I am beyond frustrated to read the New York Times account of what some of our Marines did in Haditha. Summarily executing women, an old man in a wheelchair, and young children is not what we sent our troops to do. I am hopeful that the investigation will be vigorous, exhaustive, and will punish the officers that tried to cover it up by paying the the surviving families $2,500 per victim.
I know that it is hard to serve in Iraq in constant fear of being blown up or dismembered by a roadside bomb. I know that it’s traumatic to watch one of your buddies die in such an attack. I understand that soldiers under that kind of pressure can lose their judgment, their training, and their moral bearings and seek blind revenge. These are mitigating factors. But, they cannot excuse what happened.
We must consider this further proof that our continued presence in Iraq is unlikely to be productive. We are becoming what we came to defeat. We can’t police a country when our soldiers are this alienated from the population. One atrocity like the one in Haditha can and will wipe out thousands of acts of kindness and generosity. We have lost control of the situation and we have lost our bearings. Our mission in Iraq is irredeemable.
