By Judith
Moriarty
12 June - rense.com
noahshouse@adelphia.net
This morning, listening to C-Span, I was sickened at the inhumane
remarks made by callers from across the country (both parties). I would
estimate that 90% of the people had no problem with the recent massacre
of civilians in Haditha. It was apparent, listening to their comments
that
few had bothered to read the initial accounts of this massacre. There
was the usual lionizing of the military fighting for peace, justice
and the American way.
Haditha: A
roadside bomb went off at 7:15 a.m. as local families were preparing for
the day. They had the bad luck of living adjacent to this incident which
killed a Marine. Immediately afterwards, Marines stormed the house
directly across from the attack, shooting as they approached though
there was no gunfire from any of the homes.
A video shot by a local journalism student shows the bloody aftermath of
what happened. Inside this home (the first one) was a 76 year old blind
man in a wheelchair and his 66 year old wife and nine of their sons,
daughters- in laws and grandchildren. The Corner's report obtained by
NBC News reported that the wheelchair bound, blind mean was shot in the
stomach and head. The wife and five other relatives were killed by
multiple gunshot wounds.
Ten year old Iman, who survived, told news reporters "The Americans came
into the room where my father was praying and shot him. They went to my
grandmother and killed her, too," Iman says. During this raid the house
caught fire when a propane tank in the kitchen blew up. Marines then
moved next door. Nine people were inside, and eight were killed, five of
them children. Twelve year old Safa says she hid under the bed.
"They came in and shot all of us", she says, "I pretended I was dead".
Marines then moved to a third location a taxi parked by the side of
the road. In it, were four university students and a driver. A witness
watching from a nearby rooftop says Marines took the five men out of the
car and executed them. The driver was screaming in English, "Please!,
please!" but they shot him in the body.
At
approximately 10:30 a.m., Marines stormed the house of Eid Ahmed, where
they separated his four sons from the women and children before
killing the men. Nine year old Khalid was in the house. "This is my
father!" he screamed, "God will take my revenge!" Note: And we wonder
how terrorists are made (JM)
If not for the story in Time magazine, months after this event, it is
doubtful it would have come to light. The first reports from the
Marines, were that these civilians had died when the roadside bomb went
off. Afterwards the story changed. It was then reported that they were
being fired upon from these homes and fired back. Investigations
proved that this didn't happen, as the bullet holes were all within the
homes, and not on the outer walls.
Citizens calling into C-Span were as cold blooded, as those who
participated in this alleged attack on civilians. They casually, some
vindictively stated; "This is war, things like this happen, everybody is
the enemy, including women and children, our troops have to protect
themselves." The tragic thing is, this event happened to get news
coverage, most don't, including whole families shot up at road blocks
and the massacre at Fallujah (no media coverage) where males from 15 -65
were not permitted to leave the city.
Thousands of Iraqi citizens in Fallujah died in the midst of napalm,
bombing and phosphorous weaponry. Bodies were found charred and melted;
with the newest annihilating inventiveness of civilized man! With the
Geneva Convention mocked by top officials, as being "archaic", the way
has been paved for all kinds of mayhem. The torture, humiliation, and
deaths at Abu Ghraib, were for the most part, reported by the American
media, as nothing more than hazing! In this situation only a few
grunts were held accountable! Whatever the horror story, over and over,
we are given the "bad apple theory". It seems apparent, that in this
impossible madhouse of slaughter, this barrel of apples is now
fermenting.
While there are (obvious) sociopaths in ALL walks of life; from
politicians to your local minister, the theater of war is a Disney world
of delight for these soulless ones, permitted to kill legally?
Marine General, Smedley Butler, a 34 year veteran of wars, stated upon
his retirement, "All war is a racket". He went on to explain that he
until he was out of the service; he never had an individual thought, but
just followed orders. One can never excuse indiscriminate slaughter, but
you can understand how it can happen. Men removed from the 'civilized'
world; and thrust into a desert land thousands of miles from home,
certainly don't have the option of quitting or calling their
representative! Like any organized group of people; be it doctors,
lawyers, politicians, police, the workplace or the military there's an
unspoken code that the group mind rules! Rare is the person (sad to say)
who will step outside this cult like obedience, should anything
untoward occur.
People basically have a herd instinct, fearful of facing the wrath,
vindictiveness, and isolation of being set apart from the group. Many
may not participate and be quite outraged at some of the things they
witness but they remain silent nevertheless and therefore accomplices.
The military (and police) are especially close knit groups with a
special bonding taking place. They depend on each other for their very
lives. The whistleblower is seen as a 'traitor'. Society bears this out,
when time and time again, you read of the person who reported such and
such a wrong in the workplace/government/medical etc; being fired from
their jobs and black balled!
Muslim cleric Abdul Al Kabaissi stated, "The situation has reached a
level when the U.S. soldier becomes a professional killer, who kills
with premeditation and deliberation". It is simply comedic theater, to
watch politicians or these paid 'expert' talking heads, who spend the
days of their lives, in protected gilded environments, giving their
talking points on the inhumanities of war. War, plain and simple, turns
ordinary people into barbarians it's the nature of the beast; when
death and melted flesh are daily events! FEAR has the soldier
shooting, killing and destroying all who threaten his existence! You
don't experience this fly fishing, on a private hunting preserve, bike
riding in Crawford, or slurping it up, in some Georgetown restaurant!
Hell, someone drops a hammer in the Capitol, and the Suits go scurrying
like rats deserting a ship.
None of
the callers to C-Span, it appeared, were able to relate to the terrible
ordeal that the Iraqi people are being subjected to. They are not safe
in their homes preparing breakfast, not safe on their farms (Ali had his
arms blown off), not safe in the Mosque or marketplace. Food, fuel, and
electricity are in short supply in the scorching desert heat. Their
culture was destroyed, on the first days of 'Shock and Awe', when
museums, schools, and libraries were allowed to be looted of their
antiquities or destroyed. Rumsfeld remarked "Stuff happens". With an
attitude like that in leadership is it any wonder that this surreal
landscape, of a Salvador Dali painting, resembles a maniacal video
arcade with no exit door! Every moment is a Dante's Inferno.
The answer to the massacre at Haditha; is to institute seminars on
ethics! Is it any wonder that thousands returning from war are mentally
unhinged? How do you train youth from impoverished America (the elite
don't do war ask Cheney), to kill in the morning and then teach
'ethical' killing in the afternoon? I fear we're creating a generation
of schizophrenics! Many returning from this bloodlust are supposed to
return to their, once upon a time suburban or rural environments, and
live happily ever after! Only thing is, once men and women have been in
the midst of war they are forever changed. War opens a dark chamber in
the recesses of man's psyche of the 'Silent Scream' that goes on
forever.
It is my opinion that many give no thought to the war at all. I've met
them. When I have attempted to broach it with them, all I hear is "they
should kill all those rag heads and turn the place to glass nuke'em
that's what we should do". I once thought that if the war was brought
closer to home outside the media propaganda, that there would be an
outcry of one accord, to stop all war. I thought, if only they were
witness to the children, shredded and traumatized in the name of
democracy they would care. I don't think that way anymore. Ownership of
an ideology no matter how perverse; blinds men to truth. They
adherents to war, and all its 'glory'; own the crazed youth shooting up
Iraqi homes, the dogs set on terrified prisoners (caught up in village
sweeps), the terror stricken children, the weapons that melt flesh from
bone, the blind man in his wheelchair (not seeing his end coming), the
pulverized cities, the poisoned land/water (depleted uranium), the
grotesquely
deformed babies, the limbless soldier, grasping his tarnished medals,
the multitudes of gravestones, the echo of taps, on a mountain top in
Vermont, and the empty tortured eyes of the conqueror and conquered ones
unable to speak of that which is ever before them