siblings were there. He led them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot.

BLITZER: Who shot him?

SUMAIDAIE: A member of the Marines.

BLITZER: Why did they shoot him?

SUMAIDAIE: Well, they said that they shot him in self-defense. I find that hard to believe because, A, he is not at all a violent — I mean, I know the boy. He was [in] a second-year engineering course in the university. Nothing to do with violence. All his life has been studies and intellectual work.

Totally unbelievable. And, in fact, they had no weapon in the house. They had one weapon which belonged to the school where his father was a headmaster. And it had no ammunition in it. And he led them into the room to show it to them.

BLITZER: So what you’re suggesting, your cousin was killed in cold blood, is that what you’re saying, by United States Marines?

SUMAIDAIE: I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily. […]

In Afghanistan, less than two weeks after American warplanes bombed an Afghan village, killing at least 16 civilians among the Taliban, riots have claimed the lives of 20 people in Kabul.

The riots started after a deadly crash where a US truck smashed into a row of cars, killing up to 5 Afghans. Fifteen people died after US troops opened fire, a remarkable death toll given the US military’s first claims that the firing was over the heads of the protestors.

The US is now investigating what happened, with military spokesperson Col. Tom Collins saying it is possible US troops fired to “defend themselves” against people throwing rocks:

Though no U.S. soldiers were hurt in the riot, [Collins] said this did not mean they were not in danger. “Deadly intent on the part of the aggressors can be a rock caving in the side of your head. Our soldiers felt threatened,” he said.

These are our allies.

[tags]Haditha massacre, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, Kabul riots, US war crimes[/tags]

4 Responses to “Our Allies”
  1. alevo:

    Your title should read: Left-wing blogger perpetuates myths about American penchant for aggression.

    How do you reconcile your own selective critiques of media biases with your reliance on the Washington Post and Wolf Blitzer to make a point. If you indeed made a point.

    “In fact, indiscriminate killings by occupation forces in Iraq are commonplace.”

    How do you know? Let me rephrase the question. How do you qualify that statement? Can you qualify it without a Wolf Blitzer interview, democracy now, or the Globe and Mail?

  2. Ade:

    Your title should read: Left-wing blogger perpetuates myths about American penchant for aggression.

    The obvious response would be that I’m not perpetuating a “myth”; unlike the National Post story that claimed Iranian religious minorities would have to wear badges, the Haditha Massacre actually happened. The story has been developing for months. Searching on Google News should put any doubts about the story’s authenticity to rest.

    Knowing you, however, you’re not looking for the obvious response. I think perhaps what you are saying is that by focusing on specific violent incidents involving US troops, instead of reporting in a more “balanced” way, I am guilty of the same media bias I frequently point out.

    But I don’t claim to be an objective news organization. Blogs are generally subjective and mine is no exception. People can get their “objective” news elsewhere. What I write here is my perspective.

    That doesn’t mean my perspective is not accurate, or that I don’t stand behind what I say. (Given the dismal pace of positive developments in Iraq, like reconstruction, compared to the constant violence, I think my focus is justified.) But to address your questions:

    “In fact, indiscriminate killings by occupation forces in Iraq are commonplace.”

    How do you know? Let me rephrase the question. How do you qualify that statement? Can you qualify it without a Wolf Blitzer interview, democracy now, or the Globe and Mail?

    Yes, I can qualify this statement. By indiscriminate, I mean failing to properly distinguish between legitimate and civilian targets. In Haditha, this was deliberate. Often, it’s just a casual disregard for human life.

    I have seen video of US military contractors in Iraq firing at cars on the highway, apparently for no other reason than their amusement. I have seen video of US warplanes showering Fallujah with phosphorus weapons. I have read countless stories of this sort of thing, from all sorts of sources (obviously, I have to rely on external sources for information, since I am thankfully not in Iraq).

    By commonplace, I mean ordinary and unremarkable. Today’s news features the story of pregnant Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, age 35, who, along with her cousin, was being rushed to hospital by her brother to have her baby. American troops say the car entered a prohibited area and failed to stop when they were warned, so they fired on the car, killing Jassim and her cousin.

    Her brother, who claimed that Americans “kill people randomly”, said:

    I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans.

    It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped.

    God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives.

    Iraqi insurgents, who use suicide car bombs to attack Americans, are also to blame when these things happen. But we aren’t allied with Iraqi insurgents. We’re allied with the US, and the killings just keep going and going and going, a dull and bloody progression of death and destruction that will keep on going until the US gets the hell out of there.

  3. Ade:

    New ‘Iraq massacre’ tape emerges