For Iraqis, Is This Justice? Notes From Candlelight Vigils, 1/26/12

Dear Reader, On November 19, 2005 in Haditha, a 70,000 person community about 100 miles north of Baghdad, a U.S. military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, killing one Marine and injuring two more. About 100 meters from that explosion was a housing complex. Furious and scared, several of the Marines followed Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's direction to "shoot first and ask questions later" as he killed five men next to a car and they "cleared" the housing complex, kicking in doors and in hails of gunfire, massacring 19 of the occupants.

Among the dead were seven children, one a toddler, three women and a wheelchair bound 76 year old man. At first, the Marine Corps claimed 15 Iraqis were killed by a roadside bomb and the others died in a firefight that followed. But eye witnesses talked to the media and it became apparent the Marine Corps had lied. The Iraqi people cried out for justice.

After an investigation, the Marine Corps filed murder charges against Sgt. Wuterich and seven of the Marines under him. But over time, charges were dropped against six of the Marines, one Marine was acquitted in a military tribunal and on Tuesday (1/24/12) during a military tribunal, Sgt. Wuterich in a plea bargain was found guilty of "dereliction of duty," not murder and will serve no jail time. There was an outcry against the plea bargain from some Iraqis and human rights organizations.

But the plea bargain is actually logical. If no-one else committed murder under the previous legal actions, how could Sgt. Wuterich be found guilty of murder, when apparently no murders were committed. And yet the Marines had 24 bloody body bags after the shootings. But the injustice was not only in the Marine Corps' treatment of the accused. The injustice was in the war itself which put these Marines and the Iraqi men, women and children into the cross hairs of horrific death, from a war which never should have been fought and which cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

As for Sgt. Wuterich and the other seven Marines, each of them have families. They may be husbands with wives and children and they are sons, grandsons and likely brothers. They can personally relate to what they did and will be haunted for the rest of their lives by the vision of the atrocities they committed, for no military tribunal can erase those horrors from their minds.

This is what war does to mankind as in a fiery Hell it destroys everything in its path. That's why it is vital for each us to do all we can to prevent war and resolve our differences as amicably as possible. We recognize our brethren in the faces of the men, women and children who our government claims to be our enemy. But we know better and we can help them, not harm them, as we offer compassion and a helping hand, not the explosive end of a gun.

Dick
To learn more please see an outstanding two part presentation from "60 Minutes," a preeminent U.S. news show. You can see the massacre setting and hear Sgt Wuterich describe the events at length: Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU_KdDlYsBg Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPhfCTFyLQ (Please note: in Part 1, in the 1st 17 seconds, someone added an editorial condemning the U.S. government, etc. for what happened. This editorial is not from "60 Minutes.")

For the trial results, please see "Marine Avoids Prison in Haditha Massacre," ABC News  http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/marine-avoids-prison-haditha-massacre-15439234 "Marine gets no jail time in killing of 24 Iraqi civilians," Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-haditha-20120125,0,3372025.story "In Iraq, Haditha case is reminder of justice denied," http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-haditha-20120125,0,5216520.story