Déja Vu All Over Again: Haditha and My Lai

By Charles E. Anderson
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Friday 29 December 2006

On November 19, 2005, a roadside bomb took the life of a Marine outside the Iraqi town of Haditha. By all accounts, what followed was a bloodbath. A squad of Marines moved into Haditha and opened fire. Eighteen Iraqi civilians, including small children, were killed - some in their homes. Whether the incident was instigated by Iraqi insurgents or Marine leaders is unclear. What is clear is that at least eighteen innocent civilians lost their lives, and that the lives of all involved - Iraqis and Americans - will never be the same. On December 20, 2006, four of the Marines were officially charged with murder, and four officers were charged with failures in investigating and reporting the incident.

Nearly a year ago, when I first learned of the events that occurred at Haditha, I immediately thought of a cadence my platoon used to sing while running at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina:

Bomb the Village kill the people
Throw some napalm in the square
Do it on a Sunday morning
Kill them on their way to prayer
Ring the bell inside the schoolhouse
Watch the kiddies gather round
Lock and load with your 240
Mow those little f*****s down

The alleged war crimes committed at Haditha were not the misdeeds of defective warriors. Nor is it likely that they were committed by Marines suffering from "personality disorders." Their actions were the result of conditioning, on both the training field and the battlefield. Through cadences like this as well as field exercises, soldiers and Marines are taught to defend themselves and their comrades at any cost.

This concept is open to interpretation. The battlefield at Haditha taught them that they could trust no one. It taught them that fighting the enemy was like fighting a ghost. It taught them that they had to kill first if they wanted to survive. When they felt attacked and enraged at the death of their friend. They likely "snapped" and went on a rampage. If found guilty, they may pay with their lives. However, those who are ultimately responsible will never be held to account.

This is not the first time an incident like this has transpired, nor is it likely to be the last. In its findings on the My Lai Incident, the House Armed Services Investigating Subcommittee found:

"In a war such as that in Vietnam, our forces in the field must live for extended periods of time in the shadow of violent death and in constant fear of being crippled or maimed by booby traps and mines. And added to this is the fact that this is not war in the conventional sense. The enemy is often not in uniform. A farmer or a housewife or a child by day may well be the enemy by night, fashioning or setting mines and booby traps, or giving aid, comfort and assistance to the uniformed enemy troops. Under such circumstances, one can understand how it might become increasingly difficult for our troops to accept the idea that many of those who kill them by night somehow become "innocent civilians" by day. Understandably, such conditions can warp attitudes and mental processes, causing temporary deviation from normality of action, reason, or sense of values. And the degree of deviation may vary with each individual."

The Bush administration and the US Congress did not study history, or they would have understood that the above statement could just as easily be applied to Iraq as to Vietnam. They failed to evaluate the situation in Iraq before committing troops to an unconventional war, where the enemy is elusive and often not defined. They failed to properly train the military to operate in the environment they were sure to face on the ground in Iraq. They failed to create a sustainable operations plan that would not send troops to Iraq for multiple tours of duty. In short, they did everything within their power to ensure that the physical and mental strain on these troops would be immense.

At best, this administration and this Congress can be considered unindicted co-conspirators in what has been termed the My Lai of the Iraq War. At worst, this administration and this Congress are just as guilty of these crimes as if they had pulled the triggers themselves. Yet, it is the Marines who will carry the scars of Haditha and the Iraq War on their consciences for the rest of their lives. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, there will never be justice for the lives and the innocence lost at Haditha.

--------

Charles E. Anderson served in Iraq with the Marine Corps' Second Tank Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. During his nine-year career, he served in infantry, armor, and medical units. He lives in Hampton, Virginia, where he is a World Studies student at Thomas Nelson Community College. He can be contacted through his website at http://www.charleseanderson.com.

-------