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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[Retrogressive]

America is supposed to be "liberating" Iraq. We're supposed to be bringing democracy to the country. *

I think not. Since his Iraq-posseses-weapons-of-mass-destruction reasoning fell through, Bush has regularly said how attacking Iraq was a good thing, because it got rid of Saddam Hussein. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that was one of Bush's reasons. Is Iraq any better off? Do they have less violence than they did before in Iraq?

*One country taking another country over to instill it's own beliefs into that country's government.... wait... that sounds a lot like...

an·nex
tr.v. an·nexed, an·nex·ing, an·nex·es
To append or attach, especially to a larger or more significant thing.
To incorporate (territory) into an existing political unit such as a country, state, county, or city.
To add or attach, as an attribute, condition, or consequence.

and...

coup
n. pl. coups (kz)
A brilliantly executed stratagem; a triumph.

A coup d'état.
A sudden appropriation of leadership or power; a takeover: a boardroom coup.
Among certain Native American peoples, a feat of bravery performed in battle, especially the touching of an enemy's body without causing injury.

Iraq didn't ask us to save them.

Wade is right, we're blind to what Bush is doing. The worse part is we don't give a fuck as long as we're content within our little lives. That's humanity for you, when we're content we don't ask questions. We'd simply rather have our cell phones, our electricity, and our running water. Our gas prices go up, we bitch about it, but do you see people protesting in the streets? No, because we don't want to fight for anything anymore. We'll sit back and wait until we're completely f**ked over and our rights have been taken away, then will wonder how it happened.

Am I saying that innocent people being killed in war is right? No. I'm asking what is right when you have nothing to hold that up with besides a corrupt government and a lazy nation? There will never be a nation that stands for all that is good and pure like America claims. Democracy is just another idea for how a government should be run just like communism and so on.

[*mipadi*]

Iraq didn't ask us to save them.

I'm not sure if that was directed at me or other people in general, but I would like to point out that I explicitly said that I didn't condone that excuse as a justification for war. "Liberating Iraq" is not a good reason to attack a sovereign nation.

My point is that it was given as a justification for the war (a justification I feel does not hold up), yet we're not exactly bringing any sort of peace, or freedom from violence and terror, to Iraq anyway.