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I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email.
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Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com
MilBlogger quits:
Via email:
The response on the part of MilBloggers to the alleged Haditha incident has in my opinion been deplorable, and I no longer want to be associated with this group. Furthermore, I've picked up an increasing resistance to debate among ringmembers, and I'm unwilling in many cases to toe the "company line." Chalk it up to increasingly divergent opinions, I guess.
However, the volume of damning evidence is hard to ignore. A videotape of the bodies, death certificates issued by the hospital, and photographs that contradict the first official statement do not paint a pretty picture of what the Marines did in Haditha on Nov. 19.I say, if the Marines are guilty, punish them accordingly, but until this goes to trial, I'm telling the media and anyone else who have some preconceived notion to STFU.
Haditha, it seems, was known for its high volume of Improvised Explosive Devices. Some also say that insurgents in the area notoriously used women and children as human shields. But the ferocity that the two squads are reported to have used against the three households is unfathomable -- particularly if reports that there was only a single AK-47 between the three are accurate.
Michael Yon makes my point perfectly:
In the absence of clear facts, most people know that a rush to judgment serves no one. What word, then, properly characterizes the recent media coverage of Haditha, when analysis stretches beyond shotgun conclusions to actually attributing motive and assigning blame? No rational process supports a statement like: “We don’t know what happened, but we know why it happened and whose fault it is.”
...It is hard to define the context in a place where the enemy regularly tortures and beheads people, and murders children on a daily basis, and this seems to raise scant ire. They can kill a dozen kids, or come to a classroom and murder a teacher in front of young students, and still be called “rebels,” or “freedom fighters.”
Roger Simon also wonders why the Rush to Judgment?
I don't know what happened in Haditha. How in the world could I?... And how in the world could the hundreds or thousands of columnists who have already written about the supposed killings of Iraqi civilians by Marines? But I do remember the rush to judgment about the supposed massacre in Jenin (for which almost no apologies appeared) and I wonder.
The Daily Dispatch shows examples of irresponsible journalism and responsible journalism.
An Officer Cites Moral Compass of US Unit in Haditha
``I can honestly say that throughout my time with the Marines I knew, they serv ed themselves and their country with honor and courage, and were guided by a strong moral compass,'' he said in his first interview since the news of Haditha incident caused new outrage about the U.S. war in Iraq.
``I can think of a number of incidents where it could have been easy for them to lose that moral compass, and they never did.''
...What is unusual about the current accusations is that such events are rare. While there are a lot of civilians killed by combat actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, most are clearly just people caught in the cross fire. The enemy knowingly takes cover among civilians, to take advantage of American "Rules of Engagement" (ROE). But at the same time, the American ROE these days puts the safely of American troops above all else. Thus if the enemy hides among civilians and opens fire, U.S. troops will return fire, and the civilians either get out of the way, or get hit. Brutal, but the alternative is dead Americans. The enemy makes the most of the civilians they have caused, through their actions, to get killed. The current atrocity accusations are about "cold blood" killings. The investigation will have to decide when the "heat of battle" turns into "cold blood."
And reports how the military is doing it's best to reduce civilian casualties
American troops in Iraq are being issued another "non-lethal" weapon. This one is an 11 inch attachment to their assault rifles, that projects laser light that can "dazzle," or temporarily blind and disorient, whoever it is aimed at. The device has an effective range of over a hundred meters and is intended mainly for use by troops manning checkpoints. There, it will sometimes be used, instead of gunfire,
CNN's source says Marines may have committed "premeditated" murder in the April shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi man in Hamdaniya
The incident is unrelated to a criminal investigation into the alleged massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November.
In the Hamdaniya incident, some of the Marines in pretrial confinement have admitted the circumstances of the man's death were staged, said the officer.
...The attorney for one of the accused denounced what he called cowardly, anonymous leakers at the Pentagon.
"One needs to remember the several cases in which they [the NCIS] have solemnly pronounced the guilt of a Marine that turned out upon a full and unbiased investigation to be without merit," said criminal defense attorney David Brahms.
An attorney representing the Navy medical corpsman, expressed concern that the media frenzy surrounding the case "has contributed to the current conditions my client is enduring at the Camp Pendleton Brig."
Some very interesting commentary on The Real Iraq:
...But will the U.S. stay the course? Many are betting against it. The Baathists and jihadists, their prior efforts to derail Iraqi democracy having come to naught, have now pinned their hopes on creating enough chaos and death to persuade Washington of the futility of its endeavors. In this, they have the tacit support not only of local Arab and Muslim despots rightly fearful of the democratic genie but of all those in the West whose own incessant theme has been the certainty of American failure. Among Bush-haters in the U.S., just as among anti-Americans around the world, predictions of civil war in Iraq, of spreading regional hostilities, and of a revived global terrorism are not about to cease any time soon.
But more sober observers should understand the real balance sheet in Iraq. Democracy is succeeding. Moreover, thanks to its success in Iraq, there are stirrings elsewhere in the region.
Fort Lewis Officer Says He’ll Refuse To Deploy
Lt. Ehren Watada of the Stryker Brigade writes, “I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to ‘stay the course.’ I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression.
...His name had been kept a secret until now
From the Iraq front...
Iraq the Model reports on the Rumor of the day.
There's one rumor in Baghdad these days that has become so big and spread beyond the normal limits of rumors…
The Babylon Blog talks about Hadithah Heat
It’s getting hot in Hadithah. And when I say hot, I mean oven hot. They say it’s over a 100. “They” being the weather experts at the airbase southwest of here, but there aren’t any thermometers around so we’ll have to take their word for it. The lack of local thermometers is probably for the best since looking at the rising temperature would just depress us all.
The bad thing is that we have no air conditioning in our building.
The Will to exist has A story for anti-war environmentalists
I realize most of you are not going to change your minds about Iraq. You already know better than I do, even though you’ve never been here. But I have to try.
My friend and immediate boss, SSG James Sherrill, recently wrote an article that may interest environmentalists. Read the tale of Iraq’s marshlands, which were drained by Saddam to punish Iraq’s Marsh Arabs, and which are now being restored by the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources, with help from the coalition.
...Of course, everyone knows the coalition is only here for the oil, and the imperialism. As soon as the marshes are restored, we’re going to seize them and build subdivisions
And Doc in the Box reports on the changes he's seen over several deployments
Slowly but surely, you can see the changes taking place around here, specially if you've been here as many times as I have.
...Deploying to Iraq has become routine as far as being on base goes. But it's still a jungle outside of the gates; IED's are getting bigger to offset the new armored vehicles. With that the amount of explosives that is required to make it through our armor, the fragile humans inside aren't usually in good shape after getting caught in a blast. We're getting better though and we're far from being easy meat for the bad guys.
On the Afghanistan front...
Rahilla Live From a Free Kabul reports Looted Homes in Kabul
Among the places that got looted in Kabul was my guest house. My housemates and I lost all of our belongings. Above are pictures of a looted home. A few hundred people took advantage of the incident involving coalition forces and Afgahn civilians, and used it as an opportunity to loot and destroy as many places as possible.
My friend's aunt that is Afghan-American and visiting told her this is not the country your parents grew up in. A good friend of mine from the States called me yesterday. She told me that it took two decades to destory the country and it will take the same amount of time to rebuild it.
And apparently The Taliban Have a Plan
The one region where the offensive has made some serious gains is in Helmand Province. This is largely due to the leadership of Mullah Osmani, who commanded a corps during the Taliban regime. More than any other Taliban regional commander, Osmani has stressed organization and training. In addition, he has shifted the focus of Taliban operations in Helmand away from attacks on Coalition and Afghan National Army forces, which are usually both costly and relatively ineffective
The BBC reports that the US rules out crash trial in Kabul
At least seven people died in rioting that followed the incident
The US ambassador in Kabul has said that the driver of a military truck that crashed and killed several people will not be prosecuted in Afghanistan.
And in Wars past...
John of Argghhh! has an awesome photo essay of outstanding bravery where Nearly 4,500 Allied and American troops lost their lives. That day that turned the course of World War II and that day that shall always be remembered as... “D-DAY.”
Thunder Run has a milblog roundup to D-Day
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, focusing on D-Day posts
Where Honors rendered and left to give
Political debate about ‘just war’ raged during Vietnam and reverberates today. “Never forget,” its’ veterans cry. Thirty-one years ago, the last of them came home yet where is their museum? “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Wall that Heals,” some reply. Those walls mark the passing of 58, 283 men and women who served and died. In 1981, the debate flared anew, the warriors and antagonists engaged.
And in military news Drudge reports that apparently the personal data of military members stolen was not just 50,000 as initially believed but 2.2 million.
In fact, names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of as many as 1.1 million active-duty personnel from all the armed forces - or 80 percent of all active-duty members - are believed to have been included, along with 430,000 members of the National Guard, and 645,000 members of the Reserves.
And Veterans Groups Sue Over Data Theft
A coalition of veterans' groups charged in a lawsuit Tuesday that their privacy rights were violated after thieves stole personal data on 26.5 million military personnel from a Veterans Affairs employee.
The class-action lawsuit against the federal government, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, is the second suit since the VA disclosed the May 3 burglary two weeks ago.
