One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.
The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.
Haditha became a defining moment of the war, helping cement an enduring Iraqi distrust of the United States and a resentment that not one Marine has been convicted.
Iraqis reacted with outrage Wednesday to news of a plea deal for a U.S. Marine squad leader charged in connection with the deaths of 24 people, in which he received a rank reduction and pay cut but avoided jail time.
The November 2005 killings in Haditha, Iraq, constituted one of the worst attacks on civilians by U.S. troops during the Iraq war. The deaths enraged Iraqis, put a spotlight on the conduct of the U.S. military and was compared to Vietnam's My Lai massacre by one congressman.
Wuterich, 31, of Meriden, Connecticut, originally faced 152 years in prison on nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of dereliction of duty in the Haditha incident.
He wound up pleading guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty. Charges against six other Marines charged in the case were dropped, and another was acquitted.
During the more than two-week trial that ended with the plea deal, prosecutors argued Wuterich lost control after seeing the body of his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a angry rampage, ordering his squad to "shoot first and ask questions later."
Wuterich's team stormed two nearby homes, blasting their way in with grenades and M-16 rifle fire. Among the dead was an elderly man in a wheelchair. When the 45-minute incident was over, 24 men, women and children were dead.
Question for you CM, with respect, why is the type in your 'quotes' recently so darn big? What a waste of space and frankly, it makes me feel like you are trying to shove them down our throats. Or is that new lappy of yours doing things you are unaware of?
Compare your quote size above to this post for example:
No, Don - not trying to shove anything... I've found myself doing this ever since I got these damned bifocals.... I find the default font too small to read comfortably. But thanks for the feedback - I'll leave it at default for future postings.
Glad we haven't derailed this thread with discussions about font size or anything. Personally, I've always felt the term "war" to be a misnomer to describe the US eight plus year pre-emptive strike against Iraq. And if they did have weapons of mass destruction, why on earth wouldn't they have used them to defend themselves?
I think if you knock on the wrong door, you apologize and leave, not hang around for another eight years trying to justify your presence. And let me make that last part perfectly clear for CubaMark:
I think if you knock on the wrong door, you apologize and leave, not hang around for another eight years trying to justify your presence.
I think if you knock on the wrong door, you apologize and leave, not hang around for another eight years trying to justify your presence. And let me make that last part perfectly clear for CubaMark:
....are you making it clear on my behalf, or because you think I don't get it? My position on the criminal warfare conducted in Iraq has been pretty clear, I think.
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