In Cold Blood

This was actually a major story when I was over in Ireland two months ago. I'm not sure how it played here back then, but the BBC had video of the survivors of the Haditha siege, as well as the bodies of the dead. Basically insurgents killed a Marine, and the Marines took it out on the civilians of the town. This is unconscionable. And I agree with Jack Murtha, this is the product of three and four and five deployments, being under stress day after day, where the commanders in charge don't even test for mental illness. I don't blame the soldiers as much s I blame the situation they've been put in. A failure of a war like this creates these conditions:

A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.

From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children.

One young Iraqi girl said the Marines killed six members of her family, including her parents. “The Americans came into the room where my father was praying,” she said, “and shot him.”

On Wednesday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the accounts are true.

Military officials told NBC News that the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to show Murtha is right.

A videotape taken by an Iraqi showed the aftermath of the alleged attack: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.

The video, obtained by Time magazine, was broadcast a day after town residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes on Nov. 19 and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

It's just as sad as could be. Meanwhile the Defense Secretary is trying to figure out whether to allow torture in the Army Field Manual. The saying is that "a fish rots from the top." The amoral, sadistic, uncaring nature of the civilian commanders leads to unfortunate incidents like that in Haditha. Forget resigning - Don Rumsfeld should voluntarily take a jail sentence.