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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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June 23rd, 2006 - List of Military
Accusations Gets Longer News article by the Associated Press Summary of the Hashim Al-Zobaie
Killing |
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List of Military Accusations
Gets Longer By Robert Tanner The Associated Press Friday, June 23, 2006; 3:41 PM The accounts are brutal: An
Iraqi man dragged from his home, executed and made to look as if he were an
insurgent. Three prisoners killed by their Army captors. A team of
revenge-seeking Marines going home to home, shooting down unarmed Iraqi men,
women, children. The recent flurry of
accusations against U.S. servicemen has stunned military analysts and
experts. Many see a critical new point in the war - though few agree whether
it shows the toll of combat stress, commanders resolved to stamp out war
crimes, or, as some claim, an overzealous second-guessing of the troops. But the number and gravity
of the latest allegations have drawn the greatest outcry against U.S.
military actions since the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. "All of a sudden there
seem to be charges right and left," said Loren Thompson at the Lexington
Institute, a defense think tank in Arlington, Va. "It clearly has
happened in some cases. But it's hard to tell whether this is a pattern of
wrongdoing on our part or just a pattern of closer supervision." So far, none of the troops
accused in the latest cases has even been tried: - On Friday, a Pennsylvania
National Guard spokesman said two Guardsmen were being investigated in
connection with the shooting death of an Iraqi earlier this year. - On Wednesday, seven
Marines and one Navy corpsman were charged in the April shooting death of an
Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania. Charging documents claim the man was taken
from his home, forced into a hole, shot and left with a stolen AK-47 near him
to make it look as if he fought the troops. - On Monday and Wednesday,
three soldiers and a noncommissioned officer were charged in the May deaths
of three unarmed Iraqis in military custody in Salahuddin province. A
Pentagon official told The Associated Press that the detainees were shot
while trying to flee. Those accusations come a few
months after another disturbing charge - that in Haditha, a town in the Sunni
hotbed of Anbar province, members of a Marine unit killed up to two dozen
unarmed Iraqis in and outside their homes after a roadside bomb killed one of
the troops. Neighbors told the AP that a small group of Marines went house to
house over three hours, while others stood watch. The death penalty is a
possible punishment in at least some of these cases. One view is that, if proven
true, these incidents reflect the toll Iraq has taken on U.S. troops. Since
2003, they have dealt with constant heat and filth, blurred lines between
civilian and enemy, and insurgents who rely on dirty tactics like suicide and
roadside bombs, lack of uniforms and beheadings. "This is one of the
nastier kinds of fights you could be in," said Michael O'Hanlon, a
defense analyst at the Brookings Institution. American troops "obviously
lost a lot of their own compatriots, a lot of them have been there a number
of times. Morale is still pretty strong, but I would think there's a
psychological toll." Some say that's to be
expected, but criminal behavior still must be prevented: War crimes are an
indictment of leadership. "It's symptomatic of a
combat stress management system that has failed," said John Pike,
director of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank. "Anybody who
contemplates a decision to use force, anybody who contemplates putting boots
on the ground has to understand that part of what they're assuming
responsibility for is stressed-out soldiers are going to massacre civilians.
It just comes with the territory." Still, Pike said that even
if true, the number of abuse cases isn't shocking, given the number of troops
and three-plus years of combat: "If this is the worst that the troops
have done, the chain of command would appear to have done a pretty good job." Others see a more emphatic
message from military leaders to the troops and their field commanders. "The system which
tended to turn a blind eye is now looking harder," said Anthony
Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst. "Incidents which in the past
might've been covered over or dodged are now leading to formal
accusations." Others closer to the accused
are bitter over what they see as a shift from the leaders in Washington. "There seems to be a
rush to judgment," said Charles Gittins, an attorney who successfully
defended former Marine Second Lt. Ilario Pantano, who was acquitted of murder
after he shot two Iraqis and left a warning sign on their corpses. He argued
self-defense. "The war's being run
from the Pentagon and the Pentagon's moving with the 24-hour news cycle.
There's a tendency to charge first and let the facts play themselves out
later," Gittins said. "Back the soldiers!" Pantano warned against
sweeping conclusions. "Nobody's running amok and being barbarians.
That's so inaccurate," he said. "The real jeopardy is there's so
much blowback every time you use force that troops are dying from
hesitation." And the latest accused
soldiers have yet to be fully heard. In Charleston, S.C., the
mother of 21-year-old Pfc. Corey R. Clagett _ one of four charged with
killing prisoners last month _ said she spoke to her son by telephone.
"He said, 'Mom, this is Corey. I didn't do those things the way they
said,'" Melanie Dianiska said. Almost by definition, war
creates chaos. Last week, Australian troops shot a civilian and a bodyguard
to an Iraqi trade minister when they thought they were threatened. Two newly
trained Iraqi policeman have been accused of shooting American troops.
Meanwhile, two American soldiers were captured, brutalized and slain. The uncertainty over the
troop accusations only adds to the confusion. "I wonder whether
people have lost faith in the military because of this kind of
incident," Cordesman said, referring to the allegations against American
troops. A classic terrorist strategy, he noted, is to force the enemy into
atrocities, turning the local population against the opponent and sapping its
support at home. Already, this war's mistakes
are being taught as cautionary tales. The failings at Abu Ghraib are now part
of a West Point leadership course, alongside Vietnam's My Lai, where some 300
villagers were killed. The military courts and
public opinion will determine whether Haditha, Hamdania and Salahuddin join
them. © 2006 The Associated Press External link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301012.html |