Haditha Massacre update -- how is anyone in US not ashamed of our war?

Update on the little-reported Haditha massacre, plus word of another alleged incident of innocent Iraqi civilians being killed by US Marines:

No doubt, a key reason these stories haven't gotten traction in the US media is our inhuman ability to discount Iraqi deaths, even when they've been perpetrated in our name.

Aren't these the people whose freedom is so important that we need to send our children into harm's way to get it for them? Or are we sticking to the story that that we incorrectly believed their leaders had WMD, in which case the tens of thousands of dead civilians are collateral damage to our ignorance and arrogance. Either way, where is our shame and remorse?

And why aren't we incensed when Donald Rumsfeld has no better rationale for this misadventure than to resume conflating Iraq and 9/11?

Shouldn't we, at the very least, insist that the nightly news give us an honest, updated account of how many Iraqis have been killed in our war? Oh, no, we couldn't do that, because we need to be protected from such ugliness. If only the people of Iraq could be so safe.

They're just ignoring us.

They lie and coverup for Bushco which is why there is a multitude of blogs on the net. Lots of people are incensed but their dissent is not getting mention in MSN.

You comments about insisting that MSN be honest is naive. Do you not understand that the nightly news is simply an extension of Bushco?

... nor so naive that I expect it any time soon.

Also, I'm disappointed that the lefty bloggers haven't run with this story in a big way. Mostly, I think, it's because it's progressed in dribs and drabs.

As one old enough to remember how My Lai helped start sowing doubts about Vietnam in Middle America, I think we should devote more blogspace to this story, which like Abu Ghraib signals how warped our occupation of Iraq is.

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It was not until the Mai-Lai "incident" that the tables of VietNam began to seriously turn.

This could well be the turning point for U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!

However, it seems like to me that they don't want the American people to know this atrocity has occurred. WE KNOW!!

:dem: :kick:

... I think the public is more willfully ignorant.

In the '60s, we expected the media to tell us the ugly truth, with Time and Life magazine and Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley giving us body counts and disturbing images from Vietnam, and we were finally ready to see other long-hidden stories like despair in the Jim Crow South and in the inner-city.

But when we traded in Jimmy Carter's honesty for Ronald Reagan's phony "Pleasantville" world, we didn't speak out when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, and we've barely squawked as the news has become louder and louder and shallower and shallower.

That's of course why some of us turn to places like DU, but it's a shame that we need them soooo much. In a better America we wouldn't.

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It is just a wonderful excuse to say you simply do not know the truth because you weren't exposed to it. However, if you have been so exposed and then claim dumb, you are the idiot IMO.

This cannot go on.

There will be more if it does.

The longer it goes on, the more things will happen. That is the lesson that war teaches us. It drives the otherwise "sane" person to do insane things, like carry out massacres as we see *again*.

Lesson #1: WAR IS HELL. (Learned yet I ask?)

My Lai was a lesson that must never be forgotten. I remember it well and I remember how it affected me. I was shocked and found it to be disgusting and horrific.

It was after this, that the Vietnam war became highly unpalatable to all.

So maybe this is perhaps just a sample of what it will take. I hope it will be the only sample to be honest with you as I despise war and have always been anti-war for many reasons.

If we were not here on the DU, maybe we'd be out organizing or something like we did in the past. I remember what I did. I wasn't home at a computer - I was out doing things, going places, etc. However, I must add that that was 30+ years ago and age has caught up with me.

On edit: I'm with you on the the media. It is CNN and FOX 24/7. No more nightly news with Huntley and Brinkley. They do not want nor encourage a real honest to God journalist to thrive in this day! What a HUGE loss this is. We are repressing the best and the brightest among us.

:dem:

"liberating" the Iraqis from a brutal dictator. The only things that we've "liberated" from the Iraqis are their oil,their electricity,their water,their culture,and now their lives.;( :mad: :puke: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :banghead:

A few months back, I took on a rabid winger in a supposedly neutral forum where liberals were badly outnumbered.

He made some points about the Kurds, pushing the usual "would you prefer Saddam were still in power?" garbage.

I challenged him on how deep his abiding interest in the Kurds was, and he at least gave me an honest answer:

"I don't have the least interest in the kurds. only in your party's shameful past which you all are in thorough denial of."

The idea that any wingut would be losing sleep over the lot of people living in Iraq, if it weren't the favorite stomping-to-death ground of the Bush family, is laughable. A sick laugh, given what they've done, but a laugh nonetheless. And now that we are dealing with the so-called "Pottery Barn" rule, they still don't care.

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My memory may be deceiving me, but I'm sure Calley (the "man" responsible for My Lai) was given only house arrest. The marines responsible for the Haditha massacre, if found guilty, may only get a dishonorable discharge.

I am sure this is only the tip of the iceberg because the reporting of this war has been sanitized so much.

Has society stooped so low as to train these soldiers into natural born killers. If they survive this war, any one of them could end up living next door to any one of you. What a very scary thought

"Full Metal Jacket," especially the first half, does a great job showing how military training can fuck you up.

The part where the drill sgt. brags about real-life Marines who became murderers is especially chilling in this context.

It's a testament to the human spirit how many people can go through it, and battle itself, and *not be* fucked up. You'd have to think that being in a war like Vietnam or Iraq where the mission is so dubious has to be incredibly hard on the soul.

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The role of My Lai will be played by the cityof Haditha.

:(
rocknation

For decades, it was understood that Vietnam was a tragic mistake.

But when it came time to whitewash Dubya's record by besmirching Kerry's, we were told that Hanoi Jane was the real villian, not the Johnsons and Nixons who sent so many of our young men their to kill and die for no reason.

So, now when we compare Iraq to Vietnam, we're comparing it to a good war that we would've won if it weren't for cowards like John Kerry. If only Dick Chaney hadn't had other priorities -- I'll bet he could have Ramboed us to victory.

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Has Fox News (fair & balanced) made any mention of this atrocious massacre? If so, what spin did they put on it?

for a while, so can't say what the cable channel's said.

The website denounces it as an atrocity. Spin in the same direction as most other media sources: it's an atrocity, if the men did it they should be punished; punishing higher up would require some sort of evidence showing that they did more than simply create the pre-conditions for the atrocity, but three officers are suspended (in other words, pretty much the default assumption). No assumption as to how frequent or infrequent atrocities are (which itself is also a neutral enough assumption).