Posted on 06/03/2006 8:13:28 PM PDT by EnigmaticAnomaly
AMERICAN troops in Iraq are to undergo retraining in moral and ethical standards, the most senior US commander in the country announced yesterday.
The order from General George Casey came as the US military investigated whether marines might have intentionally killed up to 24 unarmed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha on 19 November. The victims of the massacre included women, children and an elderly man, and came after a marine unit lost a man in a roadside bombing.
Yesterday, the BBC reported that it had uncovered new video evidence which suggests US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians in the town of Ishaqi in March.
At the time, the US said four people died when a building collapsed during a military operation, but the BBC video shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what its world affairs editor, John Simpson, says were clearly gunshot wounds.
All of the roughly 150,000 coalition troops in Iraq - including British servicemen - will receive the ethical training, which will emphasise what US commanders term "core military values".
Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, the commander of the multinational corps in Iraq, said the training seminars would remind troops of "the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield", as well as "professional military values and the importance of disciplined, professional conduct in combat".
Soldiers will also be reminded of Iraqi cultural expectations of coalition troops. The sessions are designed to reinforce the importance of cultural sensitivity and commonsense in dealing with the civilian population that troops receive as part of their basic training prior to deployment in Iraq.
"As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies," said Lt-Gen Chiarelli. "The challenge for us is to make sure the actions of a few do not tarnish the good work of the many."
He admitted, however, that "unfortunately, there are a few individuals who sometimes choose the wrong path".
The US Marine Corps, recognising the damage events at Haditha have caused, has warned its generals not to discuss the affair. According to a directive sent to all the generals: "It is not in the interests of the Marine Corps to 'further this story' by providing details or confirming information gathered from other - mostly unnamed - sources."
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the three-month investigation into the affair will conclude that officers gave false information to their commanders, who in turn did not give these reports sufficient attention. The report, produced by Major-General Eldon Bargewell, will be delivered within the next week and is likely to catalogue multiple failures in the manner in which the corps first responded to events at Haditha.
A defence department official declined to speculate, however, whether or not the report would agree with Congressman John Murtha's assertion that there had been a deliberate "cover-up" of the killings.
A second investigation, conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is a full-scale criminal investigation into the alleged massacre that will not deliver its findings until later in the summer. No charges have been filed as yet, though charges of murder and other serious offences are considered likely once the investigation is finished. KEY LESSONS
COMPULSORY training sessions for coalition troops will stress:
• "Core military values", including legal, moral and ethical standards.
• Cultural differences between western troops and Iraqi civilians.
• The importance of sticking to existing rules of engagement with civilians.
• That their actions can have unforeseen but dangerous consequences.
Don't forget kidnapping innocent people and chopping off their heads...
Amen Brotha!
Vicious, you hit me with a flower You do it every hour Oh, baby you're so vicious Vicious, you want me to hit you with a stick But all I've got is a guitar pick Oh baby, you're so vicious
OK, everyone just relax, alright? Let's go down the list here:
• "Core military values", including legal, moral and ethical standards.
--some JAG, law of war, and Army Values training; no big deal, it's taught from Basic Training on through pre-deployment
• Cultural differences between western troops and Iraqi civilians.
--cultural and language training are taught fairly extensively in the pre-deployment train-up as well, this is just another refresher
• The importance of sticking to existing rules of engagement with civilians.
--RoE is always very important, and it always allows for Soldiers/Marines to defend themselves
• That their actions can have unforeseen but dangerous consequences.
--goes without saying, but, for the younger Soldiers at least, it's something that could always use reiteration; nothing dramatic, just a quick 30-min talk with a vignette or two and the re-training's complete
BOTTOM LINE: This is all very standard training, they're just going to go over the basics again. This is NOT a huge deal, believe me.
not to sound like a bushbot, I am not.
This Haditha crap is all a little premature. I actually have some hope that the dopes at the White House, have some semblance of a grip on the situation. The media has not been as orgasmic as they ordinarily are.
KABOOOOOOM
Look a lot of us older folks have seen this movie before. This is BS. I am probably the biggest Bush Bot on this board but this reeks of desperation and that gets people, our people, killed. If , anything, we need to be surrounding towns and killing insurgents 24/7 DARING this new government to give us any crap. Once that is done we need to sit the new government down tell them we are leaving and if they revert to an Islamic regime allied with Iran we will bomb them back to the stone age. We have given it a great try but I am sick of treating these people like children.
Except for going over the ROE, this sounds to me like a liberty brief that we in the Navy always got before pulling into a foreign port.
When I was in the Corps, this 'core values' or rather 'Corps Values' was something we lived and breathed. We were expected to know the Geneva Conventions and the ROEs and then live by them.
We were also expected to refuse to follow illegal orders and bring them immediately to the attention of Higher Higher if we felt something we were doing was against the Laws of War.
Here's another thing you may have forgotten. Our President did have to live this stuff when he was flying fighters. He's worn the uniform. That's all I'm going to say about that.
There is only one rule in war: win. This sounds nice, but it's simply not true. There are lots of rules in war. We have an entire rulebook on how to fight a war. It's called the UCMJ.
That is the only war worth fighting, in my universe.
We don't live in your universe Publius. You live in ours. Our military people know what they're getting into. THis stuff is something they live with daily. If they don't like it they can leave after their hitch and return to civilian life.
Don't get me wrong. Nobody wants these bastards dead more than I do. I have a real personal hatred of these islamofascists for reasons of my own that go back long before 9-11. But we aren't going to be succesful if we don't get the average Iraqi on our side.
Now lets all just relax and let our Military people do their jobs. Mostly let's stop listening to the left wing Euroweenie media getting what is going on right now exactly wrong; because that's just what they're doing.
L
Turning our troops into targets is not a way to win a war
Waged
Armed
Response
Kill it if it moves if it's agressive kill it faster !
This PC government is either going to enslave us or kill us !
Well said. I agree.
The never ending quest to make war nice and clean where only people actively trying to kill you get hurt...
War is ugly, painful and just plain awful. There's a reason it is called war. It is better to obliterate your enemies quickly and get the war over with than play nice and die a slow death of a thousand cuts. Vietnam should have been a hard learned lesson on that front.
In other words be sure to pack your prayer rugs troops. Who the hell's bright idea was this? Constrain your troops, and continue to demoralize the shrinking number of supporters of the war, win the hearts and minds of Muslims away from the Koran to what, something that will never happen.
It's becoming painfully apparent our leaders are guessing on what strategies are needed to win this war based on Muslim sensitivities (hatred for the Christian west)and liberal propaganda (ditto).
Amid violence, talks are to convene - Fallujah April, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. gunship attack left a ceiling of black smoke above northern Fallujah late Wednesday, the day before talks aimed at keeping a bloody confrontation between insurgents and U.S. Marines from escalating get under way.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Tuesday that if the conflict in Fallujah were not contained, the result could be "dramatic and long-lasting."
The talks in the city west of Baghdad will involve Sunni sheiks from across Iraq, coalition representatives, Iraqi authorities and city leaders.
Asked whether a more brutal conflict was avoidable, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters Wednesday: "Time will tell."
If we had done shock and awe from the beginning - they would have been afraid to screw with us and it would have been over long ago.
Now, they think all they have to do is hang on and the American people will get tired of it and go home, and they are right.
It never ceases to amaze that the left can lose politically, yet still get their way.
"Kill all the men, all the women, all the children and all the cattle". Then we will not be bothered by that bunch goat stiking scum again. King Saul did not follow Yahweh's order and now Yisrael is facing the same slime still. I know all the bleeding heart liberal swine will tar me for this reply, so what!!!
Herein is the crux of the matter; and it a serious crux.
A casual mention of ROE presumes nothing has changed in war, a serious mistake. This is not your grandfather's war.
In this one, there is no way to tell friend from foe. No way to tell combatants from civilians, by the enemy's choice, not ours.
Civilians also have a mortal choice and obligation, too. They must distance themselves from the combatants as quickly and as completely as possible, or accept the consequences, usually death or serious injury. Their choice.
It is no longer enough to glibly throw out obsolete concepts like "civilians" and ROE...
Reality today demands a different approach, in order to win; and to live. I can't accept the trading of American lives for PC posturing.
Apr 3, 2003 Haditha
US Captain Russell Brian Rippetoe SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber US Specialist Ryan Patrick Long SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber US Staff Sergeant Nino Dugue Livaudais SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber
May 26, 2003 Haditha
US Major Matthew E. Schram Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
Nov. 29, 2003 Haditha
US Staff Sergeant Stephen A. Bertolino Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - ambush US Specialist Aaron J. Sissel Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - ambush
US Sergeant Jesse W. Strong Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack US Lance Corporal Karl R. Linn Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack US Corporal Jonathan W. Bowling Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
May 7, 2005 Haditha
US Sergeant Michael A. Marzano Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Sergeant Aaron N. Cepeda Sr. Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Lance Corporal Lance Tanner Graham Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeffery L. Wiener Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb
May 25,2005 Haditha
US Sergeant David Neil Wimberg Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
May 26,2005 Haditha
US Major Ricardo A. Crocker Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
Aug 1, 2005 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Roger D. Castleberry Jr. Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Sergeant David J. Coullard Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Daniel Nathan Deyarmin Jr. Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Corporal Jeffrey A. Boskovitch Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Brian P. Montgomery Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Sergeant Nathaniel S. Rock Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
Aug 3, 2005 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Adam J. Strain Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Specialist Mathew V. Gibbs Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Sergeant 1st Class Charles Houghton Warren Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Specialist Jerry Lewis Ganey Jr. Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Lance Corporal Nicholas William B. Bloem Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal David S. Stewart Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Bradley J. Harper Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Kevin G. Waruinge Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Grant B. Fraser Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Justin F. Hoffman Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Eric J. Bernholtz Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Aaron H. Reed Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal David Kenneth J. Kreuter Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal William Brett Wightman Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Christopher Jenkins Dyer Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Michael J. Cifuentes Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Timothy Michael Bell Jr. Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Edward August Schroeder II Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Nov. 16, 2005 Haditha
US Sergeant Jeremy E. Murray Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Nov 19, 2006 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
L
Savage has been talking about this since the war began and all the bushbots hate Savage for daring to call it like it is
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