Hold Bush responsible for Haditha (Toledo Blade)

How to explain the slaughter at Haditha?

... Vietnam had its ugly secret and, now, Iraq may have its own to tell. The ugliness allegedly happened in the western Iraqi city of Haditha. The specter of another horrendous massacre by U.S. military again confronts Americans watching a losing battle from safe distance. There appears to be increasing evidence to support claims that up to two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians were reportedly killed by a group of Marines in a fit of rage. It happened last November and the world is just waking up to the horror because members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines and their superiors allegedly conspired to cover-up the slaughter. Like it never happened. Initial military reports chalked up the deaths in Haditha to a roadside bomb and subsequent fire from insurgents that was returned by the Marines.

But a follow-up military investigation apparently paints a picture of an unprovoked rampage by Marines into civilian homes where soldiers summarily shot anything that moved. The bullet-riddled bodies reportedly show most of the dead Iraqis were shot in the head and chest - in direct contradiction to what the troops had claimed. There are also indications that the "insurgents" killed by Marines were unarmed youths returning home from university who were shot as they ran from their car.

The military evidently gave some survivors of the Haditha killings cash compensation within weeks of the shootings. Was that a way to hide the horror and stifle the story? Again the Pentagon finds itself on the defensive about the indefensible. Military brass sputter about getting to the bottom of the matter and Congress is preparing hearings on the charges against the Marines. The President says he is troubled about Haditha and if laws were broken the guilty would be punished.

But what about the guilty who sent soldiers trained to kill and fight wars into a quagmire as cops? They walk a beat or ride a convoy with a target on their back. The enemy is anyone and everyone. You trust no one. If overextended soldiers lost it in Haditha and murdered innocents in cold blood, God help them and every American soldier whose life just became more cheap in Iraq. But God also help people like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Dick Cheney who put them there on false pretense without adequate troop support or clear strategy essential to cope with the craziness. And much more than a few rogue soldiers who went off the deep end, hold their commander in chief responsible for sending them to hell in the first place for no good reason.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/COLUMNIST13/606020313/-1/NEWS09

The coverup is far worse. How far up the chain of command did it go? This has to be investigated to DEATH.

while the "leaders" will escape accountability. It's happened too many times in the past for me to believe there will be any different outcome in this war.

If the invasion/occupation, supported by lies & distortions had been exposed - none of this would have happened. The LIARS must be held accountable!

did they join after 9/11, after Bush pulled out of the world court, after Rumsfeld changed the culture? I believe this falls squarely on the slumping shoulders of *.