Dear Bloggers de Guerre,
Like most of you, I’ve been a civilian all my life. Most of what I know about war I learned from books and movies. If you’ve never served in the military or lived in an active war zone (New York City doesn’t count), all you know about war you learned from books and movies. You may not wish to admit this; some of you seem to think you have superior insight into martial matters bestowed upon you by ideological grace. But I doubt that’s true, even if you’ve seen a lot more war movies than I have.
Like most of you, I have enormous respect and appreciation for the U.S. military. I realize that most of you think liberals by definition hate the military, because you have encountered some liberals who hated the military, and since we’re all just alike we must all hate the military. But in fact it doesn’t work that way. I believe most of us, in fact, do not hate the military. I am personally acquainted with at least one sure-enough liberal who was a career army officer. Believe it, or not.
I want to talk to you about the allegations that U.S. Marines deliberately killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians last November 19. I take it most of you do not believe these allegations. Many of you are accusing Rep. John Murtha, who repeated the allegations on last night’s “Hardball” at MSNBC, of making wild accusations, of being anti-American, of engaging in a verdict first, trial later condemnation. Copious amounts of adjectives like “dishonorable,” “unconscionable” and “treasonous” are being heaped on Murtha’s name. Some of you concede there might be some truth in the allegations, but that Murtha should not have spoken out while investigations are ongoing.
Here’s what I say: As investigations are ongoing, we who were not there do not know what happened. OK, but that includes Murtha, you say. According to Drew Brown of Knight Ridder, however, Murtha said he learned what the investigation found from “military commanders and other sources.” He is known to be well connected to the career military guys in the Pentagon, so this is possible.
It can be argued that Murtha should not have spoken up until the investigation was complete. On the other hand, it’s possible that without some pressure on the Pentagon the results of the investigation will never be made public. Billmon:
I don’t know why Murtha went public (just as the right wingers don’t know) but I can make my own guess: He did it to try to prevent Rumsfeld’s toadies from classifying and then deep sixing the investigative report, as they tried to bury the Taguba report on Abu Ghraib. And if the past really is prologue, Murtha is probably speaking on behalf of some fairly senior Marine officers who either can’t abide a cover up, or who want to pin the blame on the people who created this mess, and left the jarheads in Haditha to deal with it, instead of on their beloved Corps.
Accounts of what happened on November 19 are heart-wrenching. This is from Nancy A. Youssef of Knight Ridder (April 8, 2006):
The Marines say they took heavy gunfire afterwards and thought it was coming from the area around Younes’ house. They went to investigate, and 23 people were killed.
Eight were from Younes’ family. The only survivor, Younes’ 13-year-old daughter, said her family wasn’t shooting at Marines or harboring extremists that morning. They were sleeping when the bomb exploded. And when the Marines entered their house, she said, they shot at everyone inside. …
… The events of last November have clearly taken their toll on Yaseen and his niece, Safa, who trembles visibly as she listens to Yaseen recount what she told him of the attack. She cannot bring herself to tell the tale herself.
Frightened, Safa fainted. She thought she had died. When she awoke, she remembered seeing her mother still lying in bed. Her head was blown open. She looked around and heard her 3-year-old brother, Mohammed, moan in pain. The blood was pouring out of his right arm.
“Come on, Mohammed. Get up so we can go to uncle’s house,” she told her brother. But he couldn’t.
In the same room where her mother, aunt and sisters lay dead, Safa grabbed the toddler, sat down and leaned his head against her shoulder. She put his arm against her chest and held it to try to stop the bleeding. She kept holding and talking to him until, like everyone else in the room, he too was silent. And then she ran next door.
Maybe Yaseen and Safa are lying. Maybe they’re confused. Maybe they aren’t.
I’m fond of reading about history, including military history. Incidents like those described by Yaseen and Safa happen in war. Exactly one century ago, in 1906, troops under the command of Gen. Leonard Wood massacred at least 900 (reported at the time as 600) Filipino Muslims on the island of Jolo. The dead included women and children, killed indiscriminately. Anti-imperlialists published pamphlets and distributed a photograph of the carnage.
The Filipinos of Jolo, fleeing gunfire, took shelter in the crater of a dormant volcano.
The Americans rigged a block and tackle to hoist their artillery up the last 300 feet, and, as the Moros fled over the lip, the Americans opened a barrage into the 50-foot-deep crater. With orders from Wood to “kill or capture the six hundred,†the American forces descended into the crater in an ever-shrinking circle. Wood wrote, “The action resulted in the extinction of a band of outlaws.†Fifteen Americans were killed in the fighting; all six hundred Moros died.
Mark Twain’s comments on the episode are here.
There have been other massacres by U.S. troops, such as Wounded Knee in 1890 and My Lai in 1968. In fact, the history of warfare around the world, through history, is riddled with accounts of atrocities. We who have not been at war might like to imagine that such acts are aberrations or only committed by our enemies, not us. But I suspect we are being naive.
Two centuries ago, the historians tell us, wars in western society were mostly fought in discrete battles by soldiers in pretty uniforms. Battles were horrific — mostly bayonet work, close up and bloody — but most of the time battles would last a day or two, and the soldiers had days or weeks or months of relative safety until the next battle. But since the dawn of trench warfare — by most accounts, Grant’s siege of Petersburg, Va., 1864-65 — soldiers in war face unrelenting stress for days, weeks, months on end. And in these days of “asymmetrical warfare,” when combatants blend in with civilians and death can come even at the hands of children, the stress must be a great deal more than the human nervous system was designed to bear.
Some soldiers are going to break down. This happens. We don’t know if it happened in Iraq on November 19, but it could have happened. The allegations may or may not be true, but they are not “outrageous.” They are serious.
If this massacre did occur as Yaseen and Safa described it, suppressing discussion of it out of some misguided notion of national pride isn’t doing the war effort a damn bit of good. Even if Americans never hear the details, Iraqis have heard the details. The rest of the Muslim world has heard the details. They heard the details months ago, long before Jack Murtha spoke of them on television. Denying what they know — or believe — to be true doesn’t make us more trustworthy in their eyes. If even those who might want peace and democracy believe they cannot trust the U.S. and our troops, there isn’t much point in our remaining in Iraq, is there?
If it happens that the allegations are not true, and we can prove it, we need to get our proof in front of the world as soon as possible. If we learn that the allegations are not true, we should reprimand Rep. Murtha. But if they are true, we should thank him. You should thank him, if you are serious about accomplishing anything positive in Iraq.
But most of all, those of you who supported, and still support, the invasion of Iraq, should grow up and face the truth that atrocities will happen in war, even at the hands of U.S. troops, because we are asking troops to endure unbearable stress for prolonged periods of time. This is one of several reasons why war should be a solution of last resort. It’s easy for those of us who are safe and protected here at home to talk about what is “honorable” and what isn’t. But those who are bearing the burden you asked them to bear are human beings, not movie characters.
You helped send our troops into a war that didn’t have to be fought. If the allegations are true, you bear some of the blame. If the allegations are true, you owe both the Marines and little Safa an apology.
See also: ” Escalating the rhetoric.”
Maha….thank you again. Your words above are all I’d wished could be said ….. and more. ‘Good on you’ for your insight and ability to hit the jugular of this issue with your post.
I am so impressed by your ability to find the quite place where you can write calmly, dispassionately about a horrific situation, to people who are so prone to emotional, unthinking outbursts. I harbor little hope that righties will listen, or that even if they do, they will be persuaded. I fully expect the response to you, from them, to be the same kind of irrational, obscene ravings which are so unfortunately typical of the right wing mind-set. Very good post. Thank you for doing it.
In 2002 I asked a young man who heckled me and others as we carried signs against the war every Tues afternoon in the median of our busiest highway, how many innocent Iraqi civilians killed will make you feel better about the loss of life 9-11? He just stared at me. I told him that it would happen – many thousand of innocent men, women, and children will be killed in a war with Iraq. And how will our young men and women ever recover from the horrors they have faced in Iraq. There must be a special place in hell for draft dodgers who send innocent young men and women to war.
Besides your retired officer friend, you now know at least one retired Air Force senior NCO who’s a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. I did my twenty between the wars, more or less: 1970-1990, at the end of Vietnam and before the Gulf War. I never fired a shot in anger and so even though I wear the Vietnam service and campaign ribbons (proudly and properly, I might add), out of respect for the real combat heroes I do not consider myself a real Vietnam Vet because we all know who we think of when we think of those people. Nor do I presume to know what goes through the mind of a combat troop, never having myself been in combat.
All I can say is, some of my best friends (wherever they are) are GIs, and I grieves me to think that so many of the men and women in Iraq right now still think they’re making up for September 11th. They are the true pawns in the neocons’ game, suffering more for it than everyone else but the poor and innocent Iraqis, upon whose doorstep these unwitting killers descended.
I know why Murtha spoke out…maybe there’s a clue to be found in the Marine Corp Hymn….” and to keep our honor clean”. How do you find a distinction between the Waffen SS and the Marine Corp if atrocities are committed and allowed to be covered in lies. What soldier finds pride in self and country in the slaughter of unarmed civilians?
Murtha reflects honor on the Marine Corp that he loves by having the courage speak out against the things that defile her.
Ah! Great One! Once again you nailed it. Logical and reasonable. Murtha did our country a favor. We need more people with MSM access to speak out. And as a Viet Nam vet (19 months in country, and yes, I carry my DD-214 at all times. It still amazes me how many wanna bees there are out there), I can attest to that stress part. Keep on!
The Corps ain’t no “Her”…
It’s an It…
And I must be one of “Those” that the Zoomie thinks about…
A young Guardsman I know (slightly) just went back to Iraq for his second dose…He spent the whole two weeks he was “At Home” smoking crack…Scared his little woman silly…
You’re right about the stress…
Oh…And there ain’t no “Marine Corps Hymn”, neither…
It’s “The Marine’s Hymn”…
Glad S/Sgt Rogers (my Sr. DI and a Missourian) didn’t see that…
We’d all be in for a long evening’s Mass Punishment…
It’s the thought that you expressed so well…this war did not have to be fought. I continue to believe that we would never have gotten ourselves into this mess if it had not been for the manipulation of the NeoCon lobby in Washington. The blood of thousands of dead Americans and Iraqi’s are on their hands.
Sorry D.R….I guess I qualify to be called an undisciplined maggot,Huh? But..am I correct in guessing Murtha’s motives?
If Murtha was to smoke marijuana he’s become Mirtha.
“Some soldiers are going to break down”
True statement, although won’t all soldiers eventually break down? I joined the Army after I flunked out of a couple years of college. I was a Conscientious objector when I turned 18 and never registered for the draft. After 3 months of Basic&A.I.T. I was a trained 13B (cannoneer) ready to rain down all the death and destruction a 155mm shell could deliver on anybody that had it coming. Fortunately for me and the rest of the world it was 1982. I guess the point I am trying to make is that soldiers are trained to kill. Isn’t that the “purpose” of a war, to kill the enemy? Unfortunately in war “innocent” people get killed, this war is certainly no different. In fact I believe Rumsfeld himself said the “enemy” was 10,000 or so dead Enders. The innocent lives lost in this war seem even more tragic, given the lack of a “real” reason for being there in the first place. But in the end this incident is just a war story; true or not, it is a war story. I see no point in Murtha discussing it because there is nothing that can be done. Military investigations and subsequent prosecutions are not influenced by media hype. I ask myself why is he (Murtha) going on the record about this killing. I believe something like 40,000 Iraqi’s (or in theater Arabs) and 2,454 U.S. troops have been killed. I would venture a guess that at least half of these deaths have been equally gruesome. I understand Murtha’s frustration and outrage, but all this story does is point the blame at some 20 year old college dropout that was trained to kill and told by his keepers that he had a reason.
http://www.uncledad.org/uploads/one_by_one.mp3
I don’t believe it is possible to return from combat the same person as before.I believe our troops are trained to forget their targets are human, even though it goes against everything they were taught as children.I believe the military plays whatever mind games it needs to in order to keep boots on the ground…but with those games comes a risk…..once you allow someone to become a cold blooded killer .. the toothpaste can’t always be put back into the tube….. we can’t have troops that won’t fight….and when a troop becomes an animal unleashed we don’t like that either….we are asking our troops to be something in between wimp and cold blooded killers..throw them into a combat zone and watch as some snap from fear they can’t show and a conflict going on inside them with no resolve( thou shall not kill vs KILL KILL KILL)….sitting behind my keyboard in my safe home I can see it is a tough balance to strike….how does anyone remain sane in the midst of such insanity??
Locally we had a story of a woman run down a few days before christmas as she walked into her job at a home improvment store…cameras caught the act on film and after a few months they picked up the man who commit the crime…
He was a young vet who had just returned to Iraq with a wife and child … he left his home in the early morning hours intending to kill someone (so he tells police), anyone before going to his regular job… he ran this woman over at random, then backed over her a second time and left her to bleed to death in the parking lot…after looking at her(all on camera) then he went on to work…..he just needed to kill someone and then he felt better…this is the kind of thing we will be dealing with as troops return….I bet I have read a few dozen stories of men who came back only to kill their wives in out of control rages… because IMHO a normal person cannot go from killing on the streets of Iraq to grocery shopping in des moines…the ability to kill cannot be turned on and off like water yet that is what is expected of these young men and women…I am suprised we don’t have more situations like the one Murtha spoke of…
I am also not suprised to see righties reaction to it…they seem to believe if they just don’t hear it, it didn’t really happen or they don’t have to deal with it.. anyone who brings it up risks shattering their illusion,, and really isn’t that all that matters???Doesn’t the entire world believe in perception over reality??How dare Murtha spoil their otherwise perfect war?(snark)
Re- opening an old can of worms does anyone recall the video of troops going into a building where several Iraqis lay dead and a troop opened fire on one who was not dead yet ?We all saw the tape right? The guy didn’t move,, he was just laying there minding his own business bleeding to death.. they cleared the troops later , saying the body could have been booby trapped…which made no sense because shooting an explosive body in such close quarters would have caused all of the troops injury, much less the one standing over the body to shoot it..AND the conversation between the troops made the intention pretty clear…people could see what happened with their own eyes and ears and STILL say it could never happen.. go figure…perception over reality indeed
Returning home — I’ve been told that after my grandpa got home from France in 1919 he would get panic attacks in the night and run around the house yelling until somebody woke him up and calmed him down. He didn’t even get to the front until September 1918 and was in the trenches only about six weeks before Armistice. And he didn’t get on the boat to go home until June, so he had lots of time to decompress. What he went through must have been horrible. Yet in those days the enemy was still wearing uniforms and fighting in military units. What troops in Iraq go through probably plays with their heads even more than being in the trenches on the western front.
I, like the Senior Air Force NCO above am an Un-ashamed liberal who spent 21 years in the U.S. Navy (1958 – 1979). Only 35 monts combat time. Your post is darn near perfect. You’ve captured my feelings anyway.
Un-ashamed ? ? Really, it’s DAMN PROUD TO BE A LIBERAL.
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