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June 07, 2006

Haditha Massacre Coverage

...deconstructed.

Haditha: Reasonable Doubt
Special from Hawaii Free Press By Andrew Walden, 6/5/2006 7:06:33 AM
...The liberal media is chiming in to make sure that Haditha is used to wear down support for our troops in Iraq—just as they did with abu-Ghraib. Peering through the media smokescreen few have noticed that all of the actual shooting eye-witnesses in the media’s kangaroo court are local Iraqis--witnesses who are under constant threat from terrorists and whose motivations may be suspect. All the US witnesses currently quoted in the media saw events before or after the alleged shootings—but not the shootings themselves.

Only now—two and a half months after the story broke in the March 19 issue of Time magazine-- are the voices of soldiers who question the charges beginning to be heard. Marine Captain James Kimber commanded Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. The troops involved in the incident were from Kilo Company. He tells interviewers that he first learned about the shootings in February when he heard that a Time magazine reporter was asking questions about civilian deaths. Notably, Kimber says he heard nothing about a civilian massacre during weekly meetings with the Haditha City Council and talks with local leaders. "It would have been huge, there would have been no question it would have filtered down to us," he said. "We reported no significant atmospheric change as a result of that day." Kimber who has been relieved of his command and is back in Camp Pendleton, CA says, “I believe I was a political casualty as a result of the Haditha incident.” Some media accounts indicate that some of the dead were relatives of a Haditha City Council member. The May 12, 2006 edition of Iraq Reconstruction Update carries a photo and short article about Marine officers holding weekly meetings with the Haditha City Council with no mention of the alleged shooting controversy.


And, as in our post below, MSM reporters avouch the care with which the Marines wage their urban war.
CNN reporter, Arwa Damon, writes:

“I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target. I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.

“I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't….”


Did the Marines perpetrate this horrible slaughter? DID they? That's to be determined and, if so, brought before Courts Martial for trial. But this hateful distortion of everything to do with the Marines and their conduct of this war is an abomination and a betrayal. WHY was not the video of the disembowling of the Marine reservist made known to us as it surfaced? The Marines in Haditha get to walk past it every day in the marketplace and that's okay? Not worthy of note? We see video after video of pleading hostages, rampaging Muslims avenging traffic accidents and toilet flushings, the Blackhawk Army Ranger body dragged in the streets of Mogadishu, contractors strung from a bridge and never miss a chance to broadcast the latest Osama Bin Laden, al-Zawahri or Al-Zarquari video rant. But the HORRORS our troops live with every day are moot as far as the 'press' is concerned ~ in their eyes there are no mitigating circumstances, no wretched, inhuman engagements, no bestial behaviour from the enemy that rates mention, condemnation, vilification or annhilation if executed against American troops. No outraged headlines...
"Have You SEEN What These ANIMALS Did to Our Boy?"
...unless, like Blackhawk Down, it works to the plan.

You'll never hear of it otherwise.

And no Marine will tell Billy's mom you could buy the video of his death in the market.

(Well worth reading and a warm Swill Salute to Mark in Mexico for finding it.) Michelle Malkin notes one apology.

Posted by tree hugging sister at June 7, 2006 11:49 AM

Comments

What people don't seem to understand is that the war is not being fought by the military anymore. We've won that handily. There is no military threat in Iraq, only isolated, albeit murderous, incidents.

The war is simply a matter of national will now. That's all there is. Can our enemies sustain their hatred of us longer than we can muster the national will to counter them?

Fanatical religious bigotry and oppression do not require public support to succeed. They succeed by removing and killing those that disagree and terrorize the remainder into obedient obsequiousness.

The weakness of democracy is precisely what they are targeting. A democracy requires consensus to fight a war. With a consensus we are unbeatable. The enemy's only hope is to destroy our consensus to fight. On that level they may yet succeed.

Much of the US media is not anti-war. They are on the other side.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at June 7, 2006 01:02 PM