Pentagon Confirms Murders Of Iraqi Civilians

The story I mentioned last week about Iraqi civilians being killed has, sadly, been confirmed.

NY Times: Military to Report Marines Killed Iraqi Civilians

A military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians, Congressional, military and Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Two lawyers involved in discussions about individual marines' defenses said they thought the investigation could result in charges of murder, a capital offense. That possibility and the emerging details of the killings have raised fears that the incident could be the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq...

The AP has more: Marines may be charged in Iraq civilian deaths

This isn't an isolated incident. The road between Abu Ghraib and this is very clear.

These incidents are unfortunately the consequences of sending American soldiers to fight in a war with no purpose and no end. It is the same reason we saw so many massacres and murders of civilians in Vietnam. War is hell and without a sense of purpose, even the strongest soldier will lose his grip on his morality and reality. And then... this happens. A sense of purpose allows a soldier to retain his humanity and stay true to his morality. This sense of purpose is, I believe, the reason why there were very few cases of soldiers coming back from WWII with mental/psychological problems; they knew what they were fighting for. The lack of this purpose, as seen in almost every war since then (most notably Vietnam and Iraq, but others as well) has very clear, and very dark consequences.

Haditha is further proof of that and an indictment of the pro-war zealots.

As Glenn Greenwald says, "what incidents of this type do underscore is that wars are not something that are to be routine or casual tools in foreign policy... Every war spawns countless enemies, entails incidents which severely undermine a nation's credibility and moral standing, ensures that the ugliest and most violent actions will be undertaken in the country's name, and, even in the best of cases, wreaks unimaginable human suffering and destruction... [I]ncidents like these Haditha killings illustrate the moral bankruptcy and sheer stupidity of that [pro-war] mindset."

I don't profess to know the solution, but ideally our eyes should be on the exit door.

[PS- Rummy's at it again: Rumsfeld’s Revisionist History: ‘We Know Where The WMD Suspect Sites Are’]