Haditha is the first case that forces the American Public to evaluate military counter insurgency combat tactics.
Haditha is in western Iraq near the border of Syria. It was a popular vacation spot before the war. By 2005 it was war torn. The city also provides tactical support to a dam that supplied the region with a lot of energy, making it a strategic military launching point.
Kilo Company was the elite and highly decorated marine unit that was assigned to retake Haditha. The “Thundering Third,” as it was called, was one of the most battle tested cores in the history of the marines, and had recently performed well in the second battle at Falluja.
The marines felt the citizens of Haditha had a seething disdain for the American military troops. They weren’t welcomed as bringers of freedom, instead they were despised as harbingers of death.
Marine Corporal Tim Tardif was told it was going to be bad, but their first night there, they “only heard crickets.”
November 19, 2005 was the day of the incident. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was in charge of 4 Humvees and 11 marines.
As the unit was moving around Haditha, an improvised explosive device destroyed the 4th Humvee in the caravan and killed Lance Corporal Miguel (T.J.) Terrazas.
After looking for the “trigger man” for the IED, they saw a white sedan on the side of the road occupied by 5 men. The soldiers decided they were hostile and after no dialogue could be establish, the occupants were shot and killed.
As that was going on, the marines took small arms fire, which they decided came from a house off the road.
At the end of they day there were 9 wounded marines and Terrazas was dead. On the Iraqi side, there were 24 dead civilians including 7 children under the age of 15. but that was not noteworthy to the soldiers, “it just happens” was what one soldier said on camera.
The initial report read that 1 marine and 15 civilians died from one improvised explosive device. It was an inaccurate press release, but the soldiers did not see it as problematic because “the media usually doesn’t get it right.” The soldiers know the media is trying to Wag the Dog.
Requests for a formal investigation were made by the Haditha City Council. The marines learned a week after the incident that the council asked for the entire incident to be labeled a crime of war and call the killings “executions.”
That led the military to believe that the city council had alliances with insurgents and terrorists. Because if you aren’t “supporting our troops,” you must be a terrorist.
A human rights organization happened to be in Haditha at the time, and they were quick to make a film of the deaths. A movie based on war crimes always gets attention.
Tim McGurk, a writer for Time Magazine, was introduced to this video and the entire situation became obviously suspicious.
McGurk made a formal inquiry to the military and got an incredulous response deriding the video as typical terrorist propaganda.
Within a month there was a full investigation ready to go.
Thomas Betro, who is the head of Naval Criminal Investigation Service, said this investigation had more manpower devoted to it than any other in the past 25 years.
The Iraqis wanted to be part of the investigation, but the United States didn’t allow it.
What really put this into the main stream was Congressman John Murtha. He brought it up on May 17, 2006 on television. He went from CNN to Fox News talking about shit he didn’t know. He spammed the term “cold blooded murder” and turned Haditha into a launching pad for political rhetoric.
This war, this election, this false democracy is all about political rhetoric.
A pervasive feeling, from the ground troops to the highest level of the American command, is that Iraqi lives are not as important or valuable as the lives of American troops.
According to everything being done in Iraq, that is true. Relatively routine was, and still is, the deaths of innocent Iraqi women and children.
This is a problem because it makes sense [to many people] to value your nation’s soldiers more than the women and children of a perceived hostile nation.
On December 21, 2006, the U.S. military charged eight Marines in connection with the deaths of 24 innocent Iraqi people at Haditha. Four of the Marines, Frank Wuterich, Sanick de la Cruz, Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum were accused of unpremeditated murder. Tatum was further charged with negligent homicide and assault, while de la Cruz was also charged with making a false statement.
The fact that an investigation was purposely delayed brought questions to the desk of the people in charge.
Dereliction of duty is pretty bad. It means that one willfully, through negligence or culpable inefficiency, fails to perform one’s expected duties.
The battalion commander, Jeffrey Chessani, was charged with one count of violating a lawful order and two counts of dereliction of duty. First Lieutenant Andrew Grayson was charged with obstruction of justice, dereliction of duty, and making a false statement, while Captain Randy Stone and Captain Lucas McConnell were charged with dereliction of duty. Stone also faced an additional count of violating a lawful order.
The Marine Corps dropped all charges against Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz in exchange for immunity during testimony. Seven other Marines involved in the incident have also been granted immunity.
The court proceedings are going on at camp Pendleton right now.
What they are trying to figure out is if the marines acted appropriately under the then Current Rules of Engagement.
After the 5 males in the white sedan had been neutralized, Wuterich’s people had to address the small arms fire.
The soldiers established that the small arms fire came from a near by home. That is when things got more than dicey. Wuterich, the marine in charge, was asked what he said before clearing House 1. He claims he said something like “shoot first and ask questions later.”
One of the soldiers claims that he heard the sound of an AK-47 “racking” (being readied to fire) from inside the home. He threw a grenade in the house. When a grenade goes off, visibility goes to shit, nothing more than targets can be made out. Each target was taken out. They went from room to room, not entering more than 2-3 steps into any room. House 1 was cleared.
After clearing the first house, Wuterich acknowledged that women and children were dead. Once collateral damage has been discovered, it does not mean the threat has been eliminated or even diminished. The defense argues that there should be no slow down in forward progress. That is why the marines went on to House 2 and killed more innocent people.
The marines declared the entire house as hostile. When they did that, their actions become justifiable.
Many interesting questions have been raised.
Do you need to positively identify a “target” in order to open fire?
What happens when collateral damage is observed in the middle of combat?
The definitions of words like hostile, target, Torture and even “danger” have been debated and redefined.
Many obvious questions have been put to the side.
Why are so many innocent people dead?
How can we value one life over another?
None of the soldiers are charged with murder.
Important questions have been ignored.
Is war ever justified?
These young soldiers have the moral authority of judge, jury and executioner. They have to calculate and balance maintaining troop safety, mission accomplishment, threat level from the enemy, collateral damage, and every single aspect of the situation in a split second.
They have an impossible job: To kill people, and justify it.
It would be a much better world if we did not have to have rules of engagement.
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