Haditha: Reaping What You Hath Sown?

It now appears that the alleged November massacre of Iraqi civilians last November in Haditha was not an isolated incident. The Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. has accused U.S. Marines of killing his unarmed, non-combatant cousin. (Troll-Be-Gone: I think the Iraqi ambassador is a credible source. Anyone who has a high profile position like his has placed a bullseye on himself and his family. It's not like he's some chickenhawk jerking off to Ann Coulter posters in his little conservative bunker.)

In the last poll I saw of the U.S. military, close to 90% of the troops thought Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11th attacks. I can't help but think that at least some of our troops have internalized that falsehood to the point where they view Iraqis as subhuman. One Iraqi veteran, Spc. Jody Casey claims:

his unit was advised to carry shovels in their vehicles which they could plant on civilian victims to make it look as if they were concealing roadside bombs.

"I have seen innocent people being killed. IEDs [improvised explosive devices] go off and [you] just zap any farmer that is close to you," he said. "You're driving down the road at three in the morning. There's a guy on the side of the road, you shoot him ... you throw a shovel off."

Since it now appears there may have been two or more incidents of murder, I don't think this can be blamed on 'combat fatigue' or stress. Something more systemic could be at work here.

Too bad the Bush Administration never realized that bigotry and hate are tigers that ultimately you can not ride.

Impeach Bush. Then Cheney.