Saturday, May 27, 2006
Haditha - A Few Marines and Slaughter of Civilians
Haditha, Iraq, November 19, 2005
It was not the only incident in which unarmed, innocent civilians were killed but it could not be covered up because of the scale of the massacre and witnesses who came forward. Although findings of the investigation have not been not yet been released by the Pentagon, reports leave no doubt that deliberate killing of Iraqi civilians did take place in Haditha. The action of a few marines will leave a blot on the corps. Ellen Knickmeyer in the Post: "BAGHDAD, May 26 -- Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal in a roadside bombing."
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"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
---John Donne, Meditation XVII, No man is an island.
- Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."
- The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on Nov. 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post special correspondent in Haditha this week and U.S. investigators said in Washington. The girls killed inside Khafif's house were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1, according to death certificates.
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
---John Donne, Meditation XVII, No man is an island.
