The shame Of Kilo Company (BARF)

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..

There is nothing in this story but rumors.

It would be nice if you were right -- we'd all love for this to turn out right. However, the articles so far talk about evidence that isn't good (like photos from Marine intelligence troops, overhead surveilence footage, radio traffic logs, and testimony from the Marines who were there). So I'm afraid we'll just have to wait and see.

We're just joking around.

Yeah, this is frustrating for all of us, and it helps to blow off steam.

But when left-wing sites "joke" about harm to our troops or overseas contractors, or about harming Republicans in general, it doesn't reflect well on them. I hope we don't develop the same culture.

Someone put the IED in the ground, then set it off -- if we're going to harm anyone, let's harm that guy.

Yeah, there was a lot of mob action during the American Revolution (and especially in the years leading up to 1776).

But I'm not sure that's really a model we should draw upon today. Simply turning them off is an effective technique -- it's working pretty well these days. And so is looking for new sources of information on the 'net.

However, the articles so far talk about evidence that isn't good (like photos from Marine intelligence troops, overhead surveilence footage, radio traffic logs, and testimony from the Marines who were there).

I've read two articles about this thing, both from major media outlets and I read nothing about radio logs or overhead surveilence footage. It's hard to understand what overhead footage would reveal about what went on inside. The interviews claim contradictions between accounts, but there were numerous interviews and details are sketchy. I understand the the photos Marine intelligence took were after the event occurred and the scene was probably tampered with.

It reminds me a little of the Duke University Lacrosse allegations. That could be distorting my view of this, true, but the press is doing essentially the same thing they did to those kids.

I finished a book recently: No True Glory, Bing West, author, about the Fallujah fiasco. The constraints those soldiers are under are unimaginable and their fidelilty to the mission is awesome. It also describes how the terrorists operate: sniping from mosques while claiming sanctuary. Wearing two sets of clothes to facilitate transformation from jihadi to civilian. It describes how rifles are taken from the dead jihadis to recycle them and claim civilian status for the dead. It tells how virtually all photographs conveyed by the media originated with sypathetic journalists, most from Al Jazeerah. Western journalists knew they would be killed and so didn't venture beyond their compound. Recall the soldier charged with killing the wounded jihad? The jihadi was a plant, a suicide bomber. The embedded journalist never reported this. Who to believe?

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