by Charles
I’ve written little (if anything) on Haditha since last June (here, and a 9,000+ word whopper here), but there are a few subsequent pieces worth bringing up. The first is a New York Times article which does its own job of piecing together what took place. The writers put themselves in the shoes of the investigators, interviewing Marines, their lawyers, Iraqi residents and the investigators themselves. They did a fair job at reconstructing events, and although it’s premature to come to any conclusions, there is a possibility that U.S. Marines committed crimes.
Open questions abound. There are inconsistencies in the stories about the Iraqi men killed in or near a taxi (and conflicting accounts about other events that day). There are questions about the Marines using the same tactics in Haditha (where civilians were intermingled with paramilitants) as were used in Fallujah (where civilians were warned to leave and most did). There are questions about the Marines not changing tactics after clearing the first house.
Last month, an article by the New York Times reported allegations of malfeasance higher up the chain of command:
The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said.
Those findings, contained in a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been previously reported about the case. It has been known that marines who carried out the killings made misleading statements to investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.
But the October 2006 Atlantic Monthly takes a different look at Haditha, with the author seeing it not from the perspective of an investigator, but an infantryman. The initial conclusion is apt…
How did the heroes of Fallujah come to kill civilians in Haditha? A Vietnam veteran who witnessed the battle of Fallujah says it’s too soon to judge the marines—but not the high command.
…but requires much more explanation than the simple paragraph would indicate. It is too soon to judge the Marines, but in terms of "high command", Bing West wasn’t talking about the alleged cover-up by superior officers. Rather, he is addressing the entire strategy employed by the coalition after major combat operations were completed. I’ve been meaning to re-subscribe to the Atlantic Monthly, and the Road to Haditha is as good a reason as any for a re-up. Below the fold are some excerpts worth mentioning.
