i have permanent nightmares and need to see a shrink every 2 weeks. i hate towel heads, i hate war, politics seem so hard to influence and understand for me. who is really telling the truth about this war?, what are the objectives? sadam is being tried in US court like he has rights, the man is a murderer of thousands, kill him and be done with it. i really think its hopeless a lot of times. to all my military brothers who trust on the chain of command to make the right decision, hooorahh! get some devil dog! all military personell who have killed, tortured, or whatever, of any towel head should be forgiven, and not be given a hard time. all you guys out there who judge and have not been there should be quiet. u never know what you are going to do until you are in the shit......................recon rod

As the proud wife of a respectable military officer I am appalled and sickened by what has happened in Haditha. There is no excuse!!! Murder is murder!!!! Battle fatigue, fear, hunger, illness, anger, etc. are no excuse!  A human being, unarmed, should never, never be killed! This is contrary to all battle conduct policies and more importantly, contrary to humanity! I understand firsthand what stresses the troops face on a daily basis. This only makes me more adamant that these marines are weak, soulless, pathetic individuals who deserve the harshest justice possible!

In war the innocent are always the first to suffer. While the guilty, if they suffer at all, are the very last...What a goddamn nightmare all this is becoming.

Our Military & Innocents - A Memorial Day Reminder

Trail of Tears
Hiroshima
Kent State
My Lai
Falluja
Haditha
Katrina

Valarie
out of curiosity may I ask what exactly are your proud of ? I hope it’s not the conduct of your army to which your son belong . Would you be proud still if God forbid your son had been one of those marines involved ? Lynn mentions My Lai but its “proud mom"s like Valarie and “patriots “ who ganged up and petetioned Nixon which led to Lt. Kelly being paroled and I fear the same old story will be repeated again and again.
One can only hope that we have less of such “proud moms” and more moms who practise some humility.

I’m not suggesting that battle fatigue, etc. wasn’t a factor in the murders.  My point is that, when you can convince people that war--especially a war featuring the unprovoked invasion of another county--is somehow justified, you more or less HAVE TO pin the blame for “collateral damage” like this on an
aberration.  In this case, the deviation from the norm will be that the troops involved were “changed” because of their horrendous battle mode.  That will divert attention from the question, “Why were they there in the first place?” My wish, and I know it will never be realized, is a world where the very idea of killing other humans--combantants or civilians--is met with shock and horror.  You are absolutely right that we’re talking about human beings.  Iraqis are humans, too.

The reality is YOU don’t know WHO is WHO in Iraq.
The borders are NOT secure, never have been.  The locals NOW have guns, and other weapons.  They are fighting between their own people.  This is a WAR ZONE in which locals will do anything!

The Iraq man that could be protecting his house, could be shot by accident.  If ANY of YOU think YOU can DO a better JOB at house to house searches than get the hell over there NOW.  BUSH & CO.  needs more “WARM BODIES” in IRAQ as the top is being run so INCOMPETENTLY!  Wounded figures are NOW over 50,000 come on over and see how YOU fare.

Some of these guys lack sleep for 3 days? How would YOU do?  Now how about 120 degree heat, would you be tired? Some guys return to battle field, injured. Or a IED that goes off twice a day right next to you...smell the consistent stress? As for safe GREEN ZONE, ask how many times they get hit with bombs in one day.  Nothing is safe. Some eat 1 MRE a day.  Some get food posioning everyday if they eat the camp food.  Halliburton doesn’t refrigerate the food when the gas runs out. 

The ACCOUNTABILITY starts with PERSONS at the “TOP of the COMMAND “.  It is always the LITTE guy at the bottom who encompasses the HIT for incompentent management when something goes wrong.

YOU, who display NEGATIVE Judgements upon the Military lower ranks; come on over, but YOU won’t find any Ritz Carlton!
Mother of US Special Forces Soldier
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Sad and touching - really!  Let’s get one thing straight: There can be NO excuse for a ‘Professional’ soldier killing unarmed civilians, to include women and children.  Even hinting/implying that this sort of behavior is ‘ok’ -under any circumstance- is extremely Nazi’ist.  Professional armies have ‘rules of engagement’, and the willy, nilly, killing of civilians is not allowed by said rules (period).

Such attrocities do not lend themselves well towards capturing the hearts of minds of the Iraqi people.

It’s a very bad situation regarding the U.S. military involvement in Iraq.  One has to wonder, how many attrocities have been committed that NEVER get investigated!  For all the ‘slick’ Pentagon briefings complete with slide shows/videos, and the Sec Def waxing poetically, it appears the Pentagon has forgotten ‘JOB 1’: disiplined troops.

It’s SAD - so very sad.  For those unjustly killed, rest-in-peace; for those who killed, may God have mercy on your souls - you’re going to need it - I can’t imagine the torture of having to deal with knowledge of haviing killed an unarmed child.  I suspect many of these soldiers will eventually commit suicide. Sad - so very sad.

The war has been lost!  It’s time to come home, and ask the Bush administration a few very tough question!

Proud Mom of US soldier:

There is evidence that these murders were done not right after a bombing but cold-bloodedly. And, I remind, innocent women and children were killed. The marines even took pictures of the corpses with a cellular phone, a recurrent and sinister iconography-crazes that reminds of the alienation of those Abu Ghraib torturers who took pics in front of corpses with the thumb up.

Your son, presumably, thinks he is in Iraq for bringing freedom and justice (however wrong were those who started the war): you would respect your son more if instead of seeking justifications you joined in voicing the outrage for this barbaric murders. It would be more consistent with the values of freedom and justice which, presumably and hopefully, you son believes in.

That said, if those marines face a trial with a murder charge, so should those who initiated this illegal war which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Rosemary,
Out of curiosity, what’s your connection to our soldiers? You sound like battle fatigue and stress are not to be acknowledged… did you think that perhaps we have robots fighting? That they shouldn’t have feelings? That under no circumstance are they to ‘break’? I’m not justifying what happened, but I am saying that you are so quick to jump on our government that I think you forgot that we are talking about human beings. Is it justified to cut down our military in order to carry on with your left wing retoric?
PROUD MOM OF U.S. SOLDIER CURRENTLY SERVING IN IRAQ.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Hasn’t anyone noticed that we’re fighting civilans and that we have been since we invaded Iraq.

Well, what’s so startling about the miliary killing non-combatants--even children?  When your mindset leads you to believe it’s okay to kill ANYBODY under any circumstances, including war, it’s just a minor sideways shift to accept the murder of people other than “enemy soldiers.” Want to bet apologists on the right will bring up battle fatigue and stress and misunderstood orders and so on and so forth, to prove the killers are the real victims?

My Lai, episode II