Haditha investigation prompts introspection, disbelief within Marine Corps

HADITHA, Iraq – A young Marine wonders if his superiors will support him if he shoots at perceived threats. An officer worries that civilians look at his Marines with more suspicion. The proud colonel acknowledges that his Corps has lost stature in the public's eyes. Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians – including women and children – last November in this rebellious city have prompted reactions ranging from shame and anger to disbelief within the Marine Corps.

In this intensely proud service, some say they're being prematurely judged. Others grasp for plausible explanations behind the alleged slaughter.

A Pentagon official said this month that evidence collected in the Nov. 19, 2005 killings supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children.

The commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force must eventually endorse the investigation's findings before charges are formally pressed.

Marines don't see themselves as common grunts. Most Marines join their service knowing that America heavily relies on them in ground wars. To some, they are the modern day version of Roman legionnaires, reflected in a famous saying that claims Marines “guard heaven's gates.”

If the Haditha allegations are true, it would call into question what Marines consider their strengths: Discipline in the ranks and holding the high moral ground in wartime.

Marines are alleged to have covered up the Haditha killings for weeks. Moreover, the nature of the incident was not discovered internally: The investigation was launched only after Time magazine questioned U.S. commanders about the civilian deaths.

Senior Marine commanders insist the investigation will not damage the Corps irrevocably.

“We're going to come out of this just fine,” said Lt. Gen. James Amos, the outgoing commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. “I don't know what the investigation is going to say. The truth will come out and the Marine Corps is going to do the right thing. The American people will know the truth.”

But on the front lines of the war, grunts and field commanders say the allegations have further complicated a difficult task. About 20,000 Marines are thinly spread out over violent Anbar province, a North Carolina-size area with over a million Sunni Arabs at the forefront of the insurgency.

Cpl. Luis Perez, 22, of Lusby, Md., who is stationed in Ramadi, said the case “kind of makes you want someone higher up to be there to make sure you're completely in the right” when instinct says to fire.

Perez said insurgents in Ramadi had been increasingly firing from mosques to try to “lure us into doing something that we don't want to do.”

Commanders in the field have echoed an array of challenges stemming from the Haditha case. Arab television networks have regularly covered the investigation's progress.

“The Iraqi people are going to perceive that everybody does business this way, and that's not the case,” said Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio, 30, a New Yorker who leads a company of Marines in Ramadi. “We inherently have a responsibility to apply our craft with humanity ... and to apply a proportionate amount of force to a threat.”

Many grunts in the field privately complain that outsiders unfamiliar with the pressures of a counterinsurgency war unfairly condemn the accused men. Some expressed anger at what they considered political attacks directed at the Marines – instead of against policy-makers in Washington.

“Institutionally, it's sad because we've been prejudged by many. Many who have qualms against the (Bush) administration use this,” said Col. Juan Ayala, a 26-year veteran of the Marine Corps who now trains the Iraqi army. “You see an institution that you really love taking slaps ... but if guys are guilty of disobeying the law of armed conflict, they should face justice.”

U.S. commanders were concerned enough by the investigation's initial findings to order U.S. troops in Iraq to undergo refresher training in “core values,” including how to treat Iraq civilians.

“The core values training that we just completed is one of those things that I think we need to do from time to time again just to make sure we understand the complexity of the environment that we are in, and how our training fits, how our values fit into a different culture,” said Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer, the top Marine commander in Iraq.

Other changes have been implemented as a result of the investigation. After a Marine spokesman repeatedly defended the accused Marines – reportedly going as far as to accuse a Time magazine reporter of believing al-Qaeda propaganda – official statements now undergo greater scrutiny before they are released.

Some Marines privately speculated that the troops under investigation probably unleashed their anger on civilians who likely knew who planted the bomb that killed a young lance corporal, triggering the bloodletting. In most parts of Iraq, civilians stay silent after insurgent attacks, either out of fear or sympathy for militants.

“We are not tasked with doing something simple,” said Del Gaudio – just as a suicide car bomb exploded down the street from his base, shattering windows and wounding four soldiers. A few minutes later Del Gaudio continued.

“I've told my Marines since Day One: I will always stand beside any decision they make. ... Anytime they shoot someone I want them to have a clear conscience,” he said. “It is too dangerous to foster that type of (second-guessing) environment. It's inherently a relationship of trust with me and my Marines. I trust that we have trained them the right way.”

Since the accused battalion in Haditha was on its third tour in Iraq in three years, some have blamed repeated deployments for sparking the killings. Seven Marines and a sailor from another battalion also on its third Iraq tour are accused of unjustifiably killing a man in the western town of Hamdania. Both battalions took part in the storming of Fallujah in Nov. 2004.

But some have pointed out that the senior officer accused of overseeing the alleged killings in Haditha was only in the third month of his first tour in Iraq. Some commanders contend that multiple deployments were likely not a factor in such incidents.

“These guys enlisted after 9/11. And to a man I'd say they wanted to go to war,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Looney, who commanded Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment charged in the Hamdania killing. “They knew they were going to war.”

I am a civilian, I have never served in the military. So please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

From what I gather, and IED exploded, killing a Marine and serioulsy wounding another. The Marines, came under fire from surrounding buildings. They went into the buildings to either capture or kill the people firing at them.

They are in Iraq fighting an enemy that does not wear a uniform. They blend with the civilian population. They don't know for sure whether these "civilians" are collaborators or actual civilians being used as human shields.

They're under suspicion of this murderous assault because of a "reporter", why didn't the people of the town make the accusations?

The enemy, with the help of the MSM are using our humanity as a weapon. And they are using it to the max. How can we send our children and loved ones to fight this war if they have to second guess themselves when it comes time for self defense? A recent post written by a soldier asked a question that I have not forgotten and gave me chills, the gist of it went somthing like this; We will never know if the two soldiers who were kidnapped and tortured held back because they had to differentiate between civilian and terrorist.

They can't fight like this, if I am wrong correct me.

Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians – including women and children

This is the sentence that always gets me. What were those civilians doing? Did they have weapons? Did the shooters hide in their home? Were these civilians supporting or related to the terrorists? You are quite correct.

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