My Lai to Haditha, wars'
turning points By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - It would be very difficult, if
not impossible, to blame the killing of 24 Iraqis
in Haditha last November, or the killing of 11
Iraqi civilians in the village of Ishaqi back this
March, on the "stress of war". After Abu Ghraib
and other US "mistakes" since 2003, people are
much less likely to buy such an excuse from the
Americans.
What happened in Haditha can
best be described as deliberate homicide committed
by soldiers of the US Marine Corps, making them in
a sense no different from the al-Qaeda insurgents
they are combating.
It is believed that
the Haditha massacre was committed to avenge the
death of Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, a
20-year-old soldier
from
Texas who had been killed in a roadside bombing in
Haditha in November, triggering the backlash.
The Haditha massacre changes everything in
Iraq. It changes the images, loyalties and dreams
of the Iraqi people, as well as the honor of the
US military. It is a turning point for the
Americans, the Iraqis, President George W Bush and
new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
And it came as a blessing in disguise to
Arab regimes and masses who are anti-American to
the bone, and who only point toward the Haditha
massacre and say, "This is what the Americans
bring to the Middle East."
Haditha has
received huge coverage in the main Arab dailies,
particularly in Egypt, Syria, Palestine and
Jordan. It is prime news in Iran. The immediate
implications of Haditha are yet more empowering of
Arab regimes throughout the Middle East. It is
another blow for all those who are betting on US
intervention in the Arab world, claiming that the
Americans will bring democracy to Iraq and the
Arabs at large.
Inside Iraq, the Haditha
massacre adds to the anti-Americanism boiling
among Shi'ites and Sunnis, temporarily uniting
them against the United States. Although it
occurred in Haditha, a stronghold for the Sunni
insurgency, the killings are being condemned by
all politicians in the Shi'ite community.
As the world was fixated on Haditha,
al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released yet
another troubling speech via the Internet last
Friday, calling on the Sunnis to rise against the
Shi'ites, whom he labeled "snakes" and criticized
their Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, saying he
was an "atheist". Yet to avoid stirring a
sectarian outburst, the Shi'ites have shown
overwhelmingly solidarity with the Iraqi Sunnis in
Haditha.
The Haditha event was also loudly
condemned by Maliki, a religiously driven Shi'ite
whose anti-Americanism had been curbed by the
nature of his job since he was sworn into office
in May. Unable to remain silent any longer, he
used the Haditha event to criticize the Americans,
saying that "they have no respect for citizens.
They smash civilian cars and kill on a suspicion
of a hunch."
The New York Times described
his comments as "an unusual declaration". A
pro-Iranian, Maliki is not pleased with how the
Americans have treated him and his boss and
predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, since their team
won last December's parliamentary elections. They
ousted Jaafari from office, and empowered the
Sunnis at the expense of the Shi'ites, vetoing any
plans to appoint religiously driven Shi'ites at
the ministries of Defense and Interior.
To
put it simply: Maliki will exploit the Haditha
event to get back at the Americans for bullying
him and for withdrawing support from the Shi'ites.
What happened in Haditha? On
November 19, 2005, US Marine Corps commanders in
Iraq said that 24 Iraqis had been killed in
Haditha, a small town in Anbar province, as a
result of a roadside bomb placed by Iraqi
insurgents. Sad but common; there was nothing
unusual to the story, since dozens of car bombs
explode all over Iraq every single day.
At
the time, a marine spokesman distorted the story
in a public statement and said that 15 (not 24)
Iraqis "were killed yesterday from the blast of a
roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately after the
bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small
firearms. Iraqi soldiers and marines returned the
fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding
another."
The incident was not reported as
a "scandal" with "misconduct" until March 12.
Unfortunately for the US troops who committed the
massacre, living next door to the building was
Taher Thabet, 43, an Iraqi journalist who runs the
Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights and
Democracy. He heard the bomb that killed the US
soldier at 7:15am, and saw angry marines get out
of their vehicles and head for four homes on
either side of the road. Thabet then heard
gunfire, screams - then silence.
The next
morning, he visited the house rampaged by the
Americans and videotaped everything he saw. He
followed up with further footage at the Haditha
morgue. He gave the video to Time magazine's
correspondent in Iraq, who in turn contacted the
marines for an explanation, receiving the same
story originally given by the Americans on
November 19.
The marines said this was
al-Qaeda propaganda against the US. Time, however,
did not buy it. Time interviewed Haditha locals,
including the mayor, the morgue doctor, relatives
of the victims and a lawyer who negotiated a
settlement between the marines and the families of
those who were killed.
The marines had
paid the families, through this lawyer, up to
US$2,500 per victim. Time presented all of this to
the US military spokesman in Iraq, Colonel Barry
Johnson.
The continued nagging of Time
journalists reached General Peter Chiarelli, the
newly appointed second-in-command of US troops in
Iraq. He asked his aides to brief Time on updates
"after the investigation" was completed. He was
shocked to hear that "there had been no
investigations". He ordered a speedy
investigation, and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld was briefed with the findings on March
10.
Bush received his copy on March 11.
Then, on March 19, Time's article came out,
sending shock waves throughout the White House and
Pentagon. Eman Waleed, a nine-year old Iraqi girl,
was quoted in Time saying, "I watched them shoot
my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the
head."
This makes the crime all the
uglier: homicide and cover-up. US investigations
into the case are currently under way, headed by
General Eldon Bargewell, and meanwhile, far away
in Washington, former presidential candidate John
Kerry has prepared a bill in Congress demanding
withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of
the year.
Coinciding with the loud outcry
over Haditha, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
told his British counterpart Prime Minister Tony
Blair that he was adamant about bringing Italian
troops back home. Nobody wants to blacken their
image further, and that of their country, with the
continued occupation and destruction of Iraq.
Nobody, that is, apparently except for Bush.
Was Bush fully informed about the Haditha
massacre on March 11? One can only be amazed at
how passively he has reacted to an event that
could ruin not only his reputation and honor, but
that of the entire US military as well.
It
is equally amazing how some US commentators, such
as David Reinhard of The Oregonian, rudely wrote,
"Of course, nobody knows for sure what happened in
that small Iraqi village last November 19."
Yet the story has come out. The entire
family of Yunis Khalaf, for example, was gunned
down in Haditha while he was screaming: "I am a
friend. I am good!" His girls were aged 14, 10,
five, three, and one year. All of them were killed
in cold blood, shot in the head or chest at close
range. Among the 25 Iraqis killed at Haditha were
an infant and an old man in a wheelchair. He was
shot nine times. One girl, aged 12, survived the
massacre of her family by playing dead and lived
to tell the story to Time.
As the Haditha
story was making headlines from Tokyo to
Washington, other troubling news was coming out of
Iraq. Last Wednesday, a pregnant Iraqi woman was
shot dead, along with her cousin, as she was
rushing to give birth in Samarra. She entered a
"prohibited area" and refused to stop when US
troops asked her to do so. Regardless if she
understood English, or if she was in labor and
unable to stop, she was shot dead. She is survived
by her husband and two children, aged two and one.
Then came new accusations against the US
military, now blamed for another killing in Ishaqi
village north of Baghdad. The British Broadcasting
Corp last week aired images of 11 Iraqi citizens
killed by the Americans on March 15. The bodies
included four women and five children. The oldest
was 75 years old. The youngest was six months.
The video was obtained from a Sunni
resistance group opposed to the US occupation of
Iraq. The US story at the time said that four
Iraqis (not 11) had died as US troops raided a
building trying to catch Ahmad Abdullah Mohammad
Na'is al-Utaybi, a member of al-Qaeda.
Iraqi police challenged the US tale,
saying that the number was 11 (including five
children and four women), deliberately killed by
US troops, who also deliberately blew up the
building once they had finished.
Surprising the world, after leaking that
12 marines would face charges for the event, the
US military declared that they were innocent on
Friday, 24 hours after the BBC film was broadcast.
Angry Iraqis are asking: "What kind of a verdict
could be reached in 24 hours?"
Two
scandals in one week, however, for Bush were
simply too much to tolerate. This might explain
why the Americans quickly wrapped up the Ishaqi
affair, saying that all accusations of a massacre
by US troops were "absolutely false".
Memories of My Lai Daniel
Henninger commented on the Haditha massacre in the
Wall Street Journal: "The narrative of this story
has pretty much set in already: it's another My
Lai. We all know they did it, the brass covered
up, and prison sentences for homicide are merely a
formality."
Many in the US, like
Henninger, are drawing parallels between what
happened in Haditha and what happened in My Lai,
Vietnam. The March 1968 massacre there, when the
US Army wiped out an entire village - elderly,
women and children, killing more than 300
civilians in one of the worst crimes of the
Vietnam War - should be remembered to understand
why the US military is acting in such a manner in
Iraq.
That single act, more than all the
rest, turned US public opinion against the Vietnam
War. The US soldiers found no insurgents in the
village on the morning of March 16. Led by
Lieutenant William Calley, they killed the
civilians - primarily old men, women, children and
babies. Some were tortured or raped. Dozens were
herded into a ditch and executed with automatic
firearms.
Calley was convicted in 1971 of
premeditated murder in ordering the shootings and
was initially sentenced to life in prison. Two
days later, however, president Richard Nixon
ordered him released from prison. Calley claimed
that he was following orders from his captain,
Ernest Medina, who denied giving the orders and
was acquitted at a separate trial. Of the 26 men
initially charged, Calley's was the only
conviction.
Senator John Kerry gave a
statement to Congress on the Vietnam massacre in
1971 regarding Calley. He said: "I think if you
are going to try Lieutenant Calley then you must
at the same time, if this country is going to
demand respect for the law, you must at the same
time try all those other people who have
responsibility, and any aversion that we may have
to the verdict as veterans is not to say that
Calley should be freed, not to say that he is
innocent, but to say that you can't just take him
alone."
And his words ring loud and clear
today, 36 years later, and can be applied verbatim
with regard to Haditha and Ishaqi.
Everybody in the Bush administration is
responsible for the massacres in Iraq. The
officers in charge on November 19. The soldiers
who pulled the triggers then lied about it. The
marines who did not conduct an immediate
investigation into the case. Rumsfeld for sending
men with low morals or dignity to Iraq. And
finally, Bush. More than anybody else, he is
responsible for Haditha, just as he is responsible
for Abu Ghraib, Ishaqi and all the other
"mistakes" committed by the Americans since they
invaded Iraq in March 2003.
Sami
Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
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