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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[misoshiru]

Well, of course, since America has "won" the Iraqi war, this is definately not deemed by the Americans as "massacre." In fact, some highly conservative Americans would probably be proud of this event. Afterall, as they are Bible-thumping, they'd say "An eye for an eye." Oh, but they always have some sort of 'military board' allegedly investigating into the event. But how far do you think its gone? Most likely no where. Did the marines actually think that they would be accepted with open arms in Iraq with absolutely no retaliation? Stupid kids. In war there will be casualties, and it is no surprise that the winners rely on any tactic to...win. Look at it this way, look at how many the Khmer Rouge had to kill to retain power in Cambodia, look at the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia in the 1970s. There were certainly massacres there, but was it right? No it certainly was not. It just merely shows that they can't play fair, or in this case, fight fair to win. Personally, this just reinforces my disdain towards America.