Haditha: Marine eyewitnesses come forward

There are two, according to the AP. They weren’t there during the incident but they took photos and helped carry out the bodies afterwards.

One of them, Lance Cpl. Ryan Briones, was interviewed by the LA Times:

Briones said he took pictures of at least 15 bodies before his camera batteries died. He said he then helped other Marines remove the bodies and place them in body bags. He said his worst moment, and one that haunts him to this day, was picking up the body of a young girl who was shot in the head.

"I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

I take Briones at his word because he's a Marine, but I admit that if he weren't, I'd find some elements of his story suspicious. Regardless, he sounds shattered by what he saw - not only inside the houses but inside the bombed-out humvee where he found Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas's body. Terrazas's death is what allegedly inspired the rampage, you'll recall.

The Times says three or four Marines are suspected of carrying out the killings with several more facing charges of having covered it up or done nothing while the shooting was going on.

The rest of today's coverage follows two tracks. One is devoted to showing how tough the Marines have had it in Haditha. This AP story paints it as the equal of any snakepit in Iraq; Zarqawi is rumored to have lived there, and voter turnout for last year's constitutional referendum was estimated at 150 out of a city of 90,000. So hard is it, in fact, that Knight-Ridder's Iraq correspondent reported last August - three months before the alleged massacre - that some of the Marine officers stationed there worried that their men might crack. Editor & Publisher reprinted the article today. Quote:

Officers worry about the enemy while trying to make sure their men don't crack under the pressure.

"I tell the guys not to lose their humanity over here, because it's easy to do," said Marine Capt. James Haunty, 27, of Columbus, Ohio. "I tell them not to turn into Col. Kurtz."

Sitting with his men at a morning meeting in the town of Hit, Marine Maj. Nicholas Visconti said he was up late the night before, unable to sleep in the heat, when a call came from a patrol requesting permission to shoot an Iraqi man. The man, the patrol leader said, was out past curfew and appeared to be talking on a cell phone. Visconti intervened and told the patrol leader not to shoot...

With a worried look, Visconti, 35, of Brookfield, Conn., continued: "There's killing bad guys and there's murdering civilians. Let's do the first and not the second. Murderers we’re not, OK?"

Read it all. It's even more vivid than the AP story re: the snakepit.

Others covering the story:

The Commissar

Michelle Malkin

A blog for all

The Commisar has a very compelling paragraph at the end of his post:

There is a lot of commentary on this, some very confused. In particular, many commenters are confusing "explanation" with "excuse." Is there an explanation for this? Absolutely. Young Marines seeing their buddy get killed, in a hot, dangerous town, when their nerves have been on edge for months? I've seen parents get crazy at youth soccer games. Try to imagine how crazy people get when they are being shot at. That's a whole order of magnitude of higher emotion. Now try to imagine seeing a buddy get killed. The emotional reaction is not even comprehensible to people whose daily lives are comfortable and safe.

It's probably fair to say that only the rigorous training and discipline of the US military prevents a Haditha from happening every day.

But all of the foregoing is an "explanation." It's no "excuse." The soldiers and Marines have the responsibility to conduct themselves properly, or certainly not to blow away dozens of civilians in misguided retaliatory massacres.

I am not going to judge these Marines.... I have not walked a mile in their combat boots. If they killed innocents, knowingly and in cold blood, they must pay. If they killed women and children, I will pray for their souls. But I will not judge them. The law must do that. I understand the anger that comes from losing a friend, a brother. I can only imagine what that is like, compounded with the stress of daily living under the gun. There is no moral justification for murder, but we can try to understand the circumstances that possibly drove them to it, even if we must condemn their actions.

I am very concerned about the possibility of a cover up, and complicity by the officer corps. My sincere hope is that this was not the case, and if it was, that the officers responsible are held responsible. That is all any reasonable person can ask for. It's a sad story, growing sadder with each new revelation. Let us hope that this investigation comes to a swift and just conclussion, and that we can do all possible to heal the scar left in this incidents' wake.

Why does it have to be ALL ABOUT THIS:

The way the Left wants us to lose so badly is pathetic

The Haditha "unpleasantness" is probably more of an issue in Iraq than in the U.S. where we can scarely get off the couch to get exercised about torture, a fake war, or the slow-motion erosion of our civil liberties much less killing a few more Iraqis. Perhaps Dan would like to go over to Iraq and explain to the people of Haditha that the, and we'll insert "alleged", slaughter is within an acceptable tolerance if compared to the U.S. murder rates and, even if we did invade their country and destroyed their economy and infrastructure, they should be happy that they're not living in Detroit. I know I am.

The moron could read the story above to see how much the Iraqis still want us there. Or they could see the good things which have happened before and since in Haditha. But they'd rather ignore how people starved under Saddam Hussein, assuming they weren't executed, because it's all about hating Bush.

The Left has nothing to offer America, or Iraq.

I am from the Left. I do not support the war, or our reasons/lack thereof for being there. But I don't want us to lose. Hell, I don't even want us to leave, until we put that country back together. But this story is not about Left or Right, at least not for me. It is about the possible slaughter of innocents. We need to ALL get over the political posturing on this issue, and put our efforts towards making sure JUSTICE is done, either for the victims, if they were murdered, or for the Marines if they were wrongly accussed. There are some things that are beyond politics, this should be one of them!

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Posted by: Mark at June 1, 2006 06:52 PM