Posted on 05/31/2006 1:40:45 PM PDT by pissant
The outfit known as Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, wasn't new to Iraq last year when it moved into Haditha, a Euphrates River farming town about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. Several members of the unit were on their second tour of Iraq; one was on his third. The men in Kilo Company were veterans of ferocious house-to-house fighting in Fallujah. Their combat experience seemed to prepare them for the ordeal of serving in an insurgent stronghold like Haditha, the kind of place where the enemy attacks U.S. troops from the cover of mosques, schools and homes and uses civilians as shields, complicating Marine engagement rules to shoot only when threatened. In Haditha, says a Marine who has been there twice, "you can't tell a bad guy until he shoots you."
But one morning last November, some members of Kilo Company apparently didn't attempt to distinguish between enemies and innocents. Instead, they seem to have gone on the worst rampage by U.S. service members in the Iraq war, killing as many as 24 civilians in cold blood. The details of what happened in Haditha were first disclosed in March by TIME's Tim McGirk and Aparisim Ghosh, and their reporting prompted the military to launch an inquiry into the civilian deaths. The darkest suspicions about the killings were confirmed last week, when members of Congress who were briefed on the two ongoing military investigations disclosed that at least some members of a Marine unit may soon be charged in connection with the deaths of the Iraqis -- and that the charges may include murder, which carries the death penalty. "This was a small number of Marines who fired directly on civilians and killed them," said Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican and former Marine..
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Anonymous leakers, local "eyewitnesses", the willingness to buy this hook, line and sinker. Uhggg!
The Marines in that unit told the father of the Marine who was killed, Miguel Terrazas, that the unit did what it had to do to defend itself.
As Don Rumsfeld says "First reports are usually wrong".
what did the dims and MSM do about Rwanda?
Why investigate when you can skip to a Guilty declaration based on innuendo?
Oh terrific, the Drive By Media have given this thing more legs.
Because nothing helps an investigation into a military matter during wartime more than a hysterical media publishing reams of hearsay and questionable facts.
Ugh.
Let me know when we see shame coming from CNN for supporting the enemy and helping to prolong this war. How many unnecessary deaths is CNN's support for the insurgents responsible for?
Calling all those who burned me because I suggested CNN ran the "human side" of this story as part of a larger attempt to smear our Marines...
Perhaps. But if this story is true, and it's a big 'if' I admit, then the Marines are close to completing their investigation and people are about to be charged. Shooting unarmed civilians make it hard to win the hearts and minds.
Michael Duffy should eat $hit and die.
Bingo...I am all about taking legal action and any other recourse in stopping CNN's War against the US and the Bush Administration.
The guy that wrote this needs a swift kick in the nuts. >:(
If those guys are proven innocent, they'll have one HUGH libel suit.
Free college for the kids, at least.
FYI
Got your steel-toed boots on 'n ready?
hard to win hearts and minds when have no hearts and have lost their minds
Exactly.
From the article:
"So why did some men in Kilo Company apparently snap? Perhaps because of the stress of fighting a violent and unpopular war..."
Who made it an unpopular war, Mr. Duffy? Are you saying what the liberal media did is responsible for soldiers snapping?
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