[Marxism] Marine's wife says army in Haditha was "out of control"

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One observation on the scope of the slaughter taking place.  Most US
troops who express support for the war do so on grounds that the
occupation represents "payback" for the attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon, an attitude that clearly has the backing of the
hierarchy up the line to the president?  After all, what other
"rational" argument is there for most people -- the economic,
geopolitical, and world-domination themes have little resonance really,
but the idea of "payback" for the killings of Americans -- civilians in
the US and Gis in Iraq -- has some power.  So what does payback mean?
You tried to destroy us, we try to destroy you.  You killed our
civilians.  We kill your civilians.  You killed our children.  We kill
your children.  "Paybacks," after all, are supposed to be "a bitch."

By the way, there is definitely too much gushing over the pressures
"our" troops are under, fighting in the dark against the resistance
which "slaughters" them.  Much of the media -- and sometimes even the
left -- leaves the impression that the only really guilty party in this
war -- the only real criminals --are the armed resistance.  And the
pressures they are under with their country occupied and being
slaughtered by the mightiest military power on earth gets no press at
all.

The resistance are "terrorists" and "ruthless murderers" but the Gis are
good kids under too much pressure.  What else can you expect.  One thing
totally left out of their  "emotional" problems is racism and
imperialist arrogance -- that they have a right to be obeyed and
protected and even loved and appreciated by those they are pushing
around.  They have been inculcated with a passionate loathing of Muslims
and Arabs.  It takes a lot of indoctrination to produce a Haditha and My
Lai, but those who do so have to take responsibility for what they do in
that spirit.

Bring the troops home now -- but noone should pretend that this was
anything but a criminal enterprise in which the US troops did their job
-- which was to commit crimes.
Fred Feldman

Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha
. Unit accused of abusing drugs and alcohol
. Officers relieved of duty after killing of 24 Iraqis

Julian Borger in Washington
Monday June 5, 2006

Guardian

The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha
last November had suffered a "total breakdown" in discipline and had
drug and alcohol problems, according to the wife of one of the
battalion's staff sergeants.
The allegations in Newsweek magazine contribute to an ever more
disturbing portrait of embattled marines under high stress, some on
their third tour of duty after ferocious door-to-door fighting in the
Sunni insurgent strongholds of Falluja and Haditha.

The wife of the unnamed staff sergeant claimed there had been a "total
breakdown" in the unit's discipline after it was pulled out of Falluja
in early 2005.

"There were problems in Kilo company with drugs, alcohol, hazing
[violent initiation games], you name it," she said. "I think it's more
than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or
something when they shot those civilians in Haditha."

The troops in Iraq have been ordered to take refresher courses on
battlefield ethics, but a growing body of evidence from Haditha suggests
the strain of repeated deployments in Iraq is beginning to unravel the
cohesion and discipline of the combat troops.

"We are in trouble in Iraq," Barry McCaffrey, a retired army general who
played a leading role in the Iraq war, told Time magazine. "Our forces
can't sustain this pace, and I'm afraid the American people are walking
away from this war."

The Newsweek account described a gung-ho battalion that had staged a
chariot race, complete with captured horses, togas and heavy metal
music, before the battle for Falluja in late 2004. The marines were
given loose rules of engagement in the vicious urban warfare that
followed.

"If you see someone with a cellphone," said one of the commanders was
quoted as saying, half-jokingly, "put a bullet in their fucking head".

At one point in the battle, a marine from the 3rd battalion was caught
on camera shooting a wounded, unarmed man as he lay on the ground.
However, the marine involved was later exonerated.

The third battalion lost 17 men in 10 days in Falluja and by the time
the troops arrived in Haditha, in autumn last year, it was clear morale
had plummeted. A Daily Telegraph reporter who visited its headquarters
early this year at Haditha Dam, on the outskirts of the town, described
it as a "feral place" where discipline was "approaching breakdown". He
reported that some marines had left the official living quarters and had
set up separate encampments with signs ordering outsiders to keep out.

Other observers, however, have come away from time spent with the
marines with different impressions. Lucian Read, a photographer who
spent five months with Kilo company, said it was generally well led,
although sometimes squads had to go on patrol without an officer because
there were not enough to go around.

Mr Read told Time magazine that Kilo company was the "most human" of the
many units he had accompanied in Iraq. "They were never abusive," he
said. "There was a certain amount of antagonism and frustration when
people didn't cooperate. But it's not like they had 'kill 'em all'
spray-painted on the walls."

Three senior officers in the Haditha-based 3rd battalion of the first
marine regiment, known as the Thundering Third, have been relieved of
duty because of a "lack of confidence" in their leadership.

The officers include Captain Lucas McConnell, the head of Kilo company,
which was directly involved in the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqis there on
November 19.

Another captain from the battalion, James Kimber, was relieved of duty
for a separate incident, according to his lawyer, who said his
subordinates in India company had sworn and derided Iraqi security
forces in an interview with Sky News.

The commander of the third battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey
Chessani, has also been made to step down pending the outcome of the
Haditha investigation.

A criminal investigation conducted by navy investigators into the
Haditha killings is still under way, but a parallel army inquiry into
the wider issues has been completed. However, a military official said
some findings might be withheld pending the principle inquiry findings.

On Saturday the Iraqi government rejected the findings of a US inquiry
into the death of nine civilians in a US raid in the town of Ishaqi and
said it would conduct its own investigation.


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