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Massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha committed by U.S. Marines

The Haditha killings (also called the Haditha massacre) were a series of killings on 19 November 2005, in which a group of United States Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The killings occurred in Haditha, a city in Iraq's western province of Al Anbar. Among the dead were men, women, children and elderly people, who were shot multiple times at close range while unarmed. It was alleged that the killings were a retribution for the attack on a convoy of Marines with an improvised explosive device that killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas.

Articles

The Abominations of War: From My Lai to Haditha, by Cindy Sheehan, 6 Jun 2006
Responds to those who demand to "support our troops" and the President by listing various immoral and illegal actions, suggesting instead that George W. Bush be prosecuted as a war criminal and offering support to those who disobey unlawful orders
The massacre in Haditha on November, 19, 2005, is just another way to underscore the fact that our troops are being turned into war criminals in what one article called: "The Worst War Crime of the Iraq War." ... I have not seen anywhere ... that, not only is Haditha not the worse war crime committed by American or coalition troops, but the entire war is a war crime ... The most difficult part ... is in trying to reconcile the fact that our soldiers, for one example, in Haditha, could not show conscience and restraint, qualities which may have prevented a murderous rampage.
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Iraq War, War
Do Hadithans Hate Us for Our Freedoms?, by Jacob G. Hornberger, 2 Jun 2006
Probes the premise voiced by U.S. government officials that terrorist acts are motivated by hatred of American "freedoms and values", rather than by episodes such as the Iraqi sanctions, torture at Abu Ghraib and the Haditha massacre
Today, defenders of the president's war ... are suggesting that the killing of 24 defenseless civilians in Haditha, including ... women and children and even an old man in a wheelchair, were committed by only a few U.S. soldiers and that the rest of America's occupying force are performing "heroically." ... Who honestly believes that the friends and family members and even countrymen of those who were killed and maimed in Haditha — or elsewhere in Iraq — are likely to say, "We hate America not because of what they did at Haditha and the rest of Iraq but because of America's First Amendment and rock and roll"?
Iraqi Death by Political Abstraction, by Sheldon Richman, 5 Jun 2006
Examines the causes of the 2005 Haditha killings, reflecting on Leonard Read's notable essay "Conscience in the Battlefield"
When men trained to kill on a battlefield ... are ordered into civilian areas where many residents see the troops as an occupying force rather than as liberators, what would you expect to happen? ... So who is ultimately responsible for the massacre of the 24 unarmed Iraqis at Haditha? ... Many things about war are uncertain, but one thing we know for sure: men of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, would not be under investigation for cold-blooded murder had they never left Camp Pendleton in southern California. Why did they leave? Because President Bush decreed a policy that led to their being ordered to Iraq.
Is This Really War?, by Sheldon Richman, 16 Jun 2006
Discusses the Haditha killings and argues that U.S. troops in Iraq were acting more as a police force for the new Iraqi regime, which was incompatible with their military training
An attorney for one of the Marines under investigation ... has said that the rules of engagement ... were followed rigidly ... Eyewitness accounts say American Marines shot men, women, and children execution-style in their houses. But the attorney [said] that the Marines, responding to gunfire from a house after a roadside explosion killed one of their men, threw a fragmentation grenade into the house, then entered with guns blazing, killing everyone inside. When they didn't find the shooter, they proceeded to the next house and did the same thing. Apparently, 24 civilians were murdered.
Massacre of Civilians Was Inevitablec, by Eric Margolis, 19 Jun 2006
The real blame for Haditha, of course, belongs to an administration that plunged the U.S. into an unnecessary, no-win war in Iraq, and with Pentagon brass. And with those senior Washington officials who spit on the Geneva Conventions and laws of war and telegraphed their contempt right down the line.
The Meaning of Haditha, by Justin Raimondo, 2 Jun 2006
Comments on the Haditha massacre shortly after it was disclosed by major news outlets and also responds to critics of congressman John Murtha
We are not talking about National Guard units, here: these are U.S. Marines, highly-trained killing machines who know the rules of war, know the difference between a woman with a baby in her arms and a group of insurgents, and know, furthermore, that the war they are fighting is supposed to be against terrorism. Would they succumb to "stress" ... go ballistic, and slaughter 24 innocents, including women and very young children, if they didn't think they could get away with it? In short, would they have done it if it wasn't policy – directed, encouraged, and condoned by their commanders?
Related Topics: Imperialism, Iraq War
Our Terrorism, and Theirs, by Justin Raimondo, 5 Jun 2006
Comments on the responses to the Haditha massacre and other Iraq War reported atrocities, particularly from Peter Beinart and Bill Kristol
If it weren't for Iraqi human rights activist Taher Thabet, who videotaped the immediate aftermath of the Haditha atrocities, the cover-up engineered by local commanders (and possibly others higher up the chain of command) would have succeeded. When Marine units arrived at Haditha in the wake of the massacre, they found women, children, and an old man, shot dead – not victims of a roadside bomb, which was and still is the official story. ... The first response from U.S. military authorities was denial – and cover-up. And it was only by the grace of outside investigators ... that the horrors of Haditha came to light.
Related Topics: Communism, Iraq War
The President Seems Out of Touch With Events on the Ground in Iraq, by Robert Higgs, 31 May 2006
Contrasts a George W. Bush speech given at West Point with nearly concurrent news reports about the Haditha massacre
As the president was speaking, newspapers around the world were reporting on an investigation of the massacre of at least two dozen Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha on November 19, 2005. The killings had been falsely reported initially by the men involved, and, as the Washington Post reported, only 'after Time magazine presented military officials in Baghdad this year with the findings of its own investigation, based on accounts of survivors and on a videotape shot by an Iraqi journalism student at Haditha's hospital and inside victims' houses' did the U.S. military launch its own investigation, which is still ongoing.
Related Topics: George W. Bush, Iraq War
Rationalizing Haditha, by Justin Raimondo, 7 Jun 2006
Additional comments on responses to the Haditha massacre and similar incidents, from Rich Lowry, Christopher Hitchens, Nouri al-Maliki and Andrew Walden
No, this isn't My Lai – it is, in an important sense, far worse. Medina and Calley commanded conscripts ... Haditha, on the other hand, was the handiwork of professionals: and not just any professionals, but the vaunted Marines, the elite corps of America's Imperial Forces. ... The Haditha massacre is not the result of individual failings, or of a "renegade" squadron that somehow shucked its training and went berserk. It is the inevitable consequence of a policy that cannot be implemented without inflicting massive casualties on the enemy ... in a country where the overwhelming majority want the occupation to end.
Related Topics: Iraq, Iraq War, Vietnam War
What's Become of Americans?, by Paul Craig Roberts, 22 Mar 2006
Ponders the lack of reaction by Americans to events related to the Iraq War and the Bush administration, such as the missing WMDs, Abu Ghraib, mass surveillance, "free speech" zones, the death toll and the Haditha massacre
Now comes a report in the online edition of Time magazine that U.S. Marines went on a rampage in the village of Haditha and deliberately slaughtered 15 unarmed Iraqis in their homes. The Iraqis were still in their bed clothes, and 10 of the 15 were women and children. The Marines turned in a false report that the civilians were killed by an insurgent bomb. But the evidence of wanton carnage was too powerful. ... Time reports that '... The military announced last week that the matter has been handed over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which will conduct a criminal investigation.'

Cartoons and Comic Strips

Are Haditha Killings a Modern Day My Lai?, by Jeff Danziger, 2 Jun 2006

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Haditha massacre" as of 6 Oct 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.