Did US marines massacre Iraqi civilians? Options

[*mipadi*]

From MSNBC.com:

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.

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.

[…]

In Haditha, families of those killed keep an ear cocked to a foreign station, Radio Monte Carlo, waiting for any news of a trial of the Marines.

"They are waiting for the sentence—although they are convinced that the sentence will be like one for someone who killed a dog in the United States," said Waleed Mohammed, a lawyer preparing a file for Iraqi courts and the United Nations, if the U.S. trial disappoints. "Because Iraqis have become like dogs in the eyes of Americans.''

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[*mipadi*]

It's pretty easy to pass it off as "Oh, we don't know what happened"—too easy in fact—but if you read the article and follow up on it, you'll see that there is a lot of strong evidence that a massacre did in fact happen.

I don't think it should be written off as "Oh, we should expect it to happen", either. This is a big deal. Marines should not be doing this, and we shouldn't be so passé and apathetic about it, either.

None of it's going to be fair.

I'm not sure I understand where you're going with this.