June 2, 2006

The statement above is reflective of the reaction that the Haditha and Ishaqi atrocities have received.

I recently watched a taped FOX News segment Hannity and Colmes. They brought some father of some Marine who said when we send off our sons and daughters we have to remember they are our children and the US has to support them.

What I find absolutely astonishing is that this old man seems to have no regard whatsoever for the Iraqi sons and daughters (as young as one-year-old in Haditha and seven months in Ishaqi) - infants. Nothing.

In fact, Sean Hannity goes so far as to say women and children are known to be "insurgents" themselves and assist the "insurgents".

This is the public reaction.

No one fails to ask how a seven-month-old child could be a terrorist.

People continue to tell me the Haditha massacre is justified and even if it weren't, it is the work of the few.

How could it be the few when we have sentiments such as Hannity's repeated virtually everywhere.

How could it be when The New York Times today reports:

"Marine commanders in Iraq learned within two days of the killings in Haditha last November that Iraqi civilians had died from gunfire, not a roadside bomb as initially reported, but the officers involved saw no reason to investigate further, according to a senior Marine officer.

The commanders have told investigators they had not viewed as unusual, in a combat environment, the discrepancies that emerged almost immediately in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died, and that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been killed deliberately.

But the handling of the matter by the senior Marine commanders in Haditha, and whether officers and enlisted personnel tried to cover up what happened or missed signs suggesting that the civilian killings were not accidental, has become a major element of the investigation by an Army general into the entire episode ..."