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Haditha is the result of your battlefield ethics

Haditha is the result of your battlefield ethics

  • Posted by Maryam Namazie
  • On June 5, 2006
  • 8 Comments

I can’t stop thinking about the children executed by US forces in Haditha in November last year.

What were they doing right before they were killed in cold blood? Where they playing or sitting on their doorsteps watching the world go by?

What must they have thought of the world they lived in? How scared they must have been when they saw the marines aim directly at them? How much pain did they feel? How long did it take for them to die? Did they die alone or in their mothers’ arms? And how did their mothers feel – helpless to save the lives of their precious little ones?

News of Haditha has driven me insane with rage. If you have still not felt it – numbed by the daily news of killings in Iraq – just try putting the faces of children you love, maybe your own or those of your siblings or close friends, in the places of those beloved who were murdered that day. Beloveds who will be missed; who will never be kissed or kiss again; who will never be tickled, or cuddled. Who are no more…

***

In response to this outrage, attempts at covering it up, along with reports of other such outrages, the US government has ordered troops to undergo a crash course in battlefield ethics.

Please; have some respect for our intelligence.

Haditha is the result of your battlefield ethics – one that similar to Islamic terrorism – indiscriminately targets civilians.

***

For those who think that US militarism is more palatable than Islamic terrorism, think Haditha…

 

8 Comments

RedKnight
"most of your posting are onesided and they only show what is wrong. You should write bothsides of the story(i.e)." There is only one side, the correct side. Also this is an opinion piece, not a news article. So she shouldn't have to try and be objective. Maryam Namazie's post is right on. Keep up the fight, Comrade Maryam.
Anonymous
most of your posting are onesided and they only show what is wrong. You should write bothsides of the story(i.e).
Anonymous
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? There is a real tendency in the West to pick a 'bad guy' and hammer him for ANY/EVERYTHING. Be careful.
Frank Partisan
Other topic. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5073328.stm
grellety
About the Hadhita events, I would like to say, we can think this crime isnt committed by US Army; maybe by them, maybe not. Why ? Because, every day, many citizen, shiites, sunnits, are killed by terrorists. For terrorist who hated americans and western citizens, it very interesting to say and to show some persons who had been killed, and to say,"americans had killed them". I repeat, maybe, US Army is responsible about this crime, but I ask a question : did the question of the terrorist responsability is say and write in arab press ? And what the arab press say about thousands killed persons by Zarkaoui friends ? I hope US Army leavy in some days, or in some weeks, and not in some months, or some years, this snake land. Also, they prouves they didnt go in Irak to realize a new colonization. Three years after the beginning of war, it is time for them to return at home, and to leave Iraki and other arab people to show if they prefer peace and freedom and not war and blood.
?
thanks for this post.In the first instance, Haditha is a truly horrific crime and likely to be one of a great number of atrocities that will remain unknown, or emerge long after the event. Your post is a useful reminder of the senselessness of war of any kind in which the innocents inevitably suffer and I wholeheartedly share her pain and rage. But Haditha is important because it can and will force people to think more. Let’s face it, what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you, and if you don’t know, you don’t think.It is in precisely this context however that I am somewhat disappointed in reviewing subsequent comments on this post that focus primarily on whether the perpetrators of such ridiculously barbaric and heinous crimes should or should not be defended. Moreover, as you so aptly point out, the “battlefield ethics” are likely shared among both parties. Surely, the point is that innocent people are suffering and something must and will be done. I would like to appeal to comments to this effect. What is the first step? Could it be a collective attempt to make the organ-grinders listen?
gedankenfabrik
most of the time the media reports about statistics. it ist necessary to report about human beeings like you do with this post.greetings from germany
Frank Partisan
This is your most powerful post ever. You said everything, to the point.They don't even count casualties anymore.You can reprint this on my blog, if you desire.

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Maryam Namazie